In this edition of Meet the Author, CNN anchor and journalist Jake Tapper discusses his first novel, The Hellfire Club, a political thriller set amid the power struggles and intrigue of 1950s Washington, D.C.
Tapper talks about stepping from journalism into fiction, his fascination with political history, and the ideas and experiences that helped shape the world of his novel.
Meet the Author was one of the recurring video formats I created at Hachette to give audiences a more personal introduction to the writers behind the company’s books.
Many of these interviews were produced at Hachette’s New York offices, including my conversation with Jake Tapper. The production approach was intentionally straightforward: create a polished, comfortable environment and use the interview to move beyond basic promotional talking points into the author’s background, interests and relationship to the work.
With Tapper, his transition from political journalism to historical fiction provided a natural foundation for the conversation. I shaped the resulting material into a concise author profile that introduced both The Hellfire Club and the perspective of the writer who created it.
The larger purpose of Meet the Author was to make Hachette’s authors themselves part of the audience relationship—not simply promoting a new title, but giving readers a reason to become interested in the person behind it.