Coming Your Way: DIVERGENT

I’m now starting a new segment of my blog which will shamelessly promote the Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins Children’s Books that I have or my team has worked on that I’m particularly excited about.

First up….Divergent by Veronica Roth

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her.

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

My thoughts: Brief review here. I reread the book this weekend and I was blown away all over again. The world is compelling, the characters amazing yet relatable and the ending…wow! Although it’s nearly 500 pages long, it’s a very fast read. Once you pick it up you can’t stop reading!

My role in its publication: Not much of one, but I interned for Veronica’s agent and I now work with the editor. They are great people and this is one AMAZING book.

Available: TOMORROW!

How a Book Gets Published

Working in the publishing industry means I inevitably get emails from friends or friends of friends or long lost relatives asking, “how can I get my book published?”.   I have no problem assisting them, so long as the query is for guidance rather than magical fairy wand flicking to get their book published by my contacts within the next month. Publishing is a mysterious industry for those who aren’t in it and aspiring writers often don’t know where to look first for information.  So, here we go: How a book gets published.*

A writer, let’s call her Wendy, writes a manuscript.  She writes and edits and polishes and then has trusted people critique her manuscript. Then Writer Wendy writes and edits and polishes some more.  Eventually, after many drafts, she thinks she is done and decides that she wants to get this manuscript published.

Writer Wendy then begins researching literary agents.  She does this online or through books at her local library, discovering not only which agents represent the genre of her manuscript, but which are accepting new queries, what the agents have sold to publishing houses recently, etc.  Full of that knowledge, Writer Wendy picks a handful of agents to query. 

The query Writer Wendy writers is very carefully constructed.  A query gives her less than five hundred words to present her manuscript to a potential agent, illustrating the main character and his/her conflict within the story. Writer Wendy researches how to write a good query, using websites like Query Shark.  She writes and edits and polishes and then has trusted people critique her query.  Next Writer Wendy writes and edits and polishes some more.  Eventually, after many drafts, she thinks she is done and decides that she wants to send this query out to the agents she has selected.  Sometimes this query is submitted electronically, sometimes by snail mail.  Sometimes it is accompanied by none of her manuscript, sometimes by a few (normally between 10-20) sample pages.  Writer Wendy makes sure to send each agent the appropriate materials because of her careful research. 

Then Writer Wendy waits. Then she gets a rejection, from Agent Adam.   Then another rejection from Agent Alyssa.  Then another rejection from Agent Allen.  Writer Wendy is disappointed, but realized that perhaps her manuscript and query letter weren’t quite polished enough. She writes and edits and polishes and then has trusted people critique her manuscript and query letter.  Next Writer Wendy writes and edits and polishes some more.  Eventually, after many drafts, she thinks she is done and sends out query letters again.

Writer Wendy waits.  This time she receives positive feedback from Agent Amanda. Agent Amanda requests to see the full manuscript.  Then Agent Amanda wants to be Writer Wendy’s agent, and will help Writer Wendy find a publishing house to publish her manuscript and will look out for Writer Wendy’s behalf during complicated contract negotiations, payments, and so forth.  Writer Wendy is so happy!

Agent Amanda gives Writer Wendy feedback on her manuscript on how to make it more appealing to publishing houses.  Writer Wendy writes and edits and polishes and then has Agent Amanda critique her manuscript again.  Next Writer Wendy writes and edits and polishes some more.  Eventually, after many revisions, she and Agent Amanda think it is done and decide that they want to submit this manuscript to publishing houses.

Agent Amanda knows all about the industry, so she carefully selects a few editors to whom to send Writer Wendy’s manuscript. Agent Amanda waits.  She gets positive feedback from Editor Emily.  Editor Emily wants to publish the manuscript.  Agent Amanda and Editor Emily negotiate the contract, such as when the final draft of the manuscript is due, how large Writer Wendy’s advance is, and what rights (world, audio, eBook, etc.) the publishing house is buying.

