Interview with an Author: Stacy Juba

The last few weeks have been all about me. It’s time to turn the spotlight on someone else. Please give a warm welcome to award-winning, bestselling author Stacy Juba!

Stacy loves to write stories about characters at a crossroads; individuals who are finding themselves and getting on the right life path after overcoming obstacles. Her goals are to entertain readers of all ages as well as inspire them. Although Stacy specializes in adult mysteries and romance, she has also written books for children and teens. I sat down with Stacy to find out a bit more about her and her writing process.

Judy: You’ve written books for children, teens and adults. How does the process differ, not just in writing, but in marketing and getting your name known?

Stacy: I’d say that writing for adults comes the most naturally to me and that is what I specialize in. For my young adult books, I drew upon a lot of the emotions I remember feeling in high school—the insecurities, self-consciousness, awkwardness, and that sense of wanting to find yourself. I also watched TV shows about teens and talked to teens as things have changed since I was in school, and I wanted to make sure young people today could relate to my book. Despite the short length, writing my children’s picture books required a lot of effort. I worked closely with critique partners and published children’s writers to fine-tune my writing for that age group. As far as marketing, my approach is similar for all of the age groups. Many of my adult readers buy my YA and children’s books for their kids and grandkids, so I do a lot of blogging, tweeting, and interviews. I do make a special effort to connect with YA bloggers and reviewers, and to participate in group marketing campaigns with other YA writers. I rarely pay to advertise my YA and kids books, as paid ads work much better for my adult books.

Judy: You have a new adult novel coming out called Fooling Around with Cinderella, which you describe as “chick-lit/clean contemporary romance.” Tell us a bit about the premise and when it’s scheduled to come out.

Stacy: I am so excited about this book! It is the first in my new Storybook Valley series, which is set at a theme park. Each book in the series will have recurring characters, but the romantic leads will be different. In the first one, Jaine, an unemployed marketing specialist, manages to get hired as the marketing coordinator for the Storybook Valley theme park. However, Dylan, the general manager and the son of the park’s owners, isn’t ready to make this new position full-time yet and convinces her to help out for the summer as Cinderella. The book is about the attraction between Jaine and Dylan, and how a former high school rival is trying to sabotage Jaine. It is such fun to write and I can’t wait to share it with readers. It should be out by Fall 2015. When it’s released, readers will be able to find the details here: http://stacyjuba.com/blog/fooling-around-with-cinderella/. Or they can sign up for my newsletter to receive an email.

Judy: What’s a typical day like for Stacy Juba and what’s next?

Stacy: Since I’m a mom, I spend a lot of time with my family during a typical day. Every day is different, but during a typical week, I’ll work on my book, spend time on social media, and I’ll do a few other marketing tasks per week such as connecting with bloggers or scheduling posts on my blog. I’m also a freelance editor and usually spend a lot of time editing manuscripts and brainstorming with my clients. Lately, I’ve also been teaching online classes for writers on blogging and time management. In the near future, I am looking forward to doing a huge marketing campaign for Fooling Around With Cinderella, writing more books and stories in that series, offering my classes to various online writing groups, and working with lots more writers on getting their books ready for publication.

Thank you, Stacy.

Find Stacy at http://stacyjuba.com/blog/ and on Facebook.

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