The Other Side of the Desk

I’m a decently curious person. I’ve gotten sucked into WiK-holes on every subject from Russian history to French-Canadian Profanity. And there’s nothing I love learning about more than publishing, especially with all the fascinating ways it’s evolving at present.

Fortunately, it’s an easy passion to indulge in many different ways. Over the past ten years, I’ve been lucky to take great classes, intern and work at great places, and interview great people. I’ve also worked my butt off at difficult jobs, writing and querying manuscripts, looking up massive amounts of information, beta-ing other people’s work, and judging contests.

The end result? I’ve spent a lot of time on both sides of the desk, both literal and metaphorical. For what I’ve learned, and for the empathy it’s enabled me to have, I’m endlessly grateful, and it seemed like a good thing to share (with props to Rachel for the topic suggestion!):

What I’ve learned as an editor:

I’ve been an editorial assistant and assistant editor for the past six years, and though I’ve gone from Big Six Fiction (Mainly historical and contemporary romance, paperback conversions of thrillers, and cozy mysteries) and Non-Fiction (Politics and Economics) to a Scientific Journal to a Major Academic Publisher (Mathematics), there are a few things that always hold true:

There will always be authors who want your ear, who want to know you’re doing everything possible for them, who want you to make certain concessions to match their vision exactly. They will want last-minute changes. They’ll have read their back cover copy one more time during a bout of insomnia and realized this “of” should be “in” and I know I already OKed it but can you change it?

As an Editor, I’m happy to help when A) I’m asked nicely and not in anger, particular when it’s neither my job nor my fault. B) I’m not being asked to do something unethical, like slip an extra comp copy. C) I can. Sometimes I can’t. Sometimes that cover’s gone through the approval process and posted to the website and gone up on Amazon and it’s just done. Editors aren’t being lazy or jerks when they say they can’t do something. Part of Editorial is interfacing with basically every other department, and eventually, things leave our hands and our control. It’s just how it works.

As an author, I get it. It’s your baby, and it’s got your name on it. As an insecure writer, I really get it – who knows how many of these chances you’ll even get? What if I forgot to submit the only dedication I’ll ever get to do, but front matter’s been finalized and page count’s been set?

As someone who does both, here’s what I’d emphasize: Understand limits, of what both of you can realistically do and give up. Communicate – explain why it’s important/impossible for you. Come up with alternative plans for the things you can’t change. And try your hardest to think through the decisions you make before you make them, within reason of making a deadline. This is a partnership, and you both want the best for the book – it’s your job to, no matter which one you are. So understand no one’s trying to screw you and for the love of god, be polite.

What I’ve Learned as a Copy Editor:

I’ve been a Copy Editor by official title for about two-and-a-half years now, but before that, I did a whole lot of copy editing and proofreading as an Editorial Assistant, and before that I was a Production Intern. Before that, I took the college class that taught me how to copy edit. I mention all this because I often get asked how I got into freelance work. The answer is there was a lot of dumb luck involved, mixed in with the required skill, and a little help from great people. I also took a lot of tests. There are always tests.

What’s non-negotiable is knowing grammar, punctuation, and spelling; reading carefully enough to recognize when details have changed or plot is inconsistent; reading thoughtfully enough to know when a character is being inconsistent; knowing how to make helpful notes that don’t attempt to rewrite the author’s voice; being able to follow a style guide; and being able to make deadlines.

As a Copy Editor: We don’t expect you to be perfect. It’d suck if you were, because I’d be out of a job. But if you’re gonna be an author, it’d be cool if you took the time to make sure you knew the really basic things. Did you know that Word will actually refuse to show new corrections once you hit a certain number? I learned that when an author didn’t bother looking into how to properly punctuate dialogue tags, i.e. preceded by a comma, not a period. I literally couldn’t do my job at that point.

You don’t know lay/lie/laid? Whatever – no one does. But there’s a big difference between not making grammar your life and thinking you don’t have to care about it because there are people there to clean it up. You don’t rely on content editors to rewrite your book entirely and you shouldn’t rely on copy editors to make you sound fluent in English unless you’re paying them a lot for exactly that.

As an author: I am so freaking grateful I will have a copy editor. I know grammar and punctuation, but I’m only human, and I read my mss all the freaking time. I miss things. I don’t want to be my books’ only pair of eyes. It doesn’t matter how good you think you are, or even how good you really are – you cannot be the only one to read your material.

As both: this relationship is a great and necessary thing for literary quality. Here’s the key thing to keep in mind – a copy editor is there to ensure grammatical correctness, consistency, proper punctuation, et cetera. A copy editor’s job is NOT to make any changes that affect voice or style. A copy editor isn’t a content editor. Don’t hire a copy editor expecting him or her to handle your developmental issues, and don’t take on a project if you can’t stop yourself from rewriting it. If you enter into an author-copy editor relationship, make sure it’s clear from the start what you expect from each other.

What I’ve Learned from Participating in Contests

Writing contests are pretty freaking incredible opportunities. They’re also really, really difficult and time-consuming to run. I tip my hat to ladies like Cupid and Brenda Drake something fierce because I honestly don’t think anyone realizes how hard they work. And there’s so much to be gleaned from them… once again, from both sides of the desk!

As an entrant: I’ve only ever entered one contest (The Writer’s Voice, in 2012), but it was enough. I got an agent, met a ton of people, and realized how much I enjoy seeing what’s out there. I’ve read so many entries from that contest, and went on to read so many more from others. The great thing is, you don’t even really need to be in the contest to get stuff from it; just hang out on the hashtag, or comment on entries, and you’ll meet a million people in no time.

Of course, there are tricky parts to entering too, which I’ve covered at length in this post.

As a judge: Judge is sort of a tricky word, but I’m using it to cover any circumstance in which I’ve had to read entries and pick my favorites. To me, it felt a whole lot like I imagine being a literary agent to feel. Suddenly, all those rejections that sounded so vague, like, “I just didn’t connect with the material,” made so much sense. Because sometimes, you really just don’t. It’s not bad, but it’s just not making you need to read more. For me, that couldn’t been anything from a voice that didn’t stand out to something that just felt way too familiar.

