I’m feeling extremely author-like this week. I lunched (lunched – that sounds so New York) with the Wonderful Cynthia Leitich Smith on Wednesday. On Friday, I stuck a few query letters to agents in the mail. And on Saturday, I attended an SCBWI meeting, followed by conversations with Jo Whittemore and Don Tate, and coffee with April Lurie and Brian Yansky.
This is probably the first week in a few months that I’ve actually felt like a real author. I need interaction with other people in the industry. I love Mrs. V, but she’s not necessarily the best person to talk to when I want to debate about the stigma associated with edgy YA fiction or the merits of publishing a novel as Adult versus YA.
I was supposed to read three books over the holidays, but due to my manuscript deadline, I only made it through one – Brian Yanksy’s My Road Trip to the Pretty Girl Capital of the World. I really enjoyed this novel, mainly because there was no true “right or wrong”. All of the characters were beautifully flawed, which seemed to make the novel that much richer to me.
Concerning the agent search – I probably won’t put too much here on the blog about it, although I’ll be sure to let you guys know if and when I sign with an agency. On the off chance that a potential agent reads this blog, I don’t want him or her reading how I’ve been rejected by 30+ agents, if it gets to that (Lord, I hope it doesn’t get to that). I will say that I’m taking it slow, only sending out a few queries at a time. There are a lot of good agents out there, and there are a lot of bad ones as well. I really want to take my time, and find out as much as I can about an agent before I sent them a query. Signing a contact with an agent is like a marriage. My last one ended in divorce, so I’m a little more cautious about heading to the altar again.
Let’s hope that the next union results in the pitter-patter of YA novels being sold throughout the country. Or at least throughout Texas.
Good luck with the agent search!
Funny, I never thought of there being a stigma attached to edgy YA…my own YA stuff is not generally edgy, & I’ve always worried that I won’t be taken seriously by anyone in the YA community because of it! (Or even get published at all.) But isn’t it great to have all these cool literary folks around here? I’m going to miss this environment!
Thanks for the comment on my blog, and sorry I missed talking to you, also! (But… SOONERS?! Take a good look at that beautiful burnt orange towner with that big shiny #1 on it…can the Sooners offer that? 😉 )
So sorry that our conversation only amounted to: Hi and bye. It was great seeing ya though. I had birthday party duties so was in a rush to get some books and get home as to keep myself out of trouble.