Cross-posting no more

I've been cross-posting to this blog for some time. And now I'm done.

If you want to follow my blog, visit me at--

YA MAMMA (How to get published, the craft of writing, good books, etc.) at livejournal http://laurenbjorkman.livejournal.com

Or GirlPower (about my books, contests, books with strong female protagonists, ASK MY SISTER--(mostly) good advice for those who dare) at wordpress http://laurenbjorkman.wordpress.com

I'm grateful that MY INVENTED LIFE is out in the world!

Win a copy of MY INVENTED LIFE in three different ways!

1. Comment at the end of this post about something you are grateful for. It can be as simple as:

I’m grateful that my BFF noticed the poppy seeds between my teeth before my crush.

2. Enter my contest GoodReads here.
www.goodreads.com/giveaway/enter_choose_address/1451-my-invented-life

3. Enter the contest on my blog. There you can win a pair of sweet sister necklaces (made by me) AND a copy of my book.
laurenbjorkman.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/the-best-contest-yet-win-sister-necklaces/

A friend of mine recently told me that she keeps a notebook by her bedside. Every day she writes down five things she is grateful for. This has helped her appreciate the things she has, instead of focusing on what she wishes for. And it reminds her that she's much better off today than the day she wrote: I’m grateful I can afford to buy groceries for dinner tonight.

Today I am following her lead. Instead of focusing on my wish for blockbuster reviews, a million copies sold, and an interview on Oprah, I’m reflecting on how lucky I am to have a real live book out in the wild.

I’m grateful for...

Pelle, who has supported the excessive amount of time I devote to my neurotic writing habit my writing career. Who makes me laugh, encourages me to write, and makes excellent coffee.

chocolate—preferably very dark and Fair Trade.

my dad, who gave me days off from school to write my stories.

Leif, who hugs me when I’m sad.

Drake, who lets me steal his ideas.

my sister, Jolene, for inspiring me.

coffee for keeping me on task.

books—all of them.

my critique partners. Without the combination of their positive and negative reviews, I would never have gotten this far.

my editor, agent, and all the other fine people who designed my cover, herded my foreign rights, wrote press releases, mailed out ARCs, copy-edited my manuscript, set the type, and a thousand other tasks I may never fully understand.

my catchy book cover. The girl on the right is definitely Roz.

the internet for being an excellent source of information and a place to meet enthusiastic YA book bloggers who are truly passionate about books.

my cats for keeping me company as I work.

everyone who has posted their coming out story online.

my friends for listening to me talk about my writing over the years, and for believing in me.

and for everyone who has read and will read my book.

Thank you!

My Invented Life Give Away!

Who: Anyone anywhere in the world

What: A hardcover copy of My Invented Life signed by me

When: September 23rd through October 15th

Where: Leave a comment at the awesome blog The Book Butterfly:

http://butterflybookreviews.blogspot.com/2009/09/guest-post-with-lauren-bjorkman-contest.html

ASK MY SISTER--(mostly) good advice for those who dare

I just posted my latest ASK MY SISTER entry on my website blog. ASK MY SISTER features advice from the zany Roz and her more sane sister, Eva. Check it out. laurenbjorkman.wordpress.com/

The letter was provided by Book Butterfly. Visit her charming blog. She did an awesome review of My Invented Life. butterflybookreviews.blogspot.com/2009/09/book-review-my-invented-life-by-lauren_19.html

If you want advice on life, love, or theater pranks, ASK MY SISTER is where it's at. Please email letters to lauren@laurenbjorkman.com

The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z

Kate Messner, the author of the poignant and thoroughly middle grade novel THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z has written to Ask My Sister on behalf of her adorable protagonist. Read on for a fun letter some most excellent advice.

Dear Eva,

I am locked up here in my bedroom because I only have a few days left to finish this ginormous leaf collection project. It's REQUIRED for 7th grade science, and if I don't pass it, I can't run at cross country sectionals and Bianca gets to go instead. (I know you don't know Bianca, but trust me, she does not belong there and is a pretty awful human being, too.)

The thing is...I sort of left this to the last minute, and things keep going wrong, and my Nonna's acting all weird and confused on top of everything else. Any tips for how I can get it done? Or do you maybe have one from when YOU were in 7th grade that I could borrow or something?

