How to use this Page

We’re writers. We work long, hard hours, put our hearts and souls into our manuscripts. For many, writing comes after other jobs and definitely after other responsibilities. Most likely, there is no guarantee of publication. As writers, how do we define success?

• Is it finishing our first draft?**
• Editing until the manuscript shines? **
• Writing and sending out query letters?**
• Getting an agent?
• A book deal?
• A six-figure advance?
• Being published by one of the Big Five?
• A starred review in Publishers Weekly or School Library Journal or Kirkus or Booklist?
• An endorsement from a bestselling author? Or 2 or 3 or 4?
• Perhaps it’s the number of congratulations you receive to an announcement of a book deal?
• Arranging book events? **
• Putting together a publicity campaign? **
• Or better yet, having your publisher create an incredible publicity campaign, including signings at Book Expo America, ALA, and a national or international book tour?
• Writing blog tour posts? Or posts for wonderful writing/publishing sites like this one? **
• Giving talks at bookstores, libraries, schools? **
• Making YouTube videos to promote your work or share your passion for writing? **
• Is it hitting the New York Times Best Seller’s list? Or USA Today Best Seller’s List?
• For how many weeks? 1? Or 10? Or 52?
• Is it receiving invitations to speak at prestigious book festivals?
• Or selling 10,000 books? 50,000? 100,000? 1,000,000?
• Perhaps success is having your book made into a movie?
• Maybe it’s a high ranking on Amazon? Top 100? 1000? 5000?
• Or having over 100 reviews on Amazon or Goodreads? Or is it 1000? 5000? 50,000?
• Is it seeing your book in Barnes & Noble or an Indie or airport bookstore?
• Making 10 Top Ten Favorite lists posted by bloggers and vloggers? 20? 30? 50?
• Maybe it’s having your book in school libraries?
• Or maybe success is the number of retweets or likes on a post on Instagram or Facebook about your novel?
• Or the number of followers you have on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter? How many is a lot? 5000? 10,000? 100,000?
• Perhaps it’s seeing your book #1 in a category on Amazon?
• Or is success an email from a teen telling you your novel saved his life?
• Could it be someone telling you how much your book impacted her?
• Or how she recommended it to all her friends?
• Or a large crowd at a book signing? How many is that? 50? 200? 1000?
• Perhaps it’s winning book awards? Like the Newbery? Or National Book Award?

Every single one of these things is FANTASTIC! Every one of these things is worthy of a CELEBRATION or major CONGRATULATIONS! But if NONE of these things have happened or only some of these things have happened, does it mean we’re a failure? I sure hope not!

BECAUSE… as amazing as these moments are, other than the ones with the **stars**, not one of them is within an author’s control. NOT ONE. Do we want to place our self-worth in the hands of others? Do we want to value what we do based on things we have very little influence over? Ranking numbers change hourly on Amazon. We’re not a number. Your first manuscript might not sell. (Mine didn’t.) Or your second. (Not this one either.) Or third. (This one did. YAY! And no, it hasn’t hit the NYTBS list—yet, here’s to optimism—and my advance was very small.)

Here’s what I’ve learned:

• Everything listed above would (most likely) be a dream come true. But if we define ourselves based on these things, things we can’t control, then we’re turning over our personal power to others, people we don’t even know! It could be so easy to fall into a pit of author despair. (Most likely rocking in a corner, clutching our book!)
• Be awesome.
• Write the book that speaks to you.
• Be proud of your accomplishments.
• Ask yourself: Did I work hard? Did I do the best I could? Am I kind and gracious to other authors? To readers? To reviewers?

Dictionary.com defines success as: the accomplishment of one’s goals. The word “one’s” makes it clear that the goals are the ones you set for yourself. I’ve learned to set my goals based on what I personally can do. I’ve learned to define my success by knowing I’ve persevered. I’ve work hard. I strive to be my best. I celebrate fellow writers’ milestones and do whatever I can to be supportive. Because I really believe this universe is INFINITE and there’s room for everyone to have lots of moments in the sun! Finally, don’t give up. DON’T give up. DON’T GIVE UP! Write your novel. Persevere!

I look forward to celebrating your bookish milestones with you.

Happy writing!

LIZA WIEMER married the guy who literally swept her off her feet at a Spyro Gyra concert. Their love story can be found on her “About” page. Besides being a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan, she is a readaholic, a romantic, and a lover of nature, crazy socks, and rooftops.

Hello? is her debut YA novel. It was named a Goodreads YA Best Book of the Month, November 2015, and Paste Magazine called it “one of the most original YA novels of the year.” She also has had two adult non-fiction books published, as well as stories and articles in various publications. As an award-winning educator, Liza has conducted over 75 interactive seminars during the 2015/2016 school year, fueling her passion for working with young adults. A graduate of UW-Madison with a degree in Education, Liza is also the mother of two young adult sons.

