Why it's taking so long for my book to come out

Approximately 3756 times a day I get asked when my book is coming out, and nearly 100% of the queriers are SHOCKED when I tell them that it isn’t until March 2014. (And I got my book deal almost a year ago, so imagine the shock when I got asked back then!). Often times when I give this response, someone mentions their friend or relative whose book is coming out next month, and wants to know why mine isn’t coming out that soon too.

Fair enough.

But it’s a bit of complicated answer, so to save anyone from having to hear my awkward, rambling, nonsensical speech once again, I thought it was about time I did a blog post for the non-writers in my life to explain.

There are a couple different ways a person can go about getting a book published. One of them is traditional publishing and another is self-publishing.

Traditional publishing is when a publishing house (such as Random House, Harper Collins, etc) buys the book rights from the author. They pay the author an advance against future earnings, edit the book together with the author, design and package the book, market the book, and distribute the book to the public.

With self-publishing, the author basically becomes their own publisher. The author provides the funds to publish their book (for example on Amazon), as well as to create a cover. The author is also responsible for editing, marketing, distribution, etc. of their book.

Both forms of publishing are valid ways to get a book out there into reader’s hands. Each has their own positive and negative aspects, and no one way one way is better than the other. But I’m not going to get into detail on that because that’s not the point of this post (and also no sane author willingly enters a conversation about traditional versus self-publishing).

Why my book is taking so long to come out:

When you self-publish a book, you’re in charge—your book comes out when you’re ready to put it out. When you publish through a traditional publisher it takes much longer to see your book on the shelf (on average 1-2 years from the time you get a book deal).

My book is coming out through a traditional publisher: Random House.

1-2 years is a long time, right? Some might say painfully long. But a lot goes on in that time. A LOT. Here are some of the things:

• The book’s editor writes an editorial letter for the author, marking all the areas that she thinks need work on a broader level. This can be anything from ‘This character isn’t working for me’ to ‘I think this particular plot needs re-thinking’. The letter can be anywhere from a single page to 30 pages long (a friend’s letter was 28 pages!). Creating this letter takes time—sometimes upwards of a few months as editors have many authors on their list and other demands on their time. Of course it also takes time to complete the changes after the author receives the letter, also sometimes months. Once the changes are made and the author ships the book back to the editor, the editor needs to read it again and:

•  Line edit, which is basically when the editor goes through the manuscript looking for issues on a sentence level (And that’s if you’re lucky enough to get through just one round of major edits!). The editor is now looking for things like awkward wording, repeat words, sentences or paragraphs that need clarifying, etc. The editor then sends the line-edited manuscript to the author to review, make changes, and send back. When this is done:

• The book goes to the copy editor, who looks for spelling and grammar errors that may have been missed and also for consistency issues. In my experience, copyeditors are geniuses. (Fun fact: If you’re my copyeditor, then you had to properly format ‘I want to tap that ass’ with the right quotation marks. I like to think that she loved her life when this happened). The author then receives the copyedited manuscript to read over, accept the changes, and send back to the editor. After this comes:

• First page passes, wherein the book is printed out with the proper font and spacing that will appear in the final book. This is sent to the author, who will read it over, accept, and then send back to the editor. Are you noticing a trend here? After this comes:

• Advance reading copies (ARCs): these are uncorrected advanced copies of the book that come out several months before publication. They’re sent to reviewers and book bloggers and are used in giveaways and probably a lot of other things I don’t know about yet because I’m not yet at this stage.

• Of course during all this time, there’s a lot going on behind the curtains that the author never sees. The art department is busy creating a beautiful cover for the book. Marketing and publicity are generating media and public interest in your book. The subsidiary rights team is hawking your book to foreign publishers all over the world. And I know I’m probably missing many steps here.

This is all to say: it seems like a LONG time (and it is a LONG time), but a lot of really great and important stuff is going on during that time. So it’s all good. And stuff.

I’m starting to wonder if this blog post was more to make me feel better.

**For a complete guide to publishing from the point when the book is written see author Alison Cherry’s post here. Also add her book to Goodreads while you’re at it! 

In which I went to New York and visited my editor and agent

So. It finally happened. This past Friday I went to New York and, as the title of this post suggests, met my editor and agent. Let’s discuss that in detail, shall we? With pictures?

Because I am one of excellent foresight and planning abilities, I had to be up before 4 a.m. on Friday to make my flight, so that when I got off the plane at Laguardia at 1130, I was left with exactly one hour to get to my meeting with my editor, Wendy. This ensured that I was tired, red-eyed, unfresh, and basically looked like a stoner to meet everyone at Random House for the first time on top of being nervous as heck. 

