2008 – Bria In Review December 31, 2008

There are enough sites out there doing Year In Reviews…You don’t need another one, right?

 

But, I did stop today to do some thinking about my own personal year in review and here it is.

 

2008 was a ROUGH year in a lot of ways. I lost my job (again, darn economy) and have been piecing together rent doing odd jobs, holiday help and some small contracts on the side. If someone a year ago had said that would be great for my writing, I probably would have agreed, but I learned that just isn’t true. Between the exhaustion of working absurdly hard in retail for no money and the stress, writing has been nil in December (Jan 5th starts my “new year writing”) and so I’m looking forward to diving back in with a new plan.

 

On the upside, Markbearer is done. Done. Done I tell you! It’s polished and shiny and happy and ready to go *hint hint to the world at large* I’ve been querying and have other projects started. I’ve also been doing some serious thinking about Moonmarked (book 2) as it is going to be a bit different than I expected…but in a great way!

 

Let’s be honest, 2008 was my first real year writing. I’m amazingly proud of the product I produced. I love the book, world, characters and the feedback from readers. I learned a ton about myself and my abilities and what I need to adjust to keep that going. Everyone needs a learning year. I’m sure I’ll have more….Ok, I’m sure I’ll have one every year, but I’m excited about this one especially!

 

I’ve cut back on my writing life responsibilities…some by choice (one makes me happy and one makes me sad) and some because it was a horrible fit and I got tired of fighting the good fight and being blamed for things I didn’t do. You have to protect yourself and your writing. As one of the FNA friends said, “You don’t have anything to ‘give back’ yet. You’re supposed to still be taking.” So, I’m back to just focusing on me and those near and dear.

 

I kind of am looking at 2008 as the year I got the work done and 2009 as the year I made the work happen.

 

Don’t get me wrong, 2009 is still going to be a lot of work. Even if I was already at the top of the publishing world, there is not sitting back doing nothing in this industry. It’s kind of funny that Professors get the phrase “publish or perish” seems like it more rightly belongs to authors…ya know?  So, I have Moonmarked to do this year and I’m still not sure the timeline on that and two other projects that I want finished (the YA rom com and the adult short sweet rom com). I’d also like to get back to finishing the Edit Cards….man, I love my Edit Cards.

 

And so, there I am…on the last day of the year, looking forward to closing it out and starting a new calendar. I can’t wait to see what 2009 was. I know I jokingly said 2008 would be my year, and now I’m saying 2009 will be my year.

 

Well, I was right about 208. I mean, how many people do you know who wrote a book, polished it, shopped it, got lots of positive feedback from readers, have several fulls out and managed to learn about an entirely new industry while networking with strangers? Ok, besides my writer friends?

 

Yeah, me neither. Go me and my writer friends!

 

And 2009? Look out, 2009! I’m coming at you and you’re going to LOVE me.

Free Contest – YA Edge December 27, 2008

If you missed it in the Weekly Round-Up this week, the YA Edge ladies are having another one of their free contests! And I’m Pimping it…well, I had to go there since the contest is “Pimp My Line” — Pimp the line, win a book — free books people! Have you read anything about the economy lately – FREE IS GOOD!

Publishing Blogs Weekly Round-Up December 26, 2008

This week’s Round-Up is quick and dirty for two reasons — (1) everyone is on holiday, (2) I am not on holiday *sigh*

 

You should definitely check out YA Edge’s “Pimp My Line Contest” going on thru this weekend on their website. They do a ton of fun things over there. And I mean, come on. It’s free.

 

Jessica Faust is doing a week of Query Critiques — go check out the brave and reckless. They start on Sunday HERE. Make sure to read the comments as well since a lot of the nuggetest nuggets are in there.

 

NYT’s talks about e-books…but I have to say, after their earlier farce of “reviewing” a YA novel the first half of this month, I’m not sure I really want to listen to anything anyone in the NYT’s book section has to say. But, they have good quotes from other people, so….

 

I love numbers (even though I was an English major and now a *writer*) so, here for your viewing pleasure is Kristen Nelson’s year in numbers.

 

Off to finish my “holiday job” and see how long the lines are of people returning stuff. Have a great day!

Merry Christmas December 25, 2008

Line by Line Contest – Guess Line 3! December 24, 2008

Karin Tabke’s first line contest - I made the next round! Woot! We’re down to 60 entries from 100 – 6 knocked off each week now.

So, who wants to guess at this weeks next line?

 

Seven lockers down, my boyfriend was making out with Cheryl, the way-too-perky head cheerleader.

