Tag Archives: book deal

This is kind of a big deal

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I promise I have thought about writing this post for-literally-ever, but now that it’s here I have no idea how to go about it. So here’s what I have to say:

Once upon a time (okay, let’s call it 2008), I wrote a book. It wasn’t very good. So I wrote another book and I signed with the amazing agent, Dan Lazar at Writers House. This book went out to editors and it was close, but not quiiiiiittteee close enough.

kidmissespoolanim

Ugh

And that when that book didn’t sell, it hurt. I spent the next several years ghostwriting. And I learned a ton and gained a lot of confidence and felt like a “real” writer. But still, these books weren’t mine. And they sure as hell didn’t have MY name on them.

So, in September, I started writing another book. In fact, I turned in a draft of this book exactly 2 weeks before my wedding (yes, my husband is a patient, patient man) and, well, it needed some work. So after revisions upon a few revisions, finally it was ready. And so began the longest (read: actually not very long) wait of my life. I have never wanted something so badly and yet worried so much it wouldn’t happen. I could think about nothing else other than if my book would find a home, but I told no one.

But then, something crazy happened. Someone liked the book. And not just in the like-it-but-don’t-love-it way. The ‘but’ was conspicuously absent and so I went from total meltdown mode to…

And then another someone liked the book and I was all like…

And then yesterday day happened. And yesterday I got to talk to my (OMG) new editors and after that we officially accepted a book deal from…..wait for it…wait for it…

DISNEY-HYPERION!!!!

I die. Seriously. I can’t believe this is happening, y’all.

Disney will publish my debut young adult novel, currently titled ALIVE, sometime in early 2015. I am still pinching myself. This is truly a dream come true and I couldn’t be happier to join the Disney-Hyperion family. I also couldn’t imagine a more perfect place for me and for my book and, yeah, I can’t wait. I’m freaking out!

Now, if you’ll please excuse my extreme sappiness while I Oscar-speech this moment:

There are a million, zillion people to thank, but I wanted to send special thanks to these people:

To my agent, Dan Lazar, for not giving up on me. To Emily Meehan and Laura Schreiber, my new editors at Disney, for loving this book and making my dream come true.

To Shana Silver and Jen Hayley who have listened every step of the way over the past 5 years. I wouldn’t have survived with you. To those who read Alive–Chris Von Halle, Jen Maschari (and probably a few others I’m forgetting) and gave invaluable feedback and encouragement.  To the Hopefuls and AW peeps. To Nick Harris, Tabitha Schick and The Story Foundation for your endless enthusiasm for the book and for believing in me. To Charlotte Huang for coming in as a new, but wonderful part of my everyday writing life and keeping me motivated. To all of my law school girls–Kelley, Emily, Sara and Christine–who have been incredibly & irrationally supportive. To my parents for instilling in me a love of books and for believing in me. And to my husband, who lives with my writerly quirks every day, who stomachs an alarming amount of book talk and does so much for me without complaint so that I can sneak time to write.

In short, I’m incredibly blessed to get to do the thing I want to do.

More details to follow, along with pictures of the celebrations that have been going on in my household over the last few weeks. But for now…

YOU GUYS, I’M GOING TO BE AN AUTHOR!!

Oh wait, no this:

Celebrating is Fun. We should all try it.

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I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts lately about the anxiety that comes with being a writer. First, you think that if you could just get an agent, you’ll feel like you’ve made it. And then it’s if you can just get a book deal. And now published authors are telling you that it doesn’t stop there. It becomes if you could only make the Times list or get co-op or receive a starred review from Kirkus or…well, you get the picture.

I get that. Believe me, I totally do. There were times when I thought I wouldn’t celebrate anything until I got an agent/book deal/whatever because that was when I would be legitimate and deserve to celebrate an accomplishment. But here’s what I had to start telling myself: I wrote a book. And it’s the same thing I’d tell anyone else.

You wrote a book. Do you know how hard that is? Okay, so maybe your great aunt or your mother-in-law doesn’t, but I do. And let me personally take this opportunity to validate your feelings that, yes, it is hard. But you tried something–no, wait, you actually did something–and it wasn’t for the money and it wasn’t because you had to or because everybody else around you was doing it.

I would argue that you are a much more interesting person for having written a book. Same goes for non-writing endeavors. Whether it’s trying to read 100 books in a year or starting a blog or trying to watch every Academy Award nominated movie ever. At a dinner party, these are the kind of people that are fun to talk to and to listen to and now you’re one of them. (Okay, so the last time I voluntarily admitted I wrote stuff at any dinner party-like function was…ummm…never, but still.)

