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

Writing on Vacation

Vacation Tip of the Day: Have kids? Bring a towel to the beach. Even in February when everyone insists the water is too cold and your kids won't go near it. They will.

I’m on a family vacation this week. No work, no school. We left the snow belt and are now south of the Mason-Dixon line. Time for some R&R.

But in the back of my mind, there’s a little voice saying, wow, think of all the writing you can get done this week!

Now, could I go a week without writing? Oh, sure. No problem there. I might feel guilty, like if I ate ice cream for dinner all week. But I don’t want a vacation from writing. I don’t get enough time to write in my regular life. On the other hand, I don’t want my vacation to be a driven, goal oriented, “I have to accomplish this or I’ll feel inadequate” type of week. I know I won’t get a lot of writing done because time is an illusion, especially on vacation. At the beginning of a week off, I think I have all the time in the world to catch up on my sleep, bond with my family, meet old friends, read a few books, evaluate my life priorities and whip out a few chapters of my work-in-progress. But experience tells me that the time will slip through my fingers, leaving me with nothing but a backlog of laundry.

So here’s my plan for vacation writing: I’m going to write slow. I’m bringing a legal pad and a few pens. I’m letting my characters go off on tangents. I already have a great stupid tangent idea—based on a long-ago family vacation—about the world’s worst family restaurant experience. I just need an imaginary restaurant name. So far I have:
-- Steamy's
-- The Microwavery
-- The Opossum Road Grill
-- The Country Trough

None of these are funnier than the real-life restaurant inspiring my bad family meal scene, where I was introduced to gray soup. (SmorgaBobs. http://www.yelp.com/biz/smorgabobs-vallejo. No lie.) I'll just have to keep brainstorming.

To punch up the sibling rivalry part of my WIP, I’ll ask my brothers to brainstorm creative ways to destroy a girl's possessions. I know they used to be experts. Too bad there isn’t a modern analog for putting things in a hot-air popcorn popper and shooting them across the house, but maybe we can come up with one.

The outline is staying at home. When I get back to real life, I’ll get serious about writing that synopsis. Really.

Do you write on vacation? Or do you need a vacation from writing? Or has it been so long since you’ve been on an actual vacation that writing is your vacation? And have I inspired you to write about your worst family vacation dining experience? (Can you top gray soup?)



-- Kate, Miss Apprentice Writer

We Heart Contests!

Congratulations to tasha - you are the winner of LOST IT, by Kristen Tracy! HOORAY!!!

Please e-mail us your information so we can send you your book. The e-mail address is author2author (dot) blog (at) gmail (dot) com.

Thanks to all of you who participated in our first contest! We love sharing book love with others, so we promise there will be more contests in our future.

In the meantime, happy reading and writing!

~Lisa, Miss Pinch Me I'm Pubbed

Sharing the Love Book Giveaway No. 5

Tip of the Day: YA Librarian Lena is the winner of THE BOYFRIEND LIST from yesterday. Yay Lena! Please send us an e-mail at author2author dot blog at gmail dot com with your information!

Love.
Romance.
Sex.

It can be tough, sometimes, being a writer for teens.

If you have a book with love, does there need to be sex?

If you have a book with romance and sex, does there have to be love?

Of course, there’s no right or wrong answer. You have to ask, what’s true to the characters? What’s true to the story? And then you hope like crazy you’re getting it right.

I think Kristen Tracy’s book, LOST IT, our giveaway book for today, gets it right. It actually has all three of the above elements PLUS a bonus. Yep. A bonus!

Humor.

Now you’re asking, wait a minute. Humor with love? With romance? With SEX???

Yes. Absolutely. Because let’s face it, when you’re a teen in the middle of a relationship, and you’re figuring everything out for the first time, it’s often awkward. And yes, FUNNY! Okay, so maybe it’s hard to see the humor at the time. But come on. It was there, wasn’t it?

I adore the way the author uses humor in this book. It makes it all so real.

Check out this starred review from Publishers Weekly.

