Katelyn Schneider's Blog
November 5, 2011
PNWA Conference and TWEAKED News! =)
Wow, it's been forever since I've been on here...sorry, high school has really got me swamped. And I've actually got some interesting stuff to post this time! Haha.
In August, I was able to attend the PNWA Conference in Bellevue. PNWA stand for Pacific Northwest Writer's Assiciation. I got to meet a ton of other authors....I even met another published 15 year old; Brayden Hirsch. He wrote a collection of short stories called Shadow Catalyst. Heads up, they're scary stories....haha.
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I also was able to meet authors like Jon Land (who helped me make my pitch to an agent =D), Steve Berry, and Deb Caletti. I saw Deb on my way to the bathroom and she recognized me from facebook! I didn't even have to tell her my name! Then I saw her at the book signing and we talked, and I saw her again in the bathroom and we talked a little more. =D
Anywho, at this conference I had my first book signing. Well, my first two book signings. I wasn't originally supposed to be part of the first one, but the people at PNWA are amazing and squeezed me in. =D
[image error]
[image error]
At this conference, I got a little bit more of a feel for the writing world. I figured out how to get my next book published by a big company instead of a small press; I have to get an agent. In order to get an agent, I have to make a pitch. What's a pitch, you ask? A pitch is basically a summary of your book in one paragraph. Or less. An agent will like you even better if you can give them your synopsis in about three sentences, but still make it interesting. That's an elevator pitch; a pitch that takes about as long as an elevator ride. But at this conference, we were given five minutes to pitch to an agent. So we didn't have to do an elevator pitch, unless we ran into an agent outside of our set meetings. Which I did, and she wanted to read the first twenty five pages of my book. Anywho, would you like to read my pitch? Well, if you want to, I'll post it here. And if not, you can just skip it and go on to my next paragraph =)
In my young adult paranormal fantasy novel, Secrets, 17 year old Victoria Laine wants nothing more than to stay submerged in her shell of anti-socialness and survive her last year of high school. Then she meets Nick Avery, a mysterious boy with silver eyes who lives by the same standards she does, but to the extremes. She can't help herself; she wants to know what's WRONG with this kid. Not your typical fantasy story, SECRETS introduces a new and unique kind of mythical race who are committed to protecting humans drom other species they don't know about but stalk them in the shadows and hunt them like prey. Victoria realizes she has more in common with Nick than she had originally thought, and she discovers that trying to figure out everything about someone else is the key to finding out who she really is and unlocking a future she had never thought possible.
No, this is not my pitch for Tweaked, if you couldn't tell. This is the pitch for the next book I want to publish. So basically, a pitch is kind of like what you would read on the back of a paperback. But you're speaking it. Or, if you find an agent online you'd like to submit to, it will be in the form of a query letter. A query letter is basically just a written-out pitch plus a personal author bio. Don't include where you live or what your side job is unless it directly relates to the novel you're trying to pitch. Just make sure they know what accomplishments in writing you have. Awards, books already published and by who they were published, articles published in a magazine...that sort of stuff.
Like I said, I pitched to an agent that I ran into at the dinner on the first night of the conference. Honestly, the way that I pitched it sucked. I just read it off my paper and I spoke too fast and I probably had a deer-in-headlights expression on my face the whole time. But she still wanted the first 25 pages of Secrets. =D After my horrible pitch to her, I went back to my aunt's house that night and memorized my pitch, practicing it over and over again in the mirror until I felt like I had it down and sounded confident. I asked myself questions an agent might ask about my book and practiced snazzy answers. Haha. The next morning I pitched to an agent at a meeting. But before I did that, Jon Land had me pitch to him as practice. He gave me some tips and then I ran off to get to my meeting on time. So...let's call this agent RP. I made my pitch to him and he listened and asked lots of questions, similar to the questions I had asked myself in the mirror. He asked for a copy of Tweaked to read, and asked for a two page synopsis, along with 25 pages out of anywhere in the book. That night at dinner, RP saw me and came over to me. He introduced himself to my dad, and told him, "Your daughter was confident and poised...I saw a lot of adults today that weren't nearly as pulled together as she was when she made her pitch." He stayed and talked to us for a moment, and he told me he was enjoying Tweaked. When he walked away, one of the writers at my table said, "Well, it's definitely a good sign when the agents are seeking YOU out, instead of you having to run them down." Hahaha.
