Things Are Happening (or "Is It Really Happening?")

*with apologies to Marky Mark and M. Night Shyamalan

Tip of the Day: Another reminder that WriteOnCon is happening August 13-14. Don't miss this free online kidlit writing conference! Thanks, WriteOnCon team!

Readers! Things are Happening!

Wanna know what? OK. Keep reading.

1. You may remember that in April I decided to self-epub my YA novel, BLACKOUT. This plan is moving forward and I am set to release my first novel on August 1st! It will be available through Amazon, B&N, iBooks, and Smashwords. Here is the cover, designed by the talented Shana Norris.

 

I love the artwork and can't wait for it to be out in the world! I plan to epub the sequel, DESERTED, in 2014 and can already picture the companion cover.

 

2. To go along with my book release, I have a website. I've owned www.DeenaLipomi.com for years. I mean, I had to reserve it early since I could tell people would be fighting over that domain name one day. Now it is finally live! The site still needs some embelishments, but you can learn more about BLACKOUT there.

3. Four out of five of the A2A Misses are meeting up later this month for gossip and writing and let's face it, more gossip! We invited Megg, but since she just closed on a new house, she can't make it but we'll send her love from Ohio. This will be the first time that Tina and Em are meeting Kate. This will be a fun union and reunion.

4. I have some good buzz on the agent front and hope to be able to make something official later this month! This had made me want to spend days revising my next MG novel and dive into another idea. Writing mojo is kicking in!

What summer writerly things are happening for you?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Living on Hope!

Tip of the Day: Shucked is on a book blitz this week, with 77 bloggers signed up. You can enter to win a copy - all the details are on my blog.

Shucked is the book I queried. It's the book I wanted to traditionally publish. I queried only eight agents.

Not a whole lot, I know. The chances were infinitesimal. And I got rejected by six of them. The other two are we-don't-contact-you-unless-we're-interested agents. I'm assuming they didn't want Shucked.

The whole time I was waiting on responses, I prepped Shucked for self-pub. I'm not one to sit around waiting, but I was respectful enough to wait to hit the publish button until I knew Shucked was passed on. Anything else is unprofessional.

I'm happy knowing I queried my dream agents (the three I wanted most were the first three to reject me, which lessened the sting of the others). I wouldn't settle for just any agent anymore (not like in 2010 when I queried 50-something agents for Anathema). Self-publishing is a better choice, for me, than going with an agent who I feel meh about.

What am I hoping for with Shucked? I want it to be traditionally published. Yes, still. I've epubbed Shucked and put it up for free in its entirety on Wattpad. How will this help? Well, let's say on the off chance people love it (some do, and some already don't, lol). It gets popular. There's word of mouth and buzz. Then maybe someone will want to pick it up for print rights, or foreign, or film. You never know.

Don't tell me the book is dead if it's already out there. That's simply not true anymore. And if Shucked does nothing more than live on as an ebook, I'm certainly not going to complain. I've already sold enough copies to cover the money I spent on it. I'm making a profit and I will never turn away a paying customer.

So let the dream carry on! No book is ever dead. :D

Megg, Miss Enchanted ePubber

Twenty-Thirteen (or Predicting the Future)

Tip of the Day: Read about Kate's 2013 goals here, and Tina's 2012 recap here.

Happy 2013, readers!

In my library world and writing life, I'm constantly thinking about...(read with a booming voice)... *The Future of Books and Reading.*

So what topics are occupying my mind? Probably the same ones that many of our readers are thinking about, namely:

1. Ebook sales to libraries. Will *all* publishers soon allow libraries to purchase and lend their ebooks? I hope so! Right now it looks to patrons like libraries are lagging behind in ebook purchases when in reality it is the publishers who have not yet decided how to sell these books. I can't wait for this perception and reality to change.

2. Ebook lending on OverDrive. Right now OverDrive, my library system's lending platform, does not allow all self-published books to be sold through OD to libraries so we can lend them to patrons. I'm not sure what the cost to OD is to "stock" books for libraries to purchase, but I know that as the YA Librarian I would love to be able to puchase and lend self-pubbed YA titles. Right now authors must apply to OD to sell their books and they can be rejected. I'm not sure why and I hope this changes.

3. New YA lines. Merit Press, Soho Teen, Entangled Teen, Spencer Hill Press, Month9Books, Strange Chemistry, Poisoned Pencil, Algonquin Teen.... Hopefully this list will continue to grow! I love having more options of lines to buy from for my library. I also love having more publishers that may be interested in reading my work! But with the popularity of YA fiction, will even more writers be submitting to these publishers, still making it hard to get noticed in a glutted market? I know good writing trumps all, but the reality is that pubs can only release so many books per season. Time will tell....

4. New YA agents. It seems that Chuck Sambuchino's Guide to Literary Agents Blog regularly posts new agents hunting for authors to rep, and many of them rep YA fiction. Yay! I'm so glad there are pros in the field who love YA fiction as much as I do. But when I look more closely I see that many of them do NOT rep MG fiction, which I also write...and some may actually be better agents for adult fiction and are only hoping to score a YA author since that is a hot seller now. OK, so I might be reading too much into agent interests, but it's hard for an MG/YA author to find the right agents to query for this reason.

