Of course. When I was about 7 or 8 I seriously wanted to have a horse. I had no idea what I would do with a horse if I actually had one and certainly no thought about a career that had to do with horses; I just wanted one. Desperately. Then I met a horse named Lucy who tried to scrape me off on a tree and I was disabused of that notion. Which is just as well. Other than dancing, I’m really not terribly coordinated.

Then I wanted to be a poet. Or a physicist.

Okay, actually, I *really* wanted to meet Simon Le Bon or John Taylor. There’s no possible career in that, I don’t suppose, but at 14, hey. Dream big, right? I am following them both on Twitter now, so that’s something. In degrees of Kevin Bacon I’m, like, just a few away, right?  And I’ve been in the same room as Neil Gaiman. I talked on the phone once with Clive Barker. I’m practically famous (if you can’t see the sarcasm there, I’m sorry. It’s there, I promise).

Anyway, I went to college. I had a vague idea that I wanted to major in Physics. Seriously. I don’t know why. I suppose it sounded good. I took physics in high school (this was when I live in Mississippi) and I was so bored there I actually typed my physics homework on an old school typewriter. This didn’t translate well to college. So I pretty quickly switched to English, which really wasn’t much better as far as having an associated career that didn’t have to do with flipping burgers. And so I graduated (and am proud to say that I never did work in fast food) and rather lamely followed my boyfriend (now husband) to Miami.

At that point, I just wanted a job. I don’t know that I ever though in terms of a career. I wound up falling (by way of graphic design then technical writing) into web design and ultimately into being an IT manager at AT&T Labs. Um, yeah. That fit me perfectly.

(more sarcasm)

But all that time I kept writing (magazine articles, newspaper reviews, poems, stories…) and mostly getting short stories rejected (I am not all that great at short stories. They’re too hard). Starting novels, starting new novels, starting up YA review websites…

So, really, I guess the answer is no. There really wasn’t another career I ever seriously considered. That said, I don’t know that I can call what I’m doing now a career. That feels so…official. Clinical, maybe. And also something at which you make a decent living. I think I’d call writing a calling. Because it does do that. The siren call of the words, ever spinning around in my head, always looking for a way out.

Um, sorry. I suck at answering questions. Welcome to my brain.

And from @cat_clarke, a fellow YA wordslinger: I think you should tell us about writing snacks and drinks!

Chocolate.

I think that pretty much sums it up.

1)      Is it necessary for one to go to a four year college?

Not absolutely necessary, but recommended. I know writers who have come from all walks of life and all types of careers to become writers: Lawyers, bartenders, artists, you name it.

2)      What skills do you need for this career?

Creativity, writing, patience, more patience, thick skin…

3)      Is there anything that you receive other than money for your job?

Fan mail!

4)      What is this job like? Does it get frustrating?
It takes a lot of alone time, just you in your own head in front of a computer. So you have to be the kind of person who can spend a lot of time by yourself. Like any job, it can be frustrating, though often I find that the frustrations are with things I don’t have any control over.
5)      How much does an average writer make per a year?

No idea, really. It depends on so many factors. There’re also so many different kinds of writing. Newspaper journalists are very different from magazine writers who are different from novelists. This person says it pretty well.
6)      What should one do if he/she wants to further their knowledge in writing?

Pay attention in school, especially all the grammar bits. And read lots and lots and lots. And write — lots!

7)      If you could choose your career again, would you choose this job?

Yep. If you’re a writer, you’re a writer.

8)      Why did you decide to become a writer?

Because there were all these characters running around in my head an they really, really wanted to come out. I’m only kind of kidding. I love writing.

9)      Did you ever have a summer job related to this career?

Yes, actually. When I was at college, I interned at the University Press of Florida as an editorial assistant. I read slush pile stuff, answered mail, etc.

10)  Does the environment change?

Um…no?

11)  What classes should a student take in high school if he or she wants to do something with writing?

English classes. Oh, and learn how to really type, not just hunt and peck.

EDIT: read to the end to find out how you can influence whether or not Mina’s story continues…

I’m going to be honest with you. It kind of pains me, but I think I need to tell you like it is. Is there going to be a third Mina book? I can’t 100% say “no, there isn’t” but the chances are pretty slim.

