Writing and Selling the YA Novel

by K L Going

  Successful writers' groups come in many forms. They can involve any number of people and can meet in person or communicate via e-mail or snail mail. The only thing that's essential to finding the right writers' group is that you can give and receive meaningful feedback with the other writers involved. To find a writers' group in your area, check with the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) if you're a member, visit your local library or bookstore, post a query on an online forum, or attend a writers conference or workshop and ask people you meet there. If you have no luck finding an established group to join, don't be afraid to start your own! There might be someone else, just like you, hoping to connect with other writers, and if you post a sign or place an ad you might be surprised at the response.

  Remember, even if you find the very best readers possible, writing is still a subjective activity. Be sure to weigh the thoughts and

  opinions of multiple readers before making drastic changes. Hearing from as many readers as possible, and being aware of each reader's strengths and weaknesses, will allow you to put the feedback you receive into perspective.

  Don't be afraid to ask your readers questions as well. Instead of passively accepting that they felt a certain way, try to find our why they felt that way. Sometimes, it's not the cited problem that needs to be changed but something else that is an underlying problem. You might even consider using the editing lists found in this chapter as guidelines to asking your readers key questions. They might not offer certain information on their own, but with a little help they might be able to tell you exactly where your book's pacing slowed or your plot seemed unbelievable.

  OTHER SOURCES OF EDITING HELP_

  Finding the right readers is a lot harder than it seems. Trust me. I've learned the hard way. The first reader I ever gave one of my novels to (it was a fantasy novel) was an English professor who started out his feedback by saying, "I've always hated fantasy. One of my best

  friends wrote a fantasy novel and I've never been able to bring myself to read it."

  One of the first readers of Fat Kid Rules the World suggested that my novel would be better off if the main character lost weight and became the prom king—something totally antithetical to the theme of the book. Yet another early reader unexpectedly joined the Army, taking the only printed copy of my book with him. I never heard from him again.

  There are times when finding a professional might be your best approach. Finding a professional reader does not mean sending your manuscript to an agent or editor who charges reading fees. Those people are very unprofessional. Agents and editors make their money off the sale of your book, either through commission when they sell it to a publishing house or through their salary and bonuses if they're the ones publishing it. If they're charging reading fees, they're probably not on the up-and-up.

  So how do you find a professional? For most people this means attending a conference or workshop, or taking a class. Classes are available not only through universities, but online as well. You'll find that taking a class is one of the best ways to improve your skills, energize your writing, and meet other people who love to do the same thing you love to do. Many writers' groups form as extensions of class settings. Workshops and conferences are also great ways to meet people and learn about your craft. A lot of conferences offer professional critiques on a limited number of pages as part of your registration fee. Professional organizations like SCBWI not only host their own conferences but can keep you abreast of activities happening in your area.

  Another source of professional help might be finding a book doctor. I'll be completely honest here; even though I offer a manuscript critique service, I wouldn't recommend this for everyone. Make sure

  you're really ready to hear detailed feedback if you decide to submit your manuscript. There are times when I suspect someone might have been hoping for a completely glowing response from me, but that's not why you pay someone to read your work. There are plenty of friends and family who can offer that.

  If you decide to use a book doctor, make sure you've done everything you know how to do before you submit your work. Not because you need to impress that person, but because you want to get your money's worth! Why pay someone to tell you something you could have figured out on your own? What you're looking for from a professional manuscript critique is insight that can't be gained without that person's professional expertise. I also advise you to get a recommendation whenever possible.

  One source of recommendations is SGBWI's Freelance Editors & Manuscript Doctors list that's available to SCBWI members. Another source is online chat rooms where writers discuss who they've worked with and whether they were happy with the services they received. You'll find ads for freelance editors in the back of most writing magazines, but I'd definitely advise you to ask around before blindly following an advertisement. If you do choose to call someone you don't know, ask her if she has references you might call or e-mail, and make sure she's open to reading teen fiction

  FINAL ADVICE_

  No matter how you approach the editing process, making your book as strong as it can be is your ultimate goal. Why? Because teens are critical, discerning readers and they deserve our very best. Just as scientists set rigorous standards so they can add knowledge to the

  world, writers set rigorous standards so we can add literature to the world. We want our books to edify, entertain, and illuminate the teens who read them. Editing is our chance to take our raw words and refine them into gold.

  Even if math was never your favorite subject, it's a topic that writers ignore at their own peril. Sure, it would be nice if we could operate wholly on the level of story choices, focusing on achieving our desired degree of literary merit, but at the end of the day, if you want to write for a living, you need to think about money as well.

  When it comes to money, there's good news and bad news. The good news is you can make money as a writer. The bad news is that very, very few of us will ever achieve best-seller status, so it isn't always easy. Still, many writers are able to bring in steady incomes, or at least partial incomes based on their work. Remember that even if your sole desire is to produce great literature, that involves reaching your audience, and part of reaching your audience means getting compensation for your work and making sure your book gets distributed to the teens who will read it.

