Writing and IlIustrating for Young Readers

Well just reached the halfway point in the tour. And let me say I have so much respect for teachers who do this 24/7. I am so exhausted after a day of assemblies. But at the same time, there is something so exhilarating about meeting so many amazing readers. The world is in good hands going forward.

I'm working on a longer blog with lots of fun details and things I've learned that I will post in the next couple of days. In the mean time, I wanted to mention an amazing conference I am taking part in this year. This is the most hand-on conference you will ever take part in. We are talking five days of hands on small group work with a dedicated instructor who is also a successful author in the genre you choose, combined with afternoon classes by some amazing teachers. Here is a blurb about it. Check out the link for more info.

Continuing its tradition of providing helpful instruction from published authors and illustrators as well as presentations by industry professionals, this year’s conference features a keynote address by Utah's Poet Laureate Lance Larsen, workshops by national authors Matt Kirby, Martine Leavitt, Sharlee Glenn, A.E. Cannon, Carol Lynch Williams, J. Scott Savage, Cheri Pray Earl, Kris Chandler, and illustrator Steve Bjorkman. New this year: a full novel class with Mette Ivie Harrison and day-long mini workshops covering a variety of topics including an accredited teacher course, publication for the discouraged writer, and screenwriting. Afternoon-only registration is also available. This year editor Alyson Heller (Aladdin Books),  agent Ammi-Joan Paquette (Erin Murphy Literary Agent), and agent Steven Fraser (Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency) will present at the conference.

Another exciting event this year is the WIFYR Second Annual Writing Contest and Award. The prize is $1,000 and this year, in addition, the winning manuscript will be considered publication with Familius.

For more information, go to www.wifyr.com.

An Air Keep Tour Update

Even though I've actually been on the Air Keep tour for two weeks now, this will be the first week of doing a full five days on the road. Previous to this, I did three days and a conference, then four days and a day off due to a school break. So I thought it might be fun to give you an idea what the tour schedule will be like from here on out.

This afternoon, I flew to Idaho Falls. In a kind of funny twist, I was sitting in the terminal when a hand dropped on my shoulder and a deep voice said, "Hey you're in my seat!" I was sort of freaked out until I turned around and saw Brandon Mull, author of Fablehaven, Beyonders, and Candy Shop Wars grinning down at me. Turns out we were on the same flight.

Once in Idaho Falls, I got my rental car and drove to my hotel. Tomorrow morning, I will get picked up by the community relations manager from the local B&N at 8:00. She will take me to four different elementary schools where I will do my assembly (about 45 minutes including set up and tear down.) The last assembly usually ends at about 3:00.

School visits are a blast. I've had people say, "I'd hate to do that many school assemblies." But to me it's such a rush to get kids excited about reading, teach them about how to make up stories, and inspire them to find their own inner magic. Kids are just so amazing and they almost always treat you like a rock star. At 3:00 on Monday, I'm done for the day.

You would think that doing school visits from 8:30 to 3:00 wouldn't be that tiring. But you have to remember that it's very much a performance. You are working so hard to entertain and teach anywhere from 200 to 500 kids at each school. By the time I get back from doing the school visits, I just want to go back to my hotel and fall into bed for a couple of hours.

Tuesday, we do the same thing. Then Tuesday night, we do a book signing at the store. that starts at 6:30 and goes anywhere from 90 minutes to three hours, depending on the turnout. People ask all the time if my hand cramps up with all that signing. The truth is, that I am having so much fun, that it doesn't bother me at all.

If the school visits are a chance to feel the excitement of the kids, signings are a chance to hear from parents about how thrilled they are that their kids are that psyched about buying a book. It's really a joy to have a mom or dad tell me, "My son never asks for books. But he came home jumping out of his skin, saying "Mom, we have to go to the bookstore tonight.'" I'm always afraid that parents will be ticked about having to wait an hour or more to get a signed book or poster. But that is never the case.

One thing I try to make sure of is that I spend a little quality time with each person that waits in line. I know I have to keep the line moving, and I don't spend five or ten minutes with one person. But while I'm signing a book(s) or a poster, I absolutely want each person who came to feel special. This may be the only time a kid gets to talk to a "real author," and I want it to be memorable.