Let me tell you why so you don’t yell at me because I love you guys and I do SO hate to be yelled at.

One, the publisher (Wizards of the Coast) of the first two books has gone back to concentrating solely on D&D related books. They just plain aren’t publishing other things any more and the Sucks to Be Me books aren’t remotely in the D&D universe (you know, dragons, role playing, high fantasy, etc.). EDIT: to be clear, they aren’t removing the first two books; both are STILL for sale.

Two, it’s nearly impossible to get another publisher to pick up a series they didn’t publish originally. Not completely impossible, but improbable in the same way Douglas Adams might have written in a whale suddenly falling to his death by dropping out of the sky. So, um, you know, not very likely unless you’re a character in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Unless, you know, you guys wanna go out and snap up tons of copies of the 1st and 2nd books Then I’d have some ammo…

Three, as every news article is screaming nowadays, apparently vampires are “over” and “been there, done that” and (pardon the pun) “dead.” Twilight mania has died down and there just plain aren’t a lot of new vampire books coming out. Add that to point number two above, and that’s trouble for Mina.

Four, I’m working on other books now. It takes me anywhere from four to six months to write a new book (or longer, depending). Moving to London put a serious cramp in my writing time late last year and early this year (finally settled in now, thanks for asking ) and while I did write one book last year (which I am happy to announce is going to be coming out in Spring 2012!!), I’ve just started a new project as of this month (April 2011). I want to finish it up before starting on anything else.

Five-ish, Honestly, it’s in my best interest to write a book that I think I can actually get published. I can’t afford to spend months writing something that doesn’t earn me anything (besides which, my husband would kill me, especially since right now we’re carrying both a mortgage for a house in the US we’re trying to sell and exorbitantly high London rent). Writing time also costs me up front since I have to have someone watch The Max. Not that I’m whining  (or whinging as they say here in the UK) since I really love writing, but the economics of things will always come back to bite you.

All that does make me a bit sad, however, since I really love Mina. And I did have more of her story to tell. I had been holding out hope that Wizards might be able to do a third book, but they can’t. I still have hope that somehow I’ll be able to do a third book, but I won’t lie to you and say it’s definitely going to happen.

I will tell you that the third book would involve lots of both Cameron and George and some big decisions for Mina. And it would be set in Europe, most likely France. And have Danger! Thrills! Action! Oh, and lots of embarrassment for Mina because, let’s face it, it does suck to be her sometimes.

So, thank you again for asking. I hope that when I have some new books come out (!) that you’ll pick them up too. And please, keep writing. I LOVE hearing from you!

EDIT Continued: After getting some comments here as well as other places, I am looking into whether or not it is feasible to continue Mina’s story, possibly as eBook short novellas. However, this completely depends on reader interest. IF you would be interested in supporting Mina’s story in this way, please do the following: 1) post here in the comments (or you can email me or use the contact form if you like) and let me know, 2) let me know what kind of ebook readers and/or web sites you use and 3) consider signing up for my newsletter so I can keep you updated if I do continue the story this way. And please spread the word — I really do need to know if this is feasible or not and whether or not people are interested. Thank you!

EDIT Even More Continued…

A short story continuation of Mina’s story has now been posted! If you want to see more, find out how here!

You do?

Glorious!

Here’s the most obvious one: buy their books. If you can afford to, buy them in hardback form, but really any sale will help (it’s not so much the extra money from the hardcover that helps more, though I won’t deny it, it’s the fact that often hardcovers come first and a book won’t necessarily make it to paperback if there aren’t enough hardcover sales, among other related tidbits like that).

