But three years ago, I was asked if I would I like to option the rights to my book—and my life—to brilliant, talented, Academy Award-nominated America Ferrera. That answer was a no-brainer.

So far, the process of taking my book to the screen has been a slow one. I spend a lot of time waiting for emails. I’ve barely let myself imagine what it would be like to actually see my name in a Deadline headline, my book cover front-and-center for all of Hollywood to see.

I definitely did not imagine that when the news popped up on my screen, I would be sitting on my sofa, eating a vanilla yogurt, watching the final episode of America’s Sweethearts: Season Three. But in life, as in books, sometimes, the thing you’re waiting for doesn’t happen exactly how you expected. It’s better.

Since the film adaptation news dropped, I have been inundated with kind messages from everyone I have ever met. This is not an exaggeration. They have been 95% congratulations, 4.99% casting questions (yes, I too am voting for Oscar Isaac to play Carlos), and 0.01% “Can Brad Pitt please play me?” (The answer today, as it was when you first asked, Dad, is “I have zero say over that decision.”)

I’ve been overwhelmed by the support, so please, friends, keep it coming as this project takes shape. Hopefully, the next set of challenging questions for me will include what do I wear to the premiere? Popcorn or Sno-Caps? Or better yet, both?

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“So much is written about romantic love, but the relationships you have with your friends are often the most important and enduring,” says Alexandra Potter, the mega-bestselling author from the U.K., who is publishing two books with Zibby Publishing this year: So, I Met This Guy . . . (February) and One Good Thing (December). “I love writing about the life-changing power of friendship and reinvention,” she says. “It’s not your typical love story, and, to me, that’s the ultimate beach read!”

Alex, who has written more than 15 novels, is known for her charming, multi-generational characters and perfect escapist stories—funny, whip-smart, and light, with undercurrents of deeper, emotional messages. Her secret to writing friendship novels: Create relatable characters that have an unexpected, meaningful connection.

So, I Met This Guy… is the story of Maggie, a successful art gallery owner in her late forties, and Flick, an ambitious journalist in her twenties who’s desperate for her big break. When Flick hears that Maggie has been the victim of romance fraud, she convinces Maggie to help her track down the con man when he goes on the run across Europe.

As the unlikely pair embark on the road-trip of their lives, from playing roulette in Monte Carlo and navigating the hairpin bends of the Amalfi Coast to dancing at midnight in Sicily and getting lost in the Souks of Tangier, unexpected twists, hidden secrets, and truths are revealed. Beneath the humor and adventure, this is a story about having the courage to be vulnerable, reclaiming your confidence, and finding true friendship.

Alex’s second book with Zibby Publishing, One Good Thing, is an uplifting, heart-warming love story that’s been described as a “must-read, turn-your-life-around hug of a book.” Set over the course of a year, it’s the story of Liv who, recently divorced and desperate for a fresh start, risks everything by leaving her life in London and escaping to a village in the picturesque Yorkshire Dales countryside to renovate a crumbling, three-hundred-year old cottage.

But mending a broken heart isn’t so easy; feeling lonely, she adopts an elderly rescue dog named Harry, who unexpectedly introduces her to a whole cast of wonderful characters, and brings new friendships, hope, and even love into all of their lives.

P.S. We just shared the cover reveal for One Good Thing—check it out here and let us know what you think!

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Behind the Acquisitions

Zibby first hosted Alex on her podcast to discuss Confessions of a Forty-Something F**-Up. She loved their conversation—it was fun, lively, engaging, so she then asked Alex to moderate her own book launch for Blank at Zibby’s Bookshop. When Zibby started introducing Alex to the Zibby authors present, Alex joked, “I’d love to be one of these authors!” Now, she’s a Zibby author, too, with one book out and another on the way.

