Publishing – Page 7 – Destiny Cole

January 6, 2015

2015 YA Releases I’m Ready For!

I just saw Jamie Morrow’s comprehensive (and color coded!) list of 2015 releases and I’m so extremely excited!

This is a fantastic list and it got me thinking about how the year is really kicking off top-notch as far as releases. There are a several coming out in the next few months that I am more than normal excited for:

Golden Son by Pierce Brown– it’s the sequel to the sci-fi Red Rising, which I LURVED.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven – they’re saying it’s a mix of Eleanor & Park and TFIOS.

The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall – thriller version of The Amazing Race… um yes.

Please Remain Calm – Courtney Summers– loved, loved, loved THIS IS NOT A TEST, so I’m excited about this novella

The Seeker by Arewen Elys Dayton– been dubbed as mix between Game Of Thrones and The Hunger Games… I’m in.

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard– I was sold on the cover alone

City of Savages by Lee Kelly– NYC as a POW camp? I’m game.

Now these are just in the next two months, people. This year is such a fantastic year for YA!

Be sure to check out the full listing at Jamie Morrow’s blog.

December 20, 2014December 30, 2014

Favorite YA Reads of 2014

The year of 2014 brought a lot of change in my life and so I didn’t read as much as I normally do (don’t worry, I plan on making up for this in 2015). But I still read at least a book a week, so out of those, here are the top two out of several categories!

Sci-fi books:

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Fantasy books:

Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare

Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

In the After by Demitria Lunetta

Thrillers:

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrell

Jasper Dent series by Barry Lyga

Contemporary:

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (oh and Fangirl! Okay basically all Rainbow Rowell)

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

Not really sure how to categorize:

I also read Veronica Rossi’s Under the Never Sky trilogy this year and loved it! It’s sort of sci-fi/dystopian/thriller

If you Find Me by Emily Murdoch – It’s hard to consider this contemporary because it’s so dark, but it’s so good!

November 7, 2014

Go Time!

Today is the alternate round of Pitch Wars!

Thanks a bazillion to my mentor Trisha Leigh whose insights, encouragement and brilliant suggestions made my manuscript a whole new shiny object! Thanks to my fellow mentee Anna Patel for all the encouragement and behind the scene freak outs! And finally special thanks to Brenda Drake and Dee Romito for hosting and putting this whole contest on!

This was such a fun experience and I met so many amazing writer friends! I am so happy I was asked to be involved!

#TeamLeighgit #forever

June 30, 2014February 14, 2015

An end to querying – for now

So recently, I have revisited my manuscript for a particularly exciting reason!

It’s been fun getting back into these lives that I spent so much time with. These voices that once lived in my head for a year.

It’s made me think about a lot of things, but the main thing is my manuscript is just not ready yet.

So I’m taking this incredibly opportunity and am going to stop querying until I can get this MS in tip top shape!

So for my wildly unsuccessful stats for my first time ever querying:

Queries sent: 48
Requests: 11 (10 fulls and one partial that upgraded)
R&R: 2 (one I accepted, one I did not as it was too far from my vision)

I wasn’t ready this time, but I’ll be ready my next round!

What I learned during round one?

Only send 7-10 queries out at a time. and WAIT. Yes that means this process is slower, but it will be more precise.
Wait to start getting feedback on requested materials before you start sending more queries out. For me, I started getting requests trickling in, so I got excited and blasted like 20 queries in one day. But then within a few weeks, I started getting passes and they all listed a very similar reason. If I would have waited, I would have been able to revise before continuing to send out queries.
Don’t get too excited and start querying before you’re ready. How do you know you’re not ready? Oh. You know. And I really did if I was honest with myself, but I told myself it was just nerves. It wasn’t. It was too soon and you only get one chance with agents. Don’t screw yourself by querying too early.

In the end, this is all a learning experience and it might be super weird to say it, but I’m actually really enjoying the process.

PS. rejections suck.