Just how difficult is it to write a book?

This was posed to me last night, and a totally legit question. I know that many non writers often wonder, because maybe  they'd like to try their hand at it because they have an idea that's been nagging at their brain for some time. If they have that much, that's good because of course a book has to start with an idea.

An idea can come from anywhere. They have come to me from big events in my life and fleeting moments, newspaper articles and simple phrases. Sometimes the ideas are big and sometimes all I have is an opening line, a character or a title and I have to work from there.

Once you have your idea, you can either outline it or just start writing. I tend to do the latter. I just write until I can't write anymore. I"m called a "panster" because I write by the seat of my pants. This is the first draft of my novel.

By this point, many people who start writing a book have already given up. You have to be determined, motivated, and diligent to stick with writing a book from beginning to end. It's not easy. Things will get in your way -- job, kids, time, life in general. If you really want it, and really think you have a story to tell, stick with it.

In the second draft I deal with the sticky parts. Usually the sticky parts for me are the details, developing characters and places, figuring out the storyline in what us writers call the "murky middle" and well, *cough* the plot. I have to make sure I actually have one. I've had to at this point add characters into the book, cut thousands of words and add 10s of thousands of words.

Then there are usually a couple more drafts.

For me, editing comes next. I have a couple friends who I think are great editors. their work (editors can be wrong too you know, plus, they're all proper and shit and sometimes you don't want to be proper and shit).

Much better than me (though I see they don't know their lay, lie, lying, laying either). So I have them go through the manuscript and find my mistakes.  I am doing all my corrections hard copy now. I've proven to myself that if I just have them track changes on Word, I get lazy and don't really check them. Having them correct on a hard copy actually makes me read the entire manuscript again and even check

Next step is to get Beta Readers. These are a group of people to read your manuscript and give feedback. I like to choose a variety of people. My editor friends give me feedback as well, so they kind of count. I gather up a couple writer friends who can usually give me an idea about the plot, storyline and character development. Then I grab a couple people who are strictly readers who give me a blanket idea of how the book worked. Did they like the story? The characters? Were there any problems? If so, what were they? Were there any questions left unanswered?

I do another rewrite based on the information I've gathered from my Betas. Now, keep in mind, your Betas are giving you opinion and you may not agree. Change what you feel needs changing and toss the rest away. However, if they're all saying the same thing, you should probably listen. When I had Betas read my last book, Dissected, none of them liked my protagonist. So in my rewrite I had to make her more sympathetic and likeable.

After the rewrite I'll give it back to at least one editor for copy editing again. With all those new words in there, there are bound to be grammatical and punctuation errors.

I may give it a couple more reads for good measure, just to make sure it's as publishable as can be. The voila! You have a book with which you can either start querying agents or indie publish.

This is just the basics. You should also brush up on writing tips, like don't use too many adverbs, exclamation points or ellipses...crap like that. There are a ton of great books on writing out there and of course, the almighty Google.

What is your process? Do you have any questions or comments? Feel free to leave them. I try to respond to every one.

The publishing path is kind of like the road to Terminus

Yeah, so you're a writer working your way to this great unknown, but you know it's supposed to be wonderful. Terminus! *cough* I mean, publication. Yeah, and you're among others trying to reach the same goal. Some of them falter along the way. They get eaten up by metaphorical zombies in the form of self doubt, rejection, time and lack of motivation.

Zombies are the devourers of motivation.

The path is long and hard. Sometimes you have to kill Zombies on the way. It's not easy.

Sometimes you have to kill metaphorical "bad people"  that get in your way like plot holes, bad story lines, and flat characters.

Then what happens when you get to Terminus *cough* I mean publication? You really have no idea what you're getting yourself into. You feel relief, yet, something is still amiss. Yes, your publisher is really just a cannibal who will eat your soul.

I'm kidding. It's not that bad. Now there are people out there willing to prey on those who have given up on traditional publishing. They are the cannibals. Do your research before going indie. It doesn't cost all that much to self publish these days.

