Have More Fun in Bed with Mr. Nice Guy

If you’re looking to have more fun in someone else’s bed (no cheating required), look no further than Mr. Nice Guy (St. Martin’s Press, 2018) by Jennifer Miller and Jason Feifer. At their recent New York City book launch*, the real-life couple and dynamic writing duo—Miller is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Styles section and Jason Feifer is editor-in-chief of Entrepeneur—told a packed house how, on a whim, they sent an early copy of Mr. Nice Guy to Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians. To their great surprise, he later blurbed the book: “I COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN! It totally messed up my week, it messed up my deadlines, but I absolutely loved it.”

Kwan is not alone in his endorsement. Publisher’s Weekly calls Mr. Nice Guy a “witty romp through the allegedly glamorous world of magazines” that’s “sharp and satisfying” and “will have readers turning the pages quickly to get the latest dishy details.” And buckle up: Mr. Nice Guy may soon appear on the small screen!

Here’s a brief description of Mr. Nice Guy:

Lucas Callahan gave up his law degree, fiancée and small-town future for a shot at making it in the Big Apple. He snags an entry-level job at Empire magazine, believing it’s only a matter of time before he becomes a famous writer. And then late one night in a downtown bar he meets a gorgeous brunette who takes him home…

Carmen Kelly wanted to be a hard-hitting journalist, only to find herself cast in the role of Empire’s sex columnist thanks to the boys’ club mentality of Manhattan magazines. Her latest piece is about an unfortunate―and unsatisfying―encounter with an awkward and nerdy guy, who was nice enough to look at but horribly inexperienced in bed.

Lucas only discovers that he’s slept with the infamous Carmen Kelly―that is, his own magazine’s sex columnist!―when he reads her printed take-down. Humiliated and furious, he pens a rebuttal and signs it, “Nice Guy.” Empire publishes it, and the pair of columns go viral. Readers demand more. So the magazine makes an arrangement: Each week, Carmen and Lucas will sleep together… and write dueling accounts of their sexual exploits.

It’s the most provocative sexual relationship any couple has had, but the columnist-lovers are soon engaging in more than a war of words: They become seduced by the city’s rich and powerful, tempted by fame, and more attracted to each other than they’re willing to admit. In the end, they will have to choose between ambition, love, and the consequences of total honesty.

Miller and Feifer were kind enough to do a Q & A about their book and writing life. Here are some highlights:

What sparked the idea for this book, and was it always a given you’d work on it together?

Jason came up with the idea of having two people critique their sex lives like movie reviews years before we met. He’d been contacted by a younger writer who’d written the sex and relationships column for her college newspaper and wanted help breaking into professional journalism. During their (entirely vanilla) correspondence, Jason came up with the idea for Mr. Nice Guy. Over the years, he tried to start the book, but just didn’t feel comfortable writing fiction. What a boon that he married a novelist! He suggested that Jen take the idea if she liked it; she suggested they write the book together.

Was this the first project the two of you have worked on together? If yes, what was your process?

We frequently ask each other for professional advice and feedback. But Mr. Nice Guy was our first truly joint project. We developed the plot and characters together. Jen wrote the bulk of the narrative and Jason wrote all the columns. Then we edited each other’s work. We definitely weren’t typing over each other’s shoulders.

Did you have any hesitation sharing the intimacies of your relationship with readers and each other?

The book definitely forced us to open up about our dating and sex lives. It was actually a great way to discuss all that stuff—we had a reason to talk about it, which is a lot less awkward than simply saying over dinner, “so about last night’s sex…” Frankly, knowing that our parents would read this book was the most awkward aspect of the whole thing and is kind of horrifying.

What are the particular strengths each of you added to the novel?

Jen’s eye for detail and ear for satire captured the absurdity of NYC media culture and its brand of conspicuous consumption. Jason is great at turning conflict into comedy, which he did expertly in the columns written by our protagonists, Lucas and Carmen.

How excited are you to have sold the television rights to the novel? And who would you choose to star in the series?

OMG, so excited! It was amazing to have the producer of the movie Crash and the former head of NBC Universal on the phone outlining the first THREE seasons of our book-turned-TV show. Timothee Chalamet would make a great Lucas, our highly ambitious, sexually inexperienced male protagonist. Auli’i Cravalho would make a great Carmen.

Any more joint projects in the works?

We’ve plotted out a new novel about two political pundits on opposing sides who fall in love. Like last time, we plotted out the novel together. Jen is going to write the bulk of the narrative and Jason will write the couple’s contentious and absurd television appearances.

What will your 3-year-old son Fenn say about this book when he’s old enough to read it?

We hope that Fenn never reads this book!

For more about Mr. Nice Guy, visit Mr.NiceGuyNovel.com or Feifer’s website. The book is available wherever books are sold.

*Hosted by Hendricks Gin, Meltshop, The Balvenie, The Little Beet, Smart Water, Monkey Shoulder, and Fields Good Chicken.