Ally Carter

Author

JOIN ALLY'S MAILING LIST

About Money

by 3 Comments

Hi, all!

Ally here again to continue my series of blog posts about Things I’ve Learned in the Past Ten Years, because, as you know, this December will mark my ten year “publiversary”, so I’ve been thinking a lot about all the things that a-decade-ago-me didn’t quite understand yet. And so this is me trying to pass some knowledge along.

Today is a hard one–but an important one: money.

No. I’m not going to talk about how to make pots of it. I’m going to talk about what you should do with what you’ve got.

If there is one business management mistake I see a lot of writers make early in their careers, it’s that they don’t quite know how money works for writers. After all, many of us come from “day jobs” where we fill out a W-2 and file taxes every April. Most of us get something deposited into our checking accounts every other week or so. Most of us have business expenses that greatly resemble the business expenses of 85% of the people we know.

And then we becomes writers. If we’re lucky, we’re even writers who are earning writing income.

TYPES OF WRITING INCOME
If you’re traditionally published (probably meaning an agent has sold your book(s) to one of the big New York publishing houses as opposed to you putting something up for yourself onto someplace like Amazon.com) then you will likely earn an “advance”.

The ADVANCE means “advance against royalties.” This means the publisher is giving you some money up front to secure the right to publish the work.

For the sake of simple math, let’s assume the advance is $10,000. The book’s cover price is $10 and your royalty rate is 10%. (Note, these numbers are made up just to make the math easy. Real advances and royalty rates cover the gamut and are far more complex.)

So given the above, you’re earning royalties at the rate of $1 per book.  ($10 x .10 = $1)

But since the publisher has already paid you $10,000, you won’t earn any additional money until that book “earns out”, aka sells 10,001 copies. As soon as that happens, the publisher will owe you $1.

 

COMMISSION
Now, those of you who will be traditionally published will most likely be using a literary agent, and that agent is going to get a cut of whatever you earn. Don’t worry. This is money well spent. The industry standard is %15. (Not including sub rights sales like film and foreign rights. Those are higher.)

Commission will come off the top, and you won’t have to worry about cutting your agent a check. In fact, I have never written my agent a check for anything she did as my agent. She works entirely, 100% on commission, which is the way it is supposed to work.

TAXES
Now, the first thing you need to do is realize that your writing income is NOT like your day job income. For starters, (in publishing) no one is holding back taxes from this money. So even though you might get a check for $10,000 you’re not going to get to keep it. Nope you need to figure out what tax bracket you’re likely to be in and then set that money aside.

SELF-EMPLOYMENT TAXES
Yep. It’s not enough just to set aside income taxes (both state and federal), you’re also going to get the self-employment tax whammy, so be sure you find out what that will be in your instance and set that aside as well. (note: this is the one that surprises almost everyone!)

QUARTERLY TAXES
Once you start earning this income Uncle Sam is going to want his cut, and he’s not going to want to wait until April to get it. For that reason, most self-employed people pay their taxes four times a year (April, June, September, and January).

For all of the above reasons, I highly recommend you find a good account or CPA to work with–at least initially–because this is uncharted territory for most people, and tax penalties and fines can easily eat up all of your income if you’re not careful. If you can at all afford it, get professional help with this as soon as income starts rolling in.

 

I hope this doesn’t scare you too much!

(But, seriously, pay your taxes!)

Ally

 

 

 

The Book That Almost Killed Me

by 4 Comments

Hello, everyone!

Ally here! As those of you who follow me on twitter might have seen a week or two ago, I just realized that this December will be my ten year Publiversary! Yep. My very first novel (which is now out of print and very hard to find, sorry) came out almost ten years ago.

I’ve been thinking for a while now of what I might do to mark the occasion, and I’ve got some ideas for something I think you guys are really going to like. But that’s going to take a little while to bring into fruition.

In the meantime, I’m going to try really, really hard to write something every week between now and December–something about the lessons I have learned in the past ten years.

Today we’re going to start with some of the biggest lessons of all, and they’re all lessons that I learned because of CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY.

AKA: the book that almost killed me.

Now Cross My Heart was an incredibly important book for me for a lot of reasons. It was the first book of mine to hit the New York Times bestseller list. It was the book that, when it was released, I was able to quit my day job (more on that in a bit). And, most of all, Cross My Heart is the favorite Gallagher Girls book of a whole lot of readers.

But I can never understand why because writing that book was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

Why was it so hard? Well, a number of reasons, actually:

 

1. Sequels are hard.
They Just Are.

I mean it. Sequels are, in my opinion/experience, the hardest thing a writer can try to do.  (And I’m not alone on this–a lot of authors agree with me.)

