First off, thanks to everyone who participated in last month’s chain! It was really fun.

While thinking up this month’s prompt, a miracle happened. I didn’t procrastinate it to the last minute. Insanity, I know. This prompt was inspired by a guest blog post someone did on my blog in the past, which I really enjoyed, and I thought it might be nice for all of us to try the same thing. Without further ado, here is the highly-anticipated (yes, I’m going to exaggerate) topic:

Choose your favorite of any of your own characters. Conduct a ten question interview with him or her.

Please make sure that you choose one of your OWN characters, not someone else’s. It doesn’t have to be your MC, just any character who you’re fond of. The interview is meant to be fun and also show that character’s personality. You can ask your character as many questions as you want. Make sense? If you want an example, I was thinking of something along the lines of this.

I feel like I should ramble on but I don’t know what else to say. Hmm… This prompt is pretty self-explanatory… If you have any questions or concerns, just let me know. As always, comment here to join the chain. If you can’t post on certain dates, please specify which. Oh yes and since I’m not nearly as efficient as Allegra with giving you all the blog chain schedule, I’m not going to comment on posts or email you all with it. Just check back here on our “blog chain” page to find the schedule. It will be updated, I promise.

And as a reminder to any of you who wants to get involved in the publishing process, our zine, The Trivial Typewriter, wants your submissions!

The Trivial Typewriter is made up of original and odd fiction by young people—anything with that crazy, unexpected, humorous, or macabre twist that makes a story unforgettable. Although the zine comprises work by people in their teens and early twenties, it’s designed to be enjoyed by all, young and old.
In addition to fiction, we’re accepting artwork for our cover contest and proposals for articles pertinent to teen writing.
Submissions are now open and will be for the rest of the year.  We’re unable to offer payment at this time, but the zine is free, and your work might be showcased along with other great young talent. Don’t be afraid to submit work: even a rejection is another step closer to an acceptance.
For more details, you can check out The Trivial Typewriter’s website.

And that’ll do for today’s rambling.

Hi everyone!

My name’s Kate, and I’m an 18-year-old writer from Salt Lake City, Utah. John asked if I would stop by to talk about the PUSH Novel Contest. Run in conjunction with the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the PUSH Novel Contest is the only (as far as I know) novel contest aimed at students in grades 7-12. I won it my junior year of high school and I cannot speak highly enough of the Scholastic team.

Generally speaking, one Novel contest winner is chosen each year from thousands of applicants. There were two winners my year, but no winner the year before, so it really depends on the quality of the application pool. Winners receive a month-long paid summer internship at Scholastic in NYC, invitation to the award ceremony at Carnegie Hall, and, most importantly, the chance to work with an editor at Scholastic to polish the submitted manuscript. Once through with revisions, Scholastic will decide whether or not to acquire and publish it. This is where PUSH differs from other Novel contests (in a good way). With, for instance, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, winners are given a boilerplate contract with Penguin. This contract has certain clauses that aren’t in the author’s favor, and there’s no possibility to negotiate advance or the acquisition of certain rights. PUSH doesn’t guarantee publication of the winning entry. However, they will work with you for as long as it takes to get the novel ready, and if/when they decide to purchase it, you can negotiate the deal as you would any other offer of publication (this is where an agent comes in handy).

After winning the PUSH Novel Contest I wrote a second book, which I sent out to agents during my senior year of high school. I had a very high request rate based on my query letter, part of which I attribute to having PUSH as a writing credential. I ended up with six offers of representation and chose to sign with Edward Necarsulmer IV of McIntosh & Otis. Since then, Edward and I have been preparing my second book for submission to editors, while I continue to revise Book #1 with my editor at Scholastic Press (Jody Corbett). Last summer I spent a month in New York City completing my internship at Scholastic. For lack of a better description, it was awesome. I basically got paid to sit around and write my own books seven hours a day, which, as I’m sure many of you can imagine, is pretty much a writer’s dream job. I also got an inside look at the editorial process. By the end of the month I felt like a publishing insider, having witnessed the steps of writing an editorial letter, drafting initial reader reports, and going through the dreaded slush pile. Plus, since Scholastic publishes Harry Potter, I got to see the eighth and final Harry Potter movie at a special employee screening before it came out .

