WHAT ARE THEY UP TO NOW? Featuring Angela Ackerman

Today's author: ANGELA ACKERMAN

Here is Angela's SUCCESS STORY PAGE.

Here is Angela's ORIGINAL ENTRY ON THE BLOG.

QUESTIONS FOR ANGELA:

1. What role did your participation in a Miss Snark's First Victim contest or critique round play in your ultimate success as an author?

I'm probably a bit different than the average success story simply because I haven't sold a single novel to date, including this book (and the series to which it belongs). Instead I went the non-fiction route. However, putting work up for feedback gave me the confidence to continue with this novel, and my agent tried valiantly to sell it. It's a great book and I still believe in it. At some point I'll pull it out and rework it, and then publish it.

2. Tell us what your journey has looked like from your MSFV Success Story until now.

Oh, boy. This contest entry was back in 2008...so *yanks cobwebs off brain* The cliff note version is I tried very hard to traditionally publish: I had an agent (then another agent), I made it to acquisitions several times and even had the same editor try to acquire a book at different publishing houses. But stars didn't align. Unfortunately, this is a big part of traditional publishing--finding the right editor on the right day who is acquiring the exact project you have...and the publisher they work for doesn't already have another book that will compete with yours. That's quite a maze to navigate.

It's easy to get jaded in our industry. I did what you're supposed to do: I kept writing books. I also focused on what I could control about the process, which was my brand and pursuing strong writing craft. Becca Puglisi (my co-author) thought the same way and so we teamed up to do something tangible for writers that would help them master difficult areas of writing. We self-published The Emotion Thesaurus, a resource that is part writing advice, part list. The thesaurus resonated so much people kept asking us to write more of these books. So, we did. To date we have six thesaurus guides in six languages which have sold well over 250,000 copies. One book (The Setting Thesaurus) went viral in Japan, and hit the #1 spot out of all book sold on Amazon. Crazy, right?

As our readership grew, more people began asking me to speak. Despite my terror of public speaking I pushed myself to do it as I love travel, and I've had so many great opportunities come about, like teaching on a cruise ship writing retreat and being asked to come to Australia to teach. Becca and I also realized that we could help people in other ways if we moved beyond books, and so we partnered with Lee Powell, the creator of Scrivener for Windows and Linux, and we have a site that is an arsenal of writing resources and custom tools for writers called One Stop for Writers. Now my next project is finding a clone...so I can get back to doing some fiction writing. :)

3. What has been the best part of your experience as an author? What has been most difficult/challenging?

I think the best part has been hearing from people who have found our work helpful and hearing them talk about how they have grown their craft, or how they have signed their first deal...that's just the best. I love helping people--this is a core part of who I am, so being able to do so is very rewarding. The most challenging aspect is trying to keep up. I am blessed to have so many different opportunities come my way, and I love the people I meet and want to help them all. But trying to juggle all of it, and more books, and all the marketing (in multiple languages) is leaving my writing on the back burner. I'd like to make more room for that and other things so I need to learn how to better manage everything.

4. What's your latest offering, and where can we find it?

Becca and I released The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma on October 25th. This book looks deeply at the very thing that generates the fear that holds your protagonist back from greatness: his (or her) past unresolved emotional trauma. You can find it, and all our books, here.

5. Please leave us with some words of wisdom for all aspiring authors.

Publishing is not a race. Take your time, honor the incredible amount of work you will need to put into this career by only being satisfied with your best efforts, and please, above all, take some risks. Greatness, both for you and your manuscript, lies outside the comfort zone. Explore and see where your passion will take you. :)

WHAT ARE THEY UP TO NOW? Featuring Peter Adam Salomon

Today's author: PETER ADAM SALOMON

Here is Peter's SUCCESS STORY PAGE.


QUESTIONS FOR PETER:

1. What role did your participation in a Miss Snark's First Victim contest or critique round play in your ultimate success as an author?