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Acclaimed Authors and Narrators Dish

In the audiobook recording of The End of My Life is Killing Me, author Annabelle Gurwitch wanted to “take liberties and made things a bit more colloquial.” A through-line in the memoir is the significance of female friendships. Gurwitch says she “couldn’t have survived the past few years without the walks and french fries shared with my friend Andie MacDowell.” It felt meaningful to bring her into the audiobook (MacDowell reads the opening section of the book). Also featured in the audiobook? An excerpt from Gurwitch’s podcast, Tiny Victories, and a recording of Young Jean Lee singing a song from her musical We’re Gonna Die.

Miranda Cowley Heller narrated her poetry collection, What the Deep Water Knows, for the audiobook, noting, “Poetry is meant to be listened to and read aloud. It’s an intimate experience that connects words to emotions in such a visceral way.” The collection takes on new life and strength in this format.

Authors narrating their own memoirs allows listeners to lean into the personal aspects of the story as is the case in End of the Hour by Meghan Riordan Jarvis. She remembers feeling nervous before walking into the recording studio, unsure of what to expect.

“Reading for an imagined audience was really moving and I found myself breaking down a few times,” Riordan Jarvis said. “I was really touched watching the sound techs wipe a few tears themselves. The trauma therapist in me was reminded that telling your story and having it heard and witnessed is important for everyone.”

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Julie Chavez, author of Everyone But Myself, said “Recording the audiobook was one of the highlights of the publishing process. It was a privilege to sit in a quiet recording booth and read those words, imagining someone carving out time in their day to listen to them.” Life is busy, as Chavez knows well. “Time is our most precious resource, and I love how audiobooks can help us claw back some of the minutes attending to all the tiny, mundane tasks that fill up a life.”

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Sometimes, the narrator just gets the story, and it shines through in their voice, enhancing the reading experience. Nanda Reddy, the author of A Girl Within A Girl Within A Girl, told us that every time she joins a book club discussion, someone always tells her how wonderful Khaya Fraites’ narration of her debut is. “I’m so grateful she gave her talent to the novel. She nailed the Guyanese patois and voiced each character differently; a full cast in one body!”

Sean Patrick Hopkins, the narrator of John Kenney’s hilarious and heartfelt novel, I See You’ve Called in Dead, said that he was immediately struck by the story when he started reading. “Connecting so closely to an author’s voice and sense of humor is a rare and special experience, and made every day in the studio recording this book an absolute joy,” Hopkins noted. Perhaps that connection is why the audiobook was outstanding enough to win the esteemed AudioFiles Earphones Award.

Each book Hopkins narrates poses its own distinctive hurdles. “Humor is always a unique challenge, but John’s especially so because it’s rooted in such deep and honest truths that can have you by turns laughing and weeping,” he said. “I found myself trying to exercise more restraint and trust throughout the process to let the text do the work, because (Kenney) gives you everything you need, which is a true gift.”

For Hopkins, I See You’ve Called in Dead was a special project: “I find myself recommending it to anyone who asks for a book suggestion. It has such universal appeal in both its humor and humanity.”

Ultimately, whether you choose to listen or read, the best part is the story itself.

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I watched Wimbledon year after year growing up in the 1980s, mesmerized by Steffi Graf, Gabriela Sabatini, and Chris Evert. But I never had the chance to take lessons myself, and it wasn’t until I turned forty-five that I picked up a tennis racket for the first time. (I don’t count my Swingball bat.)

I was spurred on after watching my youngest son have the time of his life at a junior lesson. I turned to the woman next to me and said, “I wish I’d learned to play this as a kid.”

“What’s stopping you now?” she asked. It struck me as a good question.

That weekend, a friend and I went along to our first “Rusty Rackets” session, and there was no turning back.

It didn’t matter that I’d never had any coaching before, that I was shaky on the scoring system, or that I was convinced my legs were past their best—no way I’d be wearing one of those tiny, unforgiving skirts.

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The fact that it was just me, my friend, and a couple of hours in which we had nothing more important to do than get a small yellow ball between some lines was enough. I was sold.

Seven years later, I’m heavily involved in that same tennis club and compete for our ladies’ team in a local league. Tennis gave me community, joy, fitness, competition, and a version of myself I’d half forgotten.