Editor Emily gives Writer Wendy feedback on her manuscript on how to make it more appealing to readers.  Writer Wendy writes and edits and polishes and then has Editor Emily critique her manuscript again.  Next Writer Wendy writes and edits and polishes some more.  Eventually, after many revisions, she and Editor Emily think it is done.

In the meantime, Editor Emily has been the champion for Writer Wendy’s manuscript, getting sales/marketing/publicity/ librarians/booksellers/the reading public excited about Writer Wendy’s manuscript.  Editor Emily also works with design to make a cover for the book. 

Writer Wendy’s job isn’t complete either, even after revisions are finished.  She provides Editor Emily with ‘extra’ writing blurbs to help publicize her book and is also hopefully on social networking sites getting librarians/booksellers/the reading public excited about her book.

Finally, at least a year later from when Editor Emily acquired the manuscript, Writer Wendy’s book is published.  Now all the readers out there can enjoy it!

* This post isn’t meant to be representative of all the ways in which a book can get published; it is just one explanation of the complicated journey a book may go through from manuscript to bookshelf.

Famous

Hamilton’s Career Center treats me like a celebrity.   First, they interviewed me and wrote up an article about my internship in 2008 at Bloomsbury Children’s Books.  Then they sent paparazzi to capture the alum-student moments.  Oh, and believe me, having someone take your picture while you’re at work and all the fellow employees are trying to be productive is awkward.  Anyways, now that I’ve graduated, the Career Center actually wanted to hear my own words, the article of which is included below:

How I Got My First Job with Laurel Symonds '10

January 20, 2011

I walked into Hamilton knowing I wanted to major in creative writing, and the summer following my sophomore year I realized what I would do with the degree. That summer I had the opportunity to intern in the editorial department of Bloomsbury Children’s Books in Manhattan, and it confirmed my belief that children’s book editorial was my dream job.


Then the economy crashed, and publishing was hit especially hard. Two years later, when I graduated, most companies were in a hiring freeze and learning to functioning with smaller staffs. My friends went to grad school or had temporary jobs that held them over until they found something more stable. Instead, I volunteered at my local library while writing emails, calling, and even traveling into NYC to connect with Hamilton alums in publishing who I had found through the Career Center, establishing contacts. The Hamilton alums’ contacts turned into mine, and soon enough I had a few interviews, but no luck. To find job openings, I used the job boards on mediabistro.com, publishersmarketplace.com, and bookjobs.com, which I checked daily. I also checked the individual publishers’ websites weekly, although oftentimes jobs have already been filled by the time they are listed online, which is why having contacts in the industry who can alert you to job openings early is key. I continued to talk to everyone I could about the publishing industry, book trends, and popular reads. I networked nonstop, because like so many industries, to be hired in publishing you need to be qualified, but to be considered for the job you need a personal recommendation.


I can’t deny how frustrating this summer was. I was qualified! I was enthusiastic! I was putting in so much effort! Why hasn’t anyone hired me yet? And then I repeated to myself again: I am qualified, I am enthusiastic, I am putting in a ton of effort, and it will pay off in the end.


In September I took a part-time unpaid internship at a literary agency. This wasn’t my ideal job; it was somewhere around plan-D. But by being involved in the industry I learned a lot and was presented with more networking opportunities. My advisors at the internship also supported my job search immensely: one day an agent came into the office and placed three books on my desk with, “There’s an opening at this company and I think you’ll really get along with the editor. Read these books and I’ll make a phone call today.” All those days working long hours for no pay became worthwhile because she knew that I was qualified, enthusiastic and dedicated. She could provide a personal recommendation and get my resume noticed.


I didn’t get that job. Or the several others I applied to and interviewed for that fall. But then I was offered an interview at Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books. I met with HR and the two editors I would work for. I was given a writing test. Two of the women I interned for made phone calls or wrote emails on my behalf. I received a second interview. I met with the two editors again, and their boss. A week later, I got the job, and was told that my passion for children’s books as well as writing skills made me the most desirable candidate for the position.