Technically I never even entered a contest or critique round. I had just ‘finished’ revising a YA Horror manuscript and was beginning to consider the whole ‘querying’ concept. I hadn’t even written a query letter at that point. All I had was a list of agents and agencies I was interested in and the thought that I should probably sit down and write a query letter.

While that was going on, there was a new MSFV contest but since I didn’t feel ready I figured it would be wiser to sit that one out and enter the next one.

Then, you unveiled the agent. Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency was at the top of my dream agent list. Unfortunately, they’re not open to submissions and, since I hadn’t entered, I’d just blown my chance to get my brand-new manuscript to her.

This is where I still sometimes think I’m dreaming. You posted a lovely note from your ‘Secret Agent’ that she was so impressed with the quality of your contestants that she’d open for submissions to anyone who put MSFV in the subject line.

I didn’t even have a query letter to send her. I just threw something together and emailed it as quickly as possible, thinking ‘so many people were going to email her that I’d better be quick.’ So, I basically didn’t even edit my query letter, just sent it off.

An hour later, she wrote back asking to see the whole manuscript. A week later, she wrote back asking to talk on the phone. A week after that, she wrote one more time offering representation.

It might have then taken well over a year for that novel to sell, but Flux liked that query letter I threw together so much that seven years later it is still the blurb for the book on Amazon and other booksellers.

2. Tell us what your journey has looked like from your MSFV Success Story until now.

What a strange adventure. It has been a paradigm shift and life-altering in so many ways. I’ve had a poem performed on the BBC by the creative geniuses behind the music for Dr. Who. I’ve been nominated for a Bram Stoker award, the highest honor in my genre. I’ve mentored some brilliant teen writers and seen them experience their first taste of success in the industry. And I have made so many dear friends. It’s hard to believe, sometimes, that any of it is real.

I’ve had my oldest dreams come true. What more can I ask for?

3. What has been the best part of your experience as an author? What has been most difficult/challenging?

There’s something amazing about being interviewed or signing autographs and all those trappings of being an author.

But, the teaching, mentoring, helping other writers? That’s where the magic is. This community of creative artists, striving together to make the world a better place, one person, one act, one word at a time. It’s an amazing thing to be a part of.

I’ve been mentoring teen writers for a few years now, after spending a couple years as a judge for different competitions and awards. That’s been the best part. When one of the teens I mentored made her first professional sale, that was pretty incredible.

The most difficult is the fact that everything starts all over again. All the waiting and revising and hoping and praying and dreaming that goes into that first sale also goes into the next one. And the one after that. I’m still waiting for that third sale, and the same doubts are there from the decades I spent as pre-published. I work all the time to remember how fortunate I am to have two novels and three poetry collections published in the last 5 years. And work just as hard, if not harder, on whatever comes next.

4. What's your latest offering, and where can we find it?

For poetry, 2017 saw the release of my third collection, PseudoPsalms: Sodom, which is available wherever poetry is sold (mainly Amazon since poetry isn’t exactly a best-selling kind of thing). Even after publishing two novels, I still think of myself as a poet first. I’ve been writing poetry since I was in elementary school, and only started writing fiction in college.

I also will be re-releasing my first poetry collection, PseudoPsalms: Prophets, soon, (also available on Amazon, etc) since the publisher went out of business making the collection go out-of-print.

5. Please leave us with some words of wisdom for all aspiring authors.

Whenever I’m asked for words of wisdom I cringe inside. I’m just not so sure how wise I am. Then, being serious for a moment, I tell everyone the same thing: write, read, write some more, read some more. Then edit. Edit a lot. No, edit more.

But most of all: love the process. Love every single moment of it. Love the creative passion driving you to write. Love the drudgery of revision that you feel will never end. Love it no matter what.

Because there’s going to be a lot of it. You’ll edit and revise and do it all over again and finally land an agent and the first thing they’re going to ask for are more edits and revisions until finally you sell the book and, you guessed it, the first thing they’re going to ask for are more edits and revisions.

So, you might as well learn to love the process. You’ll be doing it a lot.

Then write more. Read more. Revise more. And love it all.

