Particularly self-censorship (i.e., we shall not include this book in our library collection for fear of the ruckus) and the topics that often provoke this action. Read now!

This article is the topic of much discussion amongst the YA writers I know. One writer, who has experience with her books being challenged, wondered if she should move to adult lit. Others reported that their editors stuck their oars in before publication, concerned about how certain words or topics in their books might “limit the audience.” The thing that is so insidious about self-censorship is the way it can’t be tracked. You don’t know if your books are being “limited” due to so-called objectionable content. A few choice quotes:

“one 2007 study by the University of Central Arkansas shows that less than one percent of school libraries in that conservative state have books containing gay subjects or story lines.”

“Interestingly, [David] Levithan says he intentionally wrote Boy Meets Boy as clean as possible so that if the book were ever challenged, the only logical reason would be because it features ‘happy gay characters in love.’”

My first four published novels are adult novels, and so these issues did not concern me during the writing, despite the fact that books contain many of the hot-button issues the article discusses: sex, homosexuality, religion, etc. They do enjoy a large teen audience and are often recommended for teen library collections. Given that, in my high school, we read classic works of literature dealing with rape, incest, sexual abuse, war, death, impotence, adultery, violence, racism, religious strife, murder, torture… I’m not sure exactly what teens can’t handle. The Crucible, The Magus, and The Sun Also Rises are way more intense than anything I’ve written!

Yes, there is a fear that saying that is going to cause some parent to run into a library and rip Arthur Miller off the shelf. Some dude gets tortured to death by having rocks piled on top of him in the last act of that play. I wonder if people forget sometimes that most of the classic works of literature touch upon these subjects. Romeo and Juliet weren’t playing Parcheesi that night. Neither were Calypso and Odysseus. (Penelope, of course, played Parcheesi and did her weaving. Poor girl.)

Which is not to say that I think my books are for everyone. I recently received a letter from a father who wanted to know if Secret Society Girl would be appropriate for his 13 year old. Personally, I wouldn’t give the book to middle schoolers, though I know some who read them. As I read Clan of the Cave Bear at twelve, I’m not going to freak out over that. I related to him the mature content in the book so that he could make his own decision. But it’s difficult. Asking whether a book is appropriate “for teen readers” (which he did) is a far different thing than asking if a book is appropriate “for a 13 year old” which he later clarified. I think my adult books are appropriate for older teen readers (let’s say 15-16 and up) but not for the younger, “tween” market. I recommended Ally Carter’s spy school series instead, as it has many of the same “classmate camaraderie, comedy, and zany antics” aspects as my books, but in a sweeter setting (with younger characters!) more appropriate to young teens.

But that is not self-censorship. I’m giving my recommendation to a parent. The books are adult books, not YA. (The characters are in their twenties, have been living on their own for years, and hang out in bars legally. Does the thirteen year old watch How I Met Your Mother? There’s a good litmus test.)* However, I’m not in charge of making the books available or not avialable to the reader, as well as there being no expectation that I wrote the book with that reader (middle schooler) in mind. The father is free to make his own decision. A friend of mine gave my books to her 13 year old with no problem. Parents get to make these decisions for their kids.

Of course, then you see in the SLJ article:

“Librarians need to remember that it’s not their job to impose their own ideologies on the kids they serve or to parent or protect them, Scales says. And even though schools are required to act in loco parentis—Latin for ‘in place of parent’—the doctrine only applies to school librarians when it comes to the safety and health of their students, not when it comes to censorship, she adds.”**

Now, my YA novel is written for a teen readership. It’s about teens (the main character is 16), and it’s told in a fashion that takes that sensibility into account. It does deal with mature themes, such as death, violence, and sex, though it does so in a young adult tone, for a young adult audience. Unlike the heroine of the secret society girl books, who is an adult (a young adult, struggling with the trapping of adulthood, but an adult all the same), Astrid is a teenager, who very much lives within the world of childhood and being a minor. She is subject to the will of her mother, of her guardians, or her teachers. She is not ready to face many of the things in the adult world (though she is asked to face far more in terms of life-and-death choices, than the heroine of my comedies is!).

And of course, there’s that strong abstinence message.

The word “edgy” is batted around a lot in YA circles. Books like 13 Reasons Why and Living Dead Girl are pronounced “edgy,” whereas there is also the “sweeter” fare of I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You or Twilight. I was having a discussion with another author last weekend who asked if my YA book is “edgy” or “sweet”. I didn’t know what to say. There are long battle sequences in Rampant, with a fair amount of blood and injury to the main characters. There’s a body count, both human and unicorn. The storyline deals with the question of sex (though, so does Twilight), though it does come down pretty strongly on the side of chastity (they are nuns, after all). A friend told me that in the US there is more tolerance to violence in books than sex, while in the UK, it is the opposite. I wonder, then, if my book would be considered more edgy overseas.

