Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get an agent?
What is a query letter?
Can I query your agent?
How do I get a story published?
How do I know if my writing is good enough to submit to an agent or editor?
What made you want to become a writer?
Are your books based on your life experiences and people you know?
Who are your favorite authors?
Do you have a list of resources you'd recommend to writers?
Q: How do I get an agent?
A: There are a number of ways to get an agent. All of them involve doing some research. Look at the Acknowledgements page of your favorite novels. Chances are the author has thanked their agent. Then, do some searching on the Internet about those agents. Do they represent books like yours? Are they accepting queries? Have they sold many novels? Then, check out sites like agentquery.com, or verlakay.com. Verla's forum, especially, has a wealth of collective wisdom and information. Read interviews with agents on blogs and author sites. Go to conferences to hear different agents speak about their preferences, likes and dislikes, what they represent and what they're looking for. Make sure the agent you query represents the type of work you produce!
Q: What is a query letter?
A: A query letter is an initial communication with an agent or editor to see if that agent or editor might be interested in taking a look at your work. Basically, it's an introduction: Hello, lovely agent/editor, my name is Coconut and I've written a dazzling masterpiece titled, Dazzling Masterpiece. Would you be interested in taking a look at the first three chapters? And so on. Don't use those exact words. Check out some writer's forums and Verla's board for examples of some successful query letters.
Q: How do I get a story published?
A: Again, do some research. Check out webzines, magazines, journals, newspapers, etc. that accept the kind of work you produce, then see if they list their submissions criteria somewhere in the publication. Send a query describing your story and who might be interested in reading it (the "market" for it). Make sure to comply with the publication's submission requirements! And, again, go to writer's conferences and take lots of workshops on submitting your work to editors, agents, and magazines, periodicals and other publications.
Q: Can I query your agent?
A: You can certainly query my agent if they are open to submissions at that time, and your work seems like it might be a good fit with what they represent. Make sure to check what they do NOT represent, as well. Unfortunately, I can't recommend anyone unless I feel strongly enough about their work. And for this, I would need to be intimately acquainted with the writing which I just don't have the time for these days. But you could certainly mention that you saw their name on my site or on my Acknowledgments page. Good luck!
Q: How do I know if my writing is good enough to submit to an agent or editor?
A: What a great question! One of the best ways is to get a lot of trusted people to read your work. You don't want people who will say, "I love it!" to everything you produce. While that feels good in the moment, it really isn't helpful for your progress. You also don't want someone who cuts down everything you write without any positive feedback, either. It's a tough balance, but very important.
Look for a writing group or a few critique partners. Look online on forums for writers, at conferences, in writing classes or workshops. After you've shown your work to some honest folks who give you balanced feedback, you'll get more of a feel for whether or not your work is ready to submit to agents and editors. You'll also get a better sense of what others are writing, what works and what doesn't work (far easier to see it objectively in others' writing), and you can incorporate that learning into your own work.
Ask trusted people their opinion about your work and take is as just that--an opinion. If you find that a lot of people are giving you the same or similar feedback, you might want to pay attention. There might something there to learn from.
Q: What made you want to become a writer?
A: Hmm. It wasn't one single thing. At first, it was frustration. Language was really the only way I could defend myself when I was in grade school because I was always one of the smallest kids in class. However, given that English was not my first language, I had to bust my butt to get really good at it. So mastering the language, in the beginning, was about not getting my butt kicked in the school yard. Didn't always work.
After a while, I realized that I LOVED stories. It started with the classic Rumpelstiltskin by the Brothers Grimm, Beverly Cleary's The Mouse and The Motorcycle series, and the old Tiki Tiki Tembo tale. Unlike my daughters, I was never big on the fairytale princess stories. I preferred unusual tales, but I read everything, really--signs, assembling instructions for furniture, warnings on washers and dryers, fine print everywhere.
When I started writing, it was more journally. I poured out my feelings. The blank page became my best friend and sort of a therapist because that's how I untangled my thoughts and feelings. I guess it was a little bit about survival then, too.
I think it was cemented when I heard an author (I think it might have been Toni Morrison) talk about the healing power of stories. I LOVED that. The more she talked, the more I realized how much stories had calmed me, made me feel sane again when I thought I was a little nutty, and dried my tears at different points in my life. I began to see stories as this mist that enters into our bodies and sort of sticks like hairspray to our insides. There, they work a kind of magic. They change our cellular structure and wrap around what hurts and make things whole again.
I wanted to do that, too. That magical power of words is what drives everything I write and pretty much everything I do.
Q: Are your books based on your life experiences and people you know?
A: Yes and no. My books are not autobiographical, but like most authors, I do pull from my personal life experiences and the experiences of those close to me. I write from the emotional truth of those experiences rather than recreating the actual event, and use that truth to infuse my characters and scenes with authenticity.
On the other hand, I have been known to "borrow" the names of family, friends and acquaintances for my characters. However, the characters, themselves, have nothing to do with the person whose name I'm borrowing--I just happen to like their name.
Q: Who are your favorite authors?
A: I have a whole bunch. Mostly, I love books, but some authors could write a note on a post-it and I'd pay good money for it. Here are a few right off the top of my head:
WILD SEED, Octavia Butler (she's someone I'd purchase a scibbled on post-it from)
THE FREE RENUNCIATES Trilogy (from the DARKOVER series), Marion Zimmer Bradley
WOMAN ON THE EDGE OF TIME, Marge Piercy
TUCK, EVERLASTING, Natalie Babbitt
MEAN SPIRIT, Linda Hogan
THE DOOR INTO SUNSET, Diane Duane
BORN CONFUSED, Tanuja Desai Hidier
WHAT THE BODY REMEMBERS, Shauna Singh Baldwin
THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET, Sandra Cisneros
THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, Sue Monk Kidd
ELSEWHERE, Gabrielle Zevin
WILD ROSES, Deb Caletti
JUST LISTEN, Sarah Dessen
BINDI BABES, Narinder Dhami
ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET, Judy Blume
NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH (AND A FEW WHITE LIES), Justina Chen Headley
THE EARTH, MY BUTT, AND OTHER BIG ROUND THINGS, Carolyn Mackler
WHALE TALK, Chris Crutcher
STAR GIRL, Jerry Spinelli
I also have a huge list of non-fiction books I love, including THE FIRE NEXT TIME, by James Baldwin; LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET, by Rainer Maria Rilke; BIRD BY BIRD, by Anne Lemott; ON WRITING, by Stephen King; all kinds of feminist fiction and non-fiction, including the works of Bell Hooks, Audre Lorde, Jeanette Winterson, and Jean Shinoda Bolen, just to name a few.
Q: Do you have a list of resources you'd recommend to writers?
A: Here are a few links to get you started...
Verla Kay's Blue Board (for writers of children's, mid-grade, or teen books)
Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators
Agent Query (great site for getting the scoop on agents)
Children's and YA Author Cynthia Leitich Smith's site (official site features biography, bibliography, articles, great agent/editor interviews, links, etc.)
Publisher's Marketplace (all kinds of info on the market and publishing in general)
www.absolutewrite.com
In addition, Livejournal has some great collaborative authors' blogs with tons of information for writers.