Lisa & Laura Roecker Share Their Query That Worked!

I'm lucky (or cunning) enough to have lured yet another successful writer over to my blog for an SAT - Successful Author Talk. SAT authors have conquered the query, slain the synopsis and attained the pinnacle of published. How'd they do it? Let's ask 'em! Even cooler, today brings us something unfathomable to me: a sister-writer team! As such, they get an extra special SAT question at the end of the interview.

Lisa and Laura Roecker are sisters and co-authors of THE LIAR SOCIETY, which was released in paperback last month.

Are you Planners or Pantsters?

We are most definitely planners. Because we write together, we have to have some idea as to where the book is headed. Granted, this changes quite a bit as we get deeper into the story, but it makes us feel better to have a jumping off point.

How long does it typically take you to write a novel, start to finish?

If we really buckle down, we can complete a novel within a couple of months. This does not include the massive revisions we inevitably end up doing. We do prefer to write this way--NaNoWriMo style--our families, however, do not.

Do you work on one project at a time, or are you a multi taskers?

We are one project at a time kind of writers. We can read a lot of books simultaneously, but writing is much more personal. One world at a time, please.

Did you have to overcome any fears that first time you sat down to write?

We have many fears as writers now compared to when we first started out. We completely miss our naivete of the early days. We just wrote and though it was AMAZING. Now we know better.

How many trunked books did you have before you were agented?

We have one trunked book from before and one from after.

Have you ever quit on a ms, and how did you know it was time?

YES. We've quit on a few! It's usually a joint decision and most often because the plot is too complicated or the characters aren't flowing.

Who is your agent and how did you get that "Yes!" out of them?

Catherine Drayton. She plucked us out of the slush pile, baby! It was super-exciting because she was one of our top agents for the first trunked manuscript, but we got the big fat 'R.' The second time around went much better!

How long did you query before landing your agent?

We sent out 10 queries to our top agent choices for THE LIAR SOCIETY, which was then called FINDING GRACE.

Any advice to aspiring writers out there on conquering query hell?

Believe it or not, there are days when we miss querying. There was so much possibility and excitement involved in the process! Will we get a request? Will an agent want to see more? Will they offer? Will they email? We kind of loved every second. I think our main piece of advice would be to query in small chunks. If you aren't getting a good response, perhaps your query needs a makeover. If you're getting requests that turn into rejections, perhaps your book isn't quite ready. Testing the waters is kind of a nice way to test out your query and/or manuscript.

How did that feel, the first time you saw your book for sale?

So exciting! It felt like all of our hard work had finally paid off. It was also surreal at the same time.

How much input do you have on cover art?

Not much at all. We have a whole cover art drama story. Basically, Kate did not have pink hair until we had to go back in and change it based on final cover art. It all worked out in the end, but not without a few tears along the way.

What's something you learned from the process that surprised you?

We learned that a lot of publishing is out of your control. No one can predict what kids will buy or what they'll love or which cover will call to them. We are not the target market, but we try our best!

How much of your own marketing do you?

We do pretty much all of our marketing. We have an incredible publicist who supports us, but marketing the book is kind of our baby. We've come up with contests, organized our blog tour and have attempted to spread the word using social networking. Jury's still out on whether or not it worked!

Lisa & Laura’s Blog
Lisa & Laura on Twitter
Lisa & Laura on Facebook
THE LIAR SOCIETY Homepage
Lisa & Laura’s Site

When do you build your platform? After an agent? Or should you be working before?

As soon as you begin writing, if you feel comfortable, plug yourself into the community. Not only is it great for networking, but you'll make valuable friends along the way. The business is tough so if you have trusted friends who will support you, you're golden!

Do you think social media helps build your readership?

Yes. At least we hope so! We work very hard to spread the word online, so it'd be a shame if it didn't contribute to sales. BUT, we've made friends who are incredible, so really, it doesn't really matter!

And the Extra Special Sister-Writer Duo Question:

How the heck did you manage to work together to write? My older sister chairs the English Dept. in the school where I work. We love each other, but there’s that “Stop touching the stuff on my desk!” and “Are you really eating that?” factor to working together that makes me think if we wrote a book together it would be carnage!!

HA! You'd be surprised how much fun it is to write a book with someone else! The whole two brains thing totally works to our advantage. Basically, we just switch off chapter by chapter--Lisa writes one, Laura edits and writes the next, Lisa edits hers and writes the following. Until finally, we have a finished book and have had the chance to be both readers and writers. We don't know how people write books ALONE!

Extra Special Fun - L&L Share Their Winning Query!!

Kate Lowry didn't think dead best friends could send e-mails. Not even on the anniversary of their disappearance. Of course, that was before this message from Grace appeared in her inbox:

Kate,
I'm here…
sort of.
Find Christian.
He knows.
I shouldn't be writing.
Don't tell.
They'll hurt you.

Most girls would ignore the warning and go straight to the police.

But Kate isn’t most girls.

Instead, she decides to channel Nancy Drew, pearls and all. Of course, Kate’s pearls are faux, her skirts are way shorter and she’d take everyone's favorite teen detective in a girl fight, but you get the idea.

