Sarah Alderson's Blog: Writing and all the bits in between, page 3

X-Rated Alex & Lila...

People keep on asking when a third Lila book is coming. Well, sorry, no news on that now...but to keep you happy in the meantime here's some news on some juicy short stories that are coming out soon, including a very steamy scene between Alex & Lila (an outtake from Losing Lila).

Put the dates in your diaries!


1st July an ebook short story all about Alex and Lila is out. Set 8 weeks after losing Lila, it takes place in Nantucket and introduces readers to characters from my new book, The Sound, which is out Aug 1st.

Then on October 1st Simon & Schuster are releasing an ebook compilation of short stories from Hunting Lila characters including Demos, Jack and Suki.

But the big news is the steamy Alex and Lila scene which has a release date of jan 2014...which should give you enough time to prepare and install air conditioning.Sarah AldersonThe SoundHunting LilaLosing Lila

FREE PREQUEL to HUNTING LILA

I'm thrilled to be part of this year's World Book Day...

The NEW World Book Day YA app is out NOW for FREE on iOS and Android.

They've teamed up with Movellas to create a fab FREE app, with new stories from top YA authors including Patrick Ness, Josephine Angelini, Will Hill and ME!

There are 5 stories on it (including mine: Turning Amber) and more to come on World Book Day (7th March 2013). Find out more AND find a local bookshop where you can use your £1 book token (UK only).

Plus each author has started a Story Chain for YOU to add to as well.

Here's the link to the World Book Day site:
http://www.worldbookday.com/community...

and here's the link to the APP:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/world...

Turning Amber is a prequel to Hunting Lila (set 5 years before). Grab your copy of Turning Amber and find out just how she met Ryder, why she fell for him, what the hell Demos was doing in a thrift store in Ventura and why it's not a good idea to steal from a gang of Hell's Angels.

My first ADULT BOOK!

It's been a long time coming, but the romantic comedy novel that author Becky Wicks and I started working on together last year is finally ready for your eyes! Together we're Lola Salt (like it?) and the reason for this nom de plume will all become clear, the more you read...

It's my first adult novel and a little bit different to my YA novels (though with lots of action and hot men still). I don't however, recommend it to anyone under the age of 18. You have been warned. Nor to anyone easily offended ;).

So what's it about?

When ex-circus employee Lara Craft is dumped for a contortionist, there's no point in sticking around. Delivering packages to random global corners for a mysterious concierge company seems like the perfect way to hide from her humiliation.

As she travels, a suitcase full of whips and props might well prepare Lara for proposals by Arabic princes, advances from Christian cowboys and kidnappings by pirates, but nothing can prepare Lara Craft (not Croft) for what happens when she discovers that the best and most exciting thing about her life is right where she least expected to find it.

Pack your bags. And your glitter. The adventure's about to begin.

Check out the Lola Salt facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lola-S...

And the GR page here:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...

For a free taster, the first 13 chapters are on Wattpad.
http://www.wattpad.com/story/3773167-...

Writing sequels (or the curse of the trilogy)

I am busy in sequel land at the moment (the sequel to Fated just came out) and it got me thinking about the issues that arise when you write a story that continues beyond one book.

How do you plot? How do you sustain story arcs? How do you maintain your readers’ attention? How do you grow and develop your characters? How do you know when to stop? How do you avoid middle book syndrome?

While I write and edit my sequels I’ve also been reading a few other YA sequels and almost invariably being disappointed by them. So, how do you try to avoid the pitfalls when writing sequels?

1. Please remind your reader

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because you know your characters and can visualize them and their back story and all their adorable quirks that your reader is going to remember them too.

Assume it’s been a year since your reader last entered the world of your book, and in between they’ve not been eating, sleeping, dreaming your plot and characters, they’ve been reading other books. Probably lots of other books. Your characters have warped and faded and maybe even disappeared completely from their minds. So you need to remind them who they are, what they look like and what their key character traits are. Also remind them of what happened in the previous book.