It wasn’t easy, or fun, but my efforts paid off in the end. I’m now happily employed in my dream job thanks to an amazing network of Hamilton alums, a lot of hard work, and patience.

Just remember, you can say “I knew her when…”

Literary Agency v. Publishing House

A Comparison Between My Roles at the Literary Agency and the Publishing House

	FP-NC	HC
Position	Intern	Editorial Assistant
Pay	Nada	Slightly more than nothing
Hours	3 days/week 10-5	5 days/week 9-5/6 (I was told by my editors to “leave early while I can…cause it won’t last!)
Perks	The joy of helping authors get published.  A stocked candy jar.  Help networking/finding a job. (Thanks again, ladies!)	The joy of seeing a book transform from manuscript to finished novel.  A kitchen with hot chocolate and tea packets. Health benefits. Paid vacation. 401K.  Office supplies.  NYC discounts. Free books.
The office	A small, homey suite with several offices near Penn Station.  Comfy chairs and a ‘special’ red couch.	HUGE 30+ floor office building in Midtown, right outside of Rockefeller Center.  My floor, the 18th, has probably 15-20 offices on the perimeter with a sea of 20-30 cubes in the middle.
My space	A large round table shared with the other interns.	A surprisingly large cubicle next to the copy machines. It’s a bit dark, but my bosses got me a lamp.  There is plenty of room to store things (aka M&Ms and Cheez-its).  I’ve been promised a bookshelf-which is good, I’m already running out of room for all the books I’ve accumulated.
Fellow Employees	8 or so regularly in the office, plus 3 or so interns.  Several more work from home.  They’re great people.	7 people on the KT team, within a much larger Children’s group, within a much much larger company.  They’re great people.
“Average” Day	Read manuscripts by unpublished authors and decide if they’re worthy of representation; Read manuscripts by clients and write up reader’s reports to help them prepare their manuscript for submission to a publishing house.	Read manuscripts by signed authors and write up reader’s reports to help them write even awesomer books; Copyedit manuscripts; Write up cover copy (the material on the covers of books, including the back blurb); Circulate materials and review manuscripts and covers with various departments.
Relationship with the rest of publishing	Love/Hate relationship with authors and editors.  Need them…but sometimes they can be frustrating!	Love/Hate relationship with authors and agents.  Need them…but sometimes they can be frustrating!

So there you have it!  It’s not quite a fair assessment of a literary agency verses a publishing house.  After all, I was only an intern at FP-NC…if I had been an agent, I would have been paid (again, just slightly more than nothing) and had my own desk…starting out in both aspects of publishing are pretty similar.   You have to love it because you’ll work hard with few rewards.  But it is sooooo worth it.  Just think of those kids at a bookstore picking up a book they’re dying to read! *smiles* I’ve always known that I wanted to be on the publishing house side of things, but that’s completely a personal choice…there are so many cool things going on everywhere!




P.S. This week I almost reached my unspoken goal of having readers from at least one country on every continent (Thanks, South Africa!)- I'm still working on Antartica, but I'm not holding my breath.  I would like to encourage anyone who's reading this blog to become a follower and provide me feedback in the comments sections!  Thanks!

Professionalism

There has been quite a bit of talk recently about literary agency interns (and sometimes agents themselves) anonymously posting bits of queries on twitter.  While most of the tweets are written with the intention to amuse or educate, many querying authors have been insulted by the idea.  And blame agencies.  Which in turn get insulted, because most agencies would never ever employ an intern that had the gall to do that. Why do I think anonymously posting parts of queries online is so terrible? It comes down to one word: professionalism.

Some elements of professionalism seem old fashion: business causal attire, lunch meetings, etc. yet one element of professionalism should never go out of style: personal integrity.  And by invading a query author’s privacy and posting their query, which was written with the intention of only being read by the agency, online is not professional.

Many in my family are teachers so it’s easy for me to flip this situation around to apply to education, and teachers have been fired for acting similarly.   Take note:

Example #1, To Entertain: A student does something stupid or amusing in class.  The teacher remarks about it to her friends or in public.  It gets back to the student’s parents.  The parent complains to the principal or superintendant, and lo and behold, that teach is in deep do-do (to put it bluntly).