The e-mails continue and Kate’s quest to solve the mystery takes a dangerous turn when her confrontation with Christian, Grace’s addict brother, almost gets her killed. Good thing she finds a couple of knights-in-(not so)-shining armor in sexy bad boy, Liam, and her awkward neighbor, Seth.. Armed with her newfound sidekicks, the investigation continues, uncovering a secret lurking in the halls of their elite private school that threatens to destroy them all.

Kate knew finding Grace wasn’t going to be easy, but figuring out who to trust is more difficult than she ever could have imagined.

After all, everyone’s a suspect.

A Clean House is One in Which No Writing is Being Done (Unless You Have A Maid, But That’s Cheating)

I’ve got to admit that I’m often torn between the demands of real life, and the demands of the fake people who live in my head.  Sure, there are certain responsibilities that must be attended to—cats don’t feed themselves, dog vomit doesn’t magically disappear—but is it imperative that my dresser be dusted off?  Who sees it anyway?  Me.  And do I care?

Technically, no.  I don’t.  Most of the dust in my bedroom is comprised of my own dead skin cells anyway, right?  So why do I care if part of me now resides on top of my dresser?  It makes its own kind of sense, really.  But—even practical me gets a dragging sense of inadequacy when I see that layer of dust.  I’ve failed as a housekeeper.

Then the flip side asks me—what if I fail as a writer?  What if the fake people in my head die and I walk around smelling bad because of it?  OK that last bit isn’t going to happen, but cutting off the circulation to my imagination will in fact kill my characters, and nothing cuts off the blood flow to the brain like housework.

And hey fellas—this applies across the board.  I know plenty of awesome dudes and single fathers who work their butts off, so don’t think that this is a female-centric philosophy. 

I was recently reading the excellent book Women Who Run With the Wolves: Contacting the Power of the Wild Woman by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, and came upon this excellent quote:

“I've seen women work long, long hours at jobs they despise in order to buy very expensive items for their houses, mates, or children, and putting their considerable talents on the back burner. I've seen women insist on cleaning everything in the house before they could sit down to write... and you know, it's a funny thing about house cleaning... it never comes to an end. Perfect way to stop a woman. A woman must be careful to not allow overresponsibility (or overrespectability) to steal her necessary creative rests, rifts, and raptures. She simply must put her foot down and say no to half of what she believes she "should" be doing. Art is not meant to be created in stolen moments only.”

Think on that for a bit, the last sentence particularly.  It resonated with me, and I’m betting it will with you, too.

Sex in YA - You Know You Want It

"... and you know you want me to give it to you." Biff's words to Lorraine in Back to the Future had me totally flummoxed for a looong time. What was it? How could Biff give it to her? And why was he trying to touch her panties in the front seat of the car during the dance? Why was Lorriane talking about Marty's Calvin Klein's in their meeting scene? What's the fixation with underwear?

I remained in the dark about these topics for awhile. I knew sex existed, but I didn't have the whole Tab A, Slot B mechanics of the dance figured out until er... well... later. Not so today's teens. Blame it on the media, blame it on the culture, blame on parenting, blame it on the rain (how many 80's references can I get in here?) Let's just set blame aside and focus on the fact that it simply IS. My opinion - kids aren't having more sex, or earlier than before - it's simply no longer a taboo subject.

So, because it's not taboo, because they do know the mechanics - what do we write about it? Do we write about it?

It's up to you. I've read some really graphic sex scenes in YA. I don't find them offensive. I have a hard time believing there's anything in there that the average teen hasn't already been exposed to. However, I do monitor content in the books that I give out to junior high students - not necessarily because I think they're about to have their minds deflowered - but because their parents DO believe that, and they might have my ass in a sling. And I need my ass. I use it everyday.

My own philosophy runs thus; I have always believed that less is more. Why does Jaws work? 'Cause you don't see the shark. I typically refrain from physically describing my characters because I want my readers to fill in their hot guy, their hallway bitch, themselves as the MC. So when it comes to those backseat moments, or when my MC invites a guy over to "watch a movie," (yeah right, I have yet to see the end of Ferris Bueller's Day Off), I want them to fill in slot B on their own. Something happened. Unless it's imperative to the plot, does it matter what? Do they need the description? Do they need to see that shark?

Here's a great example from Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix: (I know you're saying "What!  An HP makeout scene?") Oh yeah... it's there. A meeting of Dumbledore's Army has just ended. Everyone has filed out except for Cho and Harry, who are kinda hanging out there in the Room of Requirement... and who didn't guess that thing had multiple uses? pg. 456-457:

"I really like you Harry."
He could not think.  A tingling sensation was spreading throughout him, paralyzing his arms, legs and brain.
She was much too close.  He could see every tear clinging to her eyelashes...
*PAGE BREAK*
He returned to the common room half an hour later to find Hermione and Ron..."

Hey! Wait a second!! Half an hour later? Gee... what were they doing? Now, obviously Rowling had a duty to her young readers to keep it clean, and to her older readers to keep it interesting. Not so for all writers, certainly. But I think it's a good example of letting the reader take it to their own level - of comfort, of familiarity, without being told what happened.

My own writing gives a little more detail than this highly gratuitous page break, but you get the idea.

One last thought - what do you want your readers to take away from your book? I haven't read Breaking Dawn, but I know that Edward and Bella break the headboard, cause that's all anyone wanted to talk about. Other than that - zero clue what the plot is about.

I'd love some feedback! What are your thoughts? Show the shark, or keep him underwater?  :)