You Say It's Your Birthday

By Natasha Sinel

Today is July 23^rd. My birthday. I know exactly what you’re thinking: Hey! Happy birthday, hope it’s a great year! Also, You’re aging quite gracefully!

This is what I’m thinking: Thanks! Also, Thanks!

A year ago today, I was celebrating. Big time.

The day before, I'd gotten the call from my agent. The editor who’d shown interest in my manuscript had managed to jump through all the hoops on her end, and made an offer for THE FIX. Honestly, the first thought I had was: Tomorrow, I actually get to celebrate. For real. The last four birthdays had been bittersweet—happy to have another birthday, a chance to eat cake, get cards and presents and such, but mixed with that other thought, too—another year without a book deal. It would've been my fifth birthday wishing for that one thing.

But on July 23, 2014, there was much to celebrate. There was cake, cards, presents, hugs from the kids, and champagne for the book deal.

And then everything happened so fast.

Contract, announcement, joining a debut group and getting up to speed on what it meant to be a debut author—all the things I’d have to do. There were the things I’d expected: edits, cover, blurbs, bio, etc. But also so much more: social media, blog posts, self-promotion, postcards to libraries, bookmarks. ARCs. Planning launch parties. Media. Bookstores. So. Much. To. Do. I got sucked into it all.

On June 23, 2015, exactly one month ago and nearly a year after the offer, my agent asked me, “So, how’s writing going?”

I laughed. “Um, it’s okay. I’ve been side-tracked with all the promotion stuff for THE FIX, so I haven’t written a ton, but I will. I mean, I’m writing, don’t worry…but…” Cue nervous laughter. Was I making excuses? About writing?

A tough love speech followed (emphasis on the love). It included a much-needed reality check that went a bit like this, “You need to prioritize your writing. This is your job. You are a writer. You write books. So, write another book.” And then the follow-up question, “When can you get a first draft to me?”

As authors (debut authors, at least), we do the bulk of our own marketing and promotion. More than you can even imagine, actually. And while I’ve been having a great time on social media, ordering bookmarks, designing cute stickers, and planning launch parties, those aren’t the things I’d signed up for. Somehow, I found myself working nonstop all day, yet not adding a word to my new manuscript.

Along the way, I’d lost focus.

This focus—I write stories about teenagers. That’s what I love to do. I’m a writer, and writers must write. Right?

My agent waited quietly while I thought. I made quick calculations in my head.

“August 15^th,” I said, as my heart started to pound.

“Great,” she said. “That’s great.”

So, I’ve been writing. After I make my word count goal for the day, I work on the other stuff, which is also important, but the writing has to come first.

A year ago today, I was celebrating my first book deal. Today, I’m anticipating the release of my debut novel in less than six weeks. And I’m confident, thanks to my agent, that in less than four weeks, I’ll be sending the first draft of my new manuscript to her.

Natasha Sinel writes YA fiction from her home on a dirt road in Northern Westchester, NY. She drives her kids around all afternoon, but in her head, she's still in high school, and hopes that no one near her can read minds. Her debut YA novel THE FIX will be out from Sky Pony Press on September 1, 2015.

ARCs Trump Plans For Blog Post (Natasha Sinel)

I'd planned to write this month's post about books that have significantly influenced my career. And I'll do that...next month. In the meantime, today I was pleasantly sidetracked when my editor sent a photo of my ARCs (advanced reading copies) that she'd just received. It's an exciting day! Even though my book won't be its final hardcover self for a few more months, seeing it in the form of a book is surreal, amazing, a dream come true. I am speechless. So, here's the photo:

Natasha Sinel writes YA fiction from her home on a dirt road in Northern Westchester, NY. She drives her kids around all afternoon, but in her head, she's still in high school, and hopes that no one near her can read minds. Her debut YA novel THE FIX will be out from Sky Pony Press on September 1, 2015.

TV Turnoff Week

by Natasha Sinel

I just got a flyer home from school announcing that TV Turnoff week begins May 4th. My kids don’t want to do it. Even though they don’t watch much on school nights anyway, they’re positive they’ll die a horrible and painful death next week.

But me? Eh. I can go without it. These days I usually do.

I used to love TV. I loved it so much, I worked at Showtime. I worked there for a long time. I watched a lot of TV.

But since I’ve started writing, I don’t watch much. There’s nothing noble about my not watching TV. I'm not worried about my brain rotting or my creativity withering.

The reason I’m not watching TV is that it just hasn’t been doing its job for me lately.

