A Necessary Step

This week has been about what (nearly) every author experiences and what (nearly) every author hates*: rejections. It’s part of the process and not at all fun. But hey, even famous authors and celebrities are rejected at some point in their career. I put myself out there; I talked about my writing with people in the industry who matter. That’s moving in the right direction. As of now I think I’m going to take a step back and revise more before sending out additional query letters. *Chug chug chug up the big mountain*

*Unless you’re Kathryn Stockett (The Help) who was so aware that rejection letters were part of the publication process that she was jubilant when she received her first couple (not so much after 40 or so…). 

The Query Letter

Sorry for my absence on Wednesday. This has been a busy week—I have started querying agents about my manuscript The Rose of Coracus! And part of that process is writing the dreaded query letter. How do you sum up years of hard work and revision and a 75k+ manuscript in 200 or so words? I don’t have answers. I don’t know if my query letter will get me an agent or not. I do know (excuse the cheesiness) that I’ve done my best and I’m trying hard and will keep trying hard until it works out. After all, “A published author is an amateur who didn’t quit.”* So, drum roll, here’s the letter that will hopefully set me down the path to publication:

Dear [agent],

Shayna won’t let anyone—from her parents to King Morader himself—tell her she can’t explore the city of Coracus just because she is Hilla, part of the hated ethnic group. She has been snubbed by merchants and even assaulted, but could always dance away her anger as the most admired performer in the bustling market square.

Growing up Prince Johnathan had obeyed when told never go near the Hilla. But the desire to know all of his future subjects leads him to see beyond the capital’s walls.

The passion in her dancing catches his eye; his chivalry helps her to trust him. Soon Johnathan is escaping the palace to dance with Shayna in smoky taverns and show her the world she couldn’t know as a Hilla. Even if those who see them disapprove—verbally and violently. They weren’t supposed to meet, let alone fall in love.

But when Shayna leads a Hilla rebellion demanding equal treatment and Johnathan joins her, the couple must choose: sacrifice their relationship so Johnathan maintains the crown and can one day secure rights for the Hilla, or stay together in an increasingly dangerous world.

The Rose of Coracus is a stand-alone 77k high fantasy young adult novel in the vein of Tamora Pierce and Kristin Cashore. It is envisioned as part of a non-sequential series with recurring characters.

By night I write and by day I’m an editorial assistant at Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins Publishers, so I am surrounded by children’s books nearly 24/7 and couldn’t be happier. [Sentence about why I’m querying particular agent.]

Thank you for your time and consideration. 

Sincerely,

Laurel Symonds

[contact information]

And thanks to lovely author Jodi Meadows (Incarnate, Jan. 2012) for giving me feedback on the letter!

*Author and Lit. Agent Mandy Hubbard

Plan of Action

Writing and editing all my WIPs is going so well right now! Maybe it’s those extra hours during summer Fridays that are making all the difference. J Here’s what’s going on now and what will happen in the near future:

My best friend just gave me wonderful notes for my WIP The Rose of Coracus. I’m going to do another thorough rewrite this month, focusing on making Shayna a more dimensional character and her relationship with Johnathan more romantic yet realistic. And editing and adding and changing a million other little things. Heather’s notes were fantastic and gave me the direction I needed, so June is rewrite month.  It’s a tough goal, but goals are good (see this great post). One week down, three to go! And then I will be finished and submit query letters to agents by July 5^th. It’s the plan and I’m sticking to it!

My next WIP, Dueling Princesses, will be put on the burner until July, but after that I will be writing lots and lots. I’ve found two critique partners to work with, who will hopefully read the manuscript in small batches and help form the story as I go along. I’m looking forward to working on that!

So there you have it; my summer writing plans. I’m excited!

Inspirational Short List

Today’s Road Trip Wednesday question from YA Highway: Who in your life has most inspired your writing?

Inspired me to write: Various teachers throughout the years, whom I have already mentioned in a previous blog post.

Inspired what I write: All the good, moving books out there, but Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books have had the largest influence on my WIPs. Books by Megan Whalen Turner, Suzanne Collins and Kristin Cashore also are important.

Inspired me to believe I could be a writer: My mom, my auntie, my best friend Heather, my Hamilton College creative writing critique group, my boyfriend.

