Q&A With Jennifer Lieberman

Thanks to my publicist friend Mickey Mikkelson, I’m doing this Q&A with Jennifer Leiberman. Jennifer’s debut novel is the 5-time-award-winning and Amazon #1 Best Selling Year Of The What? And the Amazon #1 Best Selling How To Record & Publish Your Audiobook in Seven Simple Steps.

Q: Jennifer, would you please give a description of both of your books beginning with Year Of The What?

A: Year of the What? is an irreverent coming-of-age romantic comedy that follows heartbroken Dana through her dating misadventure in New York City. As a naive 25 year old Canadian, alone in the big city and recovering from her first break-up, she finds herself battling between her ‘good girl’ conditioning and her sexual desires. With the help of her unabashedly promiscuous roommate Kelly, the dominatrix, she embarks on an outrageous adventure, ultimately finding her power, her confidence and herself.

How To Record and Publish Your Audiobook in Seven Simple Steps is a straightforward guide for self-published authors who want to record and publish their own audiobooks with little to no resources. This book explains how to set yourself up for success without having to spend thousands of dollars renting a professional studio and hiring professional actors. The book covers exercises to build vocal stamina, how to schedule recordings to protect your voice, equipment and software recommendations and much more.

Q: Where did the idea for both books come from? How long did it take you to write How To Record & Publish Your Audiobook in Seven Simple Steps & Year Of The What? 

A: Year of the What? is an adaptation of my award-winning solo show Year of the Slut. After a year in LA spinning my wheels trying to get acting work and break into the entertainment business, a friend suggested I create a vehicle where I could invite industry to come see my work (after all I was new in town and nobody knew I existed). I had lived in NY for a few years working in theatre and understood how challenging it was (and still is) to get people out to the theatre. I came up with an outrageous title that could grab people’s attention instantly and the story sprung from that title. I crafted the play to showcase my writing and performance talents, I played 10 different characters and eventually got into a festival in New York City and won the Audience Choice Award. The story resonated with many people, I was then encouraged to adapt it into a novel, so I did. The original title had issues with censorship online due to the word slut (bots don’t get context!), so eventually decided to change to title in order to get around the issue.

How To Record and Publish Your Audiobook in Seven Simple Steps came about during the covid lockdown. After Year of the What? was published one of the most common questions I received was ‘is there an audiobook’? The COVID lockdown was the perfect opportunity for me to record the audiobook, while stuck at home. After I recorded the entire book I realized I made some huge mistakes during editing and had to re-record the entire thing from scratch. When I was recounting the experience to a colleague she suggested I write the ‘how to book’ so other self-published writers who want to record their audiobooks can learn from my mistakes and avoid them. I came up with a simple seven-step method that I followed my second time around. The whole book was written in about a month and then another month between proofreads, formatting and artwork, so the entire process was about 2 months to get it all together and self-publish it.

Q: What lessons & emotions do you hope readers learn and feel after reading your books?

A: Both books are extremely different, one being a spicy romcom and the other a how-to-guide, however a common theme in all my work across the board is empowerment. My goal is to inspire my readers to feel empowered. I believe we all have the power to change our lives, be it personally or professionally, if we can change our mindset. 

I was a young 20-something alone in a big city who felt heartbroken and hopeless; as much as the novel is a work of fiction, the essence of finding confidence and inner strength by changing my perspective on life is what helped me turn things around a forge ahead instead of giving up on my dreams and going home. 

With my audiobook, I was already a professional actor who had worked on voice recordings in professional studios, I was familiar with editing equipment and still afraid to record my own audiobook. Frankly, if it weren’t for the Covid lockdown I still can’t say for certain if I would have done it, the task felt too big and too daunting. In my book I break down the ‘big picture’ into smaller manageable steps to empower other authors to have the confidence to do it themselves, or at least have an idea of what the undertaking will require before they shut down the possibility.

Q: Are you currently writing your next book and if so can you reveal any details?

A: Thanks for asking! Yes, I actually have two new books in the works. I’ve been teaching workshops for actors and writers for several years through my company Make Your Own Break Ltd. and recently started teaching them at Toronto Metropolitan University.  I decided to convert the information from the workshop into the book: Independent Theatre Production for the Twenty First Century in Seven Simple Steps. This book will be coming out in April 2026.

Book two in the Year of the What? series, Year of the Bitch, will be released late 2026/early 2027. This book is a continuation of Dana’s journey of self-discovery now as a thirty-something, dealing with different challenges both personally and professionally. It’s spicy, irreverent and outrageous just like the first book but through a more mature lens as the character is dealing with different challenges as an established woman and dare I say boss bitch.