FAQs
Really quickly today I'd like to answer some of the questions I've been seeing a lot lately--both here in the comments, on MySpace, in emails, and even on the writers' boards where I participate. So...here goes!
WILL THERE BE A GALLAGHER GIRLS SEQUEL--WHEN WILL IT BE OUT AND WHAT WILL IT BE CALLED?
Yes! Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy will be out in the fall of 2007 (date TBA)
WILL CAMMIE AND JOSH GET BACK TOGETHER?
Now, do you REALLY think I can answer that? I will say that Josh is in Cross My Heart...but I really can't say much more than that.
HOW DO YOU FIND AN AGENT?
I've blogged about this before, but I'll say again the key is to write a really good book. I mean a really good one. Seriously. It has to be REALLY good. Then put it in a drawer. Write another one. Then pull the first one out and read it again. Is it still good? Then research agents and follow their submission guidelines. If they ask to read your book, and if they like it, they'll represent you. Simple as that. No tricks involved.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO...
--write a book: It depends. As little as a month, as long as ten years. My books tend to be taking longer to write all the time, but that will no doubt vary.
--get an agent: It depends. Writing that really good book can take forever; once you have it, though, you may land an agent in a few weeks (if the genre you're writing for is hot enough). Or it could take years again. From the time I finished my first book to when I signed with my agent was about nine months.
--sell a book to a publisher: It depends. Again, with a hot genre, the phone will probably ring pretty fast; but I do know an author who sold a book after it had been out to editors for over a year. Cheating at Solitaire sold after a couple of months. We had offers for LYKY within a week.
HOW MUCH TIME SHOULD A WRITER SPEND PROMOTING HIS/HER BOOK?
It depends. Some authors swear that's how you should spend the bulk of your time--meeting booksellers; driving to every bookstore within 200 miles to sign copies; attending conventions. Personally, I think you need to do the amount of promoting that you enjoy. I truly love meeting readers and booksellers and other writers, but IN MY CASE that hasn't really had the biggest impact on my sales. My sales (I think) have been most impacted by the quality of the books, so I'm choosing to put the bulk of my energy into writing better books.
But that's just me. There are others who are firm believers that an author's career will die if they don't do insane amounts of self-promotion, and maybe they're right.
HOW DID YOU PICK THE COVER FOR YOUR BOOK?
The truth is that most writers have very little say on what their book covers look like. VERY. LITTLE. SAY. The publishers have people who design book covers for a living, and they're very good at knowing what will look good on shelves or appeal to readers. Authors usually see the image and can sometimes make minor suggestions, but really that's out of our hands (and that's okay.) I'm a believer in leaving things to the professionals!
CAN I TRY OUT FOR THE MOVIE OF LYKY?
Again, I'm afraid that's really out of my hands. Once a writer sells film rights, we are really out of the process. My job is to write another really good book, and the Hollywood people are responsible for the movie, and that's okay by me.
HOW MANY GALLAGHER GIRL BOOKS WILL THERE BE?
Don't know. At least one more (Cross My Heart).
WILL THERE BE ANOTHER BOOK AFTER LEARNING TO PLAY GIN?
I won't say never, but that's not my plan right now. Part of me thinks it would be hilarious to have a book with Julia being pregnant, but...nah...
HOW MUCH MONEY DOES AN AUTHOR MAKE?
It REALLY depends. As you can see, Ann Brashares is doing okay for herself, but most authors make very little from their books. In fact, I know very few writers who don't also have a day job to pay the bills (I do.)
HOW DO AUTHORS GET PAID?
When a book is sold to a publisher, the author is paid an "Advance" or an advance against royalties. This is up-front money the author never has to give back.
For the sake of easy math, let's assume we sell a book for a $10,000 advance (a not-unreasonable number, by the way).
According to the terms of our contract, we will earn royalties in the amount of $1 per book (this is the easy version, in truth it's more of a sliding scale, and more complicated, but go with me...)
That means that for every book SOLD we earn a dollar. But remember the publisher has already advanced us $10,000, so we don't actually see any additional money until we sell book number 10,001. Then we see another buck. Book 10,002 gives us another, and so on.
Keep in mind, though, that your agent has earned 15% of all of your book earnings. Taxes will take another chunk.
Now do you see why most writers have to have another job to keep the lights on?
HOW OLD DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO GET A BOOK PUBLISHED?
It's not like the NFL, there's not a minimum age. SE Hinton wrote and sold THE OUTSIDERS when she was in high school. A lot of authors started writing when they were really young; some sold right away, others didn't. The key is to WRITE! Don't worry about selling a book, worry about writing a really good book.
ARE LEARNING TO PLAY GIN AND CHEATING AT SOLITAIRE REALLY OKAY FOR TEENS AND PRE-TEENS TO READ?
Yes. I don't think there's any subject matter within those books that you won't see/hear every night on television. I write PG and probably couldn't do R if I had to.
That being said, though, Gin and Solitaire are about characters in their thirties, so teens might not relate to them quite as much, but I think it's worth a try.
Okay. That's all I've got. Does anyone have a question I didn't cover?
-Ally
WILL THERE BE A GALLAGHER GIRLS SEQUEL--WHEN WILL IT BE OUT AND WHAT WILL IT BE CALLED?
Yes! Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy will be out in the fall of 2007 (date TBA)
WILL CAMMIE AND JOSH GET BACK TOGETHER?
Now, do you REALLY think I can answer that? I will say that Josh is in Cross My Heart...but I really can't say much more than that.