It also led to me watching Roger Federer play on Centre Court at Wimbledon, and traveling to Spain for coaching—which, full disclosure, involved as much rosé as work on my forehand.

I’ll admit I could never quite shake the feeling that someone was about to tap me on the shoulder at training and say, “Excuse me, aren’t you supposed to be sacrificing yourself somewhere?”

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But my kids were growing up. My eldest is now twenty-one. I was flattering myself if I thought they needed me hovering over them all the time. Far better, I decided, to have a mom who wasn’t slowly disappearing into her laptop and a sense of duty.

It was probably no surprise, then, that when I was kicking around ideas for my sixteenth novel, my thoughts turned to the sport.

Forty Love is about a single mum called Jules, whose friends persuade her to join a beleaguered women’s tennis team to take her mind off her daughter’s backpacking trip around Europe. It’s partially inspired by my own experiences (but for anyone who has read the steamy chapter set in the equipment shed, I should clarify that the romance is entirely fictional).

The deeper I got into both the tennis and the manuscript, the more I recognized the parallels between the two. My love-hate relationship with both is uncannily similar. There are days on court when the ball does exactly what I ask of it, and I feel like I could play forever. There are others when I want to hurl my racket into the nearest hedge. I have “given up” the game and sworn never to return, more times than I care to admit. Writing is no different. Some mornings, the words arrive like a gift from the heavens; on others, the page feels like a barren wasteland that I have to somehow turn into the Garden of Eden. Yet both demand that I show up anyway, whichever kind of day I’m having.

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Above all, there are the highs, and they feel extraordinary every time: a match won, a book finished, a promotion for my team, a new bestseller. Moments of pure joy.

Perhaps that’s the truest parallel of all: in both tennis and writing, the game is never really over. All you can do is keep playing and be grateful for every day you’re still in it. That, and be brave. These days, I wear the skirt.

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Find out more about Forty Love here.

On June 2nd, we released the paperback version of John Kenney’s bestselling, wry, delightful novel, I See You’ve Called in Dead. The book, about Bud Stanley, an obituary writer who is afraid to live, came out in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook on April 1, 2025. Like many hardcover titles that pick up steam, we decide to release a paperback edition a year later, but we had to devise a marketing strategy for the release.

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“A Reading Rager”

First, we decided to host another event. Events are at the heart of everything we do. When the book originally launched, we threw a party (designed to look like a memorial service) at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel. Dark idea, but funny, like the book. (Alix Strauss originated this concept with her book The Joy of Funerals.)

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This time, our Executive Editor, Kathleen Harris, hosted a party at her home.

“One of the best parts of my job is getting to feel readers' excitement and connection to a book,” Kathleen explained. “To see John swarmed by this incredible community of readers, all who were bursting with questions for him, wanting to know more about Bud, about the editing process, about what he thinks makes a good obituary, is an unforgettable experience.”

She continued, “This is why we do what we do: so people can clutch a book close to their hearts, raise a glass, and feel pure joy about meeting the author behind the words. It was the ultimate reading rager.”

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We also decided to take an ad in The New Yorker where John is a regular contributor. It was down to the wire getting the design in by the deadline (technically a bit over the wire), but we were thrilled with the placement. In publishing, it’s hard to know what works and why. Some things are great for awareness like GoodReads giveaways, others for conversion and clicks like Meta ads, still others for buzz. We typically do a little of everything.

Now John is heading out on a very exciting book tour to Northern and Southern California, Oregon, Delaware, and Massachusetts, along with a few virtual events. He’ll be in conversation with literary powerhouses including Jane Hamilton, Shalom Auslander, Karen Joy Fowler, and others.

We can’t wait to host him this Sunday, June 14th at 5 pm at Zibby’s Bookshop in Santa Monica. (We’ll be sending out a Substack Live link.)

We’re pleased to report that the paperback debuted on the USA Today bestseller list. But we’ll still be doing everything we can to spread the word. The best way for a book to break out? Ann Patchett said it best this week: the #1 way to have a book break out is for one person to recommend it to a friend after reading it.

Thoughts? What has worked for you? What makes you buy a paperback?

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