By Amelia Rose Smith

Jenny Hale, USA Today’s Bestselling Author and Founder of Harpeth Road Press, is quite the powerhouse. If she is not writing a romance novel in a local coffee shop or managing her publishing company, she is cheering on her two sons at sporting events or listening to music at Fox & Locke with her husband, Justin. And on top of all that, Jenny has had two books become Hallmark Christmas Movies. So, how does she do it all?

 

Before becoming an author, Jenny was a public elementary school teacher for eighteen years. With two young boys and a busy schedule, she was struggling to find a creative outlet. Jenny spills: “I used to read romantic fiction and, one night, I just thought, ‘I think I could write one of these.’ So I wrote a book that never saw the light of day—it was just awful. But it taught me that I could do it. I just needed to figure out how.” So, she began reading books on point of view, characterization and how to write. And then tried again. That book, Coming Home for Christmas, ended up at the Hallmark Channel!

 

“I was originally approached by screenwriter Nina Weinman, who was looking for a Christmas novel for a production company,” tells Jenny. “The first movie was my first published book (Coming Home for Christmas), so I was completely shocked.” At that point, Jenny was still an elementary school teacher. She explains: “I didn’t fully understand the process, and I didn’t feel secure in my creativity. I kept waiting for people to figure out that I had no idea what I was doing!” But, to her surprise, others saw her true potential! 

 

Jenny’s production companies for both movies worked independently and pitched to Hallmark. For the first movie, Jenny was less  involved. The movie was filmed in Canada, and she was moving to Tennessee at the time of filming, so she did not make it to set. But she did watch it when it premiered on Hallmark in 2017.  

 

The next film was inspired by Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses, and premiered on Hallmark in 2019. 

 

While Jenny loves the Christmas season, it wasn’t necessarily a conscious decision to write Christmas-themed stories. Jenny explains that with her first book, “It happened to be set at Christmas, and my publisher decided to really play that up, so in editing, I added in a lot more of the actual holiday, and it was given a new title.” Since then, Jenny has written a Christmas and a summer book every year. In fact, she just sent her twenty-second book to her editor!

 

In addition to writing, Jenny owns Harpeth Road Press – a digital publisher of romantic fiction. What sets it apart from other publishers is that it’s run by Jenny, who knows both marketing sides—as an author and digital publishing user. Jenny also uses her educator background to offer lessons for her authors on every step of the publishing and marketing process. Jenny says: “We’ve signed a film and TV shopping agreement for our debut author, who built all her platforms under our watch; we’ve sold foreign translation rights in German and Estonian for two of my novels, and all our novels have hit digital category lists on Amazon.com. 

 

Purchase Jenny’s latest book, The Christmas Letters, on Amazon.com and Audible, and visit itsjennyhale.