It takes a village to make a novel the best that it can be, and I had a fantastic village at Simon & Schuster and the Paula Wiseman Books imprint when I was working on ARROW. My editor, Sarah Jane Abbott, was indispensable, giving me suggestions that helped lift the characters and story to new…
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Saturday marked the one month pre-versary of the release of THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST and there are so many thoughts running through my head and emotions in my heart. I’ve loved stories since I was a kid. I was obsessed with spending as much time as possible at the library. No amount…
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Over on Twitter, I got into a conversation about how long publishing journeys can be. Sure there are those few overnight successes (a friend of mine signed with the first agent she did a conference critique with, it was with the first novel she’d written, and it sold very quickly), but those stories are far,…
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The changing publishing industry is offering new opportunities to writers, but is self-publishing for you? My friend and great writer Dotti Enderle (aka Dax Varley) has been published traditionally and self-published. Her most recent release, SEVERED (A TALE OF SLEEPY HOLLOW), is a young adult novel that’s gives its own version of the Icabod/Katrina story.…
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Rejections are tough, and when they stand between a writer and his dream of getting published, the call of the world of digitally self-publishing can start to echo louder and louder. But when is the right time to quit querying and self-publish? We’ve all heard those stories of great books getting turned down by agent/editor after…
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There’s a consensus that young readers will read books depicting the life of a protagonist who’s older than them. “Reading up,” so to speak. And, generally, that’s true. So, what do you do if your story is more powerful with a protagonist that’s more middle grade but the voice and style of the book will…
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Going into the Austin SCBWI chapter’s annual conference this weekend — it was great, by the way — I was curious to find out how middle-grade novels are selling in ebooks, as that’s what I write. I’ve seen lots of articles in the Publishers Lunch enewsletter saying that ebook sales are rocketing in adult books…
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Revision update: Still on chapter 21 of 30 because yesterday, I spent the day working on my synopsis so I could take it to our critique group last night. Then our critique group was canceled. Oh, well. At least I’ve got the synopsis done. Back on the book today. With the economic crunch all around,…
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Manuscript update: Started my new final round of revision yesterday. The last round was the make-every-word-great round, after going through plot and scene revision rounds earlier. So this is the polish, the I-want-to-make-sure-every-word-is-still-great-and-I-didn’t-type-something-weird-last-time round. I’m excited, and plan to be finished in a week or so. Fingers crossed. With the economy the way it is…
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After my vow to stop whining and start doing yesterday, I finished my taxes (even though I did do some more whining about having to do them. 🙂 ) So, I’m so excited today to be back on writing. This afternoon, I plan to work on my query letter. Exciting! But I digress. I’m catching…
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