So, I reserve cannibal for the real predators out there, but the publishing industry can be a brutal reality, not unlike living in the zombie apocalypse, but you can do things to make the best of it.

These are things I've learned.

• Most publishers do NO marketing for you after sending the book out to media unless you are already a name or you've written a series and they can see dollar signs in their future. I was very proactive in my own marketing, so mine did a wee bit more, but not very much.
•  Be proactive and give them ideas, they may jump on board. If they don't, do research as to how to best get your book into people's hands without breaking the bank. Information is out there, you just have to find it.
• Some editors are not very communicative.
• If you are waiting for answers on your contracted book, bug them. If you are waiting for answers on an uncontracted book, give them their alloted time (if it's an option) check in and see what they thought. If they don't respond, move on. You don't have time to waste, because...
• The process is painstakingly slow. Once you sign your contract, expect your book to come out 18 months to 2 years later.
• There is nothing you can do about this. You must learn patience. If you have to stay all night in the trunk of a car while a herd of zombies passes by, you do it, no questions asked.
• Don't think that having a great working relationship with your editor means you will work with them again. Sad, but true.
• You love your editor, I know, but sometimes their house gets absorbed, sometimes they don't want your second book, sometimes shit happens and you don't get to work with them again. Keep their contact information though. I think it's perfectly acceptable (at least I hope so and if not someone should correct me) to contact and ask them if they'd like to see some future work.
• It's okay to fire your agent. 
• Sometimes these relationships aren't symbiotic. I know authors on their 2nd or 3rd agent. Find someone you click with. I know it's hard not to jump on the first person who takes you and if you feel you need to go ahead. But if you feel like they aren't doing your work justice, talk to them. If that doesn't work, you are perfectly in your right to terminate the relationship.
• Getting a first book published doesn't automatically mean getting a second book published.
• Yeah, the second book is the hardest from what I hear. I was agentless and didn't want to wait 2 years for my next book, so I went rogue. That may not be the answer for everyone. Do what is right for you.

Good luck on your journey to Terminus, I mean publication. I hope your experience is a rewarding one, as I truly believe mine was, and not full of metaphorical zombies, bad people, and worse yet, cannibals.

What comes next...

My debut year is over. Now what? Things haven't exactly worked out like I'd hoped. I'd hoped to have another book deal by now, but instead I find myself querying agents, continuing to revise manuscripts, and struggling to finish the current work in progress.

So, how am I going to make things work? Well, I'm waiting to hear back from one agent. Once I hear from her, I will decide what to do with Dissected. The ABNA contest is coming up in a couple weeks and if she rejects me by then, I think I'll enter that in the contest. If I don't hear from her by then, I'll enter An Unbalanced Line, which I'm currently revising.

Also...I told myself that if I didn't find an agent by the end of the year, I would self publish. I still want to do that, but I may wait until after the Amazon contest -  see how far I get there. I think it is inevitable that I do it though. I think I've said before, I can't imagine waiting another two years for a book to be traditionally published. People who liked Never Eighteen will be saying, "Megan who?" by then.

That's where I'm at.
Wait to hear from agent
Enter ABNA
Finish WIP
Self publish

What do you think?

F³A: Frustration

I kind of ranted  yesterday to my supports at the Class of 2k12. I'm frustrated with this business. I'm burnt out. I'm tired of promoting the same book. I want a new book out there to promote. But these things take time and time is something I have very little of. I already have three books done. But I need time to revise, to query, and to get a new one written and go through the same process.

While I'm doing that I have to work a day job, attend kids soccer games and music performances and spend time with them. Spend time with my boyfriend. Shop for groceries, clean, do laundry, exercise, eat, sleep.

Promote that damn book.  I think I'm going to hang it up with the book though. I'm tired of it. It's going to have to sell itself from now on. I mean, I have a couple visits already scheduled, one each month until February, but then I'm done. Until the next book.

And the next book...I think I'm only going to agent shop until the end of the year, then I'm seriously going to look into self publishing. I don't know 6% of sales as opposed to most of the % of sales. Yeah, I'll need to hire an editor, maybe a cover designer, or at least someone to consult because I can pretty much design my own. I can make my own trailer, design my own swag.

