One of the most frequent questions I get asked is how writers make money. And, of course, do writers make money?

Today I'm going to let YA author Barry Lyga answer it for me. Take it away, Barry.

(I'm gonna go write.)

-Ally

In the next few hours I will hopefully be getting GG4 (title to be announced, release date June 2010) back from the fabulous, the glamorous, the famous Editor Jen.

At that point, I will have a few weeks to do what will ultimately be the fourth draft.

At this point, however, I have nothing to do but click refresh on the email every five seconds and worry about getting the book good because at this point, it's finished. It's a whole story--beginning to end. All the things that have to happen in it are happening. But the big job--the big worry--is making them happen well. That, my friends, is what's going to be keeping me up nights between now and the end of the year and what will also potentially make this blog a quiet, gloomy place for the next few weeks.

(Just hit refresh. Nope, no email yet.)

For the last week or so while Editor Jen has been working her magic, I've had some time to sleep (which I do at a world-class level, I must say), read (THE DEMON'S LEXICON by Sarah Rees Brennan is a fabulous, dark-ish fantasy for slightly older teens), and start putting some thought into my next project (which will probably be Heist Society 2.)

And, of course, I've had to think about HOW I write. This is a question I get in one form or another quite a bit and, honestly, it's a question I ask myself--especially at this stage in the game.

When I'm getting ready to finish one book and start another I always think about how I can do it better--how not to make the same mistakes, how to avoid whatever pitfalls gave me fits the last time.

But this is a big thing I've come to realize: the mistakes matter. The pitfalls sometimes show me the way.

People frequently ask me if I outline and the answer is no, not really. I know some authors who write 20-80 page outlines that summarize how chapter 20 will open and what characters will be in the scene that ends chapter 32. I do not outline to that extent.

What I do do is storyboard.

Storyboarding is an old screenwriting practice where you write scene descriptions on notecards and then move them around as a way of visually "seeing" the entire movie.

I do that. And when I start a new book I usually know several big things--Cammie will be with Macey at a political convention; there will be an attack; Macey will be in danger all semester; the girls will go about protecting her and trying to get to the bottom of things; there will be a BIG fight on election night; the stage will be set for a very big book 4.

Those were all the things I knew when I started GG3, but those aren't specific scenes. Those things do not a detailed outline make.

I wish I knew all the little things at the beginning, and I've tried outlining--I really, truly have. The problem is that everything sounds good in theory, and until I've tried to write something I don't know if will work or not.

The other problem is that having a complete outline kind of takes the fun out of it for me.

For example, probably my favorite scene in Heist Society is one that I had no idea was going to be in the book until it was just there--on the page. It features one of my favorite characters and I had no idea he existed until Kat knocked on a door and there he was.

Looking back, I absolutely cannot imagine Heist Society without that scene, but six months before I started the book I didn't know it was going to be there. Heck, six minutes before I started writing it I didn't know.

Great books write themselves, only the bad books have to be written, F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, and that has always felt very, very true to me.

For me personally, outlining always feels like writing a book--me, the author, planning and theorizing, and making things up. Having interesting characters who are facing an interesting and compelling challenge and then setting them loose upon the page feels like letting a book write itself.

Call me crazy, but I think books are always better when the author gets out of the way. (Note this is not to say that people who outline are in the way--it's just that I feel that way when I outline. Some are perfectly capable of letting the characters rule even in outline form. I can't.)

I wish I wrote differently. I really, truly do. I wish I could say exactly what was going to happen and how long it would take. My books would be easier. The writing would go faster if it were like baking--here is the recipe, there are the ingredients, it will take this many minutes beginning to end.

But it's not like that for me, I'm afraid.

And I don't know how to change it, so I won't.

As I stand here at the end of GG4 and the beginning of Heist 2 I have a book that had a lot of missteps and pitfalls and mistakes and I have one that is a blank whiteboard and about a dozen post-it notes, spread out in the barest, most basic bones of a story.

At this point, when I think about Heist 2 I have far more questions than answers. (Why did person A want object B? How does Kat learn Secret C? Where is Character D and why isn't he here?) I don't know the answers to those questions!

But I will. Someday a few months from now I'll have answers to all of them.

And that, gang... That is how I write.

-Ally

ps...I do not mean to imply in any way that people who outline are writing incorrectly any more than I, as a right-handed person, can say that someone who is left-handed doesn't know how to use a pen or a knife. We are just wired differently, we outliners and non-outliners. We just have to write with the hand that feels natural to us.