The point is, if you can re-wire your brain and wrap your head around how cool an accomplishment that is, then maybe rejection won’t suck quite so much. Maybe you’ll feel more comfortable truly celebrating the fact that you finished a first draft or you tackled revisions. I think it’s so important not to wait to be proud, but instead to go ahead and be proud now.

My mom was the first to tell me that I needed to get something special to drink the night I finished the draft to send to my agent. And she was right! Celebrating even with just a little non-alcoholic bubbly by myself at four in the morning made me feel like I’d done something cool. I’ve talked to other people and they say, No, no I don’t need to do that!

But you know what? I think you do! Because this business is hard and if you don’t celebrate what you’ve accomplished, the stuff that is actually under your control, then you will go crazy, I tell you!

And in the words of J.K. Rowling:

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case, you fail by default.”

Friday Five

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My Friday Five is short this week but a couple points carry a lot of Pow! So Happy Friday, y’all. 

 

1. The Fabulous Gretchen McNeil was mentioned today on Nathan Bransford’s blog. Very cool. Y’all will want to check out her interview with Tina Wexler. 

2. Fellow Purgatorian Kari Stewart got her first book deal this week. Not one, not two, but a three book deal!! So exciting. Definitely go congratulate her. We love to hear about those debut sales!

3. Film rights for Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games sold to Lionsgate this week. If you haven’t read it here’s the back cover copy. I know a lot of folks are excited about this movie.

 

COULD YOU SURVIVE ON YOUR OWN, IN THE WILD, WITH EVERYONE FIGHTING AGAINST YOU?

Twenty- four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives.

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see.

Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

 

4. Still waiting on agent notes. I’ve dipped into the the WIP again. And am about done with Chapter Eleven. I’m thinking of trying Write or Die. Have y’all tried this program? Any thoughts? Right now, I think it just makes me nervous!

5. I got a job with the Dallas Cowboys today and will be working there this summer! Hooray for good news. Momentum? Let’s hope. 

A Dose of Happiness

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For today’s post…I’m directing you elsewhere. Jill Wheeler did an awesome round up of success stories. My getting-an-agent story is included. But mainly, I know that reading stories of writers getting agents and book deals was my favorite way, not only to procrastinate, but to motivate. So head over to her blog and check out all the anecdotes.

Here’s the link: http://jillwheeler.blogspot.com/2009/01/procrastination-station.html

Writing Resolutions 2k9

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Oops. I know I said today I’d talk about books to recommend to different types of people, but, well, it’s New Year’s Eve. And, um, I’ve got to make my New Year’s Resolutions. Because how would I remember them if I didn’t publish them on my blog?? I know! It’d be impossible! So here we go, my mandatory New Year’s Writing Resolutions post:

1. Get a book deal!

2. Write and revise another novel and have it ready to submit by August/September

3. Spend less time surfing the internet

4. Make more writing friends and keep getting to know the ones I’ve made

5. Write every single day no matter how little

6. Blog 4-5 days a week at least

7. Improve with each book–in writing and in revising

8. Have fun and enjoy writing daily

9. Attend a comic con!

10. Umm…did I mention get a book deal? Not in the last 8 bullet points? Oh! Well, then, Get a book deal!!

*Note: Although it’s true that I have limited control over whether or not I do, actually, get a book deal–I mean, it’s already out on submission!–I do have control over several things that lead to a book deal: 1. Revising to correct any problems 2. Keep asking my agent to submit if need be (fingers crossed it will sell in the first round) 3. Never giving up (keep writing, keep submitting, keep working)

 

Status: What am I going to do for New Year’s?? I always feel like it’s such a bust! Oh well, I’ll figure something out. Yesterday, I got some great feedback on the WIP, so I’m looking over those edits.

2009 Debutante Interview Series: Saundra Mitchell

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After our one week hiatus, I can’t wait to resume our 2009 Debutante Interview Series. I mentioned Saundra last week following an article she sent to me about a new comic book imprint, but this is 10x better because she’s hear to talk about her own journey to publication! 

Saundra Mitchell has been a phone psychic, a car salesperson, a denture-deliverer and a layout waxer. She’s now an author and screenwriter, and happy that she’s finally found her calling. Her debut novel, Shadowed Summer, comes out February 10, 2009 from Delacorte.

 

Nothing ever happened in Ondine, Louisiana, not even the summer Elijah Landry disappeared.

His mother knew he ascended to heaven, the police believed he ran away, and his girlfriend thought he was murdered.

Decades later, certain she saw his ghost in the town cemetery, fourteen-year-old Iris Rhame is determined to find out the truth behind “The Incident With the Landry Boy”

Enlisting the help of her best friend Collette, and forced to endure the company of Collette’s latest crush, Ben, Iris spends a summer digging into the past and stirring old ghosts, in search of a boy she never knew.