I think this is because writing a sequel is the process of trying to write something that is exactly the same but totally different.

A reader will pick up a second book because they want to duplicate the experience he/she had while reading the first. But you can’t actually give them the same book! No. They would rake you over the coals for that.

So they want the exact same experience but from . . . a totally different experience.

See why this is hard?

2. Personal stuff
At the time I was working on Cross My Heart I still had my day job and was just burning the candle at both ends. I wasn’t able to take care of myself and the pressure was just too much. But then I was able to quit my day job, and things got a lot more manageable, I’m happy to say.

So I guess the take-away lesson from #2 is simple: take care of yourself!

3. Plot vs. Premise
From a craft standpoint, this was probably the biggest lesson that Cross My Heart taught me.

I remember well the conversation I had with my editor at the time, Donna Bray.

“What do you want to do for the sequel?” Donna asked.

“Well, you know that little throw-away line in book one about how Tina Walters thinks there’s a boys’ school in Maine? I want to do something with the boys’ school in Maine,” I said.

“That’s what I was going to ask you to do!” Donna cried.

And thus the Blackthorne Academy was born and Cross My Heart began.

It was a great idea for a book. The problem was it wasn’t a plot for a book.

“Spy boys start attending an all girls spy school” is a set-up, a premise. From that you get three or four scenes.

–girls wondering why adults are being cagey

–boys arriving

–girls freaking out

–boys and girls clashing

–girls getting used to boys being there

And…then what?

It took me MONTHS of writing and rewriting to figure this out.  I wrote three totally different versions of the book with totally different “plots”. I have a “scraps” file of deleted scenes that is twice as long as the finished novel.

They had to push the publication of the book back six months and my health went to pot because I didn’t know the difference between plot and premise.

Never again.

4. What goes on the back of the book is just as useful to the person writing the book as it is to the person buying the book.

You know the stuff on the back of the book or inside the flap cover of a hardback? You know those two or three paragraphs that tell you, the reader, what this book is about (generally) and might help you decide whether or not to pick it up?

Well, thanks to Cross My Heart I learned that I can’t really write a book until I know what’s going to go on its cover.

All authors are different! All books are different. But, for me, if I can’t come up with two or three very general paragraphs that summarize what the central conflict of a story is going to be then I’m not yet ready to write that story.

Again, your mileage will vary. Some authors sit down with maybe just a scene in their head–maybe a character or a line of dialogue or an image. Some will sit down with an eighty page outline that they’ve been working on for months.

Me? I’m somewhere in the middle. I need to know how I’m going to talk about the story before I have any business writing a word of it.

And that right there folks is what I learned from THE BOOK THAT ALMOST KILLED ME.

Ally

 

Baking Soda and the Art of Book-to-Film Adaptations

by 5 Comments

So this is something I’ve been thinking about writing for a long time. At least a year. Maybe longer. Probably longer. And I’ve decided to write this now because John Green’s PAPER TOWNS opens this weekend, and I’m extremely excited for John and about the movie. Also because the “John Green Hollywood experience” has been on my mind a lot lately.

It never ceases to amaze me how much the book-to-film process both captures the public’s fascination and confuses the heck out of people.

If you write a book – any book – you will hear every day that “you should make a movie out of your book!”

The truth is, most authors dearly want a movie based on their books.

Sometimes because we love movies, but usually because we love money. And there is no greater way of increasing book sales and overall brand awareness than a movie being made and then advertised around the world.

I’ve gotten this question so many times that several years ago I wrote this post that describes how the book-to-film process works. Sure, it’s a few years old now, but it’s just as true today as it was then. So if you’re confused or just interested to see how and why books get turned into films, go read that first.

If there is one thing that authors hear more than “you should make your book into a movie” it is “you should make sure that, if your book becomes a movie, they don’t ruin it.”

Setting aside the fact that no film adaptation has ever changed one word of a novel–that the novel is and will always be the same– today I’m going to try to address a far more delicate topic: not how movies are made, but how GOOD movies are made.

 

Disclaimer: everything is relative

The first thing that makes this difficult, of course, is that “good” is a relative term. There are movies that I hated that other people loved. And vice versa.

Another factor is that sometimes movies are good because they stayed true to the book. Sometimes they’re bad for that same reason. Sometimes the result is a movie that isn’t true to the book but is good anyway—it’s just a different kind of good than the book is.

 

Newsflash: Books and movies are different

Overall, the first thing that everyone needs to know and remember and remind themselves of daily is that BOOKS AND MOVIES ARE DIFFERENT CREATIVE MEDIUMS.

Someone (I don’t know who) once said that “making a movie out of a book is like making a song out of a painting”. It’s not exactly that. But it’s pretty darn close.

