Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies

by Deborah Halverson

  What not to include

  Don’t let your enthusiasm trip you up — submit only the items listed in the agent’s or publisher’s submission guidelines. If no guidelines are available on the agency or publisher websites, then stick with standard submission items (which I detail earlier in this chapter under “What to include”).

  Don’t send marketing plans or proposals — doing market analysis isn’t your job. Editors and agents know the market better than you can. They have actual sales numbers at their fingertips, face-to-face feedback from retailers, and sometimes even focus groups. You can refer to other titles in the marketplace to position your book (see the earlier section “Paragraph 2: A pitch that prompts action”), but don’t comment on the sales viability of your project.

  Previously published authors may be tempted to include copies of those other books in a submission, but there’s no need to spend the money or part with personal copies that may never be returned. Anyone intrigued by your query letter and writing sample can look up your book with ease on the Internet, seeing the jacket image and reading the reviews and excerpts on your website or through the online booksellers that post those, such as Amazon.com. Editors can even check on the book’s general sales figures, believe it or not, thanks to their access to certain book distributor databases. If a previous book had a noteworthy publication, earned awards, or received quote-worthy reviews, include those items in Paragraph 3 of your query letter. Your publishing history is an important credential! The editor or agent will request a copy of the actual book later in the submission process if need be.

  Don’t include anything gimmicky, either. No author photos, no baked goods (not as uncommon as you’d think, especially around the holidays), and no ancillary products (related extras). An author once sent me a vial of homemade perfume related to her story’s theme. Only, I didn’t know the vial was in the submission envelope when I shoved it into my bag to read at home, along with several full novel manuscripts. The vial was crushed in my car. The scent? Let’s just say the manuscript was about a horse and leave it at that.

  The skinny on sample chapters

  Author guidelines usually tell you whether the agent or editor you’re submitting to accepts sample chapters. If the guidelines don’t mention sample chapters, submit one or two chapters, up to 15 pages total, depending on whether you have a prologue or a very short first chapter. Some agents and editors ask for up to three sample chapters, or the first 50 pages, but shorter samples are becoming the norm. The askers simply don’t need that much material to get a feel for a book. They know right away, within the first few pages, and if they do want more, they request it.

  Your real question is which chapters to send. My answer: the first chapters. Those are the ones editors and agents expect to see because those are the first ones readers see. That’s where you do your hooking. Submitting juicy middle chapters can hurt you because

  The agents and editors don’t have any context for the action and characters in the scene.

  Those chapters don’t have the benefit of built-up tension or emotion. Although those middle chapters are awesome when a reader has worked his way to them, they likely lack oomph to anyone starting the book at that point.

  All sample chapters should be on 8.5" x 11" white paper, double-spaced with a standard 12-point font such as New Times Roman or Arial, and printed on one side of the paper only. (See Chapter 12 for details on formatting your manuscript.)

  Keeping Your Fingers Crossed

  Waiting to hear back on your submission can be a true mental test. Angst-ridden questions can easily take over your mind: “Has she received it yet? Has she read it? Will she say yes or no? When will I hear back? Why is this taking so long?” Don’t let your mind be a breeding ground for frustration. Brush all those questions away and leave only this one: “What can I do with this time?” This section answers that question. I have a list of ways to make your wait productive, I give you tips for nudging the process along when nudging is appropriate, and I talk about what to do when the long-awaited news arrives.

  Enduring the wait for a response

  Agencies and publishers usually specify their response times to submissions in their posted guidelines, but be ready for a 3- to 6-month wait. Some agents and editors may reply only if they’re interested in seeing more. Others try to respond to everyone, even if that means using form rejection letters. Form letters stink, I know, but editors can receive up to a thousand submissions a month, and trying to frame their reasons for rejecting a project in a tactful but useful manner adds to response time. In some cases, though, people do take the time to state a reason for the rejection in a personal letter.

  After you’ve submitted, don’t just sit and wait to hear back. Dive into your next project the moment you’ve finished your queries. Just as a watched pot never boils, sitting on your typing fingers doesn’t get those editors and agents to respond any faster. Other ways to pass the waiting time include the following:

  Continue your editor/agent research in case you need to do another round of submissions.

  Get started on your platform building (which I cover in Chapter 15, along with a ton of other marketing steps).

  Get familiar with the online young adult book community. (Chapter 15 lists useful forums and YA-dedicated blogs.)

  Do industry research on your genre and category, or just catch up with the current state of publishing in general. (Check out Chapter 15 for book industry reads.)

  Read more deeply into your genre.

  You may hear back sooner than you think. Agents’ and editors’ workloads ebb and flow just like yours does, and your manuscript or query may reach them just when they’re most ready to read it. And frankly, some people are just faster at responding than others.

  If you haven’t received a response after two months, send a polite letter asking about the status of your query. If you offered an exclusive but haven’t heard back by the end of your specified time, send a letter stating that although you’d still very much like to place your manuscript with that agency or editor, you’re going to start submitting the project to other houses, too.

