By
Cynthia Leitich Smithfor
CynsationsJoAnne Stewart Wetzel is the first-time novelist of
Playing Juliet (Sky Pony, 2015). From the promotional copy:
Beth Sondquist, 12 1/2, secretly dreams of playing William Shakespeare’s Juliet. When she learns the children’s theatre in her town is threatened with closure, she and her best friend, Zandy Russell, do everything they can to save it. But since Beth keeps breaking one theatre superstition after another in the process, she may never get onstage again.
Quotes from Shakespeare bookmark each chapter and foreshadow the next plot twist as a multicultural cast of kids fights to keep their theatre open.
Could you describe both your pre-and-post contract revision process? What did you learn along the way? How did you feel at each stage? What advice do you have for other writers on the subject of revision?I love to revise. When I started my first novel, Playing Juliet, I worked on the first chapter for months. It was polished and perfect before I went on to the second chapter.
But by the time I had finished the first draft, the characters had changed, the plot had changed and I had to throw the whole first chapter out.
When the draft was finished, a New York editor read the first ten pages at a
SCBWI conference. Of course I was expecting her to offer to buy it on the spot (don't we all) or at least to ask to see the full. Instead, she said she didn't find my main character, Beth, charming.
Charming? A 12-and-a-half-year-old narrator focused on getting onstage while her costume was falling apart had other things to worry about besides being charming. But I read over the chapter carefully. While Beth's focus was appropriate, was she a little self-centered? What if I had her do something for someone else?
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| Inspiration! Just So Stories, Palo Alto (CA) Children's Theater |
I added exactly six sentences to an early scene that showed the cast waiting in the wings to go on. Beth notices that a younger actor playing a mouse is nervous, remembers that it's the Mouse's first play and that she'd seen her reapply her make-up in the dressing room at least four times.
Though they have to be very quiet backstage, Beth whispers, "Great nose." and outlines a circle on her own.
Sometimes it only takes six sentences. When the book was published, the review in the School Library Journal began "In this charming story featuring a relatable narrator and action-driven plot..." A blurb by the author Miriam Spitzer Franklin ended by saying the book "introduces a protagonist who will steal your heart as she chases after her dreams."
Another reader pointed out that while Playing Juliet started with lots of references to the superstitions around MacBeth and ended with a production of Romeo and Juliet, a few of the earlier chapters had almost no reference to Shakespeare. Was there a way to weave him into the rest of the book?
There was no room to introduce another play into this middle-grade story but I'd always loved reading books with epigraphs. Could I find enough quotes from Shakespeare's writings to serve as appropriate epigraphs before each chapter?
I used the
Open Source Shakespeare search engine, typed in a word like "jewel" or "duchess" and got a list of all the appearances of these words in his works. The perfect epigraph kept jumping out at me.
For the chapter in which the kids are looking for a lost diamond bracelet, I quoted "Search for a jewel that too casually Hath left mine arm" from
"Cymbeline.""What think you of a duchess? have you limbs to bear that load of title?" from
"Henry VIII" made the perfect epigraph for the chapter in which Beth is asked if she can cover the part of a Duchess for an actor down with the flu during the run of "Cinderella!"
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| Joanne & daughter seeing Royal Shakespeare Co. |
I was excited when an editor told me she'd brought the manuscript to committee, even when she added that they'd like to see a rewrite. They were uncomfortable with a scene in which Beth and two of her friends sneak out at night to break into the Children's Theatre.
I loved that scene. It was scary and exciting and the kids had the best of intentions. But I could make the plot work without it, so I took it out.
That editor didn't take the book. The next two editors it was sent to both commented that they felt the story was too quiet.
I put the scene back in. It wasn't necessary to the plot but it was vital to the development of the characters, for it showed what they would sacrifice to save their theater. The book sold right after that scene was restored.
I've brought all of the lessons I learned writing my first novel to the next one I'm currently working on. I'm going to finish the whole manuscript before I start to revise.
I will honor each critique I get, and find a way to solve any problem that's been identified. It could lead to a much richer book and may only take six sentences. But I will also evaluate how the changes have affected the story and if they don't help, I'll change it back.
