How Miami Author Rochelle Weinstein Went From Self-Published to Bestseller

Rochelle Weinstein casually sips her berry smoothie at our community table at Pura Vida. Behind her signature black-rimmed glasses is a mischievous look of defiance.

"If I look back on my whole journey," the bestselling author says, "when people told me 'no,' I always said, 'onto the next opportunity.'"

That persistence has served her well. Weinstein's eighth book in thirteen years, We Are Made of Stars (Lake Union Publishing), was released Tuesday, February 25. The big-hearted novel is set at an inn in the North Carolina mountains and is described as White Lotus meets Virgin River.

"This book took root at an actual place in North Carolina called the Inn at Little Pond Farm. They have a gourmet chef, and there's a communal table where they serve ten guests at a time. Sometimes you're there with strangers, and sometimes with friends, and I was fascinated by the people at the table. It was one of my favorite places to go and meet strangers and find out we have shared history. I interviewed the owners and listened to their stories about guests meeting up eighty years later at the same table, and I just knew I needed to set a book there and completely examine the relationships, connections, and dynamics of the people, especially when they are overserved with wine."

Weinstein has been in the game long enough to know that literary trends come and go. That's why she focuses on pushing her own artistic boundaries rather than chasing the market. In a readers' landscape dominated by romantasy (which can most succinctly be described as sex with dragons), Weinstein's new book is a cozy character study. Though its title suggests the otherworldly, We Are Made of Stars is deeply grounded in realism.

Weinstein's previous books have sold a combined half-million copies, but Weinstein still admits pre-publication jitters can get to her.

"Sometimes ignorance is bliss, you know? As a newbie, there's so much you don't know about the business. But at this stage there are more things to be worried about: the industry, the climate, what people are reading right now, sales numbers."

Weinstein began her career in marketing, working for a short time in Los Angeles before returning to her native Miami, where she wrote her debut novel, What We Leave Behind, a coming-of-age story about love and loss, and promptly shoved it "under the bed."

Years later, after hearing about the unpublished manuscript, some moms at her sons' school begged her to let them read it. "I was like, 'Are you crazy?' I was horrified because that is the equivalent of standing in your carpool line naked. The vulnerability!"

Her husband, local attorney Steven Weinstein, overruled her hesitations and printed out fifteen copies of the draft anyway.

"I was about to vomit handing it over. It was like putting my baby in someone's hands," she tells New Times. "But they loved it. That gave me the push I needed to try to find an agent."

As any author can attest, querying for a literary agent is analogous to a complete unknown asking Margot Robbie on a date: Its odds of success are extremely slim. "I could have wallpapered my bathroom with the rejections," Weinstein says.

Ultimately, she decided to self-publish the novel and use her marketing background to promote sales. It was a success. What We Leave Behind became a USA Today Bestseller, and after self-publishing her second book, Weinstein made the jump to working with a publisher.

"When I look back on my writing career, that's the piece I'm most proud of — that despite all the early rejection, I kept going, and I'm still going in spite of all that."

On We Are Made of Stars, Weinstein was represented by the same agent as It Ends with Us author Colleen Hoover (who also began her career by self-publishing.) When she isn't writing, Weinstein is reading advanced reader copies of new books to lend a quote (and the power of her name) to other authors' back covers.

She's the monthly book contributor to Miami's NBC South Florida Live and Aqua Magazine, and she teaches publishing workshops for aspiring authors at Nova Southeastern University. Weinstein also encourages anyone interested in pursuing their own writing journey to DM her on Instagram (@rochellebweinstein).

"Knowing my history and how difficult and challenging it was for me to get a publishing deal on that first book, I owe it to the writing community to give back. Other authors did it for me. Sometimes I feel more comfortable uplifting other voices than promoting my own books."

Though We Are Made of Stars was released just this week, Weinstein has already turned her ninth book into her agent — an epic love story set in Miami Beach.

"Miami is a sultry setting," she says. "It's exciting and beautiful, and it's easy to write about, but also, my roots are here."

Rochelle B. Weinstein's We Are Made of Stars: A Novel is out now.