Letter Off Dead is off to the publishers (again). And a new manuscript is complete.

I’ve completed another manuscript on a new book. I think as of today it is officially done and ready to send to my agent, the esteemed Abigail Samoun.

The new book is called A Matter of Life and Seth. It is, as Abi calls it, teen noir. A young adult murder mystery about a teen named Seth investigating the murder of his own mother. Seth, a recent high school dropout, comes from a rough neighborhood, but has a serious, complicated romance with one of the richest girls in town. While trying to solve the murder of his mom, he deals with issues of class, race, family and love. The book is violent and emotional.

I’m pretty happy with it. Nervous to find out what Abi thinks. Yikes.

Letter Off Dead is on its way to publishers this coming Tuesday!

Thanks to the great work of esteemed agent and editor Abigail Samoun, of Red Fox Literary, Letter Off Dead is done–after many rounds of revisions–and is finally on its way to a group of “lucky” publishers. Let the bidding wars commence.

OK, kidding about that bidding wars thing. I’m just hoping some publisher will see the value in the story and give it a shot. Abi put together a great submission package, so we’ll say a prayer and hope for the best. I have no idea how long it takes to get a response when a real live agent is involved. We’ll see.

It’s alive!

Just a quick note to update the status on the long and winding journey from idea to publication. The esteemed Abigail Samoun is about to officially launch her agency. More on that later. In the meantime, I just sent her what I hope are final changes to the Letter Off Dead manuscript. Abigail had a handful of young readers read the manuscript and they all had the same issues with the story.

I’m not overly fond of writing to please focus groups, but I agree with their criticisms and am happier with the story after the changes.

Abigail The Esteemed will begin shopping around the story, likely in early June. I’m happy to let her take on that part of the process. In the meantime, I’m full steam ahead on another story. It is a yet untitled young adult murder mystery–intimate, violent, set in Tacoma and jammed with local characters and landmarks. Classic noir meets Stadium High School. Hilltop vs. The North End. And a bit of Romeo and Juliet.

Stand by for news.

Tom

December 7 – That’s when the fate of Letter Off Dead is decided.

On December 7, the list of proposed Fall 2011 books by the now defunct RH imprint, Tricycle Press, will be decided upon by Random House. “Letter Off Dead” is among that list. So on 12/7, it will either go forward with another Random House Children’s Books imprint, or go back into limbo, which may be appropriate, considering the subject matter, but dang.

In the email I received from my editor, the esteemed Abigail Samoun, she said: “Ugh. Makes my stomach twist up in a knot.”

That pretty much sums it up.

I’ve been reading and rereading the list of these imprints to figure out where I might possibly fit in. Here’s the rundown, from my ridiculously uninformed opinion:

Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers – This is cream-of-the-crop stuff. Bestsellers like Carl Hiaasen (who I love and who doubles as a best-selling crime novelist), Christopher Paolini (“Eragon,” which my son Abel loves) and Marc Brown (“Arthur,” about which my youngest daughter and I got into an argument–what kind of animal IS Arthur, anyway?). It seems highly unlikely I’d jump up to that level. I rate this one an unrealistic longshot.

Bantam Books publishes highly commercial paperbacks with a focus on movie and television properties as well as original paperback series. – Not a possibility, based on what I know about the way paperbacks work.

David Fickling Books -  dedicated to bringing the very best of England’s children’s books to the young readers of America. To make this list I’d have to travel back in time a few years, move to England, and change all “cookie” references to “biscuits.”

Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers – Another collection of seemingly bestsellers, such as R.L. Stine of “Goosebumps” fame and Louis Sachar, who wrote “Holes,” one of the greatest middle reader novels in the history of the universe. Maybe slightly less of a longshot than Knopf, but not by much.

Delacorte Press Trade Paperbacks – I should admit that I don’t really understand the whole paperback thing. I’m guessing you have to sell a bunch of hardbacks first to make this list, so I’m guessing this one isn’t gonna happen.

Dragonfly introduces children to talented and award-winning artists and writers through affordable paperback picture books. This isn’t me. I don’t do picture books.

Yearling Books – more paperbacks. Not gonna happen, as far as I understand it.

Laurel-Leaf is another paperback imprint that focuses on reprints. I’m not at the reprint phase yet, so not gonna happen.

Disney Books for Young Readers is based solely on Disney properties. Since there is, as of yet, no Letter Off Dead ride in Fantasy Land, this one is not a possibility.

Doubleday Books for Young Readers – the country’s oldest children’s book publisher, which, as far as I can tell, does only picture books and coffee table books. So no go.

Golden Books – In 1942, the launch of Little Golden Books revolutionized children’s book publishing by making high-quality picture books available at affordable prices. But since the titles include The Saggy Baggy Elephant and The Poky Little Puppy, it’s pretty unlikely Letter Off Dead will fit in there.

Knopf Trade Paperbacks publishes paperback editions of novels for middle and young adult readers originally published by Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers in hardcover. So first I’d have to make the Knopf hardcover list.

Random House Books for Young Readers does Dr. Seuss, Babar, the Magic Tree House, Junie B Jones. But it also includes middle reader and young adult. It seems like a long shot to go from a small independent like Tricycle right up to the mothership, so I’m gonna list this one as a stretch as well.

Robin Corey Books only does pop-up books. Could be cool, but not gonna happen.

Schwartz and Wade Books is a small little imprint, so maybe a possibility. When I see their list online, though, I only see maybe two middle reader books a year and no Young Adult. I’m pretty sure LOD fits in the YA category, so this will be a stretch, too.

