A Different Kind of Cover Reveal: DRATS, FOILED AGAIN!

After six years of sitting on this manuscript, I've decided--with plenty of encouragement from those closest to me--to self-publish DRATS, FOILED AGAIN! and let it find its readers!!

The book and I are really excited about this.

So yesterday I sat down with some paintbrushes and a lot of yellow and green paint, and made my own cover art. Right now, I have some dear friends and family reviewing the latest revisions of the manuscript for readability and consistency. Early next month, I'm having a freelance editor copyedit it, and we have a tentative release date of April 20, 2018!! This has been a long time in coming.

Without further ado, I give you the cover art for DRATS, FOILED AGAIN!

Robert Gilbrinkle is blind in one eye, which makes dodging punches in his Anti-Hero Maneuvers class especially difficult, but his lack of depth perception is the least of his troubles. Nox Academy’s senior project deadline is fast approaching, he's failing three classes, and, naturally, his evil twin Rupert keeps trying to kill him every chance he gets. 

But the real trouble begins when Robert’s pathetic superpower--a very unwicked superwink that fixes anything broken--starts to evolve. The kids at Nox used to laugh and call him "Rob Repairman" but nobody is laughing now. His wink threatens anyone who threatens him. 

Robert has always known where he stands - on the other side of the hall from Rupert. What haunts him the most is the revelation that maybe he and Rupert aren't as different as he thought. Battling a common enemy brings them closer than either twin can handle, but the lives of their friends are at stake and the thirst for revenge is strong. Maybe even stronger than their disdain for each other.

With the playful cartoonish style and broad crossover appeal of Disney’s SKY HIGH, and the coming of age heroic drama of Matthew Cody’s POWERLESS, Robert’s story will resonate with kids from 8 to 14 who love to escape to that comic book world of good vs. evil and often wonder where in the midst of that universe they fit in.

What was the clincher? And why six years later? Well, here's the exciting and perilous story behind the non-publishing and eventual self-publishing of DRATS, FOILED AGAIN!

First, the reason I finally decided, the CLINCHER for my self-publishing decision, was my eight-year-old son, Layne James. Oh, he's adorable, and he loves comic books more than life itself. He is often found with a stack of white paper and a pen, drafting his own hero-vs.-villain stories. I wrote DRATS, FOILED AGAIN! when he was only two years old, and his big brother was five. I had always intended to share it with them, but they were a little young for a readaloud this thick at the time. Trust me, I tried reading WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS with Sam, the big brother, and all it did was put him to sleep (which is in itself its own kind of win!). But somehow it came up this year and I started reading it with Layne James. That fun bonding experience led me to pick up the old manuscript and finally see what it needed. The rest is history, and here's that story for those who desperately want to know:

DRATS, FOILED AGAIN! got the most attention from literary agents, out of all of my work. One agent optimistically referred me to another agent she thought might really dig it, and the feedback was flatteringly positive, except for one thing: THEY DIDN'T KNOW WHERE IT FIT IN THE MARKET. I was advised to rewrite the whole story to make it so the characters weren't in high school, but in some sort of junior academy for villains instead. And I did!

It was painful to go through and make the changes, and at the end, the story felt like an empty shell of its former self. I couldn't understand why changing the age made such a difference until I thought a good, long while about it. The answer was obvious, and I don't know why I didn't see it before. DRATS, FOILED AGAIN! is primarily a coming of age story. While there are great coming of age stories written with an MG-age protagonist (A WRINKLE IN TIME and THE GIVER, to name a few of my favorites), this particular coming of age story is about that scary, exciting, and confusing year between senior year of high school and the big wide world that awaits after graduation. That inner conflict of "Where will I live, and how will I make my mark on the world?" is absolutely central to Robert's struggle between good and evil (and Rupert's, in the companion novel coming soon).

Given this disconnect between my story and the traditional publishing scene, I guess the question really is, why did I wait so long to go it alone? The answer is that I have a lot of faith in the traditional publishing route. It's what I know, having worked with literary agents, authors, and editors on writing conferences and pitch contests at Operation Awesome. I have become very comfortable with my vision for my own success story, and it always involved, in my mind 1) get represented by awesome agent, 2) shop my novel to awesome editors at awesome publishing houses, 3) get picked up for a huge advance, and 4) celebrate!