I have friends that have done this. They like it.

I have a fan base. Many of them are just waiting for my next book to come out. If I wait to be traditionally published, if that even happens again, I'm looking at 2-3 years from now. Are those fans even going to care by then? Probably not.

I do feel good about one thing. I'm writing a new book during NaNo. I still like writing.

What would you do?

Friday Scribbles:

Next Pandora Song: Icky Thump by White Stripes (Beck Radio)

Book of the Week: Um, book: I've not had a damn moment to read, so...we'll go with my Rainmaker Retreat manual from my legal marketing conference.

Redbox of the Week: The Avengers "Puny God" favorite line.

Quote of the Week: "Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."
Kurt Vonnegut

Happy Friday 

F³A: 2nd Rejection

This is the kind of rejection I can take. A nice one. One that gives feedback.

She didn't like my main character. She was too...bitchy.

The scene in the teen psyche ward was too heavy.

She did say I'm a talented writer. So there's that. I think I'll try a few more agents while I'm working on revisions of An Unbalanced Line and if I get no bites I'll work on another revision.

What are you working on right now? Get any good rejections you want to share?

Okay, Friday Scribbles
Next Pandora Song (the one on right now I hate, I'll need to "thumbs down it"):
Muse Uprising

Book of the Week: The Belly Fat Diet By John Chatham. I read it for a job interview. I liked it. I'm trying it.

Movie of the Week: Snow White and the Huntsman. I've not seen it, but I'm wanting to and it just came out on DVD.

Quote of the Week: A rejection is nothing more than a necessary step in the pursuit of success.  ~ "Bo Bennett"


Happy Friday!

Rejected

So I heard from the first agent on Dissection. It was a rejection. It's okay, I'm used to rejection. And published authors get treated no different than unpublished authors. No feedback, and it was a form letter. The agent even forgot to change the book title in the body of the letter. So there's that.

I still have two more queries out there. Hopefully I hear from them soon. And I have a first round list of agents to send to, so I'll probably send a few out this afternoon.

Wish me luck.

Done!

I finally finished my rewrite of An Unbalanced Line.  But I'm not done. I made some notes on the manuscript along the way, which I want to fix, then I print it out and read it aloud. Reading aloud helps me get the voice and dialogue right and it also is useful for finding little mistakes, typos, punctuation problems.

Then I do revisions.

The step after that, I get some beta readers. I usually pick four or five people. A couple readers, a couple writers, and I have one friend who is a writer and an excellent editor. 

After that, I do another set of revisions, then maybe another. I do as many as it takes to get it to a place that I feel is good enough to send to agents.

How do you get feedback on your work? Who do you count on to give an unbiased opinion? Do you read aloud?

I'm interested in other writer's process.

Antipation = Obsessing

Now that I've queried a couple of agents I've become a little (okay a lot) OCD with my inbox. I check it about a million times a day.

Of course so far I've been disappointed to not find that email from Mr. or Mrs. Awesome agent.

I don't mine when the inbox hold messages from friends or fans but what is irritating me are the stupid emails from the places I told could send me emails. Like Papa John's. Or Food.com. Or Tacoma Soccer Center. If I could drop kick those emails into the trash I would, because every time my notifications tell me I have a new email, I scramble to see who it's from, hoping it's from one of the agents.

If I could keep myself to checking email only a couple times a day I would. But I can't. Don't even try to give me advice on how. Ain't gonna happen.

Okay, back to the crazymaking, email checking waiting.

The Query Process.

I'm deathly scared. I've sent another query out today. I'm sick to my stomach. I know the feeling will pass shortly, but I always feel this way after I hit the submit button.

For those of you who've not yet made it to the query process, let me give you a rundown. A query is nothing more than a one page letter. It should state book title, genre, and word count.

Then you need to summarize your book in a way that gives them a feel for your writing and makes it pop off the page.

Any credentials, list them. Of course first time writer don't normally have any, so there's that.

