My EDHEC adventure didn’t end the day I got my diploma, on the contrary! As soon as I entered the working world, I understood the importance of the network. I spent 15 years in the events sector and during that time crossed paths with many people from EDHEC! Whether clients, suppliers or even those who were on hand to advise me on various aspects.

My career took an unexpected turn 7 years ago, when I began to write novels using the pen name Tamara Balliana. What was initially supposed to be a kind of “leisure activity” took on such momentum that the choice to make a living out of it full-time quickly became self-evident. And so I plunged into this new adventure in a sector that was almost completely unknown to me at the time, but with many people around to support me. 

In the collective imagination, a writer is often a lofty artist writing in a candlelit room and relying on their loved ones to survive. The reality of the publishing world in France in 2022 is another story altogether. Authors are entrepreneurs like any other, especially with the growth of self-publishing. For my part, I am a hybrid author, meaning that I have some manuscripts published by traditional publishing houses and others which I publish myself. And so I play many roles, and once again I encounter people from EDHEC along the way who offer me advice, as well as many others interested in publishing in need of the tools to understand this rapidly-changing sector. 

And then there are those who have read one of my novels, like Les chagrins d’amour font de belles chansons (Hugo Publishing) and who get in touch once they realise that Tamara Balliana is their old classmate! 

By joining the other EDHEC Resources, I hope to continue to take part in this spirit of mutual support. If my knowledge or experience can help graduates or students, then I’m only too happy to give up some of my time.

Whoever said authors were solitary hermits?