So they’re going to be different.

– Books are longer and can cover more ground.
– Books can go into a character’s head.
– Books have unlimited budgets.

And what is, in my opinion, the biggest difference of all:

– Books only have to please two people: the author and the editor.

But because movies are so incredibly expensive (THE FAULT IN OUR STARS was considered a bargain with a pricetag of $12 million), there are a lot of people keeping tabs on that money. So there are a lot of people you have to please. And that makes the process more difficult. It just does.

Now, not a lot of readers get that. And, furthermore, not all authors get that. But most of us do.

I know that watching a movie won’t be like reading the audiobook—I’m not going to be able to open to page one and read along. That would make for a terrible movie.

But I think that when Hollywood adaptations go off the rails it is because this point – this “books and films are by their very definition different” point – gets misconstrued.

Because if there is one thing that anyone who pays attention to film adaptations will tell you, it’s that not all changes are equal.

 

Baking soda is not baking powder

I love to cook and, especially, to bake. I was raised by perhaps the World’s Best Cook. (It’s true. Everybody says so.)

And growing up out in the country thirty miles from the nearest Wal-Mart my mother taught me early on that you’re not always going to have what you need in the pantry.

If a cookie recipe calls for pecans and all you have is walnuts? Fine! If it calls for M&Ms and you’ve got chocolate chips? Well, that might work.

But only a fool would substitute baking soda for baking powder.

Why? Because that changes the chemistry and will throw the whole thing off whack and out of balance.

Good book-to-film adaptations know the difference between Baking Soda Changes and Walnut Changes. They know better than to mess with the chemistry.

I’ve probably discussed this with at least fifty authors.  (I wouldn’t be surprised if the number is closer to 100.) And I’ve worked with some of the smartest people in Hollywood. And without a doubt the hardest part of adapting a novel is watching out for the Baking Soda Changes. (Not that anyone else uses that term. Yet.)

 

What is a Baking Soda Change?

This is where it gets hard, folks.

I wish I could say that the chemistry of a story is based entirely on, for example, character, and any change to anything about a character will be a Baking Soda Change.

Except… that’s not true.

It’s not a secret that when HEIST SOCIETY was under option at Warner Brothers they intended to age the characters up from their teens into their early twenties. (Read a full post on that topic here.)

In my opinion, for those characters and that story, that was a Walnut Change.

Why? Because Kat was always an old soul inside a teenager’s body. Her character arc wasn’t going to be affected by that change. If anything, it might have been a little more poignant, because I remember being 22 or 23 and having everyone still treat me like a kid – sometimes still feeling like a kid. But I knew that I wasn’t, and so I was straddling two worlds in that way.

Now, am I saying that I think aging characters up is always a Walnut Change? NO. No. N-O.

I mean, seriously, I do not think that. At all.

In fact, in most cases I do think it’s probably a Baking Soda change, especially the younger the characters are in the book.

After all, a sixteen-year-old is in many ways far more similar to the person they are going to be at twenty-one than the person they were at eleven. Plus, oftentimes the plots of the books don’t make sense if a tween is involved vs. a teen vs. a twenty-something.

For example, I can forgive eleven-year-old Harry Potter for going after Professor Quirrell and not telling a teacher what was up far more easily than I could forgive a sixteen-year-old Harry for making that same call.

I guess the key question is this: “Will this change impact other aspects of the story?”

Will this change the chemistry?

“We found a great young actress for Hermione but she doesn’t need braces.”
—Walnut Change

“We decided to set Hogwarts in Ireland instead of Scotland.”
–Walnut Change (an unnecessary change, but a Walnut Change nonetheless)

“We decided to give Harry a spunky kid brother because there was a kid brother in Jurassic World and everyone loves a kid brother.”
–Baking Soda Change

 

Why Baking Soda Changes Happen

In most instances, people don’t know they’re making a Baking Soda change. And no one – I do mean no one – sets out to make a bad movie.

I think that mostly they are honest mistakes made by well-intentioned people who just don’t foresee the consequences.

There is a domino effect to Baking Soda Changes. That is actually their defining factor. Baking Soda Changes multiply and carry on, and people often don’t see it until it’s too late.

This is why I think the first rule of book-to-film adaptations should be simple: first, do no harm.

One of the most sought-after screenwriting teams in Hollywood right now is Michael Weber & Scott Neustadter who did the adaptations of Fault and Paper Towns. Now, I don’t know them—have never met them. But I’m going to guess that this rule is pretty important to them (and also the producers and studio execs who are giving them notes on John’s projects), and that is why those adaptations are incredibly good. Not just true to the book—but good.