Example #2, To Educate: A teacher gives students an exam.  Wanting to help her students realize how they can improve, the teacher copies a poor exam, crossing out the student’s name, and hands it out to the class.  The student whose exam is passed out, is mortified, even if the exam is anonymous.  Again, the student’s parent finds out, complains and the teacher is in trouble. 

In both examples, the teacher isn’t trying to hurt the student.  He/she wants to entertain his/her friends or educate the students.  But they’re still invading the student’s privacy and right to respect. 

Thus, querying authors deserve the same respect.  They’re writing to the agency with the understanding that their query will only be seen by the agency (interns and agents, alike).  By breaking that trust, the intern tweeting about the query ruins any potential relationship that could be formed between the client and agent.  Integrity is about building trust, respecting others and being a generally upright person.  It’s part of what being a professional is.  And what I continue to strive to be; I get angry when interns are judged on the few who act unprofessionally.  We’re not all like that.  And I know for one that FP-NC would never ever tolerate an intern acting the way in which others are. 

So, to those who are tweeting queries, reconsider what type of person you want to come off as; someone who breaks trust easily, or someone who is respectful and professional.  I, at least, know what type of person I’d like to be and what type of person is going to get (or keep) the job in the end.

Internship: One Month In

I’ve now been at my internship at FinePrint Literary Management

/Nancy Coffey Literary and Media Representation for just about a month.  I love it and I feel like I’m learning so much.  Can anyone ask for more from an internship?

Because most people I’ve talked to don’t know how a literary agency plays into the lengthy process of getting a book published, I just want to run through it quickly:

Step #1: Author Writes A Book

Step #2: Author Writes A Query Letter to an Agent at a Literary Agency Asking the Agent to Represent Them

Step #3: Agent (or Intern, in the beginning) Reads the Query Letter/ Partial Manuscript. There Are Four Options:

Option #1: The Query Letter/Manuscript is Plain Old Bad.  Reject.

Option #2: The Agent the Author Wrote to Isn’t Accepting New Clients or That Genre/ Type of Book the Author Wrote Isn’t Selling Well In Today’s Market.  Reject.

Option #3: The Query Letter/Partial Manuscript is Intriguing.  Request Full Manuscript.  Potential Offer of Representation to Follow.

Option #4: Wow! The Query Letter/Partial Manuscript is Great.  Request Full Manuscript and then Agent Wants to Represent Author.

If Option #3 or #4 Happens:

Step #4: Agent Works with Author to Edit Manuscript.

Step #5: Agent Pitches Manuscript to Publishing Houses.

Step #6: Manuscript Sells.  Everyone Celebrates!

Step #7: Manuscript Now In the Hands of a Publishing House.  (Then, for the

Following Year+: Editor Works with Author and Agent to Edit Manuscript.  Editor Works with Sales/Marketing/Etc. to Pitch Manuscript to Entire Company and Sell it to Bookstores/Libraries/Etc. Editor Works with Design/Art Department to Create Cover.  And more….I covered quite a bit of this at my first internship, at Bloomsbury Children’s Books)

Step #8: Manuscript, now a Book, Makes it to Bookstores.  Everyone Celebrates Again!

There you have it.  Eight simple steps to getting a book published.  Piece of cake, right?

At FP-NC I’ve been dealing mostly with Steps #3 and #4.   Every day when I get to work there will be a pile of queries waiting to be read.  Most of them fall into Options #1 or #2: REJECT.  The writing, even for the query letter, needs to be fantastic and hook a reader immediately.  Most aspiring writers could benefit from a look at QueryShark, by FP’s own Janet Reid.   There have been a few manuscripts in the pile of many that have fallen into Option #3 for me.   With the full manuscript in hand, I was eager for it to turn into an offer of representation.  No luck for that author: REJECT.  I have yet to personally see an Option #4.  They’re a rare species.  But I’m on the lookout!  I was, however, able to sit in on a meeting where one of the agents signed a new client.  This client’s work is fantastic- I’m very excited!

