Gia Cribbs On Being A Big Time Planner

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!

Today's guest for the SAT (Successful Author Talk) is Gia Cribbs, author of THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SLOANE SULLIVAN, which will be available in May of 2018 from Harlequin Teen.

Are you a Planner or Pantster?

I’m a big time planner, which is not a surprise to anyone who knows me! Before I write a single word, I know everything I want to happen in the story and how I’m going to get there. It’s easier for me to set up all the twists and turns when I know what’s coming. Outlining also helps me get to know my characters better. But of course as I write, sometimes a character does something that surprises me and that’s great! When that happens I just go with it and find a way to work it into where I want things to go.

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

I typically spend a month or two outlining and researching first (see my definitely-a-planner answer above ☺). As for actual writing time, I wrote THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SLOANE SULLIVAN fairly quickly, in a little over three months. I tend to revise as I write, so there weren’t many big changes I needed to make to that first draft of SLOANE. I probably spent about a month revising before I was ready to enter it into some contests and start querying. I can only hope all my books get written that quickly!

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

I prefer to work on one project at a time, but that’s not always possible. I think having outlines and planning things out helps me jump between projects a little more easily when I have to.

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

Not really. No one other than my immediate family even knew I was writing a book, so I didn’t feel any pressure or expectations from anyone other than myself. I had the typical I don’t know what I’m doing type of doubts you get whenever you try something new, but I wanted to tell the stories bouncing around in my head and the only way to do that was to try. Being able to sit and write just for me was a really great experience. 

How many trunked books (if any) did you have before you were agented?

I wrote one book before SLOANE, but I never tried to query it. It was more of an experiment to see if I could really write a whole book. But I don’t completely consider it trunked because I love those characters. Maybe one day I’ll be able to come back to that one!

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

I do have a partial manuscript hidden away on my computer that I stopped writing when it wasn’t any fun to work on anymore. I figure if I’m not having fun writing it, no one’s going to have any fun reading it!

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

My agent is Steven Salpeter with Curtis Brown, Ltd. When I was searching for an agent, I tried both entering online YA writing contests and the traditional query route. I queried Steven and knew as soon as I talked to him that he was the right agent for me. For those in the query trenches, slush piles do work!

How long did you query before landing your agent?  

Not counting the time I spent entering SLOANE in various contests, my query process ended up being super quick. I queried for a little over two weeks before Steven offered representation. I queried him one afternoon, he asked for the full manuscript almost immediately, and he read it that night and called me the next morning to offer representation, which was amazingly fast on his part! There were other agents that had the full, and I ended up receiving one other offer, but I picked Steven and it’s been the best decision!

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

Don’t give up! Rejections suck and it’s okay to let yourself feel that for a little bit. It always takes a few hours (or maybe a day or two, who am I kidding?) for a rejection to work its way through my system. But the important part is to keep going and don’t let the doubt take over! Publishing is subjective. Not everyone will like your manuscript but it really does only take one yes. While I was querying, the one thing that really helped me was to send out another query every time I got a rejection. That way the hope helped block out the sting of rejection.

How much input do you have on cover art?

My publisher has been great about asking for my opinion on the cover. When I saw the first cover concept, I was blown away. I can’t wait to be able to share the cover with everyone!

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

The thing that’s probably surprised me the most so far is how publishing can feel both super slow and really fast all at the same time. Sometimes it seems like nothing much is happening, then all of a sudden everything is going on at once. It’s a wild ride and I’m so excited to be on it!

How much of your own marketing do you?  Do you have a blog / site / Twitter?

I’m on Twitter (@giacribbs) and I’ve got a website in the works that hopefully will be up and running in a few months. As my publication date gets closer, I’m definitely planning on doing more marketing myself.

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

I didn’t have a platform at all until after I got my book deal, which is definitely not the usual way of doing things. So while I don’t think you have to have a platform before you get an agent, being on social media to connect with other writers, find out what agents are looking for, and see what’s going on in the YA world is definitely something I’d recommend doing sooner rather than later.

Do you think social media helps build your readership?

As a reader myself, I love seeing what other people are reading and recommending on social media so I can find new books to read too. From that word of mouth basis alone, I think social media can help build your readership.

Wednesday WOLF - Don't Pronounce the H!

I've got a collection of random information in my brain that makes me an awesome Trivial Pursuit partner, but is completely useless when it comes to real world application. Like say, job applications. I thought I'd share some of this random crap with you in the form of another acronym-ific series. I give you - Word Origins from Left Field - that's right, the WOLF. Er... ignore the fact that the "from" doesn't fit.

Here's an interesting little bit of language history that I happened upon the other day, involving silent letters.

I've always been kind of amused at the fact that you don't pronounce the "h" in ghost. It's kind of funny, if you think about it. It's there... but you never hear it, and no one dare say it... Oooooo. Anyway, why is that pesky letter there?