Make no mistake, there are a lot of cooks in a movie’s kitchen. Everyone gives notes. Everyone wants to see their idea make it onto the screen. And that makes for a lot of potential places where the chemistry can get way out of whack.

 

So Why Do Authors Let This Happen?!

Power.

Clearly, all of the examples here are ludicrous because no one was ever going to mess with Harry Potter in any of those ways. Why? Because it was Harry-Freaking-Potter.

It had the largest fandom the world had ever known, and that meant two things.

  1. We don’t want to tick them off.
  2. Millions of people are obsessed with this. Something here might be working.

But no book franchise will ever have power like that again. Few even come close.

Those who do – those mega franchises like Twilight, Hunger Games, and the John Green novels – result in film adaptations that are likely to follow the books fairly closely because studios are afraid of what will happen if they don’t. But at any given time there are maybe ten authors on the planet with that kind of power.

So what about authors/books that don’t have that kind of power?

Some will be fortunate enough to work with people who want to hear what the creator has to say, to get feedback from the people who know that readers are essentially a focus group that has been going on for years and sometimes include millions of fans.

Some will not be that fortunate.

All an author can do is carefully choose who we get into bed with and hope that they really, truly get the story and the characters and the world and how all of these things work with each other — that they understand the book’s chemistry.

After all, books and films are different.

But, ultimately, it is the kind of different that matters.

 

 

 

Cliffhangers vs. Game Changers (and the ending of ALL FALL DOWN)

by 10 Comments

So ever since ALL FALL DOWN (Embassy Row 1) came out a few weeks ago, I’ve been hearing a lot of people talk about the massive “cliffhanger” that the book ends on.

Except … To be perfectly honest, it isn’t a cliffhanger.

A cliffhanger means that characters are in imminent peril (hanging off a cliff). I can even go with those who say a cliffhanger means that a book/movie/tv episode ends at a point of maximum suspense with the central questions of that book/film/tv episode being unanswered.

I am not opposed to cliffhangers—and I don’t see the term as an insult! But I do think that ”cliffhanger” might be the most misunderstood and misused term in all of fiction. (Beaten only possibly by “Mary Sue”.)

After all, there are people who still complain that I ended the Gallagher Girls on such a “cliffhanger” because we don’t know if Zach and Cammie got married, had kids, what those kids names were and if the kids went to Gallagher or Blackthorne.

So to a lot of people, “cliffhanger” means “there is something—anything—that I as the reader do not know”.

Well, if those are your standards then, I’m sorry, probably every book you’ll ever read for the rest of your life will be a “cliffhanger”.

Where I think a lot of people get confused by the term is when the core plot line of that book is wrapped up and then the author—or storyteller—chooses to introduce something that will alter the plot lines of future stories.

So, for example:

Harry Potter has just competed in the TriWizard tournament. We know how his name got into the Goblet of Fire. We know how he survives. We know who dies. But…at the end of the book Voldermort gets a body. So we also know that the world in which Harry lives is going to be very different from now on.

Is The Goblet of Fire a cliffhanger? No. Does it end in a way that makes you eager and anxious for the next book? You bet!

But that, my friend, is not a Cliffhanger. It is a Game Changer. And I love them so, so very much.

Is the world that Grace encounters in book 2 going to be a different world? Yes. Will she have different worries, questions, and fears? Yes. But for the central question of book one: did the Scarred Man kill Grace’s mother? We have a clear, undeniable answer, and Grace is not in imminent peril. So, no. Not a cliffhanger.

I can understand why some people are confused. After all, you’d better believe I want people eager, anxious, and excited for book two. But to be technical about it, that’s because of book one’s GAME CHANGER.

I’ve been doing this for a while now, and this is what I’ve learned: to keep a series fresh, every now and then you have to change the game. I don’t want to write the same story over and over and over again.

And I am VERY excited for all of you to see what lies in store for Grace in book two.

(Oh and if you think the “cliffhanger” at the end of book one is bad? *evil laugh*)

-ALLY

PS: please no spoilers in the comments. I know a lot of people haven’t had a chance to read it yet!

Letter to Baby Author Me…revisited

by 8 Comments

Hi everyone!

Doing a retro-throwback post today!

Because, you see, in a few weeks I’m going to be giving a speech at the Day of YA Pre-Conference at the Romance Writers of America Convention in San Antonio.

(And, don’t forget, I’ll also be signing in San Antonio on July 23. If you live in the area, please come by!)

So that has got me to thinking about this post that I wrote a couple of years ago. It was true then. It’s true now.

And I hope you like it!

Ally

STUFF I WOULD (AND WOULDN’T) TELL BABY AUTHOR ME IF I COULD GO BACK IN TIME:

A list by Ally Carter

-First and foremost, it is going to be okay.  And, by the way, “it” will totally vary.