  Editor Kate Harrison: Revising with your editor

  A lot of authors are surprised to learn how much work there is to be done after their book is sold and before it’s published. After all, you’ve already revised and revised on your own, and the novel that gets sold should be the final version, right? Actually, it’s just a jumping off point for the author-editor process. I hear these pronouncements in the media that “editors don’t edit anymore,” but in fact, I and every editor I know edit like crazy! I sign up a manuscript because I love it, and then my job is to help it become the very best version of itself before I put it out in the world — a version that will ideally reach its audience, sell lots of copies, get great reviews, and win some awards while we’re at it! That can mean one round of revisions or it can mean ten rounds — it’s really different for every book.

  The author-editor relationship requires a lot of trust, an open mind, and a lot of work on both sides, but it’s amazing what can come out of the process. I recently spent about a year and a half editing an incredible novel that morphed into almost an entirely different book by the end — some of the characters merged together, names changed, fates were altered, and a soulful romance blossomed. The author was inspiring to work with because he would take a problem I brought up and create his own perfect solution for it. Neither one of us could ever have predicted what this novel would become when I first signed it up, but we couldn’t be more excited about it. Sometimes it just takes a bit longer for the story and characters to fall into place, but helping an author get there is my favorite part of the job.

  Kate Harrison has worked in children’s books publishing for more than 11 years and is currently a senior editor at Dial Books for Young Readers.

  Don’t cold call ag
ents or editors. Such calls can be awkward, they almost always interrupt work, and they aren’t necessary because the posted author guidelines provide specific instructions on how to submit via e-mail or the postal service. If you do a cold call, the agent or editor will assume you either haven’t read the guidelines or chose to disregard them — neither of which is professional.

  Receiving the long-awaited news

  Although you submit via mail or e-mail, your acceptance news typically comes via phone. But it’s rarely a call out of the blue. Generally you get a note that asks for the full manuscript, and then perhaps you have some e-mail back-and-forth about revisions, and then the editor tells you she wants to share the manuscript with other editors to get their feedback. This is a serious stage. She may indeed walk to the office next door for a second opinion, or she may be taking your story to her weekly editorial meeting, wherein all the editors of the imprint — and likely representatives of the marketing and sales force — all read and comment on the potential of the project. Then you get your phone call.

  If the response is “No, thanks,” you hear by mail or e-mail. And yes, some editors or agents may never respond. If it’s house or agency policy to respond only in the case of further interest, they typically note that in the author guidelines posted on their websites.

  Note that not all rejections are final. An agent or editor may write back with a conditional “no thanks — although I would like to see this again if you want to revise along the lines I’m suggesting.” Read the next section to find out what to do with that kind of feedback.

  Turning “No” into “Yes!”

  The writer without a rejection is the exception. Just ask J. R. R. Tolkien. Or J. K. Rowling. Or any other successful writer you can think of. Most of them have been rejected, usually multiple times. Remember, stories and style are subjective, and reliable crystal balls are nonexistent. Often, placing a manuscript comes down to chemistry between the manuscript and the editor or agent. Every reader has subjective tastes and judgments.

  This section covers what to do when you get a rejection — how to make sense of it, how to better your chances next time, and when it’s appropriate to revise and resend to a rejecter.

  Using rejection to strengthen your story (and maybe resubmit it!)

  Most editors and agents try to be tactful in their responses. Form letters are a matter of efficiency, not signs of a cold heart. Editors and agents resort to those so they can get through the submissions quickly. Writing a useful yet tactful response to a manuscript takes surprisingly long, so if you get one of those, see it for the extra time and effort it is, and understand that any recommendations in it are offered because that person saw something you can work on. You can decide whether to take that advice, of course.

  Sometimes an editor or agent declines the manuscript but asks to see it again if you revise along the lines she suggests. Unless you have a compelling reason not to, do it! This response means that the agent or editor saw a real possibility of taking on your manuscript. Editors and agents don’t offer to reread just to be kind — they don’t have time for that.

  Don’t rush the revision if you plan to resubmit your manuscript. You have several months before any of those requestors even bats an eye. They’d all tell you, very sincerely, to take as much time as you need to get the manuscript right. And frankly, they’d feel dubious if you turned around a revised manuscript in mere days. They didn’t reject your manuscript for surface problems; there was probably some serious work to be done. That said, you should aim to finish the revision and submit no later than 6 months after receiving the letter. Editors and agents won’t hold a time lag against you (they know that revising takes time and that sometimes life gets in the way), but the marketplace could shift in that time, as could the very jobs of those agents and editors. Don’t wait longer than a year, which editors commonly use as their limit when they offer open submission invitations at conferences.