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* Interesting note: it is published as a YA novel in Brazil. As I do not speak Portuguese, I couldn’t tell you if there is any substantive editing going on.

**Hee hee. Does anyone remember that scene in A Series of Unfortunate Events where Mr. Poe (I believe?) is trying to explain to the children what “in loco parentis” means and the kids are like, “drop dead? We know!”

Fabu agent Jennifer Jackson is answering query etiquette questions on her blog. Check it out:

http://arcaedia.livejournal.com/

In the comments section of the November 14th post on high concept:

My contention has to do with, for instance, (as your link to the Knight Agency page explains) high concept books as “accessible” and “commercial.” A lot of my favorite novels are probably neither.

(Most people I know would NOT call George Eliot’s Middlemarch, for instance, but it’s one of my all-time favorites. And given time, I swear I could write a high concept pitch for it that would remain true to its “quiet” stature.)

So ultimately, I guess what I’m saying is that the phrase “high- concept book” seems…I don’t know…

ANY book could be a high-concept book…because it’s not a matter of what the book IS…it’s a matter of how the book is presented.

Actually, if you read the article, I do not say that any book is high concept, nor that any book that is “accessible and commercial” is necessarily so. I do say that high concept is a somewhat slippery term, as it both describes an innate characteristic of the storyline, and also the way said storyline is described.

Sadly, I haven’t read Middlemarch (I know, shocker), so I can’t whip out a high concept description for you, nor can I make any kind of argument for whether or not it’s high concept, but my understanding is that it’s an ensemble piece about social reform, is it not?

I’m not a fan of books where “very little happens” I must say. (For the modern, trendy definition of “characters don’t learn, don’t grow, and that’s somehow supposed to show the plight of humanity, etc.” — I took that short story class in college, and it was torture.) Even in a “low concept” story (let’s say On Golden Pond, since I’m not familiar with the Eliot and can’t say anything about it), you’ve got a lot “happening” — you’re really showing something about characters in conflict and in growth. But that’s difficult to describe or show the power of in a few short sentences and thus, not high concept. Not BAD, but not high concept.

However, the line is not drawn at “literary.” There are literary books that are high concept, and literary books that aren’t. Literary, as used today, is a genre unto itself, not unlike mystery, or romance, or science fiction. It denotes a certain tone, style, and often, characterization and storyline. Today, “literary” is seen as an intrinsic, objective characteristic of the text.

I don’t like that definition. I believe that what is “literary” is not decided by us. It’s decided by history. What is it about Aphra Behn’s adventures and romances that make them interesting to study today, compared to so many other populist writers of the time. Do we still read Radcliffe because she was the most popular writer of that kind of book at the time, or do we read her because she was doing something that the penny dreadful folks weren’t? And what of Dickens? And what of Dumas, who, like James Patterson, wrote by committee? Nowadays that would be seen as the height of pedestrian and commercialist, but we study Dumas in English classes all over. The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite novels. In fifty or a hundred years, will we be studying Along Came a Spider?

I am fascinated by the way certain books manage to, over time, worm their way into the canon and gain a modicum of respectability. I like how everyone is currently in love with Du Maurier, but her reputation seems to ebb and flow. Sometimes she’s lauded; others, derided. I am fascinated by the rise of science fiction as a highly-respected genre. (In passing, I find it interesting that when we study Orwell, it’s his science fiction, and not his “realistic” character studies or reform novels.) When I read 1001 Books To Read Before You Die, I was surprised that I’d read so few of the novels from the late 19th and early 20th century. Most of the ones I had were, in fact, science fiction. I think that is because my taste runs (and always has run) to adventure stories, which are vastly out of fashion with the literary set these days. (Of course, not solely. For instance, I adore As I Lay Dying. Ironically, the title comes from The Odyssey, the most adventurest of adventure stories!)

Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. I did, after all, write my senior thesis on Lost Horizon and the social construct of Shangri-la. Hilton’s adventure novel, cribbing together as it did ideas of orientalism, the sublime, cultural reform, and eastern mythology in an unabashadly populist package, was actually the first book published by Pocket, which had been started to print light, popular fiction in mass market paperback form. And it’s also very high concept.

There’s a discussion going on on one of my loops about the ethics involved in posting Publisher’s Marketplace/Publisher’s Lunch announcements. It’s done quite a lot on loops and blogs. My general feeling is that if it appears in the free lunch that anyone can sign up for (which many deals do, a week later), or if it is posted with permission from the writer, then it’s fine. Otherwise… I feel uncomfortable about it.