(Just checked email and it's here! It's really here. I think I'm gonna be sick.)

Lately I've noticed a trend of people who want to write and publish books--but they want to do it under some kind of deadline.

I want to have finished a book by the time I'm 16....

I want to be published by the time I'm 18....

I want to win a Pulitzer/hit the TIMES list/have a movie made, etc., etc. by the time I'm 25....

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for goals. I'm all for hard work. I'm all for putting your money where your mouth is and realizing that books get written when you stop TALKING and start WRITING.

But something about the deadline-y nature of this gives me some concern. First, it makes me--as someone who finished my first book and got an agent in my late twenties--feel like some kind of slacker who isn't to be respected. Second, I fear it puts the emphasis on the wrong things.

Writing in your teens is a blessing. It's a chance to learn and experiment and grow as a storyteller. It's a chance to write FOR FUN, which, let me tell you, is a completely different experience than writing for money.

I could write a whole post on this subject, but I won't because Diana Peterfreund has already done it and done it very, very well.

So go read Diana's post.

Go read it right now while I get back to work on GG4.

-Ally

Like most working authors, I frequently get to talk to people who are in the process of trying to break into publishing. And, frequently, they want to know if I have any advice on finding literary agents. To this I have two answers.

SHORT ANSWER: 1. Write a great book. 2. Follow the submission protocols of agents who represent similar books. 3. Wait. 4. Get an agent.

But the short answer is awfully short, I know. It's TRUE, mind you. But lacking some details that people just starting out might benefit from hearing, so now I'm going to share with you the LONG answer that I shared with a friend just this afternoon.

(Modified for blog purposes.)

As frequent blog readers already know, I do not recommend being in this business without an agent. Getting an agent is actually a surprisingly straightforward process once you have the right book (note that this is the hard part) and have researched who will be the best fit.

You don't need to know someone. You don't need an introduction. Agents are very, very used to finding talent via the submission protocols outlined on their websites. In fact, agents relish submissions because that IS where they find their clients—they find them there all the time.

Since submissions and queries are so important, many new writers can be surprised to hear that a lot of agents don’t make the first pass through the inbox themselves. For example, my agent, Kristin Nelson, has a great assistant who looks through the submissions first and pulls out the ones that Kristin will be most interested in.

I know some new writers are stunned that agents aren't reading every submission themselves, but rest assured that the assistants who read the queries are very highly trained and prepped on how to do so. Their job is to wade through the thousands of queries they receive and remove the obvious “no-s” --books that are in genres the agent doesn't represent, queries full of typos and obvious grammatical mistakes, etc.

So one of the first "tips" to finding an agent is "don't be an obvious no". Proofread your materials. Make sure they're as strong as they can be. And, of course, query the right agents for your book.

To find the "right agents" I recommend starting with sites like agentquery.com where you can search for a few books like yours and find out what agents represent those novels.

Also, if you're serious about your research, it would probably be worth it to pay $20 to get a one month subscription to PublishersMarketplace.com. There, you can search their deal database and find out who is selling stuff like yours. This is especially important because it doesn’t help much to know who sold a big book five years ago. You want someone who is selling stuff NOW.

Go to the websites for every agent you're interested in and look at their complete client list--read a few books from it (if you haven't already). Study the agent's blog (if he or she has one). Read and re-read and re-re-read their submission procedures. In short, do your homework.

The next step is to get your query materials in perfect shape. You’ll probably need an assortment of things. Some agents will require a one page synopsis, some will need a sample chapter (and the whole book should be as perfect as possible at this point, so this is the easy one). Almost all agents will require a query letter of some kind, so start working on one of those too. (And Kristin has some great examples here.)

It’s important to note, I think, that the term “dream agent” is really a fickle one. There are a lot of factors that will make an agent dreamy. Some people want an agent with the biggest possible agency and a history of doing the biggest possible deals. Some writers are better served by smaller agencies where you get more individual attention.

It really varies immensely, and I highly recommend you think a lot about they TYPE of agent you want--someone who is hands-on? Someone who is growing their business? Someone who is established? Someone who represents the big megastars of our industry? Or someone who is in a position to find the NEXT stars?

This isn't an easy process--not at all. But do you want to know a secret? Nothing in this business is. And if you've already written a great, killer, marketable book then this SHOULD be easy in comparison!

So, in conclusion, pick an assortment of agents who are currently selling books comparable to yours, research their query preferences, send them EXACTLY what they ask for. Wait. Repeat.