With valuable experience under my belt, I decided to start a freelance editorial company with my writer friend Taryn. We critique YA and MG manuscripts for aspiring authors. Teen Eyes (http://teeneyeseditorial.blogspot.com) launched in August, and I attribute much of its success to my time at Scholastic, because having gone through such an internship lends credibility to my business. So far it’s been a very successful venture, and Taryn and I plan on attending BEA this June in order to further promote it.

So there you have it. I’ve come a long way in the past year and a half, and all of it (my editor, my agent, my internship, my freelance business, etc) can be traced back to the PUSH Novel Contest. It’s such an amazing opportunity for middle and high school students who want careers as writers. The deadline for 2012 is February 17, and submissions must include an outline as well as the first 50 pages (3-5 chapters). Scholastic has done absolutely amazing things for my career and I would recommend this contest a hundred times over! If you have any questions, you can visit my blog at http://katecoursey.blogspot.com.

Thanks for having me, John!

The Trivial Typewriter is a collection of fiction, interviews and articles all written by teens. But this is not just another “by teens for teens” magazine, because who reads those, anyway? Our mission is to show the world that yes, teens CAN write. The Trivial Typewriter, though done by teens, is not just for our teenage peers, but for everyone else as well.

As of today, submissions are open and will stay open year round. We want you to show us what you’ve got. We want to be awed and shocked ourselves by your stories so that our readers will, too, be awed and shocked. All of the information is on our website. Keep in mind that you can submit as many pieces as you want as long as each one is put into a seperate email, so one rejection will not end your chances of ever getting published in The Trivial Typewriter. Keep in mind that rejections don’t reflect the quality of your writing. They only show whether or not the piece was right for the particular editor you submitted it to. I like to think of a rejection as a step closer to an acceptance. For you teen artists, we also have an art contest for our magazine cover each issue. Submission guidelines for art as well as fiction are on our website. Please read the guidelines carefully.

So, we’re asking that any TCWT-er interested in getting published in this zine to submit your short stories to us! Again, complete guidelines are on our site.

If you’re feeling kind today, we’d really appreciate if you put our logo in your blog sidebar, linking back to our site. The logo can be found here:

Questions? Comments? Concerns? We’re excited to read your submissions!

Amongst holidays, midterms, and general writer-ly business, it’s been quite the busy time for us here at TCWT, but our January blog chain managed to pull through and now it’s time for another round. I’ve been musing over what our theme should be this month, even though the answer seemed obvious: February? Valentine’s Day? Romance? I thought perhaps this was overly clichéd, but we’ve had a few requests for a romance-themed chain, so why not? Our prompt for February is (drumroll please)…

What are your thoughts on romance for your typical genre? Do you tend to have a little, a lot, or none at all?

If you write lots of romance, TCWTers, then this post will be easy for you. If you write, for example, crime/mystery (yes, I’m absolutely talking about John), then you can spend an entire post talking about how horrible romance is. You can take it either way, so we’ll have quite a variety of posts. And it will be quite entertaining to see whether the poster on actual Valentine’s Day is pro- or anti-romance.

As always, all you have to do to sign up is leave a comment below!

We also hope to be able to promote each blogger in the blog chain and each active follower of this blog through Twitter, and if you need anything you want tweeted out, we’d be happy to spread the word. Just let us know! We only got the account about 15 minutes ago so we won’t be much use yet, though. We also hope to create a Facebook page, too, in the near future.

In the meantime, give us a follow if you’re on Twitter and enjoy the blog chain!

— John

Thanks to all who participated in last month’s blog chain and thanks to Allegra for hosting it! It was pretty awesome.

I procrastinated choosing a topic until about now so this idea is more spontaneous than anything and not half as good as last month’s but…. here it goes:

What are examples of books you’ve thrown across the room with force? Why did you throw them?