What she doesn’t realize is that in a town as small as Ondine, every secret is a family secret.

 

Shadowed Summer is your debut novel, so a big congrats on that. But can you give us a little statistical rundown on how long it took you to get to this point? How many books? How many rejections? How many days, months, or years?

I’ve been writing professionally for fifteen years, and I stopped counting rejections at 1180- the last rejection before Wonder Agent Sara Crowe sold Shadowed Summer.

Which “Call” thrilled you more? The call in which you landed an agent or the call in which you landed your book deal? Can you describe to us what it felt like?

As ecstatic as I was getting the book deal call, I have to give the edge to landing the agent! I’d been previously represented, and things hadn’t worked out. I lost a lot of confidence- not only was I afraid I’d
never sell a novel, I wasn’t sure I’d ever write another! It was such a dark time, I gave myself permission to quit- after I sent out one more query letter.

I spent a lot of time researching, searching for exactly the agent I wanted. I read the books on several agents’ lists, scoured the Internet for stories about them, about their styles, anything, everything. Finally, I decided that I would send my last query to Sara Crowe at Harvey Klinger, Inc. – who sold my debut four months after she offered to rep me!

And you know what it felt like? It felt like breathing again.

 

Wow. What a fantastic story. You must be meant to write. Throughout your journey as a writer, what resources have you found most valuable to your success? Websites? Books? Conferences?
What I find the most valuable is reading other writers’ work. I read, read, read- scripts, stories and books- non-fiction and fiction both. Not only does it help me understand the tone of the market, it teaches
me by excellent example. If I forget I’m reading and slip into a world someone else created- those are the words I read again and study, so I can find out how the author achieved it.

Great tip! We all know that writers go through hard times on their way to success. How have you handled rejection in the past?
When I get rejected, really, when I get any kind of bad news, I work harder. I don’t mean that in a philosophical way. For example- when a blurb recently fell through for me, I wrote notes to sixty local librarians introducing myself and my book, instead of my usual thirty. I really believe that success comes from the willingness to get kicked in the face and keep going.

 

I think that has to be the best way to handle rejection. No wonder you’ve succeeded. I understand you were/are a screenwriter? What lessons have you brought from screenwriting over to penning novels?
I was, and I still am- although now I’m moving into supervising other screenwriters instead of doing all the work myself! And I think one of the best things I brought from screenwriting to fiction is a good ear
for dialogue.

In a screenplay, I don’t get to discuss how the characters feel, or what they’re thinking- that’s for the director and actor to decide! So I’ve learned to pitch my dialogue so it’s natural (since real people have to speak it,) but also meaningful- as that’s the only way I can get my point across in a script.

Through writing groups and during revisions, I’ve gotten compliments on how real my characters sound. That’s a huge honor, and I have to give screenwriting the credit!

 

Awesome. I’ve always pushed the idea of writing scripts to help your novel writing. Hopefully, you’ve won a few converts. This is Fumbling with Fiction, so I have to ask, in your writing career have you ever had a big “Oops!” moment?
Early on, an established screenwriter took the time to work with me on my scripts. She challenged me to excel, and when I finally produced a solid episodic (a script for a one hour television drama,)
she recommended me to her agent. This was a Big Deal, but I had never done a business call where I had to sell *me*.

When this agent asked me how I would describe myself, I said, “Oh, I’m just a little midwestern housewife trying to make good!” The call chilled after that, and you’re probably not surprised to find out that
he didn’t offer to represent me.

So that was a big oops, but it was also a great lesson. Never minimize your own ability or ambition. There are enough people in the world who will do that for you!

 

So true. The best person to sell yourself is you. Your short story “Ready to Wear” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize! Do you feel that writing short stories was necessary to your progressing to novels? (*I don’t mean progression in a value sense, just in length!*)
I do for me, absolutely! One of my biggest challenges is weighting a fictional world effectively. Like, knowing what’s important to include, and what’s not. Screenplays are sparse, and many of the details don’t
belong to me. So short stories help me bridge the forms. They’re compact, like a script, but narrative, like novels. They help me slip between the two worlds. Plus? I just really enjoy writing them!

 

Now that you are a soon-to-be-published author, seeing the view from the other side, what has been your favorite moment in the publishing process so far? What part of the process has most surprised you?
Every time something new happens, that’s my favorite moment. For serious. Getting my contract was my favorite. Then, getting my revision was my favorite. Then my ISBN. Then cover art. Then FPPs, then ARCs, even the tiny little leaf they used to separate paragraphs! It’s all so amazing; I am having a grand time with every little thing.