5. New Adult: the "genre." This December 14 Publishers Weekly article on the "New Adult" label made the rounds last month and sparked many discussions about the topic on both writing boards and YA Librarian lists I belong to. I plan on giving my thoughts on this in more detail in another post, but for now I will say I am a) excited that books targeted to 18-24-year-olds are gaining momentum because it is a gap that needs filling, and b) I've always wanted to write stories featuring MCs of those ages so I like that the market is opening for them.

Thoughts on any of the (5) topics above?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

The Holiday Publishing Lull

Tip of the Day: Did you all catch the news about Simon & Schuster offering self-pub? What are your thoughts on it? Leave comments below. Here's one author who thinks it's an awful idea. 

The holidays are upon us and that means things in traditional publishing come to a screeching halt. If you're just now querying agents or your agent is pitching to editors you can expect not to hear from them until probably January. In fact, you may want to just hold off on subbing anything until then and be higher up in the inbox.

So what can you do in the mean time?

1) Research. If agent-hunting spend time building up a list of dream agents to submit too, noting what order you want to contact them in. Make sure you’re finding agents who rep the kind of work you write. You can find info about them on agentquery.com. Another good way to spot agents is to read the acknowledgement section of books in the same vein as yours and see who the agent they thank is. If you’re looking for a publisher to contact directly look to see if there are any calls out for specific types of works. Entangled often puts out these types of calls.

2) Another thing you can do is continue to polish your work. Maybe you need a fresh set of eyes. Send your book to a new critique partner. Or get a professional opinion of your book. There are still some auctions open at the KidLitCares for Sandy Relief auction.

Also, YA author Michelle Zink recently posted on facebook that she’s open for new clients for her edit/critique service. “Are you planning to query agents or editors soon with your shiny manuscript? November/December is a perfect time to fine-tune your work (publishing all but shuts down until mid-January), and I just found out that I have an unexpected opening for edit and critique services at the beginning of December. I have a solid track record of helping authors gain representation and would love to help you ready your manuscript for representation and/or sale. Partials and fulls accepted! Inbox me for details.” Her contact info can be found on her Web site.

3) Or finally, just take a break and enjoy the holidays. A little time away from your book can be a big help. I often find fresh insights after I haven’t looked at one of my books for a while.

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

Making a List of Agents

Tip of the Day: Publisher's Weekly is gathering information for an upcoming story on African-American publishing. If you have information for them, check out their request.

I'm researching agents. Yay me. Actually, this isn't a difficult task, just time consuming. Inspired by my crit partner Lisa Tiffin, I set out to list 30 agents for my first round of queries. So how did I come up with this list?

1. Agents who have said nice things about my writing. Or just something. :) I save my submission logs from previous novels. If an agent requested a full or complimented my pages, I'm querying them again.

But wait. It's not that simple. Some of those agents are very busy with clients now and are no longer taking queries. Others have changed agencies. So I looked up each agent. If he/she is no longer taking queries, he/she may have a fellow agent at the same agency who is looking for my genre. So I googled each agent and each agency. That formed the basis of my list.

2. Agents of happy friends. Of course. For example, at MiGWriters, we recently ran a series of interviews with the agents of MiGWriters. Naturally, I'll be querying the agents in our blog interviews who are accepting queries.

3. Agents I researched through Literary Rambles's Agent Spotlight. Casey McCormick gathers all the online information she can find about agents accepting queries so you can decide if they're a good fit for your writing. I still looked up each agency's website, though. Even agents here who sounded great sometimes had fellow agents more open to speculative YA.

4. Verla Kay's Blueboards. Check out the Agent Response Time boards and then research the agency's website.

It's safe to say that I didn't choose any agent without seeing their agency website. That's how to find the best agent to query, get the guidelines, and find the email addresses. I added email addresses and submission guidelines to my Excel spreadsheet for submissions for this novel. Save those spreadsheets for the future!

I wasn't very impressed by Agent Query or Query Tracker. I found missing agents and outdated information. Your mileage may vary, but I say, always check the agency website. I'm not a very good Twitter stalker, either. Mostly, I find out about agents through other writers as I outlined above. But we'll see what happens when I expand my list past 30.

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

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What's Old is New Again (or Rewritten and Revised and Resubbed?)

Tip of the Day: The YALSA Symposium is three months away! Who's going (besides me)?

I am rewriting the MG novel that got me my first agent in 2008. Two slightly different versions of that novel were subbed to -- and rejected by -- about eight editors over the course of 2008-2009.

This year I went back to that novel. I love that novel (unlike some drawer novels that I have no interest in working on again). I've been rewriting and revising it like crazy, with good feedback from my CPs, and think it is so much tighter and developed and the characters stand on their own.

The main plotline of the novel is the same, as is the setting, but the execution is just so much more on point because I am a much better writer now than I was in '08.

BUT, it is too late for an agent to look at that novel? Has the ship sailed? I know editors move around a lot from house to house, and some who read it are no longer at the same houses or even still in the pub business.

If this novel were polished and ready to go out four years after its first attempt, what do you suggest I do with it if I am unagented?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Query Clinic Week: The Espressologist Query Letter

Tip of the Day: I'm hanging out in Springfield, IL, at the Illinois Reading Council Conference for the next few days as a feature speaker. Are you there too? Here's my schedule. Find me and say hi!


