Be it
Cheesecake Factory (But Really, It’s About Books)
Monday, July 19, 2010Wow! A lot of you felt pretty passionately about my last post (on To Kill a Mockingbird and breakdancing and the new law in Arizona, etc). I got a LOT of letters about it!
I’ve been trying to answer all them, but in between all the work I have to get done before I leave for Orlando next week*, plus keeping up with the Bristol/Levi excitement (not to mention Kathy Griffin’s grief about it), and dealing with my senile cat (and don’t forget my in-laws!), I don’t have a minute to myself anymore, even to read Us Weekly.
It’s sad, really.
And have you guys been following the latest on the Insatiable Facebook page? Dr. Ann Larson, exegetical demonologist, has started blogging. It’s kind of hysterical. She’s has a thing for Abraham Holtzman (not that she’ll admit this. And he’s a character from Insatiable, for those of you who don’t know. Not even one of the cute ones, either).
If you’re not following Dr. Ann, you’re really missing out. Look for the truth about why she’s so anti-demon this week! You won’t want to miss it.
Anyway, the reason I love getting letters like the ones you’ve been sending me—which are so thoughtful and inspiring (I’ve posted a few below)—is that I always think of them when moms come up to me at book fairs (like one did recently) and go: “When are you going to write a book with a (insert non-white race) as the main character?”
“It shouldn’t be any different,” this one mom assured me, “than writing one of your white characters. Just give her a (insert any race that is non-white) name. And have your publisher put a (insert any race that is non-white) girl on the cover! You don’t even have to have any (insert any race other than white) cultural references.”
Me: “Wow. I had no idea writing books from the point-of-view of non-white characters was that easy. Really?”
The Mom: “Oh yes. We’re exactly like everyone else.”
Me: “Well, I knew that. But shouldn’t I at least make some—”
The Mom: “Oh, no. I don’t even serve (insert food not usually served in white people’s houses, unless they are ordering in) in my house.”
Her Little Daughter: “I hate (insert food not usually served in white people’s houses, unless they are ordering in).”
Honestly, Allie Finkle hates tomatoes, like me, and I’m half-Italian. So I know what it’s like to be ostracized for disliking the food of your people.
Whenever a mom says something like this to me, it takes me back to when I worked as an assistant dorm manager at NYU. You wouldn’t believe the number of parents who would call me after the room assignments went out and ask for their kid to get moved to a new roommate!
“Oh, it’s not that we don’t like Jews/blacks/whites/Koreans/Mexicans/Catholics/gays,” they’d always begin in a friendly way on the phone. “We just don’t want our son/daughter to live with one! HA HA HA!”
I am not kidding.
I always gave them the same prepared speech: what I like to call the Let’s Try Something New (or, “There Are Other Restaurants In The World Than Cheesecake Factory”):
“Part of the college experience is learning about the diversity of our world and its cultures,” I would say. “Your son/daughter will be getting to know lots of different people when he/she arrives at NYU, and trying many new things. We strongly recommend that—”
At this point, the parent would either back down, and say OK. Or he or she would completely lose his or her s**t.
“I DON’T CARE!” the parent would scream. “WE ARE PAYING FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR! WE DON’T WANT OUR KID LIVING WITH A #@&$!”
Whoa. It was hard to listen to this ten times a day. You have to remember, back then, I was living with my Arab-American boyfriend. And of course, many of my friends—and co-workers, people these parents were going to have to be dealing with when they got here—were black, Asian-American, Hispanic, Jewish, Catholic, and/or gay or even transexual. You name it. My own African-American brother was also living in New York City at the time. Have I ever mentioned that he’s gay? A hugely talented dancer, he was just starting out, so was often broke.
So he frequently stopped by my office, “just to say hi” (but being a big sister, I knew it was for loans). Then he could never resist blowing some of his rent money on leather pants, so he’d look “hot” for his next audition. Then he’d stop by to show me what he’d gotten—ON SALE! Such a bargain!
That’s why, whenever I’d be on the phone with these parents, I’d look up, and see this:
But seriously, Meg. How do I look? It was only TEN DOLLARS!
These were parents whose only experience with a different culture had been—I’m not even making this up—at Cheesecake Factory.
“Oh, yeah! I eat (insert food from culture other than theirs) all the time. And one of the waiters at that restaurant is gay! So he touches my plate! And I don’t mind. I just don’t want my child to live with a (insert race/religion/person of sexual identity other than theirs).”
Everyone loves the Cheesecake Factory. It’s a place where you can sample the cuisine of many lands and cultures. But none of them are too spicy!
The food there is also in no way actually authentic. Everything at the Cheesecake Factory is a deliciously bland imitation of what its actually supposed to be.
A good example would be the edamame I ordered there recently. In case you don’t know what edamame is, it’s boiled, salted soybeans.
When I tasted the ones I ordered at Cheesecake Factory last month, I called the waitress over and asked her what was on them, because they tasted so weird (though still good, of course). Just unlike any edamame I’d ever had before.
“Oh,” she said, cheerfully. “That’s the butter!”
Butter?
I don’t know if you know this, but edamame is not supposed to have butter on it. Edamame is the single thing that is semi-good for you that I actually like to eat.
Here is the Wikipedia page on edamame. Note that nowhere on it does it mention the word butter.
Anyway, whenever someone asks me when I’m going to write a book from the point-of-view of a non-white character, I think of those parents at NYU who used to get so mad at me. Then I think of the Cheesecake Factory.
