Happy Valentine's Day!

 HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Whether this day brings out the romantic in you, or makes you roll your eyes and internally groan, Valentine’s Day is a time to reflect on the people and things you love most in life.

Below are some things to love, even if you despise Valentine’s Day … 

#1—CHOCOLATE: Dark, milk, smooth, or filled with coconut, nuts, etc. No matter how you like your chocolate, having plenty on hand on Feb. 14^th is very important. (And don’t forget tomorrow boxes will be 50% off! ☺) 

#2—READING: If you’re having a bad day, you can always curl up with a good book and … eat chocolate! Very therapeutic! 

#3—WRITING: Whether you’re currently writing a romance, fantasy, or horror, there is no better escapism than writing (except maybe reading). Pick up that half-finished manuscript where you left off, or start the new project you’ve had on the backburner for months.

I’ve often heard writing described as a labor of love. Some people write to relax, or as a hobby, and never intend for anyone else to read their work. Others dream of penning the next bestseller and walking the red carpet at the premiere of a blockbuster movie inspired by their work.

Recently, an agent I follow on Twitter posted a #pubtip saying (paraphrased): If you find the possibility of writing a book you’ll never make a cent on unappealing, you should think about changing careers. 

This was followed up with a tweet that very few authors are able to make a living off their writing, and advised to write because you love it, not for money.

Now despite this notion being somewhat pessimistic, to most writers, it isn’t exactly news. Even if deep down you hope to eventually make a living doing what you love, chances are if you've been writing a while, you've experienced your share of rejection.

If you’re new to the publishing world, however, it’s something to consider, as most writers don’t publish their first novel … (with the exception of Stephenie Meyer and J.K. Rowling, although, they too experienced rejection). Even if writing is a labor of love, there’s nothing better in the world than making a living off something that brings you joy each day. But if your love for writing is truly unconditional, you won’t be able to stop writing, despite hundreds, maybe (cringe) thousands of rejections. 

If writing turns out to be simply a crush for you, the publishing world might break your heart, and you may quickly become disenchanted with the notion of ever publishing anything. But don't despair. Whether you resolve to soldier on and face more rejection, or if you decide writing might not be the path you wish to follow, you can still curl up to read a good book. And don't forget the cure for all heartache ... plenty of chocolate!

Critiquing Pet Peeves: Are You Committing Any of These Faux Pas?

I’ve been blogging about critique partners for the past few months. In January I discussed where to find critique partners, in February I covered what types of critique partners to look for and last month I blogged about how to give good critiques. This month, I’m going to address the opposite and discuss some common critiquing pet peeves; otherwise knows as: how to make sure I’ll never ask you to read for me again.

Let me preface this by saying my critique partners do not do any of these thing, which is why they are wonderful and amazing and will earn acknowledgments in all of my books.

That said, I have had a lot of people read for me and there are definite things that always pushed my buttons, despite the fact that I was grateful for the time and energy they put into reading for me.If you are planning to critique for anyone in the future, you make want to take care to avoid:

Only pointing out the bad.

Yes, I asked for a critical eye on my work and I desperately want to know what isn’t working, so I can fix it. But toss a girl a bone! It’s also incredibly helpful for me to know what is working so I don’t accidentally cut it. Help me make my manuscript better—versus worse—by pointing out the things you like, whether it be a character name that fits the traits of the person well, a line that made you laugh, or a subplot that left you breathless. 

Not giving me any notes.

As much as it thrills me to know that you loved every word of my messy first draft, I’m going to have a hard time believing it. I’m relying on you to be fresh eyes for me on something I’m too involved with to see objectively. I appreciate that you took the time to read, but you’ve somewhat wasted mine in not offering any thoughts for improvement because I now have to track down another reader to point me in the right direction.

And this last one really makes me grind my teeth:

Rewriting my manuscript.

I once had someone read for me who made giant x’s on full pages of my manuscript and took it upon herself to delete a whole chapter in track changes. She also rewrote a ton of paragraphs, including the entire opening. I’m perfectly fine with a suggestion to “think about improving pacing by cutting this chapter” or “Show us this in a scene versus telling us in backstory” but it really grated my nerves that she went in and did it for me. In fact it bothered me so much that I now refuse to delete a single word from a CPs manuscript unless it’s a typo. I mark it in comments instead. Good CPs will say, “Here are my thoughts. Take any that resonate with you and ignore the rest!” and let the author decide for herself whether the suggestion is in line with her vision for the book or not. You might have clear ideas for how you could make this book sooo much better, but in the end you’ll be more valuable as a CP by recognizing that it’s only your opinion to offer and not your story to write.

