One question I've been asked a lot recently is the most surprising part of getting a book deal. I have a few answers to this, but the most obvious one is how long everything takes. Before I went on this journey, I honestly had no clue what the timing of things would be (and here is where I thank the Apocalypsies for answering my panicked "Should this be taking this long?"s with a resounding yes).
So, in case it's of some interest, I started jotting down when major milestones happened in the genesis of The Mapmaker and the Ghost. Obviously, things vary from publishing house to publishing house. But, from what I can gather, my timing experience from offer to book was pretty standard.
Does any of it surprise you?
June 2009: I sign on with my agent. She starts sending out my manuscript to editors (a different manuscript than The Mapmaker and the Ghost).
July 2009-September 2009: Manuscript #1 gets rejected, though some editors have some very nice/constructive feedback.
September 2009: My agent and I decide to sends out Manuscript #2 (though really it was written before Manuscript #1) to two editors who seemed most interested in MS #1. One editor passes.
December 2009: Editor #2 likes the manuscript but says she wouldn't be able to buy it as is. She will send an edit letter to me in a couple of months to see if I can fix it up.
February 2010: Receive spec edit letter from Editor #2.
May 2010: Hand in revised manuscript to agent, who in turn submits it to Editor #2. My agent gives the editor an exclusive deadline until July.
July 2010: Receive word that though Editor #2 really liked my changes, she is still unable to get full approval from the acquisitions board. She cannot meet the exclusive deadline but will still try. My agent submits the manuscript to a few other houses.
August 2010: Get the call that editor #2 has made an offer!!
September 2010: Offer is accepted (verbally only), editor #2 officially becomes MY editor and I receive my first real edit letter!
November 2010: I hand in my first round of revisions.
December 2010: I receive my second edit letter.
January 2011: I hand in my second round of revisions. I also see the first sketches of my cover art.
February 2011: I receive the copyedited version of the manuscript with a one week turnaround to hand them back in. We settle on a finalized title. I also join the Apocalypsies, a group of 2012 debut children's authors.
March 2011: I receive my contract.
April 2011: I receive my advance check. My deal finally appears in Publisher's Marketplace. Also, I see the first layout of the interior of the book (including title page, chapter heading designs, etc.)
May 2011: I receive first pass pages (the entire book laid out) for proofreading.
June 2011: Cover reveal.
July 2011: My book appears on Amazon and is available for pre-order. I get an official release date and see my jacket copy. I receive my ARCs.
September 2011: I turn in my final proofread.
December 2012: I find out my cover is changing! Also I receive a copy of my first print review which will run in the March issue of Library Media Connection.
February 2012: I reveal my new cover.
March-April 2012: A haze of online marketing blitz. I only partially remember these months.
April 24, 2012: The Mapmaker and the Ghost is released and available for sale almost everywhere!
May 2012: I receive a review from School Library Journal.
Showing posts with label the road to publishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the road to publishing. Show all posts
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Monday, July 18, 2011
Acronym City: MG FAQs
I will begin this post with a completely unrelated anecdote.
When I was growing up, I loved the movie With Honors. It's about a Harvard student (Brendan Fraser) who loses the only copy of his thesis down a grate. It's found by a homeless man (Joe Pesci) who proceeds to give him back one page per favor. I found the movie both touching and funny. And the title of my post is reminding me of one particular bit of dialogue.
Joe Pesci is being interviewed by a social worker about receiving disability payments. He is, shall we say, a bit facetious.
Social Worker: DOB?
Joe Pesci: EFGHIK
This exchange has always cracked me up, even upon repeated viewing. I think it mostly has to do with the delivery.
Anyhoo, so acronyms. The title of this blog post...
Hey, I'm a guest over at YA author Gennifer Albin's blog today, answering some frequently asked questions about writing Middle Grade! Dying to know my thoughts on MG language, trends, marketing and more? Read it here.
When I was growing up, I loved the movie With Honors. It's about a Harvard student (Brendan Fraser) who loses the only copy of his thesis down a grate. It's found by a homeless man (Joe Pesci) who proceeds to give him back one page per favor. I found the movie both touching and funny. And the title of my post is reminding me of one particular bit of dialogue.
Joe Pesci is being interviewed by a social worker about receiving disability payments. He is, shall we say, a bit facetious.
Social Worker: DOB?
Joe Pesci: EFGHIK
This exchange has always cracked me up, even upon repeated viewing. I think it mostly has to do with the delivery.
Anyhoo, so acronyms. The title of this blog post...