Usually after the signing, I go back to my hotel and get ready for an early morning flight to the next city. In this case, the next city is Boise, and there is no early direct flight. So after Tuesday night's signing, I drive to Twin Falls and spend the night there. Early Wednesday, I'll get up, drive to Meridian, just outside Boise, and do four more schools Wednesday and Thursday. I'll do another signing in Meridian Thursday night, four Boise schools on Friday, and a signing Friday night.

Saturday, I fly back home, spend a day with the family, and do it all over again on Sunday.

Busy? Oh, yeah. Tiring? Definitely! But it's also a total blast. Over the next couple of weeks I'll share some of the emails I get while I'm on tour. A lot of authors think touring is all about selling your books. While it's true that I will sell a lot of books (At least hopefully; that's what pays the bills), these visits are so much more than that. There really is something magical about inspiring a love for a reading in a boy or girl who has always looked at books at just more homework.

Check back in a couple of days, and I'll post some pics of the different events that I do, the messages I share, and responses from the people I meet.

Day One of the Air Keep book tour

Hello from sunny St. George Utah. For those of you who haven't been here, it looks a lot like this.

 
And a lot of it looks like this.

Although there is a lot of this

I spent most of my day doing this

Here's how the first day of the tour started out. I flew out of Salt Lake Sunday afternoon. The flight from SLC to Saint George is one of those where you have barely taken off before they are telling you to put away your electronics--which kind of stinks since the only books I brought were e-books. Then you are stuck desperately trying to find something to read in the in-flight magazine.

When I got in, the woman at the car rental counter apologized that they needed to replace my original car with this.

I was like, apologize? I'm all over that. Until I got in and saw this.

Now don't get me wrong. I grew up driving a stick. I love sports cars. And this one is a kick to drive. But I haven't driven a stick in probably 20 years. I'm going, "Wait, what's that third pedal for?" And the only thing worse than stalling a car, is stalling a muscle car. Because you rev the engine trying to keep from stalling, the people next to you think you are trying to be impressive, and then you stall the car and they drive away and laugh. Majorly embarrassing.

Well, eventually I figured out the stick, so that was okay. Then I panicked for a while, thinking I had left the VGA adapter for my laptop back at my launch party. But it turned out it was just put back in a weird place. And I had a delightful time hanging out at the home of these awesome people.

I'll be perfectly honest. Staying anywhere other than a hotel can be really draining when you are doing a bunch of school visits. After three or four school assemblies in a row, you mostly just want to fall into a soft bed for an hour or two. It is physically, mentally, and emotionally draining. Fortunately Julie has done plenty of school visits, so as soon as she saw me drag in the door, she pointed to the bed and told take a nap.

As far as the school visits themselves, they were great. Julie and her sons came to the first assembly and when it got done, she asked, "Are they always that loud?" Yep. Pretty much. There's nothing like a gym full of kids excited about writing and reading. I love it! Really the only tricky thing was that the school visits were really close together: 12:45, 1:30, and 2:30. Since my assembly is normally 40-45 minutes that means I really had to fly.

Fortunately I had a great helper from  Deseret Book. Lexie was awesome. She packed up my magic bag ( I start with a magic trick) while I took down my laptop, then directed me straight to the next school. Tomorrow will be four schools. But I'm actually really good with that. The more schools I can fit in, the more I feel like I'm accomplishing for the publisher--and the more kids I get to see.

Finally ended the day at Benja's Thai restaurant. I didn't go with anything too spicy, opting for Chicken Satay and Cashew shrimp. One of the things I'm trying to do on this trip is eat more healthy. Eating out as much as I will be, it's easy to pack on the pounds quick. For lunch I had an egg white omelet with lots of veggies. Also, on the advice of Tyler Whitesides, I'm trying to drink a lot more water. Tomorrow night will be my first signing of the tour. 6:00 at the St George DB. I'll let you know how it goes!

I thought it would be fun to end of of my tour posts with an e-mail I get from a student. Here's today's.

"Thank you for coming to our school today (red mountain elementary school) and telling me about the four things to write a book.  It helped me understand how I can make my books better."

The Golden Age of Publishing?

Wow, what a crazy couple of months. I don’t know if there will ever be another time in my life when I can say that I had three books from three different publishers come out within three months of each other. It’s been a lot of fun. I’ve had some great reviews. I did some really fun signings and got to catch up with a lot of good friends I haven’t seen in a while. And the truth is that things are just getting started. I haven’t even begun my two month Farworld book tour that will fly me from coast to coast and north to south. I can’t wait!