I tried not to stare, but when his hand slid past her waist and over her hip, I slammed my locker shut and stormed off in the opposite direction.

 

And YOU think the next line should be…..

Frustrated Writer’s Guide to Synopsis Writing December 23, 2008

I’m so excited that FBunny asked me about how I write my synopsis in the previous post. It’s a huge compliment to think I have any knowledge around this whatsoever.

 

So, in return, I’ll be honest.

 

I STINK TO HIGH HEAVEN at writing them. I’m so bad at it, that one of the BNW friends told me I’d one day teach the must-see workshop on synopsis writing because she’s sure there’s a corollary between how bad you are at something, how hard you work to learn it and then —-muuuuuuch later —- how great your workshop is.

 

Let’s flash back to last summer *insert Wayne’s World didlelelt didlelelt here*

 

I wrote the book. I liked the book. I was finishing the book so I’d love the book. I needed a synopsis.

I read Lisa Gardner’s 10 session FREE workshop on it.

I read Kathy Carmichael’s Cheat Sheet.

I read all the articles on Charlotte Dillon’s Writing A Synopsis page

I listened to workshops.

I read that chapter in every craft book.

 

I then failed MISERABLY at writing the synopsis. So bad that I put it off until my CP came to visit. I will always remember the scene with the two of us sitting in the reading room of the library with her saying, “I’m not talking to you till your done with that” and me trying to write it with frustrated tears rolling down my cheeks.

 

I’ll admit, the hardest part was knowing what not to write. The book I was working on has several themes woven tightly together one a bunch of levels, is telling more than one story and has two major story lines (deity thru myth and the actual story story) and is the beginning of a series that involves a war of epic proportions on both planes……so, how the heck was I supposed to boil this down.

 

I reread everything above and finally wrote one. It wasn’t great, but I thought it wasn’t HORRIBLE (what comes right before horrible?) and started sending it out. I honestly believed that if you read the first 3 chapters you’d say, wow, this book is great, the synopsis, eh – but it’s obvious she just can’t right a great synopsis.

 

I am here to tell you, no matter how many agent blogs I read saying that’s the case, it isn’t. I don’t know if people feel the need to say “I just rely on the writing and the synopsis is so I know the story is cohesive and has a solid ending”….how many times have you read something like that?  Well, I believed it. Now I believe that’s one of the Publishing Myths. You need to have a decent synopsis.

 

If you read the last post about Agent Hunting, you saw that one of my favorite rejections was an agent telling me what was wrong with my synopsis and that she liked what she read, but was passing because she wasn’t sure the story was going to support itself. Well, the points she made were very true for the synopsis — but when I checked with my readers about how they felt about her points as concerning the story, they didn’t line up. So I used her feedback to begin examining my synopsis.

 

At this point, I’d been away from my ms for about 4 months. I’d been working on something not related to that world and really digging in somewhere else. So, when my CP came to do our read thru (we read allowed to each other our final draft — this is great for a bazillion reasons, but this blog’s about synopsizing )

 

So, this is what we did: We read aloud for a certain number of pages (it was a lot) everyday, and then I just wrote down what happened. Without all the pressure of themes and “but they need to know this for book 4″ and I want them to really understand the character, I just wrote down WHAT HAPPENED. And I’ve gotten some decent feedback about my synopsis. And so this is what I’ve learned for me – I need the distance to be able to look at the overview and stop saying “but it’s all important.” — It better all be important or why the heck is it in the book….but to understand the story, what needs to be in the synopsis? That’s what goes in. Everything else can get explained when they call to discuss your book and sign you

The Ups & Downs of the Agent Hunt December 20, 2008

There’s a lot as a writer you don’t share on your blog — well, there’s a lot you don’t share on your blog as a writer if you understand the idea of a writing career.  This may be your workplace watercooler, but use some common sense, right? Even to your work friends, you don’t tell company secrets.

 

So, as the agent search continues (to the “bafflement” of one of my readers – thanks for the pep talk & the great word) there’s a TON I don’t share here. It would be unwise, unprofessional and unkind. But, I’ve had several people email that they’re following my agent search and curious how things are a going.

 

So, lets look at somethings in broad strokes. I don’t share bad news. Why? Because, you know if I said, I’ve been rejected 1,278 times (hyperbole anyone?) for Markbearer, and an agent looks at that, she’s going to think, “So, I’m at least #1,279 and no one else wanted her.” Plus, who wants to focus on the negative? Continuing on that thought: There are tons of agents I had no idea even existed in the beginning so they weren’t on my first, small mailing but might now be top top top choices. As my research continues (constantly) so does my agent search evolve.