As a follow up to that, don’t steal books. Every book you steal HURTS your fav author and this post is about how to HELP them. Because you want more books, don’t you? I know I do. I love books. I write ‘em, but I also read them. And buy them. A lot of people say they only download illegal copies of books to check them out, similar to how they might browse in a bookstore. Well, okay, fine then. IF you download a book illegally, do your perusal and if you like it enough to read it, then go buy it. That’s fair, isn’t it?  Anywho, onward…

Wait, you say. I can’t afford to buy a book! I can’t even afford a stick of gum! That’s okay. Hey, I’ve been there. Here’s where I’d insert a joke about just how poor I was growing up, but it would honestly just depress me AND you, so I’m going to skip it. But it’s true. Anyway, it doesn’t matter if you can’t buy the book. There are still TONS of other things you can do to support your favorite author:

• Get the book from your local library. If the library doesn’t have your fav author’s book(s), ASK for them. Librarians are delightful people and they LOVE this kind of thing. They WANT to know what their patrons want. And book sales to libraries HELP authors. Not to mention, if the library buys the book, you’re helping more people discover that author. And if the copy wears out or the demand is high, the library will buy multiple copies. You can also donate copies of books to your library (hey, they are having budget crunches too).
• Tell your friends. Seriously. Word of mouth is HUGE. I trust the opinions of my friends and tweeps more than I trust some stuffy reviewer in Kirkus (sorry, Kirkus). If you tell just one friend and they buy the book and tell a friend…you get the idea.
• If you have a blog, review the book (heh. particularly if you happen to like it).
• Review the book on book sites, like Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Waterstones and W.H. Smith and …you get the idea. Not to mention Library Thing and Goodreads and Shelfari and…ahem. Like I said, you get the idea. Reviews really do make a difference. Not only are people seeing your opinion and learning more about the book or author, some stores see the number of reviews as a reflection on the popularity of a book. So, they see a book with a lot of reviews and think, hey, perhaps we ought to order more of those…
• Oh, and if you’re a book blogger / book reviewer, please do read this post from Waxman Literary on ARCs. Good stuff. So true.
• If you’re in a bookstore and you don’t see your fav authors book(s) on the shelf, ask that they be carried. Or at least mention it to staff. This works in shops both large and small. They may or may not carry it just because you asked (if you’re not making an actual order), but it at least gets the author’s name / book title some notice. In my personal experience, I’ve seen a store that didn’t have my second book, but they had my first one. When I asked, they said they wouldn’t carry the second one until two people had asked for it by name. Me asking, of course, made no difference. ;P
• Say you’re in that bookstore again. This next suggestion will probably get me the ire of some booksellers, but how about facing out the book(s) of your favorite author? Face front books are more likely to get noticed than spine out books. Hoo! Guerrilla marketing! If you really want to be radical, I suppose you could move them to an end cap (that’s the shelves at the end of aisles). Or, for something less to be frowned on by the booksellers, why not enthuse about your fav author / books to the sales people? You never know — hearing from you how awesome a book or author is may make them want to read the book or promote it themselves to bookstore patrons.

Anyway, that’s some thoughts for now. Anyone else have any ideas? I’d love to hear them. Questions too — I’ll take them.

And me? I think I’m off tomorrow to go buy some books from some of my favorite authors…because I want a world in which books keep coming and coming.

The post that lived here has actually been removed because:

1. It was old and contained information that no longer applies to me or to the general book piracy discussion at large. I had added addendums to it but so much of it was old info that it seemed silly to keep it, and, perhaps most importantly…
2. Pro-piracy (and anti-piracy, for that matter) pundits kept pulling out single sentence quotes from it to try and prove their respective points, disregarding all the other things I had written. I was tired of being mis-represented. I can’t delete all their links, but I can at least prevent new ones. Lastly…
3. I really don’t know what I think about book piracy. It’s a many faceted beast and there are no easy answers no matter what proponents of either side of the debate say.

Anyway, now that you’re here, feel free to stick around and learn about me and my books or short stories. Or not, as the mood strikes you. Either way, have a good day and keep reading.

So, you know, go check it out. Tell me what you think. Agree? Disagree?

That’s a good question because character names are vitally important to a story. Actually, I should say they “can be” since I’m sure there exceptions out there, but in general, what you name your character is very important. A character named Rebecca or Judith, for instance, gives a different impression than one named Brit or Candy. Or what about a character named Zachariah versus one named Puck? And there are tons of names that are loaded with meanings both literal and via connotation.

There are lots of ways that work for me, depending on the character. I often use online baby name and research sites (like the US Census one), especially the ones where you can either look up a name by decade (if I’m writing in a particular time period) or where you can look up names by their meaning. Of course, I also use names that mean something personal to me or have a meaning specific to the particular thing I’m working on.