My faith was strong in the traditional publishing route, and honestly, I still think it's a good idea to go that route in a lot of cases. It provides you with a team of people, some marketing resources, and often a nice little chunk of change in advance. But, and it took me a long time to accept this, DRATS, FOILED AGAIN! is just the type of story that agents and editors are hesitant to take on because of what they see as a marketing challenge. If it isn't straight-up middle grade and it isn't straight-up young adult, then what is it?

The characters are all teenagers. Some of them are middle grade age (Star and Shepherd, for instance), but the main characters are young adult age, almost adults. And unlike the very distinct differences between contemporary MG and YA, where young adults are dealing with very adult stuff and middle graders are dealing with bullying and fitting in, DRATS, FOILED AGAIN! has characters of all ages all dealing with the same big thing: the ongoing battle between good and evil. Because of its very playful MG tone and plot, and characters with a YA age, DRATS, FOILED AGAIN! actually has a broad crossover appeal. In fact, like Disney's Sky High, it could appeal to all the kids in the family as a readaloud (that's how we roll at my house), or kids 8-14 years old reading alone. When I queried it, I categorized it as middle grade, and that's still where I'd place it in the market.

BUT WHAT I'M REALLY EXCITED ABOUT with self-publishing is that you, the readers, get to decide! There isn't a big hullabaloo about which shelf to put it on, or just what type of cover art will express both the high stakes and the playful tone. And all that's left is just to read the story and, with any luck, fall deeply in love with its characters.

I hope you'll enjoy the twins, Robert and Rupert, their goofy insatiable dad, Famine Mouth, the mischievous tech genius Patsy Spendlove, and the heroes on the other side of the forest: Everest, Morphea, Star, and Trueblue. I hope you'll relate, whatever your age, to Robert's struggle to find where he belongs on that spectrum between good and evil, and to choose for himself where he wants to be.


RELEASE DATE: APRIL 20, 2018


(It will be available on Amazon Kindle and as a paperback.)


More pictures from the cover art process:

L is for Letting Go

the challenge

L is for Letting Go

This is a tender topic for me, something that's hard for me to do personally, and I'm sure was hard for my mother before me. When you've done the best that you can, when you've given something or someone your all, there comes a time when you have to let it/them go. 

For mothers all over the world, this is a terrible balancing act. When and how do they let go? Baby birds learn to fly at great personal risk, and mothers must watch helplessly. But the truth behind the questions of how and when is that it isn't up to us. There comes a time when children stand up and say, "I am me. You are you. I'm going now. This is my next step into the world." 

Whether we let go or not, the time comes when our white-knuckled grasp is only holding air. 

It's this way with art, too. Like children, art comes from a very tender, private place inside us. It is cultivated by our love and attention. It is shaped by us, as much as it is within our talents and power, to resemble what we think it ought to be. And when we've done our best, given our all, it's time to let go. 

For authors lucky and determined enough to have publishing contracts or self-publishing release dates, that time is a specific date. For them, letting go is a fixed affair. "On this day I will send my book baby into the world, come what may." You see a lot of posts to this effect on twitter and facebook. Authors say, "I've done it. It's release day. I'm sending it out into the world. I hope you love it." 

But you can't make them love it. You can't even make them understand it. People will misunderstand your art, just as they will insist on misunderstanding you. People will chop up your work, quote it or paraphrase it out of context, make you look silly (sparkly vampires). People will snark about what is sacred to you, make themselves seem clever while tearing you down. It's what people do sometimes. 

People may review the earliest edition of your self-published book (as happened to a very vocal disgruntled writer a few years back). They may reprint your typos and call them stupidity. 

And they will do all of this without asking for your permission. 

Let it go.

Then there are artists like me. I'm not published, and I haven't published myself. I've talked about it. I've thought about it, but I'm just not ready. Some of my closest friends and family say, "Let it go." Just put your art out into the world and let it be read, even when it's not perfect. I resist. I want it to be perfect. I want it to be without flaws. I want to "avoid those weaknesses which often expose a strong understanding to ridicule" (Darcy).

