Interview with Daisy Jordan - Author of Love Means Zero

Daisy Jordan is an obsessive tennis fan and wrote Love Means Zero, in which Hilton gets a job as a photographer for a tennis magazine, so she could live out her dream-job fantasy through Hilton. But don’t worry if you’re not a tennis fan; Love Means Zero still has all the drama and suspense of Daisy’s previous books! Those books include Everything Happens for a Reason…, the Spin the Bottle series, and All That Sparkles Isn’t Real Sapphire. Before she published her first book, Daisy grew up in Indiana watching tennis all summer every summer on TV and having her own fair share of high school and college boy drama, much like her characters. She now lives in Denver and religiously fills out brackets for every Grand Slam with her brother Josh, while still managing to find time for boy drama.

Daisy can be found online at:
daisyjordan.com
http://www.facebook.com/AuthorDaisyJordan
http://twitter.com/DaisyJordan06
http://myspace.com/daisy_jordan


Q: Welcome to The Writer's Life, Daisy. Can you tell us how long you’ve been writing professionally and how your journey led to writing your latest book, Love Means Zero?

A: I have been writing professionally for about six years. Love Means Zero has been a long time coming. It is a follow-up chronologically to my very first book, Everything Happens for a Reason…. After finishing Everything Happens for a Reason…, I went backwards chronologically and wrote about the characters when they were younger, in high school and the first couple years of college. Finally, after getting to know them and their life stories quite a bit better, I was ready for a book about life after college – Love Means Zero!

Q: I love your title…can you tell us why you chose it?

A: I love titles with double meanings! Love Means Zero is a very literal representation of the tennis world, which becomes a huge part of Hilton’s life in this book, because in tennis, a score of love means the player has zero points. But the meaning of the title goes beyond that – it is reflective of several relationships in the book. There are many instances in which love is not enough to hold characters’ relationships together, and finally the question is raised in Hilton’s mind of whether love means zero in real life too, not just in tennis.

Q: Why did you believe your book should be published?

A: It is a fun read with characters and emotions people will relate to, and it is different from any other book. While a light-hearted read on the surface, the characters and situations are more developed than in many other books. I believe this is because I have written several books about these characters, so the back story is deeper. Also, Love Means Zero looks inside the tennis world in a way no other book that I know of has done.

Q: Can you tell us the story behind your book cover? Did you choose it or did your publisher, Llumina Press, have full control? Were you happy with the decision or did you have something else in mind?

A: I love the cover! I sent Llumina’s cover artist a design I had created using Clip Art, and that basically became the cover, with a few small changes. The format represents the way a Game Set Match cover would look (Game Set Match is a tennis magazine in the book). There is the GSM in the upper left-hand corner, and the title, or headline, is big and bold across the bottom to catch people’s eyes. In a GSM cover, the picture would be brighter and meant to draw attention as well, but for the book cover, I wanted to keep the background image simple so the main focus would be on the title. I think it has a dramatic effect.

Q: How have you approached marketing your book? Do you have someone doing it for you or have you had to do most of the marketing yourself?

A: It has been a little (or a lot) of both! I have been doing an online book tour through Pump Up Your Book Promotions. They have arranged all my interviews, blog appearances, and reviews, which has been amazing. They send me assignments, and I answer the interview questions and write the guest blog posts. It keeps me really busy, but it’s a blast at the same time. It gives me a chance to talk about my books and characters in ways I’ve always wanted to, but never had the outlet to do so. Once my tour is over, I’ll be on my own for marketing, which will be difficult! But the book tour has given me a really good start, and I hope to keep the publicity going afterward.

Q: What book on the market can it compare to? How is it different? What makes your book special?

A: I think Love Means Zero could compare to a Lauren Weisberger book, because it’s about a normal girl who experiences a little taste of fame. In many of Lauren’s novels, like The Devil Wears Prada and Everyone Worth Knowing, the main character gets a job where she gets to rub shoulders with celebrities. Her books focus on romance as well as careers, much like Love Means Zero. The way I would say Love Means Zero is different is much like what I mentioned above – the characters are so well developed, because this isn’t the first book about them. They weren’t created solely for this novel; they have whole lives outside of it. Love Means Zero can absolutely be read without having read my other books, but I think that sense of the characters having a past before the start of the book is very palpable, regardless of whether one has read other books about them. Also as mentioned above, the look Love Means Zero provides into the world of professional tennis is unique.



Q: Open to a random page in your book. Can you tell us what is happening?

A: Hilton, Luke, Jill, and Todd are out at the Turtle, their favorite bar, to celebrate Hilton’s birthday. They run into Laney and Natalie, Hilton and Jill’s former roommates. Both Hilton and Jill still get along with Laney, but things ended awkwardly with Natalie. Hilton blows her off at the bar, and Luke defends Natalie, which causes a fight between Hilton and Luke. This scene seems somewhat inconsequential at the time, but it will play a major role later. This scene contains the foreshadowing for what later becomes one of the biggest turning points in the book.

Q: Do you plan subsequent books?

A: Absolutely! I am working on the next book featuring Hilton right now. It will be called Living in a Postcard. I still have no idea how it’s going to end, so I can’t tell you if there will be others after it with Hilton as the main character, but she will definitely still appear in other books after that one, even if she is appearing as a minor character or her story is a side plot. Another book I definitely plan to write that has its basis in Love Means Zero is one about Kelsey and Arden and their life in New York. I’m really excited about that one!

Q: Thank you for your interview, Daisy. Would you like to tell my readers where they can find you on the web and how everyone can buy your book?

A: You can find me on my website, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace!
daisyjordan.com
http://www.facebook.com/AuthorDaisyJordan
http://twitter.com/DaisyJordan06
http://myspace.com/daisy_jordan

You can find my books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and pretty much anywhere else books are sold! If it’s not in your local bookstore, the store can most likely order it for you! :) Thank you so much for the interview!