HOW DO YOU FIND AN AGENT?
I've blogged about this before, but I'll say again the key is to write a really good book. I mean a really good one. Seriously. It has to be REALLY good. Then put it in a drawer. Write another one. Then pull the first one out and read it again. Is it still good? Then research agents and follow their submission guidelines. If they ask to read your book, and if they like it, they'll represent you. Simple as that. No tricks involved.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO...
--write a book: It depends. As little as a month, as long as ten years. My books tend to be taking longer to write all the time, but that will no doubt vary.
--get an agent: It depends. Writing that really good book can take forever; once you have it, though, you may land an agent in a few weeks (if the genre you're writing for is hot enough). Or it could take years again. From the time I finished my first book to when I signed with my agent was about nine months.
--sell a book to a publisher: It depends. Again, with a hot genre, the phone will probably ring pretty fast; but I do know an author who sold a book after it had been out to editors for over a year. Cheating at Solitaire sold after a couple of months. We had offers for LYKY within a week.
HOW MUCH TIME SHOULD A WRITER SPEND PROMOTING HIS/HER BOOK?
It depends. Some authors swear that's how you should spend the bulk of your time--meeting booksellers; driving to every bookstore within 200 miles to sign copies; attending conventions. Personally, I think you need to do the amount of promoting that you enjoy. I truly love meeting readers and booksellers and other writers, but IN MY CASE that hasn't really had the biggest impact on my sales. My sales (I think) have been most impacted by the quality of the books, so I'm choosing to put the bulk of my energy into writing better books.
But that's just me. There are others who are firm believers that an author's career will die if they don't do insane amounts of self-promotion, and maybe they're right.
HOW DID YOU PICK THE COVER FOR YOUR BOOK?
The truth is that most writers have very little say on what their book covers look like. VERY. LITTLE. SAY. The publishers have people who design book covers for a living, and they're very good at knowing what will look good on shelves or appeal to readers. Authors usually see the image and can sometimes make minor suggestions, but really that's out of our hands (and that's okay.) I'm a believer in leaving things to the professionals!
CAN I TRY OUT FOR THE MOVIE OF LYKY?
Again, I'm afraid that's really out of my hands. Once a writer sells film rights, we are really out of the process. My job is to write another really good book, and the Hollywood people are responsible for the movie, and that's okay by me.
HOW MANY GALLAGHER GIRL BOOKS WILL THERE BE?
Don't know. At least one more (Cross My Heart).
WILL THERE BE ANOTHER BOOK AFTER LEARNING TO PLAY GIN?
I won't say never, but that's not my plan right now. Part of me thinks it would be hilarious to have a book with Julia being pregnant, but...nah...
HOW MUCH MONEY DOES AN AUTHOR MAKE?
It REALLY depends. As you can see, Ann Brashares is doing okay for herself, but most authors make very little from their books. In fact, I know very few writers who don't also have a day job to pay the bills (I do.)
HOW DO AUTHORS GET PAID?
When a book is sold to a publisher, the author is paid an "Advance" or an advance against royalties. This is up-front money the author never has to give back.
For the sake of easy math, let's assume we sell a book for a $10,000 advance (a not-unreasonable number, by the way).
According to the terms of our contract, we will earn royalties in the amount of $1 per book (this is the easy version, in truth it's more of a sliding scale, and more complicated, but go with me...)
That means that for every book SOLD we earn a dollar. But remember the publisher has already advanced us $10,000, so we don't actually see any additional money until we sell book number 10,001. Then we see another buck. Book 10,002 gives us another, and so on.
Keep in mind, though, that your agent has earned 15% of all of your book earnings. Taxes will take another chunk.
Now do you see why most writers have to have another job to keep the lights on?
HOW OLD DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO GET A BOOK PUBLISHED?
It's not like the NFL, there's not a minimum age. SE Hinton wrote and sold THE OUTSIDERS when she was in high school. A lot of authors started writing when they were really young; some sold right away, others didn't. The key is to WRITE! Don't worry about selling a book, worry about writing a really good book.
ARE LEARNING TO PLAY GIN AND CHEATING AT SOLITAIRE REALLY OKAY FOR TEENS AND PRE-TEENS TO READ?
Yes. I don't think there's any subject matter within those books that you won't see/hear every night on television. I write PG and probably couldn't do R if I had to.
That being said, though, Gin and Solitaire are about characters in their thirties, so teens might not relate to them quite as much, but I think it's worth a try.
Okay. That's all I've got. Does anyone have a question I didn't cover?
-Ally
posted by Ally Carter at Saturday, January 06, 2007
6 Comments:
Thanks Ally! You answered a lot of my questions!
What is your day joB?
do you ever wish that you hadnt wrote your boox?
What would you be if you could be, like, anything? would you still want to be a writer? cuz i personally i would rather write a book and be like kind of poor than be anyhthing else.cuz im sure writing is hard but it cannot be as hard as like an accountant or something. but thats just my opinion.
Thanks!! you really answered a lot of my questions!! heres another will we ever find out more about Mr. Solomon and cammie's dad? and i am really wanted to read cheating at solitair!!
-Aly
I just read "I'd Tell You I Love You...", and I loved it! I'm in my late twenties, but I still gravitate towards the YA shelves in bookstores. I read a lot of different authors who write in this genre, and I really enjoyed Cammie's sweetness, your descriptions of her non-verbal interaction with her mother, (my list could go on for a while.) Thanks for a great read!
Post a Comment
<< Home