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Hey guys! Welcome to the last post by Tara Sonin, the Marketing Manager for Paper Lantern Lit. We hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little more about book packaging. Today, Tara is just going to answer the questions readers have left for us Thanks for dropping by, Tara!

Thanks, Publishing Crawl for hosting our final post in the Behind the Page series! We loved reading these questions and hopefully provided satisfactory answers. You can always ask us more questions on Twitter @Paperlanternlit, or email [email protected].

1. What social media advice would you give to a non-published author who’s in the process of finishing her first novel?
First, I want to commend you for already thinking about your social media strategy before you’ve started the process of querying and publishing your book—it’s never too early to get a jump on the game!

My advice would be to think strategically about social media: what platforms and processes will allow you to a) reach the most readers without b) uprooting your entire life? Think about your schedule, obligations, and priorities: what is most important to you about social media. Don’t over extend yourself. What do you want to communicate? If it’s blogging about your writing process, create a schedule and stick to it. If it’s sharing photos and behind-the-scenes snapshots into your life as a writer, take an Instagram course about how best to position and filter your photos. If it’s connecting with other writers and forming friendships, Tumblr and Twitter might be the place for you to communicate directly with people in your community. But most importantly: do not try to perfect all of them at once! Pick one, get really good at it, and make sure you highlight your success on that platform when you query agents. Good luck!

2. Can you speak to how your writers have gotten excited about your ideas? 
The most important element of our process is finding a writer that gets jazzed about the material; the world, the characters, the conflict, everything has to speak to them in an authentic way. That can happen in a number of different ways. Eleanor Herman, author of LEGACY OF KINGS, was already a historian when she started writing this YA series…but it was her first time actually creating characters from scratch, as most of the other people she’d written about before actually existed! We really saw her shine and have a lot of fun building the quirks and emotional lives of made-up people. Julie Leung, author of MICE OF THE ROUND TABLE, an upcoming middle-grade fantasy series, was a huge Redwall fan before signing on to this project, so any opportunity to write about forest creatures and mice made her really excited! Just because the ideas originate with us doesn’t mean that we don’t want our authors to connect to the story and have fun writing it—that’s what really gives the book life.

3. Do writers get to shop from your list of plots?
There’s no database of “plots” that we have on file. We brainstorm stories organically, as ideas come to us, and search for writers on a project-by-project basis. We also don’t usually generate projects “for” specific writers. That said, we are always open to working with writers who approach us and are interested in our business model—if we have a project in development that we think will fit with your style and interests!

4. Have you ever found that your chosen author already had characters or concepts weirdly and coincidentally overlay with your developed plots? 
This phenomenon is pretty popular. Elizabeth Gilbert talks about it in her book BIG MAGIC: that many people can actually come up with the same story, at different times, in different places. That’s because, when you think about it, there actually is a finite number of permutations that stories can take, at their “blueprint” level. For example: Girl meets Boy. Girl and Boy hate one another. Girl and Boy eventually get along. That would be just one example of a common story thread you see over and over again, interpreted by other writers. We’ve never actually found that our authors already had WIP’S exactly like the books they are writing for us, but interests certainly do overlap! M.E. Castle, author of the Clone Chronicles series (and the forthcoming FAKESPEARE) is super interested in sci-fi, space, and robots—which was why it made perfect sense to us that he be the one to bring Popular Clone to life!

5. How do you choose your writers? 
Unfortunately, there’s no standard formula or equation I can give you, because the process is different for every project! However, in general, we audition multiple writers for each project, searching for things such as:

• Do they take risks, and do those risks pay off?
• Is the tone consistent with what we’ve asked for in the spark?
• What is their command of language like? Do they have proper grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure?

Once we review auditions, we look at the author as a whole: do they have a social media platform? Are they engaged in the publishing community? Do they have an agent? None of these things are automatic yes’s or no’s, but we like to get a sense of authors and their commitment to the craft—because once we sign a contract with them, we are committed to making them a success. Then, after reviewing the samples and discussing our needs for the project, we hopefully find a writer!