The most surprising part is how little I know from day to day. I bug my editor occasionally to find out where I’m at in the process. But mostly, it’s all wonder and mystery- like, I found out that my book had been
chosen for the Junior Library Guild… I didn’t even know it had been submitted for consideration!

On the downside, it’s bewildering to realize how much is out of my hands now. on the upside, every day that brings news is a prize! :)

 

Tell us a little about receiving your first editorial letter. What was yours like? How did you feel when you received it?
I was excited! Now, in the future, I’ll probably have a little dread, because fiction revisions are *hard*! But Sara sold my novel in January, and between my schedule and my editor’s schedule, we couldn’t get started on revisions until JULY. So there was a six-month stretch where I knew I’d sold a book, but I had that unreasonable fear it might all just disappear. That revision letter was proof it was really, really, real!

 

Finally, if you could have written one book previously published by another author, which book would it be?
Man, that is so hard. I like going to other people’s places, and I like going into mine- they’re such different things to me. But I think I’d love to claim Anneli Rufus’ “The Loner’s Manifesto.” It’s non-fiction, exquisitely written, and so immediate and real. I wish my words would resonate like that.

 

You stuck to one! I can hardly believe it.

Thanks for coming and chatting with me, Saundra. You were so fun to talk to and I can’t wait to read Shadowed Summer. Keep in touch and let us know what is happening with your writing life.

2009 Debutante Interview Series: Danielle Joseph

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Next up in our 2009 Debutante interview series is Danielle Joseph. Her debut novel Shrinking Violet will be coming out from MTV/Pocket Books in May 2009!

Danielle was a college DJ for five years on the Gyroscope, a world music show, and interned at several top Boston radio stations. She has taught Creative Writing and English to Middle school students. Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, Danielle now lives in Miami with her husband and two young sons. These days you can find her cruising around with the tunes blaring and her internal DJ hard at work.

 To whet your appetite, here’s a blurb: 

 High school senior, Tere Adams, has one dream—to be a dj. By day she is paralyzed when she has to talk to people, but at night, she rocks, doing mock broadcasts in her bedroom. Her confidence is further eroded by her mom, who still sees Tere as the chubby, pale kid, the other children called Snowball. Mom thinks that Tere’s dreams are just silly fantasies, but her new husband, Rob, offers Tere an internship at his top-forty radio station. Her best friend, Audrey, the only person truly aware of Tere’s vast music knowledge, encourages her to take the job. From there Tere must learn to come out from behind her mask. In doing so she confronts the bullies in her life, stands up for herself and falls in love.

 

Isn’t that ridiculously original??? Goodness! Anyway, if you’d like to hear Danielle’s playlist for Shrinking Violet, you can visit her website at daniellejoseph.com. (By the way, she has a really neat site.)

 Onward…

 Danielle, Shrinking Violet is your debut novel, so a big congrats on that. But can you give us a little statistical rundown on how long it took you to get to this point? How many books? How many rejections? How many days, months, or years?
 

I’ve always known that I wanted to be a writer and even majored in Creative Writing in college, but I did not get serious about writing until six years ago after my first son was born and I joined a local SCBWI critique group. Before Shrinking Violet, I had completed four other books. And I could definitely paste at least one wall in my office with rejection letters.
 

Sounds like you made the right career decision! Which “Call” thrilled you more? The call in which you landed an agent or the call in which you landed your book deal? Can you describe to us what it felt like?
 

Well, in both cases I received, the “Email.” My agent first emailed me to say that she liked my novel and had some suggestions for change. I then called her and knew right away that I wanted to work with her. Then when I got the “Offer” for Shrinking Violet, I was in Cape Town, South Africa visiting family. US cell phones don’t work there, so my agent emailed me the news. I was so excited but had been waiting for the “Call” for so long, that I decided to call her myself! So I guess, in both instances, I made the “Call”! And I would say calling from Africa to hear about my book offer, while I was surrounded by family, was the most thrilling!
 

Such a cool story and incredible to have everyone you loved around you! Throughout your journey as a writer, what resources have you found most valuable to your success? Websites? Books? Conferences?

A good support group of writer and non-writer friends is the most important to me. My in-person critique groups have been invaluable and just hearing encouragement along the way from family and friends has been great. I also feel revived every time after I go to a conference and love checking in with my online friends on a daily basis. And of course, every time I read a book, I feel like I’m learning something new, whether it’s being introduced to a new genre, style, culture etc

 It’s easy to forget how valuable reading someone else’s work can be. Thanks for the reminder! We all know that writers go through hard times on their way to success. How have you handled rejection in the past?