I'm going to share my query letter for The Espressologist since it was my most successful one. A little background here: I started querying in early February of 2007, had lots of requests for partials and fulls, and had two offers of agent representation in April. I signed with an agent and in May had an auction with four large publishers, resulting in a two book deal.


Here it is:

Dear Ms. ______:

The Espressologist is In

 Fridays 6-10 p.m.

 Come in for a little latte and love. 

That’s the sign outside of a local Chicago Wired Joe's every Friday night when jerky boss Derek Peters finds out about 17-year old barista (and high school senior) Jane Turner’s unique talent to match couples based on their favorite coffee drink (which she calls Espressology). He decides to capitalize on it—turning Jane into the holiday promotion for the month of December. She’s never been wrong, sales are through the roof, and the line of people each Espressology night wraps the block. But can it be too much of a good thing? During an interview with a national talk show at the height of Jane’s fame, she is faced with a dilemma: lose her love or lose her credibility? Or possibly lose it all, including her best friend.

Light and a lot of fun, my young adult novel, “The Espressologist is In” is complete at 42,000 words.

In addition to my love for writing fiction (specifically YA), I am also a freelance writer and writing instructor at DePaul University in Chicago, IL.  I received my Master of Arts in Writing from DePaul and I’ve written for Writer’s Digest magazine as well a number of Web sites (including AbsoluteWrite.com, Writing-World.com, pregnancyandbaby.com, sheknows.com, CoolChyck.com, and a weekly ‘Net Love column for the former Relationship101.com for over a year).

I came across your name in my search for an agent with experience in the young adult market and I feel that you would do a great job representing my novel. Would you be interested in seeing a full manuscript?

Sincerely,

Kristina Springer

--

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

Query Clinic is Open! (or Help Us Help You & Help Us)

Tip of the Day: You still have time to email your queries for our Query Clinic next week! Send them to author2author.blog AT gmail DOT com, and stay tuned this week and next to comment on other queries.

So I was going to post the query that landed me my last agent in 2009. It's for an MG manuscript that we subbed to editors and got good responses from -- including a revision request -- but alas, we did not receive any offers.

That said, I still love this book and think it is even stronger after the revision I did on spec, so in case I ever try to sub it on my own or epub it, I'd like to share a new version* of this query for feedback. Between all the MG readers at my library who ask for more books like IT'S RAINING CUPCAKES and CUPCAKE DIARIES, I think I would have an audience.


*The reason I say "a new version" is because OMG, the original one that I queried agents with is waaaaay too wordy! So here's a pared down version of the pitch for BAKE, SET, MATCH. Thanks in advance for any input/advice!

Twelve-year-old Dana Hawthorne's best friend moved away, but she's not letting it derail her summer. She's working at her parents' bakery, making friends with new girl Beth, and playing on the junior tennis team. Sure, some things aren't perfect, like the fact that Beth's dad is really sick, and that one of the twins she beat onto the tennis team is out to get her. But overall Dana can handle it because she can handle anything.

Until things get worse. The twins spread rumors that pit Beth and Dana against each other and can destroy the bakery's already slow business. Dana has to save the bakery before her family loses their house, but without Beth at her side, she's not sure she can come up with a good plan let alone execute it. Then Beth's dad gets sicker and Dana needs to decide what is important: being right, or being there for her friends and family.

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Re-Agented! (or It's a Small World After All*)

*With apologies to Disney

Tip of the Day: Email the talented Cynthia Leitich Smith (go to her LJ for details) for a chance to win Lisa's FAR FROM YOU along with an armload of other great books! (FFY is a great winter read -- get ready! Snow is coming....)

Guess what? Guess what? After my agent left the agenting business this summer and I was left floating on my own in a world of editor research, I am now re-agented! And let me tell you, the way this went down was nothing but serendipity (and a little bit of talent, right? ;-)). Here it is, in list format:

1) After querying the BETH book and LAKE NEADE to select agents for about a month, I have nothing to show but rejections or no responses.

2) I email Miss Delighted to Debut, saying, "Tina! What is wrong with me? Two years ago I got requests for pages all the time, but now I'm a better writer and I'm getting nada! What is going on?" Tina assures me that bc of editor slow-downs, agents are taking on fewer clients/are being more selective, and to hang in there.

3) Less than 24-hours after my desperate email to Tina, I have a request for the BETH book. Not from an agent who I queried, but from another agent in the agency who the query was passed on to. Hey, she sounds excited so I email her the full ms.

4) As soon as I click SEND, I see the agent has already replied to me again. Her email says that she JUST opened a box of agent copies of books, saw THE ESPRESSOLOGIST and peeked at it, saw my name on the acknowledgements page, thought there couldn't possibly be two Deena Lipomis writing YA lit, and said to herself how crazy it was that she had emailed me right before seeing my name. WOAH!

5) I write back that it IS crazy, Tina is my CP, and that one reason I queried their agency was bc when Tina's agent was with them, she loved working with them. All true!

6) The next morning, I have an email from the reading agent. She says she loves the book and wants to know if anyone else is reading it, and either way she will get back to me on Monday or Tuesday. OMG! At this point, it is all happening too fast for me to even freak out too badly.