As the full PM announcement is a paid service ($20 a month), and those paid subscriptions are what keep the program going, it feels odd to just pass out that information. If the information in PM is available everywhere, then what is the incentive for someone to pay for it? If no one pays for it, then maybe they’ll stop providing this service, which I think is one of the best around.

I’ve been known to slip and talk up particular books that I’m super excited about (my sitemeter regularly checks in on the hits I still get from posting on Ellen Emerson White’s latest Meg book) so I’m certainly not perfect on this stance. I did this once in February of 2006, and once (much more recently) in April of 2007. I also occasionally discuss something I learned in a conference workshop. But I don’t go around posting full Deal Lunches, nor do I report in from a conference with every tidbit that all the other conference goers are paying for (except, you know, the ones who sneak in).

Is it “fair” that people who can’t afford access to this subscription can’t get the benefits from it? Well no, of course it’s not fair. Fair would be free. If I want information that it costs money to get, I pay for it. I’m not a subscriber to Publisher’s Weekly, so I know I only get to see a few of their articles in their free online version. Ditto with RT. Don’t even get me started on Bookscan.

PM isn’t cheap, but it’s a subscription I think is worth it. For those who can’t afford it, I have often suggested signing up for one month and doing an archive deal search. best $20 you’ll ever spend if you’re about to start on an agent search.

Meanwhile, there is SO MUCH information that’s freely available online, it’s astounding. The first year I was writing, I amassed a huge amount of knowledge from free online sources. I was too poor for any paid services. Too poor for RWA. I practically lived on Writers Weekly (which taught me the fundamental rule of writing: money flows toward the writer). I got the free version of Pub Lunch for years and managed just fine before I finally splurged on the full version (supposed to be just a trial, but I loved it so much I made the full-time investment). And now, six years later, there is even more information, in the form of industry pro blogs, newsgroups, etc. Most of these didn’t exist in 2001.

So what do you think? Is it fair to post Deal Lunches that only subscribers should receive? Is it fair not to?

Mary Beth asks:

1) In the days before the call, how did you keep your spirits up with the rejections? 2) Did you have your agent before the contract? 3) I know you had a blog presence prior to publication and I love your When Good Advice Goes Bad series. How important do you think those craft posts are to establishing an online presence?

Thank you so much! I’m a love the WGAGB series, too! It’s been a while since we did one of those, hasn’t it?

This is another question where I’m not entirely sure what you’re asking, so I’ll answer both. There were definitely “days” leading up to the call, because of the way an auction works. I was mostly nerves about who was going to be offering and how it would all shake out. Yes, I did have an agent (question 2). I got her by sending her a query letter, sending the partial when she asked for it, and then accepting her offer. (I was simultaneously submitting to several agents, which I HIGHLY recommend. Exclusives suck, as many have said before me.) I heard this once when I was still a newbie author, and I firmly believe it: “With the right project, getting an agent is relatively straightforward. Otherwise, it’s impossible.”

Did I mention that she’d rejected my last book? That I’d just had another book rejected by another agent a few days before? That I’d gotten dozens of rejections in the previous six months and was in the process of submitting my sixth project? It’s not all peaches and cream.

But I suspect that we’re not talking about literal days. Just about how I kept my spirits up when I was unpublished. Which brings me to my other point about “The Call.” It’s not as simple as “Before The Call” and “After The Call.” For a given book, sure. But I know plenty of previously published writers who have had or are having a HELL of a time selling books.

I don’t think there’s anything different with my spirits now than there was before I sold my first books. Things aren’t always hunky dory now, and they weren’t always dreadful before.

I had good days when I was uncontracted: a request, writing a great scene, a contest win; and I had bad days: a bad writing day, crappy scores on a contest, a rejection.

Now I have good days: a good review, writing a great scene, news of strong sales; and bad days: a bad writing day, a bad review, a rejection.

Did you see that? “A rejection.” It’s all the same. I get rejections now. We all get rejections, no matter what stage we are at. Please keep that in mind. It’s not over when you get “the call.” It’s not even necessarily easier. I think I probably had a couple months in 2005 right after I sold my first book where I was disgustingly happy all the time, but that’s the usual “honeymoon” thing. Otherwise, I’m happy sometimes, and sad sometimes. Sometimes rejections or reviews really throw me for a loop, and sometimes they roll off my back. Can’t really explain why.