“Readers will be immediately drawn to this hilarious and heartfelt first novel about a girl who falls in love—and has her first sexual experience—and tries to let go of her fears. Tess Whistle lives in Idaho with paranoid parents, who ‘became born again’ after a kitchen fire. The book begins with an account of how she loses her virginity, then flashes back to the start of junior year, when she expected to stay a virgin until she is ‘at least engaged.’ Tess has plenty of phobias, mostly of the natural world where she could be ‘torn to pieces by a pack of recently relocated gray wolves.’ Just before her whole life crumbles, Benjamin Easter transfers to her school. Tess falls intensely in love without realizing ‘that you can't depend on another person to provide your own balance.’ And there's no doubt that Tess's life is out of balance: Her best friend is building a bomb, claiming she wants to blow up a poodle, her parents run off to join a survival camp, and Tess tells Ben she is diabetic as way of explaining her ‘juvenile’ apple juice box, then maintains the lie. Readers may be so busy laughing out loud at the eccentric characters and outrageous plotting that they may not realize how much they have grown to empathize with desperate Tess until her relationship is in crisis. Readers will fall in love with this offbeat story—and its rich lesson about living a life without guarantees.”

To enter to win this book, just leave a comment here or at the Livejournal feed. If you’ve posted about the contest this week, you’ll get another entry (but please let me know about it when you enter). Look for a special post tomorrow morning announcing the winner!

Have a great weekend!

~Lisa (Miss Pinch Me I'm Pubbed

Book Giveaway Day 4 -- "15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs and me, Ruby Oliver"

Tip of the Day: Financial guru Suze Orman is GIVING AWAY her book, WOMEN AND MONEY until 8 p.m. EST TODAY. Go to www.oprah.com and click on the link at the top to get your copy. Have a great Valentine’s day! <3

And, elainareads, write to us at author2authorDOTblogATgmailDOTcom with your name and snail mail address because YOU are the lucky winner of Wendy Toliver’s THE SECRET LIFE OF A TEENAGE SIREN.

Isn’t that line in the title a great line? It sums up the story so simply and it’s written on the super cute cover of the book, THE BOYFRIEND LIST, by E. LOCKHART. The Boyfriend List stars 15-year old Ruby Oliver who is having a super sucky time at school. So bad that she is having panic attacks and her parents send her to a shrink for help. And to understand what is going on with her better, the shrink has her make a list of all of the boyfriends she has ever had—which you just know is going to get her in trouble too. Through examining each relationship, we see how Ruby got to the point she is at.

You’ll adore the book for its interesting format and of course—love/relationship problems throughout. Like how Ruby just loves her boyfriend SO much and then how not only is her heart completely broken when he dumps her out of the blue but it is a double whammy when it is at the hands of her BFF. You’ll also instantly feel for Ruby and her new situation at school--one of those times when all of your friends turn on you and you want to just hide and never go to school again but you force yourself to face it anyway. Something probably all girls can relate to at one time or another. For me it was this one girl in 5^th grade that we’ll just call Christy (because a) I shouldn’t post her last name and b) I can’t remember it anyway. Hey, at least I wasn’t too scarred!). We were BFFs until one day she thought I said she smelled or something (which I totally didn’t) and turned all of my friends against me. It was horrible! I hid in the bathroom handicap stall at lunchtime for a week until I finally told my mom and she called Christy’s mom and told her to stop being a little snot and apologize. She did and we were never friends again after that but at least I had my other friends back.

Ok, so I veered off the Valentine’s/love thread a bit here but hey—this book has it all! Heartbreak can be a part of Valentine’s Day and BFFs can break your heart too. Was there ever a Christy in your life? Do share if so. Come on—it’s group therapy! Or, just comment anyway before Midnight EST and you’ll have the chance to win this book (two chances if you post with the link to your promo of our contest) and see how things turn out for Ruby. Lisa, Miss Pinch Me I’m Pubbed, will announce the winner tomorrow!

Kristina, Miss Soon-to-Pub

Sharing the Love Book Giveaway Day 3! (or How to Spot My Boyfriend a Mile Away)

Tip of the Day: If Valentine's Day gets you as excited as dry white toast, check out Bittersweets at Despair.com. Heart messages include gems such as "Dog is Cuter" and "He Fit U Fat." Couldn't have said it better myself.