7) I work the weekend at the library so time flies by. Phew. Monday morning comes and I'm sitting on the porch working on my wip and checking my email about every, oh, 10-12 minutes. OK, OK, 5-6 minutes. Around noon there's an email from the agent. My heart races. I immediately go back to working on my wip until I have the courage to open the email, about five minutes later.

8) I read the email, scanning the long message in search of the words, "No thanks, not for me," or "I'll take it." And I find..."but if you are interested, I would like to take the project on." EEEEEEEE!

9) I write back in my oh-so-succinct way (right) that I am super excited but: I have some questions, here are some other concerns and thoughts, and could we talk on the phone before I formally accept or decline.

10) She immediately writes back that she'll call me in an hour. So far her communications in the past five days -- five MINUTES -- have answered one of my questions about her responsiveness and quickness!

11) We chat on the phone for a while, she answers all of my questions, and I'm super excited to make the revisions she has suggested. Small things that will help amp up the dimensions of the the minor characters and the drama of the climax scene. Cool!

12) What else do I learn during our phone convo? That before she worked for the agency, she was an intern for Tina's agent and had read THE ESPRESSOLOGIST as a reader before Tina's agent took it on. She had opened the published copy of the book to see how it turned out on that fateful Thursday (a mere 4 days before) when she requested my ms. That was when she saw my name. Such a small world!

13) At the end of our convo, I officially accept her offer of rep! YAYAYAY! The contract comes on Wednesday, I sign and return it on Thursday, and in the matter of 10 days from query to signing the contract, I have a new agent.

Total time from querying any agents to signing: about 6 weeks (with my 7th novel)

Total time from querying any agents to signing with my FIRST agent 1.5 years ago: about 20 months (with my 1st through 5th novels)

To all of you looking for an agent: rest assured that with each book you write and revise again and again, and with all you soak in from the writing world, critiques, conferences, and kidlit novels you read, your work will continuously improve. It will seem "easier" to get an agent as time passes, but in reality, you worked very, very hard to get to the point where things seem to come easily. Yes, I know some serendipity played a part in my query process, but without a polished novel, it wouldn't have helped me at all. Don't give up if you want publication to happen for you! -- I know I'm never giving up! :)

This week, Kerry Evans of LGLA read through the final tweaks of my newly titled MG, BAKE, SET, MATCH and we are officially subbing for pubbing! Woo hoo!

Anyone have any newly agented stories to share?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

The Day My Writerly Life Changed

Tip of the day: Don’t buy Halloween candy yet. You know what will happen if you do!!!

My agent posted about what she’s looking for HERE, and is open to queries now.

Since I know there are people reading this blog on the agent search, I thought I’d point you there.

You may notice that in her post, she talks about my books and the query letter that interested her enough to ask to read my book.

Reading that description again, it took me back to the day I heard back from her after she read my manuscript. Keep in mind what I had written – a novel in verse about a girl being haunted by her dead boyfriend. Not exactly an easy sell.

I had some interesting responses to my query letter prior to Sara asking to read the manuscript. One agent said he wouldn’t know a good verse novel from a bad one, so he definitely wasn’t the agent for me. Another agent said the word count was far too low for a novel, what I had was more of a novella. Obviously she had never read a verse novel before! Others just straight out said – no.

But I kept trying, because of all the books I had written, I really felt like this one might be THE ONE. Thankfully, Sara requested the full, and a couple of weeks later, I got an e-mail from her. I was at work, and when the e-mail popped up, I waited, and didn’t open it for a couple of minutes. You know some of you do that too! I remember thinking, I need to prepare myself. I need to prepare myself for another no.

Finally, I opened it. And when I saw words like “the verse created a unique atmosphere” and “I would be the strongest of advocates,” I stepped up and away from my desk, my hands clutched at my chest as I said, “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.”

The secretary in cubical next to me said, “Lisa, are you okay?” I think she thought I was having a heart attack.

Nope. Not a heart attack.

An agent! An agent who loved my work!

And now, I am close to having four novels out.

Dreams really do come true!! So get those queries out there. You never know when it's your turn for a YES!

~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career

In Vegas, As In Life, All Bets Are Off (or I Take Two Steps Forward, I Take Two Steps Back*)

*With apologies to Paula Abdul

Tip of the Day: Put it all on black! (I'm in Vegas, baby!)

So, even when things are going along swimmingly when you're subbing for pubbing, some things you have no control over can slow you down. For example, when your agent decides to leave the agenting business. This is what happened to me last week.

I wish my agent the best in her new/return to her previous career! She is a great woman and I know she's doing what's best for herself, though I will miss her.

This does leave me, however, agentless and back out there in query land. Good thing Miss Querylicious has been giving me some tips these past few weeks! But I haven't had to go through this research/query process for a while and it is a time-consuming yet exciting process. So I'm shopping a brand new novel to agents and am hoping to get someone's attention.

Meanwhile, I am still subbing for pubbing! The manuscript my agent shopped has been revised and repolished, so I'm sending it out to editors on my own. This is also a lot of research and time. Phew! Go agents who do this every day for their careers!

This experience of querying both agents and editors has been eye-opening to me; it's made me really look at what's selling, what's grabbing the attention of publishing pros, and what it entails to really focus on who wants what types of novels. I also feel that this time around in my agent search, I know what questions to ask before signing, what specialities the agents should have before I even query, and what different authors are saying about who they work with. Fortunately, with so much info online, it's fairly easy to get a lot of this info!

