Meet Jasmine Smith

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jasmine Smith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jasmine below.

Jasmine, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

My very first book deal was announced in September of 2023, but it will not be released until Summer of 2026. Nearly three years later. I have spent the last three years feeling like an imposter every time I tell someone “I’m an author,” or “I have a book coming out.” It’s very difficult to feel like the real deal when you don’t have a cover, a release date, or at one time, a finished manuscript.

Selling my book on proposal really impacted my journey. Through these three years, the book has changed so much. When people would ask me what it’s about, it was hard not to answer with “I don’t know yet. It hasn’t finished its metamorphosis.” My imposter syndrome has been a tiny voice in the back of my head screaming that none of this is real and that I’m a fraud.

But the biggest lesson I’ve had to learn over this time is that the journey to the finish line is what matters. I can’t deny that the road I’ve taken – the rounds of edits and the sleepless nights – haven’t been all too real. It isn’t possible to skip through the process and have a fully formed, polished manuscript ready to be on shelves. You have to take everything one step at a time, and that’s something every author has to do.

I remind myself to enjoy the stage that I’m in now, and that my experience won’t look like everyone else’s because we’re all traveling down our own unique roads.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m Jasmine Smith and my debut Young Adult contemporary fantasy novel, Death Card, will be published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers in 2026. The book follows a 17-year-old witch and tarot reader after she receives a vision of her own death while reading a pretty girl’s cards. It’s available to add on Goodreads and more information can be found at my website: https://jasminesmithwrites.com/books

Many of my stories focus on Black girls overcoming loss and discovering themselves along the way. It’s important for me to write Black girls and women at the center of their own beautiful, multifaceted stories. Death Card will be perfect for teens and young adults searching for a fast-paced read that touches on larger themes of grief and coming of age in a complicated world.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

First of all, perseverance. When you begin to put your writing out there, you have to accept that there will be lots of rejection, but you can’t allow that to break your spirit. You have to move through it. Secondly, accepting constructive criticism is huge. Sometimes, that rejection will come with tips on how to improve or information on what didn’t work. You have to be willing to receive that criticism with an open heart and look at your work through another pair of eyes. At the end of the day, it’s your story, but you also have to be willing to accept that you’re too close to your work sometimes. Others can see the flaws that you can’t.

Third would be maintaining hope. My goal is a long and varied writing career and I know that there will be setbacks along that journey. There already have been. But being able to keep my head held high and look toward the future with hope allows me to keep going.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

I find that taking a step back from your work can be very helpful, even if it’s only for an hour or a day. Having hobbies or other ways to unwind can mean all the difference when you’re overwhelmed with your current project. In my case, having another form of creativity has been very helpful. For me, that’s been crochet. Like with writing, I get to create something from nothing, but it’s with an entirely different skill set and using a different part of my brain. It relaxes me while also providing a necessary challenge. I encourage every writer to find a hobby that’s completely separate from writing, something that will bring them joy and distract them from stressful writing events.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jasminesmithwrites.com/
• Instagram: @jasminesmithwrites
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jasminesmithwrites
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jasminesmithwrites