Especially that moment your phone rings and you hear the best word in the English language: ‘Sold.’

You’ll love that moment the most.

WHAT ARE THEY UP TO NOW? Featuring Piper J. Drake

Today's author: PIPER J. DRAKE

Here is Piper's ORIGINAL ENTRY ON THE BLOG (entered as PJ Schnyder) from an August, 2009 Secret Agent Contest featuring Emmanuelle Alspaugh Morgen. And here is the WINNERS POST from that contest.

Here is Piper's SUCCESS STORY PAGE.

QUESTIONS FOR PIPER:

1. What role did your participation in a Miss Snark's First Victim contest or critique round play in your ultimate success as an author?

Ms. Alspaugh provided valuable constructive feedback in follow-up to my 1st runner up win and 30 page request. The novel, Heart's Sentinel, was written as PJ Schnyder and became my first sale to Decadent Publishing. It went on to publish in both digital and print formats.

Participation in the Miss Snark's First Victim community helped me to receive constructive feedback. It helped me learn to pick out recommendations or critiques that resonated with my intent for my book and incorporate them. This skill has served me well for every book I've written since.

Now, I still participate in contests and critique rounds when I can because I strongly believe in paying it forward and I also believe the more we provide good critiques, the better we are at self editing our own work.

2. Tell us what your journey has looked like from your MSFV Success Story until now.

As PJ Schnyder, I went on to sell more paranormal romance and science fiction romance to Decadent Publishing and Carina Press, a Harlequin digital-first publishing company. I also co-wrote The Ministry Initiative steampunk role playing game and short stories for the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. My books went on to win the Golden Leaf and the PRISM awards and my podcast of A Swan in Siam won the Parsec Award as part of the Tales from the Archive Vol 2.

In 2014, I was asked to reboot as Piper J. Drake, writing romantic suspense. It took a lot of courage and careful planning, which paid off in the form of a 3-book digital deal with Carina Press and then a 3-book print deal with Hachette Group, Grand Central Publishing's Forever imprint.

My True Heroes series made the Nielson Book Scan bestselling lists and has been featured two years in a row as a success in my genre by Nielson at their book summit. In 2016, I signed another 3-book print deal to continue the True Heroes series.

My digital format Safeguard series with Carina Press has been chosen for Harlequin's Direct To Consumer program and will be available in print from online retailers starting in January 2018.

While I plan to continue to write bestselling romantic suspense, I am also working on science fiction and fantasy while I plan for the right time to bring those stories back into my brand.

3. What has been the best part of your experience as an author? What has been most difficult/challenging?

Best Part: Seeing my books out there for readers to enjoy never gets old. It is my joy.

Most Difficult/Challenging: Balancing my writing schedule with my very demanding day job has been incredibly difficult. The biggest challenge is maintaining the balance because I love both my writing career and my day job career. I could not do either one nearly as well without the other.

4. What's your latest offering, and where can we find it?

From my True Heroes series, Absolute Trust is available online and in bookstores.

From my Safeguard series, Contracted Defense is available online at e-retailers everywhere.

5. Please leave us with some words of wisdom for all aspiring authors.

I've given this advice consistently for years and I still believe in it wholeheartedly: Surround yourself with nifty people who continually inspire you and challenge you to continue to do the next nifty thing.

WHAT ARE THEY UP TO NOW? Featuring Helene Dunbar

Today's author: HELENE DUNBAR

Here is Helene's ORIGINAL ENTRY ON THE BLOG.

Here is Helene's SUCCESS STORY PAGE.

QUESTIONS FOR HELENE:

1. What role did your participation in a Miss Snark's First Victim contest or critique round play in your ultimate success as an author?

Since I began writing fiction in such a tentative way, I’m not sure that, at the time, I really believed in my dream enough to keep plugging away without some sort of validation. Looking back, this was a short-sighted attitude ☺

In effect, participating in this content and receiving such wonderful feedback and THEN hooking an agent, was just the kick in the butt I needed to take this writing thing seriously.

