WOW Wednesday: Lauren Bjorkman on Getting Published plus Giveaway!

by Martina Boone

Lauren has generously offered a giveaway of MISS FORTUNE COOKIE! Enter to win at the bottom of the post!

Getting published–a backwards fairytale with apologies to Jack London

In my teens, I read Martin Eden by Jack London, a searing semi-autobiographical novel about a passionate, struggling sailor-turned-writer that kills himself at the end of the book. When I finished the last page, I knew I wanted to be just like him.

I figured the best path to becoming a novelist would be to get a degree in creative writing. Or so I planned the summer before college. “My dad had other ideas. Don’t be an English major unless you want to bag groceries at Safeway,” he told me. You have to support yourself.

I pretended to agree, but enrolled in Classic Literature my first semester at UC Berkeley, anyway, as well as some more practical classes (Chem 1A and Mandarin). The Classics’professor hated freshmen, and the head TA had sold his soul to St. Augustine. By the end of the semester, my dreams of English Major-dom lay in shreds at my feet.

Fast-forward fifteen years and cue creepy music. I now had:

A bachelors degree in International Agricultural Development
A masters degree in Agronomy,
A nine year career at the USDA in Honolulu, Hawaii as a resource conservationist
One supportive husband
One cute and very demanding baby
3 months of leave without pay

Yep. Somehow my dream of becoming Jack London had gotten squashed along the way. Until …

…until my husband suggested that instead of going back to work, I try writing a novel. Hadn’t I always wanted to?

Except I didn’t know how. And I was too exhausted to get ice for my water let alone write a whole book. Sheesh! The idea stayed with me, though. When my son turned one, I traded baby-sitting with a friend for 2-3 hours a week. Every Wednesday, I’d run to a café with my laptop, get buzzed on double lattes, and write my heart out. I could almost see Jack London glaring over my shoulder. Are you sure you want to write about bullying in middle school?

A year later, I finished the first draft of my novel. Around this time, I did a few things right.

figured out the age of my audience and my genre
read a lot of books in my new genre
signed up for writing workshops
met with a critique group weekly
joined SCBWI and attended their annual writing conference

All this almost made up for my missing MFA. I still fell short of my Jack London fantasy, though, unable to survive on four hours of sleep like him. Writing sucked up every last atom of energy that my baby somehow missed. Then I had a second baby.

Fast-forward a few more years. Two editors from medium-sized publishers requested full manuscripts of my first novel, Vanessa the Contessa, and then rejected it. I started another book and abandoned it halfway through. We moved from Hawaii to New Mexico. I got an idea for a third book. I kept writing, reading, going to workshops, and seeking out critique. Someone once told me that you have to write a million words before you can consider yourself a writer. I was almost there. Then I finished my third novel, My Invented Life, and went on an agent hunt.

Many of the big publishing houses don’t read unagented manuscripts. I started my search by reading blog posts by Miss Snark, an incognito agent that shares an inside view on the industry. She has stopped blogging, but her posts are still up for anyone to read. I wrote and rewrote my query letter, and then sent it to Evil Editor to be torn apart publicly. I researched agents up and down and sideways. (This has gotten easier since 2005, btw. Just go here.) The fourth agent I queried sent me a request for a partial and then a full. Woohooo! I wouldn’t have to grind myself into the ground like Jack London to succeed.

But the agent passed on representing me in a five-paragraph email containing a lot of suggested changes. I asked him if he would look at the manuscript after a rewrite. He said yes. Who knew the revision would take me almost a year?

Here comes the surreal part. After resubmitting My Invented Life to the aforementioned agent, a writer friend of mine suggested we take a weeklong novel writing workshop together. Since I needed something to submit to the conference, I started on book 4. Then the agent wrote me back. “I’m sorry, but your novel is not for me.” I was devastated.

What would Jack London do? Keep going, of course. The fool.

I created a new list of agents to query, while polishing the first twenty pages of my new novel for the workshop. My writing instructor at the workshop was brilliant and helpful. He’d published many novels and taught at two different MFA programs. My week with him felt like a mini-MFA, and rekindled my desire to go for more education in writing. On the last day of the workshop, he met with each student privately. During my turn, he said, “I hear you have a completed novel, too. If you don’t mind, I’d like to recommend you to my agent.”

If I didn’t mind? I almost hugged his knees with gratitude.

The rest went fast. After reading My Invented Life, his agent offered to represent me. She brought in a second agent that specialized in YA. The second agent sold my novel to Henry Holt in a two-book deal. Ta da!!!

So what can anyone learn from this. The road to publication has many twists and turns. I did things wrong, and it didn’t work out for me. I did things right, and it didn’t work out for me. But when I least expected it, an opportunity fell in my lap. My advice to anyone who wishes to be published is this—use your head, listen to your heart, and be ridiculously persistent.

About the Author

Lauren Bjorkman is a hopeless romantic. She met her husband-to-be in her final semester of high school. He had already graduated from college. Three years later on their honeymoon to China, she learned the art of squeezin onto a very full bus, mastered chopsticks, and managed to converse with locals in Mandarin, despite a limited vocabulary. She is the author of two YA novels, MY INVENTED LIFE and MISS FORTUNE COOKIE.

Check out Lauren’s website
Read Lauren’s blog
Follow Lauren on Twitter
Like Lauren on Facebook

About the Book

Meet Erin. Smart student, great daughter, better friend. Secretly the mastermind behind the popular advice blog Miss Fortune Cookie. Totally unaware that her carefully constructed life is about to get crazy.

