 Shari Maurer is the star for Day Three of the Debut Author Interview Extravaganza. Be sure to visit the blogs at the end of the post for more new interviews with up and coming authors. Tell us about your book. Change of Heart will be published by WestSide Books in April 2010. Emmi, a 16-year old champion soccer player, struggles to maintain a normal life, while she waits for a heart transplant, and learns the truth about love, loss and the meaning of true friendship in the process.  Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publication? Change of Heart went through several revisions before it finally find a wonderful advocate in my agent, Marlene Stringer. Marlene sent it out and we got a lot of “Like it, but don’t love it” type rejections. We had heard about WestSide Books, a new imprint focusing on realistic teen fiction and we thought it would be a great fit. Marlene subbed it in September of 2008, but we didn’t hear back from WestSide until May 2009. As you can imagine, there was a lot of fingernail chewing and worrying going on at my house. Was there ever a time you felt like giving up? Why didn't you? Yes. Many times. This morning, in fact, as I struggle to move forward in my Work In Progress. Why didn’t I give up? Not sure. But I do know that perseverance is probably the second most important thing in a writer’s career (the ability to write probably being the first, though sometimes I think perseverance might be even more important). What’s the one thing that’s surprised you most on the journey from starting your novel to publication? How much I’m enjoying being a part of the writing community. I have an incredible base of support from the Class of 2k10, a group of 23 young adult and middle grade writers who are also debuting this year. We often check in via e-mail and it’s good to have a place to go when I have a question about the publishing industry/bookmarks/blogs/ARCs—you name it and we’ve been talking about it. I’ve also met some fabulous writers via The Tenners site on Live Journal, Twitter, Facebook and most importantly, Verla Kay’s Blueboards. Where can we find out more about your book and about you? Please visit my website at www.sharimaurer.com. You can learn more about me, Change of Heart and read my blog to get the updates on my path to publication. I’m also on Twitter and Facebook. Come on over and say hi!  On another note, since writing about Emmi’s journey to transplant, I have become involved with the New York Organ Donor Network. We are working together to spread the word on how important organ donation registration is and I am trying to encourage everyone I meet to officially register. You can do it here: http://donatelife.net/. You must be 18 or older, but if you are not, you can recruit your family members to sign up. Thanks Shari! I'm proud to say that I've got the little "organ donor" sticker on my driver's license. :)
After you've checked out Shari's links, follow the links below to find more interviews... Elana Johnson Lisa & Laura Roecker Kirsten Hubbard Beth Revis Leah Clifford Carrie Harris Kim Harrington Tiffany Schmidt Susan Adrian Dawn Metcalf Suzette Saxton & Bethany Wiggins Victoria Schwab Gretchen McNeil Amy Holder It’s Day Two of the Debut Author Interview Extravaganza. Be sure to visit the blogs listed at the end for thirteen additional brand new interviews.  I'm thrilled to have another 2010 author: Janet Fox. Tell us about your book. FAITHFUL, Speak/Penguin Group, May 13, 2010. FAITHFUL is historical young adult fiction. 16-year old Maggie Bennet finds herself, love, and the answer to a mystery in the magnificent landscape of Yellowstone National Park.  Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publication? I had a few publications - magazine articles and stories - and a non-fiction middle grade book for Free Spirit Publishing (Get Organized Without Losing It, 2006.) But my dream was to write fiction for children, and the more I worked the more I realized that my "voice" is geared to middle grade and young adult readers. I found my agent, Alyssa Eisner Henkin, at an SCBWI conference...or rather, she found me through a conference critique, which was a dream come true. Once I signed with her, we edited the novel for about 6 months before she sent it to market. Jen Bonnell of Speak/Penguin picked it up, as part of a 2-book deal. Was there ever a time you felt like giving up? Why didn't you? Actually...no. And I think that's important. Persistence is crucial to publication. And I believe in what I'm doing. I believe I can make a difference in someone's life. I believe I can write something that will reach someone who needs help and help them see the world new. I'm a big dreamer. What’s the one thing that’s surprised you most on the journey from starting your novel to publication? How many friends I've made that I've never even met - through the internet. I feel touched by that experience and by those connections. Where were you when you got the news that your book had been sold? I was on my way to my weekly critique meeting! That was so wonderfully ironic and symbolic, that I could immediately share the news with the people who helped me get there. The only downside was that I couldn't scream, because I was in Starbucks, and I didn't think they'd appreciate me jumping up and down and screaming. What did you do to celebrate? My husband took me out to my favorite restaurant. Which is rare, because he's a great cook, and he likes to cook. So it was huge that he took me out. To find out more about Janet and her book, check out the following links: Janet Fox's website Janet Fox's blog Thanks Janet! I agree with the comment on meeting new people via the Internet. After all, now I know Janet, and all the other authors I'm interviewing this week! Follow the links below to other blogs, each with an inspiring interview with a different up and coming author! Elana Johnson Lisa & Laura Roecker Kirsten Hubbard Beth Revis Leah Clifford Carrie Harris Kim Harrington Tiffany Schmidt Susan Adrian Dawn Metcalf Suzette Saxton & Bethany Wiggins Victoria Schwab Gretchen McNeil Amy Holder  I'm thrilled to begin my week of interviews with the talented and also very nice and extremely generous Kristina McBride. Tell us about your book. The Tension of Opposites will be released on May 25th through Egmont USA. It’s the story of sixteen-year-old Tessa McMullen, whose best friend was kidnapped two years ago. The book starts when Tessa finds out that her friend has just been found alive and is coming home. Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publication? Oh dear. It was a long road, that’s for sure. I landed an agent on my third manuscript, and felt so lucky to be working with her, I didn’t even care that she thought my book needed some major revisions. During the next eleven months, I worked very hard on the changes. I believe I went through three titles, turning in at least five drafts before my agent finally said it was ready for submission to editors. She was right (she’s brilliant, I tell you). My book had three offers in three weeks!  