How It Happened
Posted by annastan on July 12th, 2010. Filed under: Path to Publication, WIP, Writing Rants.One of the things people have been curious about with MY UN-FAIRY TALE LIFE is the process of writing it and finding a publisher. It’s a bit of a winding story, so pull up a chair and kick back. Here it is, the (somewhat long) story of my funny little book.
The Story is Born
Way back in 2007 I was working on a very dark and somewhat depressing manuscript. While I was enjoying writing it, being in that dark place was starting to get me down. So, to find some kind of balance, I also started working on what was then called JENNY THE ADVENTURER. What inspired the story? A medley of things, I guess – lines and ideas I’d picked up that I wanted to use somehow. I wrote the book in spurts, giving my husband and my writing group chunks to read along the way.
When I’d revised it a bunch, I sent JENNY to an editor who I knew through a grad school friend. The editor got back to me a while later saying she loved the ideas and the characters, but the plot needed to be much tighter. I wasn’t sure how to even attempt to rework the story at that point, so I put it aside and focused on other things.
The Story is Revised (A Lot)
Fast forward to June 2009 when I signed with my agent with a different project. Joan asked me if there were any other books I was working on. I told her about JENNY, which I had just finished reworking with my new writing group. She said there’s always a market for funny MG and encouraged me to send JENNY to her.
When Joan got back to me, her comments were eerily similar to what the editor had said: great characters and ideas, but the plot needed tightening. Based on Joan’s fantastic feedback, I wound up cutting two pretty major characters and simplifying, simplifying, simplifying. Then I sent it back to her and waited.
Joan’s next feedback made me really scratch my head. She said that while the plot worked much better, she felt that I now had a voice issue. From the beginning, the story had been in third person. I’d been going for a smart narrative voice to help bump up the humor, but I guess what it was really doing was distancing us from the characters. Joan suggested I simplify the voice, but it just didn’t seem to want to work.
The Story Finds Its Voice
One day, on a whim, I rewrote the first chapter from Jenny’s POV. The results made me giddy. It was like Jenny had been waiting to tell her own story, and boy did she have a lot to say! I rewrote the entire manuscript in first person and sent it off to Joan. She was thrilled! We tweaked a few more things (including putting in a new element to make the ending more logical) and JENNY went off into the world.
Well, I’d like to say that the first editor who read it snatched it up, but it didn’t quite work that way. We got some very nice rejections and one revision request. After the first round of submissions was over, Joan and I chatted about what to do next. I was leaning more towards revising, even though I’d just spent weeks revising another manuscript and was pretty burnt out.
Finally, based on Joan’s suggestions, we decided to send it out to a few more editors before embarking on any more revisions. And among those publishers was Sourcebooks. They were enthusiastic about the project from the start, though they did have a couple concerns (namely the title). So after some brainstorming, Joan and I came up with some possible new titles and a few taglines to help pitch the story. It worked! And thus MY UN-FAIRY TALE LIFE was born.
And that, boys and girls, was the very winding journey of young Jenny the Adventurer. Good thing she’s a feisty gal, or she might have given up long ago…
Edited to add: If you have a minute, hop on over to the Elevensies where I’ve put up a post about myself and my book. Coming up with 11 random things about myself was really hard!
July 12th, 2010 at 9:33 am
I can’t wait to meet Jenny! thanks for sharing the story of how she came to be
July 12th, 2010 at 9:40 am
Wonderful!
July 12th, 2010 at 9:46 am
I love having known you toward the end of this journey and placing your blog posts along this timeline. Very exciting indeed!
July 12th, 2010 at 9:48 am
I love reading the journey to publication. This is a great example of not giving up while also having a great agent. The two make such a big difference!
So proud of you Anna! Your hard work paid off. Jenny sounds like a great character. It’s funny how just changing things like POV make a huge difference.
July 12th, 2010 at 10:29 am
So glad all the hard work paid off!
July 12th, 2010 at 11:18 am
Good for you for persevering! I’m looking forward to reading it!!!