Not because I don’t think there are white writers who can write convincingly and well from the point-of-view of non-white characters. Because of course there are MANY great books by white writers written from the point-of-view of non-white characters.
And not because I don’t think what Cheesecake Factory is doing is great. It’s presenting food from many lands to Americans who might otherwise not try it.
And it’s great that America has become the giant melting pot our forefathers imagined, with all of us adopting the good bits (edamame!) of some cultures, while rejecting the bad bits (female circumcision!) of others.
But because sometimes I worry that if we don’t celebrate our cultural differences more, we’re going to become like those parents:
So fearful of anything that isn’t watered down or swimming in butter (like what that mom asked me to write—you know, a book with a non-white character, but who isn’t any different than a white character, because she’s just been given a non-white name, and had a non-white face put on her), we aren’t going to want to try anything new.
And then, as a country, we’re going to lose all the REALLY “good bits”—those differences that make us all the wonderful, special people we are, and are part of what make this a really GREAT country, and that make an author’s character seem REALLY believable, and really . . . well, spicy.
That’s why, in spite of what that mom believes, you actually can’t take a white character and just put a non-white name on her and turn her into someone a reader will actually believe in. Because what you’ll actually be turning her into is . . . .
Something that tastes weird. Like that edamame I had at Cheesecake Factory.
If you’re going to write about a culture or race (or sexual identification) that isn’t your own at any great length, you need to research it . . . to, as Harper Lee put it, “walk around a little in that person’s shoes,” just to make sure you don’t do something that makes it “taste” weird—such as drown it in butter—to people who actually live that life on a daily basis.
Maybe MOST of America won’t realize that it tastes weird. But people who have actually tasted it before will.
It’s like the kinky hair thing. People who have actually lived with someone who has what is often universally referred to as “kinky hair” know that sometimes, kinky can just be a lot of very tightly—and beautifully—curled strands of hair, clinging very close to the head.
And that if you were to gently separate, then pull on one of those curls, it will slowly uncoil, like a tiny Slinky.
And then—if the person you were with doesn’t move, and allows you to do so, of course—you can wrap one of those silky curls around the end of your finger, like a little snake, and just hold it there awhile, soft as a feather.
Until of course the person whose hair it is jerks his head away, and goes, “Oh my God, what are you doing to my hair? Give me the remote, you freak. I’m going to tell Mom if you don’t, it’s my turn, ow, why are you so obsessed with my hair? You want it, don’t you? You want my hair. Admit it. Ow. Freak.”
Check out some of the letters I got this week:
Hi Meg, I’m an 18 year old Radiology student. I’m also a writer who is in the process of completing her first book, I’m an avid reader of your blogs, AND I’m Arab-American.
I can’t thank you enough for posting your ‘Break it Down’ post about racism. It just touched me so much and inspired me to follow my dreams no matter what my ethnicity is. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t apprehensive about how people would perceive me when I wrote a novel because of my Arabic descent, I even thought of a pseudo name just because I was nervous of public reaction.
So thank you a million for giving hope to a ‘dreamer’ in the process.
With Love and Appreciation,
A.P.s. Hopefully when my Young Adult fiction novel is on bookshelves one day, I’ll send you a copy signed “With Love, from the Arab-American Radiologic Technology Student you Inspired”
Yes! Thank you, A.! I can’t wait to read your book. I hope your character makes out with a lot of boys. If she doesn’t that’s OK, too, though.
Here’s another:
I just want to thank you so much for posting about the Arizona law against Mexicans on your blog.
I am a Chicana. My parents and beyond all came to this country from Muochocan and Guadalajara in Mexico, but my siblings and I were born here in Los Angeles as Mexican-Americans.
It upset me very much when my father told me about this law when they were still trying to keep it under wraps. My father was an intense participant in the UCLA Chicano Movement for equality in the late sixties and seventies and as a family we are very proud of our culture.
The establishment of this law made everything my father and others like him fought for retract several steps backward and makes you wonder, if this is how it is going to be, what WAS fought for? It is very upsetting.
Once news of the law had circulated a little bit, I brought it up to some friends of mine at lunch. They immediately denied it, writing off the new law as being over-exaggerated, hardly anything to worry about, and definitely not anti-Mexican. They then moved on from the conversation to talk about some dumb video they saw online.
It made sense, I supposed. The only way for people to truly understand–and I do mean ALL people–is to help them understand what exactly is going on and to help instill in them the desire to WANT to know what is going on in the world.
Life is unfair, and it is our job as human beings to help put it back in balance, or at least very close to balanced.
Sorry this has been so long, but this entry meant a lot to me. I would like to visit Arizona someday, without being racially profiled or sent back to Mexico, though I was born in this country.
I think this is a great letter from someone who seems determined to remember her cultural heritage, and never let it get watered down, and who would be very offended at the idea of some writer putting a Chicana name and a Chicana face on a white character . . . and who, at the same time, seems very proud to be an American.
If you’re looking for good stories with strong minority main characters, go online and ask these nice moms, The Story Snoops, to help you find something. They write VERY BALANCED, THOUGHTFUL REVIEWS. I checked (well, not every single one, of course).
Or you can always ask a knowledgeable bookseller or a librarian to steer you towards them. Just say, “Hi, I want a book where the heroine is (state name of ethnicity/race/religion/sexual orientation you are interested in). It would also be great if she were a vampire or a princess or was only interested in going to the mall and making out with boys (or girls).” Whatever. They will definitely be able to help you. If they can’t run away until you find someone who can.