There is Always a Reason to Be Jealous

When I was a kid, scribbling stories and beaming when the teacher or my mom displayed them on the wall, authors were as mythical as unicorns. Walking among the shelves of a bookstore felt like walking among giants. It wasn’t until I wrote my first novel that I started to think being an author wasn’t an impossibility.

And that was also about the time when I started to feel jealous. I wanted, more than anything, to be a published author, and as time went on, I became more and more jealous of anyone who already held the keys to elite circle. That feeling just became more and more intense as I wrote manuscript after manuscript, hoping to find the golden ticket into publishing.

I would tell myself, If I could just get an agent, I’d be happy.

And then, eventually, I got an agent. And so I said, If I could just get a book deal, I’d be happy.

And I did. I got the book deal of my dreams. But then I said, If the book could just do well, maybe some awards or hit the list…then I can be happy.

And it did. And I was blissfully, gloriously happy. I had all my dreams come true. A great book deal, a trilogy that hit the NY Times bestseller list, publisher sponsored book tours, fan letters, literally everything I ever wanted.

But there is always a reason to be jealous.

Always.

Someone else hit the list higher. Someone else got a bigger deal. Someone else is heralded as the height of the genre. Someone else has higher ratings and better reviews. Someone else has everything I have, but also a nice lake house and isn’t allergic to kittens.

There’s always a reason to be jealous.

Even if you have it all, even if everything’s perfect…it won’t last. It just won’t. I guarantee that even J. K. Rowling worries that her next book will flop and the glory days are over. A number one New York Times bestseller fears that no one will read his next book. An author on the red carpet of the movie based on her book has a niggling fear that this is the peak and everything is downhill from here.

And even if you are riding that high, there is always someone who is higher up than you. There just is. That is the nature of the game. We all want to be the best of the best. We all want to be made immortal through our works. We all want to know that the things we wrote made a difference in someone’s life. And it’s hard to measure what our success is. So we look at things that do measure “success.” Things like author rank, or sales numbers, or who gets invited on a book tour, or who gets the most fan art on tumblr, or who is friends with who, who got a blurb from this other author, or which publishing house is better, or who gets more attention from their editor, or who stays on the list longer than who else, or who even makes the list, and in the end none of that matters.

None of it.

There is always a reason to be jealous.

No matter how successful you are, there is always someone more successful than you. No matter what you think the epitome of your career is going to be, when you reach it, there will be a higher point you want to reach. And that is good. You always want to be striving forward, you always want to be trying to make your art better. But if you become focused on what other people have, you waste your life on jealousy. You become bitter. You start reaching for the false goals. You quit celebrating the success of others, because you’re so wrapped up in yourself.

There are countless reasons to be jealous. But that doesn’t mean you have to succumb to them.

You can win a journal with this cover!

I wrote Paper Hearts for the writer I used to be. The questions I used to have plagued me when I was starting this career path. How do I get to the end? What’s the proper way to structure a novel—is there even a proper way? How do I make my book stand out from all the other ones on sub?

Now, fifteen years, eleven unpublished books, three New York Times bestsellers, one self published book, and countless hours working on craft and working with other professionals, I think I finally have the answers that I needed way back then.

Unfortunately, I can’t travel back in time.

But what I can do is try to help others. I’ve been compiling articles on the things I’ve learned about writing, publishing, and marketing for years, first informally on blog posts, then more collectively on Wattpad. After hitting 100,000 reads, I realized that I should take Paper Hearts more seriously…and that I had not one book, but three.

Fully revised and expanded, the Paper Hearts series will feature three volumes, one each on writing, publishing, and marketing. Paper Hearts, Volume 1: Some Writing Advice will be out on November 1, with the other two following in December and January.

PAPER HEARTS: Some Writing Advice

Your enemy is the blank page. When it comes to writing, there’s no wrong way to get words on paper. But it’s not always easy to make the ink flow. Paper Hearts: Some Writing Advice won’t make writing any simpler, but it may help spark your imagination and get your hands back on the keyboard.

Practical Advice Meets Real Experience

With information that takes you from common mistakes in grammar to detailed charts on story structure, Paper Hearts describes:

• How to Develop Character, Plot, and World
• What Common Advice You Should Ignore
• What Advice Actually Helps
• How to Develop a Novel
• The Basics of Grammar, Style, and Tone
• Four Practical Methods of Charting Story Structure
• How to Get Critiques and Revise Your Novel
• How to Deal with Failure
• And much more!

BONUS! More than 25 “What to do if” scenarios to help writers navigate problems in writing from a New York Times Bestselling author who’s written more than 2 million words of fiction.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

BETH REVIS is the New York Times bestselling author of the Across the Universe trilogy, as well as The Body Electric, Paper Hearts, and the forthcoming A World Without You. She lives in the Appalachian mountains with her boys: one husband, one son, and two very large dogs. You can find out more on Facebook, Twitter, or online. If you never want to miss a thing and also get exclusive insider opportunities, sign up for her newsletter here.