What about you? Share your horror stories here or tell us what really pushes your buttons on the receiving end of a critique.

How To Be A Good Critique Partner

The last few months I’ve been talking about critique partners, who, to me, are a non-negotiable must-have for anyone serious about writing. In January I talked about where to find critique partners and in February I covered what kinds of critique partners you might want to have in your stable. This month, I’m going to focus on how to give good critique (stay tuned for next month when I discuss what NOT to do in a critique).

Most of us would not invest our time and energy into reading purely for the sport of tearing down a fellow writer. But we could all probably stand a reminder on how to deliver tough news in sensitive ways. Yes, your CP is looking to you to help her identify problem areas in her manuscript. Basically, she is asking you to find fault. Which makes you a bit damned. Most writers describe the first draft as falling in love. We love our words, our concept, our characters. We have fallen asleep plotting their actions and woken up thinking of their worlds. When your critique of that beloved manuscript lands in a writer’s inbox, it’s akin to that writer discovering her dream date lives with his mother. Probably not a deal-breaker, but the bloom is off the rose. And you’re the one who plucked the petals.

There’s no way around that, but there are ways to deliver a thoughtful critique that will likely include some bad with the good. First of all, remember the compliment sandwich. Your CP doesn’t want you blowing smoke up his butt, but he would probably greatly appreciate if your notes started out with some things that are working well in the manuscript. This lets the writer know that the problems you’ll be mentioning next may exist, but overall the work has merit and potential. It’s also always nice to end with a brief note thanking the writer for sharing his words with you and reiterating your confidence in his ability to make the story even better!

Frame your critique constructively. Make comments designed not to tear down, but to build up the work. Phrases like “Have you considered…”, “It might be interesting to see what would happen if…”, and “I think you could solve this by…” are all helpful and kind ways to point out issues.

Admit your own subjectivity. Every reader brings his or her personal tastes and experiences to a story and sometimes it’s as simple as saying, “This could just be me, but…” For instance: if your best friend in high school had an eating disorder, which also happens to be the topic of the manuscript you’re critiquing, that is helpful for the writer to know because you may be both more attuned to the realities of the disorder and whether the author captured them realistically and also more sensitive to some of the content explored.  When CPs prefaces a comment by saying something like, “I’ll admit I’m kind of an overprotective mom, but this scene made me cringe because…” that’s actually helpful. By quantifying, you’re raising a flag that lets the writer know she should get some further feedback on this concern before making any decisions on a change.

Ask questions. “Would she be wearing that tank top if your manuscript is set in January?”, “If one of his hands is in her hair and another at her back, how is he texting his friend right now?” “Would she really do this/say this/think this here?” are all far better ways to point something out that “Uh, hello, it’s WINTER”, “Is he a three-armed freak or something?”, “The voice is wayyyy off here”. Often we’re so ensconced in the story that we dash off a quick note so we can get back to reading, and don’t take the time to think about how that note could be interpreted. If that’s something you do, take a quick scroll through your comments before sending back to the writer.

Remember to point out the good. It is every bit as useful for a writer to know what scenes, sentences, and word choices are working as it is to know the ones that aren’t. My CPs and I have all adopted the method of one, who uses a green highlighter to quickly mark sentences or scenes she loves to death. I get so happy when I encounter green in my manuscript, even if it’s in the middle of lots of comment boxes of issues that need addressing. I’ve found personal or funny notes can have the same effect. A quick “Oh man, that’s so embarrassing for the MC. Reminds me of the time I spilled milk on the Pope” or “Great, now I’m crying!” or “I wanted to go to sleep at the end of this chapter but, curse you, because now I have to know what happens!” is a welcome break from more critical notes and reminds the writer that you do indeed like her story!

How about you? What do you love to see in critiques you’ve gotten back? How do you frame your own comments to others?

Where To Find Your Perfect Critique Partner

Confession time: I read the last page of the book first. No, not the ending. I’m not all that morbid and besides, if I die tomorrow.... 

...I’ll probably be thinking of other things at the time versus “Damn, I wish I knew how that book wrapped up.” 

I mean the acknowledgments. I’m a total sucker for them! I love seeing the vast team of people who go into making a book sing and, after writing my own recently, I know just how heartfelt they can be. Front and center in my acknowledgments: my critique partners. They are the bomb diggity and I hope they know it.  At this point, they’ve all made the cross from critique partner to true friends...