Sadly, RP did not sign me. I sent him what he asked me to send, and he said he was impressed with my writing and the character development, but that it reminded him of Twilight. So...I have some stuff to fix. Haha. And...this blog is getting crazy long....so I'll write more about the conference soon. Thanks for reading! =D
PNWA Conference and TWEAKED News! =)
Wow, it's been forever since I've been on here...sorry, high school has really got me swamped. And I've actually got some interesting stuff to post this time! Haha.
In August, I was able to attend the PNWA Conference in Bellevue. PNWA stand for Pacific Northwest Writer's Assiciation. I got to meet a ton of other authors....I even met another published 15 year old; Brayden Hirsch. He wrote a collection of short stories called Shadow Catalyst. Heads up, they're scary stories....haha.
[image error] [image error]
I also was able to meet authors like Jon Land (who helped me make my pitch to an agent =D), Steve Berry, and Deb Caletti. I saw Deb on my way to the bathroom and she recognized me from facebook! I didn't even have to tell her my name! Then I saw her at the book signing and we talked, and I saw her again in the bathroom and we talked a little more. =D
Anywho, at this conference I had my first book signing. Well, my first two book signings. I wasn't originally supposed to be part of the first one, but the people at PNWA are amazing and squeezed me in. =D
[image error]
[image error]
At this conference, I got a little bit more of a feel for the writing world. I figured out how to get my next book published by a big company instead of a small press; I have to get an agent. In order to get an agent, I have to make a pitch. What's a pitch, you ask? A pitch is basically a summary of your book in one paragraph. Or less. An agent will like you even better if you can give them your synopsis in about three sentences, but still make it interesting. That's an elevator pitch; a pitch that takes about as long as an elevator ride. But at this conference, we were given five minutes to pitch to an agent. So we didn't have to do an elevator pitch, unless we ran into an agent outside of our set meetings. Which I did, and she wanted to read the first twenty five pages of my book. Anywho, would you like to read my pitch? Well, if you want to, I'll post it here. And if not, you can just skip it and go on to my next paragraph =)
In my young adult paranormal fantasy novel, Secrets, 17 year old Victoria Laine wants nothing more than to stay submerged in her shell of anti-socialness and survive her last year of high school. Then she meets Nick Avery, a mysterious boy with silver eyes who lives by the same standards she does, but to the extremes. She can't help herself; she wants to know what's WRONG with this kid. Not your typical fantasy story, SECRETS introduces a new and unique kind of mythical race who are committed to protecting humans drom other species they don't know about but stalk them in the shadows and hunt them like prey. Victoria realizes she has more in common with Nick than she had originally thought, and she discovers that trying to figure out everything about someone else is the key to finding out who she really is and unlocking a future she had never thought possible.
No, this is not my pitch for Tweaked, if you couldn't tell. This is the pitch for the next book I want to publish. So basically, a pitch is kind of like what you would read on the back of a paperback. But you're speaking it. Or, if you find an agent online you'd like to submit to, it will be in the form of a query letter. A query letter is basically just a written-out pitch plus a personal author bio. Don't include where you live or what your side job is unless it directly relates to the novel you're trying to pitch. Just make sure they know what accomplishments in writing you have. Awards, books already published and by who they were published, articles published in a magazine...that sort of stuff.