Thanks, everyone!

Rewards

Today is YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday! The question is: How do you reward yourself when you meet your writing goals? Answer for big goals (i.e. I will buy a Lear jet when I get published) and/or small goals (I eat an entire pint of Ben and Jerry's in one sitting when I finish each chapter).

This is a great question!

Small goals (like finishing a chapter): When I was working on The Rose of Coracus in college, I had two built-in rewards for working hard and doing a good job. First, the praise and constructive criticism of my classmates. Two, a good grade. Now when I’m writing on my own I’m missing those rewards. I’ve tried to solve the first by searching for a critique partner but I have nothing that equals the second type of reward. Perhaps that’s what I need to get writing more! I really look forward to reading how others reward themselves!

Big goals (like getting published): Assuming I get a modest two-book deal, I would reward myself by putting 1/3 immediately in savings, using 1/3 to pay back my student loans, and then the last third would be spent on an odd combination of frivolous and practical: a clothing shopping spree, a gym membership, an extravagant vacation (I’m leaning towards Australia, New Zealand and some South Pacific islands…), a new pair of glasses I might actually wear, a SCBWI membership. Even if I got a bigger book deal, the majority would go into savings: looking into my not-so-distant future, I have a lot of big things coming my way in the next five or ten years (A wedding! A house! A baby! Two baby?)…. Although, obviously, getting a book published and seeing it in stores and knowing others are reading (and hopefully loving!) it would be more than enough reward for all the hard work and revisions that went into that manuscript.   

Whether finishing a chapter or an entire novel, getting an agent or getting published, rewarding yourself for hard work is important! I kind of forgot about that in the day-to-day in terms of word counts and plot outlines, so this reminder is nice. I look forward to seeing how other writers handle this!

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.

Focus

I’ve been feeling a lot of personal pressure to get my manuscript published.  And I think this is because both at FP-NC and HC so many of the authors I (or the agents or editors) work with are so young.  There’s Kody Keplinger (The DUFF and upcoming Luststruck), Veronica Roth (the upcoming and going-to-be-huge Divergent), Hannah Moskowizt (Break, the upcoming Invincible Summer and several others) and Courtney Allison Moulton (Angelfire).  They’re under the age of 25 and have wonderfully successful books under their belt.  I obviously still haven’t entirely grown out of selfish-teenager-mode because I. Want. That. Too.  NOW.

I have to stand back and remind myself that that isn’t right for me.  I just started my fantastic dream job.  I love it, but it’s new and I’m still learning the ropes.  As I mentioned last week, it’s beginning to take up even more of my time.  Add that on top of finding and settling into my new apartment, I’ve been busy, and my focus needs to be on that fantastic job and becoming the best editorial assistant I can be.

Querying is also a full time job.  While I have an advantage of knowing the industry, it’s very fledgling knowledge, and like all (good) writers, I need to research which agents would be a best fit for my manuscript.  Just like my 9-to-5 job I want to be able to put in 100% when querying.  This means I have come to the decision to wait on querying my manuscript.  My original goal had been to start the first of this year, but I haven’t yet received all the feedback I was waiting on, so I pushed that goal back.  Now, with some more revision under my belt, I’ve still decided it’s still better to wait until the time is right for me, not anyone else.

This isn’t to say I won’t be writing- this weekend I finally got the chance to start working on my New Years Resolution (yes, I am aware that it is the beginning of February and not January, but I knew that going into the New Year my resolution would start a month late).  It felt so good to write!  And I will continue with that good writing feeling until I am more settled in my job and have found a way to balance full time job and writing career. 

Any advice on how to do so?

Confession

Here is a confession and a resolution wrapped into one: I have not written or edited a single word in any story of mine since the second weekend in November.   *GASP*

No, seriously, this is bad.  Life got in the way.  And granted, I’ve accomplished a lot and I can be very grateful for that this year: I’ve gotten both a job and an apartment, plus traveled to CT/NH for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I’ve been busy and understandably so. 

Understandable, yes.  Acceptable, no. 

Why? Because it’s SOOOOO easy to make up excuses as to why you can’t get something done.  This applies to everyone and anything: it could be doing the laundry, going to the gym, or calling a long lost friend.   But I cannot let life and excuses get in my way of writing.  I will not.