Here’s a shot of me in the lobby, looking awkward. 

And another of the amazing bookshelf in the lobby, which has first prints of some of their books. The faded copy of Pipi Longstocking made my heart smile. 

So after I’d shown my I.D. and it was checked against an appointment book, and after the receptionist called up to Wendy's office to say I was there, I was admitted inside. I felt important.

Did I mention I was nervous? Well, I shouldn't have been. Wendy was completely warm, friendly, upbeat, chatty, and fun, and it didn't take long before I almost didn't feel like hyperventilating. Here's us! 

Wendy gave me a tour of the children’s floor, then when she went to the bathroom I took creepy stalkerish pictures inside her office. Here’s the view out of her window. 

And if you look closely, you can see HEXED sitting on her shelf!

So then we walked to this amazing Italian restaurant nearby, and I tried not to look like a girl from small town Ontario, in New York for the first time and amazed and overwhelmed at everything (OMG LOOK! PIGEONS! PEOPLE ARE HAILING TAXIS LIKE IN THE MOOOOVIES!).

After that we went back to RH and I got to meet with various heads of various departments, which made my palms all sweaty.  But everything went really well and everyone I met was so completely friendly and really excited about HEXED. Basically what happened was that my ego became inflated and now I can barely fit through doorways because my head is so huge.

In all, it was an amazing and completely unforgettable experience. I love Random House and everyone who works there like whoa.

Saturday night my sister and friend joined me to meet my agent, Adriann, for drinks. We met her at this amazing hotel bar and were the three of us dressed totally not right while Adriann was effortlessly cool NY, but whatevs. We had a great time and chatted about everything from my book, to my friend Barb’s weird elf fetish, to eating disorders, to gang activity in Phoenix. It was great! I left there feeling like I couldn’t have landed a more perfect agent (Also: I left there drunk). I can’t believe I didn’t think to take a picture with Adriann. I almost want to go back to NY just for that.

Other things that happened on the trip: went to see Wicked on Broadway, checked out the Brooklyn bridge, shopped, ate food, and went clubbing in Chelsea.

Things that did not happen on the trip: sleep. 

In which my book gets a new title

A bit of history, for anyone just joining me: For a while now, my editor and I (and anyone I even remotely know, including the twitterverse, my lovely blog followers, and any partygoers unfortunate enough to sit next to me) have been trying to come up with a better title for my book. While I originally loved THE WITCH HUNTER’S BIBLE, I had to agree with my editor that the title didn’t really match the tone of the book, which is fun and exciting and girly (Hey, she said it!).

Well, months of anguish, hair-pulling, and garment-rending later, it has finally happened. WE HAVE TITLE. So from henceforth, THE WITCH HUNTER’S BIBLE will now be called…

HEXED

Eeeeep! So excited! I love my new title, and I really hope you guys love it too.

Me, Elsewhere

GUYS!!!

My blogging routine has been interrupted by that thing called NaNoWriMo, but those in Michelle Krys withdrawal (HA!) fear not, because the wonderful Amy over at Chasingthecrazies has interviewed me for her W.O.W feature (Writer Odyssey Wednesday). I’m honored to be featured in this awesome series alongside fellow YA authors Kendare Blake, author of Anna Dressed in Blood, and Lauren Kate, author of the Fallen series, to name just a few people.

Click here to read a bit about my journey from nurse to soon-to-be published author. And if you’re not already following Chasingthcrazies, you should do that too! 

WEEEEEE!!!!!!

Awesome doesn’t even begin to cover how much I love this news. I’ve known since Monday but was asked to keep quiet until official announcements were made. I practically had to sit on my hands to comply, but now I’ve been given the okay so here it is…I got a book deal! Not just any book deal, but a two-book deal with Delacorte Press/Random House!  RANDOM HOUSE, PEOPLE! Here’s the official Publishers Marketplace announcement:

Michelle Krys's THE WITCH HUNTER'S BIBLE, in which a snarky sixteen-year-old cheerleader is forced into a centuries-old war between witches and sorcerers only to uncover the first of many dark truths about her life, to Wendy Loggia at Delacorte, in a good deal, in a two-book deal, by Adriann Ranta at Wolf Literary Services (World).

An actual book is going to have my name on it and be sold in bookstores! My agent rocks my world.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the corner puking and dying of happiness.