And please don’t get me wrong: I love the Cheesecake Factory. There is a lovely scene that takes place in it in Allie Finkle #5, Glitter Girls and the Great Fake Out in which there is a huge birthday party, and then someone (not telling who) fakes sick in the ladies room. There might even be crying.
If someone were to take me to the Cheesecake Factory for my birthday (in six months), I would not fake sick AT ALL.
Next time, I’m just not ordering the edamame.
More later.
Much love,
Meg
*Anyone who is going to RWA: you HAVE to come up and talk to me if you see me at the conference. OK? Especially if you see me sitting anywhere alone, looking lost, as I’m wont to do at conferences. You’ll recognize me because I’ll be the pasty white girl. I’m the only person who lives in Florida who has no tan because I’ve been inside, working so much.
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Secret Heart’s Desire
Thursday, June 17, 2010What’s your secret heart’s desire? I know you have one. We all do (beyond our basic human need for food, shelter, and companionship).
Mine’s to find a dead body (NOT someone I know).
I know that’s totally gross. But I love the show Law and Order, and I’ve lived in New York City for years and years, and I’ve never turned a corner and found a body like all those people do at the beginning of every Law and Order episode.
(Okay, maybe I just want to go back through time and play one of those people on TV so I get to meet Detective Mike Logan, aka Chris Noth.)
Anyway, once when I confessed this embarrassing secret to a friend of mine, she said she understood: Her secret heart’s desire was to find a big bag of money.
So you can bet that when I saw this through the window of a plane I just boarded the other day, I took a picture. These are the bags that were being unloaded from the passengers who’d just gotten off the previous flight:
No, your eyes do not deceive you! Those are bags of money. Each bag contained $250,000, according to the very excited flight attendant (of course I asked).
Yeah. That’s a lot of money!
The plane had just flown in, I was told, from the Cayman Islands. That’s the fifth largest banking center in the world! It’s where a lot of people—and corporations—keep offshore accounts.
I have to admit, I wasn’t sure how they were going to fit all those bags all onto that truck. I even started getting nervous that Hans Gruber might have survived his plunge from Nakatomi Plaza, and was going to show up and start shooting.
But eventually, they got all money on there (proof that if you’re determined enough, you can do anything, even in 100 degree heat, with a sidearm), and the guards closed the doors and drove away.
So. Was that the $20 billion from BP? You be the judge!
Anyway, finding a dead body isn’t my ONLY secret heart’s desire. The other thing I’ve always wanted, my whole entire life (well, okay, actually only since I was sixteen and my then boyfriend’s mom—hi, Shehira!—took me to her best friend’s house and said, “Go on, get in” because I’d never seen one before and didn’t know what it was) is a hot tub.
The minute I got in, I was like:
“As God is my witness, I’m going to get myself one of these. And every day, when I’m done earning the money to pay for it, I’m going to sit in it. And when it’s all over, I’ll never be stressed again. No, nor any of my folk! As God is my witness, I will work my fingers to the bone until I have a hot tub of my own!”
(Only in my head, of course, and not directly misquoting Scarlett O’Hara’s starvation speech from Gone With The Wind.)
27 years later, my dream has finally come true! How did I do it? One book at a time. I know I probably could have afforded a hot tub sooner. But honestly, I didn’t feel up to dealing with this:
Before
The cement mixer was so loud!
But it was worth it. Because in the end, I got this:
After
I honestly didn’t think it could get any better than this. I mean, except maybe for finding a dead body.
But apparently it can! Because last night I got the call: Insatiable made the New York Times adult hardcover bestseller list.
Honestly, I can’t thank you guys enough. All of my books mean a lot to me, of course, but this one is really something special. So you all helping to get it onto the NY Times list means an EXTRA lot! I wish I could give each and every one of you your secret heart’s desire, whatever it is.
But since I can’t, I’m going to give each and every one of you the gold seal carried only by officers of the Palatine Guard:
Unless of course you’d rather be members of the Dracul! In which case, for you:
I actually really can give you this! I have cool temporary tattoos of the dragon image above. So if anyone wants these (or Insatiable postcards or bookmarks or all three), just send a self-addressed stamped envelope to me at Meg Cabot, P.O. Box 4904, Key West, FL 33041-4904. I can send you autographed bookplates, as well!
Another thing I can give you is . . . the Insatiable sequel! You know I can’t tell you anything about it yet (except that the story begins a few months after the end of the first book).
But it’s coming soon. If you liked Insatiable, you’re going to love it. All your other questions should be answered here (deleted scenes to be added soon)!
One question people always ask me that ISN’T on my FAQs (and isn’t about my heart’s desire) is:
How do you write so many books?
The answer is: The same way those guards got all that money onto that truck . . . one bag at a time! (And of course the same way Detective Mike Logan on Law and Order solves crimes . . . one body at a time.)
Being able to write full time was always another one of my secret heart’s desires. So it’s a joy to do (even if, just like Mike Logan, sometimes I do get frustrated and want to punch someone in the head. Usually myself). I just try to take it a book (or even just a chapter, or some days, just a word) at a time.
But I couldn’t do it without you . . . and also what I consider “brain food” (since when you’re working hard, you crave carbs. It’s a proven fact, even if Jillian of Losing It With Jillian may not agree)!