And that's really all there is to it.

Good luck!
Ally

The writer who wrote the screenplay for A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE wrote an article last week that has been posted and re-posted and linked to all around internet, wherever writers tend to congregate.

The article is his take on why he does not read scripts from acquaintances or strangers. (I won't link to it here because the language is VERY adult and the tone is--intentionally, I think--over the top but it should be easy to find if you're really interested and want to search just a little.)

Personally, I really related to what he said (not necessarily how he said it). It's something that all published writers hear and see every day--people we barely know asking us to read their work and give feedback on it.

Feedback itself takes a long time and a lot of energy and can also open us up to potential lawsuits down the line, so that's reason enough to have a blanket "no thank you" policy (which I do have).

But as the article (and the comments that followed) pointed out, feedback isn't really what a lot of people want. Nope. Most people who ask for this ask because they think published authors know some trick and if we'd just share with the person who is asking then they too will get an agent or a big-time publishing deal.

Nope. Sorry. It simply doesn't work that way.

I decided to blog about this today because I really want all of you to know (especially those of you who are in your teens and maybe just starting to write yourselves) that getting notes or feedback from an author you admire is not necessary for writing a book or screenplay that's admirable. You really, honestly do not need feedback from an author to be an author.

So how do you get feedback if you're just starting out and you tried to email your book to your favorite author but it bounced back?

Well, I can't tell you where you should go for feedback, but I can share where I went.

1. My mother.
Sure, maybe your mom isn't an English teacher like my mom and so isn't quite as comfortable with a red pen, but getting someone--anyone--to read your stuff is most likely where you'll be when you start out.

It's helpful not just for the feedback, but also because if you tell someone "I will have a draft ready for you by January 1" then you've set a goal and made a promise and now you have a DEADLINE.

Welcome the world of the working writer.

2. My local book club.
When I wrote my first book I was living in a tiny town that didn't have a chapter of any writers' organizations like RWA or SCBWI or any critique groups that I knew of. What we did have was a book club that met once a month at the local library, so that's where I went.

And here's the thing people tend to forget: you aren't writing for writers. You're writing for READERS. So go find readers.

I approached the book club and told them that I had written my first novel and asked if they would mind making my novel their book club selection for the next month (if I agreed to provide all the copies). They thought that sounded like fun, so that's what we did, and it was incredibly helpful.

Everyone got a manuscript and a red pen, and I probably wouldn't be where I am today without their help and support.

3. Contests.
I entered two contests before I started querying agents. One was for the Southwest Writers Association annual conference. It was great. I'd just "finished" my novel and sent off the first chapter and synopsis, just like I was asked to do.

Feedback came in two forms. First, from the fact that I didn't even place in the competition. Second, in a lovely, handwritten critique sheet about WHY I didn't place. I think entering the contest was twenty bucks or so and I feel quite certain that that might have been the best money I've ever spent in this business.

The second contest came at least a year after the first--after countless rewrites and doing things like meeting with the book club. This time, it was the annual contest from my state writer's association. I entered the contest and told myself that if I won I would take that as a sign I was ready to start querying agents.

I did win. And the critique sheet this time included the question "Why hasn't this been published?"

And that was when I knew I was ready to go pro.

Getting great feedback can be as simple as joining a critique group if you've got access to one. Go to conferences. Enter contests. But more than anything, remember that you don't need the opinion of a working writer. You need the opinions of working readers.

And if you STILL think that you need the opinion of a published/working writer, then ask yourself this question: do you want their opinion or do you want their "connections"?

There is no substitute for hard work in anything in life, I'm convinced, and writing is absolutely no exception. If you want to be a published, working writer, you have to write. You have to rewrite. You have to research and read and listen and study and learn the craft yourself instead of working on your "networking" and telling everyone you know that your sister's husband's sister is Janet Evanovich's dentist, so you're thiiiiiis close to having a three book deal with Simon & Schuster

Nope. Sorry. It simply doesn't work that way.

<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> mihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 2"> <![endif]-->

<!--[if gte mso 10]>

<![endif]-->

Hello ye faithful bloggers, it’s Denny again, writing from inside the Ally Fortress and feeling rather safe here, if you know what I mean.

As I walked into the house- after passing through the eye scanner and the voice recognition, which is the final stanza of Beowulf in Etruscan (yup, the long lost language of the pre-Greek Europe. I dare you to figure that one out) I realized that many of you are blogging for the same reason I am interning. We both want to be writers.

