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It is now TEN WHOLE YEARS since I became a freelance writer.
I know, right? How did that happen? Ten years!
And one more time because truly my disbelief is high:
I HAVE BEEN A FULL-TIME, FREELANCE WRITER FOR TEN WHOLE YEARS.
I know it's also April Fool's day but I truly did begin this novel-writing career of mine on the 1st of April. What better day to do something so very foolish? Back in 2003, having sold only
one short story, I took the plunge.
The first year did not go AT ALL well, but since then it's mostly worked out.
Here is my traditional
anniversary post writing and publishing stats:
Books sold: 9: One non-fiction tome, two anthologies (one co-edited ...
Posted by Justine at 9:12, April 1st, 2013 under Freelance Anniversary, New York City/USA, Praising, Publishing business, Sydney novel, Sydney/Australia, Vainglory, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
My mate Diana Peterfreund had
an excellent post on some truly terrible publishing advice doing the rounds at the moment. In passing she mentions that "as someone who has now published with four NY publishers and the aforementioned small presses---every publisher does things a little differently."
I have not seen that pointed out very often. I've seen oodles of folk point to how writers all write differently. That there are as many ways to write a novel as there are novels. But in most discussions about publishing the assumption is that all publishers are the same. Or at least the only differences is between small presses and big presses. Between the Big Six ((Hachette; Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group/Macmillan; ...
Posted by Justine at 8:05, September 25th, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, New York City/USA, Publishing business, Writing life |
In the wake of the most recent author meltdown over a critical review I've been trying to figure out why it keeps happening. What is it about reviews that drives so many authors to momentary craziness?
(Though must be said: public author meltdowns about reviews are actually pretty rare. The vast majority of writers know to keep the crazy to ourselves.)
What is it about reviews that drives certain authors to public displays of rage? To attempting to bully reviewers into changing or deleting their reviews?
Is it in the belief that bad reviews effect sales? Let's examine that shall we?
Bad Reviews Have Little Impact
If bad reviews had an impact then Da Vinci Code, Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey would not be ...
Posted by Justine at 21:35, August 27th, 2012 under Publishing business |
Hmmm, I wonder if Holly Black would be interested in editing an anthology on that topic? It's almost as catchy as Zombies versus Unicorns. *cough*
@ronnidolorosa said that she'd "be really interested to read about your experiences in academia, and how it compares to being an author."
I was raised by two academics. Two lovely, smart, politically engaged and engaging, argumentative and enthusiastic academics. They both have PhDs. I kind of thought everyone got a PhD when they grew up. It's the main reason I have one. The majority of adults I knew when I was little were academics teaching and researching in universities around Australia and sometimes the world. I don't know when I first realised there were people in ...
Posted by Justine at 12:25, August 2nd, 2012 under Ironical (This is Writ), Publishing business, Writing life |
Last week I very much meant to respond to Sam X's comment on my post about
becoming a brand versus writing what you want to write but last week was crazy busy. Plus I soon realised my thoughts were many and it was going to have to be its own post.
Here's part of what
Sam X said:
Still, I think there is a bit of a complication in what you wrote. “…whether you’re writing for yourself or writing as your job: write the books you want to write.” Writing as your job does require at least a token thought to the story’s marketability, and perhaps some changes to the overall story you’re telling so as to buttress that marketability–in ...
Posted by Justine at 7:41, July 30th, 2012 under Publishing business, Sydney novel, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
This is a discussion that comes up every so often. Is it better to do what you can to make yourself a brand name author, i.e. write books that are very similar, say like Georgette Heyer's Regency romances, or that are all set in the same world, like say, the Left Behind books, or have the same characters, like pretty much every popular crime series ever from Sherlock Holmes on. Or are you better off writing what you want to write from urban fantasy trilogies, to realist crime, to fantastical comedies, to historicals to whatever.
The argument is that you are much more likely to build an audience and keep them if your audience knows what they're in for when ...
Posted by Justine at 8:02, July 23rd, 2012 under Publishing business, Ranting, Young Adult literature |
Last month I got into a discussion on twitter---inspired by this
Jennifer Crusie post---about the extent to which an editor can rewrite their authors. Crusie thinks NOT AT ALL and I completely agree and said so, which led to a back and forth with a good editor friend of mine,
Juliet Ulman, who said she rewrites her authors. I happen to know many authors who've been edited by Juliet and love her editorial style ((I had my editor submit my one adult novel to Juliet because I'd heard such good things. It didn't work out but I mention this because I want to make it clear how much I esteem Juliet's editorial acumen.)) and it became clear to ...