Some other things I noticed:

1) It does feel lousy to turn down people you know and like from Twitter. When people review books with things like, “I really wanted to love this….” Yeah, that’s exactly how I felt. But it’s a good reminder that it’s ultimately a business and you both need to be professional about it.

2) It’s really, really frustrating when people can’t follow basic guidelines. We do so much work on the other side, and it’s really not that much to ask that you format your entries right, or pay attention to what categories are welcome by who.

3) A lot of people clearly don’t do their research. Basic little things like “round your word count” and “narrow down your genre” are not hard to figure out if you look into how to query for 30 seconds. Ditto with not checking titles to make sure they’re not already being used by bestsellers.

Another thing I see way too often, because if I see it ever, it’s too often – your manuscript can’t be “MG/YA.” Those categories have fundamentally different voices, thresholds for certain things, and character ages. If your manuscript genuinely straddles the line, there may actually be an issue with the manuscript.

As both: No matter which side you’re on, A) these can be as big a time investment as you want them to be, but the more time you invest, the more likely you are to get out of it, and B) everyone benefits when contests succeed and writers get entries. It makes people want to read them, agents want to participate, and new writers want to get involved in the kidlit community.

That said, they are relatively rare opportunities, and they’re also public opportunities, two things to be very, very aware of. The work that makes it through is a reflection of both writers and judges. Don’t waste chances on lack of research, or spots on entries that have already made the contest circuit. I say that to both writers and judges, because I do think it’s also on the latter to have an idea of what’s already been out there. But anyway, now I’m just being a broken record!

***

As time goes on, I look forward to learning more, particularly about being on the author side of the publication process. What about you? What have you learned, and what would you like to learn from the other side?

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books Featuring Travel in Some Way

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Top Ten Tuesdays

Thanks to the lovely Jessica Brooks via the also lovely Jim at YA Contemporary, I was reminded of Top Ten Tuesday, a regular The Broke and the Bookish feature that I always forget to do except this one time I did it. Thankfully, TbatB are thoughtful enough to post future topics, which allowed me to write this one in advance and schedule it so that I COULD FINALLY NOT FORGET.

Today’s topic is Top Ten Books Featuring Travel in Some Way, which is near and dear to my heart because my newest manuscript, JUST VISITING, features a whole lot of it. It’s about two very different best friends who go on a series of college visits together and discover all these things about each other in the process. In my most obsessed-with-it moments, I manage to convince myself that it’s a combination of two of my favorite YAs, HOW TO SAVE A LIFE by Sara Zarr and… my number 1 on this list:

1. THE DISENCHANTMENTS by Nina LaCour. Yup, I’ve blogged about this book before, and I’ll probably do it again. This contemp YA is about an all-girl band on their last tour and the (male) narrator who’s in love with his best friend, the lead singer, and comes along for the ride, thinking it’s a prequel to a future with her that it isn’t. There aren’t a whole lot of books I’d recommend more highly, and certainly none in the travel category!

2. THE ELITE by Maggie Hall. OK, in fairness, I haven’t yet read what will be the final version, and also, that title’s not staying, and also, it won’t be out for at least a year. BUT, I was privileged to read the incredible manuscript for this fantastic 2014 release which sees its main characters travel to some of my favorite locations on the planet, including Istanbul and Paris, and I definitely recommend you add it to your TBR ASAP!

3. JUST ONE DAY by Gayle Forman. At some point I’ll probably write a longer post about this book, because it made me thing about a whole lot of things, but for now, I’ll just say that I really loved how authentic the descriptions of the European cities felt, and I loved living vicariously through Allyson’s adventures. In a way, this book was largely what I was dying for 13 LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPES to be but never felt it achieved.

4. THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green. I’m sort of cheating because truthfully, I didn’t care for the travel portion of this book, but I did love the rest of it, and it does have a trip, so it counts! Right? Of course it does.

5. HOW TO SAVE A LIFE by Sara Zarr. Yup, I mention this one a lot, but mostly for Zarr’s artful handling of a same-gender dual-POV and how it was basically my bible when writing JUST VISITING. Here it gets a shout-out for the train scene, because that’s when I knew Mandy was going to be a kind of character I’d never seen before, and that’s when I first fell in love with the book.

6. THE STATISTICAL PROBABILITY OF LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT by Jennifer E. Smith. OK, I’m not gonna lie – I didn’t really love this book. BUT, I did love the romantic stuff that took place between the two characters bonding over shared airplane seating, and I loved the very idea of it – so brilliant! What bonds people faster than sitting in close quarters on a flying potential death trap?

And, since no other books are coming to mind right now except books that didn’t include any aspects I liked, I’m going to finish it up with four books I want to read that include a travel theme of sorts:

7. REUNITED by Hilary Weisman Graham – currently reading this one, but I’m only one chapter in to this contemp YA about three former best friends who reunite to drive two thousand miles for a reunion concert of a childhood favorite band. Cute so far!

8. UNBREAK MY HEART by Melissa C. Walker. I think Melissa C. Walker is supremely underrated as a YA author – LOVESTRUCK SUMMER is one of my favorite light contemps, rife with cleverness and a humorously un-self-aware protagonist – and this one is definitely on my TBR. I actually almost bought it this past weekend, but I bought her SMALL TOWN SINNERS instead.

9. AMY AND ROGER’S EPIC DETOUR by Morgan Matson. I’ll read this one eventually, I swear.

10. WANDERLOVE by Kristen Hubbard. I keep allllmost buying this book and then not, and not for any good reason. I’ve heard nothing but great things, and I’m actually really excited to read it. So I should probably buy it, yes? Yes.

And, for a bonus #11, since I’ve neither read it yet nor will it be released until next year, OPEN ROAD SUMMER by Emery Lord, because seriously, bad girl + sweet guy + country superstar music tour road trip? I’ll take that yesterday, please and thank you.

The Business of Writing

You know when all of a sudden all these things converge at once and kind of spin your world on its axis a bit with the way they all play into one another to give you some sort of epiphany? That was this past week for me. All of these things happened so close together that made me think about the business of writing. Which doesn’t mean writing as a thing that keeps you busy; it means what it means to decide you want to be a capital-A Author, a person who makes this a full-time, this-is-my-life career.

