There was a time when I made a practice of rereading my old email on a regular basis — when I got, and sent, significantly fewer messages. The exercise was not unlike rereading old journals, but instead of being a record of private fears, it was a way to examine how I presented myself to the rest of the world, or rather the subset thereof that I was emailing. I haven’t done it in a very long time.

Today as I reread, more than anything else I felt like I was getting a sense for how long it actually takes me to complete a book: researching, drafting, revising, the back-and-forth of editorial comments, copyediting, and, eventually, promoting the finished product.

It was both daunting and comforting.

Daunting because so far it’s always been a more drawn-out process than I wish it were.

Comforting because there’s clear evidence that it is a process which does, eventually, conclude. Though by the time it does, it’s already started again for the next book.

It also happens much farther below the waterline than it once did. And as I saw in my rereading, it takes place largely in emails rather than blog posts. Precisely because I can’t predict how long it will take me to go from idea to book, I no longer like to post a lot about the details of where I am on a project.

But every so often I feel compelled to assure the folks who read this (and remind myself? probably) that I am writing. And not just blog posts, either. Going to turn off the Internet and write some more now.

It turned out that I would also meet Cooper’s legendary editor, Margaret K. McElderry, who had presented her own Arbuthnot Honor Lecture in 1994. I didn’t know much about her, except that her name, as part of the phrase “A Margaret K. McElderry Book,” was on many books I loved. I’m sort of glad I didn’t realize the extent of her fame in the world of children’s publishing; I might have been too intimidated to speak.

As it was, I happily chattered at Cooper and McElderry, who were friendly and gracious. After Cooper’s eloquent lecture and the associated festivities were over, I gave them a ride to the airport. I remember pointing out various sights en route, including the jug-shaped strip club, which amused them both.

So the news of McElderry’s death hit me with a special poignancy. I remembered that Cooper’s lecture had to do with age, and the circle that connects writers and readers. I looked up the full text in Library Literature; you can too if your library subscribes. Here’s a bit from the lecture, “Time and Again”:

We make a circle linking the child we once were, all those decades ago, with the child who will read our stories. It never ceases to amaze me that we are able to do that. Most adult novels, except for really major works, have a relatively short life; they go out of print as they go out of fashion. But a good children’s book can go on for decades and decades; that circle of connection keeps sparking and resparking like an electric circuit, linking the reading child’s imagination with the book written before he or she was born. Linking the child of today with the child that we, the writers, used to be.

R.I.P. Margaret K. McElderry, who made so many of those links possible.

I found a 1996 article that describes her career and influence, published in Library Trends by Betsy Hearne. It’s a long article, well worth reading in its entirety. In PDF: “Margaret K. McElderry and the Professional Matriarchy of Children’s Books.”

Holly Lisle‘s How to query an agent is straightforward and clear. She reminds the querent to always keep in mind that You are asking a favor of a stranger. (I know the word querent is most often used to describe someone asking a question of an oracle, but it’s shorter than “querying writer,” and besides, publishing’s a shadowy and mysterious realm, right?)

Lynn Flewelling writes the informative and modestly-titled Complete Nobody’s Guide to Writing Query Letters, using her own successful query letter as a model. I especially like this insight: “…there is no secret trick to getting published. You can, however, think of the process as a game. Games have steps, rules, and strategy. The better you become at these, the better you can use them to your advantage.”

Miss Snark‘s blog is now defunct, but for quite some time she answered a wide variety of questions about agents and publishing, including one of mine. (I won’t tell you which.) Comb her archives. Much worthwhile information therein.

The inimitable Jennifer Laughran doesn’t always write about querying, but she’s worth reading whatever she’s talking about. Recently she answered the question Do you even NEED an agent?

And if you happen to be meeting an agent in person, Mette Ivie Harrison‘s “How to Approach an Agent or Editor” has some excellent suggestions of conversational gambits.

I would be remiss in ending this post without another seemingly-obvious-but-frequently-ignored reminder: read the agency’s submission guidelines and follow them. I’ve heard multiple agents say that not following the guidelines is the fastest way to get your query deleted unread.

Other posts in this series, in case you missed them: finishing, researching, convening.