When I have a routine (like I did over the summer and part of the fall), my writing went wonderfully.  It was more fun than work.  I was productive and creative and I looked forward to my moments I had set aside to write.  I respected this time just as if it was written in my planner and unrescheduleable. I wouldn’t schedule a doctor’s or hair appointment in the morning.  My family respected this time too; my mom knew that I couldn’t go shopping with her before noon on the weekend because I was writing; I made plans around my designated writing time.  This worked.  Really well. 

So, my resolution for 2011 is to set up a special writing time again and not let anything- social events, my boyfriend making me a three course meal (*hint* starting and ending with dessert, please *hint*), napping, etc. - to get in the way.  I know that with a full time job I won’t have as much time to write as I did when I was basically doing nothing over the summer, but…

Starting January 1^st, I WILL WRITE REGULARLY.  

Got it? I hope you guys will help keep me on track ;-) 

A Bit About My Writing

So I’ve been babbling for the past few weeks about books I love and various other book related topics.  Today I’d like to go back to those Book Lover goals…and not the (should be relatively easy but isn’t in this economy) goal of getting a job…the harder goal of becoming a published author.

Gah- I said it again! I’m already a writer, but I want to be an AUTHOR too.  In face-to-face conversation, this statement is nearly always followed by a bashful smile.  But then when someone asks me what I’m writing about, the shyness disappears.  Why? Because I LOVE what I’m writing.  I’m passionate about it.  And that why I can call myself a Book Lover.

So, a bit about what I’m writing, how I’ve gotten here, and where I’m going…

The Rose of Coracus is a YA novel that takes place in the quasi-medieval fantastical kingdom of Harren, where Shayna, a dancer and talented seamstress of a hated ethnic group, meets the Crown Prince in disguise, Johnathan, who is trying to learn more about his future kingdom.  Add betraying best friends, potential suitors, pressure from parents and a building rebellion into the mix, all while Johnathan and Shayna are trying to figure out their place in the world.  You can see where this is going (so you think!)…but I’m going to make you wait to find out the ending until you can buy the book in stores! 

I’ve been working on this story seriously for the past eight months or so, when I decided I would do it for my senior project at Hamilton.  This summer I did a series of revisions (and learned the importance of setting a rigid schedule for yourself), including adding all of Johnathan’s perspective…I NEVER thought I’d be able to write from a male point of view, but I think (and have been told by my faithful reader, Heather) it works.  In August, just when I thought I was being close to finished, my friend read the beginning and came up with a GENIUS addition to the plot, which meant I needed to do major rewriting…and I wouldn’t be finished for a few more months (geez, thanks a lot, Heather!).  In reality, though, I’ve been working on this story much longer.  After being influenced by Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books in middle school, I began writing my Harren stories during the summer between eighth and ninth grade.  Called Shayna’s Story until recently, it was envisioned to be the third in a series.  In early high school, my friends and I formed an informal writer’s group.  This novel was the only one I ever finished…finished in the eyes of a sixteen year old.  Which is why, five years later, when I had the opportunity to work on the story again and make it MUCH stronger through my senior creative writing class, I eagerly did so.  And now, clocking in at 71,000 words with a few chapters still to be added and one more round of polishing, I’m just about done…done in the eyes of a twenty two year old.  I know there’s SO much work still to be done, but I’m super proud of what I’ve accomplished and sure that, with all that hard work, perseverance and other Book Lover values I’ve picked up along the way, this story is going to be something.  Someday.  Hopefully someday soon?

In another month or so I’m going to begin the second, and probably even harder, step of trying to get an agent to represent me.  I’m lucky, because of my background in publishing, I know more than the average writer about what I’m supposed to do and not do.  I’m sure I’ll make some mistakes, but I also know that lots of writers try to get their not-so-good manuscripts published (I’ve read and rejected more than I can count).  Mine is WAY better than a lot of manuscripts I’ve read interning at Bloomsbury and FinePrint/Nancy Coffey.  And if those potential authors think their manuscript deserves a chance, mine sure does, too!  Probably, some intern will reject my manuscript, like so many others.  But then again, maybe one intern will like it.  And pass it on to her boss.  And she’ll like it, too.  It only takes one.

I’ll keep you updated!