Like I said, I pitched to an agent that I ran into at the dinner on the first night of the conference. Honestly, the way that I pitched it sucked. I just read it off my paper and I spoke too fast and I probably had a deer-in-headlights expression on my face the whole time. But she still wanted the first 25 pages of Secrets. =D After my horrible pitch to her, I went back to my aunt's house that night and memorized my pitch, practicing it over and over again in the mirror until I felt like I had it down and sounded confident. I asked myself questions an agent might ask about my book and practiced snazzy answers. Haha. The next morning I pitched to an agent at a meeting. But before I did that, Jon Land had me pitch to him as practice. He gave me some tips and then I ran off to get to my meeting on time. So...let's call this agent RP. I made my pitch to him and he listened and asked lots of questions, similar to the questions I had asked myself in the mirror. He asked for a copy of Tweaked to read, and asked for a two page synopsis, along with 25 pages out of anywhere in the book. That night at dinner, RP saw me and came over to me. He introduced himself to my dad, and told him, "Your daughter was confident and poised...I saw a lot of adults today that weren't nearly as pulled together as she was when she made her pitch." He stayed and talked to us for a moment, and he told me he was enjoying Tweaked. When he walked away, one of the writers at my table said, "Well, it's definitely a good sign when the agents are seeking YOU out, instead of you having to run them down." Hahaha.
Sadly, RP did not sign me. I sent him what he asked me to send, and he said he was impressed with my writing and the character development, but that it reminded him of Twilight. So...I have some stuff to fix. Haha. And...this blog is getting crazy long....so I'll write more about the conference soon. Thanks for reading! =D
January 16, 2011
TWEAKED
TWEAKED has been out for a couple months, and sales are going pretty well. I really appreciate those of you have have bought it, and it's awesome that sime of you send me messages or comment on my blog, telling me that you've bought it. And if you guys haven't bought it, or requested it at your library....I'd REALLLLLLY appreciate it if you did!
For those of you who have read TWEAKED, or are in the process of doing so, I would love you forever if you wrote a review of it and posted it on Goodreads or Barnes and Noble's site or Amazon.
If you haven't heard of TWEAKED....TWEAKED is the book I wrote that got published by Inkwater Press and was released this November. If you have any questions about TWEAKED, or about me, feel free to ask! =)
TWEAKED is available for purchase on Barnes and Noble's site, Amazon, Inkwater Press's webiste (which is inkwaterbooks with a dot com), and Powell's Books's site. Here's the blurb;
I didn’t hear a vehicle pull up, but when I turned around, there was a white Toyota Sequoia parked on the curb behind me. As I turned to continue down the sidewalk, I saw a man blocking my path. His eyes were so intent on me I had to hold back a shiver.
“Hello,” he greeted me.
“Hi,” I said dismissively as I walked past him.
He put his arm out to keep me from going any farther.
“My name is Felix Garrickson,” he said, as if waiting for me to be afraid.
“Hi,” I repeated. He still wouldn’t let me past him.
“That name doesn’t ring a bell?” he pressed.
“No, sorry,” I mumbled, again attempting to get around him, to no avail.
“I guess daddy was going to try and protect his little girl.” He chuckled. It was a dark and evil sound.
Now my fear was coming back. I remembered what my father had said last night, about how dangerous it was for me to know what his job was.
As he reached to grab me, I threw out my fist, but he neatly dodged it. I began sprinting in the direction of my car. He ran after me.
This was just like my nightmare.
Felix was faster than me. He caught up to me and grabbed me from behind. I tried to scream, but no sound would come out.
I felt something prick my leg, and it reminded me of getting a shot at the doctor’s office. As soon as it came into contact with my skin, I became immobilized. The last thing I remember before blacking out was him carrying my limp body back to his Sequoia.
December 17, 2010
No More Typo!
I love Inkwater Press and all the amazing people who work there. Some of you may have read my last post about the typo I was contemplating getting fixed, but was hesitating because the fix would have been $300. Well guess what? I forwarded Inkwater the email that I had originally sent them with the blurb in it, which didn't have the typo in it. (Yes the typo was in the blurb. There was an extra t in a word where it shouldn't have been)
I found out today that, because the typo wasn't my fault, the people at Inkwater Press were willing to overlook the fact that, because I sent them the approval email, the typo was my fault and fixed it for me, without charging me a penny. I love the people at Inkwater!
If you have already ordered TWEAKED off of a website somewhere, you might be recieving the copy that has the typo. But keep it; someday it might actually be worth something because of the typo =)
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December 16, 2010
No More Typo!