Convening, considered as an ing on the way to publishing, means attending conferences & conventions for those involved with books and writing in assorted capacities. Some examples with their primary audiences in parentheses: SCBWI (writers and illustrators for kids & teens), ALA (librarians), NCTE (teachers), KidLitCon (bloggers about children’s & YA literature).

There are many many MANY other conferences out there aimed at writers and/or fans of particular genres: romance, science fiction & fantasy, mysteries. And if you read my blog regularly I’d hazard that you already know of the existence of comic conventions.

All these conventions are places where you can meet people who are involved in publishing. Agents, editors, writers and illustrators often attend and speak at conventions. Sometimes conventions feature manuscript critiques and/or portfolio reviews from industry professionals.

But convening can be worthwhile even if you don’t feel like you’ve Made Important Connections. Maybe you asked an interesting question at a panel. Maybe you met an author you admire and told them so. Maybe at one session you ended up next to a blogger whose site you read religiously and discovered that you like the same obscure snack food.

None of these things might seem that significant, but trust me, they can be. I wrote a post a while ago, Shapeshifting, that looks at how people’s roles in relation to the publishing industry shift, and how one person can even occupy more than one at the same time! (Shocking, I know.)

The subtext of that Shapeshifting post, btw, is Don’t be a jerk. Because in these posts I am erring on the side of stating what might seem obvious to some of y’all, I will say that if you go to conventions in hopes of furthering your writing career, it will help immeasurably if you are pleasant to everyone you meet.

Maybe you’re thinking But conventions cost so much money! I can’t afford to go!

It’s true — some cons are quite an investment. But if you look for cons that are close to you geographically, you can often find great offerings that are relatively cheap. For instance, I attended KidLitCon in 2008 in Portland and thus I didn’t have to worry about travel & lodging costs.

You can also get something of the convention experience online. There are great regularly scheduled writing-and-publishing-related chats on Twitter. I’m most familiar with #yalitchat, but it’s one of many. And lots of people make lists of industry professionals so you can follow as many of them as your level of Twitter zealousness allows. Again in the obvious department, being pleasant is at least as important online as offline, if not more so.

Wait, you might be thinking. Doesn’t researching start way earlier, like, before finishing? Yes, if you mean research that informs your story. In this case, though, I’m talking about market research.

And as I type, it occurs to me that in my first post I neglected to mention perhaps the most important ing of all: reading. It’s so important I was taking it for granted. You’re not gonna try to publish a book without being a reader, right? Read widely and critically. I’m with Richard Bausch on this one: there is no substitute. (Besides, it’s fun, remember?)

Here are a few things to consider when you’re reading with an eye toward the potential market for your work. If the word ‘market’ makes you feel icky, think of it as ‘audience.’

Which publishers produce the books you love?
It’s unlikely that one publisher will be responsible for the majority of your favorites, but take note if there’s a particular company or imprint that keeps coming up as you track titles. It’s an agent’s job* to be an industry expert and know the best places to pitch your manuscript, but it doesn’t hurt if you can eventually say Hey, I really admire some recent titles from Imprint X, do you think my work might be a good fit there?

Which agents represent the authors you love? Look at acknowledgments pages. Authors often thank their agents.

Who edits the books you love? Again, acknowledgments pages are your friend. Authors often thank their editors as well.

Since we’re talking about market research, you might think I’ll tell you to pay attention to trends. I will not.

Don’t worry about trends. Ask yourself what kinds of stories are missing.

Editors and agents will beg you not to try to write to catch a current trend. Keep in mind that books being published today were written some time (sometimes a LONG time) before today. The current trends will no longer be current by the time you’re sending out your manuscript. Instead, as you read, try to identify gaps. If it seems like there’s just nothing out there about Topic X, and you feel passionate about Topic X, perhaps you should consider writing The Awesome Book About Topic X.

Next: CONVENING.

*Yes, I know I haven’t talked about getting an agent yet. That’s coming up in QUERYING.

There are many ings involved along the way to publishing.

Off the top of my head, I can think of several: finishing, critiquing, researching, convening, querying, revising. I’ll say a little bit about each one in a series of posts. And readers, please chime in with ings I’ve forgotten!