People were writing long before the dictionary existed. Mostly it was the monks who did the copying and writing of books, and pretty much everyone wrote words however they felt they should be spelled. Likewise, the printing press existed before the dictionary, and we ended up in the same situation. Lots of people from all different kinds of backgrounds were printing in the English language, but bits of their own heritage were filtering in to the mix.

The word ghost was originally spelled without the "h," nice and phonetically. But printers from Holland tossed an "h" in there because that's how they spelled it, and for some reason, it stuck.

Interestingly enough, the printers weren't only tossing in letters because of cultural differences. They also liked nice straight lines (who can blame them?) and so if they had to knock an extra letter off of a word or two in order to get a nice, tidy justification, they'd go for it. Words like, logic, magic, and music used to have a "k" at the end, but they got nicked.

In 1755 Samuel Johnson had enough of arbitrary spelling, and made the first English Dictionary. Shortly after the American Revolution, Noah Webster waged his own kind of war against the English by writing an American Dictionary, in which he knocked the "u" out of words like color, flavor and honor.

How do I know all this? Well, it's because I read books. Most of this stuff was news to me, I learned it from THE WORD SNOOP by Ursula Duborsarsky. If you're as big of a nerd as I am, you might want to check it out.

Savannah Hendricks On Combatting The Fear Of Never Selling Another Book

Welcome to the SNOB - Second Novel Ominipresent Blues. Whether you’re under contract or trying to snag another deal, you’re a professional now, with the pressures of a published novelist compounded with the still-present nagging self-doubt of the noobie. How to deal?

Today's guest for the SNOB is Savannah Hendricks who holds a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice, an Associate degree & CCL in Early Childhood Education, and a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice/Criminology. She works full time as a medical social worker and writes because to write, is to listen, to everyone, including yourself.

Is it hard to leave behind the first novel and focus on the second?

For me it was easy to start on other work. My first book, Nonnie and I took seven years from draft to sale so I already was well on my way through other stories, even submissions. There was a lot of focus on sales, which kept me distracted around and after the release date. I felt as though I was always checking to see where the book stood and if it had any reviews yet, plus my own marketing kept me busy. I did get the nagging feeling when I was submitting my second manuscript that I would never sell again, and still feel this way some three years later.

At what point do you start diverting your energies from promoting your debut and writing / polishing / editing your second?

I would say that today, I still have some energy focused on Nonnie and I. I think that unless you have a huge publisher (and even if you do), the work never ends. You don’t want your books to ever fall onto the “out of print list.” What writer doesn’t want their book to be considered a classic? I do have the fear as I work on a second book that Nonnie and I will be the only one I will ever have in reader’s hands. That can cause a lot of anxiety when you want to focus on other manuscripts. You don’t want to be a one hit wonder. 

Your first book landed an agent and an editor, and hopefully some fans. Who are you writing the second one for? Them, or yourself?

I sold Nonnie and I on my own, without an agent. But, I’m in the process of finding one. The publisher I worked with only had minor editorial changes. For any book, this is kind of unheard of, but for Nonnie and I it just worked out that way.

My second book I’m writing for me, one hundred percent, but the feedback I’ve gotten from the industry has really helped me/pushed me to make it better so that it can sell. I’ve learned you can’t write for anyone but you, especially in a profession that is subjective as this one. Overall, I want readers to love my stories. That is how it was with Nonnie and I, and how it will continue. My worse fear is getting a book published only to have readers hate it. Reviews where a reader didn’t connect with the story. That the characters were flat and the reader didn’t care what happened to them.

Is there a new balance of time management to address once you’re a professional author?

For me time management has always been a balancing act since I have a full time job outside of writing. As a social worker, most of my evenings after work are “wasted.” Because I don’t have the energy to devote to writing, and if I do, I almost become wired and then can’t sleep, which causes issues the next day at work. I do try and use the week nights for reading and researching so that when the weekend comes I can devote most of the day to actual writing and editing. If I’m able to get a lunch break during work I will try and read, edit or create a new rough draft of a story idea, but this is pretty rare.

What did you do differently the second time around, with the perspective of a published author?

The second time around, as I write I have learned that most of my drafts, which I thought were ready to go and perfect are not at all. I submitted too soon on so many of them. Also, I have thicker skin in a sense that I know it’s a waiting game, I just hope it’s not a seven year game. I have learned this second time around that it’s important to keep writing, when creativity strikes write it down. It’s important to have more than just one other manuscript, especially in the picture book world. The other day I submitted a picture book to an agent and the agent replied right away asking if I had any other picture books she could look at as well. If I only had that one, then I would have missed an opportunity. Regardless of the outcome of that agent, it’s important to have more than one thing in your portfolio, illustrators do, and writers should too.