  Let's turn our attention to the steps you need to take to go from unpublished writer to published author. Making this move requires that you decide exactly what kind of publication you want to pursue, so we'll start by examining the various marketplaces for your work. If you choose traditional publishing as your best venue, you'll also want to delve into the questions of submitting to agents vs. editors, preparing your manuscript and query letters, and negotiating a solid contract if you decide to submit your work without an agent.

  PATHS TO PUBLICATION_

  SELF-PUBLISHING

  Many authors perceive publication by a major publishing house as the one and only pathway to publishing their book, but this is not the case. Self-publishing used to be too expensive for the average person to afford, and the end product did not always have a professional look. Once you got your bound book it was very difficult to market it and actually sell copies.

  This is beginning to change.

  These days, self-publishing is within most people's budgets. A quick search on the Internet revealed prices as low as 199 dollars, though costs can be much, much more depending on whether you choose to hire your own editor, copy editor, illustrator, or book designer, and whether you choose a company that will take care of printing and distribution or you decide to coordinate production and distribution yourself. Either way, you can definitely end up with a professional-looking product with cover art that's virtually indistinguishable from the books you'd find in Barnes & Noble.

  When it comes to marketing your book, self-publishing companies sometimes offer free Web sites as part of their publishing package, and even if they don't, most of us can find
someone to create a Web site for us at a reasonable price or we can make our own. Books can also be sold through the online versions of most of the major chain stores, through advertisements, directly to independent booksellers, and via fax, e-mail, or telephone, just to name a few options. This variety makes them accessible to audiences in a whole new way. As self-publishing becomes more common and more commercial, it's losing its stigma and more people are viewing it as a viable option, not just a last resort.

  So why choose to self-publish? Self-publishing can allow you to get your book out to your audience even if you don't find success in the traditional marketplace. It can offer reward for all your hard work as you see your words in print for the first time. Increasingly, authors are also turning to self-publishing to keep a higher degree of control in the publishing process. Working under contract with a publishing house demands a lot of compromise, and many times you have no leeway to fight things that might seem unfair. For example, I might think that devoting a huge slice of a publishing house's marketing budget to Madonna, who is already a superstar and does not need the publicity, and whose books received overwhelmingly bad reviews, is unfair to writers who are working hard to turn out quality literature in their chosen field. (Just an example ... hypothetically, of course.) But as one author on a publisher's list I have no say in where they invest their money. Some people would rather handle the publication, cover design, and distribution of their books on their own with no one else to answer to in terms of content or marketing decisions. Self-publishing can also offer more security since publishing houses tend to be bought and sold, and editors move from house to house frequently, abandoning books and stalling the careers of aspiring authors.

  If you do decide to self-publish, I would warn you about a few things. First, do your research. As with anything, you want to make sure the company you choose is reputable. If you choose to handle the printing and distribution yourself, you want to be sure you really have the time, energy, and resources to handle this task. If you don't know anyone who has self-published his work, ask your local bookstore owner if she does, or join one of the many online chat rooms where authors converse on forums about every topic under the sun. Forums might seem intimidating if you've never posted on one before, but they're a great way to gather anecdotal information. You should also look for books on the subject such as The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Tom and Marilyn Ross or Dan Pointer's Self-Publishing Manual.

  Second, since you're trying to reach teenagers, you must take into consideration the fact that a huge percentage of YA sales come from schools and libraries that usually buy their books from traditional publishing sources. They often make their choices about what to buy based on major review publications such as Booklist, The Horn Book, and Kirkus Reviews, and these publications may not be receptive to self-published books. Since there are so many titles competing for review attention and for bookshelf space, you'll have a difficult time breaking into these important teen markets if you self-publish. Ask yourself if you'll really be able to reach the number of teens you desire using your own marketing plan. Do you have the time and the personal connections to coordinate school and library visits to sell your book? Will a Web site be enough to convince a teenager to take a chance on buying your book?

  Finally, the paths of traditional publishing and self-publishing do not mix very well. Many people mistakenly see self-publishing as an "in" with agents and editors. Their logic is that once the agent or editor sees their manuscript as a real book, typeset and bound, it will be that much easier to see its potential. If you could pay 199 dollars to guarantee your book would be taken seriously in a competitive situation, wouldn't you do it?

  Unfortunately, it doesn't really work this way. Agents and editors know their jobs very well, and what they're interested in is content. No amount of clever packaging is going to make them buy your book if it isn't what they're looking for. If anything, self-publishing can work against you. Although the stigma against self-publication is diminishing in the marketplace, it's still occasionally present in the slush pile. You don't want an editor or agent's first thought upon picking up your book to be: "I bet this made the submission rounds already and got rejected by everyone and that's why the author self-published it."

