How BOT WARS sold

I announced Wednesday night on Twitter that my awesome ninja agent, Joanna, sold my middle grade novel, BOT WARS. So I thought I’d share a little more about how it came to be.

After ALTERED sold and before the editorial letter arrived, I wanted to work on something new. I wrote some pages of a YA fantasy. Then I wrote thirty pages that were loosely based on the life of one of the ALTERED villains.

But then, one night, in the mood for something totally different, I dug up an old Word document named Robot Wars.

I had written a paragraph of this story over a year ago. Long before ALTERED was ever an idea. But that’s as far as I got. One paragraph was all I had. I didn’t even know what was supposed to happen in the story, or who the characters really were, or what caused the Robot Wars in the first place.

I had always loved the voice of the main character, Trout, and I knew someday I wanted to tell his story. So I started playing around with it, and before I knew it, I had close to 40 pages.

I sent an email to one of my good writer friends, Deena, saying, “Can you read some of this MG I’m working on and tell me whether or not it sucks?” Thankfully, Deena not only read the pages, she was also extremely encouraging and kind with her words. So I emailed Joanna and asked if she’d take a look. I think I might have said something like, “I have this MG I’m working on and I don’t know if it’s any good or not, so would you be willing to read to tell me if I’m crazy?”

We already had a scheduled phone call the next night for something ALTERED related, and during that phone call, Jo told me she wanted to shop BOT WARS. I worked on the submission package and we officially went out with it in June. Eight days later, I had a phone chat with Kate Harrison at Dial where I rambled about my ideas for Book #2.

That Friday, we had an offer. In that same phone conversation, I also found out about the German offer for ALTERED. It was a crazy amazing day. I will never, ever forget it. My boss told me to go home early, and while her reason was simply that she was happy for me, I think she worried I could not be trusted to accurately count money.

Jo and I talked deal points that night and we agreed that Dial was a fantastic place to be and that Kate was an amazing editor to work with. So I think I squeeed and said, “YAAAYYYY! I accept! I accept!”

The following Tuesday, it was official. BOT WARS was going to be a Dial/Penguin book!

And just a few weeks later, I put in my notice at the day job. My last day at the bank was July 18^th.

If you had told me a year ago that I’d be writing full-time, that I’d have five books under contract, I would have laughed and said, “That’s crazy. You’re crazy. Those are pipe dreams, my friend.”

But I am here and I am doing those things. So if you’re still writing, if you’re unagented, unpublished, whatever stage you’re at, remember so much can change in such a short amount of time. Don’t dwell on what you don’t have, consider what may come in the next week, the next month, the next year. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating---If you quit today, you’ll never find out if tomorrow is the day everything will change.

From Sub to Pub 3

That first week on submission was easy. Because I wasn’t really expecting to hear much. Editors have to read the book, and from my understanding, they almost always send it off to a second reader if they liked it. And that takes time.

The second week, however, I started haunting the Internet and Verla Kay’s message board looking for inspirational and encouraging posts. Hearing what other writers went through during submissions helped a lot. Some waited just a few days for the first offer. Others waited months. Some didn’t even get offers. And I had to remind myself that what happened was totally out of my control. It would either sell, or it wouldn't, and I would deal.

Some part of me believed wholeheartedly that Altered would sell. But the larger part of me just couldn’t accept the fact that any of this was really happening. As any writer knows, rejections are expected. You play this game long enough and you almost brainwash yourself into thinking that it’ll never happen. You work so hard---you ignore your family, you pay your water bill late because you can‘t concentrate on anything other than plot twists, you gain five pounds and drink far too many bottles of wine---only to be told no.

So when it finally does happen, for lack of a better phrase, you freak the hell out.

We got our first offer February 11^th. And I was the sickest I’ve been in a long time. I knew Altered was going to acquisitions that day. But I couldn’t seem to stay awake long enough to marry my cell phone or burn a hole through my browser refresh button.

Jo called sometime after four to tell me the good news. I’m not entirely sure what I said in that conversation. I know I didn’t scream because I couldn’t get my voice that high. I know there was mention of abs and hot guys and then Jo told me to get some rest and we hung up. And then I passed out for another four hours.

