Jennifer Echols's Blog, page 12

The 411 on Endless Summer

First of all, more lovely news: Going Too Far has gone back for a 9th printing, and a 10th printing is planned for April in preparation for summer sales. If you're in the market for Going Too Far or Forget You and you've had trouble finding them in Barnes & Noble, now you will find a flood of copies. (In Birmingham I just signed copies at Patton Creek.) I really appreciate your support of these books.

In other happy news, it's spring here in Alabama! The trees are blooming beautifully, the birds are chirping, and thunderstorms are on the way. And the warm weather puts me in the mood for my summertime duo The Boys Next Door and Endless Summer. A lot of you have had questions about the publication of these books, so I thought I'd clarify a few things.

Though let me say this first. A lot of your questions are phrased like, "Why did you publish the book this way?" or "Why did you choose this cover?" Please understand that authors published by large New York publishers generally have very little say in sales, marketing, or publicity decisions, and that includes titles, covers, the format of the book, and where you can find it for sale. Also, when publishers make these decisions, they will probably tell the authors eventually, but their priority is selling books, not keeping the authors informed. And that's why I don't always have good answers to your questions.

Why can't I buy Endless Summer by itself?

Here is what happened. The publisher, Simon Pulse, used to produce a series called the Simon Pulse Romantic Comedies. The books came out roughly one every two months, and they had cartoon covers featuring the characters. These cartoon covers look too young for a teen audience now, but they were very stylish and hip when the series debuted in 2004, back when chick lit was big and everything, even adult books, had cartoon covers. My novels Major Crush (2006), The Boys Next Door (2007), and The Ex Games (2009) were part of this series.

Simon Pulse agreed to publish my sequel to The Boys Next Door, called Endless Summer, in 2010. It was going to be published in the same way as the rest, and they created a cartoon cover for it. However, they had already decided they were not going to publish any more of these books, and they were going to start re-publishing the old books in collections with a bigger format and photographic covers, which would look more stylish to current readers. So instead of making Endless Summer one of the last books with a cartoon cover, they decided to make it the very first book with a photographic cover. And since the rest of the books with photographic covers are collections, they made it a collection by re-printing The Boys Next Door in the same volume.

But I'd already bought a copy of The Boys Next Door, and now I have to buy it again to get Endless Summer.

I know and I'm sorry. I anticipated this and I complained on your behalf. See my comment above about how authors don't have much say. But in defense of the publisher, this book came out at the lowest point of the recession, and I'm sure they were just trying to figure out what most readers would want so the book would sell well. The cartoon covers were no longer doing justice to these books, but if this book had been published by itself with a new photographic cover, people wouldn't have understood that it was a sequel to a book that looked totally different and came out 3 years earlier.

On the bright side, the entire big honking volume of The Boys Next Door and Endless Summer together is only $10. That is a great price if you are going by weight. If Endless Summer had been published by itself with a photographic cover, it probably would have cost $9 or $10, judging from the current market.

Why can't I buy Endless Summer as an e-book?

Apparently there was a rule at this publisher that collections couldn't be e-books. That rule has changed, and I have been told that Endless Summer will be available in an e-version on April 19. I am assuming that means it will still be published along with The Boys Next Door in the same volume.

Until recently I did not understand what the big deal was about not having an e-version of this book available. I was wondering why you didn't just go buy a print copy. But now that I have figured out how to use my Kindle, I get it! I totally do. Plus the Kindle doesn't weigh 15 pounds. So we have that to look forward to.

No shame

Last year I ran several Public Shame Writing Challenges from this blog. The idea is that if you boast publicly about your writing goals for the day, you are more likely to meet them, because the idea of the shame you will suffer if you don't will keep you on track.

My plan was to hold a Public Shame Writing Challenge for March. But not many people mentioned that they were interested, so I think it's best to wait until another time.

Until then, I leave you with this photo of Shame & me at the prom. I am determined that I will not sink that low for a date again this year.

