The Pivot to Creative Autonomy The artistic journey rarely follows a predictable, straight line. For actress, producer, and author Jennifer Lieberman, her path was defined by a realization that she didn’t have to wait for someone else to cast her or greenlight her ideas. Though her initial creative goals focused on acting and writing screenplays for film and television, she soon found herself wandering down a deeply fulfilling “rabbit hole” of self-generated work.

When the traditional avenues of Hollywood felt out of reach, Jennifer decided to build her own stage. She began writing short stories and poetry, eventually putting together an erotic poetry collection after the release of Fifty Shades of Grey. This creative momentum eventually culminated in a highly successful New York solo show, Year of the Slut, where she performed ten different characters. After winning an award for the production, viewers repeatedly suggested the “chick lit” story would make a fantastic novel. But as Jennifer soon discovered, transitioning from the stage to the page came with a steep learning curve.

The Crushing Weight of Unvetted Feedback When Jennifer first set out to write her novel, she admit she was incredibly naive. Guided by friends’ recommendations rather than professional vetting, she hired an academic literature editor who taught at a university without researching her background or checking her previous client work. The results were devastating. The editor deeply disliked the manuscript and delivered critiques so harsh that Jennifer cried for a week, completely shelving the book for a year to focus on other projects, including an ’80s dance spoof web series called Dump Water Divas.

This cycle of getting excited, getting disappointed, and pivoting to short films or auditions became her norm for years. “That’s why I kept giving up,” Jennifer confesses, noting that the constant presence of self-doubt made the process a continuous battle. It wasn’t until 2017, when her boyfriend read the book and encouraged her to self-publish it purely for her own self-satisfaction, that she found the determination to try again.

Serendipity and the Battle with the Bots Soon after, a chance encounter in a coffee shop with a woman boasting “Burning Man nails” led Jennifer to her dream editor—the author of The Nanny Diaries. Yet, even with a polished final product, a new challenge arose: digital censorship. The online book-distribution bots flagged her feminist, sex-positive book because of the word “slut” in the title.

While the provocative title succeeded on stage by getting “butts in seats,” the online algorithms were unyielding. Because she had chosen the self-publishing path, however, Jennifer retained full creative authority. She rebranded the book as Year of the What? to bypass the bots, retaining the ability to navigate the hiccup on her own terms.

Vulnerability as a Creative Fuel Today, Jennifer helps other frustrated creatives bypass industry gatekeepers through her consulting business and workshop guide, Independent Theater Production for the 21st Century in 7 Simple Steps. She is open about the fact that she still struggles with self-promotion and the “me, me, me” nature of the industry. However, she views this ongoing vulnerability not as a weakness, but as a crucial engine for great art. Without self-doubt and critical self-reflection, she argues, artists would never push their work to be better or realize when a tough piece of feedback is exactly what their project needs.

For any aspiring author sitting on the fence, Jennifer’s ultimate message is to lean into the discomfort. Rather than waiting for the fear to dissipate, she challenges writers to acknowledge the vulnerability, quiet the inner critic, and simply “do it anyway”.