Elora Ramirez's journey is one of reclaiming power, identity, and the profound impact of women's stories. Her project, Femina Books, is not just a publishing endeavor; it's a movement inspired by the need to revive the voices of women who have been silenced throughout history. Elora's vision is to create a space where women's narratives are celebrated, honored, and recognized for their strength and significance. Through Femina Books, she hopes to inspire women to embrace their stories, reclaim their identities, and realize the power that lies within their own experiences. Elora's work is a testament to the resilience and magic that emerges when women come together to uplift and empower one another.
What motivated you to name your project "Femina Books," and how does it reflect your mission?
I have Janina Ramirez to thank for the name Femina Books. She wrote Femina, a book about how women have been written out of history. In this book, she shares about the practice of women authors having the title femina next to their books as a way to signal that the book was written by a woman (which meant that it lessened the power of the words themselves). It also meant the work itself was less likely to be preserved, so the likelihood that there are countless works of women lost to history simply because of this label is significant.
When I read this, something clicked internally. I've always believed that story is the greatest currency we have for human connection, and that for women, stories are often how we survive. I wanted to take back the power of that label, because our stories—the stories written by women—are powerful enough to stand on their own. I don't see this as a publishing company, although it's the umbrella under which I publish my books. I see it more as a gathering space for women who need that space in which to remember that their words and stories and experiences matter and that there used to be a time when feminine insight and intuition was revered. Women are beginning to remember, and I want Femina Books to be a rallying cry of sorts for the women looking for a space to stretch into themselves and their own magic.
Can you share the personal experiences or insights that led you to reclaim the label “Femina”?
One night I had a dream. In a mall with some friends, I set my bag down in an area we recognized as safe. But it wasn’t safe. My bag was stolen. Devastated, I went to the shop owner to see if it was possible to look at security footage so we would know who took the bag. She didn’t hesitate, and led me to her office where we were easily able to determine who did it. It was a group of grown men. And even though what they were doing in the video was simply stealing something, the actions were violent.I felt violated. It felt as if I’d woken up from being drugged, sore from the attack. I began weeping uncontrollably.
“Will we be able to find these men with just their faces?” I asked in between tears.
The woman smiled.
“Oh yeah. We got ‘em. Don’t worry.”
I did get my bag back, and immediately looked through everything to see what they took. I was mostly concerned about cash I had, but they took nothing material, only my wallet that just had my driver’s license. I got worried.
Looking at the security officer near me who’d join the search in helping me find my things, I asked her if I was going to have issues getting to where I needed to go.
She told me no.
“How, though?” I asked, confused. “I don’t have my license — and I need to go somewhere tomorrow.”
She looked at me.
“Word of mouth.”
I woke up then, and the first thing I heard when I asked why this dream, why now, was this: it is always the woman who save each other. I realized then that in this dream, I was at the mall with my girlfriends, and they were the ones who held me as I waited. They were the ones who comforted me as I grieved. It was the shop owner who helped me find the perpetrators who stole from me. And it was the security officer who protected me and told me she would look out for me, telling her sisters to look out for me too.
Even more, we save each other through story. In her book When Women Were Birds, Terry Tempest Williams says: “My body is my compass, and it does not lie. As women, we are quiet about our personal lives, especially when it comes to sex. We are quiet because there is a history of abuse and hard committed toward those who tell the truth. Marriages are shattered. Families are broken. Judgments are rendered. The woman stands alone. Our stories live underground….Muriel Rukeyser asked the question, ‘what would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.’ The world is splitting open.” The security officer told me I would be able to get where I need to go because of word of mouth, meaning telling my story.
In my dream, I found that I had nothing material stolen from me. The only thing taken was my wallet with my driver’s license. When I thought about this fact after I woke up, I realized something else: they stole my identity and they did so with violence. The only way I could get this back was through the telling of my story.
I believe that we cannot heal ourselves and live fully in our power until we claim our true identity through story. Owning that narrative — and refusing to live anything else — is where we will find freedom. Reclaiming the label femina is part of me owning the narrative of my life and inviting other women to do the same.
What challenges have you faced in establishing Femina Books, and how have you overcome them?