... but at one point we started as strangers on the same journey. In next month’s post, I’ll blog about how to get the most from your critique partners and where and when to use them to your best advantage, but today I thought I’d start with how to find amazing critique partners of your own (cuz you know I’m not sharing mine. Well, I might.)

SCBWI: a professional organization of like-minded people is a great starting point. Many local chapters have organized critique groups that meet in person on a monthly basis and are open to all members. Generally these groups examine shorter pieces (a PB text, a chapter of a longer piece) and give critiques in person. Often subgroups form where members trade longer samples or full manuscripts on their own time.

CPseek: After Pitch Wars 2013, a number of the mentors joined together to form CP Seek, an online message board where writers can post “want ads” of sorts for online critique partners. Check them out- there’s gold in them thar hills!

Online contests: Ever enter your query or first page in a contest and drool over another entries, wishing you could read their story ASAP. Guess what? They might be drooling over yours. And maybe you can. One of my closest friends and I met when she was sorting slush in a contest, trying to choose which queries to advance. She tweeted that she found one she wished she could read right then (hooray, it was mine!), another writer friend happened to see her tweet and looped me into the conversation. Several manuscripts later, we now talk ten times a day and even our kids have become friends, despite the eight-hour drive separating us. In fact, today I’m washing sheets in advance of their visit next week.

Writing Sites: Many reputable writing sites, such as Mother.Write.Repeat and Miss Snark will periodically open the comments on a post for writers to connect with other writers seeking CP’s. Back in 2012, I responded to one along with three others. We promptly formed a Yahoo group where we could trade our manuscripts with one another. Not quite two years later, we are now the MGBetareaders, twenty-four writers strong, still trading and now blogging as a group at www.kidliterati.com. In that time about half of us have become agented and some have signed book deals. Most importantly, the group has become a safe environment for sharing the ups and downs of publishing.

One valuable suggestion when trading work with a new critique partner: start with a manageable chunk of your works (maybe three chapters or so) to see if you are a good match for each other before committing to trading a whole manuscript. Finding a good CP can be a bit like finding a good mate. There may be some dating involved before you hit your perfect match. 

The greatest thing about this kidlit writing community is how supportive, welcoming and encouraging we are to one another. It’s something that warms my heart and takes (most of) the sting out of the sucky rejection part of this business. We have each other’s backs and well have yours, the moment you ask for it. So come find us!!

A Writer Gives Thanks

A writer’s life is not for everyone.

There is something about that blink, blink, blink cursor on an empty page that could drive a person to the brink of insanity. There is rejection at every step.. There are days when notes from a CP appear in the inbox and suck the wind from sails. There is the lure of six seasons stacked up on Netflix and closets that need organizing and a million other ways to procrastinate a writing session away. There is rejection. Did I mention that already?

BUT… today is Thanksgiving, so instead I’d like to talk about everything that makes me grateful to be a writer.

That blink, blink, blinking cursor. It is possibility. It is imagination unleashed. It is a playground with an extra twisty slide and a zip line. It is sheer fun and limitless possibilities. I am most grateful for this.

I am grateful for tough notes from critique partners, beta readers, my agent, and my editor. The time they put into those notes means they believe in my story and in making it better. It means they are invested right alongside me.

Well, there’s no way to sugarcoat rejection. Or is there? Helpful rejections make you stronger, make your focus tighter, show you ways to improve, make your stories better. Sometimes something might look like a rejection, but is really a redirection and a door opening elsewhere.  I am grateful for those.

I am grateful for the kidlit community we all share. I may spend my days in pajamas (forget what I said earlier- I believe I am most grateful for THIS!) staring at a monitor, but I love venturing out of the house if it means meeting up with kidlit types. This year I loved seeing and making friends at the NE-SCBWI conference, BEA, the Boston Book Festival, an NCTE conference tweet-up, as well as numerous book launches and my two monthly writer groups. Knowing this community is out there, sharing in success and hugging out those rejections warms my heart more than pumpkin pie and hot cocoa.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes this Thanksgiving to thank your muse, your critique partner, your agent, your readers, or your fellow bloggers and just revel in the fact that we’re pretty darn lucky. At the very least, it beats having any of these jobs!

