Jennifer E. Smith
Jennifer E. Smith is the author of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. Which is the book that I am currently reading right now. She has wrote many other books like The Geography of You and Me, This is What Happy Looks Like, The storm Makers, The Comeback Season, and lastly You are Here. Durning her life she has earned a master's degree in creative writing from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Though her books she leaned more towards young adult but she didn't intend to start wriring for teens. Stated by her "I didn't start out with the YA market in mind, I fell into it by accident. If you try too hard to put a label on it that you are writing for teens, you can end up writing down to them. I think if you happen to write a book that happens to be about a 16-year-old, it shows. I just needed to be pointed in the right direction by my agent, and told that my voice and what I was writing was YA. Once I realised that, I never looked back. I really like writing for teens, there is no better audience out there. I think that when you read something that resonates at that age, it's such a powerful thing. There is something really electric about that time of life, and books are lightning rods for all that emotion." Her job is a senior editor at Random House US imprint Ballantine Books. Her first book was bought while she was still an assistant at talent and literary agency ICM. She says: "Being an editor has helped me become a better writer, but I mean that in terms of craft. In terms of keeping in mind the industry whilst I'm writing, it can be a little bit dangerous. You always need to write the story you are passionate about, not the one dictated by the market. I spend a lot of time in editorial and acquisitions meetings and have a good sense of what publishers are looking for, but if I sat down and tried to make a conscious effort to write that book I'd probably be tied up in knots. There would be too many voices in my head, and I think as a writer the best thing you can do is really turn down the volume."