Desperately yours,

Gianna Z

P.S. There's also this guy...are you good with advice about guys? I'm not even sure I like him yet. I mean, LIKE him, like him, know what I mean? But I'm wondering how I should act around him since we've been friends forever and now I kind of like him. Well, I don't really LIKE him like that, but I might sort of like him. Oh nevermind...here comes my mom. I have to pretend I'm identifying leaves.

Dear Gianna,

Are you sure you didn’t mean to write Roz? She seems more like your type—scattered, disorganized, and ….a little boy crazy.

Scratch that. You sound adorable in a scattered, disorganized, not very boy crazy kind of way. What you need is a big sister to help straighten things out.

First of all never think about boys when you’re trying to identify leaves because you might incorrectly identify one as a Bryanus cutetushicus because your mind is on him and not on your work.

Do some stretches and crunches to help focus. Then set an alarm for a full hour from now. No daydreaming until it goes off. Make yourself some tea (more leaves) and get to work.

If that doesn’t work, give me your phone number, and I’ll call you every fifteen minutes to make sure you stay on track. Don’t give that awful Bianca (I know who she is) a chance for your spot on the team.

The boy problem is so much harder. If he likes you back, he’ll start acting funny, too. Then you’ll know, at least. Shakespeare said, “The course of true love never did run smoothe.”

Best of luck!

Eva

P.S. I’m so sorry to hear about your grandma.

About The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z
Gianna Zales has a lot on her plate this fall – a father who drives her to school in the family hearse, a mother who’s turned into the junk food police, a little brother who thinks he’s a member of the paparazzi, and a grandmother who leaves false teeth in the refrigerator. Worst of all, she’s left her 7th grade leaf collection to do at the last minute. It’s a monster project, and Gianna will miss cross-country sectionals if she doesn’t meet the deadline. She’ll need the help of her geeky friend, Zig, and some brilliant ideas of her own to pull it off.

About Kate Messner
Kate Messner grew up in Medina, New York and graduated from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Communication with a degree in Broadcast Journalism. She worked as a television news producer and reporter in Syracuse, NY and then Burlington, VT, before going back to school to get a teaching degree. These days, Kate is a National Board Certified middle school English teacher. She has helped hundreds of kids work on leaf collection projects and likes sugar maples and catalpa leaves the best. Kate lives on Lake Champlain with her husband and kids and loves spending time in the woods.

To learn more about Kate and her book, visit her website: http://katemessner.com/

Or buy her book:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Brilliant-Fall-Gianna-Z/dp/080279842X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251760751&sr=1-1
Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780802798428

My author copies are here!

My books are here! And they are more lovely in person than I’d expected. I’m going to sign them and send them off to everyone I thanked in my acknowledgements. Yay!

HATE LIST by Jennifer Brown

Jennifer Brown is the author of HATE LIST, a YA novel coming out in September 2009. As a two-time winner of The Erma Bombeck Global Humor award and weekly columnist for The Kansas City Star, as well as Saturday Featured Blogger for Mom2MomKC.com, Jennifer spends a lot of time dressing up her dog for laughs and thinking of new ways to works words such as "Puh-lease" and "Ch-yeah!" into sentences. Jennifer grew up in the Kansas City, Missouri area, where she still lives with her husband, three kids, and whole herd of uncooperative pets.

Instead of an interview with Jennifer, I'm posting a letter from Jessica (main character in Hate List) to my teen advice column for the daring.

Dear Eva,
There's this girl, Valerie, at my school. We've always been enemies, but... well, something really awful happened at our school... and she sort of saved my life that day.

The problem is, I never liked Valerie before. We never got along. And now I kind of owe her. Plus, I have a feeling she's not as bad as everyone thinks she is. I've changed a lot since that day, and I think maybe she has, too.

Everyone pretty much hates Valerie now, and she knows it. She hangs around like a ghost at school, all by herself, never talking to anyone. I can tell she's really lonely and sad.

I think maybe we could be friends, if she'd just let me in. I'm trying to get through to her, but I'm having a really hard time getting her to trust me. How do I get her to see that I'm not out to hurt her? Should I just leave her alone?

Jessica

Dear Jessica,
Trust is a hard thing to give. I know because I totally didn’t trust my sister, Roz, until recently. She didn’t deserve it. She chased after every boy I ever broke up with. Plus she had/has a serious blabbing problem.

It sounds like Valerie could use a friend right now. Sometimes the best way to earn someone’s trust is to show that you’ve changed. That’s what Roz did. Actions speak louder than a whole bunch of hot air, if you know what I mean :D.