For a really long time, I didn’t. I refused to show anything I wrote to anyone. The only reason I even queried when I did, after so many years of writing, is because my husband had just started law school and we were broke and I felt like I should try something. When I stopped querying that manuscript pretty quickly, I wasn’t entirely sure I would ever try again, not because I’d given up all hope but because I still wasn’t sure being a professional author was something I wanted.

As it happened, I got a job at the same university at which he attended law school, and as a result, I got to take classes for free. I didn’t take tons of advantage of that, but I did take a YA writing class, during which I learned a ton about writing and the business of kidlit and also began to write what would eventually become a contemporary YA manuscript I still love called MY NAME IS EVERETT.

MNIE became The One for me. I queried that sucker for what turned out to be over a year. I didn’t necessarily have a feeling that it would be IT, but for the first time, I knew I wanted it to be. I wanted other people to read it, to love it. I actually let other people read it, which I’d never done before. And even when I ultimately shelved it, I never fell out of love with it… or with the idea of having professional partners to help me improve it, or with the idea of sharing it or something like that.

And then I wrote BEHIND THE SCENES, and suddenly, that was all gonna happen.

But you know the first time I actually internalized that I was going to be published? The first thing that made me think, “Holy crap, I’m going to be an Author?”

Realizing I was going to get bad reviews.

It’s a crazy thing, to have a dream realized and only really get it when you approach it from the negative. But I like approaching things from the negative, because I like being ready for worst-case scenarios, and also because I am pessimistic and crazy. Do not learn from me. And the thing is, I think it’s one of the most important things that writers never want to think about when we’re starting out:

Writing is a Business. It is your job to take criticism in the form of reviews, just as you’ll take praise in the form of reviews. It is your job to do the right research, improve your craft, and keep moving forward. It is your job to somehow reach out to and show gratitude for your audience of readers. It’s your job to make deadlines, it’s your job to be where you say you will, and it’s your job to give the interviews you say you will when you say you will.

(Some things are not your job. See this great post by Barry Lyga.)

Just tonight I was discussing the concept of authors as celebrities with an author who’s quite well known, especially on this blog. (The discussion was inspired by this excellent post by Teen Librarian’s Toolbox.) And I get that it’s hard to feel like a celebrity given that authors are rarely showered with riches or featured in magazines. But as an Author, you’ll be a person with fans you’ve never even heard of. Kind of like Angelina Jolie. (Why not – let’s go for the gold.) If Angelina Jolie tried to pull off “I’m just going to be in movies and you can watch me in them but then otherwise I do not exist and do not even try to talk to me or take my picture or ANYTHING” you’d probably be all, “Um, Angelina, this kind of comes with the territory.” Because it does. Because when you get paid $20 million a movie (a figure I am totally making up), this is part of what you’re getting paid for. And though we make nothing near that, I think that whatever you get paid for writing falls under the same category.

You’re getting paid for your story, yes. But you’re also getting paid to Be an Author.

Being an Author means continuously writing. It often means networking, and self-promoting. It’s not this thing you do when you have the time; it’s something you make time for. It’s all the things in this excellent blog post by Tara Lazar that also inspired these thoughts.

It’s so important to understand what it means to want to Be an Author. And one thing that makes me wonder how much people really get it is seeing the same manuscripts by the same people publicly pitched for over a year. (More influence! Today’s PitMad!) It’s great to love your stories – you must! – but if you’re going to Be an Author, you have to recognize when the time comes that you need to distance yourself at least long enough to write another one. Because part of the job will always be writing another one. And part of the job will often be letting go – maybe of the image you had of your cover, or of your title, or of something your editor makes you take out. And no matter how much you love your book, no matter how big an advocate you are, unless you self-publish, that’s going to be true.

BEHIND THE SCENES was on submission for almost ten months. That is a really long time to be on submission. And I didn’t give up on it; I said, “Yup, sounds great!” every time my wonderful agent suggested what sounded like a great place for it, right up until we found the greatest place for it But I didn’t hang on to it either, waiting for something to happen with it before moving on to something else. Because you can’t. Because even if it sold – even when it sold – you still need the next book. You always need the next book, to Be an Author. So I wrote THE BOOK OF ESTHER. And I wrote JUST VISITING. And then BEHIND THE SCENES sold. And now I have two more lovely books with terrifyingly undetermined futures but also possibilities. 

That doesn’t mean you need to rush, or produce at a specific rate. I don’t think there’s any one right way (and highly recommend this post by Rebecca Behrens that says the same!) except for this: you do have to look forward. You do have to be able to move on. You do have to work on new things. You don’t necessarily have to let go of the old, but you might if it’s why you can’t embrace the new.

Or at least, that’s how I see the business of writing.

(Re)tell Me a Story

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Ash, Cinder, Eyre House, For Darkness Shows the Stars, Olivia Twisted, Queen of Secrets, reduxes, retellings, TBoE

Retellings are fascinating things. On the one hand, someone else has already handed you characters, a plot, a setting… so many things you can choose to work with to make writing your book easier. On the other hand, making the choices of how to incorporate the source material and generally working within the confines of what’s already there can be maddeningly impossible.

I wrote my first retelling – a contemporary YA retelling of the biblical book of Esther (cleverly titled THE BOOK OF ESTHER, aka TBoE, which we pronounce like Tebow in my house for our amusement) – last summer, after years of knowing there must’ve been a way to do it and then finally figuring out how. As far as items on my writerly bucket list went, writing this retelling was #1, and just having done it feels like an achievement in itself, no matter where it ends up.

Especially because, honestly? It was hard. In ways I hadn’t really anticipated it would be.

To start with, if you’re writing for traditional publication, you have to ask yourself: is there room for this story? Fairytale and Greek myth retellings have been especially popular in recent years. Before you embark on your own, look at what’s already been done, taking category (e.g. YA), genre (e.g. Sci-fi), and source material (e.g. Cinderella) into account. If there’s already one that matches all three out there (e.g. CINDER), ask yourself both 1) Is this different *enough* to merit its own shelf space? and 2) Is that something I can successfully convey within the confines of a query letter/short pitch?

Personally, I did and didn’t. Traditional publishing is obviously the path I’ve chosen to pursue, but this was a story I was going to write no matter what. I’d been dreaming of what I could do with this source material for years, and as soon as I figured it out it would’ve taken an actual bulldozer to stop me.