Posted by Justine at 0:22, July 10th, 2012 under Publishing business, Ranting, Team Human, Writing life, Writing process |
I've already had a few people ask me why Team Human is not available via iTunes. My ANZ publisher, Allen & Unwin, does not yet have any books available for sale via iTunes but they're working on it.
In the meantime my publisher says that Team Human is available for Apple devices via the Kindle app and the Kobo app.
Or you can purchase Team Human through
Booki.sh where you can buy the ebook AND support your local independent bookshop at the same time! Readers whose local indie is
Gleebooks (Sydney),
Readings (Melbourne),
Fullers (Hobart),
Mary Ryan (North NSW/Qld),
Avid Reader (Brisbane), or
The Turning Page (Blue Mountains) can buy Team Human via the ...
Posted by Justine at 15:07, July 2nd, 2012 under Admin, Publishing business, Sydney/Australia, Team Human |
. . . I finish a whole manuscript.
. . . I learn how to rewrite that whole manuscript.
. . . I get five/ten/fifteen/one hundred/etc rejection letters from real-life agents.
. . . I knuckle down and rewrite the book again. And again. And again. Etc.
. . . I get a request for the whole manuscript from a real-life agent.
. . . I get an agent.
. . . I get five rejections from publishers.
. . . I get ten rejections from publishers. (Would you believe twenty rejections? How about thirty? One hundred? One thousand? One million?)
. . . I start writing my second/third/fourth/fifth/etc book despite the fact that the first/second/third/fourth etc book hasn't sold yet.
. . . I get an offer from ...
Posted by Justine at 11:57, March 27th, 2012 under Frippery, Ironical (This is Writ), Publishing business, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
This is
my annual post where I sum up what happened in my professional life in that year and look ahead to what's going to happen in 2011. I do this so I can have a handy record that I can get to in seconds. (Hence the "last day of the year" tag.)
For reasons I'll explain in more detail below (but are mostly I was not online much) 2010 was ridiculously productive for me. I now have more than 100,000 words of my 1930s novel. Most of it written this year. And I declare those words to be good. ((I'm sure when I re-read them I'll be less thrilled but right now I think they're fabulous. I'll ...
Posted by Justine at 13:06, December 31st, 2010 under 1930s NYC novel, Admin, Cricket, Excuses, Last Day of the Year, Liar, Publishing business, RSI, Writing life, Zombies v Unicorns |
Due to
boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much for awhile. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers.
I do not know
Bernice McFadden, but when she wrote to me about possibly doing an exchange of blog posts, I decided to invite her to guest post here because I have been hearing wonderful things about Sugar for years, and because her story is both ...
Posted by Justine at 11:38, April 28th, 2010 under Guest post, Publishing business, Writing life |
Tessa Kum is a wonderful writer. She does not write full-time. She has not had any novels published. Like the vast majority of writers she finds time to write at the edges of her paying job. She knows, however, many career writers and sometimes
winds up in conversations where they tell her what a real writer is:
Various people at WFC (World Fantasy Convention) told me what it is necessary to achieve in order to be a 'writer'. You must make this amount of money per year from your writing, or you must sell this many stories, or you must be able to live solely from your earnings as a writer. Most of these people shot me down ...
Posted by Justine at 18:29, March 22nd, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Publishing business, RSI, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
There's a lot of shockingly bad advice about how to get published online. Much of it comes from unpublished people who know nothing about the publishing industry and are bitter about their own inability to get published. ((Before you yell at me for this statement you should know that I spent twenty years trying to break into mainstream publishing. I know how it feels. Also very few of those unpublished writers are bitter about it and decide that the big publishers are evil. Most suck it up and keep trying.)) But some of it is from actual published writers with careers, who have a bug up their arse about the evil of agents, or small presses, or big presses, or ...
Posted by Justine at 16:44, March 14th, 2010 under New York City/USA, Publishing business, Ranting, Writing goals & milestones, Young Adult literature |
Due to boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much in February. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers.
Today's guest bloggers are two Allen & Unwin editors. Allen & Unwin publish me in my home country ((Which is why they say lovely things about my books.)) and I think they are absolutely wonderful. One of the two editors might even be my editor there. They are ...
Posted by Justine at 20:45, February 21st, 2010 under Guest post, Publishing business, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature |
Due to boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much in February. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers.
Zetta Elliott's
A Wish After Midnight was one of my favourite YA novels of 2009. I still can't believe no mainstream publisher picked it up and I am hoping the book's re-realease by Amazon will get this wonderful book into many more hands.
Zetta's blog ...