But whatever you do …

2. Don’t go crazy with exposition

That basically means don’t spend the first ten chapters or so laying out in painful detail everything that happened previously. Yawnfest right there. You need to scatter the information, and in a way that doesn’t make it seem like you are scattering the information purely for the sake of the reader. Nothing more cringeworthy and eyeball-rolly than exposition.

3. Consistency

Your characters need to remain consistent. Unless of course fifteen years have passed and they’re now on a different life path. What is it with books where the character seems to have undergone a personality transplant in between books? That’s not to say characters shouldn’t show growth, but generally the reader wants to see the growth happening, not be witness to it after the event.

4. Trilogies

Did someone pass a law that every YA book now has to be part of a trilogy? What is that about? My Hunting Lila series is 2 books. My Fated series is going to be 4. I have several standalone books coming out.

Consider what works for your story but whatever you do don’t automatically assume three books is a must. I think a lot of times people just assume they need to write three and then end up with a middle book that sucks because there’s not enough story.

Every single book should be able to STAND ALONE. Someone should be able to pick it up who hasn’t read another book in the series and be able to get into that book without too much difficulty. Each book in a series needs a beginning, a middle and an end. The middle book is not the one where you just fill space until the finale can happen in book three.

5. Endings; to cliffhang or not to cliffhang?

Which brings me to point 5. To cliffhang or not to cliffhang? Generally speaking it’s best not to cliffhang but to wrap things up in a way that ties up most, if not all, the loose ends but leaves the door open for a sequel if you want to write one.

I’ve toyed with this cliffhanging dilemma a lot. In Hunting Lila we end at a peering gently over the cliff point but far from hanging off the actual cliff. In Losing Lila and Fated we’re nowhere near the cliff edge – both books were meant to end there (but leaving the door open just a smidgen in case). In Severed however I changed it up a little. At the end we’re clinging to that cliff with just our fingernails.

People hate cliffhangers as a general rule, but I felt that I could afford to do so because I had enough goodwill in my fans to trust me on it, and also because book 3 is coming hot on book 2’s heels, meaning readers won’t be dangling an entire year to find out what happens.

6. Plotting over books

If you haven’t yet got my point, plot each book to be standalone. But with sequels the major issue is continuity. How on earth did JK do it? I take my hat off to her, because it’s a headache to plot just one book, let alone a whole series.

I wrote all three Fated books before the first one was published because I wanted to make sure the plot was hole-free the whole way through. It took a lot of time and effort to do that (when characters can see the future and there are prophecies involved it sure took some planning).

So my advice? Make sure you do your planning across all the books before you publish the first if you possibly can.

But above all that, before you even begin the daunting task of plotting out a whole saga, ask yourself whether your book really needs a sequel.


(The original of this blog post appeared on the website www.writingteennovels.com which is a brilliant resource for anyone looking to write YA).

Severed & other book news

Severed - the sequel to Fated - is now out. I'm so excited for it finally to be released and even more excited about the third and final book - Shadowed - which is coming out in a few months.

Here are some common questions I'm getting about the book which I thought I'd answer publicly:

1. Is it true there's a love triangle?
No! Evie and Lucas are completely in love. But there is a new character called Cyrus who likes to collect notches on bedposts and who has Evie in his sights. Evie is NOT interested though. So don't panic!

2. Is Shadowed the final book in the series?
Yes. For the moment. It does finish off the Fated saga as it stands. Which is not to say that there might not be a fourth book in the future.

3.Is the Bradbury Building in LA where the way through happens to be, actually real?
Yes. It's a real building. It's also home to the LAPD Internal Affairs department and was used as a set in the film 'Blade Runner.'

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In case you hadn't heard I've also signed for two new books with Simon & Schuster. The first of these The Sound is out in August 2013, and the second Control - is out in August 2014.
They're both contemporary thrillers (not a paranormal element in sight) with some rather lovely lead boys to swoon over.

The final piece of news to share is that the Hunting Lila is still in production but moving ever closer to the green light. There's a small matter of millions of dollars to raise first but we do almost have a script ready (and it's really good!). So watch this space. Or sign up to my newsletter via my website for more frequent updates on all things books and movies.