As it happens, there actually *is* another contemporary YA retelling of Esther out there, called QUEEN OF SECRETS by Jenny Meyerhoff. TBoE definitely passes the “is it different enough that there’s room for both” test (QoS is narrated in 1st person by a very, very passive Esther, and largely revolves around her cousin being an observant Jew. TBoE is narrated in 3rd by five characters including a very revenge-bent Esther, and religion plays no part in the story.) but honestly, it wouldn’t have mattered. I was writing that ms whether it was sell-able or not.

The next thing to ask yourself – how true to the original do you want to be? Is it a “loosely based” situation in which you gather inspiration from a source but don’t pay particular attention to the specific events or characters? Or are you going to do a close retelling and work with as many bits of the original as possible?

For my retelling, I went with the latter; I so badly wanted to include as much as humanly possible. I gave roles to all the main characters and tried to keep in many of the tiny ones (though I certainly had to bend some backgrounds). I used the same structure as the original, even though it meant doing a major no-no (leaving the title character out of the entire first chapter). Every single name is a reference to one in the original, and many of the little details refer back to the original too. Though some of the main storyline was definitely wholly invented for the purpose of my story, much of it is actually based on a contemporary interpretation of Midrashic or Talmudic commentary. (Have I mentioned that I attended yeshiva day schools for 14 years followed by a year in a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem? That helped ) Of course, not all stories will have an equivalent, but many do have varying versions that are worth a look for inspiration. Lord knows Grimm and Disney have very different interpretations of fairy tales!

And then there’s the focus on what you’ll be doing differently. Will you be throwing the story into another genre or time/place, like ASH or OLIVIA TWISTED? Will you be gender flipping your characters, like in ACROSS A STAR-SWEPT SEA (thanks, Rachel!) or EYRE HOUSE? What new thing(s) are you bringing to the table?

Although my change (setting Esther as contemporary YA) seems relatively small in the face of the kinds of massive overhauls some of these stories get, for me, the hardest part was taking the motivations of the characters of the original and trying to apply them to the present day. In the original, Haman, the villain, actually isn’t clear on why he wants to kill all the Jews; it seems rather borne out of insanity. Try applying something like that to a seventeen-year-old villain. In the original, Akhashverosh (Ahasuerus), the king, obviously has royal power and can kill with a word; in modern day, how do you keep up with those kinds of stakes?

Well, whether or not I did it successfully, I certainly enjoyed the challenge, and I love that I took a concept I always wanted to write and made it happen on paper. (And, of course, my next one is in the works, because Ruth needs some love too )

What about you? Have you written a retelling, and if so, what’d you struggle with/love the most? Read one you loved? What do you think made it stand out as being awesome?

When Agents Wave the Red Flag

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Literary Agents

It’s been almost a full year now since I signed with my agent, but the thing about querying is, if you did it for long enough, I’m not sure you ever forget what it was like.

Me? I did it on and off for four years.

I got something like ten rejections on my first ms before I stopped (not that I’d normally advise giving up after that low a number, it’s just that it was far more of a “market timing” thing – NA! – than anything else), fifty before shelving the second one (what, until my most recent ms, was “the book of my heart”), and then was very lucky to find my agent through The Writer’s Voice contest with my third, for which I only sent about five queries.

That adds up to a whole lotta two things: 1) Research 2) Rejections

When I queried the first time, I admittedly had no idea WTF I was doing. I basically picked agents to query based on which agency names I remembered from working at Simon & Schuster, which was sort of an iffy move because although it did mean they possessed some legitimacy, I’d worked in Adult and had no idea there were totally separate kidlit agents. I don’t know if there was a QueryTracker or AW or anything like that, I only know that I didn’t use any of ‘em.

As it happens, I queried some fantastic agents at the time, only I didn’t know it. I honestly had no idea how many subpar agents were out there, and it was total luck of the draw that I picked agents like Amy Tipton and Jenn Laughran. Had I queried bad ones, I’m not sure I even would’ve known.

But I sure know about ‘em now!

I’m not sure exactly what’s changed over the past year or two, but suddenly there are a whole lot of people out there who feel cool calling themselves agents despite lacking the necessary experience, contacts, and professionalism. Somehow, “I like books” became good enough for agent bios, and people seem to have lost sight of what they should be looking for, both as good signs and bad signs.

Hopefully, this post, written with the assistance of a few helpful writers who’ve had the reddest of flags thrust in their faces, will help clarify. (And, if you need to remind yourself why no agent is better than a bad agent, see Point 1 here.)

The agent doesn’t actually know the category he/she is representing.

Now, you might be all, “How would I even know that??” Well, here are some hints from real-life examples!

• An agent says something like (direct quote!) “I would also recommend that you consider writing novellas to begin with (shorter romance-geared novels ranging around 50-60k words) not only because they also are an easier thing to sell, but also much easier to master before delving into really meaty novel stories.”

Oh, hey there! I’m real life, and I’m here to tell you that no one thinks novellas are easier to sell unless maybe they plan to go digital only. And if you do plan to go digital only, maybe share that information with your prospective client?

• You get rejected because your word count is “too low”… and it was a 60,000-word contemporary.

Right, so, as a writer, you should be doing your own research about acceptable word counts, and if you have, you’d know that 60,000 words is absolutely normal for contemporary YA. On the lower end? Sure. Rejection-worthy? By no one who knows a damn thing about contemporary YA.

So now, why would an agent reject for something like that? Either, he or she really doesn’t know better, which, red flag – as a writer, you should be informed; as an agent, it is your freaking job to be. It may sound like it’s not such a big deal, but if your agent doesn’t know this, what else doesn’t he or she know??

And then there’s option B:

 The agent’s got something to sell

I’m going to hope and pray that every querying writer knows the cardinal rule of You do not pay agents, period. But apparently, there’s a new rule that needs to be stated:

Do not trust agents that try to sell you their services, their clients’ books, or anything else. Seriously.

In the case of one of the times I’ve heard about an agent rejecting for an absolutely within-guidelines word count, the rejecting agent “helpfully” suggested the writer consult an editing service for assistance in beefing it up.