But it doesn't mean that the agent who sounds "perfect" for me will want me!
:-o
So I must continue to query widely.

I also believe that everything will work out the way it is supposed to work out, and in the mean time, I'll continue writing, writing, writing!

And if anyone wants to recommend their fabulous agent, feel free to leave me a comment! :)

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Bring on the Requests!!

Tip of the Day: don't forget to celebrate all your accomplishments during your writing journey. It will make those rejections sting less!

It's been fun talking about queries for the past few weeks, and now I'm going to move onto talking about what to do after you get a request or the dreaded rejection. But let's start with the positive!

So you've slaved over your query, got it perfect, sent it out to agents, and now you have a request. What do you do then?

No. 1: Celebrate. This is a big accomplishment. Agent Jennifer Jackson lists statistics of what she requests. This past week out of 163 queries she requested 0. In the last three weeks out of 439 queries, she's requested 2 partials or full manuscripts. For those not good at math, that's less than 0.4%. As in less than 1%. As in OMG it is REALLY HARD to get a request.

Now this is only one agent, but my point is that if you get a request, you have sparked interest with someone with your book's concept, your writing, and your credentials. Don't forget this. Sometimes the rejections seem to overshadow the fact getting requests means you are doing something right. Because of this, I think it's important to celebrate. Even if it's something small like smiling, treating yourself to chocolate, or something else you do to reward yourself for all your hard work.

No 2: Don't Panic. After seeing stats like that it is hard not to panic. Not only before you send the query, but also after you get the request. You think, "wow, he/she likes the book concept, but what happens if he/she doesn't like my writing?" Well, that can happen, but don't let thoughts of that get in your way.

No. 3: Re-read your work. It never hurts to re-read your work. Now by this stage, you should have already revised it to death, incorporated feedback from critique partners, and done all you can to make the manuscript sparkle. But for some reason, I think sometimes the added "pressure" associated with a request gets you to see that final one or two mistakes you missed.

At the same time, don't keep revising it and revising it to stall sending the manuscript in. Be timely about it. You don't want the excitement the agent had while reading your query to be lost in the time it takes you to respond to his/her request.

No. 4: Send it off and then, here's the kicker, try to relax and not think about it for awhile. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. There's no sense wasting time worrying about getting feedback or checking your email five-million times to see if they have responded yet. While you will still probably do this, it's also important to move onto writing the next book, sending out more queries, and other things to help your career move forward. Sometimes responses come within hours, but most often it takes days or months to hear back. Be patient and keep working on something else.

Next week, we'll discuss those dreaded rejections.

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

THIS + THIS = I have no idea

Tip of the Day: Next week is our A2A School Days Giveaways! Five books about school, five chances to win them!

I got a hot tip from a friend who attended the recent Los Angeles SCBWI conference: a well-known agent suggested adding a tag line to your query letter comparing your novel to something else, giving it that high-concept hook. Like “This novel is CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY meets LORD OF THE FLIES.” I had heard this from an editor at a big house at my last local SCBWI conference. I guess this is the latest litmus test of “is your novel commercial enough and high-concept enough to sell easily?”

I can sort of see the appeal. For example, I recently read The Luxe by Anna Godbersen, and I could describe that accurately as DYNASTY meets SWEET VALLEY HIGH meets Jane Austen. Who wouldn’t want to read that hybrid?

But when it comes to describing my own books like that, well, I start having lots of insecurities.

Would I be ruled out for picking the wrong book? I understand agents and editors saying not to compare your work to Twilight or Harry Potter. I suspect they get a lot of queries like: “This is just like TWILIGHT, except with horses instead of vampires. And it takes place in 1874 Colorado. And it’s not so heavy on the romance.”

The classics are off-limits too. I loved Anne of Green Gables but I wouldn’t want to read something that resembles Anne of Green Gables. But besides that, what if I pick the wrong thing? What if I compare my novel to High School Musical? Will I be the seventh query that day comparing my novel to High School Musical? Will the agent reading my query think “If I see one more query letter comparing a novel to High School Musical, I’m going to shred it with a cleaver”? But what’s the point of comparing my novel to something obscure and unpopular?

Will this expose me as not being widely read? What if I compare my novel to High School Musical but it’s really more like the well loved novel High School Danceoff. Only I didn’t read High School Danceoff. And the agent or editor who reads my query “This is HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL meets THE SHINING” thinks “Duh, that’s High School Danceoff. What makes this different than High School Danceoff?”

Because that’s what I’m challenged to do—find the exact right novel for comparison. And I haven’t read everything there is to read yet! Talk about aiming for a writer’s insecurities.

What if I really, really can’t think of anything witty? I have one novel in progress that I think of as an older, scarier Time Warp Trio. But I can’t think of anything for the novel I’m working on now. It’s sort of Disney Channel-ish, but isn’t that just saying it’s a commercial tween novel?

So I think I’ll have to skip the comparisons on this novel. But in the meantime, I’m having fun playing pretend agent and judging pretend queries. “FRIDAY THE 13TH meets LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE?” I’ll pass. "THE FLY meets GOSSIP GIRLS"? Ooooh, I'd see pages.

-- Kate, Miss Apprentice Writer

What happens after the sale

Tip of the Day: If you ever want to visit Oregon, come in June. The strawberries are SO good here!