Lastly, you need to personalize the letter. Tell the agent why you chose to write to them. This tells them that you know who they are, what they represent, who they've sold.

That's it. You're done. Most of them don't want to even see a page of your work. They judge you on that one page letter, so you better make it good.

This is why I'm sick to my stomach. I think finding an agent is the hardest part of the business. Writing, awesome, revision, not as fun, but a necessary evil. Getting published? I only have one experience with that and it was less than two weeks. But it took me a long time to find an agent. Over a year for the superhero book, which is now being transformed into something else. Probably about six months with Never Eighteen.

Be prepared. Thicken your skin. You will get rejected. Don't take it personally, agents get thousands of queries a year, have piles of manuscripts on their desks to read, plus have to represent the clients they already have.

If you're getting ready or are already in the process, good luck. If you could send some good vibes my way too, I'd sure appreciate it.

In the journey to publication, patience is a virtue

At the author gig I had this week, we were asked the question, what surprised you most about becoming a published author. While there are many astonishing things, one of the bigger ones was definitely how long it takes from book deal to shelf.

You know how long it takes to hear back from an agent, and then land one if you're able? Nothing really changes once the book deal comes.

It seemed like forever to get my contract once I was offered a deal, which was at the beginning of April, 2010. And my agent sent it back to HMH once because there was something in it she didn't like. I can't remember how long it took, but I would guess 8 to 10 weeks.

Then comes the advance check. That seemed like forever. I'd say another two months. So now we're at about four to six months.

Next comes line edits, copy edits, and first pass pages. These are all editing phases. You wait about three to six months for each phase, then only have about two weeks to get them done.

The one thing that seemed really early to me was the ARCs (advance review copy). I received those about March of 2011, and it was going out to the media and reviewers, which seemed really early to me. But what do I know, I'm only the author.

Then comes the longest wait. The book. As you know, my novel came out January of this year.  That's nearly two years from deal to shelf.

You've been warned. You want to be in this frustrating, yet rewarding business? Learn patience. Keep on writing to bide your time, otherwise you'll go crazy.

Millions of things to do so little time

Pretty sure I forgot to post a monkey this week.

I've not blogged in a couple days because I've been so scattered going this way and that way, I've not been able to focus on one task at a time. Here's what I've needed/wanted to do the last few days.

• Edit a 2k12 video
• Study and play with Adobe Creative Cloud
• Consolidate my bills
• Write book reviews
• Look for some contract work to make some extra money
• Practice my new Photoshop and InDesign skills
• Work on my rewrite
• Work on gathering more agents to query
• Clean my house
• Mow my lawn
• Weed my gardens
• Spray my blackberry bushes
• Pick up the box of books I ordered
• Clean out my inbox
• Probably some other crap I'm not remembering.

Instead of any of those things, this is what I worked on last night:

And just saw someone gave me a dislike!! >:(
Oh well. Chaos isn't for everyone.

Okay, I'm going to try to maybe do one of those things *points above*. Enjoy your Thursday night.

The Query Process

It's been a long time since I've had to do this. I really didn't think I'd have to do it ever again. Yeah, right. A few weeks ago (3, maybe 4) I queried two agents I had met at the SCBWI Western Washington conference in April. (if write for children and you don't belong to SCBWI, you should join).

I've not heard from one. Which is understandable. She works for one of the biggees, and as we know agents are very busy.

The other, after I wrote him telling him what I had and what I wanted to work on, thought maybe we weren't a good fit after all, so he referred me to a colleague.

I wrote her about a week ago and she requested 20 pages. Well yesterday she wrote back and asked for the full manuscript. Some people think telling others something like this is bad juju, but I like to keep it out there because I know I'm not alone. I know there are others out there in the same boat and we need people to commiserate with.

So wish me luck, keep your fingers crossed, rub a clover, stick a rabbit foot in your pocket or whatever for me.

The Agent Search Has Begun

It's begun. I've queried two now, one through meeting at conference, one through referral. Yesterday I did my research on agentquery.com and came up with a list of fifteen more to query in the upcoming weeks. I'm thinking five a week.