Post-contract Revision Process |
| Sis-in-law, Elephant Cafe, Edinburgh |
When Julie Matysic at Sky Pony Press acquired the manuscript, she sent her editorial comments to me in a Word document. I had the chance to approve, change or comment on the suggested changes. Most of the revision was copy edits and most of the time I couldn't believe I'd let such a glaring grammatical error slip through.
But one set of edits I disagreed with. I had capitalized the names of all the characters in the two plays that are performed in the book. The copy editor kept all the proper names—Juliet, Romeo, Cinderella— as I wrote them, but changed all the animal characters—the cat, horse, mice—to lower case.
I decided to email Julie to ask if I could change them back. She said yes, and suggested that since many of the parts were names that would not normally be capitalized, I make up a list of all the characters for the copy editor to work with. I'm so glad I asked for clarification.
Remember that you and your editor are working toward the same goal: to make your manuscript great. And you know she has impeccable taste: she picked your manuscript to publish.
Post-contract BonusJulie suggested I do a mood board for the cover. I'd never heard of this but she explained that all I had to do was open a PowerPoint file and create a collage using the covers of books that I like then include a second page with a written explanation of why I had chosen the images. It might be the font, the color, the mood or a combination of all three. When it was done, she would send the collage to the artist creating the design to use for inspiration.
It was so much fun to search through online bookstores to find covers I liked. Beth, my 12-year-old heroine, is threatened with losing the children's theater she has been performing in for years, but I didn't want the cover to be sad.
I wanted it to be a reminder of what Beth loves about theater, about being on stage and what she will lose if her theater closes.
The mood I wanted was joy, the joy of acting, of being onstage. The covers that showed images of flying, fairies, a figure with fantastically long fingers, captured the unlimited world the stage offers.
Because so much of the story takes place in a theater, I was drawn to covers that featured theater curtains opening. Three of the twelve covers I chose had a frame of red theater curtains and two others repeated that shape and color in the clothing of the women depicted: a partially open red coat, billowing red bell bottoms. That rich red set the color pallet that dominated my collage.
When Julie sent me the final cover, I opened the attachment with some trepidation. Up popped a design with a frame of rich red curtains opening onto a dark background that showcased the title of the book. And my name was in lights, just like on a Broadway marquee.
I loved my cover. And the Children's Books manager at
Keplers, my local independent bookstore, told me the cover was so effective, the book was jumping off the shelves. My mood board had worked.
How have you approached the task of promoting your debut book? What online or real-space efforts are you making? Where did you get your ideas? To whom did you turn for support? Are you enjoying the process, or does it feel like a chore? What advice do you have on this front for your fellow debut authors and for those in the years to come? |
| Shakespeare puppets & stamp for JoAnne's signing |
When the
Royal Shakespeare Company announced it was devoting 2016, the year of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, to celebrating him and his work, I knew I had a great tie-in with Playing Juliet.
When I was in Stratford-upon-Avon last summer, I took a lot of pictures of the buildings that were standing when Shakespeare lived there to use on my web site and in my talks.
I also bought three Shakespeare puppets: a regular hand-puppet for most of my presentations, an elegant figure in a cloth-of-gold costume to use with a sophisticated audience and a finger puppet, because sometimes a smaller figure will just work better.
When I got home, I ordered a Shakespeare stamp to use at my book signings. After all, the Bard wrote all of my epigraphs.
I've struggled to get my web pages up. I have now checked off a
web page for myself, with all of my books on it, and a web page for
Playing Juliet with links to 13 Superstitions Every Theater Kid Should Know as well as links to photos of Shakespearian sites at Stratford-upon-Avon.
I've got an author's page on
Amazon and
Goodreads and
SCBWI. I did a Launch Page on the new SCBWI web program. This all took a very long time.
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| Author/illustrator guest book, New York Public Library |
Kepler's Bookstore, has been a great help. They invited me to have my book launch party there, which, on their advice, was held a week after the pub date because every now and then, books are delayed. The copies of Playing Juliet arrived on time but I was happy to have the extra week to prepare for the talk.
Kepler's is still supporting me. Want a signed or inscribed copy of my book? Just order it online from them.
