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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, New York City/USA, Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 13:54, July 3rd, 2009 under Bloggery, 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, 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 |
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 |
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, 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 Publishing business, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:05, March 30th, 2009 under Bloggery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Publishing business, Young Adult literature |
Some of you have been writing to ask me what I think of the
Australian Productivity Commission's draft report. I've been trying very hard to put my thoughts into words, but frankly I'm too depressed and angry. But now Michael Heyward of Text has a
most excellent opinion piece in The Age:
THERE'S a lot at stake in the world of books and writing and publishing. Our industry is blossoming. We're selling great books at home and exporting our writers in unprecedented numbers. We have a superb retail environment, with a dynamic independent sector, and a competitive printing industry that generates significant numbers of skilled jobs. There's never been a better time to be a writer or publisher ...
Posted by Justine at 0:44, March 27th, 2009 under Publishing business, Ranting, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 1:47, March 17th, 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Ranting, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 15:23, March 13th, 2009 under Publishing business, Ranting |
Posted by Justine at 6:54, February 24th, 2009 under Book tour, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Praising, Publishing business, Sydney/Australia, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 0:05, February 13th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Publishing business, Sydney/Australia, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 17:05, January 19th, 2009 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Writing process |
I've had a couple of questions that are about publishing, not writing. I have disqualifed such questions from this month's advice though I might run a publishing questions month later in the year. ((Though I am far less qualified to answer publishing questions.)) But since I've already gotten two such questions I'm grandfathering them in.
But I will answer NO OTHER publishing questions! From now on: questions about the process of writing only. Thanks!
beth says:
I’d be interested in looking at the differences in submissions from when you were first starting to now. Could you share your query letters? Could you show us a real-life synopsis that you used when publishing one of your books? As someone with a complete ...
Posted by Justine at 0:05, January 7th, 2009 under Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 4:52, December 19th, 2008 under Bloggery, Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 0:06, December 18th, 2008 under Bloggery, Book tour, Publishing business, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
One more thing that I think some wannabe published writers don't understand. Being a professional writer means having homework ALL THE TIME. (Thanks to Jennifer for
pointing this out.) And when your homework comes back covered in red you have to do it over. Sometimes you have to do it over multiple times. And then your homework gets checked again by several other people (copyeditor, proofreader) and then you have to look at it again.
It's like the worst homework ever. Homework that NEVER EVER ENDS.
I'm just saying . . .
Posted by Justine at 0:28, December 9th, 2008 under Bloggery, Publishing business, Ranting, Writing life |
Well,
yesterday was
crazy. People I know lost their jobs or are now in danger of doing so. Some author friends lost their imprints. It's all scary stuff. But publishing is not the only industry in convulsions. We're in a recession. It's bad all over.
To answer those asking if I still stand by
Tuesday's comments. I do. Things are bad, but they're less bad for children's than for adults'. Publishing is going to change a lot over the next decade.
But here's my main source of comfort: People are always going to want stories.
My sympathies to everyone who had a really bad day yesterday.
Posted by Justine at 11:26, December 4th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Publishing business, State of the World |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, December 2nd, 2008 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, State of the World, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 16:05, November 20th, 2008 under Book tour, Fans & readers, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Publishing business, Scott's books |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 21st, 2008 under Book tour, Publishing business, State of the World, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 16th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Publishing business, Ranting, Reading, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, September 23rd, 2008 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, September 11th, 2008 under Publishing business, Titles & names |
Posted by Justine at 21:20, September 2nd, 2008 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, Fans & readers, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 3:39, August 2nd, 2008 under Fans & readers, Publishing business, Reading |
Posted by Justine at 0:05, July 15th, 2008 under Publishing business, Writing goals & milestones |
Posted by Justine at 9:50, July 14th, 2008 under Publishing business, Sydney/Australia |
