More answers, and a darling new niece!

Time for more answers to your questions!

Kathryn said...
Wondering how your husband reacted when you signed with an agent! What was your family's reaction? :) My husband was SO excited. He knew how badly I wanted this and how hard I had worked to get to that point. He'd seen me at the breaking point, when I was so beaten down with rejection that I didn't know if I could handle even one more. He also saw me when I was so excited about the most recent requests or feedback or revision. When it finally happened, I was almost in shock with disbelief that I'd finally achieved my goal. He on the other hand was jumping up and down, yelling in excitement, lifting me off of my feet and swinging me in circles. My family was also very excited, but not so much that they lifted me off of my feet. ;)


Emy Shin said...
These are great advice! A question, hmm... Did you have a process for querying? Did you query all agents at once, or send five queries, wait a week, then send five more, etc.?
Definitely don't query all the agents on your list at once. But I do believe in doing it in chunks. I'd say five - ten at a time. I usually sent out a chunk every monday morning, and see what kind of responses I got. One thing I did do though, was whenever I got a particularly heartbreaking rejection, I'd send out a new query right away (or maybe a couple) to give myself new hope. It was one way I coped with disappointment--focus on the possibility of the future instead of the failings of the past.

Nicole Zoltack said...
Queries always need to be tweaked so I would love to win!My question: How do you know when your query is ready? Oh boy, this is a tricky one. Especially since I was often tweaking my query between every round of queries I sent out! But what I would usually do is have a few new people read it whenever I thought it was ready (on top of my CPs), and based on how they reacted I would decide. Another thing I did sometimes (when I was feeling really brave), was to call up a friend and read them my query as if it was the back of a book at a store to ask them if they thought it sounded good. I'm sorry I'm not much help on this one. Basically, get it to where you think it accomplishes your goal (concisely and intriguingly surmises your book), and then have the courage to send it out.

And now for your viewing pleasure, I'd like to introduce my beautiful new niece Zoey!!

Isn't she darling? I'm so in love.

And thank you for all of your wishes on SonB's birthday party. It went awesome! He loved all of it (including his cake), so hurray for success!

Did you all have a good weekend?

One last question

Happy Monday everyone!

I hope you are all having a wonderful December, and Holiday season. I love this time of year so much. Sometimes it can end up being stressful if we spread ourselves too thin, and I'm trying to avoid that. I am going to answer one more question on querying (from my contest/post last Monday), and then I'm going to take a break for the rest of the Christmas/New Year holidays. I want to spend the next couple of weeks focusing on my family, and making this a really fun break for my son who is now out of school until January. I will miss you all, and may break down and pop in a few times. We'll see. ;)

So, here's Jennie Bailey's question:

How do you whittle your book down to one small paragraph without leaving anything important out? Do you give away your ending? Or keep it secret?
Often the best way to do this is to write your query BEFORE you write your book. If you try to write it then, the idea is still at its core elements (usually), and you won't have all the details that come later confusing and befuddling you. You'll end up revising it, I can almost guarantee it, but you'll have a great start. If you've already written your book, the best thing to do is to focus on only one character--your main character, none of the supporting cast should appear unless absolutely necessary. Then decide what is his/her main conflict--aka, what is your hook? That is what your write your query on, and that's IT. You don't reveal the ending in a query, that is for a synopsis. Your query should really be no longer than two paragraphs for the book and one paragraph for your bio (if you have one). The query isn't intended to show all your complex plotting, and twists and turns, etc. Go find some of your favorite books, and read the jacket copy. Notice how different they are, and try and figure out which ones grab your attention the most. Or, you could go to the bookstore and try this. Find a bunch of different books you haven't read yet and try reading their jacket copy. Which ones grab your attention the most and make you want to buy it? What is the difference? That's basically what you're trying to accomplish. A short, concise, intriguing two paragraph letter that will grab an agent's attention. Also, the query should show the M.C.'s voice, so sometimes it works to write it in first person when you're drafting it, then switch it to third when you revise it.

I hope that helps! I could keep going and going, but I better get going on entertaining my kids! (Who are currently being entertained by the Disney Channel while I write this.) I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I will "see you" in 2011!