There are risks of reaching out to her, of course. Fwooosh! Yes, that’s the sound of your rep going down the toilet. But you said you owed her. The course of true friendship never did run smooth. *

Best of luck!

Eva

*Apologies to Shakespeare (who's dead yanno)

About Hate List
Five months ago, Valerie Leftman’s boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saves the life of a classmate, but is implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things they hated. The list her boyfriend used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

Find out more about Jennifer and Hate List at her website: http://www.jenniferbrownYA.com

Or buy her book:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hate-List-Jennifer-Brown/dp/0316041440/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251761088&sr=1-1

Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780316041447

Website at last!

Creating a website turned out to be harder than I imagined. It doesn't help that I'm a cyber-doofus, with only the slimmest grasp of html. And it took me four months of hair-pulling type frustration before I involved a professional in the project.

But now (drum roll).........




Check it out. www.laurenbjorkman.com

Debness Giveaway

This is a monthly contest you don't want to miss--a bag of goodies from the 2009 Debutantes. There's something in the bag from me, too!

Go here to enter.

New literary agency

Recently, I featured Chris Richman of Firebrand as a talented new agent looking for your novel.

Today I saw a notice that Chris has left Firebrand and teamed up with Michael Stearns and another agent to form a new agency, Upstart Crow Literacy. Michael Stearns has worked in many capacities. I had a consultation with him ten years ago at a conference in Honolulu. He was an editor at Harcourt at the time. He impressed me with his editorial insights.

Here's a message from Michael Stearns:

The first week of August marks the debut of a new agency, Upstart Crow Literary. Joining me will be Chris Richman
and Danielle Chiotti, both of whom cut their teeth as agents at Firebrand. Chris and Danielle possess that mix of literary
savvy, good taste, and dedication to their authors and books that marks them as either potentially crazy or simply
crazily dedicated. I feel fortunate to embark on this new venture with the two of them, as well as with our talented list of authors, all of whom will be following us to our new home. These days you can find me at michael@upstartcrowliterary.com, or a michael@tinderbox-books.com.

We'll be making our first Upstart Crow submissions next week, and when the site goes live the week after that, I hope you'll stop by and take a look at what we've got in the works. And we all look forward to working with you from our new perch here at Upstart Crow.

Michael Stearns
Upstart Crow Literary, LLC
718-360-8809
michael@upstartcrowliterary.com
www.upstartcrowliterary.com

Go check out their site, and then polish up that manuscript.

Feast of Goodies

I haven't blogged in a long while. My excuse--vacation with the family. But I'm coming out of hibernation because the monthly contest over at the Feast of Awesome is too good to pass up.

Click on the link below and leave a comment. The deadline is midnight tonight, so don't delay!!!!

CONTEST LINK

First Book Review for My Invented Life

I just got my first online review of My Invented Life on After Ellen. 

And it's good!!!!

Check it out here!

meet 8 (!) amazing MG and YA book editors

Calling all aspiring MG and YA novelists! This week and next, I am posting interviews with:

Molly O’Neill of HarperCollins
Brian Farrey of Flux
Joy Peskin of Viking
Anica Rissi of Simon Pulse
Madeline Smoot of CBAY Books
Miriam Hees of Blooming Tree Press
Reka Simonsen of Henry Holt
and
Jim Thomas of Random House

Come check out these truly awesome editors at --

http://community.livejournal.com/classof2k9/

How to Land an Agent

Wheras almost every debut author I've met this year got their book contract through an agent, and

Wheras most writers freak when they hear the word query, and

Wheras it's mind boggling to get started,

Let it be resolved that taking a class will de-mystify the process.

(I worked on bills for two legislative sessions in Honolulu...at least that's my excuse for this)

Anyway, if you're interested, Writer's Digest is offering a Webinar on How to Land an Agent.
www.writersdigest.com/webinars

Check it out!

Up next...a profile of a young, hungry agent that presented at last weeks SCBWI Handsprings Conference in New Mexico.

Win this Bag of Awesome

Don't miss out on your chance to win this fabulous bag of goodies donated by authors at the Feast of Awesome. 1. Visit their blog by clicking on the Feast of Awesome address above. 2. Enter a comment by midnight tonight. 3. Win! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Confessions of a Read-a-thon Grinch

Recently, my son’s school held a read-a-thon to raise money for a field trip. Every parent at the school looked forward to the big event. Every parent except me. And worse, I didn’t dare admit the truth. Shhhhh. I loathe read-a-thons.