***And the WINNER of SOMETHING TO BLOG ABOUT by Shana Norris is: candycana

Yay! Congrats! Please send your snail mail addy and name to author2authorDOTblogATgmailDOTcom.

To all non-winners (bc no one's a Loser here on A2A!), you have until Midnight EST to comment on this entry for a chance to win Wendy Toliver's THE SECRET LIFE OF A TEENAGE SIREN (two chances if you post with the link to your promo of our contest).***

Novels are, by their very nature, fictional. They have characters who aren't real -- or are they?

Every teen love interest male character in my books has pieces of my manpanion* in it. I mean, how could I not include such fabulousness? I would never have made it to Recently Repped if he hadn't been so supportive -- and helpful -- with my writing. It only makes sense that I use someone who evokes strong loving emotions in my real life to transfer to what my MCs wants in a boy as well.

What are these traits? Glad you asked!

1. An excellent sense of humor, wittiness, sarcasm, and gentle flirting.
2. Musical talent.
3. Tall, dark, and handsome -- but not the traditional "model" look (no Ken dolls for me).
4. Laid back, comfortable, and warm.
5. Likes his t-shirts, fleece, and jeans.
6. Is a year or two older than the chick.

Of course, not every character I write will have all of these characteristics. Some books might have a few boys who each have a couple. But you won't get through a whole novel of mine without coming across some of them. And then there is my one book where I blatantly named the teen band Filthy Funk....

The other good thing about my manpanion*? He knows I'm writing this post about him and doesn't mind!

What traits repeatedly show up in your girl/boy love interest characters? And are they based on your real life sweetie? Leave a comment and you'll be entered to win this book! Post about this contest on your blog and leave a comment with a link to that post, and you'll be entered twice!
THE SECRET LIFE OF A TEENAGE SIREN is a fun romance read! I love these Simon Pulse Ro-Coms bc they have fiesty MCs who aren't perfect, but are still totally likeable. This is a trait I need to learn to perfect myself.

SIREN doesn't have an older musician love interest, but it does have a female floutist who on her 16th birthday turns into a Siren and can play her music to make men do her bidding. I hope that's not why I'm always writing my guitar-playing man into my books...he's controlling my mind with his tunes....

Comment to win it! Woo hoo!

Happy Valentine's Day, all!

Deena, Miss Recently Repped

*"Manpanion" is a trademark of the lovely and talented author Rhonda Stapleton, and is used with permission, though she wishes its use to become more commonplace in today's society. I concur.

Sharing the Love Book Giveaway No. 2

Tip of the Day: …..drumroll…..elissa please email your full name and mailing address to author2author(DOT)blog(AT)gmail(DOT)com. Because yes, you are the winner of IT'S NOT ABOUT THE ACCENT. Congrats.

For those that didn’t win, you are in luck because we have another giveaway going on right now! Just leave a comment to this post for your chance to win!

Today is a super special day. Not only do we have another Sharing the Love book to give away (Who doesn’t love a giveaway? Aren’t they the coolest?), but we also have an extra special visit from another author: Shana Norris. Shana has agreed to not only tell us about her book SOMETHING TO BLOG ABOUT, which you can win today, but also share some tips for all the authors out there. Shana doesn’t know it, but for agreeing to do this, I am even giving her an honorary Miss name of Miss Awesome Author.

So without further ado here is the lovely and talented Shana Norris to tell us about her new book that you can win, which just hit shelves a little over a week ago.

***

First, Shana thanks for stopping by. We are really glad to have you and appreciate you taking the time to answer our questions!

Thank you for having me here, Emily!

Now, on with the questions:

Why don’t you tell us a little about your newly released debut novel Something to Blog About:
Something to Blog About is a humorous young adult novel about fifteen-year-old Libby Fawcett, who has a reputation for getting into embarrassing situations. At the beginning of the story, she has a mishap with a Bunsen burner and sets her hair on fire—in front of Seth, the guy she’s had a crush on since eighth grade. So Libby decides to start a secret blog to write about all the traumas of her life. She never intends for anyone else to ever read the blog, but then it gets posted throughout her school and everyone reads her secrets as well as her friends’ secrets too.