If you have never thrown a book across the room with force, then describe a couple books that you almost did because you were so furious about a disappointing ending, horrible characters, grammar, etc. I’m sorry if this only applies to me because I have a book in mind that angered me so much I almost threw it out the window. I ended up chucking it against the wall where it nearly missed my lamp but… that’s a story for my post…

So is this topic moderately ok? Do you have any questions about it?

The blog chain will run just as it usually does but I’d like to put another emphasis on commenting on all the posts. I know that I came late to many of you because I’ve been busy (sorry about that) but I’ve noticed only a few people commenting on the wall through. The commenting was strong at first and then it kind of fell apart. If you don’t get to all of the posts that’s okay, but at least comment on the majoriy. Thanks.

The only thing I’m going to add is if you know any other teen bloggers who might be interested in participating who aren’t yet part of the blog chain, please let them know. We’re always looking to expand.

Remember, to enter, all you need to do is comment on this post! Enjoy!

Sitting down to write this post, I realize that there aren’t many tips one can give other than to write a good story, but I’ll try anyway.

1) Write a good story! This is, obviously, number one. Write a good story, re-read it, polish it, put it away for a day or two, re-read it and polish it some more. Make sure that there are no trivial grammatical errors or spelling mistakes and make sure that everything flows as smoothly as possible.

2) Follow the guidelines. This is also essential but not as much, obviously. For whatever magazines you choose to submit to, be sure to read the guidelines carefully and follow every last one of them. Some magazines will reject you without reading your piece if you don’t follow their guidelines.

3) Cover letter. Some magazines will request a cover letter. All this is is a one to two line blurb about your piece, assuming you are only submitting a flash fiction piece or a short story. Cover letters are simple and don’t need to be worried about too much because they won’t influence a rejection or not and that’s why few magazines ask for them.

4) Be courteous and professional. When querying a magazine don’t start by saying something like “hi!!!” with three exclamation points, please or anything like that. You can say “hi” or “hello” of course, but keep the puncuation to one per sentence. Be sure to thank the editor for taking the time to read the submission.

5) Here’s an example of the submission I sent to Crack The Spine (which I recommended you guys try) and got accepted with. My notes are in bold.

Subject: SUBMISSION – Flash Fiction – John Hansen – The Real Cinderella (they requested in their submission guidelines for the subject line to read Submission-Genre-Author Name-Story Title)

Body: Hello.

Thank you for your time and I hope you enjoy this piece.

We all know about innocent, deserving Cinderella who overcame adversity and married the man of her dreams. But we have never seen her like this… “The Real Cinderella” is a rib-tickling comedy complete at 900 words. (Crack The Spine didn’t actually ask for a cover letter but if they did, this paragraph is what the cover letter should look like).

Thank you!

[My story was inserted here. It's actually in their most recent issue which was published yesterday if you want to read it. It's here. Just flip to page seven]

______________________

John Hansen is the author of —–. (I won’t bore you with my bio. If you care about seeing it though I can’t imagine why you would, it’s on my personal blog under the “About” section. The bio is tough for most people. One choice that we, as teens, have to make is whether or not we want to advertise that we are teens. There isn’t a problem with adding it but I tend not to for most ezines and other stuff. It really depends on my mood. For example, I don’t think the editor at “Crack The Spine” knows I’m a teen because I left it out of my bio for that magazine but for others I add it. It’s your choice. A bio isn’t as hard for me to write because I have a few minor publications to add in there but for those of you who haven’t had the chance to publish anywhere, it might be slightly more difficult. If you don’t have any credentials, you can just say:

“John Hansen is the [insert "teenage" here if you choose] author behind of several yet unpublished works. He blogs about [insert topic here] at [insert blog URL here].”

You can do whatever you want with your bio, but remember, don’t lie and make it what you want. If you get published in the magazine, this is what the readers who love your piece will see. Make it what you want.