Talking of which, here's the link to my latest newsletter http://eepurl.com/qvGRn

Self publishing vs traditional publishing

The future of publishing and books is a hot topic these days. Will e-books eventually take over and send paperbacks into the annals of history along with papyrus scrolls and horse drawn carriages? Will our kids look at them as strange antiques before trying to swipe onto the next page and highlight text with their fingers?

And what of self-publishing? It’s already opening the doors and democratizing publishing. Anyone can publish these days, and while we hear stories of self-published authors taking the industry by storm and commanding six or seven figure deals, these are very VERY rare. I think the average self-published book sells fewer than 100 copies, and most of these to friends or family.

I’m hugely fortunate to be with one of the biggest publishers in the world – Simon & Schuster. I’ve published three books with them over the last 15 months, and have another two slated for release.

But I’m now going the self-publishing route too for the sequels to my second novel, Fated. I feel privileged to be able to experience both routes, and it’s putting me in a fairly unique position, allowing me to reflect on the publishing process for both traditional publishing and self-publishing.

The key things about traditional publishing:

Firstly, I believe publishers do a great job of curating the market place. Generally speaking, most novels that come through a publishing house will be polished and of a guaranteed standard which, as an avid reader, I’m exceedingly grateful for.

For authors a publisher brings kudos, distribution channels and the power of their marketing, editing and sales departments. If a publisher really gets behind you, like S&S have done with me, your career can be kickstarted. But if you do fail to sell then equally your ‘career’ as a traditionally published author might be over just as it begins. Unless of course you can take the self-publishing world by storm.

I love having the support of a publishing team where I am surrounded and nurtured by skilled professionals. I have someone to edit, someone to copy-edit, someone to proof, someone to manage my overseas sales, someone to manage my PR and blog tours, someone to design my cover, someone else to make sure Waterstones etc are stocking my books. I mean, all I have to worry about is actually writing. I’m very well taken care of.

For me it feels a bit like getting married and having a team of top-notch stylists, wedding planners and photographers pulling out all the stops to make you look beautiful and ensure you have a perfect day.

The benefits of self-publishing:

Going the self-publishing route is more like doing your own make-up, writing your own vows and getting a friend to take your photos.

When I got married though, I actually opted for this second route and I relished the freedom of that decision. And from what I’ve seen so far, self-publishing has a lot to offer, if not the perks of a traditional publisher, then freedom, higher royalties (though no advance) and my own editorial decision making power (finally I have a sex scene in Severed!).

Self-publishing has been an interesting journey so far and I’m not even yet fully embarked on it. I’m also not self-publishing in the same manner as most writers. I’m publishing via Amazon’s white glove programme, which certainly makes things a lot easier.

Amazon are now working directly with agents to broker deals with authors. With white glove I get dedicated support, personalized cover design, support around conversion (and checking for errors) and hopefully (though not promised) access to specific marketing programmes. It’s like the VIP channel for Ryanair. It’s not like flying First class but it makes the journey more pleasant. Or it has so far.

My agent takes a cut of the royalties, but I’m happy with that for a number of reasons. 1) I love my agent and she’s worth it. 2) My agent helped me edit the book so again she deserves it 3) I think that the marketing support will hopefully ensure I make back the agent cut on extra sales anyway.

Also, Amazon offer a much MUCH better royalty than a publisher ever could (this is why they have the monopoly.)

So what would my advice be to aspiring authors or those already published?

I honestly believe that if you can get a good book deal from a traditional publisher then TAKE IT! Are you kidding me?

Top tips for self-publishing:

1. Editing
The key thing that self-publishing can’t do, that publishers can and do so well, is editing. I used to think I was pretty good at line by line edits (structural I can manage by myself). I’m pretty good at grammar and a stickler for spelling. But deciding to pay an editor for a line by line and continuity check was the smartest move I’ve ever made. It revealed several hundred errors in a manuscript I’d checked and re-checked at least a dozen times. Something to be said for not seeing the wood for the trees.

