Debut Author Interviews

What has surprised you the most so far?

• Paula Chase on...Surprises
• Kelly Bingham on...Surprises
• A.C.E. Bauer on...Surprises
• Heather Tomlinson on...Surprises
• Ruth McNally Barshaw on...Surprises
• Melissa Marr on...Surprises
• Carrie Jones on...Surprises
• Joni Sensel on...Surprises

What has surprised you the most so far?

There have been many surprises for me along the way. I openly admit, I knew very little about publishing and the process of getting a book from concept to bookstore. Yet, still I came into writing with many pre-conceived notions about the industry.

A few surprises for me:

- The writing community (especially YA authors) is very supportive!! I never imagined that information between authors about agents or editors looking for YA and the submission process would flow so freely.

- An author is expected to be very active in the promotion of the book. Early on, I equated book publishing with launching a music CD. I really thought the publisher put a lot more into the promotional end. Very quickly I learned that while the publisher may initiate comprehensive marketing efforts, promotion is still very much the author’s domain. To be clear, I’m talking about book signings, book festival appearances and school visits.

- The industry is extremly subjective. I knew publishing was a subjective industry. But knowing and experiencing are very different.

- Digesting editorial feedback is humbling. As a writer, you’re forced to have enough confidence in your writing to submit it to agents/editors. Yet, upon a sale, you must be willing to look your writing weaknesses in the face via an editorial letter and margin notes from the editor.

- The work never ends. The writing process is a never-ending cycle. Write, revise, revise, revise, promote - start over!

What has surprised you the most so far?

I guess I thought once I wrote a book, the rest of my writing would come “easier.” As in, “I learned how to write a novel. Now I will write another one, and it will be easier and faster with each one.” Not so! As a wise mentor of mine (Jane Resh Thomas) once said, “Each book teaches you how to write THAT book, and that book only.”

So, even though I wrote a book and sold it, I still sit at my computer day after day, floundering, struggling, writing volumes of pages that get thrown away, and experiencing the usual feelings of doubt, dismay, worry, and frustration. I am still wandering down wrong paths, still trying to “find” my way with story structure and character development and arc and pacing, still feeling alone and confused. All the same worries and struggles are still here, and I can see that what I have been told by the veteran authors is true: This struggle is part of the writing process, always.

And why do we do this, exactly?

The other unexpected thing about becoming a writer was discovering what a super fantastic community there is out there of writers for children of all ages. People who write for kids are really wonderful, and I have been fortunate enough to find many dear friends. I feel truly lucky to be part of a group of such talented, supportive, smart, interesting, and diverse people.

What has surprised you the most so far?

What surprised me were the details. I never quite realized how many steps it actually takes from that wonderful acceptance phone call to the final product (and I’m not even there yet). Some of the steps I knew were coming—contract negotiations, permissions, revisions, copyediting, the like. Some steps I knew must be dealt with along the way, but forgot about them until they needed to be done—photo, bio, dedication… And some I might have know I’d have to deal with but caught me unaware—finalizing a title, acknowledgments. Then there’s the cover art; the page design; the typesetting; the type of paper; the release date; and we haven’t even begun the discussion about promotion! Yikes! A large number of these details are out of my hands, but I follow them, every step of the way. It’s suprising but a whole lot of fun.

What has surprised you the most so far?

I’ve been surprised and delighted by the excitement of friends and even acquaintances upon hearing that SWAN MAID will be published. I guess I expected my close friends, family and writing buddies to jump up and down and squeal with me, but not our unflappable realtor, other parents and staff at the high school where I volunteer, the dental hygienist, Coffee Bean baristas, my hair stylist, my husband’s colleagues, my stepson’s teenage friends… it reminds me that publishing a book, especially a book for children, is a magical undertaking.

What has surprised you the most so far?

- The hurry-up-and-wait nature of publishing. Time works differently in publishing than in the rest of the world.

- The money. I kept reading you can’t make a living doing kids’ books. I think they’re wrong.

- The attitude of my editor. I’d read that authors sacrifice their vision to get published, and each book becomes a team effort. My editor doesn’t seem to subscribe to that thinking at all.

- How I got published. I worked so hard for so long doing what I thought the market wanted. But what finally worked is what I have been doing for fun since I was a young teen. Who’d have thought?

What has surprised you the most so far?

It might be easier to ask what hasn’t surprised me. The whole process has been a series of surprises for me.

The big ones—

—Money: As Ruth notes, I heard repeatedly that one couldn’t make a living doing this. Thus my hopes for the sale were pretty low. But, I am making a good living writing.
—Time: Less than one week after my agent sent the text out to editors I had a number of offers. Within days, I had a life-changing pre-empt offer.
—Editor(s): I ended up with 2 of them, 1 in the US (who acquired the book) & 1 in the UK.
—Control: My publisher has invited my input on everything, including the cover design.
—The Team: The entire team at Harper has embraced me with a warmness that actually brought tears to my eyes by the second day of meetings. They are insanely fabulous people. My time in NYC with them was wow… there aren’t words really that capture how amazing it was.

I know it doesn’t always work out beautifully, but I went from thinking I shouldn’t dare do this to wondering how I can possibly pay back the wonderful attention and care that my agent and publishing house have shown me. This has been my lifelong dream, something I was terrified to try, and they have made it so much better than I’d ever dared hope.

So, umm, it’s mostly all been a surprise, but the biggest surprise is that the fantasy is possible sometimes.

What has surprised you the most so far?

I am going to sound like the author who has no self-confidence, which is maybe, partially true, but to be honest, the thing that has surprised me the most is:

That I’m here.
That I’m a writer.

For me that’s just the coolest of the cool.

As I’ve mentioned before my super smart dad can barely read. Me? Well, I have a writing disability, which seems bizarre because now as an adult I write quickly, but I was (and am) one of those kids who couldn’t tie their shoes. My hand would cramp when I wrote in my notebooks. My handwriting is horrible no matter which hand I use. I mix up my b’s and d’s and my p’s and q’s.

And when I write sometimes words come out wrong…

How wrong?

Oh. I write whistle for freckle or president for present or glances for glasses or something like that.

It happens ALL THE TIME.

When I finally fessed up to him about this, Andrew, my editor, wrote to me that, “I think your brain gets nervous when you write too many sentences full of standard facts and satisfied expectations, and so it forces you to tell a little lie and violate expectations by substituting the wrong word.”

Can he spin things or what? No wonder I love him.

Of course, I’ve been surprised by how great other writers are, and the people at Flux, and my agent. But, honestly, that’s the biggest surprise… the fact that I’m a writer at all.

What has surprised you the most so far?

Honestly, that I can sell two novels and still not be able to get an agent for my latest manuscripts (let alone that first one). Maybe it’s just me! But after all the analogies we’ve heard about agents acting as filters and pre-screeners, I never would have thought that editors were easier to impress than the folks that sell to them. Same queries, everything. I guess the moral of the story is that there’s no one way to do it?