Maybe it’s sales or copyedits or titles or covers or co-op.  Whatever it is, it will not kill you.  It will not hurt the people you love.  It will not make you an unhappy person unless you give it the power to do so.  Do not give it that power.

-Very soon you will sell a book.  (Yay!)  But then you will become obsessed with promoting that book.  Don’t do it.  Sure, build a website, go to conferences and do the stuff if you ENJOY doing.

But, seriously, the thousands of dollars you’re getting ready to spend on playing cards and business cards and people who are supposed to help you “get your name out there”.  Don’t.  Just don’t.  Put that money into a savings account instead.  Even at less than 1% interest, you’ll get way higher returns there.

-Does that mean that an author shouldn’t try to promote his/her book?  No.  But understand that you can’t buy your way to the next rung on the ladder.  You can only buy the illusion that you’re helping your career.  But sometimes the illusion is valuable too.

-So what SHOULD you do if you’re not going to spend a six months making crappy playing cards and other things?  Write your next book, that’s what.  There’s a saying in this business:  nothing sells backlist like front list.  So get to writing some more front list.

-I know you don’t know anybody in this business now and that is a little scary.  But that’s okay.  You are a baby author.  You aren’t supposed to know anyone.

And that won’t always be the case.  Right now a whole new class of baby authors are being born and a lot of them are going to be your friends someday.  You are going to meet at conferences and book fairs and even a few online.  You will bond over copyedits and covers and deciding what shoes to wear to BEA.

Some people might say that making friends with these people is going to be good for your career.  It isn’t.  Making friends with these people is good for your life.

– People are getting ready to start telling you “You should make your book into a movie.”  You will hear it every day.  This does not make you special.  EVERY author hears this every day.  Get really, really good at answering (or ignoring) this question.

-And speaking of movies…chill.  Yes, you have wanted to be a screenwriter since you were an even babier author, and yes, you will have people contacting you and offering you money and working toward bringing your books to the screen.  Doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.  It is a huge, massive and very chaotic process.  And, most importantly, it’s not YOUR process.  All you can do is make more source material for Hollywood to play with, so by all means, do that.

-Don’t quit your day job.  Except when you’re finally ready to quit your day job.  Look, you’re going to be freaked out about something.  Either time or money.  You need to decide which worry you are best equipped to handle.

-Whatever you do, don’t get in the habit of doing ____ while you write.  Maybe it’s drinking Diet Coke or listening to music or wearing fuzzy socks.  Why?  Because there will come a day when don’t have your music or your fuzzy socks and you’ve realized that Diet Coke is rotting your teeth and then what are you going to do?

Basically, don’t let yourself get into bad habits.  Sure, writing is a lot more fun when you can do it with a box of donuts on your lap, but please don’t.  I’m still on the treadmill from your blasted donuts.

-Don’t judge yourself based on how other author’s careers are going.  Why?  Because 1. You don’t KNOW how their careers are going.  Some people have big reputations and moderate sales.  Some people fly under the radar and sell off the charts.  But, most of all, 2.  It doesn’t affect you.  It doesn’t change you.  All it can do is make you crazy, so do yourself a favor and don’t play that game.

-I’m not going to tell you what trends are coming (and, believe me, trends are getting reading to be a VERY big deal).  Why? Because I don’t think that’s best for you (and us) in the long-run.

This business is a marathon, NOT a sprint.  And, sure, in a few years books about vampires and dystopians and falling in love with supernatural creatures will be hot. But writing books just because they are (or are going to be) hot won’t make you happy.  Writing books you love will make you happy, so do that instead.

Oh, and those hot trends?  Eventually they are going to be cold.  But loving what you’re writing can last forever.  (And, believe it or not, there are some readers who do want funny or sweet or romantic books even if they have to swim against the genre current to find them.)

-And the biggest piece of advice I can give you is this: take a sheet of paper and write down five things that would make you really, really happy in your career.  Then write down five things that would be “best case scenario” things.  And lastly write five “in your wildest dreams” things.

Keep that list.  Remember that list.  Because in this business the finish line is constantly moving.  One day you really just want an agent.  Then it’s a book deal.  Then it’s a bestseller.  Then it’s a movie.  Then it’s a castle next to JK Rowling’s.

In short, appreciate things as they’re happening, remember that once upon a time that thing was a dream of yours and that it’s still a dream for someone.  So be grateful every day.

It’s a hard job.  But it’s also a good job.  And more than anything it’s YOUR dream job so try to keep everything in perspective.  Hopefully you and I will get to do this job for many years to come.

-Oh, and one last thing, Baby Author Ally …welcome to the yard, meat.