And the best way to help your brain recharge is to feed it tons of new, exciting stimulus. Such as books and music and movies and TV shows. Like Friday Night Lights (more fulfillment of my secret heart’s desire: It’s been renewed for another season! And Tim Riggins will be back)! And of course Law and Order re-runs. And Glee!
I was really looking forward to seeing Regionals on the season finale of Glee. Another secret desire for me was that Showchoir Regionals would look the way Cheerleading Regionals did in the movie Bring It On, only with showchoir product placement everywhere, such as Showchoir Summer Camp (don’t pretend like you don’t know someone who would LOVE this), Capezio Student Footlights, and of course, custom designed costumes:
Pictured, the Bubble Nimbus Dress, in Lime, available here.
But no! I got none of that (although we did get a spectacular teen childbirth scene, perhaps the first ever set to Queen, which I’m sure was someone’s secret heart’s desire).
Oh, well. This just gives me something to look forward to for next season! Which is great. Because now more than ever, we need things to look forward to.
Have a great weekend, everybody. I hope whatever your secret heart’s desire is—Finding a dead body. Or a bag of money. Solving a murder. Getting a hot tub. Snagging the perfect pair of Capezio Footlights. Getting the lead in Showchoir Summer Camp. Whatever—it comes true soon. It can, you know, if you take it one body—even one word—at a time.
More later.
Much love,
Meg
Be it
Memorial Day/Insatiable Page
Friday, May 28, 2010Memorial Day Weekend! Official start of summer! Barbecues, beach, movies, and BOOKS (to be read for fun, not school).
I was supposed to get a pool/hot tub combo for my birthday (back in February). Will the new one be ready in time to use this weekend? We’ll see.
But something that IS ready?
The all new Insatiable page at megcabot.com!
My favorite part is the FAQs. I know the book isn’t due out until June 8, so not many of you have read it yet.
So these Frequently Asked Questions are actually based on questions the three of you who got ARCs (and my mom) asked, because you’re the only ones who’ve read it (besides a few awesome bloggers)!
I love the new page, especially the part about the inspiration for the book (the identity of this little dog is finally revealed)!
There’s also a third excerpt from the book up, too, from the POV of one of my favorite characters (not that I have favorites), the vampire slayer.
Plenty with which to keep you occupied this weekend, in case wherever you are, it rains!
(Of course, I have a book that’s actually in stores NOW, too, in the event this happens!)
It’s just so exciting to have something to look forward to . . . like the fact that, for the first time in a couple of years, I’m going to be at the Romance Writers of America Readers for Life Literacy Signing this year in Orlando! I’ll even be having a “Chat With” at 9:45, Saturday morning, July 31! (So don’t stay out too late Friday night, attendees!)
I’m sad RWA’s national conference had to move from Nashville to Florida (because of the horrible flooding in TN). This year kind of feels like it’s been one disaster after another. Everyone here in Key West is glued to the TV while we watch the terrible news out of Louisiana as they deal with the oil crisis (I feel weird calling it a spill. It’s not really a spill or a leak). I’m praying for a quick recovery for LA, while also praying all the oil that’s under the surface won’t find its way here to Florida or AL or Mexico or anywhere else. Though naturally, I know it’s going to have to. Sigh.
It’s times like these I feel like we all need something funny to get our minds off reality. Thank goodness there’s SATC2. I know the reviews are horrible. But sometimes a really silly movie is exactly what the doctor ordered. Sex And the City 2 in 60 Seconds, anyone?
Meanwhile, check out my Facebook page.
There might be ONE more surprise posted there to keep you entertained through the weekend!
More later.
Much love,
Meg
Be it
FAQs from the Book Festival
Wednesday, April 28, 2010Did I have an amazing time in California at the LA Times Festival of Books?
Why yes, I did . . .
. . . until the tacos I had the other night came back up in the airport security line yesterday morning at LAX.
I had them at a really fancy restaurant so I don’t know what the deal was.
Flying didn’t seem like such a good idea after that (to anyone).
So everyone at Delta deemed it best I check into the nearest airport hotel and stay an extra night.
Pre-Tacos, at the Book Festival. Thanks, Charisse!
Anyway, I feel a lot better today (I can’t tell you how many episodes of Say Yes To The Dress I watched in a daze yesterday while planes took off and landed outside my window) and successfully made it through the security line to my gate today. I’m posting this from the plane (so exciting)!
Thank you to all of you who made my stay in LA such a success!
And thanks to everyone who has been reading/writing and posting about Runaway! It’s so sweet of you to welcome her (I think of the book as a her, I guess) with such open arms.
I worked really hard on the Airhead series, so it’s great people are being so excited about its roller-coaster, page-busting finale. I will admit there were some tense moments bringing all those story lines together.
But I did it! And I’m glad you’re all enjoying it so much! There’s still one last YouTube video to come, so stay tuned.
Anyway, since there seemed to be a lot of aspiring writers (or at least bloggers) at the Book Festival and I kind of feel like at my last event, Ros, Don, Robin and Amy and I left some things unsaid (because we ran out of time, there were so many questions!), I thought I’d answer a few of the FAQs at the Festival in more detail:
What is selling in publishing right now?
Good books. If you write it and it’s good, it will sell. This is true of any genre.
So, teen vampire books?
Don’t write to the market because by the time your book is done and published, whatever is “popular” at the moment may not be popular anymore. Write what you love.
So, teen werewolves.