I have a few top ten lists I'm going to go through. Top ten most queried, most accepting, most unresponsive, most rejecting, and research, of course, the most accepting and see if there are any that are a good fit for me, and try and avoid the other ones (they don't all rep YA btw). Of course one of my dream agents is on one of the other lists, so, you know, I can't avoid them all.

I've also gone back to the Blue Boards. It's been a long time, so I'm listed as a newbie again. :( I was a frequent poster before. The Blue Boards were pretty much my bible when I started the journey to publication. I'm in Verla Kay's debt for the invaluable resource.

I'm also curious, if I query an agent I know reps friends, do I mention that? Even if they didn't really refer me there? And if I mention them, do I mention that they didn't refer me there?  Maybe I should ask my friends, but getting some unbiased opinions would be good too.

Anyone else out there on the quest for an agent?

Okay, wish me luck.

Never Eighteen Half Year Birthday Contest!!!!!

First, let me say, it's been a wild ride. Never Eighteen has been selling pretty good, especially here in the Pacific Northwest where the book is set. But I've actually sold copies all over the world.

It started out tricky, as the night of my release party we had a major snow storm, which kept some people away. We also started a little early, so people could get home earlier, of course, this pissed others off. Also, a box of books didn't come in because of the snow. Luckily I had a couple boxes of my own in my car, but we still ran out. There were a couple other snafus, but I told myself, especially after hearing about the snow, it is what it is.

I've done 1 Skype school visit to Illinois, 3 library visits, 6 book store events, 7 interviews (not counting blog interviews), 14 school visits, and many more online events and had fun with every one of them.

I've lost an agent. I've struggled to write a second book. It took me over a year, which is unprecedented for me. I don't have a second book deal, nor do I have any foreign rights sold for Never Eighteen. I've spent just about every dime I have marketing Never Eighteen. Those are the frustrating things about the business.

I've met tons of cool readers, writers, librarians, bookstore owners, teachers. I love those connections so much.

And that's pretty much how my last six months have gone.

Okay, I've figured out the contest. For Never Eighteen's Half birthday I want you to tell me in the comments below, 6 things on your bucket list. I will pick the winner. What will you win? A signed copy of Never Eighteen, a CD of some of the songs on the playlist in the back of the book, and swag. Always swag!!!

photo by Charlie Wolf

Here are some of the things on my bucket list.

1. Take my kids to NYC
2. Go to Australia
3. Apologize to people I need to apologize to and welcome anyone who thinks I've wronged them to step forward and talk to me.
4. Thank all the people in my life you has helped me along the way.
5. Participate in a triathlon
6. Yeah, throw the big party.

Your turn. Six things on your bucket list.

T is for Talk: Conference Talk

While I can't give you details of each class, because the talks are the property of each faculty member at the conference, I can give you a little idea of the sessions I took and the basic concept behind them, and also what else went on.

First there was an Editor/Agent/Art director panel, which was pretty informative.  People on the panel included Lionel Bender, Justin Chanda, Sarah Davies, Martha Mihalick, Joe Monti, Anne Moore, Timothy Travaglini, Liz Waniewski, Tina Wexler, and Marietta Zacker (you're going to have to look them up)

Then was keynote address by Deborah Wiles, which was amazing.  She talked about writing from your head, your heart, and your imagination and shared some personal stories and how they translated to content in her books.

My first breakout session was labeled as Marketing Mania: To the Bookshelf-The Sometimes Hidden Path, the speaker was agent Joe Monti.  It wasn't really was I thought it was going to be.  I thought it would talk more about Marketing, but it talked mainly about the process before that, what to expect between the time a book is signed to how it gets to the shelves.

My second session was Collaborative Marketing: Strength in Numbers by Roseanne Parry.  She was part of the Class of 2k9, and gave a lot of great information I can use with 2k12.  One of my favorite sessions.