Mina (of course) was named after Mina Harker from Dracula. George was a small character that grew into a big one — I randomly named him after my typewriter (yes, you read that right…when I was in high school, I had an old manual typewriter that I called “George” after the cartoon with the large furry dude that would say “I’ll love him and squeeze him and call him George!”) and the name was just his, so I didn’t rename him after he became a much bigger character.

I’ve also named characters after family members (Cameron is the name of my nephew and Natalie, the main character in the book my agent has right now, is a niece). I’ve also been known to ask readers for name suggestions and have contests to name characters as well (though, ultimately, if they suggested a name I hated, I wouldn’t be able to use it). Melly is the name of one of the characters in the Cat Girl book and it was a name someone suggested in honor of a friend of theirs that had died.

Raven I had named because, well, she was the ultimate Goth girl. Or, rather, she thought she was. I’m sure her real given name is something much more mundane, perhaps like “Sue” or “Cassandra.” That would actually be an interesting question to pose to readers — what do you think Raven’s real name is? The name her parents gave her? Because she surely picked out the name “Raven” herself.

The names we choose for ourselves are just as important, if not more so, than the names we are given. When I was a teenager, I pretty regularly wanted to be anyone but myself. And I’ve never really liked my name. Heck, there were five Kimberly’s in my fifth grade class. So I would invent names for myself, the strangest of which was probably “Brazil” but there was also my brief stint as someone called (awfully enough) “Amber Rose” (though I should note that “Rose” is my real middle name). No offense to anyone named Amber. It’s a nice enough name, but “Amber Rose” sounds like someone very soft in an almost surreal way. That’s not really me.

Anyway, that’s one reason why I pay a lot of attention to the nicknames that my characters both choose for themselves and for others. It’s not just their “real” names that are important. Mina is the queen of nicknames, after all. And they both say something about her as well as the people she is nicknaming.

Of course, really, it’s all me…but that’s another story, right?

In the continuing saga of “how I got an agent” this goes under the heading of coincidences and juxtapositions. So, remember how I was interviewed on NPR by Margot Adler (squee!)? And Margot loved my book? Well, Larry happens to live in Margot’s building and was riding the elevator with her one day. She told him about my book and how it was her favorite out of all the vampire books she’d read (75 at that count). So he checked it out. And he liked it. So he sent me an email to ask if I had an agent.

Let me stop and tell you a bit about Larry here. He used to be the CEO of Time Warner Books before he started an agency. He was named the 2005 Publishing’s Person of the Year by Publishers Weekly. He’s worked with James Patterson and Dean Koontz and Nicholas Sparks and Donald Trump and all kinds of other authors that I can hardly imagine saying my name in the same sentence with. There’s more, but that gives you a hint.

So even though I was overall happy with my agent, I thought I at least ought to give the man a listen. He came out to Chicago and we went to dinner (I have to give a plug for Phil Stefani’s 437 Rush here…it was awesome AND the maître d sang opera!) and talked. And we clicked really nicely. He read some of my new stuff (like the book I’m working on now) and I just really felt we connected and were on the same page (and no, that’s not a publishing pun…okay, maybe it is).

So I made the big decision to switch agents. Which is not something I’d ever thought I’d be doing. Honestly, you get an agent and you’re just so HAPPY to have one you want to do a dance. I never thought I’d be switching unless we had serious creative differences, which we didn’t.

Anyway, I’ll still be working with Tamar on the rights for the first two books (she’s still working on selling foreign rights on Sucks to Be Me and Still Sucks to Be Me), but all the new stuff will be with Larry, provided everything works out okay. And I think it will. I’ve got a good feeling about it.

In completely other-ish personal news, I’m going to China. It’s official today since the Chinese Consulate granted my visa (whew!). We’re going to be in Shanghai for two weeks, so if you don’t see a lot of blog posts or anything through the first part of April, that’s why! I also (obviously) won’t be able to check my PO Box either, so any bookplate requests will have to be taken care of after we get back.

There will, of course, be pictures.

