2009 Debutantes

I found this on April Henry's blog http://aprilhenry.livejournal.com/ and thought it might be of interest as a follow up to the discussion about Alloy we had on Sunday Chat.

From Publishers Weekly: “You probably don’t know me,” Blundell told the audience [at the National Book Awards ceremony], “but I’ve worked for most of the houses in this room. This is the first book I’ve put my name on.” [Judy] Blundell recounted how she had written well over a hundred books, having “sneaked in the back door of publishing as a writer-for-hire.” Her many media tie-ins, romances, mysteries and Star Wars novels were all written under a pseudonym. “For a writer who does this kind of work, there is a danger,” she said. “You can develop a kind of writer’s amnesia. Not that you’ve lost your past, or your memory, but your future. You’ve lost your voice—your writer’s voice, your compulsion to tell a story that’s yours.”

(crossposted from megancrewe because some mysterious anonymous person who I assume was one of you forgetting to log in asked me to)

Thousands of books come out in the year. Most years I manage to read about a hundred. So, especially since I read in many different genres (all sorts of YA, some children's, and adult mainstream/speculative fiction/nonfiction/etc.), it can be hard figuring out what to spend my limited reading time on.

A few things matter a little:

Book description. If the story sounds really amazing, I'll look for more info. If the story sounds like 'not my thing at all', I may skim or skip further info. But there's a lot of space in between those extremes.

Marketing. If a book's selling really well, or being pitched really hard, and it's in a genre I *write*, I will probably take a look at it as market research if nothing else. However if I don't write in that genre it makes no difference.

Professional reviews. If I go to the Amazon.com page to read more about a book, I do check the Booklist/Publisher's Weekly/whatever other reviews. And if I like what they say, I'm more likely to pick the book up; if they make me nervous about whether I'd like the book, I'm less likely. But I have to have gone to that page for some reason in the first place, and that reason may very well outweigh reviews.

Cover. I don't know if I've ever picked up a book because of a cover. I have occasionally avoided books because the cover was awful, but only if I had little else to go by.

The one thing that matters a lot:

Reader recommendations. I think every single book I've picked up in the last few years I read because someone else said (to me directly, or in a post in their blog, or a comment on a message board, or wherever) that they really liked it. The more people I see saying they like a given book, the more likely I am to pick it up. The better I know the people recommending, and the closer their tastes are to mine, the fewer recommendations I need. And of course, if the story already sounds like something I'd enjoy, I don't need much encouragement--but if enough people talk about how wonderful a book is, even if it doesn't really sound like my thing, I will at least give it a try.

Mostly I think this is because if someone--who has nothing invested in a book, and doesn't have to review it for their job--liked it enough to want to tell people about it, well, that says quite a lot. And most of the people I talk with, or whose blogs or comments I read, are writers and/or avid readers who love books as much as I do. So I trust their judgment more than I trust sales figures.

Which means, from my perspective, the best thing you can do for an author you love is talk about their books. And the best thing you can do as an author is write books that people will love enough to talk about.

(If only it were as simple as that sentence makes it sound, no?)

How do the rest of you decide which of those thousands of books you will give a chance to?

Head's up, mistful ! You're in the Rights Report in the PW Children's Bookshelf this week!

*cues the confetti* 

I heard from my agent, and it appears FAIRY LUST will be releasing Summer of 2009! That's sooner than I anticipated, so I am excited and a bit nervous! And here I was, afraid I was going to have to drop out of this group because they were going to push me back to 2010. I'm still crossing my fingers that that doesn't happen, because in this industy, who knows??

Yasmine Galenorn has a great post up on FFF today about the order of things from first sale to publication. It's right here and so handy!

http://thelongstockings.blogspot.com/2008/02/next-installment-ea-cont.html

Coincidentally. Perhaps she can read our Debutante minds????

Or is she really ONE OF YOU???

=9

I was away at a running conference in San Diego this week so I missed much of the drama. Gladly. Happy things are cooling down, now.

So I was on the plane coming home, and I got to know my aisle-mates quite well because, due to the weather, the trip took 20 HOURS. GAH!!! (I am still a bit frustrated)

That aside, I tried my hardest to scribble Chapter 5 of my second book into a spiral notebook. The guy next to me seemed all excited that I was a novelist, and asked what my book was about. When I told him it was young adult, I could almost see him mentally knocking me down a few pegs. You know, the, "Oh, only a young adult novel. So, when are you going to write a real novel, then?"

What is with that? Does anyone have any witty comebacks for people who think young adult novelists are second-class citizens in the writing world? I hope to use them the next time I am trapped for an infinite amount of time in a very small space with idiots. Thank you.

I was going to put an entry in my personal journal about what I've learned from years of coaching winterguard (wear shoes you can run in, bring white and black electrical tape, have double copies of your music on you at all times, don't delegate unless you have to)-- things that I could never have realized my first year of coaching. Sort of a "I wish I'd known then what I know now" sort of thing.

This got me thinking about writing, and the things I know now that I could never have known my first time around.
For example:
-"Editing" doesn't mean running spellcheck.
-Outlining makes life easier (for me, anyhow, though not for everyone)...I suppose this would be an overall learning of one's specific writing style.
-You can never be too professional in regards to dealing with agents or editors.
-Don't be afraid to delete, rewrite, or revise.

Is there anything you've learned on the journey from first draft to book deal?

Our lovely sarahtales, Sarah Rees Brennan, shared an awesome research story today, and for an inaugural chatty post, I thought might be fun to share our amusing, awful, or just general best research stories.

(Helpful hints are also appreciated- if anybody can figure out how to get my local Cadbury-Schwepps bottler to just tell me how much the tiny 8 oz cans of RC are so I can buy some to give away promotionally, that would be awesome! I thought "Please, please let me buy your drink!" would have been enough! :D)

Since Jackson told me to, I'm adding mine here. However, I'm cut tagging it because it's not really a dinner-time kind of story.

( Saundra and the Coroner )

Regarding the drama in the entry below:

An enormous "thanks" goes out to everyone for standing up for the fact that blackballing/threats/etc. in the writing community--especially the YA community-- just aren't cool. The overwhelming response has been that authors need to stick together and support one another, especially when we're just starting out, and I couldn't agree more!
I don't want anyone to be blackballed/threatened/attacked over all this; we've all worked so hard to become authors that it would be a shame to let internet craziness outshine our work.

Anyhow: Let's support one another. Buy and endorse one another's books. Sing campfire songs together. Create secret handshakes. All that good stuff, sans the hate :)

-Jackson Pearce
www.jacksonpearce.com