There was actually only one time that I can remember really considering throwing in the towel, in the summer/fall of 2004. I was doing an agent search with my fourth manuscript. 21 submissions, 18 rejections. Not to mention the rejections from two awesome editors at two awesome publishers. Oh, and three hurricanes hitting my house. And my job was starting to suck. And I didn’t know what I wanted from my future. I was thinking maybe I should chuck the writing and concentrate on getting a real career in the occupation that was actually paying the bills.

I was a finalist in a writing contest called the Maggies put on by the Georgia Romance Writers, and there was a conference and an awards banquet up in Atlanta and I almost skipped it. We didn’t have electricity in the house and I felt hot and bummed and not in the mood to go off with a bunch of writers for the weekend since I apparently sucked so much. But my friends convinced me to go, and it turned out that I’d won the contest, and I got to get all dressed up and get my award (a pretty silver pendant) in a big banquet hall in a fancy dress. And I can’t tell you how much that meant to me.

I went home completely rejuvenated. I was going to do this, and nothing would make me quit. And if I managed to forget again, I had my Maggie to remind me. I wear that pendant like a talisman. If you’ve met me, you’ve probably seen it around my neck. It’s one of my most precious possessions, because it’s a symbol that I can do this. In fact, I was recently out to dinner with a friend and she said she’d never seen me wearing another necklace. Sometimes we need a reminder like that.

Oops, tissue break.

To make a long story short, I’m a fan of the “comfort object.” Maybe it’s a copy of the first check you ever got for your writing, or an award, or a critique where the reader said, “I loved this!” or a bit of fan mail, or a request letter from your favorite publisher. Whatever makes you believe and keep grasping for that brass ring. Maybe it’s a copy of the NYT bestseller lit with a circle around it and an arrow pointing out “you are here.” (Hmmmm, that’s not a bad idea… but I have my Maggie.) Maybe your comfort object is a spouse or partner who does all the believing for you, and kicks you in the pants every time you start to whine. Whatever works.

Okay question number three, re: online presence.

Yes, I had a blog before I was published. I don’t think anyone read it beyond a few friends before I sold my first book. Seriously, the day I announced my book sale, I had more hits on my blog than I had for the entire seven months before several times over. Blogging authors weren’t super big in early 2005. I only knew a few others who did it. I’d never heard advice about having a blog because no one was giving that advice. It was just something I did for fun, like the majority of bloggers in the world. If you go into blogging with the sole intent of promotion you’re probably going to be disappointed. I don’t think it has a big effect on book sales. I read blogs by authors whose books I don’t buy, and I’m sure I have visitors here who don’t buy my books.

And I know that there’s a certain cognitive dissonance to me saying on the blog I’ve had for years that I don’t think there’s much value in having an online presence before publication, but it’s the truth. Nothing got me published except for my book. Really. Honest. Maybe if I had 20k hits per day like John Scalzi or something, but otherwise… no.

I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me on this, but I think the advice that aspiring writers should blog to attract agents and editors is pretty much bullshit. Yes, I know writers who have attracted agents through their blogs. But, trust me, these writers would have gotten agents if they’d sent out query letters. I also know plenty of unpublished writers with amazing blogs and no one signed them up for their blogs. Just for their books. It’s the truth.

I know some agents say they look at an author’s blog before they sign them, but that only means don’t have a blog that reveals that you trash editors or eat kittens or are actually a Neo-Nazi skinhead. If the author doesn’t have a blog but has a great book, the agent isn’t going to pass. (And if you do have a blog, try not to reveal your kitten-eating tendencies, unless you’re submitting a cookbook of feline recipes.) Also, note that the agents who are saying this are the ones with blogs.

So, to wit: I don’t think it’s vital. It’s just something I do for fun and because I love talking about craft and the industry. Period. I really don’t think of this as a promotional tool. I do promo here because it’s what’s on my mind, same as I do craft posts or posts about monkeys or whatever else. If the promo works, great! But that’s not why I’m doing it. I know a lot of people will disagree with me here, but that’s because, hey, they are reading the blog, so it’s clearly something that works for them! But, really, do NOT worry about having a blog. Worry about having a good book. Really really really really really.

And regarding craft posts? Nah. One of my favorite author blogs, Jess Riley (see right) never talks about writing at all. She just talks about her life, but it’s done with such humor and style that I am CHOMPING AT THE BIT to read her book! When, oh when is that thing coming out, Jess?!?!?!

I do think when an author has a book out, they should create a website. So if people want to find them, they can. Considering that people’s first line of research these days is the internet, it’s nice if the number one thing under your name on google is something you made. (My #1 is my blog, and my #2 is my website.) And if you want to blog, by all means, blog. Someone said to me the other day that they think a blog is more useful because it just comes into your RSS feed whereas you actually have to go looking for a website. But there are author newsletters if you want to be able to deliver your news right to people’s inboxes, too. I don’t think a blog is necessary, and if you do decide to have one, know that it’s a lot of work. If you don’t write something most days a week, you’ll never build up a readership. If you don’t want to devote the kind of time a blog takes, make a nice website instead. And I don’t think any of this is necessary until you have a book contracted for release.