  What if a rejection letter tells you what was wrong with the manuscript but doesn’t ask to see a revision based on its suggestions? Can you still resend to that person later if you revise? Yes, you can . . . if you’ve changed the manuscript significantly. This situation arises sometimes when writers mature, gaining experience, improving skills, and getting useful feedback from folks who know their stuff. If that’s your situation, then say so when you resubmit the revised manuscript: “I’ve changed it significantly since you last saw it and hope you’ll be open to taking another look.” Don’t keep going back to the same editor over and over, though. One revision is enough for an editor to make a final call.

  Just because you revise and resubmit doesn’t necessarily mean the manuscript will be accepted. You’re getting a second chance with someone who was intrigued, but you still have to make the hard connection.

  Reading between the rejection-letter lines

  Sometimes an agent or editor takes the time to cite a reason for rejecting, only to leave the writer feeling confused because the reason isn’t specific enough or uses industry jargon. And sometimes one person’s letter flat-out contradicts another!

  Getting feedback but not knowing what to do with it can be frustrating, no doubt about it. Try to remember that evaluating manuscripts is a subjective activity — you’re bound to get lots of opinions. Your task is to sift through what you get, see whether there’s a common thread in the feedback, and decide whether you want to address that issue in revision.

  To help you with your sifting, I’ve translated some lines that commonly show up in rejection letters and suggested specific areas you can tackle if you get them:

  “I couldn’t get into the story.” Your story may have too much setup at the beginning, or perhaps you’re interrupting the action with info dumps — telling instead of showing. Are you creating enough tension? Review Chapter 7’s techniques for injecting action and forward movement into the story.

  “I never sank into the world.” Check your voice. Is it too complicated or formal? Does it need liveliness, some spunky sentence construction and variety? Revisit sentence structure techniques in Chapter 9. Did the story start at the wrong point of the conflict? See Chapter 6. Have you neglected your physical setting? Review the setting techniques in Chapter 8.

  “The voice isn’t strong (or distinct) enough.” Are you picking flavorful words? Looking for original ways to phrase things instead of falling back on clichés? See Chapter 9 for voice techniques.

  “The characters feel flat.” This comment may also come at you as “I don’t care enough about the main character to get invested in her story.” Revisit your characterization. Are you relying on stereotypes? Have you given readers a reason to care about your character, to root for her or to be fascinated by her? Have you fleshed her out with body language and prop interaction? Is there something sympathetic about her, a core moral goodness? Is her goal important enough — and is the price of failure terrible enough — to cause anxiety for her well-being and success? See Chapters 5 and 7, which cover characters and action.

  “The hook isn’t strong (or fresh) enough.” Revisit your concept. How can you reshape your characters or storyline to make it feel new in the marketplace instead of like just another story in that genre? See Chapter 4 for info on hooks. Look for unique places to set your story (Chapter 8), and give your characters unexpected traits, strengths, or flaws (Chapter 5). This can send you back to square one for a major overhaul, but wouldn’t you rather know early in the submission process than later?

  “The dialogue doesn’t sound natural to my ear.” Your dialogue may be doing too much work. Take the plot details out of the dialogue and work them into the narration. And make those narrative beats count; don’t let generic, unrevealing actions hijack those precious moments. Or maybe you have too many dialogue tags or poorly constructed ones, or perhaps you’re putting formal grown-up words in kids’ mouths. See Chapter 10 for dialogue tips.r />
  “The voice sounds too sophisticated for a girl/boy this age.” Make sure you’re thinking like a kid so you can narrate like one. No overanalyzing people or situations, and don’t let a young first-person narrator overempathize with others. Check out Chapter 9’s coverage of teen drama and youthful word choice.

  “Too much was going on. I felt confused.” Did you introduce too many characters in that opening scene? Is the writing too complicated, or are you trying to do too much setup in the first pages? Chapter 7 talks about easing readers into complicated fictional words.

  “The pacing isn’t strong enough.” Does it take too long for things to happen? Are you including the minutiae instead of sticking to the richest story moments? Revisit scene-crafting and transitions in Chapter 7.

  “This manuscript isn’t right for me” or “I don’t see a place for this manuscript on my list.” Alas, there’s no connection whatsoever. No resubmission possibility here. Not so helpful, I know, but at least you have an answer.

  Obviously you’d prefer an editor or agent to send you a contract instead of a rejection letter, but if you can determine what was found lacking in your manuscript, you can address those areas during revision and in future stories. Regarding those future stories: Yes, you can submit them to the same editors and agents you tried with past submissions. If you find that they’re not connecting with anything you send, however, it may be time to turn to the many other editors and agents out there.

  Keeping your ego (and feelings) out of it

  So much of acceptance goes beyond your storytelling skill, so don’t mistake a rejection of your manuscript as a rejection of you. Publishing is a business. And like every business, it’s first and foremost about making money. Editors take on manuscripts they not only feel passionate about but also believe will sell, and scores of factors go into their assessments of what’s salable.