And the Winners are...

Drumroll please...


The random number generator has spoken and the TWO winners who will get their queries critiqued are:


PENSEES!

and

DANYELLE!


Woohoo!! *tosses confetti* Congratulations to you both. Please email me your queries at sarablarson21 (at) gmail (dot) com and I will get that done for you.

You guys had some really great questions, so I will be taking a few at a time in the next couple of posts to answer them. Thanks again for entering everyone!

D.L. Hammons asked: Here's my question. How much do you go into possible revisions the agent my want before signing on the dotted line? What if they don't want to go into detail? I hope I'm reading this question right, but it sounds like you're asking how much should you do for an agent if they want revisions before signing you, right? Since I'm not sure, I will try to answer it both ways. First, if an agent asks for a revision before signing you (which I had happen and did--even though it didn't work out, my manuscript was much stronger for it), I think 9.7/10 times you do it. That is a huge opportunity, and at the very least you can try what they suggest and see what you think. They know what they're doing, and often end up being right when they ask for changes. Not 100% of the time, but close. ;) If you are on a phone call with an offering agent, and they won't go into detail about what revisions they want (which I doubt would happen, but it's possible!), I'd ask them detailed questions to try and get an answer. I wouldn't want to sign with an agent who isn't up front about their feelings and thoughts on my book. If they are vague in answering, saying something like "We can discuss that more later," I would respond with, "Can you give me some specific examples now of what you want changed?" I doubt any agent would dodge the question again.

Pensees asked: Should you mention that you sent a query a year (or more ago) when re-querying after making substantial edits? Or just forget about ever querying that project to that agent again? Hmm, this is tricky ground for sure. Technically, you aren't supposed to requery the same project again to the same agent. If you have a new project, I'd go with that and keep the other project for after you sign with an agent. However, I have had people tell me different answers to this. I'm pretty sure I remember some authors admitting to changing the titles and requerying projects on their blogs. If the project is substantially changed (including the title), and the agent gave you a form rejection I've had a few people say that is probably okay to requery, and not worry about mentioning the past. However, if the agent had requested a partial or full that is another story. Again, if you have a different project ready to query, go with the new project. It's probably better anyway, honestly. That's just how it goes, we tend to get better with practice. However, if the revised mss is your only shot, you could try querying those agents again and let them know you had the opportunity to have "so and so" (hopefully someone reputable in the industry) give you feedback and you did a complete revision or rewrite based on their critique and wonder if the agent would be interested in seeing your revised manuscript. (And of course you would do that in a way that is eloquent and not a run-on sentence.) The worst that can happen is they say no or don't respond. Just be very careful and wise in making a decision like that. Research the agent, see what other people's experiences have been. I know it's been done on occassion, and even more rarely has been successful, but yeah, not very often.

Wow, I'm really nervous to answer some of these questions! I hope this is helpful, but I would definitely recommend researching these things out for yourself, too. Don't take my opinions as the end all--I have a lot of experience with querying, but yours will be different and unique. Ultimately, you need to research the agents you are querying in multiple ways--on their agency blogs/websites, on forums like AbsoluteWrite, etc. and find out what their personal likes/dislikes and policies. Good luck and more to come next week!

Answer time! (I'm still suffering from FBS, so be warned)

Kathryn asked:I've checked out some of your older posts and I can't find anything on your progress towards getting an agent or writing your novel. Could you tell us more about that? :)

Hey Kathryn – I’m not sure if you want to know the details of my path to getting an agent, or just where I’m at in getting one. The word “progress” is what threw me off, because my progress to getting one is technically over as I do have an agent. I have two finished novels that she and I are working on revising and submitting, with a third that is also finished and needs revising but is on the back burner for now. If that is totally not what you wanted to hear, and instead you wanted to know what my path was, stay tuned because I am planning on doing a series of posts about my journey to getting my agent very soon.


