SquawkRadio

Well, if that headline doesn’t pick up some naughty internet surfers, I don’t know what will!  We’re here today talking with Jenna Petersen, a bestselling historical author for Avon Books who also just happens to run one of the most popular websites for aspiring romance authors on the internet--THE PASSIONATE PEN.  I personally owe Jenna a tremendous debt of gratitude because now I have somewhere to send all of those aspiring writers who e-mail me to ask me for my agent’s home telephone number and the secret handshake that will result in publishing their first novel and becoming multi-millionaires.  It’s also heartening to know that today’s writers won’t have to learn about publishing their first romance by loitering in dank back alleys or checking out 5-year-old copies of the WRITERS MARKET from their local library as I did.  Please join me in welcoming Jenna Petersen to Squawk Radio! 

TERESA:  So what inspired you to develop THE PASSIONATE PEN?  Was it simply your selfless love for the aspiring writer or did you think it might be a good promotional tool for your career as well?

JENNA: You know, I started The Passionate Pen because I was looking for the kind of info I have up there and just couldn’t find it. I wasn’t a member of RWA yet and I didn’t know any other writers. I figured if I wanted the info, others might, too. I never in a million years thought that it would turn into the huge thing it has become. I didn’t even think of it as a promotional tool until about three or four years ago when I looked at my stats and thought, “Hey, if I ever do sell a book, some of these people might actually buy it!”

TERESA:  Ah, yes...the good old days...when I didn’t know any other writers.  Sorry, I digress.  So what do you feel is the most popular feature on the website? 

JENNA: The pages with the highest number of visitors (aside from the opening page) are the Romance Publishers, Agents and my Diary page, in that order. So the core parts of the site are still the most popular, which is really nice.

TERESA:  I’ll just bet the Agents Page would be even more popular if you’d publish their home telephone numbers and personal measurements!  Do you ever get feedback from your site surfers thanking you for the information or suggesting new topics for the site? 

JENNA: I do! That’s one of the best things about romance writers. They’re so NICE. I get lots of emails every month to just say thanks, as well as a steady flow of questions. Sometimes if I get a lot of the same question, I’ll do an article about that topic. It makes my life easier since then I can just send them a link to the page with the answer, or they’ll find it on their own in their search through the site.

TERESA:  Have you ever heard from a grateful writer who got published because she studied the information on The Passionate Pen?  Do they send candy, jewels, small cash awards?

JENNA: A couple of times authors have written me to say they sent material to a publisher and their book was picked up. Especially with the smaller publishers who they might not have found easily on their own. That’s always cool. I don’t think anyone with a New York print publisher has ever written to me after a sale. I don’t think I can really take credit for anything, anyway. All I do is provide the information, what the author does with it is an entirely different story.

TERESA:  I’ve noticed that you update the site nearly every week.  What new content can your readers look forward to on a weekly basis? 

JENNA: It depends on the week and how busy the industry changes are at present. I check the links to the agents and publishers every month, so there are normally changes on those pages at least once a month. I also keep up-to-date on new markets or moving agents, etc. So when I get that info, I update it. I also update my calendar of where I’m appearing pretty regularly. Oh, and I update the Buy A Historical page with the upcoming historical romances every month. The Diary gets updated pretty much every week.

Some months are slower. This month, for example, I just haven’t had as much to update (and I was finishing a book), so there have been weekly Diary updates and not a lot else.

TERESA:  Is your publisher aware of the site and if so, what do they think of it?

JENNA: Avon is aware of it. Actually my agent made them aware when they bought my first book, SCANDALOUS. They use it as a marketing tool on my cover flats and I update my editor with numbers periodically so that they can keep that info up-to-date. I have the impression that they see it as a nice platform not all new authors have.

TERESA:  As a fellow historical romance writer, I love the fact that you encourage the site’s readers to buy historical romances and support the genre.  If you could recommend ONE historical romance to convert a skeptic, which one would it be?

JENNA: Oh, that’s too hard, Teresa! I can’t pick one!! I have so many books on my keeper shelf that I’d recommend to romance skeptics (actually a great many of them are books by the Squawkers). I can say that I turned my Mom into a raging romance FIEND with both Maggie Osborne’s SILVER LINING and Julia Quinn’s THE DUKE AND I. So since that worked once, I’d probably try those first.

As for the Buy A Historical page on The Passionate Pen, for a long time, it seemed like everyone was bemoaning the ‘death of historicals’, I think mostly because it was very hard, as an unpublished author, to sell them. But no one was really talking about how to change that fact. The bottom line is that if readers are buying more historicals, the publishers will see the desire out there and buy their titles accordingly. So if I can have some small part in helping that along, why not? Plus, it’s kind of fun to see all the historical romances laid out like that. My TBB and TBR lists are LONG.

TERESA:  What’s the best piece of publishing advice you received before you got published?

JENNA: I think the best advice I ever got was from a talk Jenny Crusie did for a local library. She was the first person I ever heard say it was okay to put your head down and write a crappy first draft. I’ve been writing crappy drafts ever since and fixing them in revision. It’s so easy to get caught up in the stuff outside of writing and it was a spectacular reminder that without books, one can’t ever hope to sell or do anything else.

TERESA:  And in that same vein, what’s the worst piece of publishing advice you received before you got published? 

JENNA: There was once a published author (not with Avon) who told me that I probably wouldn’t ever sell, so why didn’t I just give up? She’d never read anything I wrote. It was really crushing, especially since at the time I thought we were friendly. But when I come face-to-face with that kind of behavior, I file it in the ‘things I will never do’ folder in my mind. So I’m learning how to behave and how not to behave from the people around me.

TERESA:  It would probably be best if we kept you away from Kitty Kuttlestone then.  So what’s the one thing you’ve learned about the business since you’ve been published that you’d like to share with aspiring writers?

JENNA: I think it’s one of those things you hear and don’t really understand until you’re in it. The whole business is “hurry up and wait.” Even after you sell, you still wait to hear about revisions, hear about covers, hear about whatever. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, so you can’t get too worked up about it along the way.

Of course, everyone who knows me is now laughing hysterically. See, I HEAR that advice, but it’s hard to actually follow it.

TERESA:  So I hear you write romance under the names Jenna Petersen and Jess Michaels.  Which one is the evil twin?

JENNA: Well, Jess Michaels is the naughty twin. She writes erotic historical romance for Avon Red. And Jenna writes Regency-era historical (that is also very sexy – I’m big on sexy). And soon I’ll be in Bedlam for referring to myself in third person and having multiple personalities…

TERESA:  Tell us a little bit about your latest sexy release.

JENNA: My last book came out in August of this year. It is called FROM LONDON WITH LOVE and launched my Lady Spies series. Think Charlie’s Angels, but in Empire Waists. In the first book, my lady spy Meredith Sinclair is sent to investigate a gentleman for the crime of treason. Unfortunately, her suspect is a man she once loved, Tristan Archer. What is she to do when the evidence is telling her one thing, but her heart is telling her another?

There will be two more books in the series. The next is out in January (DESIRE NEVER DIES) and the third is scheduled for a Fall 2007 release. The entire series has been ridiculously fun to write. The heroines are all strong women, but they’re still ladies and the heroes are… well, I think they’re all hot

TERESA:  Thank you so much for being with us today, Jenna!  Jenna has graciously agreed to hang around the henhouse today and answer any questions you might have about THE PASSIONATE PEN, publishing in general or her own work.  She’ll also be giving away an autographed copy of FROM LONDON WITH LOVE to one lucky Commenter!