I really do love reading with my children—at home by the fire in my comfy couch that is. Reading in a small room with thirty-seven others is less fun. It’s noisy. It’s cramped. Wearing pajamas to school adds another angle--humiliation. And then there's the menu--the dreaded green eggs and ham in honor of Dr. Seuss.

But this year was different. Someone gave me a bathrobe last Christmas. Hearing my son, Leif, read The Cremation of Sam McGee made me forget I was sitting on cold bricks. The eggs were colored with chlorophyll instead of food coloring. By lunch time, Leif had read over thirty books. He was so proud I almost forgot about the noise, the crowding, and my hard seat. Almost. But please don’t ask me to do it again next year.

Query Letters Part III

You're ready to find an agent, but...

Did you complete Part I and Part II? No?

Go to jail, do not pass Go, and do not collect 200 dollars.

I'm serious. Don't start hunting for an agent until you've written a killer query.

Oh. You did that already?

Hooray!

Start the search at www.agentquery.com Here you can search by genre, which saves time. Some agents share their likes and dislikes, plus some of the books they represent.

publishersmarketplace.com lists agents that are actively seeking clients. The list changes often, so keep checking back. For a fee, you can subscribe to Publisher's Lunch. PL provides info on all the current deals between agents and publishing houses, including a short description of each book sold, which gives you a sense of an agent's tastes.

Writer's Digest's blog Guide to Literary Agents is another excellent resource. guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/ The archives are chock full of interviews with agents. The blog also announces conferences where agents will attend.

Once you narrow down your list, the Google will lead you to other interviews with your prospective agent, which will help you refine and personalize your query letter.

Always check the credentials of your prospective agent at Preditors and Editors. anotherealm.com/prededitors/

Good luck!

Don't miss this contest!

The 2009 Debutantes, under the auspices of the amazing Saundra Mitchell, hold a monthly contest like no other. Just follow the link below, add a comment, and you're can win a bag of treats. There's goodies beyond your wildest imaginings, so don't miss out.

Query Letters Part II

Ack! It's been over two weeks since I wrote anything on query letters. Blame my To Do list. It's grown (or is that groan) to three pages!

So you've been to Nathan Bransford's blog about query letters (see previous post), and taken a stab at writing one. You've deleted the first ten tries, but number eleven isn't half bad. Or is it?

How can you tell?

If you don't mind making your query letter "public," you can have it critiqued for free at:

http://evileditor.blogspot.com

or at

http://queryshark.blogspot.com

For those who aren't up for a public critique, read through the archives to check out other writer's queries. You can see my attempt for My Invented Life here (You have to scroll to Face Lift 314 about half way down):

http://evileditor.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html

It's bad. I know.

Did I mention that I suck at queries?

Meet Heather Duffy Stone

Are you ready to meet another fabulous debut author?

Heather Duffy Stone writes stories and essays that are mostly inspired by high school—either her own or someone else's. She has lived in Vermont, England, Los Angeles, rural New York and Rome, Italy. For now she cooks, sleeps, explores, writes and teaches in Brooklyn, New York.

She wrote THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO TELL YOU, a haunting story about how secrets can consume a friendship:

Fraternal twins Nadio and Noelle share a close connection—and as Noelle's best friend since they were five, Keeley Shipley fits perfectly into their world. But everything changes after Keeley spends the summer before junior year at Oxford. When Keeley returns, Nadio falls in love with her. Noelle, ripped apart by resentment, sees her as an ungrateful rich girl. But Keeley has a painful story that she can't tell yet. As Nadio and Keeley hide their romance, Noelle dives into something of her own—a destructive affair with an older boy.

I caught up with Heather during her busy debut to ask her a few questions.

One of your characters considers getting a tattoo. Do you have a tattoo? Have you ever thought of getting one? Why not?

ooo. Yes. When I finished this book I said I was going to get a tattoo. I don't have one yet, but I'm going to get one. I know exactly what it is. I carry it around in my bag. I won't tell anyone when I'm doing it though. I see it as a tribute to these characters, who mean so much to me.

If you could visit any place and time for a week, where and when would it be?

I'd re-live a certain drive down the coast of California on a spring weekend about six years ago...I'd lie in the grass dreaming about everything to come during the last week of my senior year of boarding school...I'd go back to that week in southern Turkey. Or, I'd go to Woodstock. I always felt like I was born in the wrong decade.

Woodstock had to be amazing...except maybe for the brown acid. Do you ever experience writer's block?