 … Rejection is not easy but really I just don’t take it personally. I shrug it off and move on. There’s not enough time in the day to sulk and there’s nothing a little chocolate can’t fix:)!

I’m with you on the chocolate. This is Fumbling with Fiction, so I have to ask, in your writing career have you ever had a big “Oops!” moment?
 

One of the most embarrassing moments for me is an email flub. I met an agent at a conference and queried her soon after we met. Several months later, I had signed with my agent, then six months later, on New Year’s Day I got an email from the conference agent. She loved the samples I had sent her and was requesting fulls of two of my manuscripts. I then quickly emailed my friend and said can you believe this agent took one year to get back to me! Ah, except I sent the email back to the agent and realized a second after hitting send. I felt so awful, but she was very nice and actually wrote back apologizing for taking so long and wished me best of luck with my agent. So the moral of the story is, always check the address before hitting send.
 

Ok, that’s the best “Oops!” story I’ve heard so far. But you’ve moved on and are now at the beginning of your writing career. Can you believe it? Where would you like that sure-to-be illustrious career to take you?

 

I can hardly believe it and am very excited! I want to be a lifelong writer and be able to grow from every book that I write. I hope my books reach out to teens and provide them with some refuge and enjoyment.
 
Great! And now that you are a soon-to-be-published author, seeing the view from the other side, what has been your favorite moment in the publishing process so far? What part of the process has most surprised you?

 

My favorite part is just being in the company of such a warm group of people, writers, editors and agents, alike. I’m especially happy to be working with my editor because I feel that she really gets my book and is able to relate to the main character so well. I’m surprised by the warmth of so many writers and how helpful, giving and loving most everyone has been. And I’m loving every moment of it!
 
 
That’s wonderful. I’m amazed every day at how supportive writer-folks are. Tell us a little about receiving your first editorial letter. What was yours like? How did you feel when you received it?

 

I just received my editoral letter on Tuesday, so it’s definitely fresh in my mind. I’m very pleased with it and think that my editor has made some wonderful suggestions. Of course, it’s a bit overwhelming at first because you don’t know where to start. I’m armed with highlighters and excited to dive back into the novel.
 

Tuesday! Wow. So you’re starting a whole new round of “fun.” Finally, if you could have written one book previously published by another author, which book would it be?

 

Definitely the toughest question because there are so many awesome books that fill my bookshelf, which is overflowing, by the way. The one book that helped fuel me to write Shrinking Violet is White Oleander by Janet Fitch. Before I start a new manuscript, I try to read a motivating book. The writing, characterization and plotting was so rich in White Oleander, I would love to write a book with such depth and so much originality!

Chandler, thanks so much for this interview. It’s been great talking with you! Love your blog!

 

Thanks for joining us and we’ll be snatching up Shrinking Violet the second we see it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2009 Debutante Interview Series: Cheryl Renee Herbsman

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I’ve been excited all weekend because today is our first 2009 debut author! Cheryl Renée Herbsman (www.cherylreneeherbsman.com) lives in Northern California with her husband and two children, but she grew up in North Carolina and often spent summer vacations at the Carolina coast. Like her main character, Savannah, she fell in love as a teenager, and like Savannah and Jackson, she and her boyfriend carried on a long-distance relationship. They are now celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary. 

Check out the awesome back cover copy of her debut novel, Breathing, and her cover (of which I am seriously jealous)!

 

What if the guy who took your breath away was the only one who could help you breathe?
 
Savannah would be happy to spend the summer in her coastal Carolina town lying in a hammock reading her beloved romance novels and working at the library. But then she meets Jackson. Once they lock eyes, she’s convinced he’s the one—her true love, her soul mate, a boy different from all the rest. And at first it looks like Savannah is right. Jackson abides by her mama’s strict rules, and stays by her side during a hospitalization for severe asthma, which Savannah becomes convinced is only improving because Jackson is there. But when he’s called away to help his family—and seems uncertain about returning—Savannah has to learn to breathe on her own, both literally and figuratively. 
           
This debut novel has it all—an endearing, funny, hopelessly romantic main character, lots of down-home Southern charm, and a sunny, salty beach setting that will transport you to the Carolina coast. Y’all definitely want to check it out!
 
 
Thanks again to Cheryl for stopping by and now, I’ll let y’all learn from her exciting new experiences!

Breathing is your debut novel, so a big congrats on that. But can you give us a little statistical rundown on how long it took you to get to this point? How many books? How many rejections? How many days, months, or years?
 
