Interview with NY Times Bestselling Author (Falling Into You) @JasindaWilder!

I’m SO excited to have the opportunity to interview New York Times bestselling author Jasinda Wilder today! I read the reviews of her latest novel, Falling Into You, (New Adult) so I downloaded it and loved it (and left her a 5-star review on Amazon). I wanted to learn more about Jasinda’s success and road to get there. Please read, comment, and share! 

1) Jasinda, please share with us a little background about your New York Times bestselling book, Falling Into You (which I loved, by the way).

Falling Into You was inspired by real life events. I taught a girl whose sister went through an experience much like Nell’s. My student’s sister, whom we’ll call “Jenny” for the sake of answering this question, dated a boy, the son of a senator, and he died very tragically, much like Kyle did in the book. The rest is fiction, as Jenny grieved and received counseling and did in fact deal with her personal tragedy very admirably. But I took the seed event and extrapolated a bit, tried to imagine what would happen if someone refused to grieve. I’ve known cutters in real life, I’ve known people who refused to grieve or move on or deal with pain.

2) What I loved about the book was the combination of sweet love with very sexy love scenes, coupled with real-life issues surrounding loss. What was your inspiration for writing Nell?

I try to write life. Life, a variegated, many-hued thing. It’s sweet and loving, sexy and steamy, tragic, painful, amazing…I try to put all that in my stories. Nell is a composite character. She has elements of myself, people I’ve known, characters from other books and movies. I wanted to try a story that dealt with loss. Nell gave me her story (in the sense that once I started writing, events unrolled on their own in a way). Nell became real to me.

3) As the mother of a teen daughter, I look for strong female archetypes in stories. How did you decide on Nell’s character traits?

I don’t want anyone to think I’m encouraging the type of behavior Nell resorted to. Cutting is a serious issue and if you know someone who is doing it, try to get them professional help. Same with alcoholism and binge drinking.

That PSA disclaimer out of the way, Nell had to go through some hard things and make some mistakes so her journey to healing would be that much more powerful. I wanted people to know, through Nell, that we can make mistakes and hurt and grieve or refuse to grieve, but that we have to move on, we have to allow ourselves to get better. Nell’s character traits are things I’ve seen in people I know. I hope people see Nell’s strength, see the fact that she was able to recognize her problems and mistakes and try to move on from them, learn from them. Nell was strong for refusing to grieve, for shutting away her feelings; she was strong for being able to admit that she wasn’t dealing with it and allowed herself to start the journey to healing.

4) People often think writing is a dream job. How did you get this point?

Writing can be a dream job, if you have the discipline to write every day, the patience to do things properly, the courage to put your writing out and risk failure and rejection time and again until you find success. I got to this point by being willing to risk failure, by writing stories I believed in and stories that I felt people wanted to read, that I thought would sell. You have to write what you’re passionate about, but you also have to be aware of the market, of the trends, of what people are looking for; the trick is make what you write converge both things.

5) Any plans for a movie version? (I’ve totally cast the book already in my head LOL. Let’s just say Hemsworth brothers. Ahem.)

I have a film agent shopping out the story to people in Hollywood, and I do very much hope that we’ll see a film made from the book. Getting rights optioned and getting producers on board and getting production started and then getting it actually made? It’s a long, hard process. I have my fingers crossed, and more importantly, talented professionals helping me get my story into the right hands. 

6) What do you do when you’re not writing?

LOL. What don’t I do? I answer emails, Facebook messages, Twitter. I answer interview questions, I plan future works, and I do newsletters and talk to my agent.

I have a husband and children, and I spend time with them as much as I humanly can.

7) How do your family and friends feel about your books and subject matter?

My family is so supportive. If anyone in my life has reservations or negative feelings about some of the subject matter in my books, they’ve never made it an issue.

8) Many authors find it difficult to make the time to write and market their work. How are you so successful?

It is difficult, very, very difficult to balance it all. I’m successful because I do market my work. I talk to my readers directly and personally. I answer all emails myself as quickly as I can, same with FB and Twitter. I think that’s HUGE. If readers know I’m there on the other end, a real person, the actual author answering them, it gives them a sense of connection. They then will be willing to tell their family and friends and coworkers about my books. Word of mouth is still the single best and most effective method of gaining sales, and I don’t see that changing. Get people talking about your work. Get them to share it with friends and family, and then reward them for doing so, i.e. giveaways and contests and the like. Anything to spread the word.

