Help Them Help You: Guest Post by R.S. Mellette

For any artistic pursuit, there are countless professional and not-so-professional organizations to help you along your way. Tons of people join these groups and then complain when they are not provided a red-carpet to success.

I have in the past been guilty of being that person. I’ve joined groups like The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) or Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), looking around their websites, logging onto their forums, getting bored and not doing much else. In times of unemployment, I’ve yelled at my computer, “I’ve already paid my dues, why do I have to pay MORE for a workshop?” So, I get it. I’ve been there. I’ve not only heard the excuses; I’ve made them.

I’ve also taken advantage of groups like that to the point that they have helped me get published. I'm sharing my stories here in the hope that my experiences may help you along the way.

Online Forums

Back around 2008 or 09, I ran across AgentQuery.com, which is still a fantastic database for researching agents. Back then, it had a forum associated with it, Agent Query Connect. I love net forums. They are one of the best things about the internet. Whenever I need help with something in life, I seek out a forum to find someone who has made the same stupid mistakes I’m about to make. Agent Query Connect saved me years of trial and error with my query letters.

The best way to learn, is to teach. Truer words were never spoken when it comes to query letters. I read and critiqued so many of them, I began to feel like an agent. I also made some BFOLs (Best Friends On Line) – like Mindy. They are still friends to this day even though we’ve never met.

As time went on, many of my BFOLs got agents and stopped posting on Agent Query Connect. Besides being overwhelmed with jealously, I missed them. Then I got an agent, so I thought I wouldn’t need AQC anymore, only to discover there are just as many questions, frustrations, and needs for support for an agented writer as there are for unagented ones.

So, I did what I’m suggesting you all do with your organizations. Help them help you. I contacted the tech team for AQC to ask if we could have a password protected part of the forum for agented authors. They agreed, but I had to do the work. I sent out private invitations to my friends who had agents and the response was tremendous. We all wanted support, but didn’t feel right griping in front of people who would love to have our problems.

Through that group, I met Matt Sinclair, who would go on to form Elephant’s Bookshelf Press. Matt has published several of us in anthologies – the latest is FLIGHT: A SCIENCE FICTION ANTHOLOGY. Using traditional publishing methods (line editors, cover artists, book designers, etc.) Matt has turned EBP into what I call the Sun Records of publishing. I’m honored to have by Billy Bobble Makes A Magic Wand series and my upcoming Dark Star Warrior series at his house.

Sadly, AQC is no more. Some alumni have made Query Connection, which is a perfect place for you to get in on the ground floor.

SCBWI

The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators has been around since the 1970s. It is the largest professional organization for Kid Lit authors and illustrators in the world with local chapters everywhere. I became a member when my agent recommended them. Soon after that, my local chapter in Los Angeles put out word they were looking for a board member to represent published members. I signed up.

Always sign up. Always volunteer. By helping others, you’ll discover ways you can help yourself.

As the SCBWI Published representative, I’ve organized their booths at the Los Angeles Festival of Books, Comic Con, and next year YA’ll West. I’ve also started a program to reach out to the film & television industry, producing a mixer between our published members and Disney TV, Disney +, Paramount TV, Universal Animation, Sony, etc. A few members had their books optioned from this mixer, and I now have a friend shopping Billy Bobble around as a TV series.

My point to all this braggadocery is, joining groups is just the first step. Actively participating is the second. Eventually, you’ll find you’re leading them where you could never have gone alone.

Good luck.

R.S. Mellette has written, directed, designed and acted in theatre, film and television for over 30 years. His credits in various jobs include XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS, NUTTY PROFESSOR II: THE KLUMPS, BLUE CRUSH, and his own JACKS OR BETTER, which won Dances With Films Best Screenplay award in 2000. He has been working with the festival ever since.

His Tween Sci-Fi novel series, BILLY BOBBLE MAKES A MAGIC WAND, from Elephant Bookshelf Press is available on Amazon. Look for his latest Sci-Fi adventure, DARK STAR WARRIOR: The Morian Treasure, in 2020.

Happy Holidays!

The blog will be taking a break (and so will I) this week as the holidays descend up on us.

The Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire blog and podcast will return in 2020 with more interviews, query critiques, guest posts and podcast episodes!

In the meantime I’ve got to read 15 books before Jan 1 in order to hit my Goodreads goal of 70 books read in 2019. I don’t think I’m going to make it, but here’s to a valiant effort!

The Saturday Slash

Don't be afraid to ask for help with the most critical first step of your writing journey - the query.

I’ve been blogging since 2011 and have critiqued over 200 queries here on the blog using my Hatchet of Death. This is how I edit myself, it is how I edit others. If you think you want to play with me and my hatchet, shoot me an email.

If the Saturday Slash has been helpful to you in the past, or if you’d like for me to take a look at your query please consider making a donation, if you are able.

If you’re ready to take the next step, I also offer editing services.

Eighteen-year-old Maki Hosoya didn't enter her first year of college expecting to be a friend-for-hire. Unlike her rich peers, however, she knows that getting the money for her tuition isn't as easy as calling up mommy and daddy and asking for their credit card verification value. My immediate reaction to this is that you're writing a YA, but it's set in college. That's tricky territory, and something that's apt to turn off an agent from the beginning. If there's a chance of setting this in an elite boarding school, or something similar, that's your better bet. Don't hobble yourself right out of the gate by pushing a YA with a freshman in colleg as your protag. As far as the pitch itself, your opening hook is good.

Not that she's jealous or anything.

Besides, even if she were, she knows that she should be counting her blessings. Her classmates may be party-obsessed and unacquainted with the real world, but they hand out money like it's candy. If they need a responsible “friend” for when their parents visit, a fake girlfriend to make an ex jealous, or a sober sitter, Maki is there. There are just two rules: Pay up, and don’t get too attached. Whose rules are these? Maki's? Or her clients? Pay up seems like a rule for a client, whereas don't get too attached could go either way.

Unfortunately, repeat client Elise Haines doesn't seem to have gotten the memo. Which part of the memo? Again, knowing whose rules these are will help. She invites Maki to parties and asks her to hang out, and before Maki knows what's happening, Elise has convinced her to join the Japanese Club, actually talk to her roommate, and start working as a rave mom. Everything before rave mom sounds social, but rave mom sounds like something that fits her job description, so the waters are muddied a bit here.

But Maki knows that she isn't here to make friends; she's here to make money. Even if it means taking on as many requests as possible to keep herself busy and pushing away everyone else. She doesn't need anyone, least of all a girl who seems hellbent on befriending her. She's just fine on her own. Just fine. I think it might be more beneficial to get Maki's personality in there sooner. This para is good where it is, but the opening makes it sound like we should have pity for Maki, yet she's entirely mercenary about this... or at least, that's the goal. Maybe one sentence earlier to clarify where Maki stands.

BY REQUEST's connection to Asian culture will appeal to fans of Emily X.R. Pan's THE ASTONISHING COLOR OF AFTER, and its disconnected and often socially clueless narrator may remind readers of Colin from John Green's AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES. Complete at 83,000 words, this contemporary YA novel weaves together Japanese and party culture, the struggles that come with the first semester of college, and the fear of forming attachments—or more accurately, the fear of breaking them.

Again, this is a great wrap-up down here at the bottom, but I feel like you might be giving us some mixed signals far as Maki's personality. Disonnected? Yes, that fits with what you've given us so far. Socially clueless? Eh... if she's getting paid to pretend to be a girlfriend, the "good girl" friend, or other social step-ins, then she can't be socially clueless. It would make her bad at her job - which she clearly isn't. Overall, what you have here is good, but setting it in a college could kill it.