How incredibly convenient that that agency provided paid editorial service.

Thankfully, I’ve never experienced any such thing, possibly in part because this whole “agents also offering editing services” thing has really grown to be a thing in the time since I signed. But here are some things that raised flags for other people:

“Once I queried an agent and received a critique of my query. I’m usually happy for a critique, but this query letter has pulled many requests, and the tone of the critique seemed as if it were trying to shake my confidence in my skills, so my spidey senses were tingling. More research revealed that the agency also ran an editing business. An agent claimed on AbsoluteWaterCooler that the two businesses were separate, but the intern who advised me to “clean up my query a bit” had both businesses listed under his name. This was a red flag for me.”

“She suggested I not waste my money attending writer’s conferences because I had a long way to go before I was ready for them. Instead, she told me to buy the CD’s of two particular conferences and learn how to write that way. She also suggested I buy her client’s books and read those for an idea of what mine should look like.”

Sound like anything you’ve experienced?

Look, I work in publishing, and have for years. I’m going to tell you a secret: the money sort of sucks. As a result, lots of publishing professionals have second jobs (including me!) and yep, they’re still in the publishing realm, because that’s where our skill sets lie.

But if you feel like someone who happens to have an agenda is pushing theirs on you, run. The harsh truth is, it doesn’t even matter if you’re right. Because you’ve already established that you don’t trust this person, and you’re not going to have a healthy agent-client relationship with him or her if that’s the case.

The agent makes unreasonable requests.

It’s been said by many a reputable agent – exclusives are really never in a writer’s best interest. I mean, think about it. They’re not exclusively looking at you; what kind of leg up could this possibly give you?

But OK, you’ve been asked for an exclusive, as has been discussed on this blog before. Now what?

1. It should never be granted for more than four weeks. Seriously, how badly do you want to screw yourself?

Ah, but here we have: “I sent a query to an agent, and 2 days later she responded saying she would like a 7 week exclusive on a full.”

Guess what color flag that raises?

SEVEN WEEKS. That’s almost two months with exactly one agent, who may or may not want to rep you, looking at your manuscript, while you can’t query any others. This would fall under what I would deem an unreasonable request.

But then, there’s the reality that Sometimes you can’t grant an exclusive, because other agents already have your material, as is actually what you’re hoping for when you query.

So then what? Then you tell the agent you cannot offer exclusivity at this time. In my two experiences of being asked for an exclusive, one was my very first query so I had nothing else out and didn’t care, and the other simply waived exclusivity, as I would generally expect to be done.

However, what happened to our 7-weeker who found herself in that situation?

“The requesting agent asked me for the names of the other agents reviewing my fulls. I gave her the names of the agents and promised to let her know immediately if the agents offered rep. I also offered to stop querying for a period of time. The agent responded saying she is withdrawing her request for a full because I am unable to grant her exclusivity. To be fair, this agent did let me know that if the other agents passed on my work and if I’d be willing to grant exclusivity then, she would be happy to reconsider.”

Personally, I’m not in love with the whole “agents asking who has your ms” thing, but I know some do it to warn you if it’s a major Red Flagger whose got it.

My guess is this wasn’t one of those times.

Regardless, withdrawing a request for a full because you can’t get an exclusive?

RED FLAG. I don’t know why anyone would require exclusivity that badly, and certainly not for seven weeks, but even if this person was so high on your list that you wanted to grant it, how could you possibly trust that they wouldn’t try similar strange practices with editors?

The agent doesn’t treat you with respect.

There are different conventions in the agent-querier relationship, sure. Some agents respond to all, and some don’t. Some try to respond with something personal to every writer, or at least the ones who follow their submission guidelines, and some use a form rejection unless they’re requesting material. All of these things fall under the realm of acceptable.

Then there are things that should scream “run!” to you if an agent ever says them. Like:

“However, I knew after reading more that although I love your use of language, setting, tension, story idea, and style, it isn’t publishable yet. If it was, of course, you would have heard back from me immediately.” (Emphasis mine, because vom.)

It’s okay to think “I’m backburnering this because I don’t see this going anywhere.” I’m not really sure what the point is of saying it, or of actually doing it, if that’s how you feel. Regardless, this is an agent who has no shame in actually saying, “I’m treating you less than because your work is less than.”

You know how sometimes you say to lovely agents, “If I revise according to all your suggestions, can I resubmit?” Well, save that for the lovely agents. Besides, if your agent can’t figure out how to politely phrase things for you, who’s to say he or she is capable of doing so to editors?

See a recurring theme here? Always consider how their professional behavior with you could translate in other scenarios. If you can’t at least make yourself understand that you deserve better, think of it that way. Whatever works.

Finally, one more category of things I want to address, and I’ll call these “yellow flags,” because while they’re not objectively terrible things, they’re the kinds of things that reflect agent traits specific clients may want to avoid.

• Slow communication. For me, this is maddening. If you ask me my favorite thing about my agent, it is hands down how quickly she responds and how consistently she keeps me in the loop. She gave this trait away immediately by requesting a full the day after I sent my partial, and offering a week later. I wasn’t kept on the hook in the slightest.

Contrast that with an agent who requested along the following timeline:
Query sent – 10/7/10
Request for partial – 12/3/10
Request for full – 1/24/11
Nudge from me – 10/4/11
Response on 10/12/11 – “still enjoying” but had to set it aside for clients’ work
Pass – 1/4/12

That’s 15 months from query to rejection. Now, if she’d loved it, it might’ve been faster, and if I’d nudged sooner, I might’ve gotten an answer sooner, and all in all, I don’t begrudge this agent for taking that amount of time.

But it was a really good sign for me that she was not for me.

• Small sales. I’m at the point now where it’s clear I’m a fan of smaller presses, right? This is not a judgment of small presses or the agents who sub to them. I really hope that’s glaringly obvious.

But, what’s important to understand is this: A lot of small presses don’t require submissions to be agented. A lot of acquisitions done by small presses were actually initially done with the author, who then brought an agent in to secure it and negotiate contract terms. That fact is not clarified in Publisher’s Marketplace.

So what does that mean? It means that if you look up an agent’s deals in PM and think, “Oh, good, she’s got sales! I’ll sub there!” but all the deals are with places that don’t require agents, it is literally possible she secured none of them.