Wendy Lamb Books says they focus on innovative middle-grade and young adult fiction by award-winning writers such as Christopher Paul Curtis, Peter Dickinson, Patricia Reilly Giff, Gary Paulsen, and Graham Salisbury. The imprint also seeks new talent and publishes many first novels. Hey, I’m a new talent! And my first book was a Junior Library Guild selection! They even sent me a certificate and a gold pin, so you could say I’m award-winning! Of all the imprints on the list, this seems like the best fit for Letter Off Dead. Wendy, if you’re reading this, I love you. Can I get you a coffee? And have you lost weight?

Then there’s Tricycle Press, which is still listed on their site, but is now officially closing it’s doors. Fare thee well, Tricycle. Your three-wheeling days are over, but may the words your brought into the world live on forever.

So there you have it: One good possibility, a handful of total long shots and a few not-gonna-happens. Say a prayer, would you?

Final round of revisions, then off to Random House

My editor at Tricycle Press, the esteemed Abigail Samoun, has sent the “complete” book package to Random House to see if another imprint will pick it up for their fall 2011 line-up. With the sad demise of Tricycle, it is now finger-crossing time.

I spent the weekend on a frantic final round of revisions. Even though we’re to the fine-tuning phase of the book, revisions can still be pretty extensive. Want to see how much? Below is Abigail’s Saturday email to me. I had to complete these changes and turn the manuscript back around to her by Monday:

Hi, Tom

Abi

Made the edits. Submitted the draft.

After a four-day sprint to the finish, I managed to make some pretty massive changes to LOD, based on smart recommendations from my editor, the esteemed Abigail Samoun. I put all the changes in place with one day to go, then had to do another final read-through and edit on the last day. Whew.

I’m feeling good about these changes. The story is tighter. The rearrangements – like moving the boxing scene farther back, moving the girlfriend section after the fight, and removing a few minor storylines (no more dog, for example) makes for a more logical and natural-feeling story arc.

Here’s what happens now: Abigail has to go over all my changes this coming week. She’ll get the manuscript back to me by next weekend. Then I need to make more changes, do a “final” read and get it back to Abigail by Thanksgiving. From there it goes to copy edits, which is like a really thorough proofreading. A good copy editor checks all the grammar, spelling and obvious stuff like that. But she will also make sure the logic holds up. If Trevor says he has a basketball game on Friday, the copy editor makes sure the game happens on Friday and not on Thursday. If Aunty Iola’s favorite color on page 45 is blue, on page 122 it can’t be yellow unless she’s taken color-wheel classes.The copy editor will even make some stylistic suggestions. Then I make those changes (assuming I agree with them). the manuscript gets one more careful read by somebody at the publisher, and then it goes to galleys by Christmas.

What’s a galley? A galley is a bound draft of the book, usually complete with cover. It’s not the final version. Illustrations may be placeholder only. Minor changes will still occur. But publishers like Tricycle Press use galley proofs as advance reading copies, providing them to reviewers, magazines, and libraries in advance of final publication.

Anyway, I’m tired, but excited where this thing is going.

Tom

Only a few more days until final draft deadline and still so far to go

I took a vacation day today, because I simply cannot get Letter Off Dead back to my editor, the esteemed Abigal Samoun, by the agreed-upon Monday deadline if I don’t.

I’ve made most of the big structural changes–and they really are pretty substantial. No more dog. Moved boxing lessons around. Switched the order of the girlfriend and the fight. But this is so much more complicated than just cut and paste. It’s like having a completed house and then having the city inspector tell you that all the load-bearing walls have to be rearranged. “Keep it in perspective,” they remind you. “You still can keep the ceiling and floor right where they were.”

I might have mentioned this before, but editing an epistolary is much more challenging than editing standard fiction. There are two story lines and two voices dancing with each other. When I change the order of one, it necessarily changes the order of the other.

One other thing that’s different this time around: When I was working with Abigail on The Tilting House, we did all the edits within MS Word, using the Track Changes tool. I complained. After three or four rounds of edits, the margins were so crammed with tracks and comments that it became impossible to tell what was what. So this time, Abigail printed out the manuscript and made corrections and comments the old-fashioned way, in blue pencil.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss Track Changes. The combination of Abi’s handwriting and the blue pencil makes the comments hard to read. And lugging around nearly 300 pages of paper on the bus is giving me a  backache. And if I agreed with her change, I could just click “accept” and make it so. Saved a bunch of time, even if it was occasionally confusing.

Enough chit-chat. I’m on deadline.

Tom

The glories of the editing process.

Above is a sample page, with editor Abigail Samoun’s comments in place. These are just the in-page comments. Now multiply that kind of work times 267 (total number of changes), add on some fairly massive structural changes, multiply it by a deadline of November 15 (a little over two weeks) and you’ll have an idea what I’ll be doing with all my upcoming “free time.”

And might I add, yikes.

Submitted a “final draft” to the editor

I barely made my deadline to turn in a “final draft” of Letter Off Dead to my Tricycle Press editor, the esteemed Abigail Samoun.

The final word count of the blog was 76,000. The word count of the “final draft” was 60,ooo. This means whole subplots were removed (Mom is no longer dating. Dad only goes into the woods once). Massive plot rearrangements happened. Copious amounts of caffeine and ibuprofen were consumed. But it’s done. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that it’s still far from final. This is just the beginning of numerous rounds of revisions and edits. Galleys are scheduled to be released in February, which means that major revisions will be done sometime before then. After that, copy edits (basically proofreading) happen for a few months.

I’ve decided to keep blogging about this process, because I like the idea of it being transparent along the way. The whole thing started as a blog, and I’m hoping it might be interesting to a few of you to see the inner workings of the publishing process.

If you find this boring, just don’t read it.

Tom