I've been publishing books for ten years now. My first novel, Every Shattered Thing, came out in September of 2013 and I honestly thought I'd made it. Like, I truly believed now that I had published a book on my own I would see the results every single one of my peers were seeing around that time. This was when indie publishing was reaching a bit of a zeitgeist. I knew multiple authors who were switching from indie to traditional because their books were selling so much that publishers were vying for their popularity. Most of them signed with six figure deals and from someone who had been teaching high school English, that sounded like a dream. But even getting to this point was hard.Initially, that book was titled Come Alive and was published through a small indie press that went under six months after my book was released. I never got an advance, never got royalties, and had to fight to get my rights back (as well as get the original copy of the book off the shelves of Barnes and Noble). Once I succeeded, there was a lot of self doubt in whether or not I could even manage to turn this around and make something of it. I had a few friends rally around me, and one in particular—Kelly Simmon—called me up one day and said, "okay Elora. This book is really, really good. But it needs work and I think you know that. But I want to help." At the time, she owned a PR company for indie authors, and she took me under her wing and helped me release the book, connecting me with incredible book reviewers and people who would shout about my book from the rooftops. Within 24 hours of it going live on Amazon, it was a Hot New Release and I had acquisition editors reaching out about potential deals.
Through the connections I'd made because of Kelly, I had an agent reach out to me and sign me and within a few months, I had about ten publishing houses asking for the manuscript to read over it. This is it, I thought. This is what I've been waiting for.But I was wrong.None of them took me on, and looking back it makes so much sense because Stephanie's story didn't fit the trending stories back then, but it still stung. I tried to bounce back by writing a sequel and then starting a new series, but by the time I sent Secrets Don't Keep to my agent in 2015, we both knew that we needed to go our separate ways because indie publishing was going to be the best bet for my books. I ended up having to get a day job shortly after that, because at the same time my book sales were tanking, so was my business as a story coach. In one fell swoop I lost my agent, my business, and a whole lot of people I thought were friends but who believed what someone else was telling them in secret Facebook messages and groups centered around me. It was a wound I carried with me for a long time, and it felt a lot like the death of a dream.Nothing has ever gained traction like Every Shattered Thing did, and there is a bit of dissonance with that knowing it was my first book and nothing has even come close to that success, but even with the challenges I faced early on I'm so grateful for what I've experienced because every single one has forced me to go inward and strengthen my relationship with the Knowing I possess—that internal barometer for this is the way, now move with confidence. That Knowing helped me right my sails so many times as I tripped and fell and struggled to get back up because I'd lost my way or forgot my purpose or let the naysayers get me down. I've had so many moments where it feels like everything is crashing around me and I'm left filtering through the dust and debris to find the golden threads. All of it has led me here, to this moment.
How do you navigate the balance between personal and professional life while managing your creative projects?
Because I still have a day job, this can be excruciatingly difficult. I try to create rhythms that work for me and my family and I am forever grateful that I have a husband who believes in this dream as much as I do. It takes a lot of experimentation, to be honest. Sometimes a manuscript wants to be written in the early morning hours. And then my next book I'll try the same thing and it's like I'm immediately burnt out and exhausted and forget how to write or communicate. It really is a precarious balance, and this year I tripped up a bit and went too far on the professional side with my day job and burnt myself out so completely I had to take a leave of absence. I think the secret for me is having grace for those moments I'm so hyperfocused on a manuscript that I can't think about anything else and being open and honest with my closest friends so they know why I'm in my creative cave. It also takes a lot of communication between me and my husband— from day one he's been one of my biggest supporters, and has been known to tell me to go "write about it" when he sees that I'm marinating on something and can't focus. He understands, and he lets me drop down the rabbit hole, but he will absolutely pull me out from the abyss and force me to get out and do things and it's always a bit like I've been locked in a cave and am blinking against the sun because I'm not used to the light.
Can you describe a pivotal moment in your career that significantly shaped your approach to writing and publishing?