Ally, on her site, and just about every writer of all time, will say that you must read a lot and write a lot, in order to be a writer. This is true. You should read everything you can get your hands on- romance, fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, horror, everything. There is no book in the world that has nothing for you. Even the bad ones are important. They teach you what not to do. One of the greatest authors of all time, Stephen King, said that he knew he could be a writer when he read a short story and thought: “this is a piece of crap. I can do better than this.” I think bad novels are good for this reason as well, they not only are good lessons of what not to do, but they give you confidence. A wide range of books is good. However, when it comes down to it you should read what you like- no one will tell you to keep reading romance if you don’t like it. BUT sampling around is good.

But, like I said, that is the basic part. With Ally I have been learning about the next step in writing: editing. I have been watching and learning how she looks through her books after she sends them to the editor. We have mostly been working on a manuscript for a new novel she will publish, soon, called…. Just kidding I can’t tell you yet.

Anyway, when looking back over your own work she told me to consider these three things:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1) <!--[endif]-->Less is More- In this case Ally has taught me that extra words are bad. You want to get your point across using as few words as possible. It bogs down the reader when you have too many words and it makes the reading choppy and cumbersome. When the point is made in the appropriate amount of words, the story flows nicely, like Cammie’s Portuguese.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2)<
span style='font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'> <!--[endif]-->Vary up the sentence structures- Whether we know it or not, we all have tendencies when we write. We have a certain flavor of sentence structure in our heads and we over use it. This becomes tiresome and boring. Here’s an example

According to the sun, Jimmy could tell it was three o’ clock. Upon his arrival, it would be the dead of night.

You see how those sentences sound the exact same with an intro then a comma then the point of the sentence. Yeah, that’s bad and a good editor, looking back over his work, will realize these tendencies and change not JUST to change them, but to make the story better.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->3) <!--[endif]-->Show Don’t Tell- First off showing is WAY more interesting than telling. Ally gave me a really good example when she was explaining this one to me:

Not so good: Sarah was really mad and couldn’t think of anything to say.

Very interesting: Sarah slammed the door, gritting her teeth, words wouldn’t form on her lips.

You see the difference. In the first one we are TOLD that Sarah is mad, in the second one we can SEE that Sarah is mad by her actions, which is way more interesting.

Top Secret of The Day:

Ally would kill me if she knew I was telling you this one. When she was writing Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover, the song that got her in the mood was Invincible by Pat Benatar. Yeah, I guess you could say that Invincible is the theme song for Gallagher Girl 3. Till next time, adios.

<!-- SpringWidgets | Countdown (#71) | HTML | Generated on 05/02/2009 -->

http://downloads.thespringbox.com/web/wrapper.php?file=Countdown.sbw

It's been a while since I've answered from Frequently Asked Questions, so here goes:

1. Do you read all of the blog comments?
--Yes. Every single one.

2. Why don't you reply to blog comments?
--I do sometimes but only very rarely. This is mainly because of time and also because 90% of the questions that are asked in comments are already answered elsewhere on the website (how many books will there be? When will the new book be out? What is the Kat/Heist book? etc). The answers to these questions are available once you look. I'm a big proponent of looking.

Probably 5% don't have answers yet and possibly never will. (Where are you going on tour? Who will Cammie end up with? When will the movie be out?)

Three percent are questions that are too personal in nature to answer in such a public forum.

One percent I try to answer and then probably don't get around to it.

And that leaves the 1% I do answer, I guess.

3. Will there be any more contests soon?
--Um...probably not. I might do something to reveal the title of the heist/kat book, but I've learned my lesson about prizes. It will be a long time until I do another contest with prizes.

4. Why can't you make DON'T JUDGE A GIRL BY HER COVER come out sooner?!?!?!?!?
--Even though my part in bringing you GG3 has been over for a few months now, it takes A LOT of people to make a book happen and many of those people still have to do their jobs.

Like the people who print the books. And the people who deliver the books to stores. And the people who work at the stores to make room for and shelve new books. Those wonderful people are on deck now and it's in everybody's best interest if we give them room (and time) to work.

5. What are you reading right now?
DULL BOY by the lovely and adorable debut author Sarah Cross.

6. Are you sure you can't come to my city on tour?
--I would honestly love to, but again, that's really out of my hands. My publisher is working on the tour details right now and hopefully within the next couple of weeks I will have dates, places, etc. to share.

