Who: Jason Feifer and Jennifer Miller

Claim To Fame: Jason and Jen are married and co-authors of the just-released novel Mr. Nice Guy. Jason is the editor-in-chief at Entrepreneur Magazine and the host of two podcasts: Problem Solvers and Pessimists Archive. Jen is the author of four books and her journalism appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Bloomberg Businessweek among others.

Where To Find Jason: His Website, Twitter, Instagram

Where To Find Jennifer: Her Website, Twitter, Instagram

Praise For Jason and Jennifer: “I COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN!!! It totally messed up my week, it messed up my deadlines, but I absolutely loved it.”―Kevin Kwan, international bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians

The book you wrote together, Mr. Nice Guy, is out this week. What is the process of writing a book together? How do you divide the writing responsibilities?

Mr. Nice Guy is about two people who sleep together every week and then critically review each other’s performance in competing magazine columns. Most people assume we split the work up by gender—that Jason wrote the male character, and Jen wrote the female. But that wasn’t really practical. Our writing partnership was based on complimentary skillsets. The characters’ magazine columns are all in the book, and Jason wrote those because he has extensive experience writing and editing magazine columns. Jen has written two other novels, so she took on the bulk of the narrative and the character development. Then we edited each other’s work—and because this meant we were both writing male and female perspectives, we collaborated a lot on what our characters said, did, and thought, to make sure we were accurately reflecting both genders.

Are there any habits you adopted from each other that has improved your writing?

I don’t know about “adopted,” but we definitely reinforce each other’s habits. We’re both very disciplined writers; we’re willing to pull long hours, and sacrifice other activities in the service of doing good work. Here’s an example: We’re writing this at 9:14 p.m. on a Monday right now, after long work days. We’re both tired, and wouldn’t mind watching some TV. But we value this opportunity. So, we’re falling into a very usual pattern: One of us holds the keyboard (it’s Jason right now), and the other will do different work until it’s their turn (Jen’s currently researching podcasts for us to go on). It would be much harder to do this if one of us was a slacker. But we keep each other focused.

Writers have to be master prioritizers – juggling all sorts of projects at the same time. That’s certainly the case for both of you. Do you have any systems in place to balance all the things you want to work on without letting overwhelm sneak in?

For Jason, the answer is teams: He has a lot of projects, from the magazine to podcasts to this novel, and each one has a team that he’s relying upon and always looking to make more efficient. In the case of writing Mr. Nice Guy, the team was just Jason and Jen—and, much to the point we made above, Jason relied upon Jen for a lot of motivation. When he came home from a long day, but was behind on his writing for the novel, Jen would push him to do it.

Jen finds it impossible to sit down and write fiction for eight hours a day. Creating a world and characters from scratch is exhausting; an hour or two is draining. For her, having multiple projects in the works is actually helpful. Being able to toggle between fiction and journalism allows her to recharge the part of her brain that became exhausted. When working on Mr. Nice Guy, Jen also tried to write at least some fiction every day—even fifteen or twenty minutes. The more you write, the more you’re motivated to write. Skip even a day and you lose momentum.

Jason, as editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine, I’ve heard you talk about how entrepreneurs often make the mistake of not thinking about or knowing who their product is for. Who is this book for? What did you do in preparation of publication to ensure the book had the best chance of success? What approaches from the entrepreneurship world did you apply to the publication of a book?

I started with a goal: I want to write a highly commercial novel with wide appeal, and I want it to be cinematic enough that we’d sell the movie or TV rights. As we developed the novel, Jen and I often thought and talked about the elements of successful movies, and how to build them into the book. (I know this wasn’t a blockbuster, but we happened to watch the Tina Fey comedy Whiskey Tango Foxtrot during a critical writing time, and spent literal months dissecting it. I just thought it was really smartly constructed.) We also engaged outsiders as early as we could. We used some connections to get the ear of a Hollywood producer, who read an early draft, and shared it with some agents she knew. We took all of their feedback and totally re-wrote the third act of the book. In sum, we weren’t precious about our words or our ideas. We wanted to write a great, fun, broadly appealing story.

We sold the book in June, 2017, and knew it would have an October, 2018 release. That gave us more than a year to prepare—and we used all of it. We believe that relationships matter far more than transactions, so started meeting with editors, influencers, and podcast hosts long before we even had a galley to show them. Instead, we just wanted to open a conversation, get to know them, and find ways to provide them value fist. That way, when the time came, they felt invested in our and Mr. Nice Guy’s success. (Oh, and yes: We sold the TV rights!)