2. Tell us what your journey has looked like from your MSFV Success Story until now.

I’m not sure there is enough server space on Authoress’s site, but….I’m now on agent #4. My “perfect” agent. The agent I will cling to as long as she’ll let me. ☺

Although we subbed Ghostlight (which became What Remains) to start, Melissa and I sold These Gentle Wounds first. Flux actually bought both books and pubbed them out of the order in which I’d written them.

The next manuscript I wrote, BOOMERANG, is pubbing in March 2018 by Sky Pony. I was able to pour years of writing experience into that book in a way I wasn’t able to with my first two. It is truly the book of my heart.

PRELUDE FOR LOST SOULS, a kind of contemporary-reading paranormal about kids living in a town of mediums, was recently bought by SourceBooks and is scheduled to release in August 2019 with a sequel to follow in 2020.

3. What has been the best part of your experience as an author? What has been most difficult/challenging?

BY FAR, readers are the best part of the experience. Hearing that a reader connected with, and were even helped by, these stories and characters makes all the blood, sweat, and tears worth it.

For me, the most challenging part has been the isolation. Writing can be very solitary and although my writing friends are all located elsewhere, they have been my lifelines. My CP, Beth Hull, and I actually met because we were both Authoress winners so thank you for that as well.

4. What's your latest offering, and where can we find it?

BOOMERANG is the story of a boy who returns to his home town after having gone missing for five years. Everyone thinks he was kidnapped, but that isn’t the true story, so he has to wrestle with the weight of everyone’s assumptions.

More, he has actually spent his time away in a place he felt was near to perfect and in a massively complicated relationship with the boy who is living next door and is in a precarious situation himself.

It’s a story about love and self-acceptance and the grey areas of life.

Here is the Goodreads link and it’s up for presale in all the usual places as well.

5. Please leave us with some words of wisdom for all aspiring authors.

The one thing I always tell aspiring authors is this: Don’t let anyone tell you what your writing process should look like. I assumed I couldn’t write fiction because I am incapable of outlining and don’t always have time to write every day and all of the other stuff the internet tells you that you MUST do. My own process breaks so many of the expected rules, but it works for me and at the end of the day, that’s all the matters. Listen to your gut.

WHAT ARE THEY UP TO NOW? Featuring Beth Revis

Today's Author: BETH REVIS

Here is Beth's ORIGINAL ENTRY ON THE BLOG (2009 Query Critique with Jodi Meadows).

Here is Beth's SUCCESS STORY PAGE.

QUESTIONS FOR BETH:

1. What role did your participation in a Miss Snark's First Victim contest or critique round play in your ultimate success as an author?

The specific contest didn't help me as much as reading all the entries of all the contests that had happened in the months leading up to my querying. It really is true that you can get a better sense of understanding what works and what doesn't by reading lots of different works. Between queries, first pages, and loglines, I found the greatest benefit was participating and learning from judging and commenting on other works than compiling the comments and forming a check list of my own.

2. Tell us what your journey has looked like from your MSFV Success Story until now.

When I wrote ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, all my critique partners believed that the first three chapters were weak....but I was stubborn and holding on. The critique I got confirmed that I really needed to listen to others and bite the bullet. Soon after, that manuscript sold. And everything changed after that. It debuted on the NYT list, it enabled me to become a full time writer, it led to more book deals. I divide my life before the book deal and after.

3. What has been the best part of your experience as an author? What has been most difficult/challenging?

There's a line in Harry Potter where Ginny tells Harry a lesson she learned from her twin brothers: "Anything's possible if you got enough nerve." Getting my book published was a lifelong dream, and once it actually happened, I realized that dreams really can come true. That sounds so cliche, but it's true. It's affected my worldview.

Most difficult, however, was realizing that not everything was a dream. Even after you get to Cloud Nine, edits can be hard, contracts can be cancelled, deals can fall through, reviews can be negative. And at the end of the day, publishing is a business. Writing is craft; publishing is a business.