Posted by Justine at 9:00, February 18th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Guest post, New York City/USA, Publishing business, State of the World, Young Adult literature |
Due to boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much in February. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers.
Today we have an editor, Alvina Ling, who's more than happy to take your questions about her job of editing. Remember, that she's writing specifically about what it's like to work in publishing in the USA. The job of editing is different in different countries. I'm hoping to ...
Posted by Justine at 18:00, February 17th, 2010 under Guest post, New York City/USA, Publishing business |
Due to boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much in February. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers.
Today we have Jennifer Laughran, with whom I have spent many hours IMing about Very Important Matters. She's pobably the best handseller of books in the land both as a bookseller and an agent. Truly she is phenomenal. Pay close attention to what she says. (Except about what ...
Posted by Justine at 18:15, February 11th, 2010 under Guest post, New York City/USA, Publishing business |
Due to boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much for the next week or so. Fortunately I've been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers.
Today we have Lauren Cerand, who is a freelance publicist. I know that many people are confused as to what exactly a publicist does. (I know I frequently am.) It took me ages to realise that there are basically two kinds, freelancers like Lauren, ...
Posted by Justine at 5:49, February 4th, 2010 under Guest post, Publishing business |
Most of you will know that Amazon has stopped selling books by Macmillan authors. (If you don't know about it
read Scott's take.)
John Scalzi has just called for people to support the affected authors: ((If you're wondering, no, neither Scott nor I are directly affected. The bulk of our books are not with Macmillan publishers.))
So rather than focus on what should happen to Amazon or Macmillan, here’s an idea, and here’s my point: let’s us focus on the writers, who are getting kinda screwed here. None of this is their fault, it has nothing to do with them, and they don’t deserve to lose sales and their livelihood while this thing goes down. If you want to ...
Posted by Justine at 19:35, February 2nd, 2010 under Publishing business, Writing life |
There's a
wonderful project out in the blogosphere to sing the praises of YA that has flown below the radar and not gotten the attention of, say, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Books, Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy, or my own Scott's Uglies books. I think it's a wonderful idea. All hail
Kelly for coming up with it.
I was unfamiliar with about half of the books recommended on these unsung lists, which to me means the lists are doing their job. ((Quite a few of the ones I'd heard of I hadn't read so the lists will probably kick me into actually reading them.)) Many of the book descriptions sound irresistable. So my list of books to read just ...
Posted by Justine at 0:42, January 25th, 2010 under Publishing business, Reading |
The most discussed aspect of a book, other than whether it's any good, is its cover. But looking around online and off- at gazillions of different cover discussions the cover's main function is sometimes forgotten. Thus I've decided to devote today's post to talking about what a cover is and how they're made.
When a publisher buys a book one of the first things they start thinking about is how to sell it. Who is its ideal audience? How can they position the book so those readers will find it? How can they position it so they expand beyond those readers? These discussions quickly wind up with ideas for the cover. That's because the most important function of a book cover ...
Posted by Justine at 0:17, January 10th, 2010 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Scott's books |
I have fallen in love with yet another city. Istanbul is glorious. We have met with our lovely agent here, Asli Ermiş, who took us to meet our publishers, Omer Yenici at
Epsilon (who will be publishing Leviathan) and Ilgin Toydemir at
Artemis (who will be publishing Liar and already publish Midnighters). They in turn took us out for fabulous lunches.
In Istanbul we have eaten.
A lot.
First course at
Borsa restaurant.
A baklava shop, which sells many sweet and wondrous things. Yes, we bought and we ate.
The Egyptian spice market....
Posted by Justine at 5:54, December 11th, 2009 under Excuses, Food, Praising, Publishing business, Travelling |
This year I've been getting more and more people asking about ebook editions of my novels. This is my general response to that query.
First of all: you're asking the wrong person. My publishers are in charge of the electronic rights to my novels. If you're curious
John Scalzi has more to say on this question. If you're desperate for ebooks of my stuff bug my publishers, not me. That will be much more effective.
But here's what I know: Penguin has made electronic editions of Magic Lessons and Magic's Child available. But for some reason not the first book in that trilogy, Magic or Madness. Apparently they're working on it. That's all I know.
Bloomsbury, who publish How To Ditch ...
Posted by Justine at 21:02, November 13th, 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Reading, Young Adult literature |
When I was a brand new about-to-have-my-first-book-published baby author I freaked out entirely about blurbs. I was sure I needed them. Or rather my brand new baby book needed them. I panicked and decided I needed to ask every single published writer friend I knew. But then when it came to actually asking them I froze. It was so icky and embarrassing.