Was there ever a time you felt like giving up? Why didn't you? I think the hardest time for me was about six months into revisions with my agent. The book just wasn’t working, and I felt like I wasn’t ever going to get it right. But my wonderful husband, and supportive family and friends told me to eat a bunch of chocolate and get back to work. I knew this was probably my only shot at living my dream, so I did what they said. I pretty much started over, deleting all but 5 of 28 chapters. It was the best decision I’ve ever made. Dropping all the stuff that was no longer clicking together gave me the freedom I needed to just start over. That’s the draft that ended up working! What’s the one thing that’s surprised you most on the journey from starting your novel to publication? That I’m actually here! All along the way, from childhood when this dream of becoming published formed, to the first offer from an editor, I never knew for sure if I could do it. I have my answer now – I can! And that’s still CRAZY for me to think! Where were you when you got the news that your book had been sold? The mudroom of my house. I’d been bathing two toddlers and didn’t hear the phone when my agent called with the news of the first offer. She left me a message, which is probably good because she may have gone deaf from my screams of excitement. Offer two came through the answering machine as well. It wasn’t until the third offer that my agent actually got me on the phone. It was a crazy fun whirlwind that lasted for several weeks.  secretrecipe.com.ph What did you do to celebrate? Went to a local ice cream shop with my husband and two young children. I ordered a three dip chocolate sundae – yum! To find out more about Kristina and her book, check out the following links: Kristina McBride's website Kristina McBride's blog The Tension of Opposites at Goodreads For more inspiration follow the links below to other blogs, each with an inspiring interview with a different up and coming author! Elana Johnson Lisa & Laura Roecker Kirsten Hubbard Beth Revis Leah Clifford Carrie Harris Kim Harrington Tiffany Schmidt Susan Adrian Dawn Metcalf Suzette Saxton & Bethany Wiggins Victoria Schwab Gretchen McNeil Amy Holder  blackburn.gov.uk Starting Monday I’ll be participating in a blog chain, interviewing up and coming YA and MG authors, who will share their inspiring stories of their road to publication. Check back starting Monday to hear from: Kristina McBride, Janet Fox, Shari Maurer. Michele Corriel and Angie Smibert. You’ll also want to bookmark these blogs for similar day-by-day interviews with other authors – including me! (I’ll be interviewed on Monday by Amy Holder.)
Elana Johnson Lisa & Laura Roecker Kirsten Hubbard Beth Revis Leah Clifford Carrie Harris Kim Harrington Tiffany Schmidt Susan Adrian Dawn Metcalf Suzette Saxton & Bethany Wiggins Victoria Schwab Gretchen McNeil Amy Holder I recently read “Search Engine Optimization for Dummies” by Peter Kent, which I found surprisingly complex for something written for “dummies” (or perhaps this just shows how many brain cells I’ve lost since I was BRIEFLY an engineering major in college). However, the author repeated a couple of things enough times that they sunk in:
If you want your website to show up when someone googles you (this is the issue I was most interested in, because there are many Kathy McCulloughs, and I show up far down the page), you need to do two things: 1. Have other sites link to you that search engines have indexed (in other words you can’t just link to yourself from Facebook or your blog). And when they link to you, they need to have key words in the link. In our case the key words would be our name. So if someone is writing about you, you don’t want them to say “click here” or click on JK Rowling’s “website.” You want them to say click on “JK Rowling’s” website (where the item in quotes is the link. In turn, do this for others – make sure to have the link to their website or blog be imbedded in their name. (This can also apply to having your book title show up higher in the search ranks, if the title is a common word or phrase. In my case, there is a Canadian speed skater named Delaney Collins – who knew?) 2. If you have a website, you need to have every page on the website link to at least one other page on the site. If no pages link to it, it is not picked up by search engines. If there is only a link in and no link out, it’s a “dangling” page, which is also hard to pick up. If you have a navigation bar at the top of your site, like I do, and it’s written in javascript or applet, as mine is, this is not picked up by most search engines. (This is a “do as I say” bit, since I haven’t fixed this on my site yet). According to the author, website designers often don’t know this. You used to be able to just put key words between the title tags in the html, but search engines no longer think this is relevant, because it’s not a good judgement of your importance as a site – whereas being linked to is. As to author Bettina Restrepo’s question re: coming up in searches for author visits, you also want to have key words (“author visits”) in text throughout your site. Text stands out if it is in bold, italics or bullet point lists. Key words are also good to have in blog post headlines (of course, you’d have to write a post about author visits in this case – better: write several). This is why blog interviews that I and other authors have participated in are showing up in searches (a great thing!). I've heard of it happening but didn't believe it was true until now -- Delaney Collins, F.G., a fictional character I made up, has stolen the limelight away from me. Randy Russell, author of the novel "Dead School" (HarperTeen, 2011), has posted an interview with Delaney on his blog "Ghost Folk."
A blog on writing. Written by Delaney! Not me! But you know, I like Delaney, despite her occasional moments of "attitude," so I'm going to take the high road and say that you can find her interview at Randy Russell, Ghost Folk. A second post about Delaney's boots (even her boots have upstaged me!) is also on Randy's site. (You can also check out what Delaney has to say about the post on her blog.) |
KathyI'm a novelist and screenwriter living in Los Angeles. Find details on this "blog" about my books and appearances. Want to reach me? You can Contact Me here. What I'm working on now:
- A new YA novel - A middle grade novel - An original screenplay for the Disney Channel Writing Book of the Month:
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