Next session was How Far is Too Far in Teen Lit by Brent Hartinger.  I think he is an amazing person, and we happened to attend the same high school, though he was two years out by the time he got there.  This is what I took from that class:  I'm going to write what I want and let my agent figure out if it's too edgy.  You can go pretty far these days in edgy YA, and would be with good company.

I already told you I missed a few keynotes, which I really would have liked to see, but shit happens.

Sunday my first session was Five Ways to Make Your Character Sparkle by Kevin Emerson.  Great workshop about character development.  Kevin was very funny.  This was the session that I got up and read my stuff.  It was scary.

Next session, Writing From Anger by E. Lockhart.  Not what I expected, but it was interesting.

Next was Character Driven Stories by Liz Waniewski.  This was very helpful.  Most of the stuff I've written is character driven, and she gave us a worksheet to help us shape our characters, that was based on what she looks for when reading a manuscript.

There was another panel.  Local success stories. I'm not going to remember them all I think, but some of them were Carole Dagg, Caridad Ferrer, Craig Orback, Wendy Wahman, Jim Whiting, Jesse Joshua Watson, and Dori Yang.

There was also book signings.  I got a book signed by Holly Black and Brent Hartinger.

And then I nearly collapsed, so I left before the last keynote.

All in all a fun, informative weekend I would highly suggest to anyone.  There is no limit on educating yourself, and continuing to work on your craft.

What to write next...

Well, blogger was down for a while yesterday and by the time it came up, I was deep into other things. So, it's Tuesday. I think I'll talk about writing today.

As you know (if you read me on a regular basis, which you should if you don't ;) I've just finished my first set of revisions on Cheesy, and am now working on my untitled dystopian. The problem, I have tons of book ideas, and I feel not enough time to write them all. Do you have this problem?

I've got at least three more YA started, a couple women's lit pieces, with one constantly on the brain, and of course, I have five shelved completed books I'd like to edit.

I'm excited about all of them. It's been hard to choose which to work on when. Of course, I needed a follow up to Mending Fences, and Lockdown apparently didn't cut it, so I tireless wrote Cheesy, and everyone so far is liking the dystopian, including my agent, so I've decided that should be the next project, but then which do I work on?

How do you decide which project to focus on? What you're hot on? What the market is calling for?

Do you choose the next project for yourself, or your audience? Discuss. :)

The Query

Yes, the query, normally it's a one page letter that decides your fate with the agents. Includes a summary, what's unique about it, where it fits in the market, credentials (if you have any,which unfortunately, I don't).

First you have to write it, and it has to be perfection. It has to be better than your novel, more intriguing, better written, error free. If it's not, you can forget about them looking at even one page of your novel.

Then you have to do your research. My favorite place for this is agentquery.com You can look agents up by keywords, genre, name, agency. It's all there at your fingertips. And they have submission guidelines right there on site. They also have the agency website links which is helpful. I always check their sites to see if their guidelines have changed since their last agentquery update.

Like I said, most agents just take the query letter, but some want pages, some want a synopsis, some want it by e-mail, some by snail mail. Make sure you follow these guidelines else you're sure to be run through the shredder.

Here's how I work it. I send out those who take e-mail first, without synopsis. If I've gone through all those to no avail, I then go for e-mail with synopsis, after that, it's snail mail submissions.

Do's:

Do spell-check your query letter before mailing it out. Um, I would hope this would be a given.

Do make your query letter one page. Agents have little time on their hands. Make is quick.

Do follow submission guidelines.

Do mention in your query letter whether or not the submission will be simultaneous or exclusive. Instant turn off, an agent interested in your work and you come back and tell them you're already agented. Can you say black balled?

Do date and sign your query letter. Unless it's e-mail of course.

Do send the query letter to the proper person. No, "Dear Agent" letters. They don't like that. And try to spell their name correctly, and know if they are male or female.

Do send queries on clean, not wrinkled, plain white 8 ½ by 11inch computer paper. Duh.

Do specifically mention the genre and word count of your book.

Do include your name, address, telephone number, and email address, but not your social security number on the letter. Yeah, you'd like them to be able to get a hold of you, right?