I cannot overstate the importance of editing your work before you decide to self-publish. Having said that, the cost of an edit will probably not make it worthwhile for most people who are self-publishing. I’m fairly sure, given my sales figures for my previous books, that it’s a wise move for me and that I will make the money back but if I didn’t have an existing readership I probably wouldn’t take the risk.


2. PR / Marketing for self-published authors

Most big publishers will no longer plan much if any PR to debut or even existing authors. They just don’t have the resources to do this for every author. So even with Simon & Schuster I am responsible for marketing myself most of the time; for connecting with bloggers, Facebooking and tweeting etc.

For self-publishing it’s even more important to put in the time to promote yourself because there’s no big house doing it for you.

Whether my books are published the traditional route or self-published I do the same amount of ‘selling’ and I’m equally as creative about it. I guest blog, I tweet, I use amazon’s author programme and goodreads. I do competitions and I connect at every opportunity with readers, via email, newsletters, Twitter and Facebook.


We’re still at the conversion phase and Severed won’t be released for a couple more weeks (November 12th) so I shall do a couple more posts in the coming weeks about the self-publishing process and what I’ve learned.

Controlling, psychotic men: The new hot?

The worst thing a writer can do is not say anything.

I have that quotation on a post it note stuck above my desk. Yet I wonder whether it’s actually accurate. It seems to me that one of the worst things a writer can do is to say something that acts in disservice of their gender.

Recently I’ve become more and more aware of the number of books being published, particularly in the YA realm, and by women too, which to my mind are damaging to girls. Books which do more to push back gender equality than any offensive statements by Kanye West, ever could.

I’m talking about books that portray controlling, obsessive, even psychotic boys as hot and desirable because they have a six-pack, cheekbones you could slice salami on, and they kiss really well. Books that portray a healthy relationship as one in which the boy beats the crap out of any guy who so much as looks sideways at ‘their’ girl. Books in which men stalk girls, act out violently, manipulate and otherwise emotionally abuse the girl because ‘they love her’. Yeah, I’m not sure in what world that qualifies as love. And always the girl forgives said boy because she needs him, he’s her soul mate, she can’t live without him…and don’t forget…he’s hot!

Please. Is this what we want to teach teenage girls? Is this what we want for the next generation of women? For them to grow up looking for this in their ideal partner? Is this what we want young men to think is what girls actually want?

Isn't it bad enough that Chris Brown's career sky rockets in the wake of him smashing his fists into Rihanna's face and that she responds by calling him the love of her life? We have awful enough 'role models' in real life - do we have to create them in fiction too?

The thing that gets me most though is that these books are written by women.

(Referring back to the Kanye West comment he made on Twitter, what riled me most was not the comment itself, but the fact that his girlfriend Kim Kardashian backed him up, telling her millions of Twitter followers that it was OK to call a woman a bitch. Again…in what world is that OK?).

Let’s stop betraying our gender girls. We can’t ever expect men to grant us respect and equal rights if we can’t even respect ourselves (Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, and all you readers and writers take note!)

As an author and as a woman (and a mother) I believe that I have a responsibility and a duty to my readers (and my daughter) to portray both healthy male and female role models and healthy relationships. Girls who are in control of their own stories, who are smart, resilient and know when a guy is being a total jerk and aren't afraid to tell him. Girls who’d never let a guy control them or tell them what to do. Girls who kick ass and can look after themselves (admittedly, having that hot, intelligent and loving boy as a sidekick). My girls are heroines in the true sense of the word.

I don’t want to paint completely idealised romances either. My characters have flaws – they’re people after all. But mainly I want girls to read my books and feel stronger, feel prouder to be a girl, to come away feeling that it’s OK to not have a boyfriend, it’s OK to feel desire and want sex, but it’s also OK to wait – in fact it’s often a good idea to wait.

I want girls to know that the right guy (and there will be one) is not the guy who likes to beat the crap out of people or tell you what to wear, what to eat and how to dress. But the guy who supports you, is kind, is loving and puts you not on a pedestal, but on an equal footing.

To writers:
Teenage readers are influenced by our words, by our stories. Make them count.