 

Another writing post–what Jen said

by 5 Comments

Hi all,

Another quick post today on the subject of writing and publishing and–more specifically–publishing at a very young age.

As many of you know, my BFF is Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Jen published her first novel when she was a teenager, and she writes very thoughtfully on the subject right here.

I highly recommend you read it. Especially if you’re someone who has made a goal like “I will publish a novel by the time I’m 18!”

I’m all for goals… But I do think that that particular type of goal is sometimes detrimental to a person’s happiness in the long-run.

And long-run happiness is the most important happiness of all.

So read Jen’s post. I highly recommend it.

Have a great one!

Ally

 

What Natalie said…

by 5 Comments

Hi everybody!

You know how sometimes I like to offer writing/publishing advice because I know a lot of you have that as a dream?  Well, today I want to point you to some most excellent advice and words-of-wisdom by author Natalie Whipple.

Really, it is GREAT STUFF. And those of you who are interested in this crazy business would do well to go read it. Right now.

-Ally

 

Ally’s advice for new writers

by 10 Comments

Last week you guys asked writing questions. This week I’m trying to provide writing answers.

In reading through all of the comments I found that, as usual, we had a lot of repeated questions dealing with…

-Writer’s block

-Character

-Organization

-The writing process

-Inspiration/dedication (which can often overlap with writer’s block)

When I went away to college and had to start cooking for myself, I would frequently call home and ask my mom for recipes. Now, my mom is a GREAT cook, but I soon learned that she has very few recipes. Especially for the dishes she makes all the time.

“How do you make chili?” I would ask.
“Oh, you know. You brown some ground beef, and then you make it,” Mom would say.

It’s not that my mom didn’t want me to make delicious chili for myself, it’s that she didn’t follow any sort of formula. She used what she had on hand and she played it by ear. Every batch of chili was a tiny bit different. She just…made chili.

Now, after years of cooking myself, I do the exact same thing.

I thought about this a lot when reading through your questions. So much of writing is just practice. You just sit down…and write. No formula. No rules. You learn by doing.

So do.

The other thing I noted is that A LOT of you had questions about making yourself write.

“I started a book but I don’t want to work on it….”
“I want to write but I can’t find the time….”
“I think a book would impress a college, but I don’t want to write one….”
Etc. Etc.

Okay. Tough love time: writing is a business. It is hard work. It is a job. And right now it is a job that you are not contractually obligated to do. So if you don’t have a burning desire to do it…THAT IS OKAY.

A lot of readers think they should also want to be writers. And, okay, being a writer is fun.

You know what sucks? Writing.

So I’m not going to tell you how to make yourself do it. If you aren’t chomping at the bit to do it, then maybe that is because it’s not what you are supposed to do. At least not now.

AND THAT IS OKAY!

Now…to your questions:

 

What is the publishing process? Just out of curiosity, what did you have to go through after editing?
As soon as Editor David and I are done working on Embassy Row people will continue to work on the book. It will go to a copyeditor who will proofread it for typos. Then it will be typeset to LOOK like a book. Then Scholastic will begin the promotion and marketing process. At that point my biggest responsibility will be writing Embassy Row 2.

 

Have you ever felt unconfident about your writing?
In my opinion, to be a writer is to be constantly unconfident in your writing. Truly. I know a lot of writers. And we all feel like it is just a matter of time until we are shown to be the frauds we are.

 

What methods do you use to plan out your books?
I have written about my entire process here. In this post. It is very long and very detailed and hopefully very helpful.

 

Do you think it’s a good idea for teens to get published when they’ve taken the time to edit and revise, and done their homework on publishing?
I cannot and will not try to tell you what is best for you. That is between you and your parents. But I can say that if one of my nieces had a book that they had been working on for years and that she was really proud of, then I would be really proud of her for having worked so hard on something for so long. I also would not push her to try to get it published.

Even if it was good. Even if it was really, really good.

Why? Because publishing is a business, and it’s brutal, and I would much rather the teen girls I care about spend that time in their lives being teenagers.

Not the only answer! But it is my honest answer. Publishing will always be there. They have the rest of their lives to have jobs.

 

How do you decide what goes in your synopsis and for the back cover of your book? In other words, how do you highlight what will happen in the plot but keep from giving away spoilers?
If you are writing back cover copy for potential readers to use you want to make sure you hook them with the premise and the plot and just a bit about the characters. But you’re right in that the big plot twists should remain a secret.

But if you’re writing a synopsis for a potential editor or agent to read then you DO want to include the whole plot, spoilers and all. The people who are looking to hopefully acquire the book need to know what they’re buying. And they need to be able to read it very quickly.