9) What’s one piece of advice someone gave you that you’d like to pass on to aspiring writers?

Write. Keep writing. Write some more. Get a professional cover artist and copyeditor. Write. Write. Write.

10) When is your next book due out? Will you continue the Falling Into You series?

I just published the final book in the Big Girls and Rock Star series, called Big Girls Do It Pregnant. I’m now working on the follow-up book to Falling Into You, which isn’t a direct sequel, but rather what I’m calling a parallel book. It follows other events that happened to other characters during the time frame of Falling Into You. It tells a new story, but you’ll also get plenty of Kyle, Nell, and Colton. You’ll get more background, as well as closure on events in Colton and Nell’s life after the end of FIY.

11) Tell us about your Big Girls Do It and Rock Star series. What inspired you to write these stories? 

Real life inspired them. My own desire to read steamy, sexy stories about people who aren’t size 0 or 2 or 4. I was inspired by the fact that love and sex and all the interrelated emotions stemming from relationships happen to everyone, regardless of what size or shape or color you are, and those stories are worth telling and worth reading. I didn’t see much of such stories out there, so I wrote my own.

12) Gin or vodka?

Wine. LOL.

13) What is your writing routine like?

I get up, get my kids to school, go into my office, and write until lunch, then write some more, until the kids get home. I intersperse it all with the business aspect of writing, i.e., social media.

14) What are your favorite books (or genre) to read? 

I write what I like to read. I’m always asking myself, ‘is this something I would read?’ So, then, I’m reading the books written by my peers, like Tara Sivec, Katie Ashley, Raine Miller, and Sylvia Day.

15) How long have you been writing professionally? Any tips for new writers?

I published my first book as Jasinda Wilder in April of 2012. I wrote some other works under a different pen name before that, but, really, I’ve been writing and supplementing my income in some fashion with my writing for about a year and a half. Tips? Write. Sit and write. See my answer to question 9. GET YOUR BOOK PROFESSIONALLY COPYEDITED BEFORE PUBLISHING. That’s huge. Be professional about your book and your career.

16) What types of marketing do you employ to get the word out for your books (social media, blog posts, ads, promotions, press releases, etc.)? Which do you feel is most effective?

I use FB, Twitter, newsletters, blogger reviews, Goodreads. I don’t blog much except in tandem with newsletters to announce a new release or put out a teaser. They’re all effective in different ways. Use them all, but balance it with actually writing, because if you don’t have books to promo, there’s no point.

17) Making people care about our characters is key to creating interest and empathy. Do you have a specific method when creating characters you’re willing to share?

Be an armchair psychologist. Watch people. Pay attention. Catalogue how people respond to situations, how they talk. Use real life situations. Read books on writing effective dialogue, because it’s harder than you think. Sol Stein’s On Writing was a huge help to me. Use real traits from people you know.

18) In Falling Into You, Nell uses cutting and alcohol as ways to deal with her grief. What has the response been to that particular aspect of the story?

A lot of people have said they identify with it, they understand why Nell resorted to that. To be clear, once again, those are NOT healthy coping mechanisms and should be handled by professionals. Seek help if you need it. Nell needed help, but refused to seek it out, and she suffered for it. But the sad fact is, Nell’s response was based on real-life facts, people who really do deal with pain and grief in that way.

19) How do you spend your off time?

With my family. Watching Real Housewives, Teen Mom and The Bachelor/Bachelorette.

20) Final question: of the main social media channels, where do you spend most of your time and how do you manage it?

Hmm. I try to balance them all, but I spend a HUGE amount of time on Facebook and email. I tend to answer emails and FB in the mornings and at night, and Twitter throughout the day. Emails are all the time. 

 

Do you have questions for Jasinda? Please ask below. She’s very approachable and extremely involved with her fans which I love! Otherwise, connect with her on Twitter, her site, or Facebook. Purchase her books on Amazon.

 

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