Rancho Santa Fe author’s new novel coming on Valentine’s Day

By Kristina Houck

Social media has played a big role in Sárka-Jonae Miller’s career.

The Rancho Santa Fe author landed a book deal after meeting a representative from Booktrope on Twitter. Many of her fans discovered her debut novel, “Between Boyfriends,” on Facebook and Twitter. And now, she has been named a finalist in the social media-driven contest, MARSocial Author of the Year Competition.

“The publishing world, nowadays, is so driven by social media,” Miller said. “I use social media a lot. It has played a large part in my

career.”

The MARSocial Author of the Year Competition launched with 168 authors competing for a chance to have their book adapted to a movie. Each author was asked to submit a 500- to 1,000-word excerpt of their book and promote that excerpt on social media, as well as tweet excerpts from their competitors.

The excerpts have been shared on social media more than 250,000 times, which doesn’t include retweets.

Miller was named a finalist on Jan. 6. Her excerpt from “Between Boyfriends” can be viewed at marsocial.com/docs/marsocials-author-of-the-year-competition-between-boyfriends-sarkajonae. The winner will be announced on Feb. 1.

“It’s the first writing competition that I’ve entered,” Miller said. “To have gotten to the final round is pretty amazing!”

“Between Boyfriends” follows 21-year-old Jan Weston after her boyfriend breaks up with her and her wealthy parents cut her off.

Self-published in 2011, Booktrope republished the novel in November 2013.

“I think every author — whether they’ll admit it or not — would love to see their book turned into a movie,” Miller said. “I personally think that my book would make a great movie. It has all of the elements of a romantic comedy but with a twist.”

Booktrope is set to release Miller’s sequel, “Between the Sheets,” on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day. In the follow-up, Weston is studying abroad in Thailand.

To write the book, Miller took two month-long trips to Thailand, at the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013. She chronicled her journeys on social media.

“I let people see what would be influencing the next book,” she said. “That was really fun. People really responded to that. They really enjoyed traveling with me.”

“Between the Sheets” is available for preorder on Amazon. Miller is currently writing the third book of the series.

“I really wanted it to be realistic. I didn’t want it to be one of those stories where there’s a quick resolution in a page at the end that ties everything up,” Miller said. “Jan is kind of a brat. It’s a transformation. She becomes nice, more humble and has more self-confidence. She needs to work on herself before she tries and gets into a relationship.”

“Between Boyfriends” is currently available for purchase on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iTunes.

For more information about Miller, visit www.sarkajonae.com.