"Hello, oh lovely writer friend of mine, so, um, I know we've known each other for years and, um, gotten drunk together, even though getting drunk is wrong and neither of us plans to ever do it again, and, um, where was I? Did you hear about them Sparks? Suck, don't they? Er, why did I phone you? No ...
Posted by Justine at 23:10, October 13th, 2009 under Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business |
Disclaimer: I am writing about YA publishing in the USA. Although I'm Australian I know much more about the publishing industry in the US than I do about Australia. Or anywhere else for that matter.
I know that the title of this post is going to lead to some comments insisting that it's not true that white writers have any advantages and that many white people are just as oppressed as people of colour. I don't want to have that conversation. So I'm going to oppress the white people who make those comments by deleting them. I don't do it with any malice. I do it because I want to have a conversation about white privilege in publishing. We can have ...
Posted by Justine at 13:13, October 1st, 2009 under Publishing business, Ranting, State of the World, Whingeing, Writing life, Writing process |
Currently I am at the
Melbourne Writers Festival and thus I am fielding many questions about writing and publishing. I noticed again that many of the questions unpublished writers ask are coming at it from the wrong end of the stick. Ally Carter calls this
asking the wrong questions.
For instance, after yesterday's event an adult came up to me and explained that they are an aspiring writer working on their first novel. They said they wanted my advice but the questions they asked really confused me:
What's the best way to get started writing fan fiction?
How do you build up a following?
Should I be using wordpress, livejournal or blogger?
It took me awhile to realise what was going on. ...
Posted by Justine at 3:48, August 25th, 2009 under Publishing business, Writing life, Writing process |
Laura Atkins recently gave a paper, "
What’s the Story? Reflections on White Privilege in the Publication of Children’s Books," at the
IRSCL (International Research Society for Children's Literature) congress. She's calling for
comments and suggestions from people involved with children's publishing.
Her paper is
here. You can leave comments and suggstions
here.
Please don't go over there to deny that white privilege exists because a) that's simply not true and b) you'll be derailing what's already turning into a very useful conversation. Thank you.
Posted by Justine at 19:01, August 15th, 2009 under Publishing business, Young Adult literature |
In the last few weeks as people have started reading the US ARC of Liar they have
also started asking why there is
such a
mismatch between how
Micah describes herself and the cover image. Micah is black with nappy hair which she wears natural and short. As you can see that description does not match the US cover.
Many people have been asking me how I feel about the US cover, why I allowed such a cover to appear on a book of mine, and why I haven't been speaking out about it.
Authors do not get final say on covers. Often they get no say at all....
Posted by Justine at 12:02, July 23rd, 2009 under Liar, New York City/USA, Publishing business, State of the World, Young Adult literature |
Yesterday Maureen Johnson posted most excellently on the topic of
judging yourself by numbers. She paraphrased a graduation speech by Bill Murray:
“Look, people thought I was going to be a huge failure, but then I got kind of lucky and made it. And I had and have lots of amazing friends, and we’ve seen each other’s careers go up and down. Take my advice: don’t go comparing yourself to other people. You will go insane. It’s pointless. Your fortunes may rise and fall, depending on all kinds of things you have no control over. Keep your friends. Never compare all the outward markers of success. Do what you love, because that’s all you really get and that’s all that ...
Posted by Justine at 11:01, July 17th, 2009 under Publishing business, Ranting, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 12:21, July 6th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, New York City/USA, Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 13:54, July 3rd, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 0:13, July 2nd, 2009 under Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 12:06, June 30th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Publishing business, Ranting |
Posted by Justine at 14:54, June 29th, 2009 under Publishing business, Ranting |
The
discussion in the fanfic post got me thinking about the differences between writing to make a living, as I do, and writing solely for fun.
Many people in that thread talked about how writing fanfic was a learning experience that prepared them for becoming a professional writer. And there's no doubt that that's how fanfic has worked for many pros. However, the vast majority of writers of fanfic not only don't become pros, they have no desire to do so. They write fanfic for a variety of reasons: fun, community, because writing is something they can't not do and so on---they don't do it as some kind of apprenticeship for becoming a "real" writer.
I know professional writers who ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, June 23rd, 2009 under Publishing business, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, June 8th, 2009 under Publishing business, Reading |
Posted by Justine at 0:10, June 7th, 2009 under Liar, Publishing business, Vainglory |
Posted by Justine at 1:07, June 1st, 2009 under Basketball, Publishing business, Sport, State of the World |
Posted by Justine at 11:20, May 31st, 2009 under New York City/USA, Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 12:50, May 20th, 2009 under Publishing business, Ranting, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:07, April 27th, 2009 under Publishing business, State of the World |
There's a very fine line between promoting your books and writing tickets on yourself. It's a moving line. What one person finds overly self promotery other people think is fine.