A friend recently asked me if there is a web site that talks about all the stuff that happens after a book is sold. I said, no I don't think so. What do you want to know? Mostly, I think she wanted to know the timing of things. Now, I am really not an expert. I can only speak to my experience and what I've heard about others experiences. But I thought I'd give it a try. Feel free to correct me if you see anything that isn't quite right.

When does the contract arrive?

It varies. Anywhere from 30 days to 300 days, give or take a few days, after the verbal offer/acceptance. Okay, I don't know if I've heard of anyone waiting almost a year, but I've heard of people waiting a LONG time. Like 6+ months. Why can it take so long? I have no idea. My contracts have generally arrived within 2-3 months after the offer. But don't be surprised if takes a lot longer. I don't think it means *anything* other than the contracts department at the house is just overworked and underpaid like everyone else in the industry.

When does the advance arrive?

It varies. Anywhere from 30 days to 150 days, give or take a few days, after the contract is signed. Hopefully if the money isn't coming after a few months, you have a good agent who will be following up and yelling "Show me the money!"

How is the advance broken up?

It varies. Some contracts state half at signing and half at delivery of manuscript. Some contracts state half at signing and half at publication. I think some contracts break it up into thirds instead of halves. And if you have multiple books as part of your offer, it's going to be different yet.

How do taxes work on that money?

No taxes are taken out. Your agent takes his/her cut and then you get the rest. But when tax time comes around, you're going to have to report that money as income. If it's a fairly large amount, you'll want to be looking into paying quarterly estimated taxes, so you don't end up owing a bunch of money the following year when you file your taxes.

When does the editorial letter arrive?

It varies. Anywhere from 30 days to 200 days, give or take a few days, after the verbal offer/acceptance. Why can it take so long? Because editors are working on lots of projects, all at various stages, and often they have to finish editing books that come out in the season before yours. So I think those projects early in the process are the ones that are easy to put on the back burner a little bit.

How long after revisions do copy edits arrive?

It varies. Anywhere from 30 days to 120 days after the revised manuscript is submitted to copy editing. The copy editor has piles of work, plus when the manuscript comes back from the copy editor, your editor has to go through it AGAIN, and make notes where he/she agrees or disagrees with the copy editor. At this point, you really start to understand why editors have to LOVE a project to take it on.

I think I'll stop there, but if you have any burning questions you'd love to have answered, let us know and we'll do our best to answer them in future posts. :)

~Lisa, Miss Pinch Me I'm Pubbed

The one in which I pretend to be an agent

Tip of the Day: if sleep is important to you, then don’t start reading Sarah Dessen’s new Lock and Key novel anywhere near nighttime.

Okay, I know I talked about this teen writing contest I’m judging last week, but I’m not ready to stop discussing it yet. Probably because it took up most of my writing-related time this past week. And also because I think it’s fun to view this contest how agents would view a slush pile. Since I love to hear agent recaps of what’s in their slush pile, I thought all of you might enjoy a similar thing. And this might be even more helpful to you YA writers, because these are the stories that teens today have on their mind (and boy, might it surprise you, like it did me).

Number of stories with the following genres, themes, beginnings, and everything else I felt like noting—out of around 70 stories total:

• Stories where someone dies, is found dead, or killed: 16
• Someone attacked, “jumped,” beaten, or abused: 9
• Involved thieves/stupid criminals: 2
• Involved a criminal trial: 2
• Centered on gangs: 2
• Kidnapping took place: 1
• Detective stories: 5
• Centered around an illness: 3
• Most of the story took place in a hospital: 5
• War/military stories: 4
• Vacation stories: 8
• Sports the central topic: 6
• Family “issue” stories or stories on divorce: 6
• Stories all about job troubles or interviews: 6
• All about relationships, dating, or crushes: 5
• About moving or starting a new school: 3
• Night-out or day-out recaps: 3
• Story about supermodels: 2
• About actors/actresses: 2
• Story about literally nothing: 2
• Centered on music: 1
• Centered on a dog/pet: 2
• Ghost stories/heaven stories: 3
• Alien stories: 2
• Story involving Candy People: 1
• Fairy stories: 1
• Storm stories: 1
• Start with the weather info: 9
• Start with a dream/waking up scene: 5
• Start with weather than immediately switch to someone waking up (didn’t think that was possible, did ya?): 2
• Referenced “this is my story” in the text: 4

Is anyone else surprise by how much death/illness/beating was going on? And the lack of fantasy stories? I was.

Also an interesting thing to note, an estimated 90% of the main characters in these stories were adults, not teens. So they were definitely thinking about things “older” then themselves, which doesn’t surprise me, but at the same time it kind of does.

Okay, now, I’ll go back to not being an agent anymore.

--Emily, Miss Awaiting an Agent

P.S. A2A loyal reader and commenter, Jennifer Hubbard just announced her first book deal. We are always excited when another author moves up to another stage in her writing career, so congrats Jennifer! We won’t hold it against you that you don’t watch The Hills.

My Agent Hunt Strategy (or You, Too, Can Find Love Through the Internet)

Tip of the Day: When you say you're going on a chocolate detox, don't purchase the econo bag of Nestle Tollhouse Morsels while grocery shopping.