 

On the other side of that, I also don’t share good news. You probably are think, “Hey, I totally get the not sharing bad news. But good news?” Again, imagine along with me. I announce I got a Full Request. Dancing in the streets, right? Well, if I don’t share the bad news, people would assume the full turned into bad news or wonder what happened or ponder my dropping the ball in sending it….you know just generally wonder. This week, I got a rejection (more on those later) and some encouraging news.

 

Why am I not sharing the encouraging news? (You people ask “why” a lot, huh?) Well, it was feedback that potentially could open my series up to a whole new world of ideas, but it may not be viable and it’s one person’s opinion. I thought it was great and encouraging, but one person’s opinion (unless they are currently making it happen for you) is still one person’s opinion. That person may suggest something and still not want to/be able to be the person who works their magic for you.  And the person who ends up working with you may not agree. Vague enough for you?

 

But, one of the most interesting things I’ve found is that my feeling toward the agent search often more clearly reflect my own expectations than the reality we live in. I’ve found that, my expectations are often so far off the mark as to be funny — ok, not funny ha-ha. The odd thing about this is, if you’re playing along at home, you know that I have a job where being able to call how things are going to go in a company is vital – and I’m good at it. So, I’ll share my expectations and thoughts about the agent hunt and querying now. Less vague, but don’t get your hopes up

 

• Cold Querying – just the letter  OR letter, synopsis & pages (any combination)
  • Form rejection is totally ok
  • Surprised how many people don’t paste a form rejection in and hit send when they read your query
  • Don’t understand how some agents (this is a no names post, so don’t get excited) can not only not respond to your query, but also not have a system to let you know he/she received it. I’ve seen a couple friends get some harsh emails back after sending follow-up notes that were polite. One almost word for word said, “If I wanted it you would have heard from me” and he didn’t even sign it

For this reason, I love form rejections and embrace them. I thank every agent who has a little word file and just keeps it on her word clipboard and pastes it in. Even if it’s as simple as “Not for me.” It’s a wonderful feeling after the initial hit to know where you stand and to put it behind you. Like a guy saying, you’re nice and I like hanging out with you, but not to date. Ouch, but thanks for not leading me on!

 

• Query off a pitch – letter, synopsis & pages (any combination)
  •  We’ve discussed my work for 8 mins to an hour (yes, I’ve hung out with agents for over that time. They’re often very fun people too!)
  • I have the exception set by the amount of time invested.
  • If I sat and had a standard quick pitch and sent you pages, I’d expect the typical form letter, plus a line. Nothing big – just why something that you were able to ask me about wasn’t what you thought it would be. No big insight expected, but something that gives minimal insight into the pass
  • If we talked at length, a line or two – some true insight
  • No response is unacceptable to me on this one – but fairly common so I better start working on that expectation

 

• Requested Partial off a Query
  • I expect some response
  • I’ve come to expect a form letter – I’m ok with that
  • The agent’s who have gone beyond that have my heartfelt thanks
    • An agent once responded that she enjoyed the partial, loved my voice & description but saw a flaw in my synopsis that made her pass. She even mentioned that she’s assuming she read the synopsis wrong and my story wasn’t what she was guessing from the synopsis. That was correct and I made the necessary changes to my synopsis and had a pint of ice cream over missing an opportunity because of a synopsis blip. BUT, the feedback was invaluable and that rejection ranks as one of my favorites.

 

• Partials the agent would only take after sending it snail mail
  • I understand the virus fear. It’s valid, I get that. I don’t even mind sending things snail mail. OK. Enough said
  • I do expect, that if I’ve paid to send you a query and then paid to send you pages and paid to have them sent back, you could write a one liner on your form rejection letter
  • Haven’t seen that happen yet, so I’m trying to restructure my expectations on this one… It isn’t going well

 

• Requested Fulls
  • I cannot believe that agent’s send out the same form letter to a Requested Full as they do to a Cold Query. This is the only one I can’t seem to find forgivable. When they read the partial and requested the full, I believe the author earned the right to hear a small snippet of why they were being passed on by that agent – I’m not talking a page explanation. What is the one main reason? You didn’t like the story, the plot was weak, it fell apart toward the ends, the writing was unimaginative, etc.

