New York Times Bestselling Author Karrine Steffans
Elisabeth Ovesen is the New York Times bestselling author behind CONFESSIONS OF A VIDEO VIXEN, the Vixen Series, and Karrine Steffans pen name. She has published with HarperCollins Publishers and Hachette Book Group. She was featured in countless magazines and newspapers and on television and radio shows worldwide. Oprah Winfrey has interviewed Ovesen. Her Books have forced a conversation about the sexual deviances of the entertainment industry fifteen years before the Me Too Movement. Ovesen’s work has consistently been included in Gender, Women’s, and Hip-Hop studies curriculums at higher learning institutions nationwide. This allowed Ovesen to enjoy a second career as a keynote speaker, adjunct teacher, and personal development coach, primarily focusing on female sexual autonomy, male ego fragility, and the sexual shaming of women. At the invitation of the Vice President of Content at Medium, Ovesen returned to publishing with a series of personal essays and two bi-monthly sex and relationships advice columns for LEVEL and ZORA magazines, both Medium Publications. Ovesen also hosts a call-in relationship advice podcast for Blavity Media.
What inspired you to begin writing, and what has your publishing journey been like along the road to becoming a New York Times bestselling author?
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Elisabeth Ovesen appeared as Karrine Steffans.
I wrote my first book when I was five. It was just thirty-four pages with illustrations, and it was a masterpiece. Nothing inspired me to start writing, per se. Writing has never been what I do; it’s who I am. As far back as I can remember, I’ve never known another way. If I have something to say, I’d instead write it. As for my publishing journey, it was pretty simple in comparison to that of others. I devised a scheme to get the attention of publishers by utilizing my connections in mainstream media. I got placement in eleven magazines within a year, and HarperCollins contacted me shortly after. I never had to pitch. My press clippings did that for me. I wrote my first book in a month, it hit the shelves six months after I signed my contract, and it was an instant New York Times bestseller—one that stayed on the list over two years in hardcover and then paperback. I was on Oprah about nine months into my career and continued to write two more New York Times bestsellers after. I was twenty-seven when I first published and sold over one million copies of my first book.
“Writing has never been what I do; it’s who I am. …never known another way.”
What was it like getting to meet Oprah and talk about your writing?
I think anyone with the Oprah experience would tell you it’s surreal. And then, there’s the Oprah effect—the recognition and sales that happen directly after. Being a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show is a badge of distinction and great honor. That one moment in time catapulted my career and changed my trajectory forever. I had many extensive interviews on major networks in the nine months before, but nothing could’ve been bigger than Oprah. So, after that, my publicist shut down all other interview requests for a while…just to let that moment simmer and sink in. What a time to be alive.
It must’ve been exciting to work as a video vixen and appear in music videos with LL Cool J and the like. You’ve also visited college campuses to discuss your involvement in the hip-hop industry and its expectations of women. What are some of the insights you were able to offer into the hip-hop industry and its expectations of women?
I only performed in music videos for one year before moving on. However, since I was a teenager, I've known men working in urban music as executives and artists. Regardless of their positions, I’ve found nearly every man in this industry to be chauvinistic, misogynistic, narcissistic, egotistical, and physically, emotionally, and financially abusive. But to be fair, though, this has less to do with their industry and more with the fact that they’re men living in a society that breeds fuels and supports these characteristics. Ergo, their expectations of women are the same as other men with similar traits. They expect women to put up and shut up, which is why I gladly became public enemy number one.
“They expect women to put up and shut up, which is why I gladly became public enemy number one.”
Your books shocked the world, forcing a conversation about the sexual deviances of the entertainment industry fifteen years before the ‘Me Too Movement.’ How were you able to predict this?
I tried to warn an entire generation about the misogyny and sexual coercion in the entertainment industry in 2005 while simultaneously advocating for sexual agency and a woman’s right to be as accessible as any man without shame. These weren’t new concepts nor a revolution that hadn’t been fought before, but as the saying goes, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. I withstood everything from public shaming to death threats for over fifteen years, only to be praised for being “before my time.” But I wasn’t before my time. My generation was late to the revolution.