July 12th, 2010 at 11:20 am
It’s amazing just how much time and effort go into bringing a book into being. I’m glad your work paid off too.
July 12th, 2010 at 11:24 am
Thank you for sharing your story! It’s so fascinating to see how things work out, and how the road isn’t a simple straight line for everyone.
July 12th, 2010 at 11:26 am
Great story. Sounds like you got some fabulous advice and guidance along the way, and put in a lot of hours! Hard earned victories are the best!
July 12th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Sweet! Thanks for the look at the journey of this book. I’m so glad that you and Jenny were both adventurers and feisty. Go Anna, go Jenny!!
July 12th, 2010 at 11:52 am
I can’t wait to read Jenny’s voice on the page. Thanks for sharing her journey (and yours)
July 12th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
Mary M, I think you and Jenny will hit it off.
Aw, thanks Kim!
Jon, it would be so interesting to go through my blog posts and correlate them to where I was in the writing process at the time. Hm, might be a good procrastination project.
Karen, thanks so much. It’s like a mantra we have to chant to ourselves: Never give up. Never give up.
Thanks Caroline and Laura M! I’m hoping this year will speed by!
Mary W, thinking about my own writing process and hearing about other people’s, I’m still amazed by how much work goes into it all!
July 12th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Lydia, I’m so glad this was interesting. I never know how much of my writing journey to share, but if it helps people, then I’ll give it a shot!
Laura, it definitely does feel like a hard-earned victory. You’re right – those are the most satisfying.
Heather, I think Jenny is a wee bit feistier than I am, but maybe one day I’ll be like her.
Tricia, thanks so much. I can’t tell you how excited I am that people actually want to read my book!
July 12th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Thanks for sharing. I get inspired by other people’s hard work. I also share your thoughts about cereal. It’s fortified, that means it’s a complete meal, right?
I just hate having to wait so long for books to come out.
July 12th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Very cool! Thanks for sharing your story Anna!
July 12th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Great story! I love hearing the evolution of a book and I’m so thrilled with your happy ending!
July 12th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
I’ve heard other authors (maybe the author of Princess for Hire?) say the same thing about writing a very dark book and turning to something light for relief only to find their voice. Though now I’m curious how many other novels you have in the cooker at the moment! Will you continue to write MG humor? Will you/have you returned to the dark novel?
A really interesting post, Anna. Thanks for sharing all the ups and downs. Sounds like a lot of work! =)
July 12th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Anna — great story about your journey. I can’t wait to read your book–it sounds perfect for my advenurous daughter!
July 12th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Sheila, I’m glad someone else holds similar views on cereal!
Ali, you’re very welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed hearing about it.
Thanks, Sherrie! “Evolution” is a good word for it. In fact, I’d say that’s pretty much happened to all of my projects – always evolving.
Anne, the dark novel is the one I’ve been calling the Old One on this blog. I pretty much scrapped it for the millionth time and started over. I also have another MG manuscript on sub (also dark) and I’m working on a YA fairy tale (also pretty dark). So I guess humor is a bit of an anomaly for me!
Kris, I can’t wait for it to come out so your daughter (and other kids) can actually read it!
July 12th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Funny how things work out, isn’t it?
Whatever happened to the project that got you your agent?
July 12th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
I can’t wait to read this!!
July 12th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Love hearing about the whole process! Congrats again!
July 12th, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Kathryn, that other project has been through several revisions and has had a few close calls with publishers. It’s back out on sub now. *fingers crossed*
Aw, thanks Andrea!
Thanks, Kristin! Writing about the process was actually kind of fun – I’d forgotten all the twists and turns.
July 12th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
This is a great story in its own right, no revising needed.
I’m glad I found you over at the Elevensies site; best of luck with everything!
July 13th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Enjoyed reading about your pub journey, Anna!
July 13th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Faith, thanks so much! I’m really excited to be part of the Elevensies – what a fun group!
Thanks, Anne! It certainly has been a journey.