I worked with my publicist at Sky Pony Press to have her send copies of the books to the winner of the giveaways I ran on Goodreads and to my alumni connections.
This resulted in a featured review, with a color picture of the cover of the book, in the ASU magazine, which is sent to 340,000 people.
So far I've spoken at an event at our local library, at my grandsons' school in Ghana, and sold copies at our regional SCBWI conference. I'll be talking at other schools in the fall. When I was in New York City recently, I introduced myself to the librarians at the Children's Room at the New York Public Library, and was invited to sign the guest book they keep for visiting authors and illustrators.
And online I've been invited to do an interview on Library Lions and Cynsations.
I've been enjoying the process, but it takes a lot of time and I'm impatient to dive into my next middle grade.
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| the Lincoln Community School in Accra, Ghana |
What advice do you have on this front for your fellow debut authors and for those in the years to come?Start early. Well before your pub date, get your author's pages up on SCBWI, Amazon and Goodreads. Figure out how the book giveaways on Goodreads work, and think about posting one before your book is out. Don't wait until your book comes out to publicize any good news about it.
Jane Yolen wrote the most incredible blurb for Playing Juliet, saying "I couldn't stop reading," but I waited until the book came out to share it with everyone. I'm not making that mistake again.
My next book, My First Day at Mermaid School, is a picture book that will be coming out from Knopf in the summer of 2018 and
Julianna Swaney is bringing her amazing talent to the illustrations.
Cynsational Notes |
| Waylon, writer cat |
JoAnne's other publications include:
- Onstage/Backstage, with Caryn Huberman (Carolrhoda, 1987);
- The Christmas Box (Alfred A. Knopf, 1992);
- and My First Day at Mermaid School, illustrated by Julianna Swaney, (Alfred A. Knopf, Summer, 2018).
In Playing Juliet, Beth continually quotes the web page, "13 Superstitions Every Theater Kid Should Know," which can be found on
www.playingjuliet.com. This site also includes photos of Shakespearian sites in Stratford-upon-Avon (see below).
Cynsational GalleryView more
research photos from JoAnne.
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| Shakespeare's Childhood Home |
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| Shakespeare's Childhood Bedroom |
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| Joy's first full day at Brazos Bookstore |
By
Joy Preblefor
Cynthia Leitich Smith's
CynsationsLast month, I became the new Children’s Specialist at
Brazos Bookstore in Houston. I hadn’t planned on it, but when you stumble into your dream job, well, you take it!
It’s a balancing act: Selling books and buying books and merchandising and creating store events, while also writing and promoting my own novels. I’m not just an author anymore, but I’m not just a bookseller either, and this hybrid from means I’ve seen behind one curtain, and now I’m peeking behind another.
What have I learned in the past few weeks the job? Lots of things, and not so much that they are new but that I’m seeing them through a different prism.
And so the responsibility of hand-selling books I love by authors whose work I admire weighs heavy—and heavier because we are a small, highly curated independent store and space is a premium, especially so in the children’s area.
Our buyer’s philosophy is: "if two copies is good, then one is better." If I order three copies or four, then I better not only adore this book, but have made it clear to my co-workers why I love it, made sure they’re reading advanced copies and come up with a plan to sell it big. If I put a book face out or make it part of a special display or grace it with a shelf-talker that choice is mine. Already, I’ve seen how store love and hand-selling can quickly turn a small book from a small press into a bestseller.
It makes me all the more appreciative for the booksellers and librarians who’ve supported my career and talked up my books and kept copies on hand. Because I know now what happens when I see that a book hasn’t sold any copies in a month or two. I purge all or most of the copies from the shelves and replace it with something new.
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| Booksellers channeling Dorothy Parker |
Of course I knew this before… in theory. But while the author part of me—the part that knows what it takes to write a book and bring it into the world—struggles with the idea, the bookseller part of me either has to come up with a plan or put it on the return shelf.
We return a
lot of books each week. Stacks and stacks of them. The author part of me will probably always feel sad about this. But that is how it works.
On the other hand, one of the grand things about working at an independent bookstore is that while we respect the
Kirkus Reviews recs and the
Indie Next List and all the rest of it, we are under no obligation to promote only the books that the reps have pushed when we take meetings.
