mamculuna | How one person got published

Has this ever been you:

Dunno... I guess before it didn't occur to me that I couldn't do it - write and publish a novel. Now it occurs to me that I might not be able to. That maybe I'm one of those people who constantly dreams about it and thinks about it but never gets there...

That was my nephew's girlfriend , writing over at Blogspot last year. Last week this was in Publisher's Weekly:

16 October, 2007
Children's:Young Adult
Carrie Ryan's THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, about an isolated village generations after the zombie apocalypse where a 16-year-old struggles with the town's religious order until the village walls are breached and the only chance of survival is to escape into the forest beyond, to Krista Marino at Delacorte, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, by Jim McCarthy at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.

Yup, that's her, getting plenty of $$ as a part of the deal. She's a fine writer, and it's a great book--but we all know plenty of those who aren't getting their stuff published. And watching how she got it done made me believe that it is possible, but doubt that I could do it her way--she's a really focused, self-disciplined person, and that's certainly not me! But for others who might have some of those qualities, here's what she did. And of course you know it already.

First, she scouted the markets to see what kind of thing was hot. She'd started writing romance-type things, pretty cute ones I thought. But they weren't moving. She finally zeroed in on Young Adult, horror type things. She went to conferences and schmoozed a bit (she's a delightful, outgoing person and very likable, in an honest way.) It helps that she's an attractive and successful young person herself (just moved on to another big job in her professional field, while doing all this). Because her job made her work xillion hours a week, she wrote early in the morning, all weekend, etc. Her boyfriend's a writer too, which helped (no one at home moaning that "you're still on the computer? Again?") She met agents and got some early chapters ready, and also had friends who were writers read and critique what she'd done. And then she sent it out. The idea was good, the chapters were good, and just like dominos--immediately several agents wanted her, and she picked one. As soon as the agent sent the ms to publishers, several of them wanted her, and she went with Delacorte.

Of course it's great that she writes well and has a really good idea, but to me the telling part is how she kept the book really focused on the kind of thing she thought would sell well, and how she kept herself focused on getting into the profession the right way.

If I ever get published, though, no one will credit my focus, for sure! My plots keep jumping genres, characters appear out of nowhere, and revisions turn into new departures. And I've done the making-it-in-the-profession thing as an academic and don't so much have the heart for it anymore (plus I'm not certain that meeting a person my age will encourage agents...) I could write a book about how not to be a writer.

But many, many cheers to her for showing how it can be done!