Three Royal Rules (A giveaway!)

So, it’s giveaway time! I’ve been wanting to give out the last little ARCs I’ve had hiding in my room for a while, and this is the moment, people! So, if you would like to get a signed ARC of The Selection, here’s what you need to do:

     1.      Live in the US. Sorry.

     2.      Be awesome. Easy. Done. Check.

     3.      In the comments below give me your three rules that all princesses should live by.

To help you out, here are my Three Royal Rules:

     1.      Princesses NEVER take off their tiaras, no matter the occasion.

     2.      Princesses NEVER turn down chocolate.

     3.      Princesses ALWAYS take naps.

             a. The time and duration of said naps are left up to the discretion of the princess. Of course.

And there you have it! That's how things would be if I was in charge. Now, it's your turn. If you want to get creative and post pictures or something, just leave a link to your blog in the comments instead. I’ll chose and announce a winner next Monday! And there might be a few runner up type things, because I hate making decisions. So yeah.

If you happen to follow me on YouTube or Facebook, stay tuned. ARCs heading that way as well. Wahoo! Happy princessing!

So, about that whole TV thing

In case you’ve had your ears carefully plugged and missed me squealing about this, The Selection has been picked up by the CW for a television series! Typically, I like to make Behind the Book videos to talk about things like getting your first advance check or dealing with your doubt. But this is a bit of a long story, so here is how it all went down:

Last July I was driving to Toddler Talk with Guyden, minding my own business, tra la la la la. My phone rang, and it was Elana calling to say that Warner Brothers was interested in optioning The Selection for a television series! Now, you might be wondering just what that word “optioning” means. Basically, a production company pays for the rights to hold onto your project, usually for about a year. Then they beat it with the Hollywood Stick and see if anything awesome pops out. Lots of projects die in this stage (or so I’ve been told), and I assumed that was what was going to happen to me. You might have noticed… it’s Febtober now. Yeah, it’s been a while.

But backing up. Last July, I had a phone call with some lovely ladies over at WB, and by the end of it, I felt pretty encouraged. Even though I knew that things would have to be changed, I felt secure in their desire to maintain the feeling of the book. I also was excited about the television format, because instead of cutting things out like you have to for movies, we’d have the opportunity to add things in, explore other areas of the world that America doesn’t see. And when it was agreed that I could be hired as a creative consultant, (meaning I’d get to at least offer up some thoughts for the show (though, really, they still don’t have to listen to me)), I was in. Let’s do this!

So the contract negotiations started… and that’s all I knew. I figured nothing was happening because there was all this red tape to get through, and I was sure at some point someone was going to say this wasn’t worth the hassle. Little did I know that while the contract was being hammered out, the people at Warner Brothers were already hard at work. By the time the contracts came back to me a few weeks ago, the talk was “Yeah, you’re going to want to sign these pretty quickly. There are some people looking into shooting a pilot.”… And I was all like HUH?

Yeah, they’d gotten producers, written a script, shopped it around. They were totally on top of it! I signed the contracts and a few days later, the news is on MTV: The Selection’s going to be a TV show.

Now, I will say that this doesn’t mean much. The show still might not happen. They could test it with executives who don’t like it, or show it to the country and everyone starts throwing stuff at their TV in protest… but it also might be something really cool.

At this point, I don’t know a whole lot. We have some fantastic producers/writers in Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain. I’ve read their script, and it’s really amazing what they’ve done with the world. We also have Barbara Stordahl and Angela Terry on board as casting directors, and their IMDB pages are full of awesome things they’ve cast, so you just go look that up. I also hear that they’re going to shoot in Vancouver, which I dig because it seems like all the cool stuff gets done in Vancouver these days, so yay!

And for now, it’s more waiting for me. I’m excited to see what comes, but in the meantime, I’m just looking forward to getting the book in your hands. It’s something like 77 days away now. After the years it took to get to today, that feels like nothing. I SO can’t wait!