Oh, we want to predict the big titles as much as the next guy, but we also revel in finding that hidden gem of a book and giving it its due. But I know now that this takes more than just keeping it on the shelf. It means moving it around the store, making it visible, putting it in customers’ hands, crowing about why we love and why they should read it.
My new job has revived and broadened my reading tastes because of this and colleagues who put translated Latin American novels in my hands or find themselves shocked that I had not read
Kelly Link’s latest short story collection.
I could go on and on and tell you how our particular store is owned by a co-op or how the reps often bring pizza. Or how I still have a weird series of reactions each time I see my own books in the store. Should I write a shelf-talker? Put them face out? Force my colleagues to read the latest?
Am I author/bookseller? Or bookseller/author?
Ringing up your own book for a random customer is, well, strange.
But this is enough for now.
Cynsational Notes 
Joy Preble is the author of several young adult novels including the
Dreaming Anastasia series (Sourcebooks), the first book of which was named an ABC Best Book in 2009; the quirky/humorous
Sweet Dead Life series (Soho Press); a contemporary road trip/family drama,
Finding Paris (Balzer and Bray/Harper Collins), which
School Library Journal called, "An intricate guessing game of sisterly devotion, romance, and quiet desperatio.”
Her latest release is
It Wasn't Always Like This (Soho Teen), which Kirkus Reviews called "a modern
Tuck Everlasting with a thriller twist."
Joy lives in Texas with her family, including a sweet but slightly unhinged basset/boxer. In between writing and working at Brazos Bookstore as bookseller/Children’s Specialist, she teaches and lectures widely on writing and literacy and is currently on faculty at
Writespace Houston.
By
Cynthia Leitich Smithfor
CynsationsOver the summer, the children's-YA book community has continued discussing diversity, decolonization, authenticity and representation both throughout the body of literature and the industry. Here are highlights; look for more in quickly upcoming, additional update posts.
Mirrors? Windows? How about Prisms? from Uma Krishnaswami. Peek: "...cultural content in children’s books needs to be woven into the story so the authors intention is not stamped all over it." See also Uma on
Tolstoy Was Not Writing for Me.
Twelve Fundamentals of Writing The "Other" and The Self by
Daniel Jose Older from Buzzfeed Books. Peek: "Every character has a relationship to power. This includes institutional, interpersonal, historical, cultural. It plays out in the micro-aggressions and hate crimes, sex, body image, life-changing decisions, everyday annoyances and the depth of historical community trauma."
Diversity in Book Publishing Isn't Just About Writers -- Marketing Matters, Too by Jean Ho from NPR. Peek: "For past projects, she has researched segmented audiences ranging from retired African-American women's books clubs, South Asian soccer organizations, Trinidadian-interest media outlets both stateside and abroad, to extracurricular programs geared toward South Bronx teens."
Looking Back: Diversity in Board Books by Joanna Marple from We Need Diverse Books. Peek: "...that children as young as six months can judge others by the color of their skin. Even if a caregiver never mentions race, children may well use skin color on their own, along with other differences, to judge themselves and others."
Drilling Down on Diversity in Picture Books from CCBlogC. Peek: "We’re keeping track of the things people want to know. Just how many picture books have animal, rather than human, characters? How many books about African American characters are historical? How many feature LGBTQ families? Or Muslims? Or people with disabilities? How many are by first-time authors or illustrators?"
Children's Books and the Color of Characters by
Kwame Alexander from The New York Times. Peek: "They all believe I am writing about them. Why is this so much harder for the grown-ups? Is race the only lens through which we can read the world?"
On White Fragility in Young Adult Literature by
Justine Larbalestier from Reading While White. Peek: "...we white authors can support Indigenous authors and Authors of Color by reading their books, recommending their books, blurbing their books, and recommending them to our agents. When we're invited to conferences, or festivals, or to be in anthologies, make sure they're not majority white."
When Defending Your Writing Becomes Defending Yourself by Matthew Salesses from NPR. Peek: "Here is a not uncommon experience. Writer
Emily X.R. Pan was told by the white writers in her workshop that the racism in her story could never happen — though every incident had happened to her."