7. Do you really have an intern? How can I get that job?
--Yes, for the next week or so I will have an intern who will be working with me part-time. His name is Denny and he is a senior at a local high school. Denny wants to be a writer when he grows up so he's helping me out for the internship requirement at his school. Hopefully Denny himself will weigh in on the subject in the near future.

8. I want to be a writer, how do I do it?
--You start by reading a lot and writing a lot. Oh, and you can go read the extensive list of "for writers" things available on the blog (under the "Tips for Writers" label) and on the website (under FOR WRITERS in the Ally section).

9. Can I send you my book to autograph? Or can you send me autographed bookplates?
--I'm afraid I'm not really set up to accommodate those requests at this time. I'm sorry.

10. Is George Clooney still your fictional boyfriend?
--Yes! Of course he is! (Why? What have you heard?)

11. Any movie news?
--Nope.

12. Why don't some blog comments ever show up on the site?
--Not all blog comments get approved. This can happen for a wide variety of reasons.

Sometimes we get comments that are inappropriate or offensive, so those get rejected. Other comments might contain spoilers for future books (if someone has read an ARC of GG3 for example) and those get rejected because...well...not everyone has read GG3.

Blog comments that contain personal information (like your name, your email, your MySpace, etc) aren't approved because I don't think that's wise or safe in this day and age.

Sometimes I hit the wrong button. (And, sadly, this has happened on more than one occasion.)

But probably the most frequent reason that comments get rejected is because they contain incorrect information. For example, if someone submits a comment that says "I'm so excited Brad Pitt is going to play Mr. Solomon in the movie!" well, then that's just a rumor waiting to happen. Because 1. as I've said many times they aren't casting people for the movie at this time. And 2. They certainly haven't cast Brad Pitt. (Not for a lack of praying and daydreaming on my part.)

Sure, I could approve the Brad Pitt comment and then take the time to comment directly after that person and share the facts, but this has two downsides as well:

1. usually the incorrect comment originated because someone misread or misunderstood something, so there is no guarantee that my correction would be read and understood either, leaving the rumor out there to swell.

And 2. honestly this happens so frequently that I would spend far more time writing blog comments than I spend writing books.

And I think you guys are more partial to the books.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

-Ally

I have said before (and I'll say again) that the best advice I can give to writers is simple: this business isn't for wusses.

But today I'd like to amend that slightly and offer some new advice to aspiring writers: don't be lazy.

Is this cruel, cruel advice? Yes. But believe me I wouldn't be opening myself up for the onslaught of angry comments that might commence if I didn't think it were true.

No one is going to help you decide which of your ideas you should write about.

No one is going to write the book for you.

No one is going to re-write the book for you.

Instead, you have to learn how to do these things for yourself.

You do this simply by writing and rewriting and reading and researching and becoming a student of the craft and by--wait for it--not being lazy and expecting someone to give you a trick that will make it all easier. It isn't easy. None of it. (That's why rule #1 is that this business isn't for wusses.)

YOU have to do it. Yourself.

And to take this one step further...

No one is going to tell you how to find you an agent.

No one is going to get you an agent.

So how can you possibly know how to find an agent?

Well, for starters I just Googled the phrase "How to find a literary agent" and got 12,000 responses.

12,000 responses.

So, yeah, I think that information exists and with a little effort people who are serious about the business should be able to track it down. Heck, almost every published writer I know has a section on their website or blog that deals with that very issue. Come to think of it, I have a section on this website that deals with that very issue.

There are some amazing websites for writers out there (and, yes, I have linked to them on this blog and on my site on many, many occasions--if you look, you'll find them).

There are some amazing organizations, too, like SCBWI (and, on the theme of not being lazy, I'm not going to explain what it is--I'm going to give you homework and make you go look it up).

I've said before that I knew nothing about publishing when I started. I knew no one. I simply went to the bookstore and bought the first screenwriting book I found (because, at first, I wanted to be a screenwriter). And then after that I started searching online for screenwriting and found some great websites. And then I made the decision to start writing novels and...you guessed it...I started researching novel writing.

You have to LEARN publishing (both the craft and the business aspects) like you learn math or science or Spanish.

Don't worry, it's possible. I know because that's how I did it. You can do it, too.

In fact, if you're serious about being a writer you will do it.

Because, after all, this business isn't for wusses.

-Ally

As I work hard finishing what will become my sixth published novel I find myself thinking about the things that I've learned in this crazy, crazy industry in the last three years.

Yes, CHEATING AT SOLITAIRE (my first published novel) has been out a mere three years.