Bad news & very very good news: what I'm writing next

Bad news first. I will not be writing a third book about Lori and Adam. So many of you have contacted me on e-mail, my guestbook, Facebook, and Twitter to tell me you wanted a third book in The Boys Next Door/Endless Summer series. I heard you and I tried, but publishing is a difficult business and sometimes things don't work out the way we want.

I appreciate your kind messages. I'm sorry I won't be able to deliver this book for you. I absolutely love writing YA romantic comedies. They have made up more than half of my writing career thus far, and without them I feel like there is a big hole in my writing life. I hope I will get the chance to write more of them for a different publisher someday. When I do, I will try to create characters that you enjoy just as much.

The FREAKING AWESOME news is that I have sold two more romantic dramas to MTV Books. This time it is a hard/soft deal, meaning the books will come out in hardback first and paperback a year later.

*insert Beyonce dance*

Here's the current schedule:

Love Story will be published in paperback on July 19. You can read the description here .

Free Falling is the book I'm writing now. It's about a teen girl pilot who ekes out a dangerous living towing advertisement banners at the beach, and gets tangled in a romance with the adrenaline junkie who owns the business. It will be published in hardback in 2012.

The Book I Haven't Thought Of Yet will be published in hardback in 2013. Actually I had thought of an idea for this book, but I mentioned it to my literary agent and she said, "It's about what???" which made me think it was not such a good idea after all. This happens to me a lot. I will keep you posted.

Publishing is a hard business. Did I mention that? If you are considering a career as a writer, please also consider architecture. For me, by far the hardest part of the job isn't the writing itself, or even the bad news when it comes, but the waiting. Did I mention the waiting? I am ecstatic that the waiting is over. I am going to have a wonderful angst-free weekend.

Oh, wait, I have to send back the copyedit of Love Story on Monday.

I am going to have a wonderful angst-filled weekend. It is the good kind of angst, finally.

Good news!

I am very happy to share that FORGET YOU is going back for a 7th printing! It just went back for a 6th printing a few weeks ago, so somebody is reading it and liking it and telling their friends about it. And if that person is you, please accept my thanks, because you have paid me the highest compliment an author can receive: word of mouth.

I've also received permission to show you the beautiful cover of LOVE STORY, which will be published on July 19. You can tell from the description that this novel is near and dear to my heart:

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW.

Erin Blackwell is headed to college in New York City to study creative writing and earn a living as a romance novelist. Her grandmother has other plans: she approves of the college, but she wants Erin to major in business and then come back home to Kentucky to run the family's famous racehorse farm. There is no way Erin will agree. Studying in New York and writing her way into a career is her escape from the farm and the family tragedy that happened there. So Erin's grandmother decides Erin really will live life as a starving artist. She takes Erin's future job running the farm, her inheritance, even her college tuition, and gives them all to Hunter Allen.

Hunter has lived on the farm for years. He's Erin's age, he's the stable boy, and he's the romantic dream of every girl in her high school. But he was involved in the family tragedy. Erin has always given him a wide berth. And he's a slick opportunist. She's furious that he fooled her grandmother into giving him Erin's birthright and sending him to Erin's college.

At least she's free of him in her creative writing class. So she pens a story that has haunted her lately, in which the horse farm heiress at the very first Kentucky Derby starts a forbidden affair with the lowly stable boy. Unfortunately for her, the day she's sharing this story with her New York classmates, Hunter walks in. He's switching to her class. And after reading about himself in Erin's story, he writes his own sexy assignments that lure Erin into dangerous fantasies about what could have been between them, and what might be.

* * *

That's the description I've written, anyway. MTV Books always changes it for the better. But that's the basic idea.

Well! I have felt giddy and stared at my book cover enough for one day. I think it's time I copyedited an article about egg allergy, don't you?

One more thing before I go. I am feeling a Public Shame Writing Challenge approaching. Either that or I'm coming down with something. Would you be interested in publicly boasting about your writing goals and being held accountable by other writers during March? Post a reply and let me know...