There have been two moments that have been instrumental in shaping how I approach writing and publishing. The first came when I published Secrets Don't Keep. I was so excited for this story to get out into the world. Based on what I'd been reading and what was popular at the time, I definitely thought it would make a bigger splash than it did. It was absolutely a failure of a launch. I had hardly any pre-orders, and because that book's release overlapped training at my new day job, I had no time to truly market the book. At first I was devastated, but then one day on my way to work I was listening to Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic podcast. She asked the question, what would you do even if you failed? What do you love so much and find so much purpose in that even if nothing ever happens with it you will still do it simply because you love it? I knew immediately because I was living it. My third novel wasn't selling. No one really knew I existed. I wasn't the success story you heard about indie authors making a name for themselves because their book gained so much traction. Even still, I had stories in my bones I knew I needed to share. I knew then that even if no one ever bought another book of mine, I'd still be writing. I'd still be publishing. It completely changed how I viewed my own stories because in that moment I no longer cared what anyone else thought about the topics I chose to write about—I wanted to write about what I love.
Seven years later, I got the idea for Heads on Fire. Up until this moment I'd been so nonchalant about the ideas that came to me because there was a certain distance to the characters and me as an author. Like, I've never been tapped for a secret society or had a twin go missing because of a deranged stalker. Nova, the main character of Heads on Fire, felt more...true. I was so timid in the ownership of that story because it felt incredibly personal—that entire series comes from the very depths of my experience. Because of this, I felt like I had to protect myself. I definitely thought that I would publish it under a pen name. I created the name, set up social media and email accounts, and decided to use that as a shield between me and the fear that others would read the story and somehow judge me for it. The more I wrote Nova's story and her healing from narcissistic abuse and purity culture, the more confident I became in owning the story. It completely changed the trajectory of my publishing goals and how I approach my own writing. Honestly, if it weren't for this series and working through some of what I've worked through and healed from because of these characters, I might not even have Femina Books. By owning my story and my process and my creativity within these pages, I've owned a bit more of myself—and that's incredibly healing.
How do you address mental health and self-care in the context of your work and personal life?
There is a prevalent thought in the publishing industry that if you don't consistently produce content, you'll be forgotten. And there's an element of truth to this—we see it on social media all the time. But I go against this train of thought for my own sanity. I know what it's like to experience burnout on a professional level, and I would hate to feel that on a creative scale. So far, I average one book a year—which is incredibly small in comparison to other authors who are able to publish multiple. The moment I look to their story though, and begin to compare and try to live the story they're living is the moment I forget what I am here to do. I have to stay focused and trust the process as well as my own energy. To me, creativity requires boundaries and protection. I cannot tap into that Big Creator Energy without also understanding the importance of allowing the compost of my life to simmer and cook. I create for expansion—not consumption. Everything has seasons and there is a rhythm to creativity that I would be remiss to ignore. My writing is better for it; my life is better with it; and my mental health is definitely better because of it.
What role does community support play in your creative journey, and how do you build and maintain it?
Community has been THE thing that has helped me get to this point in my creative journey. You cannot create in a silo. I mean, you can—if that's what you want. But for me, I've realized the magic of creative collaboration and connecting with someone on a visceral level because they get it. So on a creative level, I have to have my fellow authors who are living this life alongside me as well as who are a few steps ahead of me leading the way. On a personal level, I have a group of women who have rallied around me and cheered me on through the completion of so many books. The limit does not exist for the amount of voice memos I've sent working through plot points or lamenting my frustration at lack of time to write or gushing over a scene I just finished. I'm incredibly grateful for them.
And you know, because of the support I've received and the breakthroughs I've experienced through community in owning my stories, I dream of Femina Books being a tiny branch in a grander mission where women have that brick and mortar spot to go and connect with other creatives and know that their voices are being not just heard, but celebrated.
How do you handle criticism or setbacks in your writing and publishing endeavors?
When I first got my rights back to Come Alive, I made a massive mistake in sending an open request for feedback to a mailing list I gained from Noisetrade—and old site where you could offer your creative project for free in exchange for an email. I told these people (who already had a copy of my manuscript) that they were now my beta readers and that I wanted this book to be the best it possibly could so I would welcome any feedback they had—and ohmigosh I was so confident in sending that email. Like, I said those words with my entire chest, not knowing the absolute hate that people could send you when you leave yourself wide open and vulnerable to their attacks.
