Ashley Wood
asked
Shannon Messenger:
Hi! I love your books! I am currently trying to write an original novel (I'm sixteen) and I was wondering if you have any tips? I want to publish before I turn twenty and need all the help I can get. :) Thanks!
Shannon Messenger
Yay for loving my books. And yay for wanting to be a writer!
It's funny, the way you framed your question sounds a lot like me.
Mind you, when I was your age I hadn't figured out that I loved writing books yet. I was all about screenplays and getting into the best film school possible and whatnot. But I was very good at putting arbitrary, "By age X I want _____________" kind of goals on my life.
And that's not a bad thing--goals are important. Timelines keep you motivated and pushing pushing pushing. They help the dream feel real and like there's a PLAN for reaching it.
But the one danger to them? It's easy to forget that they're arbitrary. It's easy to forget that no one is actually saying you have to have Thing X by Age Y in order to be a success. That's just you--and it's good to push yourself, but it can also get in your head. It can convince you that you're a failure when really, you're way ahead of the game.
Especially when it comes to publishing. Because here's the thing about publishing: It's sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.
Sure, there are a few stories out there of authors who land an agent in days and sell the book a couple of weeks later. I can't think of very many of those (especially with a first book). But they do exist.
But even if you're one of those lucky ones--did you know that after you sell the book to a publisher, the standard turnaround time for that book actually being out in the world (and therefore officially "published") is 18 months to two years? Yeah, it's crazy. They need time for edits and marketing and to build buzz and all that jazz. So it's a lengthy process. I sold KEEPER in May of 2011. It didn't come out until October of 2012--and that was actually super fast. I sold LET THE SKY FALL in June of 2011 and it didn't come out until March of 2013.
And maybe you're thinking now, "okay, so my goal is to sell a book before I'm 20 and it can be published whenever after that." Which is definitely not a bad goal to have. But again, keep in mind that "selling a book" requires a lot of steps from a number of different people, each operating on their own timeline. For instance, I was pretty lucky. I got an agent after querying for only two weeks. But I have LOTS of incredibly successful friends who took months to get an agent.
And once I got my agent, it still took over a year of working with her to actually sell a book (part of that was me revising the draft to get it as good as possible, and part of that was the sloooooooooooooooow nature of publishing).
And during that year of working with her, we passed several of my, "I want to sell a book by ___________" deadlines. Which meant the whole process was super discouraging and frustrating. It made me feel like it was never going to happen, or like I wasn't good enough, or insert other humongous-self-doubts here, many of which tempted me to throw in the towel. And really? It was just publishing working at the speed of publishing and I was being too impatient.
All of which is not to say I don't think you can make your goal, or that you should change your goal or anything of the sort. I just wanted to give some perspective, as someone who's been there, so that you keep your focus on the most important thing: writing the best book you possibly can.
That's the best advice I can give you. Write your book. Revise it until it's as good as you can get it. Work with critique partners who push you to revise it even more. When it's done, If you're proud of it, put it out there into the mire of publishing to see if it lands an agent and/or sells--and while that's happening, here's the most important thing: WRITE ANOTHER BOOK. Preferably not the sequel to the book that hasn't sold yet, in case it doesn't. And then write another new book after that. And another. And another. Each time pushing yourself to polish and improve. There's no way to know which one will be THE ONE that gets published--or when that will happen. But if you work hard, keep going, don't let anything discourage you or make you give up, you WILL have a book published.
So get back to writing! :)
It's funny, the way you framed your question sounds a lot like me.
Mind you, when I was your age I hadn't figured out that I loved writing books yet. I was all about screenplays and getting into the best film school possible and whatnot. But I was very good at putting arbitrary, "By age X I want _____________" kind of goals on my life.
And that's not a bad thing--goals are important. Timelines keep you motivated and pushing pushing pushing. They help the dream feel real and like there's a PLAN for reaching it.
But the one danger to them? It's easy to forget that they're arbitrary. It's easy to forget that no one is actually saying you have to have Thing X by Age Y in order to be a success. That's just you--and it's good to push yourself, but it can also get in your head. It can convince you that you're a failure when really, you're way ahead of the game.
Especially when it comes to publishing. Because here's the thing about publishing: It's sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.
Sure, there are a few stories out there of authors who land an agent in days and sell the book a couple of weeks later. I can't think of very many of those (especially with a first book). But they do exist.
But even if you're one of those lucky ones--did you know that after you sell the book to a publisher, the standard turnaround time for that book actually being out in the world (and therefore officially "published") is 18 months to two years? Yeah, it's crazy. They need time for edits and marketing and to build buzz and all that jazz. So it's a lengthy process. I sold KEEPER in May of 2011. It didn't come out until October of 2012--and that was actually super fast. I sold LET THE SKY FALL in June of 2011 and it didn't come out until March of 2013.
And maybe you're thinking now, "okay, so my goal is to sell a book before I'm 20 and it can be published whenever after that." Which is definitely not a bad goal to have. But again, keep in mind that "selling a book" requires a lot of steps from a number of different people, each operating on their own timeline. For instance, I was pretty lucky. I got an agent after querying for only two weeks. But I have LOTS of incredibly successful friends who took months to get an agent.
And once I got my agent, it still took over a year of working with her to actually sell a book (part of that was me revising the draft to get it as good as possible, and part of that was the sloooooooooooooooow nature of publishing).
And during that year of working with her, we passed several of my, "I want to sell a book by ___________" deadlines. Which meant the whole process was super discouraging and frustrating. It made me feel like it was never going to happen, or like I wasn't good enough, or insert other humongous-self-doubts here, many of which tempted me to throw in the towel. And really? It was just publishing working at the speed of publishing and I was being too impatient.
All of which is not to say I don't think you can make your goal, or that you should change your goal or anything of the sort. I just wanted to give some perspective, as someone who's been there, so that you keep your focus on the most important thing: writing the best book you possibly can.
That's the best advice I can give you. Write your book. Revise it until it's as good as you can get it. Work with critique partners who push you to revise it even more. When it's done, If you're proud of it, put it out there into the mire of publishing to see if it lands an agent and/or sells--and while that's happening, here's the most important thing: WRITE ANOTHER BOOK. Preferably not the sequel to the book that hasn't sold yet, in case it doesn't. And then write another new book after that. And another. And another. Each time pushing yourself to polish and improve. There's no way to know which one will be THE ONE that gets published--or when that will happen. But if you work hard, keep going, don't let anything discourage you or make you give up, you WILL have a book published.
So get back to writing! :)
More Answered Questions
yeojin4prez
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Shannon Messenger:
Who your favorite author- and the one that inspires you the most?
Mandy101010
asked
Shannon Messenger:
Dear Shannon Messenger, I loooveee KOTLC it is one of my favorite series! One of my favorite parts is when Sophie was thinking of a word to use for summoning the cache (How do you pronounce it anyway?) and she went through a whole bunch of human TV references and I was thinking that maybe you could add a few more randomly for comic relief, its always fun trying to spot references (Especially Doctor Who ones!) ;)
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