With a little help from my friends

The next meeting of Southern Magic , my local (Birmingham, AL) chapter of Romance Writers of America , is Saturday. Before the program we usually go around the room, introduce ourselves, and tell the group what we've been writing since the last meeting. I have four days to hear from editors before then, but I'm afraid I already know how my report will go:

"My name is Jennifer Echols and I write YA. I have been working very hard! And I have turned in a bunch of stuff! And I keep thinking I will hear something but I have not heard ANYTHING!!!"

If you say this to your husband or your mother or your non-writing BFF, you are whining. Sorry. But if you say this to your writing group, it is cathartic. They actually know how you feel and what you are talking about. Try it! You'll like it! You may think you have a lot of writing friends online, but it's not the same. And pretty much everything I know about the publishing industry, I have learned from RWA.

We have some terrific programs coming up. On Saturday, Paula Graves , who writes for Harlequin, and New York Times bestselling author Christy Reece , who writes for Ballantine, will talk about their experience with their publishers. In February the speaker will be the always entertaining Peggy Webb , who has written in just about every romance genre you can imagine, plus mystery and literary fiction. And I am so excited that in March, my friend Cynthia Eden is coming up from Mobile to talk about writing paranormal.

If you don't live around here, I encourage you to look up your local chapter of RWA and go for a visit. If you do live in Birmingham and write something other than romance, there's lots going on for you too. There's a local chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators . The Murder in the Magic City conference for mystery writers is coming up on February 5, and the ImagiCon sci-fi conference will be held May 20-22. Oooh, Erin Gray!

Chances are, if you're a writer, you're also an introvert. Me too. Trust me, it's worth it to go meet some real people once in a while, because knowing that other writers are just as crazy as you are and have just as hard a time will make you feel 50% less nuts. You may even make some dear friends. Promise.

The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit presents Laurie Faria Stolarz!

The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit is a web ring of YA authors. Check these posts for the latest releases!

DEADLY LITTLE GAMES

High school juniors Camelia and Ben have discovered a powerful bond: they both possess the power of psychometry, the ability to see the future through touch. For Ben, the gift is a frightening liability. When he senses a strong threat or betrayal, he risks losing control. Camelia's gift is more mysterious. When she works with clay, her hands sculpt messages her mind doesn't yet comprehend. Before either one has a chance to fully grasp their abilities, a new danger surfaces, but this time, Camelia is not the target. Adam, a familiar face from Ben's past, is drawn into a puzzle he can't solve. . . and his life is on the line. As the clues pile up, Camelia must decide whether to help him and risk losing Ben or do nothing and suffer the consequences. But in these games, who can be trusted?

Jenn: What's your favorite gizmo advertising your book?

Laurie: I love book trailers. Check out these for the Touch series:

DEADLY LITTLE SECRET:



DEADLY LITTLE LIES:



Jenn: Where is this book set, and what does the setting mean to you?

Laurie: It's set in a small fictitious town in rural Massachusetts.

Jenn: My May 2010 release, Endless Summer, is the sequel to The Boys Next Door, and it's the first sequel I've written. How do you feel about sequels and series versus stand-alone novels as a writer, and as a reader?

Laurie: I love series, which is why I write them. I love the idea of growing a character over the course of several books, seeing how they develop and change in response to what's happened and what they learn.

Jenn: What good books have you read lately?

Laurie: I just read Still Missing by Chevy Stevens. I'm currently reading I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman.

Jenn: When readers tell you they've read and loved all your books and they want recommendations for similar books to read now, what do you say?

Laurie: It depends. I ask them what they specifically liked about my book – the supernatural angle, the suspense, the romance, the drama, the fact that my main character might practice folk magic or pottery – and then I make a recommendation.

Jenn: What's next for you?

Laurie: I'm currently working on Deadly Little Voices, the fourth book in the Touch series.

Keep up with the latest on Laurie's books at her website, lauriestolarz.com!

How to get published

Yesterday morning I turned in the revision of LOVE STORY (which will be published on July 19). After eight hours of sleep, I'm still trying to let it go. I should have cut out the word "Pablum." I should have made Summer interject something during that long, weird conversation in class between Erin and Manohar. I will continue to obsess about it until I start a new project. And I intend to do just that, right after I take down the Christmas tree, put away everything from the big holiday party I threw a week and a half ago, and figure out how to use the Kindle and the Droid phone I got for Christmas.