The larger part of my day (and often, night) deals with Step #4.  I help the agent I’m working for that particular week read and edit a large pile of manuscripts. Some belong to potential clients, some to first time clients, some to long time clients with a new manuscript.  But the process is the same: they all need editing, and lots of it.  Reading an average of one full manuscript a day, I’ll settle into the far-too-comfy-for-my-own-good armchair or red couch and I begin reading, taking detailed notes along the way to turn into a reader’s report.

If it’s a good manuscript, I’ll still have an average of five pages of comments and suggestions for improvement.  Language can always be tighter, characters always more relatable, world building always more vivid.  Whether authors make these changes or not is another story, but the agents know what they’re talking about, and they’re teaching their faithful interns to do the same.

If it’s a bad manuscript and doesn’t belong to a client, that’s normally the end of the road.  REJECT.  Once if it’s client’s, however, the agent has to work with the author to make the manuscript better.  I couldn’t believe it at first- no rejections (at least, from the agent) anymore!

So, good or bad, I’m writing up a lengthy reader’s report detailing all the changes the author should make to their work.  I’ll pass this report on to the agent I’m working for, and she’ll add her own opinion/comments, and then forward it to the author.  Time for revisions.

A huge part of agent’s job is Step #5: Pitching the Manuscript to a Publishing House.  Just last week I was lucky enough to listen in on one of the agents working hard to sell a manuscript she is so passionate about.  Per my request, she sat down with me and another intern and explained how she selected the eight or so editors to focus on based on her relationships with the editors, the editors’ interests and what type of books the imprint or company tends to publish.  That little chat was so eye opening.  There is A LOT to know!   The agents at FP-NC, however, are fantastic and, of course, know their stuff.  The office ended up with a Step #6: Celebration on that one the following week!

Celebrating a big sale or the debut of a novel is also a big part of literary agency life (Celebrating does make it twice on Steps-to-Publishing-A-Book!).   Although I sadly couldn’t attend, there was a launch party for Kody Kepliner’s debut novel, The DUFF, during my first week of the internship.  And I may have secretly been jumping up and down when she visited the office the week later to rehash all the launch’s excitement.  The perks of being an intern!

Phew! That was long! But that’s the life of an intern (and really anyone who works in publishing.  Hours are L-O-N-G!).  But, as anyone in the industry will tell you: IT IS SO WORTH IT.  You get to read books and make great books available to the masses.  FOR YOUR JOB! I’ve read great projects, ones that I know will absolutely be books in the future.  (Oh, how I wish I could tell you about them…but I had to sign a confidentiality agreement…but you’ll read those books soon in stores.  Promise.)

And not just the job, it’s the people, too.  Where else can you find such like-minded people?  People who get excited as much as you do about a manuscript or a newly released YA novel or a debut author.  Case in point: during my very first lunch while I was interning at Bloomsbury the three assistant/associate editors were saying that they needed to read Twilight.  Now I had just read Stephanie Meyer’s book, but NO they couldn’t be talking about the YA novel, now could they? These were intelligent, mature women, after all.  So, shy intern that I was, I kept my mouth shut.  But there was no need, I soon learned.  It was the YA novel they were talking about.  Of course, why wouldn’t it have been? They were children’s book editors.  I was a children’s book intern.  You read children’s books for work, to stay up with trends, but also because you love them.  In how many other jobs is your work reading the same thing as your pleasure reading and you have the colleagues to talk about it with?

This is why I’m willing to do a second unpaid internship in the hopes of it leading to a full time job.  Because I need that publishing job.  Not for the money, although that is a big plus (even though publishing pays infamously low), but because I LOVE books.  I love reading them, writing them, and I want to make great new ones available to read and help everyone to feel the same way I do.  I always want to be surrounded by books.

There I go again.  I started talking about the daily grind of an unpaid intern and ending up preaching about why I’m a Book Lover.   But it’s all related.  And so worth it.