Don'ts:

Do not type query letter on colored paper, decorated paper, or scented paper. The sign of an amateur.

Do not place confetti inside of the Query Letter's Envelope. Have you ever opened a letter with confetti? Instant social death.

Do not send gifts, treats, or food with your query letter. They don't like this. Who knew?

Do not send photos with your query letter. Especially naked ones.

I like to keep an excel spreadsheet on the agent's I've queried. I note their name, agency, the date I queried, date they requested a full or partial, and the date rejected.

If you've never queried before, know this, you will not get a helpful rejection. Rejections can be anything from a hand written note on your own query saying, "not for me" to a personalized letter stating why they don't want your novel. Some will be postcard size, some a full sheet of paper. All will be devastating.

That's all for today. Happy Querying!!

Kisses

:*

Megan

PS, my friend Ian wanted to comment, but couldn't from his cell phone, this is what he said (the colored comments behind his comments are from me :):

Point of correction: don't waste query space mentioning multiple submissions or exclusives. Agents assume you are subbing to more than one at a time. The ONLY time this should ever come up is if an agent requests a full. Proper etiquette then is to notify any agents who have partials (either requested or via the normal query process). That way they can move your stuff to the top of their stack and make a quick determination whether they want to see a full as well. You want multiple agents considering you at all times. You don't need to notify those you've queried with only queries unless they request pages. (Good point. I suppose they assume it's going to be a multiple these days)

Never grant an exclusive longer than a month or two, because that's time your manuscript is sitting on a desk in a stack and not finding you a potential agent. Never offer an exclusive without being asked.

I used to use an excel spreadsheet, but then I found QueryTracker.net, and they have a better tracking/research engine already in place. Don't reinvent the wheel if you don't have to.(I used querytracker and found it helpful, but then they changed their format and I got all lost. Maybe I'll try again.)

If you consider rejections to be devastating, you'll never survive in this industry. Thick skin is a must. My own Mustang Sally earned a whopping 140+ rejections. You have to get used to them, because the numbers don't lie. Look at some agent blogs comparing the number of queries they get compared to the number of clients they sign. (I don't really find rejections devastating, that was supposed to be funny, they're more of an irritation than anything)

Thanks for the comments Ian. Good advice.

ABNA part 2: Bottom of the Literary Food Chain?

I guess what sparked my wanting to write about ABNA this week, was not only the fact that the first cuts are Thursday, but a Publishers Weekly article that I was interviewed for also came out this week.

In this article, the author, Doree Shafrir reminds us of another article in which the contestants were described as "writers at the bottom of the literary food chain". Without question, this comment pretty much offended everyone who has ever entered the contest.

Is that what we are? Tiny crustaceans being eaten alive by the publishing world? Maybe. But those at the bottom of the food chain don't have the ability to work their way out of their predicament. We do.

Take ABNA I for instance. Out of the top ten finalists, five were published. ABNA II all three finalists are being published. And wouldn't it be lovely this year if all six finalists find themselves with book deals?

Plus, four others from ABNA 2009 are being published through Amazon Encore.

The first ABNA I made the top 100. It was my first book. I had no idea what I was doing or how to do it. I got tons of good reviews, including my publisher's weekly reviews. This gave me the confidence to keep going. To write more. I wanted to put myself out there. I started making writing videos, doing book reviews, revising the things I've written. It made me plunge headfirst into this crazy writing industry.


Just because we're entering the contest does not automatically mean we are bad writers. Some of us may be, that much is true. But others have been ignored, passed over, and rejected not because we can't write, but because literary agents are swamped. Because they don't have time to read our work. Because most the time we are judged by a one page query. Which is too bad, because so many wonderful books will never be published, same as horrible books by well known authors will hit our shelves.

But bottom feeders? I think not. Take a look.

Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan
Wet Nurse's Tale by Erica Eisdorfer
Butterflies of the Grand Canyon by Margaret Erhart
Casting Off by Nicole Dickson
Fresh Kills By Bill Loehfelm
Bill Warrington's Last Chance by James King
Greyhound By Steffan Piper
A Cruel Harvest by Paul Reid
Crossing By Andrew Fukuda
Pages from a Tennessee Journal by Francis Thomas Howard

The Ugly Truth About Getting Published

It's hard. So very hard. Here are things you can do to easily get published.

Murder.

Shoot up a school.

Be a fucked up celebrity.

Be married to a fucked up politician.

Be president of the United States.

Know someone.

Write a couple of best sellers and then just churn out a bunch of crap to make a buck.

Yep. I'm not sure I'll be doing any of those things soon. I don't mean to sound bitter or jaded, but real literature, good literature gets passed up to make room for the crap listed above. (and yes I know it's not all crap, but I'm trying to make a point)

I know there are some Cinderella stories out there, but for most writers it takes years of hard work. I've seen it first hand. Hours and hours of pouring over edits and revisions. Endless querying to agents, which may be the most humiliating part of the business. And then what happens? Rejection. To take the time to get your query letter perfect just to have them scrawl back on it, not for me. We're not even worth the cost of a piece of paper.

Most the writers I know says it has taken them ten years to go from conception to publication. TEN YEARS!!!!

Yes, I'm ranting, I'm raving, but sometimes I get frustrated.

And what really bothers me is the non writers who think it's easy. It's not. It's like trying to become an A list actor, a professional athlete, or a rock star.

So what do I do? I keep working. I keep writing. I keep revising and editing. I keep querying. I keep learning and reading. And maybe one day it will be my turn.

Kisses

:*

Megan

Friday Free For All: Guest Blogger Gae Polisner's Anatomy of a Book Deal

Anatomy of a book deal.

For nearly ten years, I have been trying to get a book deal. Ten years, if you count the years trying to get an agent, which is almost a necessity if you want to get a decent deal. The agent came a year and a half ago. I have three manuscripts she’s been shopping.

During those pre-agent (and post-agent) years, I received a fair amount of praise for my writing, if not always for my ability to weave a commercial enough or “formulaic” story. But, the bottom line is that endless rejection, even smattered with praise, is difficult to push through for so long.

So, last May, when my YA mss landed in the hands of a legendary YA editor who read and “loved” it, the hope that I so often fought to pummel down, rose to the surface of my psyche. And when she sent me a private email quoting from the book and telling me to “sit tight,” it sprouted wings and poised itself to fly.

So you can imagine how crushing it was when three weeks later, she came back with a note explaining that while a second editor had also loved it, a third editor had not, and that, without his approval, the publisher would not put the money behind she believed the manuscript deserved. With a sentence that started, “In another economy…” and contained the word “heartbroken,” she passed on the book.

Summer came and I fought to regroup. I embarked on massive revisions with the understanding that, in September, my agent would send the manuscript out “wide.”

And then my agent received the following note from the editor: “Usually, when I pass on a mss that is it for me. But, I can’t stop thinking about Gae’s manuscript.” She asked for another brief exclusive in September, and hope took wing once again.

In July and August, I revised for over 100 hours, trying to take into consideration all of the concerns of the “unadoring” editor, while preserving the parts of the book she loved. As well as addressing the other concerns and suggestions of my agent. On September 15 we sent it out to her. We gave her a two week exclusive.

On October 1, the last day of the exclusive, having heard nothing and beginning to despair, I found the following note from my agent in my email. It was only a subject line, there was nothing else at all in the email: “ Frances has made an offer. Call me.”

Ten years is a long road. And (almost) totally worth it to read those seven little words.

Gae H. Polisner is a writer of women's and young adult fiction. She is excited to announce that her young adult novel, Steinbeck, The Scoot and the Pull of Gravity has just been signed by a major New York publisher. Her novel, The Jetty (women's fiction), was a Top 100 Semifinalist in the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Her third novel, Swim Back to Me (women's fiction), is also making the rounds to publishers. She is represented by Michelle Humphrey of Sterling Lord Literistic in NYC.

Don't forget to join her fan page :)