But first I wanted to create a post on how to get published. I've gotten a LOT of e-mail lately from readers who have finished a novel and don't know what to do with it. I still try to answer every e-mail I get individually, but the volume lately has gotten to the point that it's eating into my precious writing time. So please don't be offended that I have directed you here instead of writing all this out in an e-mail. This blog post is going to be a lot more thorough than an e-mail answer would have been.

Please note that I am talking about trying to get published by a print book publisher in the traditional sense. I assume that's what you're asking me about, because that's how I'm published. I can't advise you on whether to self-publish or use an e-publisher because I haven't done that. (And I'm not interested in getting in an argument with you about it here--other people have made the points pro and con eloquently and ad nauseam.)

Also, this is my own opinion based on my experience, the experiences of my friends, and everything I have learned by networking and hanging out online and being a member of Romance Writers of America ( rwa.org ) and my local chapter, Southern Magic ( southernmagic.org ), which you can join too if you want. And don't ask me how to join. Go to their web sites to find out. God, y'all!

So, my opinion is my opinion. Always check and cross-check your data for something this important. Remember: this is the Internet. There is no policing of the Internet. Any jackass can put up a blog and claim to be a nice lady author. For all you know, I could be an old man in prison.

Can I get published? A reader asked me a few days ago if it's even possible to get published nowadays if you don't have a friend in the publishing industry. Answer: yes, because I did. I will say that once you are published and start making friends with other authors, you will be astonished how many of them are former editors and used those connections to get published. That's not to say that they wouldn't have been published if they had never been editors. They were just using the connections they had, because the publishing industry is all about networking. But there are also plenty of people like me who started from nothing.

Finish the whole novel. Or, if you're writing nonfiction, write a solid proposal. Do not query anybody with half a novel or an idea for a fiction book. Agents and editors need more than that to make a decision. If you query before you're ready, you're just asking for a rejection and wasting a chance.

Do your homework. Before you embark on this journey, please read a few books on the subject to save yourself from going down the wrong path. My favorite book on the subject is 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why It Just Might by Pat Walsh, an editor. By the time this book came out, I was published and I knew pretty much all this stuff, but I was very sad I hadn't had this book fifteen years earlier to answer all my questions. There are a bazillion other books out there on the subject, and the Idiot's Guides and their ilk are always good introductions. The internet is full of information, too, but it can be chopped up, spotty, wrong, or laced with advertisements for Oxycontin. Read a few books and get a good foundation.

Do I need an agent? Yes. The only exception I can think of is if you have written a Harlequin for a specific series that you can't sell anywhere but Harlequin. That particular publisher will look at your work without an agent, and apparently the contract is pretty standard for everybody. Personally, I would not even do that without an agent. I'm just saying it's possible and a lot of people do it. Everybody else needs an agent especially now that e-publishing is complicating the business and contracts are changing. Also, an agent can send your book to multiple publishers at once, whereas you're supposed to send it to only one at a time (and then wait a year for an answer). Finally...remember that I said people were asking me if it's possible to get published without a friend in the business? You don't need a friend in the business, but you have an agent, and your agent is friends with all the editors. A huge part of an agent's job is taking editors to lunch. It's a hard life but somebody's got to do it.

Query agents first. A lot of people send their books straight to publishers because they hear it's so hard to get an agent. Others send their books to publishers and agents at the same time. I do think that if you have ascertained you can't get an agent for a particular manuscript, you might as well send it to publishers and see if somebody buys it, as opposed to retiring it to your closet. However, don't start by sending your book to publishers.

One rule of the industry is that each publisher wants to read and turn down a particular manuscript only once (unless you have revised it extensively, and even then they might frown on a resubmission). Let's say you query all the publishers and they turn you down. Then you query agents and one of them wants to represent you. Now you have to inform your agent that you have been turned down by all the publishers. Your agent has nowhere to send your book because you have already submitted to and been turned down by everybody.

