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The writer self-publishing books about the challenges of life in your 20s
🇭🇷 Croatia /Culture & Society

The writer self-publishing books about the challenges of life in your 20s

From Večernji List · () Croatian

Translated from Croatian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Croatian writer Stella Zavišić has published her second book, a chic-lit novel about the varied experiences and challenges of people in their 20s.
  • Zavišić drew on her own struggles after university with work, finances, relationships and friendships to create the protagonist, a young journalist navigating online dating.
  • She self-published the book and handles its sales, marketing and communication with readers, while preparing a poetry collection and another novel.

Stella Zavišić’s new novel began with a feeling many people experience after university: the promise that adulthood would make life better, followed by the realization that it had become more chaotic.

In “How to (Survive) Your Twenties?”, Zavišić writes about the different lives people lead in their 20s and the changes that arrive after education ends. The chic-lit novel follows Emma Bek, a young journalist struggling with online dating. Zavišić says she drew on her own transition into full-time work, when problems involving money, employment, love and friendship left her feeling anxious enough to begin psychotherapy.

“I felt cheated and disappointed,” she says of that period. “I often heard, ‘It will be great when you grow up,’ but for me it had never been worse.” She later realized that other people in their 20s felt the same way and transferred those concerns into Emma’s story.

I felt cheated and disappointed. I often heard, ‘It will be great when you grow up,’ but for me it had never been worse.

— Stella ZavišićShe describes the post-university struggles that inspired her novel’s protagonist.

The book’s reception also tested Zavišić’s confidence. When she opened preorders, she received no orders on the first day from people who had left their email addresses. She feared readers would not find the subject interesting. Orders then began arriving, and the preorder total eventually surpassed that of her first book. Since publication, she says, orders have continued to come in daily.

“I get messages from readers saying they found themselves in the book,” Zavišić says. Readers have also praised its treatment of real problems through humor and its easy readability. Some finished it in one day, while one woman over 50 also picked it up.

Zavišić wrote the novel in two and a half months and published it herself. Design and layout took about as long, while the writing itself accounted for the smallest share of the overall work. She also mentors another author and manages social media for clients. Alongside her earlier novel, “How to Order a Boyfriend Online?”, she is preparing a poetry collection and plans another novel for next summer.

I get messages from readers saying they found themselves in the book and that they like how it talks about real problems in a humorous way.

— Stella ZavišićShe discusses the response to her self-published novel.
About this summary

Originally published by Večernji List in Croatian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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