Welcome!
The Spark is a newsletter where you’ll find my musings on how to get your writing out of your head and onto the page, the rituals, routines and recommendations of some of your favorite authors, design-y stuff I love, #realtalk on how to cross the finish line of whatever you’re working on (an essay, book proposal, manuscript, or even just digging in the sandbox of your ideas), and my behind the scenes adventures in writing my own book.
Some of my most popular posts include…
What I Wish I Knew Before I Went On Book Tour
Why I Didn’t Quit After I Lost My First Book Deal
What are your 10/10 Books? These are mine.
Why should I care about what you have to say given my already crowded inbox?
Good question. I’m Ruthie Ackerman and I’m not only an accomplished developmental editor and book doctor who has worked on bestselling books, I’m an author who has sold two of my own books to Big 5 publishers in 6-figure+ deals and has helped my clients do the same.
You can find my essays in Vogue, The New York Times, Glamour, O Magazine, and more. My book, The Mother Code, was published by Random House in 2025. Most recently, I was the Deputy Editor at ForbesWomen.
If, like me, you’re a writing junkie you might want to take one of my workshops at Ignite Writers Collective.
I have a Masters in Journalism from New York University, which means I’m overeducated, underpaid and spent my career getting laid off from one media company after another. I write about the intersection of women, motherhood, and economics and live in Brooklyn with my husband, our daughter, Clementine, and her imaginary friend, Ball. When I’m not working at my desk that sits two feet from our bed, you can find me on Instagram @ruackerman or sitting next to Ed Sheeran at Joe Coffee totally oblivious to the fact that he’s anyone famous.
More writing, for context:
Here are some of my essays, if you want a better sense of what I write about:
Don’t Put All Your (Frozen) Eggs In One Basket (NYT Modern Love)
You Don’t Have to Be Certain You Want Kids to Have Them (TIME)
How My Mother’s Mental Illness Altered My Path to Parenthood (Oprah Daily)
My Powerful, Impossible Wish For My Baby To Look Just Like Me (Romper)
Freezing, Storing and Thawing My Eggs Cost Me $33,179. I Still Didn’t End Up With a Baby. (WSJ)
In community,
Ruthie