Some painters swipe and brush away at their favorite pieces in the lamp-lit corners of their houses, never portraying their art to the community because all they can see are the flaws. I don't want to be that. But I also want my "debut" to be auspicious and what they call promising. I want to be read and appreciated and most of all understood. 

So I can understand if even a traditionally published author has trouble, because I feel it, too, the resistance, as tight as a rubber band, to the notion, the pull against gravity, telling me to

Let it go.

Pubslush: Kickstarter for Writers?

Pubslush 101

This just came to my attention and I already love it. I don't know if I'll ever use it for my own publication aspirations, but I've already pledged to support another author's writing project. I'm a sucker for good sci-fi, and the author I chose to support seems to know exactly what her goals are for this book/series, and how she wants to get there. You can find authors/books you want to support, or post your work and see how many people you can get on board.

I'm excited to see what authors do with this. People are endlessly creative, and I'm sure there are ways of using Pubslush that haven't been done yet.

What do you think about crowdsourcing/crowdfunding for the arts?

Blog Chain: The Brave New World of Self-Publishing

What would they think of self-publishing?

Like everyone else, my views on self-publishing are evolving with the publishing industry itself. At WriteOnCon the past few days, I saw quite a few agents give a nod to self-publishing as a legitimate way to reach readers with novellas or niche market projects, even when you already have an agent and are going traditional with more commercially appealing novels.

I think this new openness is a good thing because it means authors (and the agents/editors who help them) have more options than ever before.

It's also a bad thing. Why do I say that? Because as a still developing writer, the temptation to put my work out there is pretty constant... and I'm not ready. And even if/when I do feel my work is ready for wide readership, there are still plenty of market considerations (complexities) that I don't fully grasp.

Most agents come to agenting through an internship or apprenticeship model, learning the ins and outs of contracts and marketing from more experienced agents. While this does perpetuate a sameness in the traditional publishing world that may block out innovative ideas, it's also probably the best possible way for the reins to pass hands in the publishing industry.

Like it or not, literary agents still know a lot more than the average author about publishing rights, international publishing, and even marketing (though authors are taking on more marketing responsibilities through social networking). And if you ever want to go from self-publishing into traditional publishing (which I think most of the authors I know still do), an agent is still a really handy team member to have.

These factors considered, I'm not against self-publishing at all. I know authors can study up on these complexities and become experts in their own rite. And amazon makes it so freaking easy to just upload your novel and start selling it for less than a dollar. It seems like you don't even need all that stuffy publishing industry knowledge.

In fact, I've considered createspace.com as a way to make a quick buck. But I didn't consider it for very long. See, after looking at the steps involved, I realized I'm still not ready.

I'm not ready to fork out the money for a professional editor and a professional cover artist. I'm not ready to take on all the responsibility for selling my own work. I've tried selling a product in the past and I sucked at it. If the future is me having to stand on a corner and say, "Read my book, you'll love it," I'm pretty much screwed. Yeah, there's blogging, and that's a little different from the street corner approach. :) But still, self-marketing is much easier for me to imagine if I'm backed by a traditional publisher and a supportive agent who all want me to succeed, too.

So that's how I feel about me self-publishing. As far as you self-publishing, I say YOU GO, GIRL! or GUY! I've read two (yeah, that's it so far) incredible, polished, riveting self-published novels. They were put out by experienced authors, who both have agents, and are both still working toward traditional publishing success as well. They're happy with their choice. Meanwhile, their books are doing great! Because they're great books. They took their time. They did it right. And that rocks.

Are your feelings on this topic as convoluted as mine? 

Check out others on the blog chain: Kate before me, and Michelle H. up next. Previously, we heard from  Sandra and Matt on this super fun topic!

p.s. It's also my day to blog at Operation Awesome and I'm taking some funny/embarrassing stuff from my WriteOnCon forums experience to talk about world-building: No Really. Literally.

Unicorns, Self-Publishing, and Honesty

We lie as a hobby--or for some of us, a business. We're writers. We make stuff up. It's beautiful. It's heart-wrenching. It's exciting. It's all a lie.

But that's not what this post is about.