4. What's your latest offering, and where can we find it?

My most recent book is Star Wars: Rebel Rising. It tells the story of Jyn Erso from the movie Rogue One, following her as a child to her just before the Rebellion breaks her out of jail. If getting a book deal was Cloud Nine, writing for Star Wars was Cloud Ten--it was such an amazing experience!

5. Please leave us with some words of wisdom for all aspiring authors.

There is no one right way to write. Once I let go of the idea that if I just did "X," I'd get the book right, and accepted instead that I had to find my own process for my own story, everything clicked far better.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE was the book that changed my life, but it was also the book I almost quit before. I'd written ten manuscripts over the course of a decade and compiled about a thousand agent rejections. I'd come close to the finish line, but never crossed it. I had decided enough of my life had been thrown away at the impossible. But I had one last idea, one last story to tell, and if I'd given up before it, I never would have seen my dreams come true.

Would you like a signed copy? Contact my local indie Malaprops.

Indie Bound | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Books-a-Million | Book Depository

WHAT ARE THEY UP TO NOW? Featuring Tara Dairman

Today's author:  TARA DAIRMAN

Here is Tara's ORIGINAL ENTRY ON THE BLOG (2011 Secret Agent Contest, in which her agent was not the judge, but was lurking and requested pages!), and her 2011 BAKER'S DOZEN ENTRY (from which she received multiple offers of representation).

Here is Tara's SUCCESS STORY PAGE.

QUESTIONS FOR TARA:

1. What role did your participation in a Miss Snark's First Victim contest or critique round play in your ultimate success as an author?

It played a huge role! I first entered a Secret Agent contest in October of 2011; the judging agent picked my middle-grade entry (GLADYS GATSBY TAKES THE CAKE) as a runner-up, but it turned out that another agent was lurking and reading the entries and requested a query and pages from me. It was Ammi-Joan Paquette at Erin Murphy Literary Agency, which is normally closed to unsolicited queries, so I was pretty excited to get this second request.

Then, two months later, I got into the annual Bakers Dozen agent auction. The agent who "won" my manuscript ended up offering rep, as did multiple others. In the end, Joan was the best fit for me and I signed with her. She's still my agent!

2. Tell us what your journey has looked like from your MSFV Success Story until now.

Joan sold my debut MG--which ended up being retitled ALL FOUR STARS--to Putnam shortly after I signed with her, and it came out in 2014. I'm still represented by Joan, Gladys's story turned into a three-book series, and I just published my fourth MG novel, THE GREAT HIBERNATION, with Wendy Lamb Books/Random House...and the whole journey started right here on this blog. :)

3. What has been the best part of your experience as an author? What has been most difficult/challenging?

There are so many best parts. Writing the words "The End" after slogging through a difficult draft. Getting an enthusiastic reaction from critique partners, or my agent or editor, the first time they read a new manuscript of mine. Hearing from young readers who've connected with one of my books. My writing tends to focus on humor and plot, and I never thought I'd be the kind of author kids said changed their lives...but I actually hear regularly from kids who have been inspired by my books to cook or to try a new cuisine they'd never tasted before, which is SO COOL.

The most difficult...oh, it's the same as ever: Getting through that first draft. Knowing it's terrible, but having the confidence that, eventually, I'll make it good. I still struggle with this, several books after my debut.

4. What's your latest offering, and where can we find it?

My newest book (just out September 12!) is THE GREAT HIBERNATION (Wendy Lamb Books/Random House). You can find it in hardcover or as an e-book wherever books are sold. It's a humorous, quirky MG mystery about a town where all of the adults fall asleep; the kids are left in charge and have to figure out what happened and what they should do about it. It kicks off with the Annual Tasting of the Sacred Bear Liver, features a sheep in snowshoes, and just gets weirder from there. I had an absolute ball working on it. (Well, except for that first draft, which was as painful to write as ever.)