For instance, I was once told I had crossed the line because my Livejournal icons were of the front covers of my books. I thought that was nuts. I like the covers of my books. Why can't I make icons out of them? Too pushy, I was told. It's like you're only on Livejournal to get people to buy your books. Someone else told me I shouldn't mention my books on my blog because it sounds like I just want people to buy them and that's the only reason I ...
Posted by Justine at 13:39, April 24th, 2009 under Publishing business, Writing life, Writing process |
Via
Sarah Weinman the latest stats on book sales in the US of A:
The Children’s/YA Hardcover category rose 62.1 percent for the month with sales of $67.1 million, and sales for year-to-date were up by 46.4 percent.The Children’s/YA Paperback category was also up by 13.4 percent in February with sales totaling $41.6 million; sales increased by 17.4 percent for the year.
YAY! W00t! *dance of joy* I am especially fascinated by the big jump in hardcover sales. Runs contrary to the idea that pbs will sell better in a downturn. I wonder what's going on there? Interesting . . .
On the other hand:
The Adult Hardcover category was down by 0.9 percent in February with sales of $77.8 million; year-to-date sales ...
Posted by Justine at 12:42, April 23rd, 2009 under Publishing business, Young Adult literature |
Nathan Bransford has a typical agent's blog. He talks a lot about the business and answers questions from his readers, most of whom are unpublished writers. Recently he
ran a competition to give aspiring writers an insight into one aspect of an agent's job: reading query letters. He ran 50. Three were for books that went on to be published. Readers got to pick five.
Reading the query letters was the least interesting part of the exercise for me. I didn't finish a single one. I hate reading queries almost as much as I hate writing them. I think they're a form designed to breed clunky, cliched, boring writing. It's close to impossible to write an elegant and engaging ...
Posted by Justine at 11:40, April 21st, 2009 under Publishing business |
A friend just emailed to ask me what the pencil capital Ps all over her manuscript mean. ((New paragraph.)) How many of you knew what
copyeditor's marks were before you sold your first book?
Those of you who did know was it because you'd worked in publishing before you sold a book?
I had no idea what I was looking at when the copyedited manuscript of Battle of the Sexes arrived. Fortunately, the ms. came with a guide explaining the marks. I guess uni presses are used to newbie authors who know nothing about publishing. Doubly fortunately I'm married to
someone who worked in publishing for years and had published three books. ((At that time. He's now published so many ...
Posted by Justine at 17:31, April 17th, 2009 under Publishing business |
Ever since I first started learning about publishing I've been hearing that the majority of the books published by legitimate publishing house don't earn out. But I've never seen any concrete evidence to back this claim up. Since I started learning about children's & young adult publishing I've been hearing that the majority of their books do earn out. I've heard the same about the romance genre.
As far as I know no publisher releases what percentage of their books earn out. All we have to go on is anecdotal evidence.
I'm starting to wonder whether this oft quoted stat---sometimes it's 7 out of 10 don't earn out; other times it's 9 out of 10---is solely about adult publishing. Because the same ...
Posted by Justine at 10:36, April 16th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Publishing business |
I'm getting some push back in email and elsewhere about
this post so I'd like to set the record straight ((Wish me luck with that.)):
There's absolutely nothing wrong with asking a publisher for an ARC (advance reader copy) of a book.
ARCs are created solely to promote the book in question. The hope is that the ARCs will go out to bloggers and reviewers and librarians and booksellers and generate excitement and enthusiasm for the book ahead of its publication date. That's what ARCs are for.
My sole purpose in posting was to let people know that I'm not the person to contact for Liar ARCs. I was not saying that you should not try to get hold of ...
Posted by Justine at 13:49, April 15th, 2009 under Liar, Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 0:02, April 8th, 2009 under Liar, Praising, Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 16:45, April 6th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Publishing business, Writing life |
I've been writing stories since I first learned how to write a sentence. But I did not become a full-time writer until 1 April 2003. ((Wow, this is my sixth anniversary. How bizarre.)) In those many many years before I became a full-time writer I wrote in between doing other things. In between going to primary school, high school, university, and my various jobs. I'd always have at least two documents open when I was at uni. One was the essay I was supposed to be writing and the other was the story or novel I was writing on the sly. When the going got tough with one I'd switch to the other. Writing was something that I snatched time ...
Posted by Justine at 0:12, April 1st, 2009 under Freelance Anniversary, Publishing business, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Writing process |