________________________________________________________

6) Rejection (only if it happens). It sucks, I know, but does it matter? Everyone gets rejected, everyone. Just don’t respond to a rejection letter telling the editor to go ______ himself, okay? Play nice. You don’t even need to respond to a rejection letter. Just don’t let a rejection or 10 rejections get to you! Keep on writing and submitting. Never give up.

And if you get accepted in a magazine, send us an email at TeenRiter (at) gmail (dot) com and we’ll add your bragging rights and link to your publication to the bottom of our next post. Here’s the link to Crack The Spine again: http://www.crackthespine.com

Any questions? Let me know what you thought!

— John

I’ve been thinking about getting all of you to submit to ezines and anthologies for a while and have finally decided to share. But how could I ‘share’? How could I make this easy? Well, I found the cure. I thought that for those of you who are new to this process, I should recommend a place for you to submit to get you started. If you’d like me to, I can make an entire list of good magazines to submit to that aren’t impossible to get into. Just let me know. But for now, I thought I should just give you one magazine to go for: Crack The Spine.

So why did I choose them? For many reasons:

a) I’ve worked with them and my piece will be in next week’s issue!

b) They are a new ezine. This isn’t a bad thing because the stories they publish are all very good, it just makes it easier to get accepted. It’s better to start off with new magazines and then work your way up the ladder.

c) They accept pretty much all genres of writing of all length. You can submit flash fiction (for those of you who don’t know, flash fiction refers to stories that are 1,000 words or less), short stories, or even micro-fiction (500 words or less) of just about any genre.

Although they’re new they still have a good readership and as they grow as a magazines into something popular, you might be able to say that you have a piece published with them!

So, I marked this as “please read” because I really want everyone to read this and comment with your opinion. Really. Everyone. I’d like to know where you stand on this matter, if you think you’d submit to magazines like “Crack The Spine” (linked above), if you want a list of magazines to submit to and I’d also like to know why you don’t want to submit if you don’t want to. Fear of rejection? I can make a whole post on that. Questions?

If there happens to be some interest in submitting to magazines, I will write a post containing tips, probably with Allegra (she’s been accepted in magazines, too!), on how to submit to magazines. You might want to read that before submitting anything. C’mon TCWTers, if you get accepted, you can show the world of our teen writing talent. Teens unite and conquer!

Oh and if you want a laugh, check out these search terms we’ve gotten:

- youll say you love me ill end up lying and say i love you too - I, um, don’t know how to respond to that…

- you make me feel funny inside – Good for you. Too bad I don’t care.

- if you knew me you would understand me like the back of your hand – Sure…

- tell me what you are feeling – No.

- looking for teen blogs to follow – You’ve come to the right place.

- geometry proofs made easy - That’s not possible!

- google docs falling to peaces - Yeah, it’ll do that, but you won’t get many hits by spelling “pieces” wrong.

Her website.

Her blog.

1. What is the wackiest, funniest query you’ve ever received?

I actually don’t talk about my queries, for the most part, except in very vague terms on twitter if I’m trying to give a #Pubtip. At the end of the day, there is a person on the other end of that query. They may be clueless, but there’s a good chance they’ll figure it out along the way. Everyone is a newbie at some point.

Although I should say, my own client once sent me a query about a “citrus fruit who falls peel over heels in love with Russ, a potato from the wrong side of the produce aisle,” and I blogged the whole thing (with her permission) here: http://mandyhubbard.livejournal.com/225747.html?thread=2062035

2. You were a published author before you were an agent. Why did you decide to become an agent? Why did you choose D4EO?

As an author, I often reached out to other writers who were struggling and offered assistance. This industry is so damn hard to break into, I wanted to help others who were weathering rejection like I had. I would often help them rewrite queries, revise their novel, or just give general guidance. Some friends went on to land agents with my queries and eventually sell their novels. At the same time, my writing career was taking off, and my agent was allowing me to have input on submissions. BUT I LOVE HIM was submitted to just three editors of my choosing, and it sold in a matter of days. My own agent was joking that  Ishould be an agent, so when I found an internship, I jumped right in and fell in love.