I’m a mother of three, wife of one, owner of a home. My day starts in servant-mode—making breakfast, packing lunches, making sure all homework, notes, and library books are in folders, all logistics for the afternoon are settled, and off they go to school. Then I have a bit of time to squeeze in writing and all the other things associated with writing (like blogging) as well as the occasional errand, exercise, maybe once in a blue moon, a quick coffee with a friend. Then the kids come home and it’s go-go-go—homework, activities, showers, and then bedtime (and I still read for 20 minutes with each of them—one at a time). Then, if I haven’t already, I eat dinner.

And then, I’m done. Toast. I want to turn off, to immerse myself in something else so that I don’t have to keep going and going.

TV used to be perfect. But these days, the TV goes on and it’s like Pavlov. I grab my phone or laptop and start doing the things I didn’t finish during the day. Pay a few bills, return some emails, check Twitter, Facebook, read a few blog posts, a few book reviews.

I look up and I’ve missed the whole show. Usually, I don’t even know what show is on. TV’s not doing its job anymore, like I’ve built up an immunity to it. Maybe it’s that “date” TV doesn’t exist anymore—remember Must See TV on Thursdays—Friends, Frasier, Seinfeld, Will & Grace? Back in the (ahem) mid-nineties, when The X-Files moved from Friday nights to Sunday nights, I had actual anxiety about rearranging my schedule. But now? I’m just surfing through endless channels, on-demand, Netflix. Whatever I end up with doesn’t feel special because I didn’t make a date to see it. Or maybe I just haven’t found “the right show” to date.

But I think the real reason is that when the TV is on, I can continue to multi-task. I can pay bills while watching TV. I can check my email, eat, even edit, while watching TV.

But reading doesn’t allow me to multi-task. Reading requires all of me—my eyes, my brain, even my body since I have to hold the book and turn the pages.

So now when I’m at that point in the evening when I need to shut it all out, I read. It’s the only thing that works.

I hope I find my love for TV again. But until then, I’ve got some pretty amazing books to wind down with thanks to my fellow 2015 debuts.

Natasha Sinel writes YA fiction from her home on a dirt road in Northern Westchester, NY. She drives her kids around all afternoon, but in her head, she's still in high school, and hopes that no one near her can read minds. Her debut YA novel THE FIX will be out from Sky Pony Press on September 1, 2015.

I'll Meet You at the Water Cooler

colleague

noun col·league \ˈkä-(ˌ)lēg\

: a person who works with you : a fellow worker

Writers write alone. I spend a lot of time at home, in yoga pants, not doing yoga. I carry my MacBook around to various spots—my office, kitchen table, couch, and, perhaps not so wisely, my bed—and I write. Sometimes, for a change of scenery (and clothes), I don jeans and go to a friend’s house where she writes literary fiction in her bedroom, and I write YA fiction in her den. When I leave, I yell up the stairs to let her know I’m leaving, assuming she knew I was there in the first place. When I drive, I’m in my head planning out scenes. When I’m with family or friends, sometimes I’m in my head making characters sketches.

I worked in a corporate office for years, and I talked with my colleagues all day long. At the clichéd water cooler, we talked about the work, office politics, the industry, the weather, TV shows, and movies. My schedule was so booked up with meetings in which we discussed ideas, next steps, and planned meetings to plan more meetings, I barely had time to actually do the work.

Now I’m a writer. I don’t go to an office. I don’t chit-chat at the water cooler (actually,  if I'm lonely enough, I tell my water cooler what I'm working on). I don’t have meetings. But, I do have colleagues, in a sense—critique partners I can talk to about ideas, writing processes, struggles, and frustrations. My crit partners are spread around the continent, and most of our communication is via email, online chat, or occasionally Skype, but I always know they’re out there, and I couldn’t do this without them.

Last week, I learned I have even more colleagues—other authors who are promoting their books. As part of the NYC Teen Author Festival, I was given an opportunity to participate in The Big Read, which was a day of readings to students at libraries across the city. I was assigned to speak at the Queens Library in Jamaica, NY on a panel with four other authors.  I wasn’t as nervous for my first reading as I expected to be. Reading from my own book and then answering questions about writing was like going into an essay test you’re pretty sure you won’t bomb because it’s stuff you know cold.

Highlights of the event were answering the students’ questions, which were thoughtful and smart, and when a girl took a selfie with me, and told me how excited she was to read my book. But what really struck me was that being an author isn’t just about being alone and writing. It’s a job, and I have colleagues. The other authors—Heather Demetrios, Corey Ann Haydu, Aaron Starmer, and Cathleen Davitt Bell—were veterans, so they had done this a million times. When I met them, I told them it was my first time doing a reading, and Heather broke the ice—“Oh yay, we get to watch you lose your virginity!” We all laughed, and I felt like the new employee being warmly welcomed at the water cooler.