Write what you feel passionate about. Your belief in your story and characters is what’s going to make it sell, not what the market is asking for. Even something strange and oddly grotesque can be a huge hit if you write about it entertainingly enough, with heart.
Who would think the story of a Parisian rat who loves to cook would be a huge hit? But the author believed in it!
Should I make my werewolf or vampire book third person or first?
What do you feel most comfortable doing? Is your story from multiple points of view or just one? Sometimes a story is more suspenseful if told from one character’s point of view. Sometimes it’s better if told from multiple points of view.
You just have to figure out which feels best for your story, sometimes by trying both and then seeing which works best. Neither is “selling” best.
Can I write with a pen?
Of course you can write with a pen. Don’t send a manuscript written in pen to a publishing house though or they will send it back to you and tell you to type it out.
Does spelling count?
Yes. If you can’t spell, hire a proof reader. If you can’t afford one, barter with your friends. Cook a meal for someone in exchange for her helping you with your spelling.
Should I post my stories online?
Not stories you want to try to get published later. You can copyright words, but not ideas. Ideas are precious jewels. Why would you post them online for other people to steal?
Treasure and guard your ideas to avoid having them stolen by other, less talented authors, who might use them and write their own book or screenplay.
But my fan fiction is super popular.
I loved writing fan fiction too but those characters don’t belong to you. They belong to another writer, such as George Lucas, or me. You can’t publish the stories you are writing about that author’s characters, or you will be sued. Fan fiction is fun, but once you’ve perfected your craft, you’re kind of just wasting your time and talent when you could be making up your own characters in stories you could sell later.
What about self-publishing?
Some writers are going the self-publishing route these days. It’s so easy! With a press of a button and a credit card, you can avoid the heartbreak of rejection and see your manuscript turned into a book right away.
You will have to pay someone to edit, print, market, publicize, sell, and design a cover for your book, as opposed to someone paying YOU for all this (which is how it works in traditional publishing).
But it will be a book!
There are many pitfalls with going the self-publishing route. Vanity-press houses like to market their services by saying things like “Shakespeare was self-published!”
But this isn’t true. Get the facts here.
What is self-publishing? Here’s a good explanation of what self-publishing versus vanity presses versus Print on Demand means.
Personally, I don’t think paying to see your own writing in print is ever a good idea unless you fall into one or more of the following categories:
–You have a collection of family recipes, stories, a self-illustrated picture book, or poems you’d like to see in print that isn’t intended for sale for the general public, but for immediate friends and family only.
–You are promoting a cause or are a professional of some kind, and have written a non-fiction book and its publication will help promote the cause or your business, and no traditional publishers have bitten, and getting the word out there in a timely manner is of the essence.
–It has been a lifelong dream of yours to see a novel of yours in print, and you will probably not live long enough to see your manuscript published by a traditional press because you are very old or have a terminal illness.
If, however, none of the above apply, I believe you should always value your own writing enough to insist on being paid for your work, not pay others to publish it.
But my manuscript has been rejected 12 times! I’m tired of waiting for the traditional publishers/agents to notice me. I’m just going to self-publish, it’s easier.
Is it? Even though that 13th agent might have taken your book if you’d had a little more patience, and you, like Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help, which was rejected by 45 agents, might be on top of the bestseller lists now (see Ask E. Jean who addresses this exact topic in the May issue of Elle Magazine)?
If I had gone ahead and given up and self-published my books after they got rejected 12, 45, or even 100 times, my life would be very different than it is today, wouldn’t it?
Mad as those rejections made me, they caused me to put aside that mystery series about a high school basketball coach who solved crimes that no one wanted to publish (and other, worse books I wrote in my twenties) and challenged me to work on something new . . . something that, ultimately, proved to be better, more saleable, more MEG CABOT.
There are many other reasons why, if you’re looking to be a professional writer, you might want to steer clear of self-publishing, and some of the best reasons are listed here, and also here. Do yourself a favor and read these sites before you consider self-publishing. Please.
How DO I get published, then?
I recommend that when your manuscript is finished, edited (a good creative writing workshop is always worth the money. A trusted teacher or good friends who read within your genre can help too), and truly sings, you get an agent.
An agent will get you the best book deal possible. Here’s a site on How to get an agent.
When I was starting out, I used this book.
Flip through it at the bookstore (it’s in most of them) and see if it looks like it could help you before buying it. It’s expensive.
Checking in the front of your favorite author’s books to see who she thanks (she will usually thank her agent) is also a good way of targeting your agent search. Query the agents of authors whose books are like yours.
Be professional in your query letter. Don’t say how many other agents have rejected you. That’s OK between us, but not in your query letter.
If you get rejections with editorial suggestions, INCORPORATE THEM and send the manuscript back (as long as they aren’t crazy suggestions. You can tell the difference between helpful editorial suggestions and crazy ones).
I can’t tell you how many aspiring writers I have heard say they would never change a word of their manuscript because it’s perfect “just the way it is.” No manuscript is perfect. With this attitude, you could come off as hard to work with. That could be why you don’t have an agent or a publisher.
Publishing isn’t just about the writing. It’s also about a working relationship. No one wants to work with a difficult person, no matter how brilliant. I had an editor who once said, “A manuscript is a tapestry. My job is to find the loose threads on that tapestry and pull. If the tapestry falls apart, your job is to weave the threads more tightly.”
This another reason why it’s a bad idea to self-publish something that hasn’t been professionally edited: A writer is usually too close to her tapestry to see the loose threads. That’s the editor’s job.