Now again, it’s perfectly OK that writers want to bring in agents later, and it’s OK that agents are willing to do this. But you may not want an agent whose entire sales records are based on these kinds of deals. And even if they’re not those kinds of deals, you have to ask yourself – if an agent is only making deals at places that don’t require agents, what’s the agent really doing for you that you can’t do yourself?

(Hopefully the answer is “negotiating awesome contract terms,” but again, you have no idea. Yellow flag!)

So, those are some thoughts from me and my brave contributors; have you seen any of these things? What raises red flags for you?

What’s Up Wednesday

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What's Up Wednesday

Hi, all! It’s been a little while since I’ve blogged, mostly because I really liked having my book deal blog post sitting pretty at the top, and also because I’m working on the next edition of Perpetual WIPs, which will feature eleven awesome published authors!

But, I do love this What’s Up Wednesday meme, created by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk, and so, bye bye, book deal post, and hello actual real life that’s still happening!

What I’m Reading

Admittedly, I’ve been in quite a slump lately – I’ve literally started four books in the last couple of months that I just couldn’t bring myself to finish yet. I did love THE DISENCHANTMENTS, but it was one glorious book in a sea of disappointments. And so now I’m reading what’s become my new go-to when I get depressed about the state of books: The Ruby Oliver series, by E. Lockhart. There are no words for how much I love this series – it just has the perfect voice, a fantastically believable and human main character, and it’s a great exploration into the considerably more everyday issues of teens. In short, it’s the series that makes me wish I knew more teen girls, just so I could hand out the books like candy.

What I’m Writing

My life is basically endless revision right now – I feel like I haven’t drafted something in a billion years! (Unless you count the new chapter I just wrote, but it was for revision purposes.) Right now I’m waiting on one more set of beta notes on my contemporary YA called JUST VISITING, and then as soon as that gets its final revision and goes off to my agent, I’ll return to the revisions I already had in progress of my contemporary NA, ONCE YOU GO GREEK. (I was 80 pages in when suddenly ALL THE THINGS happened and I had to not-so-gently shove it aside, but no more!) Then I hope to take a little break before returning my little 2K baby, which is another contemporary YA.

What Inspires Me Right Now

The number one thing that inspires me right now is imperfection. While reading THE DISENCHANTMENTS, I had the same thought I saw a lot of other readers did in the reviews – “Bev sucks.” But here’s the thing – Bev doesn’t suck because she’s a badly drawn character, or an unbelievable one. She “sucks” because she doesn’t make every single decision we’d like her to make, and we disagree with the way she handles situations, and we love Colby and we don’t want him getting hurt.

Writing a character you know not everyone will love is a difficult thing, but it’s so much more impressive to write one who’s right and believable and perfect for the story at hand. Colby loves her for who she is, not who she should be, and who hasn’t been there in high school?

Confession: I know not everyone will like Ally, the main character in my book BEHIND THE SCENES. My husband just read it for the first time, and when I asked what he thought of her, he said the same thing some other readers did – he found some of her choices and reactions a little overdramatic and infuriating. “But then I realized… I just thought she was acting like a teenage girl.”

Bingo.

I don’t know who you were in high school, but I was overdramatic and infuriating. I like to think I was a lot of good things too, and I know Ally is, but I wasn’t perfect, and I don’t like reading characters who are, or who are treated like they are. I don’t want to write characters it’s impossible to live up to or relate to. I want to write the Bevs, the Rubys, the Allys, the Reagans and Victorias (i.e. the MCs of my newest ms). I want to write teenage me, who didn’t always understand the deep truth of “This too shall pass” or “Go for the nerdy ones.” And I love reading the authors who do this really, really well.

What Else I’ve Been Up To

I have a beautiful new niece! But otherwise, this is pretty much it. That’s the thing about having a dayjob and freelancing and writing and blogging – life doesn’t really leave room for much else. Mostly, I spend the free time I’ve got watching TV with my husband and trying to learn WTF I’m supposed to do now that I’ve got a book deal. But for now, I’m pretty OK with that

BEHIND THE SCENES, Out in the Open

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Andrea Somberg, Behind the Scenes, book deal, CPlove, Patricia Riley, Spencer Hill Contemporary, The Writer's Voice

In November 2011, I decided to do NaNoWriMo for the first time. I wrote 50,000 words of a book called BEHIND THE SCENES, finished it in December, and sent it to two utterly magnificent people – Christopher Koehler and Arielle Kane – who, with many, many notes, helped me turn it from a draft into a manuscript I actually had faith in.

A year ago, I used this blog to post my entry for The Writer’s Voice contest, hosted by Cupid, Brenda Drake, Krista van Dolzer (who just announced her own book deal!!), and Monica BW. I knew about the contest because I followed Cupid on Twitter, and she was the only judge I knew at the time, and SHE IS A ROCK STAR. I prayed she’d pick me, and lo and behold, she did

Then I got a vote from an agent, who requested a full the next day, and I prayed that she’d rep me, and lo and behold, she did

And then it got a tiiiiiiny little bit less neat.

Being on submission is hard, man. You get rejections that completely disagree with each other and you’re like, “WTF do I even do with that????” Or you get rejections that make you say, “Dude, I could fix that in five minutes. GIVE ME THE CHANCE.” But most importantly for this particular story, sometimes really awesome, weird, serendipitous things happen.

11/19/12 – I ask my agent if we can go to Spencer Hill Contemporary, which has just launched, only they haven’t just launched and they aren’t actually taking submissions yet. Whoops.

11/28/12 – I get a little impatient about SHC.

January 2013ish *note: I had no idea until like a week ago, obviously* – Patricia Riley and I become friends on Twitter and she promptly invites my agent to send her things for SHC because she wants BEHIND THE SCENES.

March 2013ish – Patricia asks if I would like to come work at SHC as a copy editor and I say DUH OBVIOUSLY IT IS BASICALLY MY DREAM WHAT AND WHERE DO I SIGN

April 2013 – I add a “Wait… can I still send you things? Like, submit you stuff? Or is that super weird and awkward? YOU CAN TOTALLY SAY NO.”