Melissa asked: Hey Sara.... my internet's been down but I know you went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter recently and I'm going in a couple of weeks... I was just wondering if you remembered how expensive things were in the gift shops? Like did you think it was ridiculously expensive or was it reasonable?
Oh, the wonderful Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I love that place. A lot. The merchandise wasn’t cheap, but I figured it wouldn’t be, so I saved my money to get my souvenirs there. I got two shirts for myself and they were both around $20-$25. My sister waited in line for two hours to get a wand, and I believe she paid close to $30 for it. So not Rodeo Drive horrendous, but not cheap either. I hope you have a great time!

Also, I'd like to hear more about where you are in your journey as a writer.
As I mentioned above, I am agented and am working with her on two of my YA books. I’m hoping to have a deal before the end of the year (preferably much sooner than that!) but we’ll see. This business can be so slow – especially during the summer. Editors are pretty hard to get a hold of during August apparently, so… Hopefully something will happen sooner than later but you just never know.


(also, are you going to patent the title FBS because I rather like this syndrome.... :P)
I definitely think I should!

Carolyn V. asked:
Favorite writing snack. Fess up Sara. What do you eat when you write. (Please don't tell me you snack, although you might not because you are so skinny.) =)

Did you mean “please don’t tell me you don’t snack”? Oh dear. You’re going to be mad at me. Sometimes I do snack when I write, but most times I don’t. When I write, I'm just so absorbed that I forget to even eat meals, let alone snacks. Plus I can't stand typing with icky fingers (sticky, dirty, etc.) so I don't usually eat while I write. That doesn’t mean I don’t snack ever – I definitely do! However, I rarely ever buy myself candy or treats. Not because I don’t like them, I just don’t think to do it. It’s this weird mental thing that would take too long to explain in a Q&A. If you’re dying to know, I can do another post about it I guess. Ha ha! When I am going to snack on something it’s usually leftovers or desserts. The rare time I do get candy I love Swedish Fish, and Skittles (my favorite flavor is the green skittle in the purple bag), and I love those new fizzie ones. I also like tropical starbursts and I’m a pretty big fan of Symphony chocolate bars with toffee. My favorite kind of chocolate is hard to get here in the U.S. (although Ikea has made it much easier!), it's the Swedish chocolate Marabou. That chocolate is so amazing it will ruin you for almost all other kinds of chocolate bars. I do love Cadbury Mini Eggs that are only out at Easter. I can eat an entire bag in one sitting if I'm not careful. Also, one of my favorite snacks ever is to make ranch dip (the Hidden Valley kind with sour cream – fat free if I’m feeling guilty) and slice up cucumbers and celery and dip it in. Yum yum! Sometimes I’ll use potato chips to dip in it, too. Wow, that was a way longer answer than you anticipated, isn’t it? Oh well. Even snacking is complicated for me I guess. ;)

Janiel Miller asked:
When do you do your best writing?

I’d have to say when there aren’t distractions and when I have new music to listen to that I just love and haven’t gotten used to yet. It might be during naptime, or at night when the kids are asleep, but as long as no one is interrupting me every five minutes, I seem to get a lot more done. And when I have a new soundtrack or music to listen to that still gives me chills or makes my heart swell with emotion – that transfers to the page for me and I find that my stories just fly out through my fingers.

The Dixon Family asked:
I want to know how you are (present exhaustion excluded) and what type of book you are currently working on.)

I am up and down and all around. Life is kind of like that and so is the writing world. In life I am doing all that I can to be the best mom and wife possible. Some days go so well I feel exuberantly happy and secure with the “job” I’m doing and some days go so horrendously bad that I want to go hide in a corner and hire someone else to fix the messes I’m afraid I'm making. As far as writing goes, it’s about the same. One day I’ll get good news, or have a great writing day and feel like I can conquer the world and it’s only a matter of time before I have my deal! Others I feel like I’m never going to get there, even though I finally have an agent. So, overall I’m doing well. Ha, ha. :D
As for the type of book I’m working on, the two books I’m working on with my agent are both YA – one is fantasy that has been described as the tone of THE HUNGER GAMES meets the lyrical fantasy world of GRACELING, and the other is a paranormal romance about a girl with a unique ability that might end up getting her and everyone she loves killed. I’m also playing around with a new YA dystopian idea, but haven’t done too much on it yet.