I certainly get stuck on things. But I usually just write my way through it. Or I do a lot of re-reading. The more times I read a scene, the more it becomes clear what needs to go before or after or in the middle of it.

Do you play music when you write? Have a cup of Chai at your elbow? A cat on your lap?

Sometimes. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Elliot Smith while working on my WIP. I like sunlight. A comfy place to sit, and yet a chair that keeps my back straight. Coffee. I like people around me. Open windows are ideal--street sounds, river sounds, small town sounds. It doesn't matter, I just like the sounds of what is going on around me. I like to look up from my screen and see thing going on.

That sounds like a perfect writing arrangement to me. Thanks so much for visiting my blog.

For more fun with Heather, visit her website and buy her book!

http://www.heatherduffystone.com

http://www.amazon.com/This-What-Want-Tell-You/dp/073871450X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231340145&sr=8-1

Author interview with Jenny Moss

Meet debut author, Jenny Moss. A few months ago, I had the opportunity to read her historical novel, Winnie’s War set during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. The pages turned themselves as I delved into Winnie’s life as it was turned upside down when the Spanish Flu found her hometown in Texas. There are many subplots, and a lot of action, and yet the characters are lovingly drawn, and the story is poignant through and through.

JENNY MOSS is a former NASA engineer. She earned a master's degree in literature and taught writing as an adjunct at University of Houston-Clear Lake. Winnie's War is her first novel. She lives with her two teenagers in Houston, Texas.

She took some time out of her busy life to answer a few questions.

If you could visit any place and time (past/present/future) for a week, where and when would it be?

1920s Paris.

Nice choice! Do you play music when you write? Have a cup of Chai at your elbow? A cat on your lap?

I don't play music when I write. But I do think about my characters when I listen to certain songs.


Do you ever experience writer's block? What do you to knock yourself out of it If not, what's your secret?


Not much until last spring and summer. I'm not sure I have a secret. I just kept writing and tried not to get too frustrated.

Thank you for stopping by, Jenny!

Thank you!



Check out her website and buy her book!

o Author Web site: http://www.jenny-moss.com

o Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Winnies-War-Jenny-Moss/dp/0802798195

Author interview with Stacey Jay

It’s time to meet another amazing 2009 debut novelist, Stacey Jay. Her YA paranormal romance, YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME, is on bookshelves now! Stacey Jay is a workaholic with three pen names, four kids, and a decidedly macabre sense of humor. She loves zombies, creepies, crawlies, blood, guts, gore, and of course, romance.

Megan Berry's social life is so dead. Literally. Fifteen-year-old Megan Berry is a Zombie Settler by birth, which means she's part-time shrink to a bunch of dead people. All Megan wants is to be normal--and go to homecoming. But someone in school is using black magic to turn average, angsty Undead into flesh-eating Zombies, and it's looking like homecoming will turn out to be a very different kind of party--the bloody kind.

Stacey took a little time from the whirlwind of her life to answer a few questions.

I'm a very squeamish person, and tend to avoid horror of any kind. Will I be able to enjoy your book? Even if I faint at the sight of blood? And the thought of vampires makes me put my hands over my throat for protection? And I'm prone to nightmares?

Lol! Well...I think you'll be able to handle it. The horror is campy horror, not pee your pants in fear horror. Think Buffy, not 28 Days Later. But just in case, I'd advise reading during the daylight hours. And with a cat on your lap and maybe a mild sedative at hand :).

If you could visit any place and time (past/present/future) for a week, where and when would it be?

I'd have to go back in time to the Victorian Age in London. That time has always fascinated me and I'd love to wear big dresses for a week (but not any longer, I couldn't deal with a corset long term.)

LOL. I like food too much to ever wear a corset. Do you play music when you write? Have a cup of Chai at your elbow? A cat on your lap?

Nope, no music. If I listen to music, I can't concentrate. But I LOVE a cup of coffee at my elbow and would totally have a cat if I didn't have so many kids. (My hubs is anti cat until we get a few of the people children out of the house.)

Do you ever experience writer's block?

I don't know if I get writer's block so much as writer's burn out. I've taken on a lot these past two years and sometimes my muse gets cranky and wants a break. Sometimes I can give her that break, but sometimes I have to push on through. In the second case, I take a half hour or so and free-write, letting myself work on something fun not related to my current WIP. That usually gets the muse feeling perky again and ready to contribute to the process on the WIP.