Hope that helps!

Please add to the list at the original Questions post here.

Shelley Tougas asked:

Has Hollywood come knocking yet? I think SSC is ripe for adaptation.

I’m so glad you think so! I’m a big movie fan, so I take that as a high compliment. The short and technical answer is no, I have not optioned the book for film, television, or other performance media yet.

Obviously, I’d be thrilled if I did, but it’s not something that is making me lose sleep at night. It’s not something I think of. I’m a writer, and more particularly, a novelist. So I want my books to be books, and I’m happy when they are. And I hope that if my books are made into a movie or a television show or who knows what else, that they will bring new readers to my books.

I have no desire to write screenplays or get into the movie business. I remain undecided about television but there are no current plans there. I’m happy to write books and let Hollywood be Hollywood. If I do someday sell my books to Hollywood, I’m going to take Hemingway’s advice about driving to the border of California and lobbing your book across, grabbing the money, and driving like hell back. My book is my book and I like that.

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I start to answer questions below. Please add to the list at the original Questions post here. And away we go!

Jessica Burkhart asks:

I’m curious about what level of promotion you did for SSG. With a four-book series, did you hire a publicist or handle everything yourself with the help of your publisher? I’m trying to figure out the best approach for me, so I’d love to hear what worked (or what didn’t) for you.

Level Seven. Sorry, Buffy the Vampire Slayer moment.

It’s worthwhile to keep in mind that SSG was not a four book series until a few months ago, when I sold the second two books. I think it’s great to sell the series (and my publisher has been doing an excellent job of that with the connected covers and the excerpts for each subsequent book in the back of the previous), but when I was promoting my first book, that’s what I was doing. Promoting a book. There was only one. Now that there are two, I promote two. When there are three, well, you get the idea.

I did not hire an independent publicist. I considered it, and I even talked to a couple of them. The (very) few who deigned to return my phone calls quoted me outlandish prices. The kind that would pay my living expenses for a year. That was obviously out. I spoke to a couple of writer friends who had hired (cheaper and not so much cheaper) independent publicists and though I got both good reviews and bad, in the end I decided it wasn’t for me. You’re going to have to talk to others about it.

Luckily, I have one of the best publicists in the business right at my own publisher, and she’s been great in helping me develop and implement my book promotion plan, not to mention arranging lots of great opportunities for me. But there’s not much I can speak to there because not only does every single publishing house handle this differently, but every single publishing house handles this differently with every single book. At some houses or with some books, an editor might handle certain aspects, or a publicist, or a marketing department, or the author herself. It all depends.

What works? It depends what you mean by “work.” You’re more likely to get reviews if you send out ARCs, quotes if you ask for them, etc. But if by “works” you mean “works to bring in readers…” then I don’t have a clue. The only thing I can think of that I know “works” is distribution and co-op. People are more likely to buy a book if they see it. So what all those other things, articles and appearances and etc. are designed to do, in my opinion, is to make the book more visible.

But you can make yourself crazy trying to do everything out there that you can do, or spend all your money on the different ways to promote your book, or spend all your time promoting, and none of it writing. Not good. Pick what you want to do based on what is easiest, cheapest (or at least most reasonable), and appeals to you — because it plays to your strengths, or you think it’s fun, or you like it from the consumer side.

I designed and made secret society pins because they were such an important plot point in the books and I thought they’d be fun. My publisher loved them too, and actually incorporated them into the paperback covers. My friend Marianne Mancusi made pins because the cover of her book already had a pin on it. But that doesn’t mean I think “pins work.” It wa somethign I liked that tied in well with my novel. To compare, Marianne is a big fan of MySpace and its networking potential with her readership. But I don’t like MySpace. I have a hard time using it, and I hardly ever go to MySpace pages. So I’ve never gotten into MySpace, even though I can understand that it works for others.

So those are my current feelings about promotion. I love doing the stuff I do, but I think to prevent driving yourself crazy over it, you need to treat your promotional efforts as ends in themselves. Don’t blog because someone has told you to. Blog because you like blogging. Otherwise, you will be disappointed in your effort/results ratio. Same thing when you are looking at the cost/results ratio. Maybe I’ll feel differently when I have more books out, or when I expand into the YA fantasy field in the coming years, but that’s where I’m at now.

Hope that helps!

Don’t forget to keep asking questions at the original question post.