Interview: Hannah Jordan Author of For You I’d Break

I would like to introduce you to fellow writer and friend Hannah Jordan. I met Hannah at South Jersey Writers Group. She has published short form literary fiction and nonfiction.

Hannah’s first book in The Peace Falls Small Town Romance Series just came out:

FOR YOU I’D BREAK:

A freak accident years after graduation gives a former high school hottie and the wallflower who was too nervous to speak in his presence a second chance at love.

When Rowan’s two-year marriage ends with a crash, she returns home to Peace Falls, VA, riding shotgun in her sister’s 1990 Cadillac hearse. Everything about her is damaged: her heart, her pride, her bank account, and her spine—thanks to a tourist, a Segway, and finding her husband getting busy with her boss. But Rowan is determined to reclaim her career and city life as soon as she recuperates and lands a new job.

Caleb “Cal” Cardoso didn’t notice wallflower Rowan in high school, but the former football star, and Peace Falls’s newest physical therapist, can’t take his eyes off the stunning redhead now. Too bad he’s sworn off relationships. After his last hookup purposely tanked his online reputation, Cal stands to lose his job if a single patient leaves his care. Which is why he can’t let Rowan switch to another practitioner, despite the friction between them, and why he definitely can’t act on his growing attraction.

Rowan agrees to remain Cal’s patient if he helps her younger brother train for football tryouts. Though Cal hasn’t touched a football since the accident that killed his best friend, he agrees, and as Cal helps heal Rowan’s body, she begins to heal his heart.

Victoria Marie Lees: Congratulations, Hannah. And thank you for visiting with me at Adventures in Writing.

Hannah Jordan: My pleasure.

VML: Hannah, what made you decide to become a writer and how long have you been writing? How did you choose the romance genre to write?

HJ:  I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, beginning with a poem about eggs when I was in kindergarten.  As a child, I was diagnosed with a learning disability in spelling despite being an advanced reader and writer.  Today, this wouldn’t warrant intervention, but at the time I was pulled from all spelling and grammar classes for special education. 

I started to write around words I couldn’t spell and learned that the words in sentences could be moved like puzzle pieces.  Ironically, because I was pulled from regular grammar classes, I never learned English grammar until I took German in high school.  (German is spelled phonetically, so the words are easier for me to spell than English).  I learned comma rules when teaching my first college course.  (So, in other words, I made it through high school, college, and my first masters program with no idea what I was doing.)  To this day, I’m still learning. 

I started reading romance when a friend published a romance novel. I was instantly hooked, but it took years and a dare from my writer friend Gerri Mahn to write my first romance. I can honestly say, it’s the most fun I’ve ever had writing. 

VML: That’s amazing that you were a reader and writer at a young age, yet you struggled with spelling in English. My oldest daughter struggled in reading and writing, as I did, in elementary school. Bravo to you for focusing your personal strengths to overcome any difficulties to move ahead in your education. I believe we all learn something new each day.

Your novel deals with damaged characters, both physically and mentally, and the power of self-forgiveness to move forward in life. Why are these themes important to you?

HJ: My writing has always centered around realistic characters. Real people are imperfect and beautifully flawed. I wanted readers to feel like they knew these characters, and perhaps even recognized their own insecurities or issues in them.

It was important to me that the characters heal themselves, at least emotionally, before they could find their happily-ever-after with someone else. There is nothing wrong with a good escapist, fantastical romance.  Mine just isn’t in that category. I do believe love can be healing, but I also believe a person has to do the work to heal themselves to be a good partner. 

VML: Yes, Hannah, self-healing and true love do require work to find that happily-ever-after life we all want. Hard work is also necessary in this process of writing and re-writing. It can seem tedious. Especially for full-length novels. How do you know when your novel is ready for the presses?

HJ: I once had a professor tell me that if I waited to publish until a piece was perfect, I’d never publish anything. I didn’t fully grasp that concept until I started writing for parenting websites.  My payment was the same, whether I worked on something for an hour or a year.  However, I’ve always wanted my work to be worth the time readers invest to read it. This became the measure I used to determine if something was ready. 

With a novel, it was much harder.  I was very fortunate to have alpha readers who read the novel multiple times and agreed it was at the publication stage. Only then did I send it to beta readers.  Their responses reassured me immensely.  