If, on the other hand, you query all the agents and they turn you down, you can still query publishers all you want. You would not tell them anything about agents turning you down because they don't care and it doesn't matter. However, if a publisher wanted to buy your manuscript in this scenario, you should then try to get an agent to handle the deal for you. And now you have an agent too!

Does this happen? I'm sure it does. I can't think of a friend who has sold this way. However, I do have a friend who won a Romance Writers of America chapter contest, had a manuscript requested by the editor who was a contest judge, got an offer from the editor, and then got an agent to handle the sale.

How do I find an agent or publisher to query? There are lots of ways, but this is what I did. And I have to tell you, when I heard about this site on a writers' loop, it changed my life.

Back in the dark ages before the Internet, you had to go to the library and look through this 30,000 page book called Literary Market Place for the agent and editor listings (occasionally it would be on the shelf, but usually it was kept behind the reference desk and you had to ask for it). But all it provided was the contact information and what the agent or editor wanted to represent or publish. An abridged version of the listings with much more information about the particular agencies and publishers was available in Jeff Herman's annual guides. These are still available and there are lots of similar books too.

The problem is that these references tell you what the agents and editors want to see, not what the agents have actually sold and the editors have actually bought. The latter information is what you want to know. An agent could say she wants to represent YA paranormal romance, and--oooh, you have a YA paranormal romance! She might want to see yours. But if she hasn't actually sold YA paranormal romance, she may or may not have the editorial contacts to get that done. If she has sold that subgenre, she definitely does.

Luckily there is PUBLISHER'S MARKETPLACE!!!! It's at publishersmarketplace.com . You can go there right now and find a lot of valuable information about the publishing industry. However, what you want to do is pay $20 a month (and you can do that for only 1 month if you want to, then cancel your membership), because that way you get to search the database. It is not exhaustive because agents and editors aren't required to post their sales here, but a lot of them do.

So you figure out which recently published (and, ideally, successful) novels are the most like the manuscript you've written. (If what you've written is unlike anything that's ever been published, and you go around telling people this at writer's conferences, I am sorry but I have met you about 100 times, and I am always nice to you but what I really want to tell you is that the publishing industry wants books that are like what they've already published, not books that aren't. If you write something completely different, they don't know how to market it. Sad but true. So go ahead with your delusion that you are going to change the face of literature forever, but unscrew your big ol' head for a moment and set it to one side, and then think: if my book were a little like some other books out there, what books would those be?) Plug the titles of those novels into the database and see what agents sold them (and what editors bought them...but remember, I'm suggesting that you query agents first). Now use the rest of the tools on this site to do more research on these agents. Cross-check that information using other sites such as Predators and Editors ( pred-ed.com ). Now you have a list. Put them in order according to how much you would want to be represented by them. Go to their individual web sites and read their query guidelines. Do exactly what they say because they will get really mad if you don't, and they will talk about you ugly on Twitter (without using your name). Send these queries a few at a time. Agents expect you to query other agents also. If you get rejected by all of them, adjust your query letter before sending it out again.

That's all I can think of. There are plenty of places you can get info on how to write a query letter and what to do when an agent offers representation. Here I just wanted to make sure you knew to query agents first (if you want an agent) and to use Publisher's Marketplace, because I really could have used that info a lot sooner.

Oh--one more thing. Now that I have finished this blog post, I am not starting my next writing project, or taking down the Christmas tree, or cleaning, or figuring out my Droid or Kindle. Right now I'm going to do my freelance copyediting job. That's right, I still have a "real" job after selling seven novels. Possibly publishing a novel does not pay as well as you thought. I do expect to make a living solely from my novels someday, but I think you would agree my work has had some moderate success and yet here we are. So if you are that other person I have talked to at writing conferences 100 times who is desperate to sell your first novel for a bazillion dollars so you can quit the job you hate so much...fix the other stuff in your life. Change your job or find a way to love it. Writing fiction is a hard career in itself and you should not be relying on it to fix all your problems. Do it because you love it.