I’ve had a couple fulls go out (and some out now) and I’ve seen the query form rejection (compared to someone who cold queried and got rejected) and I’ve seen a wonderful rejection that was standard but with one sentence telling me why she passed. This is also one of my favorite rejections as it backed up what I’d been wanting to do, but “They” (those “they” people who always talk about the “rules” grrrr) said wouldn’t fly in the fantasy world of today.

 

• Website Expectations
  • I love websites that list what the author’s expectations should be. If you set a standard on your website, please follow it. If you say, please give us (insert reasonable time) to get back to you….please get back to me. Please don’t be offended by my following up in month 3 if your website says you respond to everyone within 2 months.

I do understand that agents get horrible letters back, those “Yeah, but….” letters. WRITERS – STOP THAT! “Yeah, but” your friends, but let the agents do their job. No one ever hired anyone because they fought them on something. All your doing is getting yourself put on the auto-reject list for that agency (and their friends….and their friends’ friends….) Once again, writing is a career. If you don’t think you’d do it at work, don’t even consider doing it in your writing life. Agent’s are the enemy — they’re a potential partner. Treat them as such.

 

Like I said, these were/are my expectations. I’m finding they aren’t always close to the reality. I’m also finding that the things that make me the most frustrated are the things I couldn’t see coming. In a world where the query letter and it’s author are expected to be 100% professional, I’ve been shocked by some of the rejection letter horror stories I’ve heard from my colleagues (oh, and I have one myself. No. You can’t hear it, didn’t you read the paragraph right above this one?) Overall, I’ve had a remarkably positive experience querying my work. The horror stories I was led to believe were the norm, aren’t – and the people have been mostly kind and responsive. But, expectations should be set correctly and behavior modified for the industry – just like any other job.

 

Remember: Be professional. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Treat everyone with kindness —- even if you have to vent to your best friend over Chunky Monkey.

The Sweater Song – HS Flashbacks No Matter Your Age December 19, 2008

I haven’t thought of this song since I was really young, but tonight a friend and I burst into song at the same time and no one had any idea what we were singing….so of course we were off to youtube….what did we do before youtube?

 

So, no matter if you’re in high school, jr high, or haven’t seen the inside of any type of education building in a couple decades, enjoy the flashbacks

 

Publishing Blogs Weekly Round-Up December 19, 2008

Nathan Bransford does a great blog today on This Year In Publishing. Worth checking out. I’m sure with how knowledgeable he is, it could have been much, much longer.

 

Jessica Faust announces she hates rules. Since I hate rules too, and totally heart her blog, here’s the Unwritten Rules post from this week.

 

OK, sometimes things seem to spin out of control because people don’t picture the internet how I do. I picture it like a party where you may not know everyone, but if you say something to Suzie on this side of the room, you can be pretty sure Bob (who was in the dinning room getting another drink) will hear it soon. And then, you’ll meet Bob when you both go into the spare bedroom to get your coats and then…uh-oh, hope he doesn’t mind that you mentioned that his girlfriend’s engagement ring is tacky.

On that note: More written about The Death of Publishing by Galleycat. Janet Reid’s response HERE (pretend I ****’d out the bad word *grin*) and then Ms. Reid’s response to the response HERE.

And now I will whisper to Suzie about Bob’s wife figuring I’m so unimportant it will never get back to him, um…. you know what I mean: If you’re (1) stupid enough to pass up the opportunity to work with one of the top agents because she used a bad word to express something (and her actual idea isn’t offensive) (2) if you yourself use “bad language” when making your point about the bad word and thus look like an idiot and hypocrite (3) and are stupid enough to think she’d work with you after slamming her publicly….all the more luck to you. Please don’t stand next to me in public, people might think we’re, you know, friends.

Also, Ms. Reid: Feel free to rep me any time

On that note, I am going to admit that I have ruled out querying 2 agents because of their blogs. As authors, we need to remember that goes both ways.

 

We all know I love Kate Elliott and HERE Kate admits to loving cliche’s

 

Tess Sharpe at YA Edge did a great post about writing Teen Sex (note the caps, the subject definitely deserves caps) – check it out HERE.

 

Word Strumpet had something I wanted to link to, but my computer doesn’t love her today like I do… So just go visit her blog wordstrumpet.com

 

And finally for the week, if you aren’t following Jeff Abbott’s “The Organized Writer” series, I can only ask, “Um, yeah…why the heck not???” Check it out at his blog HERE and click on the category to bring them all up.

Question of the Day – Full V Partials December 18, 2008

A friend and I were just discussing something. Neither of us had mentioned it before, but both of us had been wondering about it.

