I'm unable to write without reading, and I'm a firm believer in reading widely, and reading up. Tammara: Honestly, every author I've ever read and loved has inspired me, from classic literature to romance novels, young adult to memoir. Joyce: Which authors have inspired you in your writing? I also had no idea what to do with the library orders I began receiving last summer - they were piling up in my P.O. There are lots of readers who just aren't ready to read digitally, and there was definitely a limit to where I could get the paperback placed. This book is very important to me, and I wanted it read by as many girls and women as possible. Tammara: I hoped for a wider distribution for Easy. Why sell the rights to a traditional publisher?

Joyce: Easy has been a HUGE success as an indie-published novel. Due to the recent growth of digital self-publishing, the term 'new adult' was resurrected to describe books like mine, where the characters fall into that forgotten age range. Authors were asked to change characters set within that age range to either high school age adolescents or middle-20s-plus adults. The idea didn't take at the time among publishers, who widely believed there was no market. This was traditional publishing's attempt to begin including stories with main characters in the mostly ignored 18-23 age range. When I published, I labeled them 'mature young adult' to alert readers (and parents, if applicable) that they were intended for that more mature audience. My books feature older, more independent characters (college age, though not necessarily in college), but are young adult in voice. Look at other entertainment ratings: 17-year-olds (high school juniors) view R-rated movies and purchase M-rated games without parental approval. That's a huge developmental span, with few books that are both interesting and suitable to the entire range of readers it contains. Can you explain how that differs from young adult? Joyce: Welcome to HEA, Tammara! I've been hearing a lot lately about 'mature young adult' and 'new adult' fiction. Tammara joins us today to share info about her big hit, Easy, the difference between 'young adult' and 'new adult' and how she takes her coffee. I mean, anyone who loves Ben & Jerry's must be a pretty fabulous author.

Easy book by tammara webber