To readers:
Think carefully about what you feed your subconscious. Question the books you read and the messages they are sending. Become a critical reader and shout from the rooftops when you find something offensive or sexist. Let publishers know. But most especially, if you're female, fight back against anything that denigrates women. It's your duty.

To publishers:
STOP publishing these books. Stop running with the trends. Start bucking them. Empower the next generation through the books you choose, don't disempower them at such a critical age. Yours is a position of power, don't abuse it.

How to become a better writer

Write for as many hours a day as you can. Write emails, blog posts and bucket lists. Write letters to lovers, to friends, to your grandmother. Write a letter to the person you admire most in the world and a letter to the person you most regret hurting. Write a complaint letter, a condolence letter and a congratulations letter. Write copy for websites, write tweets and write job applications. Write stories and essays. Finish your homework.

If you practised piano two hours a day for five years imagine how good you would be. If you write for five hours a day for five years imagine at the end of that time how accomplished you would be at crafting words.

In the times you are not writing, read. Read incessantly. Read books, magazines, blogs, websites, reviews, scripts, newspapers, political journals, Facebook status updates, interviews with writers, celebrities, politicians and the everyman on the street. Read fiction and non-fiction. Read the greats. Read the truly awfuls. Read poetry. Read the signs in public toilets and on the subway. Read advertising. Read flyers. Read comic strips and newspaper headlines and Wikipedia.

Don’t be a snob. Read everything. Learn how other people speak and write. Absorb beautiful words and turns of phrase. Jot them down. Flinch at bad writing and figure out why you’re flinching. Learn how a journalist’s words differ from a poet’s and how they are the same. Learn the art of an advertising tag line and the craft of a politician’s buzzwords. Read what you’ve written. Out loud. Don’t scrunch it up and throw it away. Work on it. Improve it. Keep going.

Listen. Watch the news, watch comedy, watch drama, watch movies and, whatever you do, watch every HBO series made. Watch Hollywood blockbusters and independent art house films. Watch children’s television and go to the theatre. Watch chat shows and YouTube videos.

This is how you will learn the art of great dialogue, the conventions behind the genres, the archetypes and the power of great storytelling. You might not realise it but you’ll be absorbing the conventions of three act story building, of character development and imagery. You’ll figure out how and when to incite incidents.

Listen on the subway and on buses. Listen to your friends. Listen to your parents and teachers. Listen to strangers at the table next to you and to the person spouting nonsense on the street corner through a megaphone.

Listen and learn the cadence and rhythm of speech. Study accents, slang and etymology. Revel in every new word and expression you come across. Listen and collect stories and names and the funny turns of phrase you overhear. One day that person you walked past in the street, that story you overheard waiting in line for your coffee, that piece of scandalous gossip at the water cooler, might lead to your Pulitzer.

Do all these things and always keep challenging yourself. Don’t just write one genre. Experiment, play, enjoy. Try writing a movie, a kid’s book, a young adult novel, a poem, a short story, a thriller, a horror, a romance, a TV Pilot, an episode of your favourite show. Try writing a haiku or a book blurb or a film poster. Figure out what you’re good at through trial and error.

The blank page is not something to be frightened of. It’s a new adventure waiting to happen. And there’s always the delete button.

Words. Make them your best friends.

*this post originally appeared on www.writingteennovels.com

WIN A SIGNED COPY OF LOSING LILA

There's less than a month to go before Losing Lila is released! I'm so excited. And to celebrate, as well as the giveaway on Goodreads, I'm also doing a signed giveaway through my Facebook page.

It's super easy to enter, via Twitter or Facebook, and is open until August 3rd.

For more details visit my Facebook page.
www.facebook.com/sarahjalderson

Advice for aspiring YA authors

For the last three months I've been contributing to a new Australian Blog called 'Writing Teen Novels'.

There are over a dozen authors and I'm honoured to be one of them. We all write blog posts on different aspects of writing to help aspiring authors. There are some great posts there if you're looking for inspiration.

I've done posts on how to write a thriller, writing steam for a teen audience and writing teenage characters.

You can find them here...


http://writingteennovels.com/tag/sara...