Perseverance and Dory

Perseverance

It might be my favorite word. I’ve blogged about it before, here (talking about querying) and here (talking about rejection).

Recently, a query godmother client emailed me about her desire to quit. She didn’t feel like she was ever going to get the query right. It just wasn’t coming together.

And I immediately replied to tell her to NOT QUIT!

It’s so easy to look around and see what feels like everyone on twitter announcing that they’ve just signed with an agent. But listen, those people have their own journey. Maybe that woman who just announced her new agent has been querying for ten years. Or maybe she’s only sent one query. You just can’t compare yourself to someone else’s process, because you have no idea.

I do know one thing. No one who quit ever published a book. 

A couple of years ago, I polled agented authors about how many queries it took them to get an agent. The results were surprising--we're talking hundreds. Years. Multiple manuscripts. The thing you have to keep in mind (and it's hard, I know, to not feel that pang of jealousy) is that you have no idea what someone else's journey is like. 

Here's the post with those results. It's not meant to be depressing, only honest. I’ll say it again, no one who gave up ever published. http://krisasselin.blogspot.com/2014/01/how-many-queries-does-it-take-to-get.html

Persevere. Keep writing. Keep querying. Keep connecting through your writing community. Keep learning, growing, submitting.

As Dory would say, “just keep swimming.”

 

 Kristine Carlson Asselin writes Young Adult and Middle-Grade fiction. Her YA novel Any Way You Slice It (Bloomsbury Spark) is currently available and her debut middle-grade, The Art of the Swap (co-authored with Jen Malone) has recently sold to Simon and Schuster for publication in 2017. Kristine is also the author of sixteen nonfiction children’s books for the elementary school library market. Kris does query package critiques under the alter-ego @QueryGodMother and loves doing school visits for kids all over New England.

To keep up with Kristine, follow her on Twitter at @KristineAsselin and check out her website at www.kristineasselin.com.

Digital Books for your Library's Collection through Overdrive

The Summer Reading for 2016 is Get in The Game. I'd love to get ANY WAY YOU SLICE IT into the hands of kids reading for the theme. The only way to do that through public libraries is through Overdrive.

Here's an overview of how to get a "digital only" book from your library.

With the influx of "digital only" and "digital first" books on the market, how does a library stay current? I've been approached recently by several YA librarians who have asked about getting Any Way You Slice It into their kids' hands, so I've done a bit of research.

Most digital books are going to be available through Overdrive. Overdrive is a giant online clearinghouse of books, in their digital format. The thing is...your library STILL has to purchase the digital title from Overdrive in order to house it on their own virtual shelves. Just as you would recommend they purchase a physical copy of your favorite title, you can request they purchase a digital title.

Consider doing this for all your favorite digital books at your local library.

Here's how it works:

1. Go to Overdrive and sign in: https://www.overdrive.com/
2. Search for your own library/library consortium and save it as a favorite library, then click on the library name to search what's available in their list of digital titles.
3. You will need your library card, so it must be library to which you have a card!
4. Put Any Way You Slice It (or your favorite digital title--you can do this as many times as you want) into the search engine. If it doesn't come up in your library's collection, hit the button that says "search for more titles" and the search engine will go to Overdrive and pull up the cover.
5. Recommend it as a book your library or consortium should consider making available to their digital readers. 

Personally, I'd love to get my book into the hands of teen and tween readers, and having it available through libraries is a good way to start! But if you're not inclined to recommend my book, consider any of the other Bloomsbury Spark titles listed here: http://bloomsbury.com/us/bloomsbury-spark/