Starting from virtually no background in writing, it took me about a decade to get published. When my kids were very young, I wrote a little here and there. It took me five years to finish my first novel, which was about a woman in her twenties. Then, about five years ago, I wrote a YA fantasy. After spending a year writing it, I spent two years trying to sell it. As I learned more about the business end of publishing, I started to get more interest in the manuscript from professionals. I had many requests for both partials and fulls. But ultimately, it just wasn’t all there. Something was missing. So on that book, I probably received somewhere around 45 rejections. (Ouch!)
 
Meanwhile, while I was trying to sell the fantasy, I started writing BREATHING. When it was about half-written, I went to an SCBWI conference in New York to try to sell my YA fantasy. At the writers’ intensive, I shared the first pages of BREATHING and everyone got so excited about it, it gave me the motivation to focus on it and get it written. About 3 months later, the manuscript was complete, and I sent out just 3 queries. One of the agencies I queried was interested and took the time to suggest specific revisions. This agency was really excited about the manuscript and said they wanted to help me “launch my career”. I spent the summer working on revisions and sent it back to them. And they rejected it! (Ouch, again.) There was a certain character they had wanted me to drop, and I just couldn’t do it. So I cried for two days, then I went back to my computer and sent out five more queries. I got two requests for the full within 24 hours, and 1 request for a partial. A couple of days later, one of the agents who requested the full emailed me, saying, “Don’t accept representation with anyone else until I talk to you. I’ll call you on Thursday.” Needless to say I was flipping out at this point. That Thursday I was sitting by my phone, wondering if it was really possible that she would call, and she did!
 
Great story of perserverence! Thanks. Which “Call” thrilled you more? The call in which you landed an agent or the call in which you landed your book deal? Can you describe to us what it felt like?
 
I think the agent call was the most exciting. Somehow it symbolized the end of that awful, hopeless-feeling period of rejections. She was so enthusiastic about my work and had such a great reputation and track record. I was completely euphoric. After so many rejections on other books, for this to happen so quickly was just incredibly exciting.
 
I think you’re the first person I’ve heard say “agent,” but I can totally understand why. Throughout your journey as a writer, what resources have you found most valuable to your success? Websites? Books? Conferences?
 
Aside from books, which are always helpful, I think there have been two resources that have been crucial for me. One is my writing group, which is not a critique group. We do writing exercises together that get the creative juices going, and we offer positive reactions and support. It reminds you of all the good things about your writing. The other resource that has been invaluable is conferences. They’re expensive, but you learn so much about how the system really works. Even if it’s just a small, local conference, you can learn a lot.

 
That sounds like a cool spin on the critique group. But even with their help, we all know that writers go through hard times on their way to success. How have you handled rejection in the past?
 
Rejection is never fun, and it’s often painful. Sometimes I would try to focus on the positive things that were said about my work (on the occasions when the agent or editor took the time to write something specific.) But I think the main thing was to let myself mourn a little each time, let it be okay to just feel bad for a couple of days, reach out to family and friends, who would tell me that my work didn’t suck and that I shouldn’t give up. Then, after a little while, I’d be able to dive back in and try again.
 
This is Fumbling with Fiction, so I have to ask, in your writing career have you ever had a big “Oops!” moment?
 
When I was seeking an agent for my YA fantasy, I queried an agent that I’d found on the internet. She actually offered me representation. But then when I researched her further, I realized that she had only just started agenting, had no background in publishing, and was on her own in it. She didn’t seem to understand her own contract and wanted a small amount of money up front for expenses. I’d always heard that if an agent wants money upfront you should run the other way. So, even though it was really hard to walk away from an agent offering representation, I did. To this day, I’ve never heard of that agent selling a book. So I did the right thing. But “oops” on querying an agent you haven’t researched!
 
Huge lesson to be learned from that! And thank goodness you dodged that bullet. You’re now at the beginning of your writing career. Can you believe it? Where would you like that sure-to-be illustrious career to take you?
 
I am very grateful and excited to be at the beginning of my writing career. I hope to write many more YA novels. And I hope people enjoy them and find some solace in them. My goal is always that my work feed the soul of the reader.
 
I’m sure it will. Now that you are a soon-to-be-published author, seeing the view from the other side, what has been your favorite moment in the publishing process so far? What part of the process has most surprised you?
 
My favorite part so far has been working with my editor. She is so smart and thoughtful and thorough and also responsive and easy to communicate with. I have loved suddenly not being all on my own with the story anymore, having someone who cares about it and thinks about it like I do. At the same time, I love that my editor has really allowed me to keep it my own. She makes suggestions about areas to work on, but I get to choose whether or not and how I want to change things. That means a lot to me.
 