And yet for some reason these days I feel like something of an old-timer in this business.

Maybe that's because so many things have changed in that time. Chick lit burned out. Vampires started ruling the world. Harry Potter ended, and a little-known writer named Ally Carter was able to actually quit her day job.

So I've learned some things that are true. And, most of all, I've learned some things that are false.

What follows is my personal list of eleven myths about the publishing industry. It's been influenced by what I've seen and heard and, most of all, what I've experienced.

Ask a different writer and I'm sure you'll get a different list.

But this is my blog, so here goes:

1. You have to know someone to break in.

This couldn't be less true, in my opinion. Or maybe just in my experience since probably the first person in publishing I ever spoke to on the phone was my agent when she called to offer to represent me.

How did I possibly "break in" if I didn't know someone?!?!?

Well...I wrote a book. Then I rewrote it. Then I rewrote it some more.

Then I entered it in a state-wide writing contest and it won and the judge's critique sheet was one line: "why hasn't this been published?"

And only then did I presume to think I was ready.

So I started researching and querying agents and one of them, Kristin Nelson, was a fit for me.

2. You should put at least as much energy into promoting your book as you spent writing your book.

There are people who will throw things at me for saying this. I'm ready for the comments section to explode. But I'm going to say it anyway because I believe that it is true.

Writing is the single-most important aspect of our jobs. No doubt. No question.

I could have spent months--years, even--promoting CHEATING AT SOLITAIRE--a book that I was proud of and liked. But it was also a chick lit book that came out in the height of the chick lit bust. It was a book that was barely stocked in most major chain stores. It was a book that received little-to-no (closer to no) co-op (the money that publishers have to spend to get books on endcaps and front tables at places like Barnes and Noble.)

I could have hustled my rear off promoting CHEATING AT SOLITAIRE and maybe I could have hand-sold a thousand or so more copies.

But I didn't. Instead, I used that time to write I'D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN I'D HAVE TO KILL YOU which ended up on the New York Times bestseller list.

Personally, I think that was time well spent.

3. You will get incredibly rich. OR... You will be incredibly poor.

In many, many ways being a professional author is like being a professional baseball player. There are people in the "big leagues" who will earn millions of dollars for, perhaps, a few months' worth of work.

However, just like professional athletes, these people may only have a few years on top and they may have to live off of a few lucrative contracts for the rest of their life.

Also, remember that those people are the extremes. For every person who is an all-star, there are dozens--if not hundreds--who are living paycheck to paycheck in the minor leagues.

But that's not to say that there will be a handful of writers who get incredibly rich and the rest will live in poverty.

I realized the other day that of my ten or so "best" writer friends, almost all (let's say 8/10) write full-time and only one or two are what would be classified as "best sellers".

The remainder have solid upper-midlist sales. They do a great job of budgeting. They're very savvy and aggressive when it comes to diversifying what they write (they might have a YA series with one publisher, a picture book deal with another, a Middle Grade proposal out with a third, etc).

And, most of all, these people WRITE.

Writing isn't a hobby that they pick up and lay down whenever the mood strikes. They don't wait on their muse.

It's their job to write just like it's a ballplayer's job to go to the ballpark. And so even though not everyone is getting rich, not everyone is starving to death either.

4. Getting an agent is the hard part.

Yeah, I hear this one a lot. And yeah, it's wrong. Totally and completely wrong.

I remember back when I was still trying to write screenplays, I saw a quote by a very successful screenwriter on the great site www.wordplayer.com. I can't remember who said it or exactly how it went, but it was something like "if you've written a truly great screenplay then don't worry about finding an agent. You could bury a truly great screenplay in your backyard and by morning a half dozen agents will find you."

I love that quote. It's so, so, so true.

I already had an agent when I wrote Love You, Kill You, but if I hadn't had an agent...

And if I'd written up a cover letter and synopsis about that book and sent them out to twenty agents...

And if they'd been the twenty correct agents (agents accepting material, agents looking for high-concept YAs, etc)...

I probably would have gotten twenty requests for the full book. Of the twenty requests for the full book I would be surprised if I hadn't gotten at least five offers of representation.

Why? Because it was a book that was ready to be sold.

Heck, I maybe could have buried it in my backyard and they still would have found me.

Write the right book and you'll find the right agent.

Oh, and it's you agent's job to "know people"--not the author's.

5. A publisher can make any book a bestseller if they want it to be.

It is no doubt true that having a publisher who wants a book to be a "big book" is incredibly important.

