publishing

Quick Update

I’ve been meaning to post for a while, but real life + writing has gotten in the way.  (That’s a good thing, right?)  Here’s the latest:

• Fingerprints didn’t make the semifinal round of ABNA.  That’s all right, though.  I’ll have a post discussing my Publishers Weekly review soon.
• The first five pages (with the option to read a little more) are available for rating on WEbook’s PageToFame contest.  More for fun and curiosity than anything else.  Rating other people’s work is fun, too.
• “Assumptions” is being rated on WEbook’s PageToFame Shorts contest.  Totally just for fun.
• I “finished” the sequel to Fingerprints, tentatively titled Echoes.  It’s been through a few rounds of editing and beta reads, and little sis is working on a cover design (in case I end up going the self-pub route with this whole thing).
• The third book in the series (as yet untitled) is underway.
• An agent still has the Fingerprints full.
• Still working on short story submissions.
• Several queries out in the ether.
• Oh, yeah … final exams and graduation are coming up.

Sounds busy enough to me.

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School Talk: Jess M. Brallier

Students at my school (K-12) had a great experience today, hearing from Jess M. Brallier (author of Tess’s Tree and involved in the publishing of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, among many other things).  This was the culmination of our first Author Illustrator Competition, where kids school-wide wrote, illustrated, edited, designed, and produced books.

Very interesting to hear from “someone on the inside” here in our little school.  I loved the beginning, when he introduced the concepts of publisher, author, and reader – especially since our students are deaf and very visually inclined.  As publisher, he wore a smart blazer and coordinating hat, very sophisticated.  As author, he wore a scary-loud plaid jacket with a fur-lined cap.  As reader, he was a regular guy wearing a baseball cap.

After setting up two volunteer students as the author and reader (on opposite sides of the stage), he explained a publisher’s role as getting the author’s work to the reader.  He did a great job explaining how this could involve getting it physically from the author’s cabin in Wyoming to a bookstore in New York, or getting it translated into Chinese, or getting it published online.

The best part was knowing how huge this was for at least a couple students who I know want to become writers.  Thanks to this, they know more about the process than I did at their age.  I think all the students gained some insight into where books come from and how much goes into it.

Interesting note: The student who asked the most (and some of the best) questions was a self-confessed non-reader.  I wonder if she was just curious because she knows I’m in the process of trying to get published. 😉

Anyone else have interesting experiences with school talks by authors (either giving or seeing one)?  This was more the publishing perspective, but what other information about writing do you think would benefit students?

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Keeping Busy

Progress!  I have written another short story.  I won’t be posting it here, because I have hopes of submitting it to a few places.  (Imagine if it got accepted – I’d have a publishing credit.  How snazzy!)  Just under 4000 words, so about four times as long as the first attempt.  The first was just a fun little exercise to see what happened if I tried.  This one I took more seriously.  If anyone’s willing to offer some feedback, drop me a line.

I’ve also gotten back to the sequel for Fingerprints.  Wrote several pages, knowing that I was likely to cut most of one scene.  I had to write it to get things rolling again, but as a scene, it wasn’t going anywhere.  SNIP!  I hope I can keep pushing forward on it.  It feels like it’s a third of the way (or maybe halfway) through, so I’m curious how long it’ll end up.

Meanwhile, the day job has plenty going on as well.  State testing this week, which I have to miss my morning classes to administer every day except Thursday.  Seven of my students (including my entire Pre-Calculus class) will be leaving for Europe Tuesday afternoon and will miss the rest of this week and next.  Oh, and I’ve been procrastinating a final project for my professional development class.

All this has helped a great deal in keeping my mind off the next round of cuts for ABNA (happening Tuesday) and the full I have out to an agent.  I prefer stressing about things I have some (if little) control over.

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While Waiting

I got my first request for a full on Friday (prompting a weekend-long happy-dance).  While it’s not out on an exclusive basis, I have various reasons for waiting a bit before querying further.  Thus, I find it’s time to make a list:

Things to Do While Waiting on an Agent

1. Work on the sequel  (I know, I know … sell the first one first.)
2. Try hand at short stories  (First attempt seen here, more “sincere” attempt underway.)
3. Reorganize a closet or two  (or three …)
4. Do stuff for the day job  (Should this be higher on the list?)
5. Consider learning another language  (ASL? Check. French? Semi-check. Spanish, which would be particularly useful? D’oh!)
6. Watch episodes of Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs  (Am I the only one waiting for these two shows to collide?)
7. Back I’ve Been Deader  (Hey, where’d that come from?!)
8. Reconsider languages  (I wanna learn Welsh … but why?)
9. Ponder what would happen if Roombas became self-aware  (I mean, really, think about it.)
10. Read “real” books  (Got a stack of seven waiting for me.)

There’s my first ten.  What do you do while waiting for an agent’s response?

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The Author’s Skin: Part 2

I wrote previously about how writers respond to criticism of their work.  There’s another reason to make sure our skin is thick enough, though: If you’re in the public eye, people might go after more than your work.

Think of all the things about you or your personal life people could make fun of or attack.  Your appearance, social status, ethnicity, religion … I’ve got a mental list of “easy targets” ready and waiting.

I could save the late-night talk show hosts some time and money by writing the jokes myself.

Where do we draw the line between standing up for ourselves and ignoring people who just want to get a rise out of us?  How do we keep ourselves from taking it personally when it is personal?

Since I halfway expect it, I think I’d just brush it off as ignorance.  I’d also want to try to educate people, to counteract that ignorance, but it’s tricky.  Of course, I won’t really know unless I ever get into that situation, though online communities have given plenty of small-scale practice.

Last thing I want is to become known as the author who blew up over a supposed personal affront.

I’d rather be known as the author who wrote great books and conducted herself in a classy manner.  Anyone else?

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Query Blues with a Christmas Twist

Anyone who’s made an attempt to get published knows about the dreaded query letter.  Your first thought is, “What goes into it?  What are the rules?”  The more you research, the more you find that every agent’s rules will contradict someone else’s.

Someone got clever with this for a song contest.  Check out the post at Janet Reid’s blog.

I feel better knowing I’m not alone.

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