I know I promised you I would write updates about the tour, and I really will. But today, in retrospect of three days at the awesome SF/F conference Life the Universe and Everything, I’d like to reflect for a moment on why it is such an amazing time to be a writer. Yes, I did say amazing. Not scary, disillusioning, disheartening, disappointing, or any of those other dis- words. Amazing. With a capital A.

Yes, I know there is news of bookstores closing, publishers cutting back, agents leaving the business. And those are all bad (if slightly overblown in many cases) stories. I heard more than one person at the conference bemoan how the industry is changing. So maybe it’s just my cold meds talking, but I honestly agree with Little Brown publisher, Michael Pietsch, who called this “the golden age of publishing.”

Here’s why.

1.  There are more opportunities than ever to do what you want. As I was walking down the hall, an author I know and respect told me how much she enjoyed reading Sariah Wilson’s “The Ugly Step Sister Strikes Back.” I happen to know Sariah’s story (both book and real life) pretty well, having blogged with her in the past and helped her brainstorm the blurb for TUSSSB. Long story short, Sariah published a couple of books with a local publisher. They did moderately well, but not what she was hoping for. She took some time off, wrote a book she really loved, polished the cover, the story, the marketing, and sent it out into the world.
   This book is almost definitely one her old publisher would not have published. And if they did, sales would have been moderate. But last time I checked, Sariah had 213 Amazon reviews. TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN, with an average rating of 4.6. I have no idea how much Sariah is making off this book—and I don’t even care. 213 reviews means a ton of people are reading and loving it. Could she have done this even five years ago? No.
   
2.  Contrary to what you hear, publishers are still signing new authors, paying advances, and doing multi-book contracts. I had dinner Thursday night with a bunch of friends including a group I like to call the YA babes. This are smart, witty, talented, and beautiful women who have all recently signed multiple book contracts with big six publishers. Every one of them got a good advance and a multiple book contract. And for all of them, this was their first book deal. I don’t care what you might hear. The opportunities are still out there. And you could be next.
   
3.  It’s never been easier to buy a book. There’s an interesting phenomenon I see when I do school visits or conferences. Obviously I sell books at the signing afterward. It’s a thrill to have a line of kids and parents waiting to get books and posters signed and take pictures. I wouldn’t trade that for the world. But I also see a very clear spike in my online sales. A boy or girl comes home and tells their parents about my book. Maybe the parents can’t make it to the store. But they can jump on their laptop, tablet, or phone and order my book at that moment—while both they and their child are excited about it. At a conference, if I mention that the new Farworld book is out, people in the room, listening to the conference, can order or download a copy before I have even finished my workshop or panel.
   
4. It’s much, much easier to have good word of mouth carry. I started writing books over ten years ago. Back then, if someone read one of my books and liked it, they might mention it to a friend. That friend might go buy the book. And maybe they mention it to a family member. That was cool. There were also a couple of online places where they might mention it. But most people didn't.  Now, with Facebook, blogs, Twitter, Pinterest, Goodreads, and tons of online review sites, if someone likes one of my books, they can tell hundreds or thousands of people at a time. I’m no longer praying a newspaper, magazine, or TV station picks up the story. It’s great if they do. But they are not the only option to get a big spike in sales.
   
5. I can stay in better touch with my readers. Again, tied to the social media thing, in the past, the only way to know when a new author’s book was coming out was by checking in regularly with the library or bookstore. Now I can follow that author directly and hear it straight from their mouth or keyboard. I love having my readers go, “OH, my gosh! I can’t believe Air Keep is out. I am going to go buy it right now.” Readers of my Zombie Kid book, can already go online and pre-order the next book.
   
6. I could go on and on, but I’ll finish with this. E-readers and social media are creating more readers at the same time that better classes, conferences, and critique groups are creating more and better authors. Does it really get any better than that? I met such amazing readers at LTUE these last few days. The kinds of people who really and truly cherish good books. At the same time, I had the chance to chat with new authors that really get what it takes to create a great story and are willing to put in the blood, sweat, and tears.