The publisher, after all, controls the number of books that are printed and what gets the full-page color spread in their seasonal catalogs.

When the buyer at Borders says "So, what's going to be the big book of summer 2009?" the publisher controls what their answer is going to be.

The publisher even has the power to tell the Borders people that they're willing to pay to see "the chosen book" on the front tables in the teen section of every Borders in the country.

But here's the kicker...

The Borders people don't have to agree.

The publisher can't make Borders put "the chosen book" on those front tables.

And the publisher can't make people buy it.

And, most importantly, the publisher can't make people tell their friends to buy it.

The history of publishing is littered with the carcass of "chosen books" that got every promotional advantage in the world and yet didn't become big bestsellers.

Because a publisher can't MAKE a book a bestseller.

Sure, they can
give books advantages--put them in the right place at the right time, so to speak--but at the end of the day, other people have to agree.

Readers have to agree.

Phenomenons like TWILIGHT and HARRY POTTER happen because people put a book down and then told five or ten or twenty friends to go pick that book up.

And no one can buy that.

(oh, and saying that "any book can be a bestseller if the publisher wants it to be" is like saying that there are some books publishers don't want to be bestellers and that is just crazy. Trust me. If publishers had a proven formula to MAKE a book a bestseller they'd use it. Always. Why wouldn't they?)

6. Kids don't read anymore.

Do I really need to elaborate to you guys that this isn't true?

No, I didn't think so.

7. Books that tell interesting stories don't have to be written well and books that are written well don't have to tell interesting stories.

I hate genre wars. You know what I'm talking about, right? The literary people turning their nose up at "commercial writers" and vice versa.

Well, it's probably just me but I think they're both wrong.

This is probably why I'm the world's pickiest reader, but I want both. Yes, both!

I want an interesting story told well, not one or the other.

But that's probably just me.

8. Publisher support is determined by luck and not really anything else.

This goes back to number 6 in many, many ways, but I've given it its own number because as I've hung out in online writers communities over the years I've frequently heard that you have to have publisher support to break out and that the difference between people who get publisher support and those who don't is just...luck.

Maybe the reason why I feel like I've been doing this longer than I have is because in the span of three years I've had essentially two different careers.

I have had a midlist adult chick lit series at a house that didn't have a lot riding on the series and I've had a lead title YA series at a house that was incredibly excited about where the books could go.

Let me tell you, the latter is a lot more fun than the former and I feel lucky every day.

But I don't think LYKY getting a good cover and great store placement and other publisher-determined things came my way simply because of good luck. I feel I can say this, by the way, because I also don't think that CHEATING AT SOLITAIRE getting bad store placement came my way because of bad luck.

I think both of these types of "luck" happened because of the types of books they were... because of the types of books I wrote.

At the end of the day, I suppose, I just don't like to think that publishers have a big "wheel of support" that they spin and my number came up once but not twice.

I think there are things we, as writers, can choose to do to improve our odds.

We can choose what genres we write. We can choose to put a book that doesn't have a "big book feel" in a drawer and go to work on something that feels bigger or better. We can choose to read the types of books we want to write and, most of all, we can choose to learn from them.

None of these things, of course, can make a publisher decide to deem our next book "the chosen book" just like nothing a publisher can do can make readers agree, so I guess luck does play a part in it somewhere.

But personally I don't like the word luck. I don't want to get into semantics and cliches, but the moral of the story is we CHOOSE what books we write and sell and if the last one wasn't "lucky" then all we can do is learn from that. And write and sell another one. And another. And another.

9. Networking is incredibly important for your career.

As I think back on the last three years probably the most amazing thing to me is that I have writer friends now when, as I said in number 1, I started in this business knowing no one.

The downside is that, with writing, almost all of my friends live far away. A few I have never even met in person. The rest I see occasionally at conferences or whatnot. Which is a shame because these people have become genuinely important to me.

But that's not to say that writer friends are important to my career.

They're INCREDIBLY important for my sanity (after all, only another writer will understand when you get weird copyedits), but I don't sell more books because of who my friends are.

Maybe if those friends and I decided to write together or tour together or...something. I dunno. But even then I don't really buy it.

Some people will say "but you've got to have contacts who will give you blurbs for your books"

Or even "you've got to have contacts who will give you blurbs for your unsold, unagent manuscripts!"

I say you've got to have a REALLY GREAT MANUSCRIPT.

Again, this is based on my experience, but personally, I don't try to befriend other writers (or want other writers to try to befriend me) because it will help my career.