If an agent says she will give you comments if you pay her, say no. Never pay anyone to read your work unless you’re hiring an experienced editor.
Don’t get discouraged if you get rejected by every agent in America. Never give up . . .
. . . but do be open and flexible. Dreams come true, but sometimes they come true in ways you never expected. By this, I do not mean self-publishing.
By this, I mean I always expected to be famous for my mystery series about a high school basketball coach who solves crimes.
This series now lives under my bed, where it will remain forever. Why? Because when I go back and read these books now, I realize there was a reason they were never published: they were filled with loose threads. If I’d self-published them, I’d have ruined my career before it ever started.
Big Name or Less Big Name Agent?
Many writers make the mistake of thinking they need to be with a Big Name Agent at a Big Name Agency, maybe one who already has some Big Name Authors.
But if Big Name Author is such a big name that she demands all of Big Name Agent’s time, what is the likelihood of you getting any of Big Name Agent’s time? I know authors who are with Big Name Agents at Big Name Agencies who never get their phone calls returned.
So, this is something to think about when you’re targeting your agent search. Maybe you would prefer an agent at a smaller agency who is hungrier and more likely actually to pay attention to you.
But I’m 24! I’m really old! Is it okay for me self-publish NOW?
24 is not old.
Neither is 34.
44 is not old either. Even 54 is not middle-aged these days. I know a lot of 64 year olds who had not yet written their biggest bestseller at 54.
What about a time traveling werewolf who meets a girl vampire who goes to wizard school?
I told you! If it’s good, someone will pay you to publish it.
This concludes the question part of this blog. I hope it helped you.
Now I have to post this so I can catch my next flight.
In conclusion, thank you for all your support of Runaway and of me, value yourself and your writing, and I am never eating tacos again.
More later.
Much love,
Meg
Be it
Writer’s Block
Thursday, March 25, 2010I was having the best time in NYC, helping friends to celebrate their birthdays (click here if you missed it), and shopping until I literally dropped, when I was felled by an insidious bronchial infection that was obviously released here in the city by that same terrorist cell that’s been doing such a good job of making CTU look totally stupid (except for Chloe, of course) on this season of 24.
Since I’m obviously going to die (ha, kidding: I’ve secured the antidote in the form of antibiotics and life-saving codeine cough syrup. Take that, terrorists!), I will finally answer the question all of you have been asking me forever:
What do you do about writer’s block?
If there were a single cure for writer’s block, someone would already be raking in millions of dollars from it, riding around in limos with Jesse James’s and Tiger’s ex-mistresses (unless of course he/she actually had some self-esteem and class), and going on Oprah.
But there isn’t one single way to “cure” it.
Scientists are definitely trying, though!
The best book I’ve read on the topic is The Midnight Disease by Dr. Alice Flaherty.
Someone once sent me Dr. Flaherty’s book because they thought I had the direct opposite of writer’s block, hypergraphia (the inability to stop writing).
Obviously, I would love to have this disease, but I don’t. With hypergraphia, you do not lay around and watch back-to-back marathons of What Not to Wear and Say Yes to the Dress, then go, “Well, I guess I better get back to writing. But wait, Clean House is on!”
There are no marathons of Say Yes to the Dress with hypergraphia. You write ALL the time, even in the bathroom. On toilet paper.
Dr. Flaherty would know. She’s director of the movement disorders fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, and an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. She’s experienced both writer’s block and hypergraphia (during a horrible time in her life, when she lost her baby twins). You can read more about her and her research here. She’s one very cool lady.
While I don’t have hypergraphia, I have experienced writer’s block. Every time, in fact, I write a book!
I’m not talking about the kind of writer’s block where you sit in front of a blank page with no idea where to start. If that’s your problem, to me that indicates that you just haven’t found the story you want to tell. Keep looking! It will come.
(Or maybe, if your teacher or editor has assigned you a story, you just don’t feel like telling that particular story. When that happens to me, I try to find the story within the story that I do want to tell.)
The kind of writer’s block I’m talking about is when you’ve found the story you want to tell, but hit a snag within the story line. Suddenly something just doesn’t “feel right.” You get stuck and realize the scene you’d planned to be next isn’t going to work anymore, even if moments before everything was going fine.
Something is clearly wrong. Only what?
That’s where Dr. Flaherty’s research comes in.
Because the solution to your problem is there, somewhere, lurking in your subconscious. You just have to figure out how to tap into.
If talking it out with my editor (or friends, spouse, therapist, mother, or sympathetic if bewildered postman) doesn’t work, I “back burner” the problem for a while, leaving it alone and letting it simmer.
Go away and do something else—take a bike ride, clean out your closet, shave your legs, bake some cookies, hang out with friends. Meditation would be good, if you could sit still that long. Do anything but actually writing your book.
What always helps me is not to think about the problem . . . not until right before bed that night, when I think about it like CRAZY.
Then, right as I wake up the next morning, before getting out of bed, before even opening my eyes—I’ll fake sleep if I have to!—I’ll concentrate on the problem again.
Almost always, the solution will be there: a wrong turn I took somewhere earlier in the book. I knew it all along. I just wasn’t paying attention.
This method doesn’t just work for writer’s block, either! It works if you lose something, too.
When my mom lost her car keys this past week and was going to have to have them replaced (for $200!), I said, “Before you buy new keys, sleep on it. Right before you fall asleep, think about where you might have left them. When you wake up, I bet you’ll know where they are.”