I think the thing that has surprised me the most is how many people are involved in bringing a book to publication – people I will probably never even meet!
 
And they’re all working on your idea. How neat is that!? Tell us a little about receiving your first editorial letter. What was yours like? How did you feel when you received it?
 
My editor began my letter by saying what great shape the manuscript was in and how little work it needed. That was followed by a four-page letter of editorial suggestions. I felt overwhelmed at first. But once I started working on it, just one issue at a time, I found that it came together fairly quickly.

Finally, if you could have written one book previously published by another author, which book would it be?

There are so many books that I love. But one of my favorite quotes is this: “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and it will be lost.” — Martha Graham. I take many things from this quote, but one of them is that we each have something so different to share with the world. So, although I may admire others’ work, that’s not what I have to offer. So I try to just focus on being grateful that a story I wrote is something someone wanted to publish.

Thanks so much for this interview! I really enjoyed your questions. Have fun with the rest of the Debs!

 

Thanks so much for coming on and sharing with us! Great things for everyone to look forward to. Congrats again and I can’t wait for that book to hit the shelves this spring!

(*Thanks again to Cyn Balog, author of Fairy Lust, for helping organize the interview series!*)

Interview: Cyn Balog, Author of Fairy Lust

By Posted in 2009 Deb Interview Series, guest blog Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

Today, I’m so pleased to have Cyn Balog chat with us. She’s the author of the forthcoming Fairy Lust (Delacorte, 2009). She’s a fellow frequenter of both the Blue Boards and Absolute Write, so be sure to support her win her book hits the shelves. To whet your appetite, here’s a bit about her novel:

               Morgan Sparks has always known that she and her boyfriend, Cam, are made for each other. They’re next-door neighbors and have been friends practically since birth. They tell each other everything, and are totally hot for each other.
            But suddenly, a week before their joint Sweet Sixteen party, Cam starts acting distant. His mysterious and awkward cousin, Pip, comes to stay with the family. Finally Pip confesses to Morgan what’s going on: Cam is a fairy. No, seriously, a fairy. Because Cam was a sickly baby, the fairies came to Earth the night he was born and switched him with Pip, a healthy human boy. Nobody expected Cam to live, and nobody expected his biological brother, raised in the fairy world and heir to the fairy throne, to die. But now the fairies want Cam back to take his rightful place as Fairy King.
            There’s no way Morgan is going to let this happen. As Cam begins to physically change, Morgan becomes determined to fool the fairies so that she and Cam can stay together forever. Soon she has to decide once and for all whether their love can weather an uncertain future.

Can’t wait to get my hands on this one!

And without further ado…

Hi Cyn! Thanks for doing this. This is such an exciting time for you and I’m excited to get to have you on Fumbling with Fiction! As I understand it, Fairy Lust is your debut novel, can you give us a little statistical rundown on how long it took you to get to this point? How many books? How many rejections? How many days, months, or years?

I knew I wanted to be a writer very young– almost from the moment I learned to write.  However when I got to college I was really daunted by the statistics about how improbable it is to make a living off of writing fiction, so I actually attempted to give it up to have a “real” career in marketing– and succeeded for almost 15 years.  But after awhile I couldn’t ignore it anymore, so I wrote my first book, which landed me an agent fairly easily.  It didn’t sell, but eventually I began to work on another idea– Fairy Lust, which sold.  So I guess you can say the journey has been pretty long– it’s been decades since I first decided I wanted to be a writer!
 
 
Which “Call” thrilled you more? The call in which you landed an agent or the call in which you landed your book deal? Can you describe to us what it felt like?

Definitely the call where I got my book deal!  It came completely out of the blue!  My book had been on submission for six weeks, and I was under the impression that if my book was going to sell well, the second my agent unleashed it upon the publishing world, offers were going to come in.  Didn’t happen.  I had just resigned myself to picking up a new idea and starting over, as painful as that was, because ANOTHER one of my books was going to be shelved.  And then suddenly, I got a call from my agent.  She told me that Delacorte loved it.  I thought, “Well, that’s good news, so now they need to go through meetings and a bunch of other hoops, and then maybe it will sell . . .” and that’s when she told me they’d offered a pre-empt.  I was at work and started screaming and crying, which is, of course, a very professional thing to do.
 
 
 
I love seeing authors succeed like that! Throughout your journey as a writer, what resources have you found most valuable to your success? Websites? Books? Conferences?