6. Do publishers still have ‘wish lists’ and their own content ideas for you to work with?
Plenty of publishers have their own IP (Intellectual Property) that they produce in-house, without the assistance of a packager. In general, we don’t work with publisher IP. However, there are times that an Editor will approach us looking for Concept X, and if we are excited about that concept and think we can bring it to life with trademark PLL flare, then we’ll pursue it!

7. Do you partner with overseas creators?
Absolutely. Thanks to technology today, it’s really easy to get in touch even if there’s a time difference. If you live in another country, don’t be discouraged! Plenty of authors active in the American YA community are actually from overseas.

TARA SONIN is the Marketing Manager for Paper Lantern Lit. She received her B.A. in Theater and English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Barnard College, Columbia University. Tara recaps The Vampire Diaries for Vulture Magazine and writes romance under the name Taryn Scarlett. When not dreaming up catchy marketing campaigns and reading all the books she can get her hands on, Tara is usually found in Zumba classes or singing an eclectic repertoire of show tunes.

Hey guys! Kat here Today, I’m bringing you an interview with Kamilla Benko, an editor for Paper Lantern Lit who is also publishing her MG novel, THE UNICORN HUNT, with Bloomsbury!

1. Hey Kamilla! Describe THE UNICORN HUNT for me in 3 words.

Wish-full, Wonder-full, Sister-full. (You didn’t say they had to be real words!)

2. Okay, now you can describe it in a sentence or two.

The UNICORN HUNT explores that idea that magic exists in anything that requires creativity as well as in family relationships—specifically, sisterly bonds.

3. Where did the original idea for the UNICORN HUNT come from? 

I was inspired by two things: a painting and a tapestry. When I was eight, my aunt painted a picture of two girls—me and my sister—stumbling upon two unicorns in a sunlit meadow. It was the most magical thing I had ever seen, and I always wished I could step inside the brush strokes.

Then when I was 22, I went to The Cloisters in New York City and saw the Unicorn Tapestries that depict a medieval unicorn hunt. These beautiful images are woven of silk and gold, but the milk-white unicorn is covered in blood. There are seven tapestries all together, but one of the panels has been torn and only fragments remain. I asked myself, “Why would anyone want to destroy a tapestry of unicorns?” and by trying to answer that question, The Unicorn Hunt was born.

4. Share a bit about your path to publishing. Have you always wanted to write, in addition to becoming an editor?

Funnily enough, I always wanted to be an editor, not a writer! At the age of 11, I was reading in the field behind my great aunts’ house, and this thought came to me: Someone thought that I should read this book, and I want to be the person who helps put stories out there. I didn’t know until I asked my mom that what I was describing was called editing/publishing.

I was lucky to land a number of internships during college: at Foundry Literary + Media, Simon & Schuster UK, and Viking Children’s Books. Later I was hired as an editorial assistant at HarperCollins, and now I work as an editor at Paper Lantern Lit. Things came full circle for me at PLL, when authors I had read as Stephen Barbara’s intern—Lauren Oliver and Lexa Hillyer—were now my bosses, and Stephen became my agent.

I find nothing more intimidating than a blank page, and as an editor, I never had to face them. But as I worked with Lauren and Lexa, both writers as well as editors, I was inspired to write down my own stories for the first time. With their encouragement, I drafted the first chapter of The Unicorn Hunt…and then I found I couldn’t stop writing!

5. Fill in the blank: “Fans of _____  by ______  will love THE UNICORN HUNT because… “

Fans of THE PRINCESS ACADEMY by SHANNON HALE will love THE UNICORN HUNT because both follow young girls who feel ill-prepared to face the shifting world around them and must rely on an inner strength they didn’t know they had. Plus, there’s a pinch of magic in both!

6. Okay, last question! What’s one Middle Grade book that should be mandatory reading for all adults?

Ugh, that’s so tough! I’m going to cheat and give you two.  One is from my childhood that helped me as I grew up and perfectly captures children’s frustration of not being in control of their own destiny, and one that I read now, as an adult, that I wish I could have read as a kid. The first is Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine and the second is The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin.