FINISHING.

This is essential. You need to complete what you’re writing.  And be aware that it’s extremely unlikely that the first story you finish or the first novel you write will sell. This is okay. You wouldn’t expect the first dress a designer sketches to appear on a runway, or the first sculpture an artist sculpts to have pride of place in a gallery. You may be writing for years and years (and years) before you write something that is eventually published. Try not to worry about this too much. You’re working on your craft.

But it’s lonely out there, you say. I want some feedback! Well, in that case you may wish to seek out another ing:

CRITIQUING.

Some folks loathe critique groups. Some find them vital. Critique groups can be especially useful if you can find (or create) one whose members have a wide range of experience. Folks who’ve been published for some time have knowledge of how the industry has worked for them over the years; folks who are newer to writing bring fresh perspectives. (If you want to create a group, here’s a good set of ground rules to look at from a group I was in back when I lived in Ann Arbor.)

Two great things a critique group can do:

1. Help you learn how to evaluate other people’s work.

Trying to articulate what works and what doesn’t work for you in someone else’s manuscript is an excellent way to train yourself to recognize things to improve in your own writing.

2. Help you get used to having your work evaluated by others.

Getting used to critique isn’t just about developing a thick skin. That’s important. But it’s equally important to see how differently people react to the exact same manuscript.

One person seizes on a detail you tossed in casually and insists that it’s vital to the plot. Another completely ignores what you thought was the best scene. A third suggests a fix for a problem you didn’t know you had.

This, too, is all okay. You’re getting used to what it’s like for people to see things in your writing you had no idea were there.

(This does not stop when you’re published.)

Next: researching and convening!

And a couple other posts I’ve written about publishing that may be of interest:

Publishing, or not, for teen writers

Writing and risk, redux

I feel so future-y. E-future-y, even!

As promised, here are my slides:

As I said during the presentation, the bullet points about each title I highlighted during the trend snapshot piece are absolutely not intended to cover all aspects of a book, simply the trend(s) it represents.

Questions, comments, passionate disagreement — all welcome!

• The new What A Girl Wants post is up! (And I am blushing because Colleen says very kind things about my work in the introduction.) We wrote about the books we wished we’d read when we were sixteen.

• Portlanders! On Saturday, 5/22 I’ll be giving a talk at the Ooligan Press-sponsored Write to Publish conference on “YA Trends And Audience.” It’s at 9 AM, which is counter to the trend of when I like to wake up on the weekend, so I will make sure to be especially caffeinated! Y’all come!

In the U.S., we’re fond of defining people by their occupations. It’s a sort of shorthand; a job title comes with a set of expectations (and stereotypes) that (we like to think) provide some guidance for how we should interact with this person we’ve just met.

In the publishing world, you’re likely to encounter any and all of the following:

– Booksellers

– Editors

– Agents

– Teachers of all sorts, from preschool to postsecondary

– Publishers

– Publicists

– Sales reps

– Reviewers, both print and online

– Designers

– Librarians

– Authors, published

– Authors, aspiring

and of course in young adult publishing specifically, you have both

– Readers, teen

and

– Readers, adult

But it’s not that simple, folks. See, the person you meet today, who appears to be a member of Category X, may shift, like a shapechanger, into Categories Y, Z, or Q — or even occupy several categories at once.

The bookseller who’s also a hotshot agent.

The designer who’s also a talented graphic novelist.

The blogger who’s three posts away from a book contract.

The editor who’s also a well-regarded novelist.

The aspiring author who’ll be on a bestseller list five years from today.

The reviewer whose nonfiction is critically acclaimed.

The publicist whose manuscript won’t be in that drawer forever.

The teacher whose students are even now inspiring an amazing story.

The teen whose fanfics have more readers than many traditionally published authors.

And if you’re reading my site, presumably you’re already aware of the librarian who’s also an author. Trust me, our name is Totally Legion.

Etc. Mix and match; however you combine the elements, you’ll probably come up with a description that fits one or more actual people involved in publishing.

Why point out this phenomenon?

Because you can’t assume that people will stay put.

So when you meet someone new on your literary journey? Try to meet more than just the role they have today.