Each milestone in the publishing process as a debut author is a first—the offer, the cover, finally telling people who’ve been asking for years that my book is coming out in the fall, the first teenager who added my book on Goodreads, seeing the pre-order page on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and other places. All of this stuff is beyond thrilling. But the first reading with established authors, and not feeling like a complete hack? Realizing that not only do I have critique partners as writing colleagues, but also other authors who are business colleagues? That’s cool. And it makes me want to take them all out to lunch. Too bad the new job doesn’t come with an expense account.

Natasha Sinel writes YA fiction from her home on a dirt road in Northern Westchester, NY. She drives her kids around all afternoon, but in her head, she's still in high school, and hopes that no one near her can read minds. Her debut YA novel THE FIX will be out from Sky Pony Press on September 1, 2015.

Why I Write YA

Despite appearances (translation: I am old), it makes sense that I write young adult fiction.

Let me explain. For the past decade, I have been held prisoner in my home by two socially-addicted teenagers with the same last name as me. My captivity started one night when I foolishly tried to escape for a relaxing evening of adult conversation and company. Warning: Parents of Teenagers- Do not try this at home. 

I returned home early to find scattered liquor bottles and garbage strewn about my basement. My son either threw a rager or wanted to surprise me by remodeling my basement in the contemporary decorating style of Bourbon Street the day after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

Consequently, I started hanging around my house more and more unless I knew my sons were:
1. Out of town.
2. At an activity where their remote destination could be confirmed by multiple tracking devices.
and/or
3. In police custody.

Desperate for a night out, I once considered restraining them. Of course, this was a ridiculous idea. If DCFS found out and temporarily removed me from our home, my heartbroken sons would surely deal with the loss by converting our residence into a fraternity house.

Okay, so I'm exaggerating. But the point is, my kids were always ridiculously social and active. Imagine Tigger on adderall. Now toss in raging hormones, the life philosophy You have to be young and foolish to be old and wise, and 16,540 friends on Facebook.

You get the idea. I started hanging around more and keeping an eye out.

Come to find out, I like my kids. Who knew?  And despite my title of "Meanest Mom with the Stupidest Rules," my sons (and their friends) like me, too. I don’t have just two sons, I’ve had a hundred kids call me mom over the years. (Momma-Lo, actually. Don't ask...).

This is one reason I write young adult: it's what I know. Adolescence is the noise that fills my house: the voices around the fire pit, the music streaming from speakers, the laughter from girls trying to impress the bragging boys who are trying to impress them back.

It's amazing what stories they'll share with you around the island in your kitchen if you're willing to listen. Sometimes, they give me nightmares. Mostly, they crack me up. And always, they remind me how complicated (and simple), fun (and traumatic) life is when you're perched at its starting gate.

Lynn Lindquist (Chicago, IL) lives with two overly social sons who provide fodder for her young adult novels and growing anxiety disorder. Thankfully, her favorite things in life are her sons, words, and kids, so she wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Her contemporary thriller Secret of the Sevens is set for release on June 8, 2015 from Flux Publishing.  

To learn more, follow Lynn on lynnlindquist.com or on Twitter at @LynnLindquist.

I Can't Get No...Satisfaction (Natasha Sinel)

Dear Writers,

You know those promises you make to whichever higher power you believe in (or to yourself if you don’t believe)? You know what I mean. Promises like:

 I’d be satisfied if I could just get an agent.
I’d be satisfied if I could just get a book deal.

I’d be satisfied if I could just finish writing my next book before my first one releases.

I’d be satisfied if I could just be on one of those “best of” lists.

I’d be satisfied if I could just get a Printz Honor (let’s not be greedy here, we don’t need the Medal).

I am beyond happy that my debut YA novel is releasing this September. I am thrilled that I am working with an agent who I know is on my side, with an editor who thinks my book is important. I am thankful for the new author friends I’ve made during this crazy debut year, and for the support of all of my friends and family. And yes, it does change my life in so many amazingly positive ways. But satisfied? Can any writer truly be satisfied?

I’m sure you know where I’m going with this. There is no satisfaction for writers. Not really. Because, in my mind, satisfaction is synonymous with contentment. And if I’m content, then I’m not angsty enough, not feeling the torture of creativity that’s in me and needs to come out. If I could be satisfied, then I wouldn’t be able to dive into my characters quite so deeply to figure out why they do the crazy shit they do, what promises they make to their higher power: I’d be satisfied if I could just…

If we writers were satisfied, we might not be able to take the germ of an idea and let it grow and twist and turn and crash and burn and then grow again and flourish the way we do.

