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Writing

Contracts, Advances and a Stack of Paper

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There is something special in a writer’s first advance check. Many of you probably have an idea what that is: when a publisher makes a deal with an author, they lay down what is called an advance. This is money paid in advance to the author, in the hopes that his or her book will earn it back; following publication, the royalties an author earns off book sales slowly repays it. The original concept of an advance was probably so the author of old, being intrinsically penniless, might at least avert starvation long enough to finish the book.

Though I signed the contract a while back, and sent it in, there is such a long process on the publisher’s end that it usually takes a few months to get it back with their signature, as well as the on-signing advance. By getting those back in the mail, all has been signed and sealed, and now all that’s left is to prepare the book for publication! Some photos:

Me, signing the back of my first advance check. The Unwritten Manual of Authorly Proceedings & Conduct dictates (Section 2, Article C) that an author should always use a unique pen to sign their checks and contracts, as here seen in the pen-made-of-awesome my agent gave me:

Signing the first advance

While I was writing, I read dozens of writer blogs, and I always wanted to know what exactly a full manuscript looked like, before all the edits. Never finding one, I told myself I’d put one up for anyone else out there like me (by the time I’m through editing, picture about 2/3 this size):

The Manuscript

There is one line in this book deal that represents 6 years of work, a box of notes, a dozen notebooks, two drawers in a filing cabinet, and countless days and nights spent with characters and ideas. That line is this:

AGREEMENT made by and between Kaleb Nation…hereinafter referred to as “author”

Contract and advance

The signed contract, with the check hiding in the back.

Editorial Letters

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Today was the day I received my first Editorial Letter for Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse, and I realize that since loads of the people who read this site are writers as well, some of you might find this interesting.

An Editorial Letter is the first professional edits that an author receives from their publisher for the manuscript. Its purpose is to take my writing and make it the best it possibly can. Authors have a tendency to love their own work and ignore its apparent flaws (we have to love it, otherwise there’d be no point in writing it). Editors, however, have trained eyes for how to make things better, and work their hardest to make newbie writers like me sound professional. It is of great importance, as demonstrated by the below illustration:

An Author’s First Edits

This editorial letter is the first step in getting the book ready to be published. Editorial letters do not go into punctuation or spelling mistakes (which happens later with a copyeditor) but rather overall plot and concepts and larger parts of the book which need tightening up.

I shan’t show you my editorial letter, but this might be what part of someone else’s could look like:

– Sherman P should know that Granny’s Magic Box will destroy the universe 100 pages earlier than you have it. Otherwise, he would have tossed it down Mrs. Lovett’s Corpse Chute.

– There is a certain monkey in every chapter until chapter 23, when he unexpectedly jumps off Mount Slowmore. I am curious as to the point of wasting words on him if he does nothing.

– Change Edlardo Chullens’s name to something more palatable. Like…Edward something.

– There is already a famous frog named Kermit. He will always be more famous than your frog named Kermit. Change his name. Or turn him into a mutant turtle.

– Chapters 13-17 become slow when Protagonist tells the Long Saga of Grandmother’s Achy Breaky Bones.  Fix that, unless this is intended as an intermission time. I realize some people might enjoy taking naps through books here and there. If intentional, good idea.

– Your major villain happens to share my name.  I’m hoping this is a recurring typo.

(all snarkiness courtesy of me and bearing no resemblance to my editor’s own polite notes)

The changes are more so a broad overview of tiny tweaks to be made to make it better.

Mine are thankfully very merciful, well-directed, and I can already imagine the wonders they will work. I have heard horror stories from other authors who received 3-ring binders filled with post-its, blue ink, Sharpie markings, and chocolate to alleviate the murderous rage subsequently directed towards their editor. I got the impression that the aforementioned 3-ring-binder was immediately tossed into here:

Mount Doom

Mount Doom

I, on the other hand, have been looking forward with great anticipation to get to these edits.  It is not every day, obviously, that a professional spends enormous amounts of time to make Your Book the best it can. Which makes editing this a labor of love 😀 . I shall keep you all updated on future progress.

Signing The Book Deal [Video]

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And thus I affix my signature to the publishing contract. Since my family is back home and couldn’t be there for perhaps one of the biggest moments of my life, I got it all on film.

This video is a five-minute short about the idea, writing the book, and signing the deal. I go back to the original black journal from that fateful night when I first had the idea, then to my filing cabinets and boxes of papers and drafts which make up the five years of writing it, and while filming I even inadvertently discovered my first writing notebook ever, from when I was 10 years old. This is a bit of my own tale as well as that of The Farfield Curse.

List Of Teenage Authors: Writers Published As Teens

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It has become quite interesting discovering how many authors were first published as teenagers. This is certainly an encouragement, as for the longest I thought Paolini was the only teenage writer and author. I discovered that there are quite a few others who were published as teens, some of them below:

Kenneth Oppel

Christoper Paolini

Robyn Schneider

S.E. Hinton

Catherine Webb

Eze Imade Eribo

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Nancy Yi Fan

Flavia Bujor

Danielle Steel

S.E. Hinton’s first book was the Outsiders, the second biggest selling book for Young Adults in publishing history- over 8 million in print! Christopher Paolini’s first book was out when he was 19 and has sold over 9 million as well.

This is a growing list, so if you know any more email me and I’ll add them.

–Added November 14 2007 – Thanks Cat- I added Catherine Webb

–Added November 19 2007 – Thanks Mimi- I added Eze Eribo.

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