  Many agencies and publishing houses have very strict guidelines for submissions of manuscripts, and these are almost always unbound, Times New Roman 12-point font, double-spaced, black ink on white paper. By submitting something in a different format, you're not only failing to gain an advantage; you might be giving someone a reason to return your book unread.

  If an agent or editor does read your self-published book and likes it, you'll have questions to answer that you wouldn't have had to answer otherwise. During my time at Curtis Brown, Ltd., we sold one self-published book, in part due to the fact that the author had obtained an advance quote from a best-selling author, and in part because he'd had phenomenal success selling the book through local stores. Of course, it was also a fabulous story. However, the question of sales figures was an issue right from the beginning. Publishers wanted to know how many copies he'd already sold, and there was a fine line between impressing them with numbers large enough but not scaring them away by having cut down on their potential sales by already reaching too large a percentage of the audience. Generally speaking, publishers want to start fresh.

  Remember, self-publishing is not an "in" to traditional publishing. It is an alternative pathway for your books to meet an audience. If you feel certain that your book is ready to be published, but you can't find the right publishing house, or if you just feel like you could do a better job publishing it on your own, it's an increasingly accessible option that more and more authors are making work for them. Just be sure you have a solid marketing plan so your freshly bound book can find its way into the hands of teen readers.

  SMALLER PUBLISHING HOUSES

  In between the option of self-publishing and selling your book to a major publishing house, there's another option that many people overlook. This is selling your work to a smaller, independent publishing house. Small presses generally publish fewer titles per year and have smaller print runs than larger publishing houses. The terms "small" and "independent" are often used interchangeably, but independent actually refers to the fact that a publishing house is not part of a conglomerate.

  There are many such small and independent publishing houses available once you start looking. In fact, according to the Small Press Center (http://www.smallpress.org/) there are an estimated seventy thousand! They range from very tiny houses that might only publish a couple titles a year to renowned publishing houses that, although they have limited lists, are quite well known.

  But how many of those presses publish books for teens? Good question. Writing YA definitely cuts down on the number of small publishing houses that will be interested in publishing your book; however, according to SCBWI's Small Press Markets Guide, there were over seventy small presses that responded positively when asked if they'd be open to receiving unsolicited submissions from SCBWI members. Of those, many publish books for teens. If you'd like to access this list you can find it at http://www.scbwi.org/, but you'll need to bean SCBWI member first. If you're not an SCBWI member you can use the Internet to find the guidelines and descriptions for most small presses.

  Whether you're reviewing a list such as the one provided by SCBWI or doing your own research, you'll notice that many smaller houses are niche publishers. They may focus on one type of material or subject matter, so they're able to do a very thorough job of covering a chosen field—often filling gaps in traditional publishing lists. Examples might include houses that exclusively publish Christian books; exclusively gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender-related titles; or books that take place in a certain geographical area, such as Southwestern books, or titles that take place in New England. You'll also find many nonprofit small presses that publish political books. Although admittedly it's harder to find teen categories within thes
e niches, they do exist and sometimes can be exactly the right home for your novel.

  One of the biggest advantages to being published by a small press is finding a place for a book that falls outside traditional publishing boundaries. Perhaps your manuscript keeps getting rejected and you suspect it's because your work tackles a subject that falls between the cracks in larger publishing houses. Turning your attention to smaller presses might allow you to find your perfect match—a publisher that not only appreciates your work but also knows who to market it to. Their print run might be smaller, but they might be able to get your book into the hands of the exact teens who will most love to read it.

  PRINT-ON-DEMAND AND E-BOOKS

  It's worth mentioning both print-on-demand publishing and e-books, although these fields are rapidly changing, and at the present time I wouldn't recommend either as a path to self-publication. Print-on-demand is a type of technology where single copies of a book are printed as orders are received rather than producing an entire print run. E-books are the electronic versions of books, downloaded to and read from portable electronic reading devices. Both of these publishing venues are discussed often, sometimes being touted as the future of publishing, but both still have serious drawbacks.

  Print-on-demand books tend to have higher cover prices, making them more difficult to sell, but more disturbingly, authors don't always control the rights to their books. Instead, they receive a royalty on each book sold while the publisher holds exclusive or nonexclusive rights to their titles. This is something to be aware of. If you are self-publishing, then you should control the rights to your book. No exceptions.

  E-books present a different type of rights issue. This time, it might not be the publisher infringing on your rights, it might be your customers. As of now, e-books can easily be copied and/or illegally downloaded, cutting down on your profits. They also require expensive reading devices that prohibit many potential readers from accessing them. Most teens probably don't own an e-book reader and are unlikely to spend the money on one just to download your book.