Hey, I'm a guest over at YA author Gennifer Albin's blog today, answering some frequently asked questions about writing Middle Grade! Dying to know my thoughts on MG language, trends, marketing and more? Read it here.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Having Faith
I've had the immense privilege of seeing her in-person twice. The second time is probably the most exciting (and I will go into that in a different post) but I wanted to write about the first time, well, first.
It was 2006. I had been out of college for three years and was working a pretty intense office job. I'd been struggling to finish writing a novel that, by that point, I had pretty much given up on since there just wasn't enough creative juice left in me by the end of my work days. I heard about a benefit at Radio City Music Hall that involved three writers: Stephen King, John Irving and J.K. Rowling. Of course, I decided that I must go.
I very much wanted to go with my best friend, Katie (also a huge Jo fan), but she wasn't able to at the time. So I went alone. Because I was getting a single ticket, I got a pretty nice aisle seat in the front orchestra.
The benefit was extraordinarily set up. Each author had their own "set" that reflected their style. Each read a chapter from one of their books and answered some pre-selected questions. Both John Irving and Stephen King were entertaining and delightful.
J.K. Rowling was the last one out. Her "set" involved a gold and red velvet throne-like chair. She wore gold heels that had glittering snakes for straps. She read a chapter from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (the one where we see young Tom Riddle in the orphanage). And--you know what--she seemed just a tad nervous and even a little shy. In other words, she was human and she was just lovely.
Seeing those three writers at that point in my life was vastly important to me. When I got home, this is what I wrote on the back of my ticket:
In case you can't read my prescription pad handwriting, that says: I am a writer. I will never not be one. I just need to keep on having faith.
Within a year, I had quit my intense office job for another less-intense one and I had started working on the novel I'm about to get published. Once I realized that I couldn't stop myself from writing down stories, no matter whether anyone ever read them or not; and once I realized how much those stories made me fulfilled and happy, making sure I kept writing them became one of my top priorities.
Three authors that kept me going as a writer, when I wasn't sure I would be able to, and now there are actually four authors among us.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Editing on Spec
As I've talked about a little before, my now-editor, Stacy, was first introduced to me via another manuscript and my blog. When I submitted what eventually became The Mapmaker and the Ghost, it was only about 28,000 words (125 pages in Word) and did not have a ghost anywhere in it.
I was very lucky that Stacy was able to see the spark of something in that early draft. She decided to do something which I think is rather unusual. She told my agent and me that the manuscript was not publishable as it was. For one thing, it was entirely too short. But she thought it had potential and was willing to try editing it on spec with me.
What this meant was that I received three pages of single-spaced notes from her. I didn't realize at the time that this was what is known as an edit letter, which is what you get from your editor once the manuscript has been accepted and you are working on revising it together. Since Stacy hadn't acquired my manuscript yet, she was doing the work of being my editor, but without the guarantee that she would eventually purchase the book.
I was aware that I was being afforded a pretty rare and huge opportunity and my mantra soon became something like, "Good God, Sarv, don't blow it." I worked pretty extensively on my revisions for about three months, adding around 60 pages, and a ghost, of course, amongst other things. I think I can honestly say that I'd never written anything with such a singular focus up until that point.
It took another four months for the offer to officially come through (the publishing world is not exactly known for its speed)—but, more importantly, it did eventually come through.
Since then I've had two more edit letters and written about 30 additional pages, including a completely different ending. It's become a little easier to understand and cope with the changes each time. For one thing, I know for a fact that the story is A LOT stronger than it ever was when it was just a lonely mapmaker sans ghost.
I'll always cherish that spec edit letter, my very first one, because it was the key that opened a mysterious, heavy door for me; one whose keyhole I'd been peeking through longingly for years.
I was very lucky that Stacy was able to see the spark of something in that early draft. She decided to do something which I think is rather unusual. She told my agent and me that the manuscript was not publishable as it was. For one thing, it was entirely too short. But she thought it had potential and was willing to try editing it on spec with me.
What this meant was that I received three pages of single-spaced notes from her. I didn't realize at the time that this was what is known as an edit letter, which is what you get from your editor once the manuscript has been accepted and you are working on revising it together. Since Stacy hadn't acquired my manuscript yet, she was doing the work of being my editor, but without the guarantee that she would eventually purchase the book.
I was aware that I was being afforded a pretty rare and huge opportunity and my mantra soon became something like, "Good God, Sarv, don't blow it." I worked pretty extensively on my revisions for about three months, adding around 60 pages, and a ghost, of course, amongst other things. I think I can honestly say that I'd never written anything with such a singular focus up until that point.