I connected with Bob at D4EO Literary via another agent, and I’m so grateful I did. Bob is amazing to work with. Really supportive, and knowledgable, and just a generally good guy.

3. What’s the most important thing that authors forget to ask during “The Call”?

These days I feel like authors are  really well informed! They’re always asking such intelligent questions. Many times they forget to ask about how foreign/film/subsidiary rights are handled, and I think that is important. I would also ask about general submission strategies—if they do one big round, two smaller rounds, etc, and whether they keep you updated as news comes in, or whether they send out news in batches, etc, etc.

4. How do you go about reading a query? What do you look for, good and bad? Characters? Plot? Spelling mistakes?

I like to see something really intriguing and enticing about the character, coupled with either a big hook or if it’s a literary novel, something that showcases a strong voice. If it’s literary, and the query is dry and sounds like a thousand other books, I have to pass on it. Small spelling errors don’t bother me, but if I see a repeated mistake (like a lack of understanding on the correct use of a comma), I assume the book is a mess and I pass on it.

5. Can you give us an insight on a day in the life of a literary agent like yourself? How do you personally prioritize your time between family, writing and agenting?

It’s  tough, for sure, to balance my writing an agenting. I have deadlines with my own writing that I don’t want to miss, but I also hate the idea of clients feeling like my writing is a priority over their’s. This means I often get up early (5AM) and work on my book for an hour or three before my real work day starts. Sundays are a good day for writing, too. My husband often goes “on adventures” with our daughter and I work all afternoon.

The slush pile is usually relegated to 30-60 minutes of reading while I eat lunch. If  a project is so good I’m willing to give it more than a lunch break, that’s a good sign. Unfortunately I often power through a couple chapters on a handful of projects, rather than hitting on something really good.

My general duties fill in the remainder of the day. It’s just a lot of emailing and editing, actually. I try to empty my inbox every night, because I don’t like clients waiting more than 24 hours for a response.

6. Nearly every agent has passed on a book that eventually made it big. What was your book (if you feel uncomfortable sharing the title, please give us a genre, possibly a publisher, and how it is doing in today’s market)? Why did you pass on it? How far did it get with you (partial, full, etc.)? Do you regret your decision?

I have two projects that I think of from time to time, one that I offered on and lost, and one that I passed on that sold big. I was one of the fortunate agents to read Genn Albin’s CREWEL, and it’s simply spectacular. Really ground breaking, amazing writing, exciting twists and turns. I had just started reading it when she emailed to say she had an offer. I think she ended up with about six offers, and she signed with an agent who flew to Kansas City to meet with her. (Yeah, it’s THAT good.). It sold in a major deal to FSG. I would have loved to be a part of that, but I’m also just happy to have been one of the first to read it, and I’m excited to see her career begin. I got to have dinner with her recently and she’s as sweet as can be, and she deserves the success.

The second project, which shall remain nameless, I really enjoyed, but didn’t fall head over heels for. It was actually a writer friend. She signed an agent about a month later, and the book sold in a major deal as well, to Harper. I think every agent has that “D’oh!” gut reaction, but then we realize that we just weren’t the right agent for that writer. They found someone passionate about their book who clearly had a vision we didn’t share.

7. Imagine 5 make-believe query letters. Think of one that you would accept and four that you would reject. Don’t tell us what the query letters say, but briefly explain why you would accept or reject them.

I’m dying for a really innovative, high concept Sci-Fi. I already have something with spaceships, so maybe something a little more grounded. As for the other four, I’m passing on all things vampire, werewolf, and angel, so there are three for you. The fourth? A query in which the author calls the characters “youngsters.” That just smacks of being out of touch with your demographic, to me.

8. We know a lot about the author/agent side of publishing. How does the agent/editor part work?

It’s actually really fun to be on the other side. Writers work REALLY  hard at every level, including revisions. I rather like seeing an editor’s revision letter and then NOT having to do the work! J It’s nice to be part of the business side. Sometimes I just get to fangirl with an editor about my client’s work, and that’s pretty amazing too.

It’s a lot of cultivating relationships and keeping spreadsheets. Not as glamorous as one might think.