 

Why, in the day and age of sending partials as attachments, do agents still ask for partials instead of saving a step and asking for the full and reading the partial and continuing only if they wish?

 

I’m totally taking a guess here. I’m betting it has to do with the expectations of giving some type of feedback if they receive a full v partial and the expectation that they read the full if they receive it. 

Also, let’s stop and ask ourselves, how would our expectations change if we were sending out fulls instead of partials?

 

But, I have to wonder, as the publishing world goes through this huge upheaval and changes that were once only imagined in dreams and nightmares are forced, I have to wonder if streamlining the agent query process like this will be one of the changes we start to see infiltrate those who already accept partials as attachments. If, while they are being choosier in who the extend the offer of a read to, if they also extend the read to the full to grab the great faster and to sift the not-quite-great enough more ably.

 

Thoughts? And, what changes do you see coming in the process?

2nd Line Is Up — Write My 3rd? December 17, 2008

So, here’s what’s posted on Karin Tabke ’s blog — there’s a lot of great ones and I don’t expect to 100% make this round. Go check some of them out after taking some more clever guess as LINE THREE!

 

Seven lockers down, my boyfriend was making out with Cheryl, the way-too-perky-head cheerleader.

I tried not to stare, but when his hand slid past her waist and over her hip, I slammed my locker shut and stormed off in the opposite direction.

Write My Second Line :) December 16, 2008

If you clicked over to Karin Tabke ’s blog when you saw I made the first cut in the First Line contest, then you know what my first line is. For those who didn’t:

 

 Seven lockers down, my boyfriend was making out with Cheryl, the way-too-perky head cheerleader.

 

I know what my next line is, but I’d love to hear what you think it should be

First Line Contest Results December 15, 2008

Karin Tabke First Line contest on her blog posted the 80 that made the first cut. And guess what! I’m in!

 

Now, I just need to not think about it for a day, get some distance and post it when I’m “sure” —- or whatever goes for sure in this line by line panic situation!

Writing Report Card December 15, 2008

Stole this from RANDY who stole it from NOVA… Pass it on

 

My report card for my own novel follows:

Current page count: About 140

Technically, the amount of pages I could have turned in per the contract: Contract? Not yet *sigh*

The amount of pages I probably still need to write in order to reach the end of the plot: hopefully another 80

The amount of pages I should cut with line edits before showing my editor: Knowing me I’ll write an additional 300, cut 200, fill in the 20 and come away with a series that my beta readers demand the future books for but agents aren’t sure what they’d do with

Sense of satisfaction over page count: No. Oh, was that a percentage question? 17% Although I do have a  Scenes To Write list….and a built in deadline….soooooooo…. Yeah.

Sense of confusion over state of plot: Fair amount. I went to this workshop and tried to do things her way. So, I didn’t write linear. NEVER. AGAIN. lol

Buckets of doubt filling me: Dixie cups. I mean, I have no where to go but up. And what I’m writing now is far more “marketable”  Plus, I’m excited to try something non-fantasy

What I most want to be writing: Moon Marked – otherwise known as book 2

How I got through a tough spot in my plot: I skipped to whatever I wanted.  See note above about linear writing

Times I have done that with other novels: Never before (please note the intrinsic “never again” also)

Amount of hope I have that skipping ahead to the end will work: Once I figure out where I need to fill in again, pretty good

Times I have printed out my manuscript: Once. I print the Fast Draft so I can scribble and shift and destroy it. And I print the final read thru.

Point at which I am allowed to print out my manuscript: Once I reach the end and have done my mini-sweeps I can do the next print. Gwen darlin’ just proved why I do mini-sweeps. “Glance” anyone?

Desire to see printed manuscript: Not yet oddly enough. Typically my ctrl-P fingers are itching

Chances of making deadline: 50/50 -  Delacorte may not happen this year with this one

Looking forward to: Revising

Self-worth: about as high as my heroines

Tomorrow’s the Big Day December 14, 2008

Seriously, I’ve threatened to move out of the country and stop writing if I don’t make the first cut — Which I realize there is a very good chance could happen.

 

I don’t mind so much if I made the first cut and don’t make the next, but I really really really want to make the first cut.

 

Oh, first cut of what? Karin Tabke ’s First Line Contest.

 

The lines that made it get posted “sometime Monday” —- Monday is officially 2.5 hours away.

 

I don’t suppose she’s sitting there waiting to hit the POST button at 12 am Bria Time?

 

Good Luck to all the entries!