Thanks for joining us today, Kamilla!

Any of our readers dream of being a double-threat and edit as well as write books?  

KAMILLA BENKO spent most of her childhood climbing into wardrobes, trying to step through mirrors, and plotting to run away to an art museum. After interning and working for several publishing houses, she now dreams up stories as an editor for Paper Lantern Lit. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her bookshelves, teapot, and hiking boots.

Yesterday we talked about Paper Lantern Lit, Lexa Hillyer, Lauren Oliver, who are part of this  years NJSCBWI conference and what they were doing with authors, editors, and Stephen Barbara. Today, I thought I would share a great article they wrote to help authors improve their writing. Here it is below:

Chapters are kind of like socks—something we writers and editors use ALL the time, but hardly ever think about. We all know that most novels are anywhere from 40,000 words to 140,000 words long, and we all know they’re broken up into units called “chapters.” But how often do we stop to ask why? How do you know you’re getting the most from a chapter?

We see this challenge in two parts: WHAT goes in the chapter, and HOW it goes in.

Let’s start with the juicy WHAT, first.

Chapters must give good, purposeful content that moves the story forward, that’s what! Unlike socks (ew), a chapter is something you should be able to sink your teeth into and get some real nutrients from it. Let’s consult the magic 8-ball of chapter content questions:

1) What is the main character’s goal in this chapter? How does that goal evolve? (I.e., is the main character thwarted, or does her goal get more urgent?) If there’s no goal, what would make a good goal for the chapter? It should be based on the character’s overall goal in the book! If her goal in the story is to find missing treasure, then perhaps the goal in this chapter is to first dig up the map, or confront the pirate who buried it.

2) What happens in this chapter? Is there action, and does it naturally lead to more action? If not, what new actions might lead to consequences that increase the urgency or difficulty of the goal? (Here’s the thing about goals: we should be making it more and more difficult to get to while simultaneously more and more seemingly necessary.) For instance, perhaps the pirate who buried the treasure has mysteriously vanished, and now your main character must solve the mystery of his disappearance! Or maybe the character’s mother plans to sell her home, and now she needs that treasure more than ever.

3) What new information is learned? (And why now?) If not much is learned, what “clue” might be inserted into this chapter to help set us up for the actions and reveals of future chapters?

4) Does the chapter seem urgent? Does it have tension? If not, what would make everything more pressing, more dire? What might be causing the tension to deflate? Watch out for moments where things are getting easier for the characters, where they seem to be fed the answers. Instead, there can be clues leading them forward, but there should also be obstacles keeping us interested! Remember that you are supposed to be making things more complex and challenging—that’s good narrative!

5) Unity of action. Is the action contained to one location? Does it focus on a single event? Is there a logic to where and why it comes to an end? If you close your eyes, can you easily picture this chapter? Can you describe the action in a sentence? (Think: It was Mrs. White, with the wrench, in the drawing room).

6) Is there causality from one chapter to the next? Remember that the goal in chapter A should lead directly to the goal in chapter B, either linearly (“I had to talk to character M and he told me to go talk to character N”) or because some obstacle encountered in Chapter A redefines the goal in Chapter B (“I got shot at while talking to character M and now I need to go to the hospital, which has replaced talking to character N as my immediate goal.”)

7) Where have we come from? Have the actions, revelations, and emotions of the chapter been properly “seeded” in previous chapters? If not, what would be a few specific places earlier in the book where we might get enough information or “clues” to prepare us for what happens now?

8) Where are we going? What are the elements of this chapter that you’d like to see “pay off” later in the book? In novels, unlike in life, everything must serve a purpose. Even small developments should have some impact on the plot—a.k.a. that development should cause something important to happen later, throw a wrench into the narrative making the goal harder to get to, or aid in a significant reveal later on. Otherwise, it’s simply filler!

Now on to the HOW!

