Skylar Dorset: Waiting For The Phone Call That Will Change Your Life

If there's one thing that many aspiring writers have few clues about, it's the submission process. There are good reasons for that; authors aren't exactly encouraged to talk in detail about our own submission experiences, and - just like agent hunting - everyone's story is different. I managed to cobble together a few non-specific questions that some debut authors have agreed to answer (bless them). And so I bring you the submission interview series - Submission Hell - It's True. Yes, it's the SHIT.

Today's guest for the SHIT is Skylar Dorset. Skylar’s first story was a tale of romantic intrigue involving two feuding factions of squirrels. Think “Romeo & Juliet” but with bushy tails and added espionage. She was seven. Since that time, Skylar’s head has been filled with lots of characters and lots of drama. She is delighted to be able to share some of it with all of you now, because, honestly, it was getting pretty loud and crowded in there. Skylar is a born-and-bred New Englander, which is why Boston was a natural setting for her debut novel, THE GIRL WHO NEVER WAS.

How much did you know about the submission process before you were out on subs yourself?

Absolutely nothing. Less than nothing.

Did anything about the process surprise you?

I think two things surprised me: (1) How long it ended up taking just to hear back from people; and (2) How helpless I felt during it. Like, frequently the feedback would be very nebulous and subjective and it was so frustrating to think that I had no idea what to do in response, that it just was a “this isn’t for me” thing. It’s like when you just don’t click on a first date or something, you know?

Did you research the editors you knew had your ms? Do you recommend doing that?

I didn’t research them, and I’m not sure I’d recommend that. Honestly, I didn’t feel like there was much *I* could do, one way or the other, at that particular point. I’m not sure if knowing stuff about the editors would have helped or would have just fed an unhealthy obsession with stuff that was going on that I couldn’t control.

What was the average amount of time it took to hear back from editors?

Hmm. This is a good question. I think a few weeks?

What do you think is the best way for an author out on submission to deal with the anxiety?

I kind of tried to ignore it. Like, it’s the kind of thing where the first day you’re like, “OMG! Maybe soon there’ll be a call that will change my life!” And then the second day you’re like, “Hmm, maybe soon there’ll be a call that will change my life.” And then by the third day I decided I had to stop thinking about it or I would go insane.

So I did other stuff. I know people say to write something new, and I did write new stuff, but I also just kind of enjoyed myself. I decided to try to learn to play the harp (still in process), I watched a lot of television, I taught myself how to use Tumblr. Really, anything that kept my head busy and not dwelling on the submission process. The querying process to get an agent is stressful in and of itself, so I feel like it’s possible my brain just really needed me to give it a break at that point.

If you had any rejections, how did you deal with that emotionally? How did this kind of rejection compare to query rejections?

I found the rejections at this point harder to deal with that than query rejections, I must confess. When you’re querying, everyone talks to you a lot about how many rejections you’re going to get, and so you go in bracing yourself. And then, once I got an agent, I think I thought it would be all smooth sailing from there. When it wasn’t, it took me a while to kind of digest it. I felt like I wasn’t well-prepared for it, so I will do my part and try to prepare all of you: There’ll be more rejection. It’ll hurt.

But, just like looking for an agent (or a significant other, I guess), you really only need one to click, and eventually it came. And I guess the way I dealt with it was to try to distract myself (see above). I kept telling myself that at least one person in the universe really believed in my writing—my agent—so we would find another one, too.

If you got feedback on a rejection, how did you process it? How do you compare processing an editor’s feedback as compared to a beta reader’s?

I always take all feedback seriously but I admit that sometimes I got editor’s feedback that I didn’t really know what to do with. With a beta reader, you’ve usually got a long-standing relationship with that person, so I think the feedback is easier for you to understand and digest and then incorporate. With feedback from editors, it’s often a one-time thing, so you just can’t get as good a feel for what it actually *means* for your book, you can’t probe into it.

That said, I eventually did edit my book pretty thoroughly in response to editor feedback, and I did have a better book afterward, so in the end I found the editor feedback really useful. Although I think I had to wait a little and synthesize the feedback together to get a clearer picture of it all.

When you got your YES! how did that feel? How did you find out – email, telephone, smoke signal?

This is actually a good question, but I feel like it’s all a blur now! I think it was an e-mail telling me there’d be a telephone call. But I really wish there had been a smoke signal! Now I feel it was all anticlimactic!

I was super-excited to get the YES! But I’m a lawyer by training so I have a tendency to not trust anything until the contract is signed. So I took a long time to actually *celebrate.* Then I went out for champagne.

Did you have to wait a period of time before sharing your big news, because of details being ironed out? Was that difficult?

I did have to wait a bit, but it wasn’t so difficult because, well, I cheated and told my family and closest friends, and that was really who I wanted to tell in the first place!