I do it because it might help my sanity.

And then I get back to work.

10. If you can't get an agent or a publisher--self-publishing is a great way to break into the business.

I think I summed up my thoughts on self-publishing pretty well in this post a long time ago. But I wanted to add to those thoughts here because, again, I think the baseball analogy is a pretty good one.

Getting a literary agent is like getting a sports agent--it means giving up your amateur status. It means going pro.

Now, it's no guarantee that you'll ever make a dime or sign a contract, but you will never be able to be a true amateur again because someone--somewhere--said that this person has what it takes to write (or play) at a professional level.

Signing a contract to write books is a lot like signing a contract to play professional ball. There are big leagues and minor leagues and everything in between, but in every case, your work and talent have been evaluated by people who know the business--the "gatekeepers"--and those same people are willing to PAY YOU to do what until then you've gladly been doing for free.

Self-publishing, however, is not going pro. For self-publishing no one has agreed that you're writing at a professional level. In fact, the quality of your writing is significantly less important to the publisher than whether or not your check will clear.

So read that post that I linked to above and if self-publishing seems like something that will fit your needs then by all means do it.

But saying that self-publishing will help you break into publishing is a lot like saying that buying a uniform with your name embroidered on the back is a great way to become a pro athlete.

You can dress up in it and go to the ballpark, but the only way they're going to let you on the field is if you prove to those "gatekeepers" that you can hit and pitch and throw at a professional level.

And if you can do all that, then why waste your money making your own uniform when I'm pretty sure the pro players get theirs for free?

11. You don't reall
y have to have a literary agent.

Well, it's true that a few publishing houses will still accept unagented submissions, but I honestly don't know which ones they are. And even if I did there's no way that, knowing what I know now, I would recommend someone try to go it in this business without a reputable literary agent.

After all, do you know the ins-and-outs of an option clause? What about e-rights? And how many contacts do you have in overseas markets for possible foreign language sales?

Trust me, a literary agent isn't really an optional thing.

And if you can't get an agent with the book you've been shopping then that's just a sign that you need to try another book or another agent--not that you need to go it alone.

Closing thoughts...

As I've said before, but I'll say again, this is my personal list (which seems appropriate since this is my personal blog). If you ask another writer you'll almost assuredly get another opinion. And that is fine.

But don't let someone tell you that you DO have to know someone--I didn't.

Or that writers DO have to drive store-to-store hand-selling their books to make a living--I don't.

Or that kids absolutely DO NOT read anymore--90% of the readers of this blog and I know better.

So while there are few things that anyone can say are universally true about this industry, these are 11 things that I feel very safe in saying are at least a little bit false.

At least they have been in my case.

-Ally

ps...before someone asks it in the comments (because I KNOW it'll get asked) there is no minimum age to become a published writer. You simply have to be writing AT A PROFESSIONAL LEVEL.

pps...and also preemptively answering comments, I have many tips for writers on the "for writers" section of the ALLY portion of the website. Also, click on the "Tips for Writers" label of this post to see other posts on the topic.

Perhaps the most frequent writing advice I ever give is simple: this business isn't for wusses.

Sure, I could go into details about the incredibly tight margins in the publishing industry... Or how traditional review sources are drying up... Or how the bad economy is affecting the industry as a whole (several insiders have dubbed yesterday "Black Wednesday" because of the news of layoffs at several big New York houses).

Publishing is HARD. But for those of you just staring out (and I know from emails and blog comments that there are A LOT of you) that's not what you need to be worrying about. Just writing is hard enough, so for my money, you should really put your effort on that--on doing THAT well--because, in truth, the writing is the only thing in this crazy, crazy business that you will always control.

Case in point: the title-less book I'm working on now.

I've been through two drafts. It's in decent shape. Seriously, it is. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It has a main character who has a goal and a whole series of obstacles standing in her way. It's 275 pages long.

It's a "finished" book by a lot of new writer standards. (And I know this because that's what your English teachers tell me when you guys are out of the room!)

But finished isn't good enough, I'm afraid. Not by a long shot.

Writing at a professional level means looking at your book--as a whole--and asking hard questions and then fixing the places where you don't like the answers. It means examining every single character and making sure they're consistent and interesting and unique. It means spending an insane amount of time trying to say with seven words what you've been saying with 12.

It's easy to finish when your book is finished, gang.

What's hard--what's necessary--is finishing when your book is good.

And now I've got to go do just that!

-Ally