The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit presents Eileen Cook!

The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit is a web ring of YA authors. Check these posts for the latest releases!

THE EDUCATION OF HAILEY KENDRICK

Hailey Kendrick always does exactly what's expected of her. She has the right friends, dates the perfect boy, gets good grades, and follows all the rules. But one night, Hailey risks everything by breaking a very big rule in a very public way...and with a very unexpected partner in crime. Hailey gets caught, but her accomplice does not, and Hailey takes the fall for both of them.

Suddenly, Hailey's perfect life--and her reputation--are blowing up in her face. Her friends are all avoiding her. Her teachers don't trust her. Her boyfriend won't even speak to her for long enough to tell her that she's been dumped.

They say honesty is the best policy--but some secrets are worth keeping, no matter the cost. Or are they?

Jenn: Why was it important to you to write this book?

Eileen: With this book I was interested in looking at how what other people think of us shapes how we view ourselves and how we live our life. Sometimes it is only when that is all taken away can we decide who it is that we really want to be. I spent so much time in my teen years worrying about it I was living up to everyone's expectations- I should have worried more about my own expectations and dreams

Jenn: Where is this book set, and what does the setting mean to you?

Eileen: The book is set in an exclusive boarding school in Vermont. I wanted a setting where the characters had created their own society and were isolated from their families.

Jenn: My May release, Endless Summer, is the sequel to The Boys Next Door, and it's the first sequel I've written. How do you feel about sequels and series versus stand-alone novels as a writer, and as a reader?

Eileen: Who doesn't love a series? When you love a book there is nothing better than discovering there are more adventures ahead. My books so far have been stand alone, but I have a middle grade series that will be out in the Spring/Summer. It was the first time I'd done a series I discovered you have to be really organized.

Jenn: What good books have you read lately?

Eileen: I really enjoyed Duff, Mockingbirds, Revolution, and a quirky murder mystery called The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

Jenn: When readers tell you they've read and loved all your books and they want recommendations for similar books to read now, what do you say?

Eileen: First I say a HUGE thank you. I know there are so many good books out there (I have a stack of them in my own house) so I really appreciate readers who give my books their time. I have a hard time recommending what to read next because I know what I love, but I'm not quite certain how my books would compare.

Jenn: What's next for you?

Eileen: I have a middle grade series coming out for young readers (ages 8-10) in the Spring called The Fourth Grade Fairy. I'm also hard at work on my new YA novel. I'm working on a gothic story with the working title of Haunting Isobel. It has a creepy old house, a family mystery, a brooding handsome man and a possible ghost. It's been a tremendous amount of fun to write so far.

For the latest on Eileen's books, check out her website at www.eileencook.com!

Why I've been so quiet...besides the holidays!

January 10 is the Football National Championship game for my alma mater, Auburn University! Remember Drew in Major Crush is dying to go to vet school there? Aw.

But it's also the due date for the revision of my next novel, Love Story, which will be published on July 19. So that's where I'm concentrating most of my energy right now.

I did want to tell you about a few places you can find me around the web. First, if you haven't read Forget You and you're curious about it, you can find the first three chapters on the writing site Figment . On the Figment blog, I also posted about creating romantic chemistry between characters , using Forget You as an example.

Finally, on the YA Outside the Lines blog, I wrote a poem thanking everyone for buying Forget You on the day after Christmas and boosting it to #8 on Barnesandnoble.com ! (As I write this, it's at #41. I'll take it.)

In other news, Forget You and Going Too Far, or perhaps I should say COMO FUI ESQUECER VOCÊ and LONGE DEMAIS, will be published in Portuguese in Brazil any day now! If you have a sighting, I would love to see a picture! The publisher will send me copies but I haven't seen them yet.

I'll be back to blogging on January 11 or so. In the meantime, enjoy the last of your holidays, and WAR EAGLE!

FREE BOOKS because UGH!

5 chances to win 1 of my books! US only please. Just guess what I took out of FORGET YOU and post a comment on the new blog, YA Outside the Lines .