“…I wasn’t before my time. My generation was late to the revolution.”
Can you tell us what the next book from Karrine Steffans is about?
In CONFESSIONS OF A VIDEO VIXEN, I open up as a former video vixen with a raw and unflinching memoir that exposes the dark side of the hip-hop industry—sex, power, and survival—while reclaiming my voice in a long-overdue reckoning.
How have you been working with your editor Abby West and the Amistad/HarperCollins team on your memoir CONFESSIONS OF A VIDEO VIXEN?
We’re just getting started in what will be at least a two-title journey. But I’m excited to be at Amistad/HarperCollins and thrilled to have landed in Abby’s capable hands.
You appeared in the action movie A Man Apart, starring Vin Diesel. How was it getting to work with him?
Vin was incredibly supportive of me on and off the set of A Man Apart, as were other cast members and our director. He was funny, boisterous, and popping with blasts of energy. He helped calm my nerves and make me laugh. He was a delight; every time I see him in L.A., it’s all love.
Which content did you contribute to HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher?
As Bill’s girlfriend and muse at the time, our conversations and inside jokes often made it to episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher. But one night, I got some credit for a joke written for the show's 'New Rules' segment. It was entitled Finding FEMA, a play on Finding Nemo, and it was a little something I came up with in our bedroom late one night after a boozy dinner. After a national weather disaster, FEMA responded slowly, and a whole city was proverbially under water. I gave Bill the bit, and he took it to his writers. It aired the following Friday night, and at the end of the joke, as the audience laughed, he looked into the camera and said, “I little birdie gave me that one.” I’m the little birdie.
You donated some of the proceeds from your earlier books to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. What compels you about this good cause?
Honestly, at first, donations were all about tax write-offs. Nearly twenty years later, I run The Ovesen Foundation, through which I donate home goods and furnishings to individuals and families transitioning from homelessness or financial hardships. Now, helping others is far less about taxes and much more about how happy I can make others. That’s the stuff.
What are the qualities that you feel make for the best literary agent?
I think an essential characteristic of any literary agent is excitement for the project, the author, and the industry. I also appreciate agents with the profound market knowledge and career-long and budding relationships with other agents and publishers. On a personal note, it’s always a pleasure to have an agent whose personality gels with mine. Friendly business relationships help make doing what we love to seem less like work.
“…an essential characteristic of any literary agent is excitement for the project, the author, and the industry.”
What are the qualities that you feel make for the best editor?
I enjoy working with editors who aren’t all business all the time. Some of my best work sessions with an editor have been over dinner and a bottle of wine. As with agents, it’s lovely when an editor is as excited about the project as I am, when they have strong industry relationships and knowledge, and when we work closely together in a way that doesn’t make every step of the process feel like work.
Are you reading anything good for pleasure at the moment?
As I write my next book—my first in nearly a decade and my first novel—I’m not reading for pleasure so that someone else’s creative work does not subconsciously influence me. I’m reading strictly for research, which is my favorite reason. I rarely read for entertainment. I’m always looking for answers to the endless array of questions swirling around my mind, so I’m mainly into self-help, business, historical, and biographical works. To that end, I’m reading SEX SCANDALS, GENDER, AND POWER IN COTEMPORARY AMERICAN POLITICS by Hinda Mandell.
“…my publishing journey is unorthodox.”
Elisabeth Ovesen lectures at California State University on the Black Female Experience.
Any advice for hopeful writers looking to become published authors?
I always stumble when asked this question because my publishing journey is unorthodox. I don’t know how other people become published. I don’t know what it’s like to be unfound and search for an agent or a publisher. I was nearly ten years into my career before I got an agent and before I ever had to write a formal pitch. I don’t know how to have an average or usual experience—not in my business or life. So, I always avoid advising up-and-coming authors who want to be published. I have no idea how it’s done.
Can you finish this sentence? I love writing because…
With it, I find catharsis, expression, and purpose.