(She does not say no. In fact, she says yes quite emphatically, after which she makes above January confession. I send her BEHIND THE SCENES BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY.)

Me: “No, but really, you can toooootalllllly say no. No pressure!”
Patricia: “Yes, I know I can say no. I have actually done that a billion times because I do this professionally.” (OK, it wasn’t exactly those words but it should’ve been because I am whiny and dumb.)

Two(?) days later:

Patricia: I NEED TO HAVE THIS IMMEDIATELY.
Dahlia: I ALSO NEED YOU TO HAVE THIS IMMEDIATELY.

Or something like that. But a lot more professional. Really.

What followed was a talk about an imaginary sequel that’s no longer so imaginary, and then more talk about doing yet another book together, because obviously.

Anyway, long story short (hahahahahaha), Andrea is AWESOME. Patricia is AWESOME. I am a very lucky writer. And I’ll be publishing 3 books with Spencer Hill Contemporary, beginning in 2014

(Pause for musical interlude dedicated to Andrea Somberg and Patricia Riley… NOW)

Of course, I need to mention a few other people who are awesome, because I’d be nothing, nobody, nowhere without:

1) My family, especially my husband, who is the most patient and supportive Godsend on the planet, and also, he bakes. I may write for myself, but that it makes them proud is the best reason on Earth to keep going.

2) My CPs. Have I mentioned how much I love my CPs? I love my CPs. I cannot even tell you how much. There aren’t any words. They make my work better, they support the crap out of me, and they listen to OH MY GOD SO MUCH WHINING. Marieke, Maggie, Gina, Erica, and Valerie, thank you. For everything. Words aren’t actually enough. But Liam’s abs… they are grateful. Endlessly, endlessly grateful. They are flexing with their gratitude.

3) Everyone else who read BtS (especially Melanie, who was my very first Twitter friend beta!) or held my hand during a freakout or endured the sub process with me and everything that goes with it. Extra-special shoutouts to the YA Misfits; Rick Lipman, aka my fellow schmagent, aka the yang to yang my yang, who has made many a day that much more bearable and GIFtastic; the lovely Heidi Schulz, who should’ve punched me in the face at least once but totally never would; my sub buddy and fellow writer of Hollywood YA, Jen Malone; and Dee Romito, for always trying to keep us both on that positive train.

4) Everyone who read MY NAME IS EVERETT, back when I thought it was “The One,” even though it wasn’t, especially Christopher Koehler, Dani Leeds-Kim, Suzanne Hynes, and Rebecca Trachtman-Friedman, who kept me going and helped me learn the art of working your butt off for a manuscript you love.

5) Everyone at Spencer Hill Contemporary who read BtS, supported its acquisition, and will be working on it and its buddies for the next couple of years – I can’t wait to work with you!

And to you, lovely person who reads my blog, maybe follows me on Twitter, generally engages in making my day better, my life more fun, and picking me up when I’m down. You, lovely person who may or may not have left comments on this blog before, or helped me out as a Perpetual WIP, or inspired me by working for what you want and getting it, or by not getting it yet but continuing to try.

To everyone who makes the writing community a great place to be, and who delights in others’ successes, and strives to help make other people better, stronger, and happier – thank you.

Now go ahead and buy my book

Perpetual WIPs

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Perpetual WIPs

(Post updated June 5, 2013)

Perpetual WIPs is a series I started in 2012 in order to help writers at every stage of the publication process understand “the norm” – or lack thereof. It isolates writers by stage (Querying, Agented, Pre-Pub etc.) and poses a series of specific questions to a number of volunteers in each category, who then answer those questions completely anonymously. Hopefully, these answers provide useful information, quell some insecurities, and generally display just how much publishing paths can vary.

You can begin reading Perpetual WIPs with the introductory post: Am I Normal? (And, if you’re reading Perpetual WIPs: Literary Agents, you can add A Little Something Different with Perpetual WIPs to that), or you can just dive write in:

Perpetual WIPs: Querying Writers

Perpetual WIPs: Agented Writers

Perpetual WIPs: Pre-Pub Writers

Perpetual WIPs: Literary Agents

Perpetual WIPs: Published Authors

I’ll be accepting wonderful volunteers for the next editions soon – Perpetual WIPs: Editors and Perpetual WIPs: Self-Published Authors – so if you’re an editor at a publishing house or a self-published author and would like to participate, please contact me!

A Guide to the Daily Dahlia

I didn’t really start blogging here with the intention to focus on any one thing, if I’m being perfectly honest. I mean, hell, one of my first posts was literally just about the Foo Fighters. But over time, I’ve realized that if there’s one thing I really want my blog to be, it’s something of a one-stop shop for writers at any stage of the process, but especially those who are new to the community, to find the relevant information that may not be available elsewhere.

Publishing has been my life for a really long time. My first internship was during my senior year in high school, in the Publicity department at HarperCollins, and I’ve been bouncing around ever since – to Production and then to Editorial, to Simon & Schuster and then to academic publishing, and of course freelance copy editing and writing have been lingering around for a long time too. I hope bringing all that stuff together has helped some people, and if it hasn’t, well, you probably don’t read this anymore anyway.

ANYWAY, my point is, while I’ve tried to encompass as much as I could think of in this blog, it’s maybe not the most… organized? So I thought maybe I should try to put together a post that puts a little order into this thing, and see if maybe that’s not useful, sort of? Or maybe no one cares. WHATEVER, I’M DOING IT ANYWAY.

For brand spankin’ new writers, you’ll probably want to start here – it’s a post detailing “pub speak” that’s especially common on Twitter, given that whole “character limit” thing: An Abridged Glossary of Pub Speak

OK! Once you’ve got pub speak down, you’ll probably want to work on that whole “writing” thing. Short on inspiration? This might answer How to Get Your Own Shiny New Ideas. Not sure where to see teens in action? Here’s a suggestion for how to use Teen TV to Make You a Better Writer. Finally, one thing that might help as you’re writing and/or polishing is this Brief Lesson in Copyediting. 

Finish that draft, and need some opinions on it? You may or may not be familiar with the concept of beta readers or critique partners. Fortunately, I’ve got a 3-part series on Writing Relationships that might help!