This was how I saved my marriage a few months ago when I “lost” my wedding rings for a whole week (after tearing my hotel room apart and almost calling the police because I thought they’d been stolen, I woke up at 3 in the morning remembering I’d zipped them up—“for safe-keeping”—in this weird side pocket of my purse I never use while on the way back from a 7AM taping of a news show).
Of course my mom called the next day to say, “It worked! I told Ron” (her boyfriend) “what you told me to do, and he did it, too, and in the morning he said, ‘Oh my God. I borrowed your car keys when you asked me to move your car after the last snowstorm! I think I left them in my coat pocket.’ We looked, and there they were. You saved us $200!”
See?
Try this method next time you’re blocked on something (or lost something, or have any important or difficult decisions to make), and see if it works for you! It may take a few nights, but eventually, it will work.
Your brain is stronger, smarter, and more capable than you think. That block often isn’t a block at all: It’s YOU! YOU might just been standing in your own subconscious’s way the whole time. Next time, just get out of the way, and let your subconscious do its work.
This is where the saying “sleep on it” comes from.
More later.
Much love,
Meg
Be it
So You Want To Be Published
Monday, February 15, 2010Well, now’s your chance!
Because you’re going to write an original audiobook story on Twitter!
And it’s GOING to get published.
(Actually, it’s going to be recorded in a studio and then made available as a download on iTunes . . . just like this one written by Neil Gaiman and the Twitterverse)!
Tuesday, February 16 at Noon EST (don’t be late!), I’ll tweet the first line of a totally original Meg Cabot story . . .
. . . and then YOU can tweet the rest.
Will our story have romance? Will it have suspense? More importantly, will it have romantic suspense? I don’t know.
Because YOU’RE going to decide!
Just login to your Twitter account (if you don’t have one, sign up! Registration is free, you know) to tweet what you think the next sentence of the story should be after I post it here tomorrow.
Now remember: This is the big time, baby, so make it good. We’ve got a real-time editor who’s going to decide whose lines are best, and then select only the most awesome ones . . . .
Until suddenly, presto! We have a real book going.
Want to know more?
Techy stuff:
Read the opening line of the story on MY Twitter, and then follow along here @BBCAA to tweet the next possible sentence (tweets must be 140 characters or less) like this:
@BBCAA Your Tweet Here #bbcawdio
BBC Audiobooks America (and myself, of course) will read all of the suggested lines and retweet ONLY the ones that best continue the story in real time.
This special choose-your-own-adventure style story will be chronicled here as the story unfolds (with its myriad twists and turns) as created by YOU (with my help, of course)!
What happens after the story is finished?
When our story winds down, BBC Audiobooks America will edit the contributions and compile a script, then head into the studio to record and produce the audiobook!
The final audiobook will be downloadable for FREE on their website, and also available as a digital download at iTunes and other audiobook retailers.
(Please see their legal release for further rules, information, and other mumbo jumbo.)
For more info, stay tuned to BBCAA’s Twitter’s page! As well as my own, of course.
I can’t WAIT to write with all of you! It’s going to be legen . . .wait for it . . .DARY.
See you tomorrow at noon!
More later.
Much love,
Meg
Be it
Robert B Parker
Tuesday, January 19, 2010Robert B Parker, one of my favorite writers and creator of the Spenser series, just passed away (rumor has it at his desk, writing) at age 77.
If you’re a Spenser fan, you know why I’m so bummed about that. No more Spenser, Hawk, and Susan to look forward to.
If you’re not familiar with Mr. Parker’s work, well, pick up one of his books (I recommend starting at the beginning of the Spenser series, but I also like his new Western series, Appaloosa, and the Jesse Stone mystery novels), and you’ll see why we’re all a little choked up.
Did you know during the course of the 38 book Spenser series, Spenser’s first name was never revealed? I hope it never will be!
There are lots of writers and readers posting things right now to tell you what Mr. Parker meant to them and to the world of mystery writing (and just to writing in general…his popularity spanned genres), and I don’t know if I really have anything new to add.
But I thought I’d share what Mr. Parker meant to me personally anyway:
Besides being hugely entertaining and inspiring to me (I just love the way he wrote), his books provided a way for me to connect with my dad, with whom I had a very difficult relationship, especially during the later years of my dad’s life.
Mr. Parker
There was nearly always a beat-up mystery novel tossed across the seat of my dad’s armchair in the living room. More often than not, it was a Spenser novel he was re-reading. Both of us had a soft-spot for Spenser, an old school hero with very modern attitudes, especially about feminism and gay rights.
I like to think that, if he had ever overcome his inner demons, my dad would have been just like Spenser (minus the gun, of course).
Whenever Mr. Parker had a signing somewhere I was going to be, I’d go and stand in line to shake his hand and get a signed Spenser novel for my dad…even after my dad was dead.
I never told Mr. Parker all the times I met him why I was there or what his books meant to me.
I didn’t feel like I had to. I always got the feeling from Mr. Parker that he got it, without my having to say anything.
Which is one of the reasons I think he’ll be so sorely missed in the literary world. He just got it.
And though I’m really, really sad there won’t be any more adventures with Spenser, Susan, and Hawk, I’m also really grateful to Mr. Parker for writing all the books he did…
…not just for the world of mystery writing, but for me. And for my dad.
More later.
Much love,
Meg
Be it
Goodbye 2009!