Here’s one that was to an agent and was more or less a “cold call” — I didn’t know them, hadn’t met them, and didn’t have any personal connection to draw upon. If I did have a connection to draw upon (like being a recommendation from an author I knew, etc., I would have included it as the first paragraph.

Oh, and the title of the book originally (as you can see below), was This Bites. Lots of things have changed since then (total word count, Mina’s age, the number of pageviews YABC gets, you name it. This was back in 2005.)

——————————————————–

Dear [Agent Name]:

“So, I know what you’re going to say. ‘Mina, don’t be silly. Your parents don’t really want you dead.’ But, see, that’s where you’re wrong. Dead wrong. My parents are vampires and now…now, I have to figure out if I want to be a bloodsucker too and continue the family tradition. So don’t tell me you’ve got issues. I’ve got issues.”

Right before her eighteenth birthday, Mina is given an unexpected decision: to suck or not to suck? What to do when you’ve got bigger things to worry about, like finding true love (or at least ‘true like’), finding a date for Prom, and finding yourself? Complicated by required vampire lessons (Geez, vampire homework? What next?) and field trips, love triangles (or is that squares?), and a sardonic but lovable uncle, Mina manages to find some meaning in it all and work out for herself what’s right for her, fangs or no fangs.

This Bites is a completed 57,000 word young adult novel targeted towards readers of Meg Cabot, Daniel Ehrenhaft (his comments so far on my novel, after reading the first few chapters: “You have something really cool here!”), and Sarah Mlynowski. Told in the first person, the tone is light, sarcastic, and comic (similar to the snarkiness of Lulu Dark) — this is no blood and guts vampire novel. Two additional books in the series are planned: This Bites: France Sucks (Mina visits France as a Student Vampire Ambassador, despite the fact she can’t speak French) and This Bites: Vampire U (Mina goes to Vampire college).

You might know me best as my alter-ego, the Young Adult Books Goddess from Young Adult Books Central (www.yabookscentral.com), one of the leading YA lit sites on the Internet with over 160,000 pageviews a month. I have been a reviewer of YA books since 1998 and I specialized in children’s and adolescent literature in college. I regularly work with authors, publishers, and publicists in the genre and consider myself a well-read, if exhausted, individual (I receive approximately 200 – 300 books to review a year).

Per your guidelines, I have enclosed the first 10 pages of my manuscript and an SASE. I look forward to hearing from you. I can be reached via e-mail at kim@yabookscentral.com or via telephone at (xxx) xxx-xxxx.

One question I had was when trying to get published what is the best approach, take one finished novel in or make a bunch of short stories or both? Or perhaps an entire book series would be best?

I thought I’d answer it here as the answer’d be kind of long for a comment thread.

First off, let me once again say that this is just my own opinion. And we all know that saying about opinions…at any rate, if you troll around on the web, you’re sure to find more opinions on this.

Personally, based on my own experiences and from what I’ve gleaned from agents and editors, it’s best for first timers to start out with a completed (polished as much as possible) manuscript that stands on its own, even if it is part of a projected series.

Why? Well, as a first timer, they have no idea whether or not your book is going to sell. So they don’t necessarily want to commit to an entire series. I’ve even heard that you shouldn’t even mention that your book is the first in a series, even if it is is, in your query. I totally broke that rule in mine, though I kept the mention brief and stressed that the book stood alone (if anyone wants me to post my query up, just ask). When my publisher did decide to take a chance on me, they included an option in the contract for follow up books, but bought the book as a standalone. I understand that is pretty common (though we’ve all heard about the exceptions).

So, what about short stories? I’ve definitely heard of a lot of people breaking in through the short story market and it is an excellent way to hone your skills (good short stories are TOUGH). But…the short story market is shrinking all the time. Magazines and websites close up every day it seems (iz sad) and the pay for short stories is really, really tiny. I’ve made as little as $10 on a short story before (and yes, that was in a print magazine). Anthologies of short stories don’t tend to sell that well (from what I understand) unless there are some big name headliners on it. So, in short, not an easy way to break in.

Personally, I’ve also found that the time spent on short stories and marketing them is better spent for me on a longer book. But your mileage may vary.

So…next I probably ought to blog about my thoughts on what’s best to follow up with, eh? I’m working on that now.