Thursday Thoughts

Thoughts lately...

1) If I wrote a Dr. Seuss-esque book about the research I do for my novels it would be titled "Oh, The Things You Now Know." It would be totally inappropriate for children.

2) For some of my upcoming titles it's going to be very hard to answer the oft-asked question, "Where did you get the idea for this book?" If I'm honest the answer will be things like, "Well, I was lying in bed and thinking that being awake for a lobotomy would really hurt," and "One day I was thinking about Woody Guthrie and brain parasites..."

3) Why are the buttons on men and women's shirts different?

Successful Author Talk With Amy Reed

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 is Amy Reed. Her short work has been published in journals such as Kitchen Sink, Contrary, Fiction, and Mission at Tenth. She is the author of four Young Adult novels: BEAUTIFUL (2009), CLEAN (2011), CRAZY (2012), and OVER YOU (2013). Her fifth book, DAMAGED, will be released October 14, 2014.

Are you a Planner or Pantster?

Definitely a planner. I write elaborate outlines with lists and sub-lists and sub-sub-lists. But I find that the real magic happens when I allow myself to go outside the box I build for myself, when I let the characters lead instead of me trying to push them around.

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

I’ve been on pretty much a one-book-a-year schedule since I published Beautiful five years ago, and it’s been grueling. I think a more comfortable pace for me is one book every two years, and I’m going to try to stick to that from now on.

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

My last two books overlapped, and it was hell. I found that I couldn’t work on them concurrently. My brain just couldn’t hold both of the stories and characters at one time. The only way I could do it was to put one of the books aside while I worked on the other. I had to get a couple of months added to the second book’s deadline, but both books benefitted in the long run.

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

Every time I start a new book, I’m terrified. I feel like I’m supposed to like this part the best since it’s full of possibility, but I hate it because it’s full of the unknown. There’s no plan, no order, and that makes me feel crazy. I only start liking it once I have a solid outline and a good thirty or forty pages written. But then I freak out again as soon as I finish the second act. So the enjoyable sweet spot is only really in the middle third of the process. Kind of like pregnancy.

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

Luckily, none. My first novel, Beautiful, was the first book I ever attempted to write. I had a handful of unpublished short stories I wrote during my MFA program, but that’s it.

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

Yes. After writing CRAZY, my third book, I put together a proposal for a three-book post-apocalyptic series, which included an outline for all three books and the first forty pages of Book 1. My editor wasn’t excited. She wanted more of what I had been writing before—gritty, realistic, contemporary.  I was upset for about fifteen minutes, but then I realized I felt relieved. I was trying to do something that wasn’t really me. I came up with an outline for another book later that day, and I got signed for a two-book deal for OVER YOU.

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

Amy Tipton of Signature Lit. She was with Fine Print when I signed with her, just starting out as an agent. I had also received interest from a very well established YA agent, but I decided to go with Amy because she seemed the most enthusiastic about my work. She was with a well-respected agency, so she had great connections, but she also had the added passion and energy of a young agent. We also went to the same tiny, hippie MFA program, so I knew we had stuff in common. Plus, she looked cool in her picture.

How long did you query before landing your agent?

I think I queried twelve agents, but they were all adult literary agents. I hadn’t known I was writing YA. I didn’t even really know YA existed. I got some interest, some requests for fulls, but no takers. Eventually, an old-school and very well-respected agent sent me a letter—yes, an actual snail mail letter—asking if I was working on anything book length, because he loved my short story “Under the Wall” which had just been published in Fiction Magazine. The timing was perfect. I sent him the manuscript for Beautiful. He liked it, but he said he didn’t rep YA. He’s the one who finally informed me that what I wrote was YA, and I realized I was submitting to the wrong agents all along. So I submitted to two YA agents and they both requested fulls. Amy called two days later and offered to represent me, and the rest is history.

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

Just make sure you’re submitting to the right people. Don’t blindly send query letters. Really do your research and query agents whose taste matches your own.

How much input do you have on cover art?

They often show me a few choices and I get to give my input on which one I like best. But I know better than to try to get too involved. I worked in publishing before I got published, and one of our biggest pet peeves was authors trying to be cover designers.

How much of your own marketing do you?

I do the best that I can on social media like Facebook, Twitter and my own webpage, doing guest blogs and interviews like this, but it’s hard. I’m not a natural marketer. I’m so in awe of authors who are out there doing conferences and readings and panels all the time. It takes a lot of hustle to make those things happen.

Do you think social media helps build your readership?

I honestly have no idea. It’s difficult to gauge how successful social media is. But most of the time, at least it’s fun and I’m making connections with awesome people who love YA. I enjoy building relationships with bloggers and being part of the YA community that way. I’m kind of a hermit by nature (so many of us are), so it’s a great way to feel connected.