I hope you enjoyed my answers. I am still suffering from FBS, so if they seem confusing and muddled, it’s because that is an apt description of my brain right now. Happy Friday!

Answers + upcoming guest blog AND contest!!

Ya'll ready for this?? Next week is going to be made of awesomesauce. I'm not kidding around here. Wanna know why? First of all, I'm having a FABULOUS guest post on Tuesday and then.... I'm having another contest on Thursday! So make sure and stay tuned for both of those.

Thanks so much for the questions on my last post. Here are my (hopefully somewhat interesting) answers!

Aubrey asked:


Where do your ideas come from? Oh wow, I'd have to say everywhere. Real life. Daydreams. Songs. Anything can spark an idea. I admit, sometimes I've had to really dig hard for ideas, but other times, they just come to me. As we were driving home from CA my hubby and I were talking about how many people there are everywhere--all the time, day or night. How many cars are always on the road. That little thought process/conversation sparked a whole new idea I'm playing around with right now!

How long does it take you to go from idea to finished first draft? This varies, but I'm pretty fast. The fastest I've written a book (rough draft) was about 2 weeks. Well, unless you count the books I wrote in high school. Once I whipped one out in one day. Yeah. It was amazing. My best work ever. Why are you laughing? I'm serious! Okay, yeah, not really. :D The longest was about three months, but that one has needed the least editing of all of my books because even though it was so much harder to write, it came out very clean.

What is your favorite thing about being in the YA author/book world? Well, I haven't totally "entered" it yet, but the authors I do know and have met have been SO friendly and so helpful. The YA world just seems so tight-knit and everyone seems to be friends. I'm really excited to *hopefully* be a part of that when I get my deal. (Crossing fingers and toes!)

The Dixon Family wrote: Congrats on getting an agent! Any idea when we will hear about a book deal? I don't know yet. I hope sooner than later! Any extra finger crossing is greatly appreciated. ;-) (*looks around slyly and winks*)

Elliot Grace wrote: ...here's one I ask many bloggers/writers, how do you handle the rejections?
Myself...I realize getting slushed is part of the biz, but sometimes...okay, just breathe:) Oh man, this is such a tough part of the business. And it doesn't end! I have an agent now (Phwew!), but now I have to worry about editors rejecting me! I have to admit, somedays I handled rejections really well--I brushed it off, didn't take it too hard. Other times... yikes. I would get pretty down. I tend to be really hard on myself, and think I (or my writing) just isn't good enough. But I wanted it so badly, I would keep going. Thank heavens I did! I think the times I handled it the best were the days/weeks when I was keeping busy with something else. Janette Rallison gave me that advice, and it really does work. Once you are querying something--start a new project. Don't wait. And do not have it be the sequel!! When you have something else (entirely different and new) to work on, it helps you realize this isn't your one and only shot. When all else fails, try chocolate. Sugar highs help. For like 5 minutes. ;-)

I'm Erin Wrote: Ok, how in the world do you map out a book. Because I know you write fast, so do you think of an outline with all the sub plots first, or do you do do that along the way, and add them in later? Help please. I don't want to start my next book until I can figure this out. In highschool I used to write by the seat of my pants (and often ended up with a big old mess about halfway through with no idea where it was going to end up), but when I got serious about writing to get published a couple years ago, I've pretty much always had some sort of an outline, or at least a few pages of notes to guide me. I find I can write much faster and much more effectively when I know at least a general outline of my plot. For one of my books I have a chapter-by-chapter outline (that I followed pretty closely, although I'm always open to changes as I'm going); most of the time I just have notes for the character arcs and the main plot points. I may not write down all the subplots, but I do try to have them in mind as I write, and I usually at least jot down a note or two about where to include it. Although sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised at how some subplots evolve organically! Even though you may not stick to your notes/outline completely, I think it helps a lot. But that's just my opinion and style. I know lots of great authors who write completely organically, no outline at all. You have to find what works best for you.

I would recommend trying an outline if you haven't yet though, you might love it!

Thanks for the questions everyone, I hope my answers were helpful. Stay tuned for next week!!