It took me almost six days to get better. Of all the times to catch the flu! It should have been the best time of my life! Instead, I alternated between ecstatic and comatose.

But, thankfully, by the following Friday, when we got our second offer, I was well enough to squee. And squee I did.

Altered went to auction the following Wednesday. When all was said and done, I felt like Little, Brown was the right publisher for me. And when I talked to Julie on the phone the following day, it only solidified my decision. I never gave much thought to how passionate my future editor would be (would have to be) in order to take my book on, and Julie had passion in spades. I walked away from that phone call glowing.

Altered was going to be published. It was going to be released in the wild. It really was happening.

So for anyone out there still writing, querying, or on submission, even if it feels like you'll never hop the fence to the other side --- the side we've convinced ourselves is far greener --- know that it can, and it will happen. :)

And that concludes my Sub to Pub posts. J

From Sub to Pub 2

There was a lot of angst in those early days after Joanna offer. From what I’m told, this is pretty standard for writers. Agent offers. Writer shrieks. Celebrates. Writer sits around for a day or two wondering if maybe Agent made a mistake. Picturing Agent rereading manuscript and hating it. Picturing Agent typing up a I’ve-changed-my-mind email and hitting SEND.

But seriously, Joanna was nothing but sweet and kind and patient with me that first week or two (and she still is!). Writers are a special breed, and I think it takes a certain kind of person to deal with us.

Once I accepted her offer, we started talking revisions. She already had a lot of her ed-letter written before we were official, so I didn’t have to wait long. Her ideas were spot-on and I could see a whole new version of Altered taking shape. It would be bigger and better and faster paced. I couldn’t wait to start.

But at the same time, I was terrified. What if I started hacking at the manuscript only to make it worse?

I took a few days to think the notes over. And it helped. After that, the revision didn’t seem so bad. The ideas were clearer. I knew exactly what I needed to fix and add to make the book better.

I was anxious to finish, but Joanna said something early on that stuck with me. This was probably one of the few times I’d be working freely, without a deadline. “So take your time,” she said. And as much as I wanted to submit Altered Now-Now-Now, I took her advice.

I started the revision mid-October and sent it back to her December 3^rd. She read and gave the thumbs-up. Since we'd decided to hold off till after the holidays to submit, we took the rest of the month to work on line-edits and Book #2 and #3 synopses.

We officially went out on submission January 18^th. And so began the longest days of my life.

From Sub to Pub 1

As I said in a previous post, I didn’t set out to write Altered. I wasn’t even aware I was writing it until it was halfway done. I think the story was partially inspired by Jason Bourne, because I love that movie, and that boy, something fierce. And I wanted to tell the story from the girl’s perspective. What if you knew someone like Jason Bourne? No memories, but a total badass? And what if you loved that boy so much you’d do anything for him?

Much of Altered’s conflict came after the characters. I wasn’t really sure for most of the book what I was doing, but that IS how I work. I just wing it! Thankfully, that’s what revisions are for---cleaning up the wing.

The first draft was finished in about six or seven weeks, and then I spent the next month revising using feedback from critiques.

And this is where the fun stuff begins.

I posted the Altered query letter on Verla Kay’s message board hoping for some feedback. And what I got was much better. I use two different emails, one for family and writer friends and one for submissions. I received an email in my unofficial inbox with the subject ALTERED from a name I didn’t immediately recognize.

The email was from an agent who saw my query letter on the blueboard and was interested in taking a peek at the beginning pages. To say that I hyperventilated would be an inadequate description of what really happened.

It was more like I flailed and grinned and eeked and messed up a lot of work at the day job because I couldn’t focus.

An agent contacted me!! It’s supposed to be the other way around!

I rewrote the first chapter that day. And I’m so glad I did.

After sending the requested material to that agent, I knew it was time to start the submission process. I’d been sitting on Altered for what seemed like forever (but was more like a week or so) afraid to send it into the world. Afraid that it wasn’t The One. That it would fail like every other book I’d written and submitted.

But it didn’t.

I sent out nine queries over the next few days. I got three partial requests and two full requests. All three partials turned into fulls. I received two rejections and immediately sent out two more queries. One of those turned into a full.

By the end of that same week, Joanna had offered representation. Almost immediately I felt like she was the perfect agent for me and I was right. :)

To be continued!