What was your favorite part about writing this book?
I loved Libby’s voice. She’s a fun perspective to view the world from because she’s overly dramatic as well as being klutzy. I also really liked developing the relationships between Libby and the other characters, especially Libby and her mom, and Libby and Angel.

How many books did you write before Something to Blog About sold?
I’ve been writing since I was a kid, so I’ve written A LOT of books during that time. But they were all really bad, so I don’t count them! From the time that I decided to seriously pursue publication, I wrote four books before SOMETHING TO BLOG ABOUT. But STBA was my first YA. Before that, I thought I would become a fantasy writer, which is what the four books before STBA were. I still love to read fantasy, but I’m not very good at writing it! I never had any luck getting my fantasy stories published and never even got any interest at all from agents for my fantasy books. But with STBA, I got several requests for partials and fulls, and then was offered representation 11 months after I first started querying for it. Then seven months and a lot of revisions later, we had a pre-empt offer from Amulet Books.

What's one piece of advice you’d give the people reading this blog in each of those stages?
For those in the Writing Apprentice and Awaiting an Agent stages: Not everyone is going to realize your brilliance the first time you send out queries. LOL. Seriously, you’re going to get rejections. Even bestselling authors have been rejected at some point. Just keep trying! For the Recently Repped: It doesn’t get any easier once you have the agent. There is still a lot of hard work to prove yourself in this business and there will probably be times you feel like crying and giving up. Don’t give in to those feelings! To the Soon-to-Pub: Learn all you can about paying taxes on your advance so you understand exactly what you need to do! Seriously!! And to Pinch Me I’m Pubbed: Don’t let the bad reviews get you down. One way I’ve figured out to make me feel better when I get a not so great review is to go to Amazon.com, look up a best-selling author, and then read all of her one and two star reviews. It always cheers me up to know that even best-selling authors get bad reviews.

Can you tell us more specific information about the love interest in your book?
Libby’s love interest is a cute, quiet guy named Seth. She’s been in love with him ever since the eighth grade, when they had to work on a class project together. But Libby has never had the courage to talk to him, so she admires him from afar—until the perfect opportunity to get close to him lands in her lap and she can’t pass it up. Seth is a bit of a mystery to everyone at Libby’s school. He doesn’t have a lot of friends and usually keeps to himself. No one knows too much about him because he hates being part of high school gossip so he keeps his personal life as secret as he can.

If you could cast any Hollywood actress/actor, entertainer, model, or other personality to be the main characters of your book, who would you choose?
We would all be in trouble if I was in charge of casting a movie version of SOMETHING TO BLOG ABOUT because I have a hard time choosing any actors that I think fit the roles! LOL. But I could see Amanda Bynes as Libby, since she’s got that cute, bubbly look about her. And Michael Cera as Roger. Maybe Vanessa Hudgens as Angel. But I have no idea who would play Keisha or Seth!

If you could switch places with any other author who would it be?
Meg Cabot! I’d like to spend the day in her head and find out how she writes such hilarious books.

And finally, if you could go on vacation tomorrow, where would you go?
My husband and I are really into history and I love Greek mythology, so I would love to go to Greece and see ruins of ancient cities and temples.

Thank you so much Miss Awesome Author Shana. We all really appreciate you stopping by and sharing with us today. For those out there that what to show Shana some love, they can visit her Web site at: www.shananorris.com to learn more about her or her new book.

And please, please don’t forget to leave a comment, either here or on our LiveJournal feed, for your chance to win your very own copy of Something to Blog About. Comments have to be in by the end of the day (midnight EST). And if you link or have linked to author2author.blogspot.com in your blog or Web site, let me know where in your comment (even if you told us yesterday, please let us know again) and you get two entries.

Deena will announce the winner tomorrow in her post, which I caught a glimpse of and it’s about boys (which I am super excited about because I love hearing about boys!) and you can win a copy of The Secret Life of a Teenage Siren. So make sure to check back to see if you won!

--Emily, Miss Awaiting an Agent