That is, how are we building this baby? What’s the appropriate structure of a chapter? Get ready… we’re about to tell you how to win a game of writing Jenga.

1) Importance of Innies. Is the chapter “in” strong? Does the opening “hook” you from the beginning with a surprising or vivid first sentence/paragraph? Are you peeking around the doorframe or leaping right into the middle of the room? Variety is the key. Experiment with the three A’s of openers: Action, Atmosphere, or Attribution (i.e. dialogue that is quickly attributed to a character). Either start in the middle of a scene with a sound (Splat! The burger hit him in the face), or with vivid description and mood (A dark, feathery form swooped across the fading skyline like a streak of black ink across the gray) or in the midst of a conversation (“How dare you call me selfish! I’m only trying to help you,” Cindy said, raising an eyebrow at me.)

Read the Rest

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

I was going over my New Jersey SCBWI Conference Registration and noticed Lexa Hillyer co-founder of Paper Lantern on the faculty. I was not familiar with Lexa, so I read her bio. Here it is:

Lexa Hillyer received her BA in English from Vassar College and her MFA in Poetry from Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine. She has received various poetry awards, including the 2011 Melissa Lanitis Gregory Poetry Prize for her first book of poems, Acquainted with the Cold. She was named one of the Best New Poets of 2012 by Matthew Dickman. Lexa worked as an editor at both Harper Collins and Penguin, and is co-founder of boutique literary incubator Paper Lantern Lit.

This still didn’t tell me enough, so I visited Paper Lantern Lit to see what additional information I could discover. I found out Paper Lantern Lit is a “book incubator” that creates hits for publishers–and careers for undiscovered writers. Lexa Hillyer and co-founder Lauren Oliver are story architects. I still needed more information so Lexa and I talked and she answered my questions in this interview. I think you will find what they are doing, very interesting.

What is Paper Lantern Lit?

We come up with story ideas, we plot them using our knowledge and experience with narrative structure, and we coach authors through the writing process. Like architects, we envision, design and layout all the basics of a book, but it’s our writers who inhabit them and bring them to life.

How did you and Lauren Oliver decide to start Paper Lantern Lit?

We met when we both worked as editors at Penguin, before Lauren decided to pursue a career in writing. After a few years, we had stayed friends, and realized we both had pieces missing from our lives. She missed editing, and often found she had more ideas than she could possibly write herself. I longed for more creative flexibility for my ideas, and the freedom to make stronger connections with writers. We discovered that we both possess creativity and passion for storytelling alongside a pretty unusual obsession with structure and form. We know that a great novel has both, and while the elusive power of an original, emotive voice may not be teachable, the a-to-z of plotting a book is. So why not build incredibly fun book concepts, offer to help new writers, and get the thrill of discovering them ourselves?

Once we had that all figured out, we just started having meetings. We took it one step at a time and taught ourselves what it would mean to really own a business. We made sure we had a lot of different projects we felt confident pursuing, so that our company would have longevity. Then we reached out to Stephen Barbara of Foundry Media, to ensure that we would have strong representation. Finally, we hired the most amazing interns ever, two of whom now work for the company full time!

Was this before she wrote the Delirium Series?

Yes, though I believe she was already working on it. It was right after her first book, BEFORE I FALL, came out. 

How does Paper Lantern Lit differ from a traditional Publisher?

We are not a publisher or an agency, though our company does have certain similarities to an agency: we seek out excellent writers, work with them on a project, and then typically sell the project to a publisher. However, at Paper Lantern Lit, we develop many of our book ideas in-house. So while a traditional agency looks for finished manuscripts, we are far more focused on finding the best new writers out there and fostering their voices. We pride ourselves on cultivating emergent authors, and providing them a context in which to further learn their craft.

So you could say you are a book packager?

Our business model is certainly similar, but we feel our approach is unique in that we put a major emphasis on the author and on our relationships within the industry. We’re not about making a product, package or sale. We’re about creating an experience that is hopefully lasting and has universal appeal. We attach writers and projects together much the way a matchmaker might: it’s all about finding the perfect pairing.