VML: Perfectionism stifles many a writer, Hannah. Including me! How do you differentiate between Alpha readers and Beta readers? How many Alphas did you have? How many Betas?

What was the job of your Alpha readers, to help with the developmental stage of your writing?

What did the Beta readers do for you? Help with connectivity and/or specificity of the story?

HJ: I have two Alpha readers.  They are both writers and were part of the project from the initial plotting all the way through to the copy edit. We meet weekly, so I was able to ask questions and bounce off ideas if I got stuck with a plot point. They read the second draft of the book and sometimes the third and fourth. In addition, I worked with a mentor at Romance Writers of America who read two drafts and served as another developmental editor.

For me, Beta readers were readers who were given advanced review copies. They typically emailed me to say how they liked the book (or if they found any terrible typos) and left reviews when the book launched.  I believe I had eight.

VML: Lucky you to have other writers to “bounce off ideas” and help when you get stuck in your plot. Reviews are essential to help readers find your book.

So, how did you decide to indie-publish? Could you offer any advice to writers trying to indie publish their first novel?

HJ:  I queried the novel to agents and received enough positive feedback to believe readers would enjoy it, even if I wasn’t the next Colleen Hoover. With the way publication contracts are structured, agents are looking for an opportunity for that type of phenomenon to make the work they do profitable.  I knew small presses were an option, but again, given the structure of publication contracts, I had little hope of receiving a return on my investment for any marketing I did.  I double majored in business in college and have always wanted to own my own business, so becoming an authorpreneur made sense. 

Learning how to indie publish has been challenging.  I’ve made so many mistakes, but I’ve never been afraid to mess up before I make sense of something. I’m still learning and that’s okay.  So, I guess my advice to any writer, not just the indies, would be to embrace failure.  There’s a point where the dreamers stop and the gritty keep going. I’m confident the book is a reflection of all the work I’ve put into it.  I’m very proud of it, which has made all the ups and downs easier to handle. 

VML: Where I’m sure your business degree helps with your “authorpreneur” business, publishing is still a difficult business to get right the first time around. Your strength lies is your ability to look fear in the face and mess up and keep going. You are absolutely right, Hannah. The gritty must keep going in order to survive. And you should be proud of For You I’d Break. It is a stunning debut novel in your series.

However, a writer needs to be a marketer as well in today’s publishing world. How do you wear these two hats [Writer and Marketer]? Can you offer any advice to other writers about marketing their books?

HJ: When I went to college, my dad told me I could major in English as long as I double majored in a “marketable degree.”  So, naturally, I double majored in marketing.  The two work surprisingly well together.   I’ve gotten job interviews because of that marketing degree, but I was ultimately hired because I could write.  I do sometimes find it a challenge to switch from marketing to creative writing.  For that reason, I tend to work in chunks, dedicating large amounts of time to writing with minimal marketing and vice versa.

I’m planning to start Book 4 in the Peace Falls series in October, which will be the first book I’ve had to write while simultaneously marketing two books and editing another.  It’s a little daunting, but I have kids.  I’m used to wearing a million hats.  

My marketing advice to anyone starting out is to take advantage of every opportunity you’re offered (for now) and to make your own. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. I’m amazed at some of the yeses I’ve gotten because I asked. People will tell you no, or more likely, ignore you.  I’m scrappy by nature, so rejection rarely stings. It sometimes motivates me to work harder. I read somewhere that a no in the publishing industry rarely means never.  It just means not now or not this. 

VML: Solid advice here, Hannah. Thank you. I have the belief that it is always a “no” if you never send out your work or never reach out for opportunity. Still, it takes courage to do this. Marketing scares me because I feel so unprepared for it. However, I also have worn all those hats while parenting my five kids. It’s time to try on another: Marketer.

Readers, thanks for stopping by my Adventures in Writing blog. You can connect with Hannah Jordan online at her website.  Or you could find her online at:

Facebook @hannahjordanbooks

Instagram @hannahjordanbooks

If you are interested in a paperback edition of For You I’d Break, please go to your independent bookstore and ask them to order the book. We need to support indie bookstores. Otherwise, you can find her debut novel online at:

Amazon 

And

Barnes and Noble

Hannah Jordan’s next book in The Peace Falls Small Town Romance Series, For You I’d Mend, will be released in October 2024. I can’t wait!

Thanks again for sharing your insight here Hannah. All the luck with your new release. Bravo!