Lights, Camera, Action: A premiere party for my book trailers

Romantic comedies aren’t getting made anymore—at least not often. I don’t know how many times I’ve read this or heard this over the past few years. Nancy Meyers and Reese Witherspoon, two women in Hollywood I idolize, with proven track records of making these films hits, have been saying this for years. And this time last year I went out to lunch with a friend who works in Hollywood and he told me the same thing. “If it’s not a remake of a Disney film, or an action flick with lots of special effects, or a movie that a Hollywood A-lister decides to attach him or herself to, it won’t get made.”

I left that lunch meeting feeling defeated.

For the last ten years, I’ve been writing women’s fiction. This is not a hobby of mine. I’ve spent six to eight hours a day, six to seven days a week, doing this work. I love this work. Since I was eight years old I’ve wanted nothing but to tell female-driven love stories. And, of course, I’d hoped that one day—once I figured out how to write them really well—I would be able to share these stories with the world.

So, I sulked for a while. I’m a writer. We do this, on occasion.

And then I meditated.

And because I am not very good at meditating, I spent some time watching Reese Witherspoon interviews on Youtube.

I came across her Glamour Woman of the Year speech from 2015. After talking about her frustration with the films that are being made today—and the female-centric films that aren’t being made—she said that her mother told her, “If you want something done, honey, do it yourself.”

Reese went on to start her own production company with the mission to tell stories about women. She spent her own money in order to do this. She was nervous. But it ended up doing well.

“What would happen,” Reese continued in her speech, “if we were all brave enough to be a little more ambitious? I think the world would change.”

I was inspired. So inspired that I decided to take a page out of Reese’s handbook.

This past year, almost every agent I submitted my first novel to asked for the entire book, so I knew that my storytelling was finally good enough.

But the book industry doesn’t splurge on marketing first-time authors these days—the same way Hollywood doesn’t take risks on first-time screenwriters, especially those writing romantic comedies.

Since my goal has always been to share these stories with lots of people—especially my generation—I started to think outside the box, like Reese. What if I invested in myself and in my passion the same way she did?

My generation is hanging out on social media. And since that’s the audience I want to connect with most, why not just do that? I launched this blog, as a start. Then I decided to write, direct, and produce real movie trailers to share what my stories are about.

Book trailers are a thing, but most are only fifteen seconds long and feature a few cartoon images, or a logline about the book with a photo of the cover. I wanted to make mine look like the real romantic comedies they’ve always been in my head.

The process itself was the most fun I’ve ever had. And the fun—I’m so excited to announce—is just getting started!

There’s nothing I love more than watching a movie, then going to see the book it was based on. Or reading a book and then rushing to go see the movie. I’ll be releasing my books in a way that pairs the two. How this is going to work…I can’t wait to share!

But for now, get ready to enjoy these trailers! We just previewed them at my place. I’m so excited for you to watch them at yours!