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.

Hey guys! Jodi here.

Today, I’m pleased to introduce a long-time writing friend of mine, Jaime Lee Moyer, author of DELIA’S SHADOW, A BARRICADE IN HELL, and the third in the series, releasing tomorrow (October 6, 2015), AGAINST A BRIGHTENING SKY. (Tor.)

Jaime and I met on the same online workshop over eleven years ago and we’ve been reading each other’s work ever since. I’m a huge fan of Jaime’s series. History, ghosts, murder, mystery, seances, and a bit of swoony romance. I can’t recommend these books enough!

1. What is the biggest, most important thing you want readers to know about AGAINST A BRIGHTENING SKY?

That this is the story I wanted to write, a book about hope for the future, friendships that endure through every test and trial, and the memories of loved ones that live on in all of us. Books about the struggle to push back the shadows, and protecting those you love, are just as important to me as books that focus on shiny ideas.

Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of shiny ideas in AGAINST A BRIGHTENING SKY, but the story is about the people.

2. How much input did the cats have when it came to plotting the trilogy?

My cats, Morgan and Gillian, have been pushing for co-author credit of Delia’s books since day one. They claim that giving Delia a ghost hunting cat in the second book was all their idea. That’s not even remotely true, but I’m not going to fight with them over it.

You know how cats can get.

3. Over the course of the trilogy, what were the three most interesting things you had to research?

The most interesting weren’t always the most pleasant or the most fun. It’s also really difficult to narrow this down to just three.

a. The decomposition rate of a body in salt water, the damage fish and other sea creatures can do, and how quickly rigor mortis vanishes in cold temperatures. You know you’re a writer when you can read about this stuff and not lose your lunch. That bit of research was really gruesome and still really interesting.

b. Shell shock in The Great War. Today we’d call it Post Traumatic Stress, but this syndrome or condition had almost never been seen in solders before WWI. There might have been individual cases scattered over the years, but not the huge numbers of men affected during The Great War.

c. Trance lecturers and their spirit guides. This was really fascinating. Trance lectures became a popular form of entertainment as spiritualism spread, and was tied to many of the mid to late 1800s social reform movements. While in the trance, the person giving the lecture–many if not most of them women– were seen as being under the control of their spirit guide. If a spirit guide voiced opinions on women’s rights, slavery, or marriage that ran counter to societal norms and practices, no one could hold the woman at the podium responsible. The spirit was in control.

I thought that was a neat, if to our modern eyes somewhat sneaky, way to get your message out into the world, and to bypass the restrictions on what a woman could say in public.

4. Do you have any encouraging words or pieces of advice for new writers? What about writers with a book or two already out?

I have the same thing to say to both groups.

Keep writing. Believe in yourself and your work even if no one else does. Don’t give up. The universe will send you a passel of conflicting messages, but no matter how dark and dire the future looks KEEP WRITING.

5. If you could have a drink with any of your characters, which one would you choose, and what would you drink?

I’d love to have a drink with Dora. She could tell me stories of the places she’s been and all the things she’s seen, of the battles between the light and the dark most of us never see. Dora probably wouldn’t approve of me drinking beer, but the whiskey she drinks would likely kill me. Time with her would be well spent.

All my characters carry a part of me inside. Isadora Bobet holds the biggest piece of my heart.

6. Pub brawl! A huge fight has broken out. What’s your weapon of choice?

Tranquilizer darts, fired from behind an overturned table. Once everyone’s had a good nap and calmed down, hopefully they won’t feel the need to fight.

A ghost princess and a woman with nothing but a name to her fortune might change the course of history.

By 1919 the Great War has ended, peace talks are under way in Paris, and the world has been forever changed. Delia Martin, apprentice practitioner of magical arts, and her husband, Police Captain Gabriel Ryan, face the greatest challenge of their lives when fragments from the war descend on San Francisco.

As Delia prepares to meet friends at a St. Patrick’s Day parade, the strange ghost of a European princess appears in her mirror. Her pleasant outing becomes a nightmare as the ghost reappears moments after a riot starts, warning her as a rooftop gunman begins shooting into the crowd. Delia rushes to get her friends to safety, and Gabe struggles to stop the killing—and to save himself.

Delia and Gabe realize all the chaos and bloodshed had one purpose—to flush Alina from hiding, a young woman with no memory of anything but her name.

As Delia works to discover how the princess ghost’s secrets connect to this mysterious young woman, and Gabe tracks a ruthless killer around his city, they find all the answers hinge on two questions: Who is Alina…and why can’t she remember?

Against a Brightening Sky is the thrilling conclusion to Moyer’s glittering historical fantasy series.