Within 24 hours I had an email saying that the person couldn't believe I ever considered myself an author, and that they couldn't get through the first chapter because the writing was just that bad. They told me I needed to put away the pen and never attempt to write again. It was devastating and honestly, it tripped me up. I'll never forget where I was the moment that email came through and I read those words as if they were an absolute truth. Even though I had plenty of emails telling me the story changed their life and they were deeply impacted by Stephanie's experience, it was that one email I remembered. I didn't write for months. It was Kelly, the friend I mentioned earlier, who snapped me out of the funk and encouraged me to return to the story I knew I was supposed to share. Since then, I've grown a thicker skin, but there are still moments where the setbacks are inevitable. Those are the times where I lean into trust. Whatever it is that is keeping me from the page, I know I have to walk through it and lean into it and trust that on the other side, my writing and my creativity and my stories are going to be better for it. That mindset hasn't let me down yet.
I also have better boundaries. I don't let anyone near my works in progress unless they are in my inner circle and I trust that they will handle the words with care. I also don't pay too close attention to the reviews, because I understand now that those are for readers—not for me. There's been one exception: when I got back into writing in 2021, I noticed a few reviews come through for the Shattered Things series mentioning that the editing was off and the formatting was distracting. I never replied, but when I decided to launch new covers for the 10th anniversary of those books, I dove deep into formatting and saw exactly what the readers were mentioning. Because of their willingness to be honest, those stories are now so much stronger and more professionally wrapped than before.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of your work with Femina Books?
I will never get over the readers who email me or leave a review talking about what an impact my books have had on their life. Every single time it's the most surreal experience. Knowing that my books are resonating with someone where they are at means the world and keeps me going on the days where I feel as if I'm screaming into the void. I know how it feels to read a book and feel your molecular structure change because of it. Hearing someone say they've had a similar moment reading one of my books makes everything worth it.
Also, working as a developmental editor and story coach for other indie authors is absolutely one of my favorite things about Femina Books. There have been so many indie books I've read in the past few years where there's this moment of connection and I can just feel this magic crackling between the lines of their story. I won't ever get over it. It's such a privilege to be able to breathe life into the story bones of someone else's dream and connect over their desire to make their book sing.
How do you stay inspired and motivated in your creative process?
I believe creativity begets creativity. So even if I'm not writing, however I am tapping into creativity in that moment is serving me and my inspiration. Whether it's art journaling, interviewing other women creatives for my Creative Underworld podcast, paying attention to my curiosity and learning something new, or painting a canvas—all of these inform my writing when I get the nudge that it's time to return to the page. My two values in life are intuition and beauty. So if I'm listening to that inner voice and also searching for the beauty in this world (which is its own form of resistance), I never have to worry about lacking inspiration. The abundance is there, just waiting for me to notice.
What advice would you offer to women who are aspiring to create their own projects or start their own businesses?
Do it. Don't hesitate. Grab a journal and get really clear on your why and your mission and then run for it with all that you have within you. Find your people who will support you through the times you want to quit. At times you will have to traverse the Underworld in order to find the gold and in these moments you might question yourself but remember your why—remember that voice of intuition that led you here. She won't let you down. You will find that gold. You have this idea / dream for a reason. Listen to it.
How do you ensure that your personal values and goals are reflected in your publishing projects?
I cannot write something that is not True. Whenever I'm writing from a place that isn't true, I feel it. I know it intuitively. The words feel distant and slack. When I'm tapped in, they come out hot. If I find myself stuck on a project, more often than not it's because I'm not listening to the story in the way that it's meant to be told. These are the moments where I've let myself become front and center instead of the characters and it can be difficult to step back and let it flow but the moment I do that, the words appear again. There are very specific stories I am meant to share, and that doesn't make me any more important than any other author out there. It just necessitates that I listen and act in a way that honors this channel I've been given.
What message would you like to share with other women about reclaiming and celebrating their stories?
As women, our words have always been dangerous, but we know the risk of swallowing them for fear of retaliation. My message and encouragement to you would be do not swallow your words. Even if you are not a writer, reclaim your story. Speak it. Shout it. Sing it. Paint it. Whatever you do, do not let them win. They've always tried to quiet us through force, whether through burning or hanging or worse. But you know that the flames mean nothing when compared to the intentional forgetting of how story weaves a tale of memory for us—how it points us to our North Star within and strengthens our resolve. Because eventually, we always remember.
We look each other in the eye and lean in and whisper, “do you remember too?”
Our words have always been dangerous. But it’s because as women, we are the warning. The memory. We won't ever forget. And now is our time to reclaim what is ours.
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