Open Book: Alison Rogers on how to go from unemployed to super agents

Welcome to WalletPop's new book club, where we will have an author-in-residence to give us a peek into a new book and be on hand all month to answer reader questions. Our inaugural writer is real estate expert Alison Rogers, who was the founding editor of the New York Post real estate section and a licensed real estate broker. The following is a Q&A with her about her book,

Diary of a Real Estate Rookie, which was called "must reading" by the Wall Street Journal and a "Witty bunch of horror and success stories mixed with real advice for other Realtor newbies" by Newsweek.

ZB: You went from Harvard to Fortune magazine reporter to New York Post editor to real estate agent. How did that happen?

AR: I graduated from Harvard summa cum laude, at the top of my class -- and then I couldn't get a job. It took me a year to get hired on Wall Street. That was the beginning of a long love/hate relationship with corporate America.

Bascially, the Wall Street gig was a two-year in-and-out, so after I did that I decided to try journalism, and I had a connection at Fortune. That was a great job; it really trained me to write and think.

I then developed a sort of specialty in business-oriented publishing. When the New York Post needed an editor to launch the real estate section, I said, you know, this is the kind of publishing I do, and I love real estate.

Remember, if you've got questions for Alison Rogers, you can ask them here, or below in the comments field.