Anyway, stay tuned, and I’ll keep you posted on book and movie news as much as I can. And thanks so much for all of the love you guys have given me already. You’re keen!

Querying: An Update!

I’ve been seeing that a lot of friends on twitter are getting ready for the adventure of querying. Wahoo! Not gonna lie, I’m so happy I don’t have to do that again, but it makes me happy to watch other people do it. I have to tip my hat to anyone with the guts to try, and I wish you all luck!

A long time ago, I did a post on how to query, and I thought I would follow up with a little note about staying organized. I tend to be a bit of a mess, and the only things that save me are tools like festive folders that I can’t possibly lose, pens stashed in every corner of my house, and the gloriousness that is color coordination. So, as you go to make your list of agents, here are some tips on keeping everything together.

I still recommend using agentquery. It’s free and easy to navigate. All the information you need is listed under each agent, and here’s what I suggest you do with all that info. In a Word document:

1. Order the agents you want to query in order of how much you love them. This is a long-term relationship, so if you happen to see that you have similar tastes in books or know they make you laugh on twitter, put them in your top 10. Or close to it anyway. I may have said this before, but I actually put Elana in the number 11 spot because I thought we would be a good fit and I was so afraid my first 10 would be rejections that I bumped her *just* out of it. Superstitious and silly, but it worked in the long run.
2. List the agent’s name and beside that any pertinent notes, like that they’re actively seeking your genre or you met them at a conference. Underneath that, put the agency. Note beside that if a rejection from one agent is a rejection from the whole agency. Some are small and share stuff if they think another agent will like it, so you if you have multiples from one agency, pick a fave and go with it.
3. Get the stats: You need their email address or snail mail address if they’re not down with e-queries. Beneath that, you want a list of what they ask for. Just a query? A query and the first 10 pages? Whatever it is, write it down, and before you send out a single query, make sure you have everything you need. I needed the letter, a 5-page sample, a 10-page sample, a 2-page synopsis, and a 5-page synopsis for The Selection. Oh, and I only sent out 13 queries… so that was a lot of stuff for a small number of agents. Be prepared so they’re not asking for something that you have to make them wait for.
4. Once you start sending your queries, start color coordinating and dating. Beside each entry, note the date you sent it, and assign a color for sent emails. Do the same for rejections and for when agents ask for more. For some agents, they tell you they’ll get back within a certain timeframe. If you sent a query 8 weeks ago (which you know because you dated it) you can follow up with a “Hey, did you get this?” because sometimes things get lost. This also helps for when agents are reading a partial or whole copy of your manuscript. At that point it gets bumped from things they *have* to read to things they *want* to read, and it might take them a while to get to it, and after a respectable time (I’d say 8 weeks again), I think it’s okay to follow up.
5. And even though this isn’t about being organized, I want to remind you to be patient. When I was querying, I couldn’t figure out what took so long! I thought that was all agents did all day. But now that I’m on the other side of it and see just how much Elana is doing for me (negotiating contracts, helping with website stuff, giving me general advice, hunting for quarters so I can take the bus when I visit New York, and a thousand other things), I get it. And she’s not just doing that for me, but for her whole list of clients. So cut the agents some slack, and keep writing in the meantime.

So who’s querying in 2012? Keep me posted on your progress, and again, GOOD LUCK!

More Music

This morning as I was going through a last look at Book 2 (yeah, Book Freaking 2) before sending it back to my editor, I was listening to some music and tweeting lines that I thought were particularly wonderful. I was getting asked where these lines were coming from, so that’s what I’m sharing with you today. Soon… actually, maybe this afternoon, I’m going to finalize the playlist for The Selection. And I can tell you that one of these songs was very inspirational for a certain character. Have fun thinking about that...