 

How hard is it to create your books “universe”. I know it is all set in the present day, but there is something’s you have to come up with. It that hard?
All novelists have to do some degree of world-building. Even if they aren’t creating a high fantasy world with really complex rules of magic or a dystopian society with a complicated backstory about how the government became evil.

Yes. I write in the (mostly) real, present-day world. But Gallagher isn’t like a normal school. So I had to ask myself how and why it was different. If a school like that really existed, then who would mow the grass and do the laundry and teach the classes and decide who can attend and who can’t?

For Embassy Row, we are in a real place (Europe), but in a fake city and country. So why does that city exist? Where is it? What is its economy like? Why was it founded there? Does it carry a lot of weight in global politics and, if so, why?

So, really, it’s about asking questions. It is about asking questions until that universe becomes real.

 

How much dialogue should a story have in general?
However much it needs. It depends on the story and the genre and, most of all, your voice. This is one of those things that you won’t know until you know. And it is impossible for somebody else to tell you.

 

You know how the slow parts of a book where you get to know the characters and not much is going on- are the really important parts because that’s what makes you love the characters so much? How do you get yourself to write those parts and not just skip to the action packed romantic exciting scenes?
Well, I happen to be of the opinion that you should cut out all the boring parts. True, not every scene should be a fight scene. Or a making out scene. But if there is a scene in your book you would rather skip over than read, then you should probably cut that scene. Or at least make it accomplish three or four things.

A lot of beginning writers labor under the illusion that you need a scene that shows the character and a scene that advances the plot and another scene that introduces the world and…

Fooey. I say you need one scene that does all of those things.

 

Recently, I’ve found that I really like the pacing of my stories at the beginning but that they slow down when I reach the middle. My question for you is, how do I keep my story interesting and energized during the sagging middle?
First of all, almost everyone hates middles. Second of all, shorten it up. I used to really actively try to stretch out my books because I felt like they needed to fit into some sort of mold. They don’t. So if you don’t have exciting stuff happening then maybe you don’t need those scenes at all. Chances are you don’t.

 

If someone doesn’t have too much time to write due to other activities (Sports, school, homework…etc), what would you say to them to help motivate them to write during that time?
You shouldn’t write because you have a lot of free time on your hands. You should write because you can’t NOT write. If it is something you don’t have the time to do, that is okay. It really is. I hear from a lot of teens that they don’t have time or a good idea or motivation or the desire to write. AND THAT IS OKAY. All that means is that maybe writing isn’t something you should be doing right now. You can always do it later. Or you can enjoy other activities. It doesn’t have to be something that every person who likes to read aspires to do.

 

When do you come up with the ending of a book? Is before you begin?
See the above re: my process.

 

How do you make the characters in your story believable?
You should always think about your characters as if they are real people. For secondary characters it can sometimes help to write a scene from their point of view–even if you don’t need it. You need to get comfortable in everybody’s head and think about everything from their perspective.

If they don’t feel real to you, then they won’t feel real to anybody else.

 

I guess that you most of the time have more than one idea in your head – how do you choose which one to write next?
It is important to do one idea at a time–especially when you’re starting out. As soon as the writing get hard (and it WILL) you will have another idea that you think sounds so much funnier and more exciting than the book you’ve been working on. Do not switch. Stick with it. Otherwise you will never have a finished book to show for all your work.

How do I decide what to do? Usually I run a few ideas by my friends and my agent and sometimes my editor. Also, there is usually an idea that haunts me more than the others–one I can’t get out of my system until I write it.

Embassy Row has been in my system for six years.

 

Do you keep your ideas in a notebook or in your head?
I do have notebooks for each book where I write down random things, but the big ideas I don’t have to write down really. Generally speaking, if the idea is GREAT then I won’t forget it. That is usually a sign it really is a great idea.

 

When you write a novel do you start from beginning to end or write different parts the piece it all together?
My process.

 

I know that a lot of authors know their characters really really well. I have heard that that J K Rowling had notebooks on Harry and others. But when I write stories I don’t really know my characters that well and when I try to “get to know them” I don’t really get anything….. Is that just something that comes with practice?
Every writer is different. Every book is different. For me, I know some things about the characters when I start, but I don’t know them nearly as well as I do when I finish. That is just something that comes with time.

 

How many hours a week do you spend writing? What tips do you have for ignoring daily distractions?
I write by inertia. When I’m at work I stay at work. When I’m at rest I stay at rest. This week I will probably write at least 60 hours. I only wish I were more efficient with that time.

 

After you finish a draft, who do you let read it? Only editors, family etc.?
My editor is almost always my first reader, followed by a few very trusted friends and then my mother (she is my #1 proofreader.)