Since Paper Lantern gets the advance for the books they sell, how does the writer get paid?

We pay the writer directly per project. You can consider it as doing Freelance or Work-for-Hire. Some of our deals offer sub rights and other financial participation—we want our authors to enjoy success as the book’s audience grows, and for them to feel invested in its future and their own!

Does the writer get their name on the books they write?
Sometimes yes, though many times we mutually agree to move forward under a pseudonym. Often that feels like the best way to give both parties the most freedom and most protection at the same time. We understand that many of our writers may be concurrently pursuing other work, and this allows for greater flexibility to do so.

Do you accept full manuscripts?

We are looking for writers, typically, not manuscripts, because our focus is on building story from the ground up. We are the story architects, after all! You might say we prefer to work on new designs rather than renovations: this way we can always vouch for the end result—we can guarantee a sound structure. However, there’s an exception to every rule. If you love what we do, we encourage you to reach out. You never know what opportunities will arise, especially as we turn our focus with more and more interest toward the digital publishing sphere.

How long have you been in business?

We officially launched PLL in May of 2010, so we’re at the three year mark.

How many books have you gotten published?

We have 25 domestic titles (this includes multiple book deals for each author). We’ve also sold our books in dozens of foreign countries. Of these, we have 9 that have hit shelves so far, and our 10th, TRUTH OR DARE by Jacqueline Green, comes out May 14, 2013!

Do you run your book ideas past editors before you look for an author?

Not often, but we certainly have many editor friends and are always discussing what they’re excited about and where we all feel the market may be headed. Further, we do ALWAYS share our ideas with our agent, Stephen Barbara, before taking on a writer. We consider him the third partner and take his objective reactions very seriously—it’s important to have some checks and balances!

So I would image that you work closely with the author to develop the book. Is that right?

Oh absolutely. It’s a very hands-on process. We check in with our authors weekly and provide very consistent notes and feedback. They constantly work to adapt the story so that it is truly theirs—in the end, sometimes they depart wildly from the original concept, but we communicate and work together the whole way through to be sure at all times that the structure is solid and that their voice is being heard.

I see you have a group of teens called Trendsetters who read pre-published YA books from you. Have you changed books due to this feedback?
Definitely! It’s fascinating to get a peek into what teens are really thinking, what their experiences are like, what they most care about. We take their input very seriously and we just love all of the awesome ways they get involved in our projects, from coming up with soundtracks to the books to creating character collages and inspiration boards. These teens are very savvy, very articulate, and love books—so of course, we love THEM!

Do you feel that an unknown author benefits from working with you, other than the freelance money they receive?

I very much believe and hope so, yes. Some of our authors have gone so far as to refer to us as a “paid MFA in writing.” Others call it novel-writing boot camp.  We offer a lot of insight and structure regarding the craft and the writing process, in addition to offering serious access to new contacts in the industry and help them reach their fans directly.

If the authors get school visits from librarian who come to you, do they get the full amount of money for the visit?
Yes!

I read that Paper Lantern has a Fellowship Program for a MFA student enrolled at Queens College’s MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation. What do they get if they are chosen?

The recipient receives full tuition remission for the spring semester in addition to a $1,000 internship stipend.

What do authors do to get you interested in working with them?

Send us your resume, a brief bio, and a ten-page sample of your best writing (preferably fiction.) Please submit all of the above in the body of your email (no attachments), and include your name and sample title in the subject heading. Also please let us know where you heard about us!

Show off their voice. Knowing your own individual strengths, rather than trying to prove you can be malleable, is key. Also show us that you are savvy with the interwebs and not afraid to have a presence there. If you fear your own audience or seem like a ghost when we google you, that can be concerning. Writing for young people these days means having confidence in your voice, what you have to say, AND your ability to interact with your audience.

You can still register for the New Jersey SCBWI Conference in June and get a critique with Lexa. Don’t miss this opportunity. Here is the link: www.regonline.com/njscbwi2013conference

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy