Minimalist book cover showing a stylized woman in sunglasses, red lipstick, and a red necklace. "Acclaim" is tilted across the image, highlighting themes of connecting with others. IR Approved Author Jean Thesquare’s name appears at the bottom.

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Advice from IR Approved Author Jean Thesquare: “So keep putting one word after the other and get to the end of that manuscript. The first one will suck (it’s the one you do for you) but get back to it and work on it with partners. You’ll see something magical emerge.”

AcClaim: Received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.

Following find an interview with author Jean Thesquare:

1. What is the name of the book and when was it published?

The book is title AcClaim (it’s a play on both words) and it was published in September 2025
2. What’s the book’s first line?
The phone rang after dusk, that weird time when the city caught between day and night, between something golden and something dark.
3. What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
When a rising author meets a billionaire, all things to be in place for a tale of love and lust. But when the billionaire crosses the line, it’s revenge time.
4. What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
It all started because I was annoyed by the depiction of women as helpless and male characters as never creepy in a lot of billionaire romance stories. It became a much darker story of what happens when the line is crossed in power play.
It also was an exploration of how primarily male billionaires believe there is no line they can cross without any repercussions. Then *waves arms around* the world happened and it felt like female rage at power structures needed to be captured in all its messiness and beauty.
5. What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
As a writer, I aim to first entertain. So if you’re angry at the world and want a tale of revenge where the good gals win, then this is the book for you. Below the surface is a wider message of sisterhood: Manon, the ride-or-die bestie in the book, is there to lift up her best friend when she’s at her lowest and has been abandoned by all. We all need friends like that.
6. What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character?  Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
Every writer puts a little bit of themselves in the characters they create. I’m not going to say I am Beatrix but there is a lot of similarities in terms of self-doubt, hopes, worries, and excitement. So she embodies every fellow writer I’ve ever encountered.
Dorian, the primary male character is a composite of every Wall Street or Silicon Valley billionaire you can think of, pushed to its logical conclusion as a parody of evil. He looks strong but is truly a small man. As I was writing, there was much discussion in the world about the Epstein files so I’m sure that some of that has seeped in too.

7. When did you first decide to become an author?

I don’t think I ever decided to become an author. I was born this way and just agreed to listen to all those characters in my head and try to harness them between a set of pages and covers. There’s a million stories to be told and the author just figures out how to corral some of them into something semi-coherent.

8. How much time do you generally spend on your writing?

This is a hard question because most people think of writing as putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) but it’s much more than that. Isn’t reading part of the craft? What about reviewing other writers’ manuscripts? Looking at art? movies? plays? Reading the news? All of it ends up influencing the stories we tell so they are all part of writing, in my view.

I do try to commit to some writing for 1 hour daily (similar to going to a gym) because I believe the writing muscle atrophies if you don’t use it. So 500-700 words a day minimum, even if they’re not related to a story I’m working on.

9. What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?

There’s a whole section of AcClaim where Beatrix loses the rights to her own writing. I experienced that when a publisher decided to “pulp” one of my earlier books. But they held on to the rights so I lost my work with them not interested in distributing it anymore. That was painful. As an indie writer, I retain that control.

The price to pay for that control, however, is a lot more work. I have to hire my own editor, book cover designer, book interior designer, work on marketing, distribution… so I can’t rely as heavily on the machine that comes from traditional publishing.

10. What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?

I was once discouraged and a fellow writer reminded me that there are readers out there for every story told. So keep putting one word after the other and get to the end of that manuscript. The first one will suck (it’s the one you do for you) but get back to it and work on it with partners. You’ll see something magical emerge.

Also, don’t crap on other people’s work. This is hard stuff and anyone who has gotten as far as publishing a book as put themselves out there. If you didn’t like, you can keep that to yourself.

11. Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling?  If so, why?

I don’t know yet. They would have to make a compelling argument that they can do things I can’t as an indie author. Standing up the structure to do indie right took some work.

One area where traditional publishers still have an advantage is around awards and traditional reviews. If I were to develop a title I felt worthy of such recognition, I might try to go down the traditional publisher route. But I’m not there yet.

12. Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)

“Write for fame and fortune” is an ongoing joke we share on a few of my writer chats. What motivates me, more than anything, is all those stories in my head. Call it a mild case of schizophrenia, if you want. I can’t help but see someone I don’t know and imagine a back story for them.

Another part is escape. When much of the world seems to be on fire, it’s nice to get into an environment where I try to control the parameters (my characters can sometimes get unruly and attempt to struggle that away from me but I get final edits on their decision).

13. Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?

It’s very hard to pull just one. There are writers whose writing I’m in awe off (Umberto Eco, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Zora Neal Hurston). There are writers who develop characters I’ve fallen in love with (Colson Whitehead, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Anne Rice). There are writers I read just because I need a good laugh (Terry Pratchett, Percival Everett, Bill Fitzhugh). There are writers who do amazingly cinematic scenes (William Gibson, Toni Morrisson, Claire Messud)… and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head right now who have probably seeped into AcClaim while I was writing it.

However, I most admire anyone who goes through the craft of writing a book to the point where it lands in readers’ hands. It’s an incredibly small portion of people who get there and I admire anyone willing to stick through the journey to get there in the same way as people cheer people at the end of a marathon. It’s an incredible accomplishment for anyone to get a book together.

14. Which book do you wish you could have written?

I’m going to sound boring and old on this one: “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” and “1984,” are on my re-read once-a-year list. I don’t wish I could have written them — I’m in awe of the careful balance in those books, with no word, action, or punctuation mark feeling as if it were extra.

Right now, I wish I could write a book that would get more people engaged with reading again. Too many people are abandoning reading as a hobby and that’s a shame because there are so many amazing words to explore between those covers. So I’m excited to see people get into the romantasy genre but it’s not one that’s for me in terms of writing.

With my next book, a prequel to AcClaim, I’m attempting YA romance (because the characters are in last year of high school) so I’m trying to figure out what works in that genre, which is hard to do and I could pull half a dozen books I want to be able to emulate with this one.

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