 

When you get in a really bad writing block, do you take a break from the story or just push through it until it passes?
I almost always take a break, step away. Take a nap. See a movie. Call Jen Barnes. Or talk to my editor. That is usually the order in which I try things.

 

If you know where you want to go with the plot line of a story, but don’t know how to get there, is it better to write out the scenes you plan to include or is it better to just wait until you get there in the plot line of your writing?
My process.

 

My question is how do you decide how much of the facts (names of towns, names of famous people, etc) in the universe of your story are true and how much are fiction?
It can be whatever you want it to be. Or whatever it needs to be. This is, again, one of those things that WILL NOT have an answer. It will vary with every author and every book. You just have to roll your sleeves up and try stuff until you figure it out.

 

How do you find the perfect title and cover for your book?
For titles, I think about it a lot. I mean for weeks or even years. Sometimes, though, the perfect title just pops into your head. Sometimes you make lists of hundreds of titles and quiz everyone you know about which one is their favorite. It’s not science. It’s not art. It’s alchemy (to paraphrase my brilliant film agent Kassie Evashevski).

For the covers, luckily that isn’t up to me. My publisher does that and I am very glad to be free of the responsibility.

 

How do you start a book? I have the characters, setting and plot but I just don’t know where to start writing and similarly how do you write parts that don’t have directly to do with the main conflict?
Tell yourself this: computer files are free. Paper is cheap. There is no harm whatsoever in writing something you eventually cut. NONE. As someone (not me, though I can’t remember who) once said “Don’t get it right; get it written.” No go forth and write.

 

How do you sound like a guy in your books?
Writing is about putting yourself in situations and…well…bodies where you’ve never been before.

I’ve never robbed a museum in London. I’ve never broken into a Top Secret CIA facility or been tortured by terrorists. I have never had amnesia.

But it is my job to imagine what a person must feel like in each of those situations. It is my job to imagine being a million different people–including guys.

 

Whenever you get compliments for your work, you tend to worry about the next work and whether it will meet or beat the standards of readers. Do you keep that in mind while writing, and if you do how do you make sure it is better than your previous work.
As much as you want each book to be good, you want your next book to be BETTER. That is part of the business. Or maybe it is more a part of me. But, you’re right. It is hard. And it is just one more way in which I try to keep myself motivated.

 

Did you take any classes in school that you feel helped you with your writing?
No. I really didn’t. I had to take basic English in high school. Plus, my mother is an English teacher so grammar was drilled into me from a very early age. But I never took any classes on how to write books. I learned how by 1. reading a lot and 2. writing a lot.

 

How do you organize when your writing?
My process.

 

Would you recommend teen writers start posting their stories on wattpad or other websites like it? Especially if they want to turn the hobby into a career at some point in their lives?
I honestly know nothing about being an unpublished writer on the internet. Fanfiction. Wattpad. That stuff either didn’t exist or existed so far away from my radar that it might as well have not existed for me. So, in short, I don’t know. I do know that writing is good. And if having a following or a community on a place like Wattpad makes you write, then I guess that is good.
But do be sure and read the fine print of any website you may post to. You want to make sure that you maintain sole ownership over your work. Don’t ever give anyone your copyright.

Do you organize the plot on something like an outline before writing? Or do you just get a general idea of what you want and let the characters run wild?
My process.
What does it take to get your book published and out there?
I’ve written extensively about this many times. This post is a good place to start. Also by searching here (especially the For Writers tab in the sidebar.)

 

Do you have any advice on developing one small idea into a more complex plot?
Make the stakes bigger.
Make the stakes more personal.

What Beth said

by 19 Comments

Hi, everybody! And a happy Saturday to you all.

I know a lot of you out there are interested in writing. Well…not just writing. But BECOMING WRITERS.

And…see…not just writers but PUBLISHED AUTHORS.

And I’m pretty sure not just published authors but SUCCESSFUL, CAREER-HAVING MEGA AUTHORS.

Basically, I get the sense that a whole lot of you want to be Suzanne Collins. And you want to be Suzanne Collins right-freaking-now.

And, hey, I can’t blame you. Rarely a day goes by that I don’t want to write something like HUNGER GAMES.

But there is something that concerns me about all of this drive and ambition and impatience. You see, a lot of people out there want to do my job. But they seem to want to skip over the part where they learn how to do my job.

They don’t want to start and stop and restart a story two dozen times.
They don’t want to write 100,000 words no one ever sees.
They don’t want to fail, basically.

And, dude, I get it. No one likes failure! But that doesn’t mean failure doesn’t serve an incredibly important lesson in this business.

But don’t take my word for it.

Super awesome person and fabulous writer Beth Revis just posted this awesome blog entry on the subject.

If you want to be a writer, it is a must-read. So go read it. Go read it right now!

Ally