There Is No Secret to Writing About People Who Don't Look Like You: The Importance of Empathy as Craft by Brandon Taylor from LitHub. Peek: "The best writing, the writing most alive with possibilities, is the writing that at once familiarizes and estranges; it’s writing that divorces us from our same-old contexts and shifts our thinking about ourselves and the world around us."
How Canada Publishes So Much Diverse Children's Literature by Ken Setterington from School Library Journal. Peek: "Considering that the entire Canadian market is about the size of the market in California alone (roughly 36 million), publishers must rely on sales outside of the country."
Biracial, Bicultural Roundtable (
Part One,
Part Two) by Cynthia Leitich Smith from We Need Diverse Books. Peek: "According to a 2015 Pew study, 6.9 percent of the U.S. population is biracial. According to the 2010 Census, between 2000 and 2010, the number of people identifying themselves with more than one race rose from 6.8 million to 9 million."
Cynsational Screening Room Related Links
Hi Everyone!
I know, it’s summer and you guys are all taking a bit of a break, enjoying family, friends, sunshine and possibly the occasional adult beverage. That’s awesome! 
But, while you’re on this writing hiatus, it’s also a great time to think a bit about things that there’s never enough time for…like how to better reach readers and sell more books!
One of the best things you can do to boost your success is market to your exact reading audience
AND, one of the really terrific ways to do THIS is to determine who your influencers are (the people who already have great relationships with your readers) and build a relationship with them.
That’s why I’m over at Jane Friedman’s blog today, discussing Authors, Do You Know Who Your Influencers Are?
So stop in and find out what an influencer is, what you can learn from them, and how to reach out to then and build a genuine relationship that will benefit you both.
(Please feel free to pass the link on to any other authors you know who might also need help reaching their readers, too!)
Cast Your Vote & Choose The Final Entries Emotional Wound Thesaurus Entries
As I mentioned in the last post, we’re going to retire the Emotional Wounds Thesaurus soon on the blog so that in a month or two, we can begin turning it into a book. Now the word “retired” caused a bit of panic, so let me be clear that the entries will remain here on the blog for the foreseeable future–you’ll have access to them. We just won’t be “adding” to the entries each week here on the blog, make sense? All new entries we write will be added to One Stop For Writers first, and then turned into a book.
So, hopefully that eases some concern.
We do want to put up a few last entries before we retire the thesaurus, and thought it would be fun to have you vote on which ones we do. So based on all the terrific suggestions the last few days, Becca and I have narrowed it down to 10 choices:
- Being bullied
- Being the victim of a toxic relationship
- Being rejected by one’s peers
- Unrequited love
- Growing up with a sibling with a complicated medical condition/chronic illness
- Growing up with parents who fought constantly
- Losing one of the five senses
- Growing up with a parent who is a pariah (is reviled in the community)
- Being so beautiful it’s all people see
- Living with mental illness
So, give us your top 3 choices in the comments (by number please), and starting this Saturday, we’ll profile the ones with the most votes!
Save
Save
The post What’s One Of The Best Ways To Reach Your Readers? appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.
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By: LAURIE WALLMARK,
on 12/27/2016
By: Valerie Storey,
on 12/12/2016
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 11/14/2016
Joy Preble is the author of several young adult novels including the Dreaming Anastasia series (Sourcebooks), the first book of which was named an ABC Best Book in 2009; the quirky/humorous Sweet Dead Life series (Soho Press); a contemporary road trip/family drama, Finding Paris (Balzer and Bray/Harper Collins), which School Library Journal called, "An intricate guessing game of sisterly devotion, romance, and quiet desperatio.”
By: Brittany Hobson,
on 8/22/2016
As I mentioned in the last post, we’re going to retire the Emotional Wounds Thesaurus soon on the blog so that in a month or two, we can begin turning it into a book. Now the word “retired” caused a bit of panic, so let me be clear that the entries will remain here on the blog for the foreseeable future–you’ll have access to them. We just won’t be “adding” to the entries each week here on the blog, make sense? All new entries we write will be added to One Stop For Writers first, and then turned into a book.