I'll be fine, you'll be fine. Every moment seems so long. Don't waste now, precious time. We'll dance inside the song.  -Dance Inside by The All-American Rejects

If you don't know, honey, won't you just say so? Cause I need this now more than I ever did.  -If You Don’t Don’t by Jimmy Eat World

I don't have a choice, but I still choose you... I don't love you, but I always will.  -Poison and Wine by The Civil Wars

I lost my place, but I can't stop this story. I'll find my way, but until then, I'm only spinning.   -Spinning by Jack’s Mannequin

This is gonna bring me clarity... This'll take the heart right out of me...  -She Is by The Fray

You are the hope I have for change, you are the only chance I'll take.  -On Fire by Switchfoot

And I wanna know would you treat me well, would you treat me like a queen?  -Oh Darling by Plug in Stereo

I can hear the sound of your voice still ringing in my ear. I'm going underground, but you'll find me anywhere, I fear.  -The Resolution by Jack’s Mannequin

I still try holding on to silly things. I never learn. Oh why, all the possibilities, I'm sure you've heard.  -That’s What You Get by Paramore

Here we again. I kinda wanna be more than friends, so take it easy on me.  -Animal by Neon Trees

Also! I'm in love with this new song by The Fray. I CANNOT wait for Febtober! What are you guys listening to these days?

YA and Porn

I did a live show last Friday, and, I have to say, I had a blast. I wore an awesome hat, gave out lots of goodies, and read the first page of The Selection! Sharing ANY piece of The Selection fills me with absolute glee, so that was probably the highlight for me. However, it seems the thing that stuck with my viewers the most was a random answer to a great question.

Someone asked how I felt about the opinion that YA literature gives girls unrealistic expectations of love.

I said: Porn gives boys unrealistic expectations of sex, so.

Yeah, I just compared YA to porn, but let me back up a bit.

I’m writing a book about a prince. A prince that lives in a society where people are assigned social standings. These levels are nearly impossible to break out of; no matter how hard you work, it doesn’t matter. There are rebels and riots and uncertainty. There are glamorous parties and gorgeous dresses and at the end of it all, one of these thirty-five girls gets to be a princess.

In real life, that’s not going to happen. You know this, right?

Also what never happens in real life: The pizza delivery girl comes in and compliments your apartment, saying the bedroom must be huge. You take her back to show her, and she decides the best thing to do is rip off her clothes! Then you touch her one time, she’s filled with ecstasy, and you are a sex god.

Nope. Not in a million years, bucko. Not even close.

It’s all fiction! As long as you know this, you should be alright in life.

Now, I’m not dismissing YA literature as the teenage girl’s equivalent to porn. That’s not AT ALL what I mean. Pornography isn’t creative. Wait! Do you count sex in a cowboy outfit instead of an astronaut outfit as creative? Cause then, maybe it…  nah, still not creative. And what’s more, porn can be incredibly detrimental, particularly when we are taught to seek something glossy and immediate as opposed to working on true intimacy with the people in our actual lives.

But books? When Laurie Hales Anderson talks about rape and recovery in Speak or the addictiveness of eating disorders in Winter Girls, it affects you. Even if those issues have never touched your life, it changes you, and it changes your feelings towards people who have dealt with these things.

Or if you want to look at books actually talking about love and sex, what about The DUFF by Kody Keplinger? It’s complicated, it’s messy, it’s painful. Or Delirium by Lauren Oliver. The ache of how difficult love was in that book tore at my heart.

Furthermore, for all the crap Twilight gets about sparkly vamp chests and half-naked wereboys, there’s a lot to be said for how that whole series deals with the feelings of wanting someone completely unattainable, a feeling I had through pretty much all of high school and college. And then it touches on a whole range of issues that loving someone can cause. Does choosing this person mean losing my parent’s approval? Does it mean choosing between them and my friends? Is that something I’m willing to risk? Is it really worth it? Am I being dumb? These are all great questions to ask ourselves! The sparkly vamp chests are merely a bonus!

Actually, as I think through all the YA books I’ve read, I’m trying to think of one that genuinely dismisses love as something easy to acquire, something simple and over-the-top perfect all the time… and I can’t think of single freaking one.

So maybe I’m seriously wrong. YA literature is not like porn. Porn is lame, and our books kick ass.