If we were satisfied, we wouldn’t feel the need to open our arms wide and throw our heads back and say, “Here we are, agents, editors, readers. Give us your best shot. Love us, hate us, knock us down. But we’re going to keep writing either way because we can’t not.”

If we were satisfied, we wouldn’t need to strive for more and more and more, reaching for that unexplainable something that we know must exist but we just can’t quite reach…yet. But if we did reach it, then what?

Then we probably wouldn’t be writers. Right?

With love,

Gratefully Unsatisfied

Natasha Sinel writes YA fiction from her home on a dirt road in Northern Westchester, NY. She drives her kids around all afternoon, but in her head, she's still in high school, and hopes that no one near her can read minds. Her debut YA novel THE FIX will be out from Sky Pony Press on September 1, 2015.

From Query to Book Deal! Fall Fifteener Stats!

stats. stats. STATS! So. You want to know how many queries it takes to get an agent? How many months you'll be on sub for? And OMG how long does it take to negotiate a publishing contract? Well, I don’t have the exact answers for your journey. But, good news: you'll get a good picture of how all over the board OR how similar the query to book deal journeys were for the Fall Fifteeners! Rest assured, stats-hungry queriers and on-sub writers, you can get your STATS FIX here!

Note: Eighteen Fall Fifteeners participated in this survey but were not required to answer every question.

QUERY TRENCHES

1.         Is your debut the same book you queried your agent with?

            YES: 12           NO: 6

The book you query with might not be your debut!

2.         Do you have an agent?

            YES: 17           NO: 1

3.         Is this your first, second, or third agent?

            1^st:  12              2^nd:  4              3^rd:  2

4.         How many queries did you send before signing with your agent?

            0-25:  6          26-50:  7        51-75:  1        76-120:  3

How many queries does it take?

ONCE YOU GET AN AGENT

1.         How many revisions did you do with your agent?

            0:  2                1:  2                2:  11              3: 2

2.         How long was it before your book was ready to go on sub?

            1-4 weeks:  6             5-10 wks:  1              
            11-16 wks:  5            16-20 wks:  1

3.         How many books did you have on sub that didn’t sell?

            0:  10              1:  3                2:  3                3:  1

SUB TRENCHES 

1.         Were there any other offers aside from your book deal?   

            YES:  6                        NO:  10

2.         Was there an auction for your book?

            YES:  4                        NO:  12

3.         So. How long was it from the day you went on sub to the day of your offer?

            0-1 month:  8                        2-4 mths:  4              
            5-8 mths:  3                          9-14 mths:  2

How many months must one endure the pain, the excitement, the agony?

4.         Did you ever cry on sub? 

            YES:  11          NO:  5

5.         Did you ever use comfort foods/desserts/drinks to ease your rejection pain?

            YES:  11          NO:  4

           

6.         Mmmmm…what kind? Popular answers were…

            Diet coke! Macadamia nuts! Ice cream! Wine! Beer!

THE REAL DEAL 

1.         How many books did your publisher buy?

            1:  10              2:  7                3:  1               

2.         How long was it from the day your pub offered until you signed the contract?                 

            0-1 month:  3             1.5-3 mths:  9                       
            4-5 mths:  4               6-9 mths:  2

The wait is over...contract signed!

3.         How long from contract signing to RELEASE DAY?

            11-12 mths: 4           13-15 mths: 3                      
            16-20 mths: 6           21-24 mths: 5

4.         In what age category is your book?

            YA:  15            MG:  3

5.         What genres and sub-genres are represented in these book deals? Contemporary, Thriller, Horror, Mystery, Paranormal, Fantasy, Historical, Historical Fantasy, Steampunk, Sci-Fi, Southern Gothic, and Magical Realism!

       

6.         What was your word count at time of offer? (all numbers rep YAs except where noted)

            34k-38k:  3 (MG)      50k-60k:  3                61k-70k:  3               
            71k-80k:  6                81k-90k:  2                91k-100k:  1

How long are these Fall 15er books anyway?

BONUS:           More details on what’s in your book please!  

Thanks so much to everyone for coming by the Fall Fifteeners blog today! We've obsessed over stats and even though you won't listen...don't obsess too much over these. It's all in good fun. Happy querying and happy on-subbing! 

Stats compiled and fancified for your viewing pleasure by Ami Allen-Vath, author of Prom Bitch, releasing November 2015. Special thanks to all the Fall Fifteeners for participating, and to my husband who was my charts & graphs associate.