5. Please leave us with some words of wisdom for all aspiring authors.

When you're prepublished, it can feel like you're waiting forever to make it (whether you define "making it" as signing with an agent, getting a book deal, or something else). Looking back, my journey from contest entrant to person-with-a-book-deal was relatively fast, but I remember that it felt torturously slow at the time. What I'm not sure I appreciated then was the freedom that being prepublished gave me to write whatever I wanted, no matter how outlandish the premise seemed. Once you're "in" the industry, there can be some pressure to stay in your lane (whether that's MG, humor, etc.), especially if your early books in that area see some success. So use that prepublished time to be as outlandishly creative as possible. Write the book that ONLY you can write. And have fun with it, if you can.

The Great Hibernation (and other books) by Tara Dairman

WHAT ARE THEY UP TO NOW? Featuring Alice Loweecey

For the next several weeks, I'm going to be posting updates on some of our Success Story Authors (who attribute the turning point of their success, either in whole or in part, to participation on this blog).

First up:  ALICE LOWEECEY

Here is Alice's ORIGINAL ENTRY ON THE BLOG from a 2008 Secret Agent Contest.

Here is Alice's SUCCESS STORY PAGE.

QUESTIONS FOR ALICE:

1. What role did your participation in a Miss Snark's First Victim contest or critique round play in your ultimate success as an author?

After learning how to write a query and beginning to amass what would become nearly 200 rejections, the contest was a huge confidence boost. People gave me feedback in real time, and some of it was positive! The query-go-round is soul-sucking. Hearing from avid readers really helped.

I took that confidence and ran with it. I firmly believe attitude affects presentation, and now I had a more positive attitude.

2. Tell us what your journey has looked like from your Authoress/MSFV Success Story until now.

Long. Hard. Tiring. Exciting. Did I mention hard? While the Secret Agent whose contest I won did not ultimately offer to rep me, I did find an agent about a year later. This agent brokered my debut 3-book deal with Midnight Ink. I proudly say I made my mother cry in public over that: I was performing with Denver and the Mile High Orchestra and waylaid my parents in the lobby before the show to give them the news. Sorry not sorry.

Things change and Midnight Ink dropped me after those three books. I stocked up on coffee and worked my heinie off to sell the series to another publisher. I'm pleased to say that Henery Press picked up the series several months later (that was a nerve-wracking phone call! I'm not a natural salesperson).

Things change, and that agent and I moved in different directions. I negotiated my next contract extension myself (there is NOT enough wine in the world for those phone calls), and recently Henery extended the extension for a total of ten books. I'll be busy for the next few years.

None of these books have any connection to the book that won the Secret Agent contest. After more rewrites, I sold the book to Dark Recesses Press. It was published in 2015 under the title The Redeemers. If any book is close to my heart, it's The Redeemers. It was my learning curve and it contains my favorite villains. I published it under a pen name--Kate Morgan--because my mystery brand is light and funny. I didn't want to scare my mystery fans.

3. What has been the best part of your experience as an author? What has been most difficult/challenging?

The best part is connecting with fans. I meet so many fans at conferences and signings and I love talking with them. I will say that writing "TheEnd" on a WIP is incredibly satisfying.

The most difficult was learning to fly on my own without an agent. That wasn't a learning curve, it was a learning bungee jump into the Niagara Gorge. "I Will Survive" is one of my theme songs now.

The most challenging is keeping a series fresh. If I'm feeling worn out, the characters will too. That's not the way to engage fans. After 3 books with Henery we changed up the series from humorous PI to humorous ghost-hunting PI. The research has been so much fun! I may be making a spirit box next. Buffalo has some famous cemeteries.

4. What's your latest offering, and where can we find it?

My latest mystery is The Clock Strikes Nun. It's everywhere: Amazon, B&N, iTunes, Kobo, Google Play. And please don't forget The Redeemers by "Kate Morgan"!

5. Please leave us with some words of wisdom for all aspiring authors.

Never give up! Never surrender! This is a career. Treat it as one: Work at it. Network, improve your craft, research, write--and READ. Don't neglect reading. It refills the creative well when you get burned out. I reread some of my favorite books when I can't find a new word to add, and those favorites make me remember why I love reading and writing.

The Clock Strikes Nun by Alice Loweecey