As Miss Recently Repped, I feel it is my responsibility to share with you how I found Chris, my wonderful agent. I know there is a lot of comprehensive information out there on how to start such a search, but this is my personal story for those who are interested. And maybe it will inspire some readers!

First, a re-cap: Between June 2004 and June 2007, I'd completed 4 YA and 1 MG novels. Some of them were crap, but that didn't stop me from querying on them (bc I didn't know they were crap, I swear!) and then receiving rejections on them. But when I completed that YA novel #4, I KNEW I was onto something. There was plot! There were stakes! There was voice! This book was UNDENIABLY FANTASTIC! (***Sending these vibes to editors right now***)

SO, what I did to find an agent once I knew I had The Book:

1. I visited agentquery.com and made a list of the first batch of agents to query. My first list included those who accepted equeries, had given me positive feedback on my past work, or who repped some of my favorite authors.

2. I read the acknowledgments pages of MG and YA novels to see who repped these books and made notes on who to query.

3. I read Verla Kay's message board, particularly the Agent threads.

4. I Googled the names of the agents I was interested in so I could personalize their query letters.

5. I read the deals on Publishers Marketplace.

6. I wrote query letters. I revised the letters. I got my CPs to weigh in on the letters. I sent the query letters out into the world of agents.

7. I got rejections. Some forms, and some personal ones that pretty much said, "Great writing, interesting premise, but I'm not that into the year 1955," which was apparently a problem since 1955 was the year my book to place.

8. I figured since I was getting personal feedback on the query and sample pages, those weren't the problem. The problem was finding someone to connect with 1955.

9. I went back to agentquery.com and modified my search to those who repped YA and Historical Fiction, when previously I'd been searching for the criteria in (1) above with MG, YA, or Children's as the qualifying genres. My new search terms resulted in only a few agents who I hadn't already queried based on my original criteria. Chris was one of them. She was worth a shot!

10. I sent Chris a snail mail query. Two weeks later, she emailed me asking for the first 30 pages. One month later she emailed me asking for the full. Two months later she emailed me with the word that she loved my book, but she was switching agencies and needed her new head agent to read it as well and agree that her agency could rep me!

11. To say I was THRILLED is an understatement. She TOTALLY got my book and LOVED the historical aspect and the year it took place! She asked for some fact verifications. And then the head agent at her new agency loved it, too!

12. Not only was the new agency that Chris moved to a better fit for me (due to the amount of kidlit sold), but I now had the support of two great agents. Wow. We talked on the phone and could've blabbed for hours. She answered my emails in a day -- even on the weekends! She wanted to rep me for my whole career. Wow again.

13. Six months after my initial query to Chris -- seven from my first query on this novel -- I was signed with an agent. One who supported the year 1955 (I still don't know how ppl can deny its greatness after Back To The Future).
Don't give up, fellow authors. Good things come with time -- and a little research.

Those of you with agents, what was your search strategy? How did you connect with YOUR agent?

Deena, Miss Recently Repped

When’s the right time to query?

Tip of the Day: If you ever wonder when to query agents and the only advice you keep seeing is “when it’s ready,” then it’s perfectly acceptable to take a break from writing and regroup while watching American Idol.

As I’m finishing up my current work-in-progress, I keep asking myself the above question on when is the right time to query. I’m not sure I have an answer. Or really if one exists, since I imagine it’s different for every person and book. Sure, I definitely need to finish the book first. Then I need to wait to do more edits after having critique partners read it. But after that, how will I know when it’s ready?

I don’t want to be like those American Idol beginning contestants and think I have a good voice and then get laughed off by the judges. I want my “voice” to be ready when I send it out to my own judges (i.e. agents).

But knowing if your work is good enough and “ready” to be sent out into the world is hard to judge for yourself. There’s two good pieces of advice I’ve heard about when a writer should query in the last few weeks:

1.) Most authors submit to agents one-draft too soon. (Sorry, I don’t remember where I saw the first one, so I can’t give them credit. If you know, let me know.):

This is excellent advice and a reminder that when I’m ready I need to wait and hold out until one-more draft is done. And just hope it’s the draft that will get me through. This is definitely something I’m learning with each book I write.

With the first books, it’s really easy to send early, since you are craving feedback and want to know if your “baby” has a shot. It feels more like you are jumping up and down in a crowd and waving your manuscript back and forth yelling, “Pick me. Pick me.” However with each book, I think you learn more of not only what to do when querying agents to effectively target the attention you do have, instead of waving erratically, but also about patience. And hopefully about making the book better that agents can’t resist but to pick you (wouldn’t that be nice!).

2.) The second advice was on Kate Schafer’s Ask Daphne! Blog. Here’s a link to the entry. I read this tons of times, just because I knew it was advice I needed to hear. Basically her advice is that if you are down to tweaking instead of making the story better and you have all your loose ends tied together and have complete story and character arcs, then the book is ready to query.

I like this advice for a number of reasons. But mainly because I can understand it better than the standard, “send when it’s ready.” Because frankly, I really don’t get that. Because no one asks when it’s going to be ready if they know what “ready” really means. Now do they?

Which brings me to you all. When do YOU think a manuscript is ready to be sent to agents? Because I could really use some more advice and a slap on the hand, since occasionally my old-newbie writer self comes out and really craves to jump the gun and see if my “baby” has a shot. And I’d really rather refrain from looking like a fool jumping up and down yelling, “Pick me. Pick me.”