It all begins when her ex-best friend sends a letter to her blog—and then acts on her advice. Erin’s efforts to undo the mess will plunge her into adventure, minor felonies, and possibly her very first romance.

What’s a likely fortune for someone no longer completely in control of her fate? Hopefully nothing like: You will become a crispy noodle in the salad of life.

Purchase Miss Fortune Cookie on Amazon
Purchase Miss Fortune Cookie on Indiebound
Find Miss Fortune Cookie on Goodreads

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Martina Boone

Martina Boone is the award-winning author of the romantic southern gothic Heirs of Watson Island series, starting with COMPULSION from Simon & Schuster, Simon Pulse and the Celtic Legends Collection of novels set in Scotland, Cornwall, and Ireland beginning with LAKE OF DESTINY. She’s passionate about improving lives through literacy and the love of books, and she runs the Compulsion For Reading program to distribute books to underserved schools and libraries.

She lives with her husband, children, Shetland Sheepdog Phinney, and Zoey the lopsided cat, and she enjoys writing contemporary romantic fiction with a hint of magic set in small towns and beautiful places. When she isn’t writing, she’s addicted to travel, horses, skiing, chocolate flavored tea, and anything with Nutella on it.

Post © Martina Boone and/or Adventures in YA Publishing. All rights reserved.

Posted: Mar 20, 2013

Category: Imported from AYAP

Tags: WOW Wednesday

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The first slide is an animation of a science/magic room in a castle. A cartoon character of a mad-scientist looking man in in the foreground says: “Hello! Dr. Frankenstein here to say, Well Done on kid lit zombie week! I’m an expert at reviving the dead, and let me assure you, with a little spark, you can bring dead projects to life. Especially if you dig up parts from other dead things. I’ll even let you have a sneak peek at my laboratory’s store room to consider potential parts for your dead project. If you see something with a yellow glow, that means you should click it. Have fun!”

He points to the right side of the screen and a new scene slides in of a castle science/magic storage room. There are various cartoon Frankenstein body parts scattered around. Some of them have a yellow glow. If you click on them, the images below appear (I’ve added alt text to them, so I hope it works).

The Heart of your story is the main character. The protagonist is the beating core that truly brings your story to life. If your MC doesn't make kids (and their grown-ups) care within the first few pages, your story will flatline. </p>
<p>Your main character needs to be:<br />
• Relatable enough for kids to see themselves<br />
• Unique enough to stand out in the slush pile<br />
• Active enough to drive the story<br />
• Memorable enough to survive multiple readings at bedtime</p>
<p>Where do you find this amazing donor heart? It might be the very thing you loved so much about the manuscript you want to revive. It might be the younger sister from your shelved YA novel. Or maybe it’s the hilarious kid you blogged about meeting at a school visit. Find a character beating with potential and place it in the center of your story.<br />

The Brain of your story is the theme or central message. The theme is the big idea that controls everything else. Picture books are more than stories - they're tiny life lessons disguised with humor and heart.</p>
<p>But your theme needs to be:<br />
• Subtle enough not to trigger the dreaded "didactic" rejection<br />
• Clear enough for a four-year-old to grasp<br />
• Universal enough to speak to both kids and adults<br />
• Fresh enough to prevent agents and editors from responding with "Not another sharing/bedtime/first-day story!"</p>
<p>Check your other dead manuscripts to see if there is a recurring theme, something that really seems to be speaking to you. Find the bit of poetry you scribbled on the back of a receipt to see what theme inspired it. Reread the pep talk you texted your critique partner at 1am. Pick the theme that will drive your story, giving it purpose, direction, and deeper meaning.<br />

The Legs of your story is the plot. Not to be confused with a grave plot.🤪 The plot is what keeps everything upright and moving, as well as providing support for all the other elements. You have very few words to use in a picture book, so you need to do a lot with each plot point.</p>
<p>In general, your plot should:<br />
• Hook readers fast<br />
• Build tension that a child can follow<br />
• Create page turns that feel natural<br />
• Wrap up in a way that satisfies</p>
<p>You can borrow a plot twist (a leg) from one manuscript and the opening (the other leg) from a different manuscript. Consider if the subplot of the middle grade novel you trunked would work better as a picture book. Or maybe your Facebook post about a disastrous camping trip could become a story for kids. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other until you have your storyline.

The Arms of your story are the side characters.

The Torso of your story is the setting. Setting helps a story breathe and connects all the elements of the story. It isn't just where your story lives, it's what makes your story ALIVE. It's the difference between "this happened in a park" and "this happened in that park, the one with the twisty slide that burns your legs and the creaky swing that sounds like a baby crying.”</p>
<p>Your setting should:<br />
• Make your character's world feel real<br />
• Contain your story in a way that makes sense to young readers<br />
• Connect different scenes and moments organically<br />
• Give your illustrator enough room to add visual subplots</p>
<p>Half-finished manuscripts are a great place to dig up settings, since you worked out the place details before the plot petered out. Or maybe you had to cut a second fantastic location from your chapter book. You can also revisit the detailed caption from your Instagram carousel documenting your tour of that delish candy shop. Disinter a robust setting that can house all of your story's vital organs.

After you press the Click When Done circle button, the lights flash with the sound of electricity buzzing. Then the screen goes black and lightning zaps across the screen with the sound of thunder.

The screen then lights up to show the storage room, and all the Frankenstein pieces have been assembled into the whole monster. An upbeat song plays in the background. Then a speech bubble pops up with the words, “I’m alive! I’M ALIVE!” Then the screen goes to black.

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