I want to talk about the real lies writers tell themselves and each other. I hope they're not as pervasive as they seem to be, and maybe it's just a fringe division (hee hee. Fringe Division) of the writing world who are engaged in this puffed-up-ness. I sure hope so.

There's a post over on the QueryTracker forum about self-publishing. Actually, it's about a harsh editor's response to an author's question about self-publishing. Whoo! Mouthful. The author signed on unwittingly with a vanity publisher who he thought was legitimate. Now, because he wants to find an agent, he's asking what he should include in his query about previously published books. This editor's advice was not to mention it since vanity publishing or self-publishing is as imaginary as unicorns. (I paraphrased the crap out of this. He was much meaner.)

My reactions:

First, I want to say that I think he was unnecessarily harsh and kind of wrong, since plenty of agents have expressed an interest in knowing if you're previously self-published. Also, this person obviously felt swindled, and was humble about his mistake. That deserves something more than a "Tough luck, kiddo. You just took a ride on a unicorn."

Read what he actually said HERE.

Second, I want to stand up for self-published authors who really know what they're doing. They edit their books, or have them professionally edited. They hire cover artists and marketing teams. They basically do everything a publisher and agent would do, but all by themselves. They're like super-authors because they're also entrepreneurs! I admire these people. I will never be one. (Stints with both Mary Kay cosmetics and Avon have proved my lack of mettle as a salesperson and self-employee.)

Third, I want to agree with Mean Unicorn Guy about some self-published authors being as legitimate as unicorns. Hear me out.

I was lied to.

One day, I was minding my own business on twitter, retweeting other people's cleverness (not quite minding my own biz), when somebody sought me out to help them spread the word about their book. Through the course of tweeting, instant messaging, and blogging, I came to think of this person as a published author. Naturally, as an aspiring author, I look up to published authors because of what I assume they went through to get that status. I'm going through it now:

• writing
• editing
• receiving criticism from partners
• editing
• querying agents
• submitting work to agents
• getting rejected
• hoping, hoping, hoping
• finally getting that offer of representation
• more criticism
• more editing
• submitting to agents
• more rejection
• acceptance
• criticism
• editing
• editing
• editing
• waiting
• waiting
• waiting

BAM! Published.

Looks like fun, huh? 

It's not. Well, some of it is. But a lot of it is not. It's easy to see why people might want to circumvent the whole deal and just publish their book alone, especially when lulu.com holds promotions, letting you publish practically for free. 

The problem is that they don't provide the intensive editing service you get from a traditional publishing house who has a vested interest in your book being the best it can be. 

This is your story

This is your story with professional editing

Any questions?

So I end up buying the aforementioned twitterer's book for $20 (it cost less to buy two of Ally Carter's awesome spy novels at TJMaxx, btw). I don't mind the extra cost for a really great read, but I can't even get past the first three chapters before the writing makes me feel sick. The MC is as likable as a cockroach, and the supporting cast is a mixture of cliche and bad-original. What do you do when you're reading a horrible book? I flip it back over to look at the cover. Ah, there it is...

The publisher who thought this was worth the paper its printed on.

Vanity Publisher X.

A quick google search clinches it for me. The author was either swindled, or he knowingly swindled me. Point-blank, I had asked this person about how he found his agent (curious aspiring authors love these stories, if you published authors are looking for something to blog about). He lied. There's no way this person has an agent. There's no way he has an editor. The book is just too bad. 

If you look at this person's twitter or facebook profiles, you'll see post after post about awards he's won, new books he's working on, library workshops, book signings, etc. He acts, talks, and walks like a published author, but his work is derivative, stale, and unpolished. 

Normally, I wouldn't knock another writer's efforts like this, but I'm feeling justifiably angry. It's not just that I bought the book. It's that I bought the person he pretended to be. 

If you want to self-publish, more power to you. Don't lie. Don't say you have an agent and a traditional publisher and editors who are bugging you to get a blog up and running. Poseurs in any industry are at best laughable, and at worst, con artists.

Just be honest. We are all trying to do the best we can. As a fellow writer, that's all I expect of my peers. You don't have to be a pita. It's okay if you're just a tortilla. Really.