I get a lot of questions about writing and publishing, so I figured it might be handy to compile all of my answers in one place!
Please note that these responses come from my personal experience and only provide one angle of insight. Everything on this website is my opinion and does not reflect the opinions of my agency, publisher, or anyone else connected to my work.
Dao is one syllable. It rhymes with “how.” Pronouncing it to rhyme with “mayo” is incorrect.
I have three young adult books published by Philomel, an imprint of Penguin Random House: FOREST OF A THOUSAND LANTERNS (published October 10, 2017), KINGDOM OF THE BLAZING PHOENIX (published November 6, 2018), and SONG OF THE CRIMSON FLOWER (published November 5, 2019).
I have one young adult book with Disney Hyperion: BROKEN WISH (published October 6, 2020).
I have three middle-grade books that will be published by FSG, an imprint of Macmillan, starting with TEAM CHU AND THE BATTLE OF BLACKWOOD ARENA (the book’s new title! Out July 26, 2022).
I am happy to sign your purchased copy, but please don’t ask me to give you something free of charge that I have worked so hard on. If you want to see more books from me, buying my work will show my publisher there’s interest and help keep me in business.
I understand that books can be expensive, so you can also help by requesting my book at your local library, leaving reviews on retail sites like Amazon or Barnes and Noble, and/or spreading the word to friends you think might enjoy the read.
And please never, never, NEVER pirate books. This is not only illegal, but hurts the authors you love.
Thank you for asking! Please visit the Books page on my website for buy links to each of my works.
At this time, I prefer not to share my query letter for the manuscript with which Tamar and I signed. I will post it on my blog if/when it becomes a real book one day! In the meantime, you can check out successful query letters on QueryTracker’s Success Stories.
When I first started out, I researched and read everything I could get my hands on. I did extensive research on each and every agent. I looked for people who represented the category I write (YA, MG, adult, etc) and the genre (paranormal, contemporary, etc.). I bookmarked the ones who asked for exactly the kind of story I wrote via Manuscript Wish List. That was step #1.
Then I looked up their interviews, Googled them, checked out their blogs, Facebook, whatever, to get a sense of what kind of a person they are. What is their style? Could I see myself working with them? Are they nice? Are they communicative?
There is a certain sense of not knowing exactly what a person is like until you sign the contract. Kind of like not knowing what a person is really like until you date them/live with them — you can kind of have to jump in headfirst. But by researching them, you can get a good sense of who they are.
If you’re serious about writing, and if you want this to be your career more than anything, you just have to put in the time and grunt work.
It took me eight years and many, many rejection letters before I found an agent to represent me. During that time, I wrote over half a dozen manuscripts, worked hard on perfecting my query letters, and did copious research on agents and publishing houses, ending up with two agent offers in 2015. Getting an agent took a lot of hard work, hope, and determination, and there are no shortcuts or magic formulas to the process. Strap in for the long haul and keep writing!
I’ll be honest: I did consider self-publishing. More than once. But I continued pursuing the traditional path because I want to write. I want my job to be all about the writing. And when you self-publish, you’ll need to put on many other different hats and market for yourself, find an editor to clean up your manuscript, find a cover designer, etc.
In the end, I decided that I wanted to stick to writing and let professionals take care of the rest. It is a deeply personal preference. There is no one method of publishing that is superior to the others; it is whatever works best for you.
Replies always vary from agent to agent. The fastest full request I got happened under five minutes, and the slowest rejection took over a year to come. Check out QueryTracker (I recommend making a free account) and Absolute Write, as people often post how long it took for specific agents to respond.
The hardest part of the querying process for me was definitely the waiting. The waiting and waiting and waiting. And it doesn’t end after you get an agent, because then you wait and wait and wait for editors. But that’s why they always say to write the next book. Focusing on a new project helps you forget you’re waiting!
Signing with an agent is a BIG step, but it is still not a guarantee you’ll get published. You can have the most amazing agent in the business and a solid, well-written manuscript and STILL not get a book deal. That’s where luck comes in: being in the right place at the right time with the right story. The thing about traditional publishing is it doesn’t just take one “yes,” like with your agent. It takes a whole lot of “yeses” to get that elusive deal. Even if an editor falls in love with your book, he or she will have to convince an entire team of people to buy it. And they will decide based on your book’s marketability, what readers may want in the future, whether it will compete with other titles at their house or others… basically everything is out of your control at this point.
I really, truly believe that hard work pays off eventually. Of course, there are never any guarantees when it comes to publishing, but I strongly believe that the more you keep working at something, the more chances you have to succeed. That’s why I’ve been so persistent with no reward in sight!