"The very first page of the book is like being led to the dance floor by the author, and very early on you know whether or not this author is a talented dancer and you trust them to lead, or if this person is going to step on your feet."
Thank you Jack Jackson, Marcy Kelly, Anna Sproul-Latimer and many others for tuning into my Well Published! live video with Robinne Lee, author of The Idea of You and the forthcoming Crash Into Me!
Well Published! is a free live video series from MFALore.com
Every few weeks I interview prominent authors, editors, literary agents, and other book industry professionals about the experience of getting… well published!
For archived video conversations visit Well Published! at MFALore.com:
Hello Loreates,
It was a special treat for me today to chat with my dear friend and fellow writing group member, Robinne Lee about her extraordinary career, from writing her first novel at 14, to simultaneously becoming a lawyer and an actor, to building her debut novel from a modest paperback original into an international blockbuster, to following that up with a new novel that weaves race, politics, art, and privilege into a steamy cauldron of erotic suspense.
Robinne is a Jamaican-Chinese writer, actor, and producer [and former lawyer]. Born and raised in New York, she’s a graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School. As an actress, she has credits in both film and television, including “Being Mary Jane,” and the “Fifty Shades” franchise.
Her debut novel, The Idea of You , published by St. Martin’s Press in 2017, is an international bestseller, with two dozen foreign translations. The film version, of which Robinne is a producer, was Amazon MGM’s number-one romantic comedy debut of all time.
Robinne’s new novel, Crash Into Me, is out from St. Martin’s Press on July 7. Time magazine called it “erotic suspense as glittery and sensuous as Tinsel Town itself.”
To show you why you’ll want to hear the entire hour, below are the top 10 takeaways from our conversation.
Read on!
Aimee
Robinne Lee Builds a Blockbuster!
1. Writing was the one art form that didn’t require anyone’s permission
Robinne spent years acting professionally, but described it as a craft that depends entirely on external approval — agents, casting directors, producers. Writing offered something acting never could: total creative autonomy.
“Acting, you’re always seeking permission to act... writing was something I could do anywhere at any time. I didn’t need anyone’s permission.”
2. A lifetime of private writing preceded her debut
Robinne wrote her first 884-page novel by hand at fourteen, followed by a 1,200-page manuscript at sixteen, all before ever publishing. The discipline of The Idea of You was built on decades of unpublished practice, not a sudden breakthrough.
“I want to say between the ages of 8 and 28, I missed almost no days writing about my life.”
3. The Idea of You was launched with modest expectations — and built by hand
The novel debuted as a paperback original with an average debut advance, no major publisher push, and no guarantee of success. Robinne spent nearly her entire advance hiring an independent publicist and treated the book’s success as a grassroots, door-to-door campaign.
“There were days that I felt like... I’m connecting with Instagram or Twitter, Facebook, and I thought, okay, I sold two books today.”
4. The book’s momentum came from readers and romance-community taste makers, not traditional media
Influential authors like Colleen Hoover and Taryn Fisher discovered the novel organically months after publication, well before mainstream press caught on. The pandemic — paired with a Vogue feature — became the true tipping point that led to the film adaptation.
"I had a relationship with E.L. James — she has such a devoted fandom, I got to know a lot of them. And so I was able to say, 'Hey, you guys, if you like sex in your books or love stories, I've got one coming out.'"
5. Fans demanded a sequel — but her agent and editor never did
Robinne emphasized that the pressure for a sequel to The Idea of You came entirely from readers, not from her publishing team. She built a dedicated Facebook fan community instead, which now numbers close to 10,000 members.
"I’d do Q&As regularly. I'd answer all their questions. I'd try to give as much of myself as possible in explaining what I was thinking when I was writing certain things... I gave them deleted scenes and I gave them merchandise."
6. Misreadings of her first book shaped how she approached her second
Robinne felt The Idea of You was miscategorized as a traditional romance promising a guaranteed happy ending, which led some readers to feel betrayed by its conclusion. That experience directly fed into years of writer’s block and shaped how she structured Crash Into Me.
"I didn't feel like I'd written a romance... to be fair, I think it's contemporary fiction / women's fiction. But the people who picked it up thinking it was contemporary romance are the ones who really, really wanted another book."
7. A real-life car accident became the new novel’s opening scene — and its central insight
A serious accident outside a Santa Monica coffee shop in 2016 left Robinne shaken but unharmed. A bystander’s offhand comment about how differently men would have reacted crystallized the emotional architecture of Crash Into Me.
“He said, ‘Women are so funny... this would never happen if it was three men. We wouldn’t be hugging each other.’... I thought, my god, this is a great way to start a book.”
8. Code-switching across class, race, and culture directly informs her fiction
Growing up Jamaican Chinese in an integrated Westchester school district, then attending Yale, gave Robinne what she described as “triple code-switching” — navigating Jamaican, Black American, and white/Jewish American social worlds simultaneously. That insider-outsider fluency became a core tool in constructing Cecilia’s character and class dynamics.
“It’s such a great tool. It’s a real benefit for a writer, I think, to have that inside-outside, insider-outsider point of view.”
9. Current events are deliberately woven into her fiction to anchor it in real time
Rather than writing in a vague or timeless setting, Robinne incorporates real news, politics, and cultural moments — referencing the first Trump administration, school shootings, and the war in Syria — to make her fictional world feel concurrent with actual lived history.
“It feels like this is real and it’s happening... not in a parallel universe but almost... it’s happening right now.”
10. Writing sex well means resisting both euphemism and unbroken intensity
Robinne traced her approach to writing eroticism back to reading nonfiction sexuality books as a teenager rather than traditional romance novels, which she felt relied on vague language. Her method blends technical accuracy, fantasy, and the mundane intrusive thoughts that interrupt real intimacy.
“I think the best way to write about it is to have these moments when our brains go off somewhere and it leads us to something else and then we come back.”
Interview conducted by Aimee Liu on Tuesday, June 30, for Well Published, Live! a production of MFA Lore. Robinne Lee’s novel Crash Into Me will be published by St. Martin’s Press on July 7.
Save the Date!
Tuesday, July 21, 10am PT/ 1pm ET
In the next Well Published! live video, I’ll be chatting with Jennifer Acker , founder of The Common, about launching and running an award-winning literary magazine while writing her own novels, including her latest, Surrender.
