Peninsula People Sept 2017

of the bag just yet. But let’s take a
step back and look at how Jennifer
Irwin reached the point where she
is today.
Read it and rate it
Something or Other Publishing
holds an annual contest. “My book
was the most voted on book in the
history of this publishing contest,”
Irwin said. What’s involved, however,
is more than just a high vote
tally. Contestants also have homework
to complete. “Part of the
homework was they taught you the
importance of marketing and the
importance of the author being extremely
involved in promoting the
book. Even if you publish with a big
five publisher, they expect you to
put the money they give you up
front for the book and invest that in
marketing. They taught me how to
utilize and market on Twitter, they
taught me how to get the right audience
following you, and I found the
author community on Twitter extremely
supportive.”
One may ask, supportive of what?
since none of them have seen the
book. What they’ve seen is a brief
synopsis and excerpts of the reviews.
Reviews? But how can that
be? Irwin explained:
“Early on I went to friends and
people I knew who were big readers,
and I asked them to read the
manuscript, even in its earliest
stages. And I was able to get reviews.
On my website I have all
these reviews that are just amazing.
I would take snippets of the reviews
on Twitter and use them for posts.”
These reviews are also posted on
Instagram and on Irwin’s Facebook
page.
“People see the review, or they see
just a sentence, and they’re intrigued;
and they want to know
more about the book.”
“A Dress the Color of the Sky” is
being published by Glass Spider in
the fall.
“I have a list of bloggers and reviewers
who have asked for advance
copies, and they’re
committed to [submitting] their reviews
within 30 days because my
book goes to pre-order in October.
So, in September the reviews will
come out from these really prominent
book bloggers. That’s kind of a
really important time for me.” Furthermore,
Irwin noted, there are
“hundreds of thousands of readers
following these different bloggers.”
She also pointed out that she’s
been “marketing the book for two
years,” which on the one hand can
be seen as diligent and savvy, but
more like hype on the other since
there is no product, only a synopsis.
But, as I said, the road to publishing
(and being noticed) has drastically
changed. New age, new tactics.
Sex cells
Irwin was raised in New York and
attended Denison University where
she earned a BA in Cinema. Actor
Steve Carell was a classmate; Jennifer
Garner and Hal Holbrook are
alumni. While in college, Irwin
wrote a screenplay. After graduation
she worked in advertising and later
married. Over the course of a 20-
year marriage she and her husband
had three sons, moved to Lunada
Bay in about 2000 (all three children
attended Palos Verdes High School),
and eventually divorced. Irwin has
been with her attorney boyfriend
for six years now, in one of the
winding housing tracts that overlooks
Trump National Golf Club.
Irwin retired from fulltime work
after her third son was born, and a
couple of years later became a Pilates
instructor. “That was,” she said,
“a good job for me to do and still be
a mom.
“Teaching private Pilates is like
being a hairdresser; you hear a lot of
stories. You share with them and
they share with you, and I had all
kinds of clients, not just PV moms.
It got me interested in women and
how they think and how they fall in
love, and how some women choose
the right man and some women
don’t. Is that luck? Or does that
have to do with your childhood or
having a good father figure?”
Irwin ceased writing after she
married and began a family. But
after her divorce she returned to
some former ideas, “and a little bit
is part of the screenplay that I wrote
back in college. The story just got
bigger and bigger and [began] taking
on a life of its own. Whereas I’d
started to write it to heal from my
own pain and my own relationship,
all of a sudden I was letting people
read it and they were really encouraging
me that there was something
big there and that I should keep
going with it.”
Film rights to the book were sold
“almost immediately” after Irwin
won the publishing contest. One
can again point to Reese Witherspoon
because, after Irwin opened
her Instagram account to the public,
Witherspoon’s book club began following
her online. It was around
September 2017 • Peninsula 27