Since I started writing, I don’t think I have made it through a day without checking Verla’s boards, the Absolute Write Boards, and my LiveJournal.  I have so many writer friends on all those sites that “get it”, more than any of my family or friends, who still seem to think that since I write YA, I must be best friends with the only other YA writers out there, J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer.  The writers I have met online are so supportive and encouraging, I love sharing my problems and successes with all of them because they know what I’m going through.  Two of my best friends, Mandy Hubbard (Prada & Prejudice, Razorbill, 2009), and Brooke Taylor (Undone, Walker, 2008), were met online years ago, before any of us had agents or book contracts . . . I honestly don’t think FAIRY LUST would exist without them and the online community of writers. 
 

I love how you talk about making your “writer friends” online and elsewhere. I’m just starting to make some similar bonds and I think it would be so neat to see some of these aspiring writers succeed and I value their support already. Thanks for reminding us how important those relationships are. On your blog, you have something called the “ABCs of Writing.” Can you tell us a little bit about what that entails?

Mandy Hubbard lives on the West Coast and I live on the East Coast, and so we email back and forth constantly.  We both love the Greens’ Brotherhood vlog series, and wanted to learn how to vlog.  So we decided that we would do a really goofy vlog series, all about our experiences as writers.  We started with a topic beginning with the letter A, and we alternate every couple of weeks.  Mandy did a really cute one for the letter “C” because it was right after she got “The Call” that Prada & Prejudice was going to be published.  We don’t do anything flashy because we’re complete amateurs, we’re just acting goofy, trying to have fun.  But maybe somewhere, buried in there, might be some helpful advice for aspiring writers.
 

Too funny! Can you tell us a little about your writing schedule and where you do most of your writing?

I have a full-time job which requires me to be active (I manage the events for fitness magazines) so in between dealing with my job schedule, working out, and my family (I have a toddler) . . . I get maybe 19 minutes during my lunch hour?  And sometimes my very supportive family will leave me alone for a few hours on the weekends.  When you have such a rigid schedule, you really start to value and make the most of your writing time.  I used to have a lot more time for writing, and I wasted it!
 

We all know that writers go through hard times on their way to success. How have you handled rejection in the past?

I mope.  Seriously, it’s okay to mope for a day or two, eat a pint of ice-cream, whatever.  But then you pick yourself up and get moving again.  I think I hit one of my biggest lows after my first novel didn’t sell, and I wrote a second novel, which I excitedly sent to my agent and got a “meh” response.  I had shelves of novels, months and years of blood, sweat, and tears, and nobody in NYC wanted them!  I was so frustrated, and I contemplated giving up writing.  And then I remembered that I had tried that, so many years ago, and it didn’t work.  Writing– not to sell, but just for fun– is like my salvation.  Writing gives me a high unlike anything I’ve every experienced before– my fingers itch to be at the keyboard when I’m away.  So I told myself that I would just keep writing, and not worry about selling.   And then, of course, I sold.  It was like that old adage they tell you about finding a relationship…. when you’re not looking, THAT’s when you find it.
 

I like your honesty and think you are right on the mark. On a happier note, now that you are a soon-to-be-published author, seeing the view from the other side, what has most surprised you about the publishing process?

I was floored to learn how much work manuscripts go through, even after they’ve been bought.  I thought editors only bought manuscripts that were just about perfect.  If it needed more than a little work, they’d pass.  Not true.  Some of my friends had dozens of pages of changes to make on their manuscripts, and multiple rounds of revisions. Editors don’t just sit there, reading stacks for manuscripts and saying “yes” or “no.”  They, and the copyeditors, are pretty much geniuses.    
 

I always ask this question of interviewees, so I hope you’ve been thinking on it. If you could have written one book previously published by another author, which book would it be?

Actually, there are many books out there that I wish I could have written, anything by M.T. Anderson because I have no idea how he manages to get in his character’s heads so completely and so convincingly.  And it’s funny, a year or two ago, I’d written four or five chapters of a book about the zombie apocalypse, based on a dream I’d had, since I am a huge fan of zombies.  Then, I gave it up to write FAIRY LUST.  And I am so glad that I never attempted to finish it because it would have paled drastically in comparison to Carrie Ryan’s THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH.  

 

Oh! I have so been wanting to read Carrie Ryan’s book. Thanks for reminding me.

Cyn, you gave fantastic, thoughtful answers. Thank you so much. It is helpful and inspiring to see a writer going through all of this with fresh eyes. Thanks for taking the time to give us your insight and a BIG congratulations!

 

You can find out more about Cyn Balog at http://cyn2write.livejournal.com .

 

 

Status: First day of law school orientation complete! I read The Appeal by John Grisham for today and had a book discussion, so I will be reviewing that on Saturday if y’all are interested. Other than that I’m still playing the waiting game, but will be working on taking my own advice from yesterday and not wasting time that I could be writing!