What are some of the things you tell your writers at Entrepreneur that you want them to constantly keep in mind, whether in pitching ideas or writing articles? What mistakes do you see writers make the most?

I always tell my writers that I’m obsessed with the why and the how: I want to know why an entrepreneur made the decision they made, and then how they executed it. Don’t just tell me that something happened—take me into the mind of the entrepreneur, and into their process. This is in the service of our audience. As I always stress to writers, Entrepreneur isn’t really a magazine about business; it’s a magazine about thinking. That’s a critical distinction. I want readers to be able to calibrate their minds to smart thinking, and that happens by understanding how successful entrepreneurs think through problems.

So, what mistake do writers make the most? They flat-out forget this advice—which to me means they’re forgetting how to serve their audience. In story pitches, writers will often tell me that something happened and then pose interesting questions. So, just to make up an example, a writer will pitch a story that goes like this: “Bob got fired from his accounting job and then taught himself to bake bread, and now is in 40,000 stores nationwide. In this story, I’ll find out how he did it.” But I can’t do anything with that! Find out how before you pitch me! Otherwise, I have nothing to say yes to.

I see similar problems when writers file stories. They often summarize what an entrepreneur did, skipping over all the interesting stuff. Again, just to make up an example, a story could contain a line like this: “To boost sales, the company opened up a pop-up store in every state.” And I’m like, whaaat? Why? Where did they even come up with that idea? The writer will have no idea; they never asked during the interview.

So, why do writers do this? I think it’s a lack of rigor. Like anyone, most writers fall back upon what they know. They’ll write a story the way they’d previously been taught, not pausing to think about how it doesn’t match a specific editor’s or publication’s needs. Rigor is hard. It’s exhausting. It requires thinking deeply about every sentence. But it’s the only way to succeed.

Jennifer, outside of books you also contribute regularly to places including the New York Times. Does your writing routine change at all when you’re writing a book (particularly a novel) vs when you’re writing an article? Is there any change in routine depending on what publication you’re writing an article for?

Both fiction writing and journalism can require a lot of background research, but with fiction, I tend to mix the research and the writing, depending on what’s happening in a given chapter. While writing various chapters of Mr. Nice Guy, for example, I researched (and visited) key locations in the West Village to make sure I was describing them accurately. I also interviewed a friend who covered style and fashion at GQ to make sure I was dressing my male characters appropriately. (I couldn’t ask Jason, because he wears shorts and sneakers every day!)

In journalism, I may spend weeks conducting interviews and reading background materials before I write a single word. While reporting, I’m frequently the phone or out meeting sources. I want to see people where they live and work and socialize. I probably spend two-thirds of my time for New York Times or Washington Post stories reporting and only about a third writing. For fiction it’s the reverse.

What has changed in your writing routine since your first novel, The Year of the Gadfly, was published?

I used to spend a lot more time in coffee shops than I do now. I still find them a useful motivational tool. Being around other people has always helped to motivate me (along with a steady flow of food and coffee). But these days, I have much more robust journalism career than I did while writing Gadfly. That means I often have to schedule phone calls throughout the day, and I need a quiet, private space for those. Also, Jason and I now have a three-year-old and a mortgage, so while we’re both making more money now than in our younger days, it’s more difficult to justify spending five dollars on a latte more than once or twice a week!

Many say that the first step to being a good writer is to read good writers’ writing, and then try flattery by way of imitation. Is there an author (or authors) you’re trying to emulate when you write?

Jen’s answer: The person I used to try and imitate was #MeToo’d. Yikes! It’s a good thing I’ve long since developed my own voice.

Jason’s answer: In my earliest writing days, I tried emulating Dave Eggers. I love how defined his voice is, but, as I came to learn, my natural writing voice was quite different. Now I often use radio as an inspiration: I want my writing to feel conversational and fast-paced, and for my voice and my subjects’ quotes to interlock perfectly. So I think, Could I hear this performed aloud?

Any further writing projects planned together?

We hope this book sells well enough (buy your copy today!) to let us write another book together. The next novel will be about two political pundits from different sides of the aisle who fall in love—and then have to deal with the consequences. (Don’t worry, it’s also a comedy.)