Now, are you all done? Like, really? It’s revised and polished a hundred times and you don’t think you can make it any better? Then it’s time for you to figure out WTF to do with that beautiful thing! Traditional pub? Small Press? Self-pub? This post might help you with Choosing Your Pub Path! I also recommend you brush up on what it really means to enter The Business of Writing.

You’ve decided you want an agent and you’re ready to query? Then you also might be ready for A Quick Querying Q&A! And I definitely advocate braving When Agents Wave the Red Flag.

But wait! You are FREAKING OUT, because querying is terrifying and how the HELL does everyone else deal with this and AM I NORMAL???? (And from there you definitely want to check out Perpetual WIPs: Querying Writers!)

And yes, rejection comes with the territory… for everyone.

An agent is interested! An agent is interested! IT MAY END IN REPRESENTATION! And you know all there is to know about what happens then, right? You don’t?? (Just kidding, because seriously, no one does until they get there.) Well, here are Some Truths About Life After Agent that may help you when you have The Call.

Something else that’ll help, at any stage? This. For real. Read it now.

You got an agent!!!! Congratulations!! But wait! You are FREAKING OUT, because querying is terrifying and how the HELL does everyone else deal with this and yup! There’s a Perpetual WIPs: Agented Writers for that!

AAAAAAHHHHH YOU GOT A BOOK DEAL!!!!! Congratulations!! But wait! You are FREAKING OUT, because querying is terrifying and how the HELL does everyone else deal with this and yup! Perpetual WIPs: Pre-Pub Authors.

And, of course, before that baby gets published, don’t forget to thank the people who got you there: The Immortality of Acknowledgment.

And now it’s published!! Congrats!!! You probably wanna see how your experiences compare to other published writers, huh? YOU CAN – Perpetual WIPs: Published Authors.

It’d probably help to hear from some pros, huh? You’re in luck! I’ve got interviews with Random House Marketer and Publicist Ayelet Gruenspecht, YA Author Courtney Summers, and YA/NA Author Diana Peterfreund!

And overall, these are probably the 10 wisest things I’ve ever said about publishing… in the form of blunt messages.

So, that’s most of my blog so far, but I hope to have lots more awesome things coming up in the new year. If you’re already a reader, THANK YOU!!! If not, welcome! Take off your coat. Stay a while! And if there’s anything you’d like to see me blog about that I haven’t already, feel free to sound off in the comments!

How to Do Writerly Good

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The Writer's Voice

This has been a terrible, sad, utterly heartbreaking week in the world. Bombings, earthquakes, explosions, shootings… and these are just the things getting international attention. It’s also been a really inspirational week, between the bravery and quick action of the first responders and police, the kindness of those opening their homes to those in need after the Boston Marathon and the explosion in West, and the general sense of community between everyone who hasn’t shown themselves to be racist d-bags.

For a lot of us, though, there’s a really pervasive feeling of uselessness in times of tragedy. I can’t give blood. Opening my home is not that helpful to someone who lost theirs 2,000 miles away. So instead, I’m going to focus on this:

Life is short. If you’re reading this blog, you probably know what it’s like to have a goal, a dream, because you’re either a writer or my mom. You also probably need to be reminded – and to remind others – that there is good in the world. To that end, here are some suggestions for how to do writerly good, help people achieve their dreams, and generally just make another writer’s day better.

• Congratulate them on their successes. I love seeing good news on Twitter. It makes my freaking day. So is it a little creepy when I tweet congratulations to people I don’t even know, just because it got RTed into my feed? Maybe. But the thing is, for as much as they’re strangers, they’re not at all strangers – they’re me. They’re you. They’re people who had dreams of getting an agent or getting a book deal and then achieved it. Every writer’s success is your success. Not as much as it is theirs, obviously, but the knowledge that these things are achievable, that they happen, that people who made this dream happen exist should make your freaking life. And, even if it doesn’t, it’s just a nice thing to do!

• Retweet, reblog, host, and interview. There’s nothing more important for a fiction writing than getting good words on the page; no agent or editor would ever deny that. If the choice comes down to writing a blog post or writing a chapter, for the love of God, write the chapter. BUT, having an Internet presence of some sort is definitely a plus (unless your Internet presence makes it clear you’re a terrible person no one would ever want to work with), and it’s something many agents and editors look for when signing a client.

The good news is, it’s really easy to help a new writer create one. If you’re an established writer or blogger, consider having someone who’s less so guest post on your blog, or interview them, or let them interview you. Answer their questions as you see them arise. Publicize them, introduce them to others, and welcome them with open arms.

• Beta/crit something. Honestly. Whether it’s a query, a Twitter pitch, or a full manuscript, just do your best to help someone make their work the best it can be. And while cheerleading is nice, and you should never crit someone’s work in a way that makes them feel like crap, critique is only really helpful if it’s honest. So put on your critical thinking caps, take a little time out of your day, and help turn a good piece of work into an awesome one.

• Recommend and review. These things are self-explanatory, yes? If you read a book and loved it, spread the word! Preferably in multiple locations!

• Buy books! Another no-brainer, but it always seems worth a mention – financial support is important support, not just because it earns money for authors and publishers and keeps bookstores going (which are also all really important things) but because those sales numbers help tell booksellers “Get more of this!” and “See how much money you can make selling books? Keep doing that!” Bonus points for supporting an indie bookstore if you can afford it!

• Request books. Even if you can’t afford to support other authors financially, do it by letting libraries and bookstores know that they’re wanted. See a book you’d love to own not being stocked in B&N or your local library? Head up to that front desk and ask that they order it.

• Keep newer writers informed. Having been around for a while, I know who to follow on Twitter for information like when writers’ contests are coming up (Brenda Drake, Cupid, and AuthoressAnon, by the way), but a lot of newer writers don’t. Make sure they have access to those important opportunities by spreading the word.

And to that end, I’ll leave off by mentioning that details of this years The Writers’ Voice contest are up! As you may know, TWV is the contest that got me my agent last year, and it was also a wonderful experience that introduced me to some fantastic fellow writers. If you have a manuscript that’s polished and ready to go, I can’t recommend a contest more highly, especially considering this year’s agent lineup!

So, go forth, be awesome, and help someone achieve a dream. The world needs more good news!