I love Inkwater Press and all the amazing people who work there. Some of you may have read my last post about the typo I was contemplating getting fixed, but was hesitating because the fix would have been $300. Well guess what? I forwarded Inkwater the email that I had originally sent them with the blurb in it, which didn't have the typo in it. (Yes the typo was in the blurb. There was an extra t in a word where it shouldn't have been)
I found out today that, because the typo wasn't my fault, the people at Inkwater Press were willing to overlook the fact that, because I sent them the approval email, the typo was my fault and fixed it for me, without charging me a penny. I love the people at Inkwater!
If you have already ordered TWEAKED off of a website somewhere, you might be recieving the copy that has the typo. But keep it; someday it might actually be worth something because of the typo =)
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December 2, 2010
I Officially Hate Typos. Especially Ones That Cost $300 to Fix.
Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've just been kinda busy, what with the holidays just around the corner and my surgery just two days away.
Some of you may have heard about my book TWEAKED, which was just released.
Well guess what? They found a typo in it. BUT...I'm not going to mention what it is =) It's going to cost $300 to fix the typo. $300 to erase a single letter. The worst part about is that nobody caught it; when I was proofreading TWEAKED before it was sent to the printer, I didn't come across it. Neither did my dad. And neither did the company, until after TWEAKED was already available to purchase on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
My dad and I are going to wait until we get my author's copies to see how noticeable the typo is; if it's not that noticeable, we're going to leave it. Why spend $300 on an unoticeable typo? But we'll just have to see, I guess.
December 1, 2010
I Officially Hate Typos. Especially Ones That Cost $300 to Fix.
Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've just been kinda busy, what with the holidays just around the corner and my surgery just two days away.
Some of you may have heard about my book TWEAKED, which was just released.
[image error]
Well guess what? They found a typo in it. BUT...I'm not going to mention what it is =) It's going to cost $300 to fix the typo. $300 to erase a single letter. The worst part about is that nobody caught it; when I was proofreading TWEAKED before it was sent to the printer, I didn't come across it. Neither did my dad. And neither did the company, until after TWEAKED was already available to purchase on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
My dad and I are going to wait until we get my author's copies to see how noticeable the typo is; if it's not that noticeable, we're going to leave it. Why spend $300 on an unoticeable typo? But we'll just have to see, I guess.
November 21, 2010
TWEAKED is Available For Purchase =)
November 20, 2010
TWEAKED is Available For Purchase =)
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November 5, 2010
TWEAKED
Hey, Internet! I just wanted to give you guys an update on my book's publication. My company just sent me the revised file of my manuscript, so Tweaked will be available in just a couple weeks =) It won't appear on the site for a few days, but my book will be available for purchase at inkwaterbooks.com. It will also be available in other places, but this is where it will be available first. Inkwater has quite a few interesting titles, so be sure to check them out.
I've been getting questions about what Tweaked is about, so here's the blurb;
I didn’t hear a vehicle pull up, but when I turned around, there was a white Toyota Sequoia parked on the curb behind me. As I turned to continue down the sidewalk, I saw a man blocking my path. His eyes were so intent on me I had to hold back a shiver.
“Hello,” he greeted me.
“Hi,” I said dismissively as I walked past him.
He put his arm out to keep me from going any farther.
“My name is Felix Garrickson,” he said, as if waiting for me to be afraid.
“Hi,” I repeated. He still wouldn’t let me past him.
“That name doesn’t ring a bell?” he pressed.
“No, sorry,” I mumbled, again attempting to get around him, to no avail.
“I guess daddy was going to try and protect his little girl.” He chuckled. It was a dark and evil sound.
Now my fear was coming back. I remembered what my father had said last night, about how dangerous it was for me to know what his job was.
As he reached to grab me, I threw out my fist, but he neatly dodged it. I began sprinting in the direction of my car. He ran after me.
This was just like my nightmare.
Felix was faster than me. He caught up to me and grabbed me from behind. I tried to scream, but no sound would come out.
I felt something prick my leg, and it reminded me of getting a shot at the doctor’s office. As soon as it came into contact with my skin, I became immobilized. The last thing I remember before blacking out was him carrying my limp body back to his Sequoia.
And, just in case you didn't see my last blog, here's a picture of the cover of Tweaked;
If you have any questions about Tweaked, or me, or you just want to say hi, I always appreciate comments and/or messages =)