--Emily, Miss Awaiting an Agent

Agented = More Writing Time (or How Internet + Me = Black Hole)

Tip of the Day: Spend $80 to get your studded snow tires on your car to ensure that it never snows again.


I didn't always want an agent. In 2005, when I was writing Novel #2 and querying editors on Novel #1 (bef0re I realized it was: (a) not good, and (b) without plot), I stuck my nose up at the publishing houses who would not dare to even glance at a query from me because I was unagented. I mean, who needed them let alone the specialized people in the industry to send my manuscripts to them? I could print out my own queries, throw some stamps on an envelope and keep my 15% when I got an offer for my books thankyouverymuch! Boo yeah! "Suckers!" I said about those agented writers.


Ha ha ha on me.


After about a year of this thinking and spending some more time on Verla's chat board, I learned the errors of my thinking. And there were many of them. Not only did I realize the benefits of having an agent to do contract negotiations (a language I will never speak), and their ability to get better book deals than I could get on my own, but I also learned that I could get some great reactions out of people by responding to them with, "Um, yeah, you'll have to run that by my agent."


OK, OK, that last part I only realized AFTER I signed with Chris, but the important thing that I gleaned is that agents do research on editors so they know where to send your book! Ding ding ding! Brilliant and important, folks!


This doesn't mean that I am no longer curious as to which editors worked on what books, but all that time I used to spend online and in books looking up editor names and what house they were at and their submission guidelines, I can now do something else.


I can WRITE!


I've heard authors say that a writer should spend their time in percentages something like (*not a direct quote; I don't remember who said it or the exact numbers, but bear with me here*):

Reading: 45%
Writing 45%
Submitting (and related research): 10%


Generally, I agree with these numbers and their application. Yet, before I had my agent, my own percentages were more like:

Reading: 50%
Writing: 20%
Submitting (and related research): 239%


You may notice some skewed percentages here, and I hate to admit that a lot of the 239% was because it was a good way to procrastinate on writing. I told myself it was an acceptable form due to its direct relationship with getting published. For as much as I suck lying to others, I am great at lying to myself.


But now that I am agented, I can't even lie to myself about that because seomeone else is helping me research where to send my novel! And what writer doesn't wish for More Time to Write? So now my percentages are something closer to this:

Reading: 40%
Writing: 40%
Emailing the A2A girls on random topics: 136%


As you can see, I AM improving, and all because I got an agent. Though I am recently repped, I already feel like this relationship will be more productive for me in the long run.


How about you? What are your percentages?


Deena, Miss Recently Repped

Agent Find 2008

Tip of the Day: when wearing high heels for the first time in three years, it’s probably best to refrain from walking in mud.

Now that the New Year is settling in and publishing is emerging from its holiday break, many of you in the Awaiting an Agent phase might be getting ready to send queries, have set your resolutions for the year to secure an agent, and feel like 2008 is going to be your year.

First I have to say: GO YOU!

The first of the year always feels wonderful to me. It’s like you get to start a new chapter of your life, and cleanse the bad of the last year away, for good. And the excitement to start the New Year off with a bang is fresh and…well…new.

But the bad thing about the start of the New Year for publishing and agent seeking, is that before the beginning of 2008 comes the end of 2007. And at the end of 2007, comes something if you are like me, you dread seeing. The good-old Year End Agent Query Reports. Like this, this, and even this just in the new year.

And if you are like me, your first instinct at seeing numbers like that is to hyperventilate.

Because if Agent Kristin Nelson got 30,000 queries in 2007, then how many queries is she going to get in 2008? Basic mathematics—or at the very least publishing trends—surely suggest the number has to go up, doesn’t it? And if she took on eight clients in 2007, then clearly she doesn’t have as much room left on her client list, right?

And no matter how excited and pumped you are for the New Writing Year, seeing statistics like that can be overwhelming.

Well, my advice to you, fellow Agent Seekers who might be overwhelmed by those stats, is to print them out and shred them to little pieces one by one. Or if you are against paper shredding, then take those stats to heart with a grain of salt. Why am I giving you this advice? Because if I give it to you, then I have to take it myself, right?

Yes, but aside from that, if you could magically chisel away all the people that queried for genres the agent doesn't represent, didn’t revise their manuscripts once—let alone multiple times, sent queries to the wrong agent, and all those that didn’t personalize their queries at all, then the number would be much more manageable. And if you are savy enough to read blogs like this, study the industry, personalize your query letters, and the myriad of other wonderful things I know you fellow Agent Seekers do, then you are ten steps ahead of the other thousands upon thousands of people submitting to agents.

I started the year in 2006 and in 2007 gung-ho to get an agent. Though I had many close calls, I still don’t have one. But what did happen was that my writing has improved tremendously, I’m much more market savy, and I feel I’m much older and wiser, if you will, with this third book. So my time spent in 2006 and 2007 looking for agents, I wouldn’t trade for anything, and it only means my chances of securing an agent in 2008 have increased ten-fold.

And that excites me.

It also drives me.

Because I know I’m not only closer to finding an agent right for me, but also my publication goal.

So here’s to a great 2008 Agent Find.

Till Next Tuesday,

Emily, Miss Awaiting an Agent