It took another four months for the offer to officially come through (the publishing world is not exactly known for its speed)—but, more importantly, it did eventually come through.
Since then I've had two more edit letters and written about 30 additional pages, including a completely different ending. It's become a little easier to understand and cope with the changes each time. For one thing, I know for a fact that the story is A LOT stronger than it ever was when it was just a lonely mapmaker sans ghost.
I'll always cherish that spec edit letter, my very first one, because it was the key that opened a mysterious, heavy door for me; one whose keyhole I'd been peeking through longingly for years.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
You Gotta Blog Before You Can Author
My journey to getting an offer on my manuscript was long and, if I'm being completely honest here, a little droning. That's why I've decided to try and chop it up into these (hopefully) vastly entertaining chunk-sized bits of goodness. Otherwise known as blog posts. Fine, I'll take anything from less boring to mildly more fascinating than watching that third layer of floor varnish dry.
Anyhoo, one of these (fingers-crossed) less boring bits involves how I piqued my editor's attention. The set-up: my agent was shopping around another manuscript of mine. A few editors were interested enough to give me some very nice encouragement and some constructive feedback. And one of these editors mentioned that although she didn't love the manuscript, she did really like my blog.
Once upon a time, I had a humor blog. It had nothing to do with children's books or writing, and everything to do with how insane I thought Times Square was. I worked there, you see, and because I was going into the mouth of ludicrousness day in and day out, I just found it an easy topic to riff on. By day, I was writing web copy, by night I was writing novels and, believe it or not, somewhere in between, I felt like I needed a comedy outlet. Mainly, I was hoping to entertain a few of my friends and mostly, I was looking to entertain myself.
When my agent asked me for a bio that she could send out to prospective editors, I stuck the URL of the blog in there. I figured that it was decent writing and that I was updating it pretty frequently so why not. Even though there was some language in there that would, most definitely, have no place in a children's book. I am, of course, talking about the four-letter one-two punch of...Fake Elmo.
Anyway, to make a short part of a long story short (too late!), my now-editor did not love my first manuscript, but she did love (or strongly esteem, as I feel a certain Ms. Jane Austen would say) the voice and humor of my blog. And it just so happened that I had another piece that fit in very, very nicely with that voice. So within a year, and a few other stepping stones, presto-chango, book offer!
I think what I ended up taking away from all this is that things starting happening for me - on the publishing end - when I stopped focusing so hard on it. I'm a Type-A personality, but it was crucial for me to realize that there was very, very little I could control. But the very, very little I could control was how well I could try to write my stories. So I wrote a few of those, rewrote them each several dozen more times and - most importantly - wrote for the sake of writing. That's exactly what that blog was.
Thanks, blog. I owe you one.
Anyhoo, one of these (fingers-crossed) less boring bits involves how I piqued my editor's attention. The set-up: my agent was shopping around another manuscript of mine. A few editors were interested enough to give me some very nice encouragement and some constructive feedback. And one of these editors mentioned that although she didn't love the manuscript, she did really like my blog.
Once upon a time, I had a humor blog. It had nothing to do with children's books or writing, and everything to do with how insane I thought Times Square was. I worked there, you see, and because I was going into the mouth of ludicrousness day in and day out, I just found it an easy topic to riff on. By day, I was writing web copy, by night I was writing novels and, believe it or not, somewhere in between, I felt like I needed a comedy outlet. Mainly, I was hoping to entertain a few of my friends and mostly, I was looking to entertain myself.
When my agent asked me for a bio that she could send out to prospective editors, I stuck the URL of the blog in there. I figured that it was decent writing and that I was updating it pretty frequently so why not. Even though there was some language in there that would, most definitely, have no place in a children's book. I am, of course, talking about the four-letter one-two punch of...Fake Elmo.
Anyway, to make a short part of a long story short (too late!), my now-editor did not love my first manuscript, but she did love (or strongly esteem, as I feel a certain Ms. Jane Austen would say) the voice and humor of my blog. And it just so happened that I had another piece that fit in very, very nicely with that voice. So within a year, and a few other stepping stones, presto-chango, book offer!
I think what I ended up taking away from all this is that things starting happening for me - on the publishing end - when I stopped focusing so hard on it. I'm a Type-A personality, but it was crucial for me to realize that there was very, very little I could control. But the very, very little I could control was how well I could try to write my stories. So I wrote a few of those, rewrote them each several dozen more times and - most importantly - wrote for the sake of writing. That's exactly what that blog was.
Thanks, blog. I owe you one.
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