Thursday, December 31, 2009Is anyone really sorry to see 2009 go?
If you ask me, 2009 acted like a bad houseguest, staying way too long, and leaving only chaos in its wake:
Too many people died too young; too many married men proved to be cheating horndogs; and too many babies were found running around along the side of the highway in their diapers.
But we have to remember that a lot of good things happened in 2009, too! Such as:
Glee!
And then there were those moments that brought us all together. Like the Inauguration, Susan Boyle, the JK Wedding Entrance Dance, Sully making that spectacular water landing, and of course, the Surprised Kitten.
Sure, there were a few things that ended in 2009, making some of us a little bit sad….
First volume of the Princess Diaries series, published in the year 2000
Final volume of the Princess Diaries series, published in the year 2009…and available this week for the first time ever in paperback!)
But some fun things are coming in 2010 to take their place:
Psych! Not the final cover either! Or is it? I’ve seen about a dozen covers for this book, so I’m as excited as you are to find out which one is going to be the FINAL final cover.
So, goodbye, 2009. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. It’s true that like a crabby old lady, no one is going to miss you all that much.
But let’s try to forget the bad, and remember only the good.
Or at least the totally dishy:
Happy New Year everyone!
More later.
Much love,
Meg
Be it
What I Did In NYC
Monday, December 14, 2009I went to New York last week to do some non-writing related work. It was super fun!
For instance, I got to meet Jane Pauley, basically one of my all-time idols: She co-hosted the Today Show, deputy anchored the NBC Nightly News, then co-hosted Dateline NBC all years before Katie Couric did….
(She’s also married to Gary Trudeau, the creator of the Doonesbury comic strip. How amazing is she?)
Meeting her was like a dream come true….
…even though, like always, I acted like a total dork when the big moment came. I actually said the words: “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”
Yes, shoot me now.
So, Jane, if you’re reading this, I apologize: I’m not worthy.
(We both went to Indiana University, which is how I got to meet her. She showed up at the alumni event I co-hosted!)
Also while I was in New York, I HAD to take some time out to visit one of my other idols:
OK, I didn’t get to meet her in person.
But Sandra Bullock was SO good in The Blind Side, the true life story of the woman who adopted sports hero Michael Oher when he was in high school.
I give The Blind Side three BIG tiaras:
Run—don’t walk—to see it!
The main reason I was in New York, though, was to make my OWN movies…ones that I wrote (and starred in).
I think I really annoyed some people at Scholastic Books by running up and down the stairwells, screaming at the top of my lungs.
The next day, I stopped by City Wing Tsun to film my next series of videos.
I will admit: Things might have gotten a little out of hand.
OK: Maybe a LOT out of hand.
Totally fake blood! No authors were killed in the filming of my book trailers!
Although I was a bit sore the day after from having to do multiple shots of that tackle. Now I know how Michael Oher must feel.
I had so much fun though!
(Except I have totally have to buy a new sweater. Banana Republic! Wasn’t it cute?)
Oh, well. They say to make real art, you have to sacrifice!
More later.
Much love,
Meg
Be it
Put Your Big Girl Panties On and Deal With It
Friday, December 4, 2009Could this have been a crazier week? First Tiger’s wife went Carrie Underwood on him!
Then my husband took a swan dive and broke his ankle!
Then the plot of Glee actually moved forward!
I think I’m still in shock.
When things get out of control like this, I often think of the little home made sign hanging in my gynecologist’s office:
I love this sign! Because this is really what we just have to do sometimes.
(Especially in the gyno’s office…but in life, too).
Do we ever get as much done as we’d like to on any given day? Most of the time I don’t know how I’m going to handle ANYTHING going on in my life (deadlines, copy-edits, emails, dwindling supply of beverages in my mini-fridge, etc).
It’s only because I have so much help in the form of an amazing agent, fantastic editors, go-getter publicists, astounding assistants, awesome friends and family, and of course, He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog that I get ANYTHING done at all.
The rest of the time, I’m just thinking of that sign in my gyno’s office:
I was actually supposed to be leaving for New York today! I have a bunch of meetings and some new book trailers to film next week….
…not to mention I’m supposed to be co-hosting a fancy Indiana University alumni cocktail party (did you get your invitation, fellow alums?) with He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog’s best friend (and we had tickets to see Shelby Lynne perform live at Carnegie live)!
(Did you know Shelby Lynne saw her mom get shot by her dad right in front of her when she was 17? Talk about needing to pull up your big girl panties!)
I really thought I was going to have to put off the trip completely because of He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog’s accident.
But thanks to our own personal Pull Up Your Big Girl Panties Team—the doctor, nurses, anesthesiologist, and everyone else who put him back together…not to mention the incredible full time support team we’ve got going here at Casa Cabot—I think I might make it to NYC after all!
Yes. It IS all about me.
Ha, no, not really.
And I WON’T be seeing Shelby Lynne. Because how could I enjoy her knowing that my poor husband is back home in bed….
…watching all the free Writers Guild Oscar pre-screeners that keep arriving in the mail?
(We just got Funny People and Bruno and The Serious Man and that Zoey Deschanel movie that’s supposed to be so cute! And now I have to watch them by myself when I get back. AFTER I’m done with all my deadlines because HWSNBNITB is like, “Don’t you have a bunch of book trailers to write and some books due? Yeah, I guess these movies are all for me.”)
Shut up. I know: See subject line of this post.
More later.
Much love,
Meg