What To Do Before And After "THE CALL" From An Offering Literary Agent

It’s my agent-iversary this month (one year since I signed with my lovely agent, Holly Root) and it seems as though something is in the air these days. Twice this week I opened my email to exciting news from writer friends who’d received “Let’s schedule a call” emails from agents. In both instances, the next line of their email was, “What now?”

There are tons of resources online for what questions to ask DURING The Call. Check out this fantastic and thorough list. My post is instead going to address some things to do BEFORE The Call and more things to do AFTER The Call.

BEFORE The Call:

Consider more queries. You have an email requesting a call, but since you don’t have an official offer, it is still ethical to continue querying and this might be the time to reach out to those “dream agents” of yours. This way, if you do get an offer, you can send an email to anyone who has your query and/or pages with the subject line: Nudge With Offer of Representation. This tends to be agent catnip and you may find yourself with full requests within minutes of hitting send. You should feel free to nudge anyone who has pages OR simply a query. I'm sure this will garner some comments below, but I'll defend this by saying that you clearly have a manuscript that someone in the publishing industry finds "sellable" so offering it to other agents is actually to their benefit as much as yours.

AFTER:

Request time to consider. Be sure to ask for more time than you think you need.  You may be squee-ing internally the entire call and ready to sign on the dotted line the instant the official offer is uttered. It's a heady feeling to have someone gush over your work after collecting stacks of form rejections! But that offer will still be there tomorrow. It’s appropriate to request a “mulling-it-over” period to allow any other agents with your material time to read and consider. Ten days would be the minimum I’d request, but two weeks is perfectly fine. Agents are busy people and can’t always drop everything to read something overnight. Giving them time increases your odds of having multiple offers, which can be stressful, but ultimately gives you more control over your career and determining who will be by your side throughout it.  I’m a huge believer in trusting my gut feelings, but hearing how other offering agents answer your questions and envision your career should help you make the most logical and thoughtful decision (then you can save your gut to use as a tie-breaker!).

Call other clients. It is acceptable practice for you to ask the offering agent if it is okay for you to contact current clients. I can’t imagine an agent saying no to this (warning flag if he/she does), and the agent may even offer up the names and contact information of clients to reach out to. That’s great and you should contact those authors. I would go a few steps further and make sure you ask that agent for the name of a client who is still out on submission or has not sold a book yet. This person will be you in a matter of days, so talking to someone who’s at this stage now will give you insight into how your early interactions with your agent will be and show you how things will progress on sub and/or if your first manuscript doesn’t sell. It is not often talked about openly, but a majority of first manuscripts do not sell and it will be helpful to know how your agent will keep your spirits up, nudge you to write more, and work with you to determine the next step. I would also suggest contacting an author or two the agent didn’t offer up. Most authors are easy to track down on Twitter, Facebook, or via their websites. I suggest politely requesting a quick phone call, so the author will feel comfortable talking freely versus having to put frank feelings in writing to someone he or she doesn’t know. In my instance, I called two clients from an offering agent and, while one raved, the other client was days away from severing her relationship with the agent and I got an earful that certainly played into my decision-making process. Of course, I suspect the truth was somewhere between those two clients, but there were some red flags raised in those conversations that steered me away from that particular agent.

Researching other clients and their books can also tell you something about the agent. One of the major things that tipped the scales in Holly’s favor in my decision-making process was that her client list was basically my bookshelf. If I loved to read what she repped,I felt more confident that she would “get” my writing style. Also, her clients’ brands very closely matched with the type of career I wanted for myself and I knew if she could help get them there, she was the one I wanted in my court.

If you are signing with an agent who reps authors book-by-book versus for a career, you may want to ask that agent to read samples (a chapter or two) of your other work to make sure he/she likes your style and voice overall. There is no guarantee that agent will like your next manuscript, but you might want to know ahead of time that he/she at least responds to your next idea or your WIP.

I know it can feel odd to ask the agent to send you names or to read more for you before you’ve signed, but taking the time to figure out if you’re well-matched now will save everyone (including him or her) time and grief further down the road. This is a time of role-reversal- agents are wooing you and often that feels strange after a series of “This just wasn’t for me” emails. But don’t let this throw you! Recognize that you are going to be partners on a publishing journey now and take the time and ask the questions that will allow you to be super-comfortable with your potential agent going forward. 

If you’re reading this because you’ve gotten that elusive email from an interested agent, congratulations and good luck!! Are there other things you’re wondering at this stage? If you are agented, are there things you were glad you asked/did or things you wish you had?