9. What do you think about representing a novel that was previously self-published? How important are “first publishing rights” if the author has completely removed the novel from the market and/or internet prior to querying an agent?

First publishing rights are really not an issue. That’s kind of a dinosaur term. The issue is whether the book sold well. If it didn’t, it can hurt you. And if it sold SPECTACULARLY well, a publisher may be afraid you’ve tapped the market already. I do represent previously self-published titles, and one recently went on submission. It’s not necessary to remove it from the internet prior to querying, no. Assuming the book is doing well.

10.  You got published at a young age. When did you begin writing seriously? Was it your first novel that got published? What advice or tips would you give to young authors like yourself?

I started writing at 20, and wrote a half-dozen novels. It wasn’t until age 23 that I decided I wanted to be published. That book was called THE BROKEN ROAD. I queried 12 agents and got 1 requuest, which turned into a rejection. I got an agent with the next book, THE JETSETTER’S SOCIAL CLUB, but that book didn’t sell. It was the third book after becoming a ‘serious writer’ that got me published: Prada & Prejudice.

I think the key is just writing, revising, writing, revising, and working as hard as possible on your craft. It can take years. Or, if you’re my client Jessica, it can be the first book you ever write, and it can sell at auction. You just never know.

11.  Any new books (of yours) in the works?

My next release is IN TOO DEEP, under the pen-name Amanda Grace. It comes out in February, followed by DANGEROUS BOY in August.

But anyway, with this, “The Genre Challenge” was born. I decided to share this with all of you and we could have a TCWT group challenge to anyone interested. It won’t take long for you to write a piece for this challenge and will be really fun (and funny for us to read). I’l try to make this as simple as possible. If you want to participate, leave a comment saying so and include the genres you typically write. You can challenge one of us or wait for someone else to challenge you. If you comment, you must accept your challenge and if you are challenged, you must challenge back. Is this making sense? Your stories are due by Saturday night. Please email them to TeenRiter (at) gmail (dot) com by Saturday night and include the person or people who challenged you. If you feel like it’s good enough to submit somewhere, please say so and it won’t go up on this blog, it will just be forwarded to the person who challenged you so it won’t damage your submission. If you don’t plan on submitting this anywhere, please put your story in a blog post of your own. If you choose this route, you won’t have to email the completed version to us, just a link to where it can be found. We will make a post Sunday morning with a link to each of the participant’s posts. Rememeber: you can post your story anytime as long as it’s before Saturday night. In your post, please link back to this post right here. Thanks.

Questions? Everyone participating, comment away. Oh and you can’t be challenged more than twice.

I’ll go first with the info. I can be challenged multiple times, remember.

John: I write YA, mysteries, thrillers, horror, and crime fiction.

Then Allegra: writes YA, fantasy, adventure, macarbre and paranormal (I think).

To make the challenge, challenge each person with a genre opposite what they normally write. Don’t forget to include a setting and time period!

_____________________________

Teen Writing News:

So, recently, we’ve gotten some pretty awesome writing news from teens right here! I’m going to take this time to share them. If you have any news that isn’t here, let me know. Always let me know when something awesome happens to you in your writing career and I’ll post it here. So for now, here’s what I have. Please congratulate them if you haven’t already!

Miriam - Well, congrats to Miriam! Her piece has made it to an anthology! More info here. Step #1 in her writing career complete!

Allegra - She doesn’t know I’m posting this and I hope she doesn’t get angry, but her short story recently got accepted into a popular lit mag published by Black Lantern Publishing! Show her some love!

Missy - She’s new to us but she’s pretty darn awesome! She was approached by Trestle Press about possibly publishing with them! Who knows what’ll happen, but that’s so awesome that she is wanted by publishers! Congratulate her!

Me - Some minor stuff. Nothing you’d care about. Read my bio on my personal blog if you really care, but it’s not a big deal.

If anyone else has any writing news worth sharing, shoot me or Allegra – whoever sees it – an email at TeenRiter (at) gmail (dot) com

- John