I know, I know. There are plenty of people preaching doom and gloom. Book stores will all disappear. Publishers only want to rip you off. Agents wouldn’t recognize a good story if it hit them in the face and paper cut their nose. But you know what? Don’t believe them. There have been doom and gloomers for as long as there has been doom and gloom. This is a great time to a reader and a great time to be a writer. Enjoy it!

Launch Party Recap and Chapter 10 of Air Keep

Thanks to everyone who came to my launch party for Zombie Kid. I was terrified no one would show up. Instead, we had two hundred people there. So many great friends and family. I was relieved, excited, thrilled, and a whole bunch of other -ed words. If you missed it, here are some pics.

Great crowd! 

 Either some really ugly fans, or zombie suckers.

Doing a drawing with the awesome Rachel.

Chocolate-covered zombie brains, 

Signing books.

Getting devoured by my zombie daughter and son-in-law.

My zombie daughter and zombie-bait grandson.

And if you're really a glutton for punishment, you can even watch the whole thing, thanks to the great folks at Writer's Cubed.

Starting two weeks ago and going through the end of April, I'll be visiting schools both locally and across the country talking about reading, writing, and valuing our differences. Tomorrow I will begin posting weekly updates about the tour, what I've learned, what I wish I hadn't learned. (For example that my car automatically locks the doors when you start it. So closing the doors to clear the windows is a bad idea.)

And finally, the next chapter of Air Keep. This is the last chapter in Part 1 of the book, and the last chapter I will post on-line before Air Keep comes out . . . next month!

Interlude 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9

Chapter 10--The Time of Shadows

“Maybe you should think about this a little more,” Riph Raph said, hopping from the chair to Kyja’s bed and back again. “Master Therapass seemed pretty sure that bringing Marcus to Farworld was a bad idea.”

“Master Therapass thinks everything’s a bad idea.” Kyja walked to the balcony and looked out at the night sky. Two of the three moons were visible—an almost completely full pink circle and a green fingernail. Should she wait to pull Marcus over? She definitely didn’t want to put him in danger. But what if he was already in danger, and she did nothing about it?

She ran her fingers along the worn surface of the stone railing. Should she try to help Marcus but risk hurting him or leave him to something that might be even worse? There was no good choice.

Zombie Kid Launch Party

If you live in or around Salt Lake City, I'd love to have you come by my Zombie Kid launch party Wednesday the 9th at 7:00. We'll have brain cake balls, Zombie Kid Posters, bookmarks, zombie suckers, and a drawing for a bunch of awesome zombie items.

If you can't come, don't worry, though. I'll be doing book signings all over Utah and Idaho and will post a list tomorrow. Hope to see you soon!

Why I Believe 99 Cent E-books Are Bad for Authors and Readers

(Note: After rereading this, I want to make one clarification. I've read lots of free e-books where the author took an old, possibly out of print, book and put it up for free as a way to hook readers. I totally get that. They've already made most of their money on it, and it's a way to say thanks and introduce themselves to new readers. Makes all the sense in the world. My comments below are really focused on why a 99 cent price point is unsustainable for new books, and why the expectation of buying all e-books at that price is bad for books and readers. Okay, carry on.) 

Yesterday I posted a Facebook status which said something like, “I’m really glad the $0.99 e-book trend seems to be fading away.” I had a lot of people agree, but I also had a lot of people question my reasoning both on and offline. They brought up some very good points. “Of course you don’t want books to sell for ninety-nine cents; you’re an author.” “I’m on a tight budget, so I like ninety-nine cent books.” “Ninety-nine cent books are a great way to see if I like an author.”

As I said, these are perfectly reasonable responses. Everyone likes cheap stuff, almost everyone is watching their money, and ninety-nine cents isn’t much to spend on a book—even if you hate it. As an author, the temptation is great to price your book low. Especially if you haven’t built up much of a following yet. It’s exciting to see your book jump up the Amazon lists—even if your book is free.

If you sense a “but” coming (was the blog title a giveaway?), you are right. I am going to argue why I believe $0.99 e-books are generally a bad thing for readers and writers alike. If you think this might offend you, feel free to stop reading now. I promise we’ll still be friends. (Actually we’ll still be friends even if you read on and completely disagree.) (Unless you get mad and egg my house.) (And even then we’ll still be friends if you say you are sorry and bring me cookies to make up for it.)