You are both wise and funny, Stacey. Thanks for visiting!

Thanks Lauren!! Can't wait to have you back to my blog!

o Author Web site: http://staceyjay.com

o Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-So-Undead-Me/dp/1595142258/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225898596&sr=1-1

Query Letters

I was talking to a self-published author friend of mine, and he commented that most agents don't accept submissions, so everything was hopeless, blah, blah, blah.

True or False?

True, most (if not all) agents don't accept full manuscripts. But...
most agents accept queries.

So get off your duff and write one!
Except ten out of twelve writers agree that writing a killer query letter is harder than writing a novel.

What goes in a killer query letter?

1. An introductory paragraph about why you're approaching this particular agent.
2. A synopsis
3. A paragraph about you

IM (not so) HO the best queries fit on a single page, especially when querying agents that represent MG and YA.

For help on writing a query letter, visit literary agent Nathan Bransford's two part blog titled the anatomy of a query letter:

nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2006/11/anatomy-of-good-query-letter.html

AND

nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2007/05/anatomy-of-good-query-letter-ii.html

Next up:
How to get your query letter critiqued
Where to send your query letter
Tips on submitting query letters

Stay tuned.

Mother Son Book Clubs

I have belonged to one book club or another for more than ten years. I like them! My book club homies motivate me to read challenging books, ones I would’ve never picked up on my own. Our discussions take us to wild and true places. But I’ve never belonged to a Mother Daughter Book Club. I don’t have a daughter. I have two sons, though, and they both love to read.

So what if I started a Mother Son Book Club? Maybe that would be a good activity for when the teen-age years hit (in 1 year, 1 month, and 5 days). A quick trip to the land of Google yielded little. I found one interview here:

http://litguides.com/2008/07/23/mother-son-book-club/

Just like in my regular book club, we could choose books that lead to excellent discussions about the nature of good and evil, difficult choices, and world history.

I’m considering: Elijah of Buxton, The Golden Compass, Holes, and the Lightning Thief.

Any other suggestions?

My husband thinks this idea is about as crazy as Father Daughter Balls, btw. But I'm not so sure.

Are We There Yet?

How do you know if your mss is ready for submission?

You finished the first draft yesterday

Your mom loves it

You did spell check on it

You're tired of looking at it

NOT!

Your critique group thinks it's ready*

*note: provided that your critique group isn't afraid of hurting your feelings

You've polished, polished, and polished it some more*

*note: till it gleams

OK, your manuscript is all shiny and ready to go out on a date.

First homework assignment--read Miss Snark's blog archives. She's mysterious and hysterically funny agent who blogged. She let her blog go dark, but not before she answered a million questions from her snarklings. I learned so much from her.

http://misssnark.blogspot.com/

Do you have to read the whole thing?
No. But once you get started, I think you'll have a hard time stopping.

I'll talk about query letters next.

Submitting: Editor vs. Agent

After finishing* (see footnote) my first novel, I joined SCBWI, and submitted to editors listed in their newsletter. And I bought a copy of the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market to find more editors that might be interested in my book.

I did this for years.

Send a letter plus three chapters, check the mail box daily, open rejection letter, cry...rinse and repeat.

And guess what?

I survived. But I didn't get my book deal that way. And most of the 2009 debut authors I've met didn't get their book deals that way either.

After years of submitting, I switched camps. I firmly, vigorously, most vociferously insist that you (first purge all the superfluous adverbs from your mss and then) query agents instead of editors because--

-an agent will give you access to editors that don't take unagented submissions
(like mine)
- an agent will often help you improve your mss and your pitch
- an agent will negotiate a better deal for you
- many slushpile submissions to editors are read by an underpaid assistant
- some editors want to read through their slushpile, but never get around to it

An aside: Don't submit to both. Many agents won't (joyfully) represent a mss that has been submitted all over the place...and rejected.

* And now for the footnote:
How do you know when your mss is finished?
I'll present my thoughts on topic in my next blog.

So please come back.

Am I Too Late?

Yes, January is almost over...but I've finally made a New Years Resolution...blog more and blog better!

So I'm going to post a series of blogs with specifics on how to get published. I'll probably sneak in a few funny stories, some self-deprecating comments, and an occasional plug for my up and coming novel.

Add in 40 mind-blowing interviews with hot-to-trot debut authors, and a bunch of contests for things-you're-dying-to-own, and this blog will be smoking.

I'm going to get the fire extinguisher now. Stay cool.