saskatoonauthor

Foreign rights are a big part of publishing - the Frankfurt Book Fair is a foreign rights fair - everything gets pitched to publishers by agents and it's a waiting game to see if a book deal can come of it. Literary agents don't need any motivation to sell, really, it's an issue of what a particular book had sold in its country of origin and whether a publisher sees there would be any opportunity for that same book to sell in their own country.

A lot of that has to do with our literary agents selling the foreign rights to our books. I think we'd all love to be published in Italy!!!

Authors, what do you think has been overdone, and what do you think are the up and coming trends in YA? Overdone would be anything featuring a love triangle - the YA Bluewater reading group made that abundantly clear when I visited them in September. I think vampires are done like dinner as well as shape-shifting werethings and the girls who love them. I'm starting to think that "disease of the week" stories fueled by the success of The Fault in our Stars are done. Dystopian stuff is done. Zombie stuff isn't done - everyone loves a good story with zombies. Post-apocalyptic is far from done, I think. Contemporary is making a big splash this year. I think bona-fide mystery stories could become the next big deal. Horror is growing in popularity ... and ... I think that urban fantasy is actually losing its luster in YA due to the fact that it has been co-opted by paranormal romance.

Thanks, all. Yes there is a third and final book I've outlined - would be happy to write it if Strange Chemistry asks about a third one. Lots can happen in publishing - so it's possible but not a certainty.

I did have a young adult as a sounding board for my book POLTERGEEKS - my daughter Mary-Kate. I dedicated the book to her,actually. I wrote the sequel STUDENT BODIES without really seeking her input because by then, I knew I'd captured a genuine teen voice. Another project my agent is currently shopping was done without her help as she's not a huge zombie fan. Am I an avid reader? Yes - I read every day before I go to bed. And I generally read what I like to write, so urban fantasy in all its incarnations. I just finished Ben Aaronovitch's BROKEN HOMES and right now I'm reading one of Simon R. Green's Ghosthunter books.

Not a problem

Good questions. I know writers who use their smartphone as a notepad, some use their voice recorder to record ideas and some just use a small pocket note pad to scrawl down their thoughts. For me, I have an 8 GB flash drive that is about 1/3 full now. It's filled with ideas, paragraphs, partial chapters, openings ... you name it. That's my ideas drive where things I'm tinkering with wind up - I go back to it on a regular basis for ideas for new projects. For example, a YA Zombie Apocalypse novel my agent is now beginning to shop started out as a chapter on that flash drive. So really, every writer is different in what they use but I think it's a good sign that you want to record these ideas down because that shows you're taking writing seriously. Are there days when no writing happens? Yup. Usually when I'm distracted by a good football match - but I try to keep that under control. Writing is a craft - you must always be writing to hone your craft. I think with the self publishing phenomenon the craft aspect of writing is going town the toilet as writers rush to get their project up on Amazon, complete with eye bleedingly terrible cover art. My recommendation for someone starting out is my one hour/day rule. Sit down and write ... something . anything for one hour a day. Do this for one month. If you can commit that hour each day to writing for 30 days and you still feel the same about writing, then you've now introduced the concept of strict discipline in terms of a daily writing regime to your life. Now you're well on your way. I can't speak for other authors .. for me, I create characters that are usually an amalgam of characteristics from people I know. So I don't have one character is really my friend George. That character has aspects of George, Barb, Larry, Pete and Tom. And sometimes I just come up with characters off the top of my head. I'm a firm believer that character development is a natural extension of the flow and pace of your writing. When you;re digging into a manuscript .... you just, I don't know .... you just get into a groove. The story works. The words are flying out of your brain and into your word processor. That's when you are actually at your most creative and for me, that's where most of my characters come from.

Actually no. Whether or not a book three happens will depend entirely on Strange Chemistry and if they ask for one.

Glad you got a kick out of it!

I think it exists in such a massive amount because: 1) The YA market is driven by female readers 2) Publishers think that's what they want to read. 3) Sales figures would suggest that in a lot of cases, the publishers might be right.

Hi Chrissy: I write urban fantasy and POLTERGEEKS is about teen witch Julie Richardson, her dorky boyfriend Marcus who secretly carries a torch for her and a race against time to save Julie's mother from the nasty business of having been on the receiving end of a dark spell that rips her soul from her body, leaving her in a supernatural coma. There's poltergeist activity going on all over town and it's linked to a puppet master working in the shadows - someone with a keen interest in Julie and her powers. The sequel, STUDENT BODIES is a very dark book - someone has tried to kill one of the most popular kids in school - that's how the book starts out. He's covered with soul worms: supernatural larvae that feed on the victim's humanity. There's a plot to kill all the kids at school during the upcoming Christmas dance, and Julie has to enlist the help of some powerful friends to save them. I wrote both books specifically for that age group. There is some mild swearing, no sex and a heck of a lot of action from the first page on in both books.

It's an old book but probably the best I've ever read: War Day by Whitley Strieber and James Kunteka: http://www.amazon.com/Warday-Whitley-Strieber/dp/0446326305/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380888564&sr=8-1&keywords=warday

I live in Canada - I have a day job. First rule of being a published author: don't quit your day job because the vast majority of us don't earn out on our advance on royalties. I go to work at 6AM. I am up at 3AM to write for two hours each day. I do this every day. That's the other thing about getting published - you have to write every day because if you don't, you won't. Let's say you finally complete your manuscript. Cool. Now sit down and write it again after you've printed it off and gone through it with a fine toothed comb. Once that's done, you've got a second draft. Now get a group of beta readers - two or three - people who are not family members or friends - people who will be objective. Give them your manuscript. Then after a couple of months take a look at their notes and recommendations. Now take a look at your manuscript. What can you change? What should you change? Are you showing and not telling? Are there grammatical and punctuation errors littered throughout? Fix them all. Then when you are completely satisfied that it is a clean story, you need to draft a query letter and find an agent. I don't want to slam the self-publishing option because a lot of people are doing it these days but the vast majority of self published books are crap. Poorly edited, poorly conceived, badly written. I recommend finding an agent because of two things: 1) They have professional resources that will help you become a better writer 2) They have access to royalty paying publishers with distribution worldwide. Oh ... and they have an interest in selling your project because that's how they make their money - they get a percentage. They also provide guidance, insight, support, encouragement ... AND they know the market better than you could ever hope to. So yeah .. find an agent. Once that's done and your project sells ... you sign a contract and you work with your editor revising your project under a strict time frame. Then you have to promote it like crazy and hope for the best once the day of publication arrives.

Exactly, Michelle. If YA exists now, it exists because someone saw the value in writing books for teens. If it didn't exist now, young people would be reading everything else that's out there and ... well ... who says they aren't reading everything else that's out there?

Bullying is featured prominently in my new novel STUDENT BODIES.