Middle Grade Ninja Episode 110: Editor Sara-Jayne Slack and Author Dorothy A. Winsor

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Six months after our first conversation in episode 78, editor Sara-Jayne Slack and author Dorothy A. Winsor discuss Inspired Quill’s 10th anniversary and their latest release in the Tales of Rinland series, THE TRICKSTER. We chat about life during the pandemic, the advantages of in-person events vs online book promotion, the dos and don’ts of talking about publishing in an open forum, choosing an ideal cover for a story, ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE (that one’s mostly just me), and so much more.

Also, check out our first conversation in episode 78.
Don't miss Dorothy A. Winsor's fantastic guest post Chronology V. Plot: Dawn of New Years (yes, I was the one who titled it, why do you ask).

Sara-Jayne is a social entrepreneur, public speaker, SEO nerd and lover of all things stationery-related. She works as an SEO Project Manager by day, and manages the not-for-profit publishing house Inspired Quill by night. Sara can regularly be found discussing inbound marketing, skills development, and non-tokenistic diversity in publishing, but strives to listen at least as much as she talks. She’s also scarily comfortable talking about herself in third person, and believes that ‘To Do’ lists breed when you’re not looking.

Dorothy A. Winsor writes young adult and middle grade fantasy. Her novels include Finders Keepers (Zharmae, 2015), Deep as a Tomb (Loose Leave Publishing, 2016), The Wind Reader (Inspired Quill, 2018), and The Wysman (June, 2020). At one time, Winsor taught technical writing at Iowa State University and GMI Engineering and Management Institute (now Kettering). She then discovered that writing fiction is much more fun and has never looked back. She lives in Chicagoland.

“When it comes to family, you’re rich… and I’m dirt poor.”

Amid the intoxicating chaos of Winter Festival, attendant Dilly and Hedge Mage Fitch cross paths.

After surviving Rin’s wretched streets, Dilly aims to prove herself to Lady Elenia, who brought her back to Lac’s Holding and blessed her with a new life of comfort and luxury. Fitch seeks vengeance for a loved one, killed by a liquor that makes one vulnerable to suggestion.

But their separate goals are derailed when Dilly discovers Elenia’s secret lover is the head of a too-ambitious kinship, and Fitch finds his own smuggler-family pressuring him into using his unique nudging abilities for mutinous deeds.

When murmurs of treason break out in Lac’s Holding, it becomes clear that only Dilly and Fitch know the truth.

The question is how they can save the city when those they’re loyal to stand in their way.

Inspired-Quill.com

DAWinsor.com

Middle Grade Ninja Episode 107: Author Nick Goss

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Nick Goss and I discuss self publishing, home schooling, his bought with Covid-19, writing secular stories as a Christian, the pros and cons of social media, the importance of organizing a writing schedule, producing output that meets your personal standard, stories that are premium Nintendo good, a tale of the supernatural, and so much more. And, bonus, if you stick around to the end, I reveal a few behind-the-scenes tidbits about the podcast.

NICK GOSS has been a piano teacher, sailboat builder, private investigator, barista, and salesman. He has a collection of more books than he could possibly read in his lifetime and lives with his head firmly stuck in the clouds. 

He resides in Nashville with his wife, two kids, and their labradoodle, Shelby. His host of eccentric hobbies include woodworking, sailing, fencing, ping pong, hammocking, and playing the penny whistle. 

Can you imagine what his neighbors must think?

Yeah. You guessed it: he was homeschooled.

The Traveler’s League Book Series was born when he strayed from the normal bedtime routine of reading, and instead created new worlds full of funny characters, action, magic, and adventure. Since then, he has committed himself to entertaining children through writing books that make kids feel the magic of adventure and friendship. All the books in the series are available on Amazon.

Kids who love coding, inventing, and video games will love this first episode in a multibook action series about a pair of siblings who find themselves facing off with evil to save the world.

Age Level: 8-12

The President has been kidnapped -- inside a video game that 11-year old Charlie Bakowsky invented. Now Charlie and his sister Lora must team up to outwit and out fight the kidnapper. But that will mean battling an evil genius inside the video game world of BattleBlox. 8-year Lora has ninja-spy skills, and her brainiac brother Charlie knows all the cheat codes  -- but Hacker Jack stands in their way.

NickGossWrites.home.blog/

Middle Grade Ninja Episode 94: Author Tonya Duncan Ellis

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Tonya Duncan Ellis and I discuss her SOPHIE WASHINGTON series and I convince to give away all her indie publishing and marketing secrets for free. In this Halloween-ish episode,  we discuss “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors, specifics for writing a successful middle grade series, why it’s important for characters of color to star in stories about everyday kid stuff, Bigfoot, processing trauma through fiction, and so much more. And, added bonus, you can download both our books for free. Happy Halloween!

Tonya Duncan Ellis has had her nose in a book since she learned to read, so it’s no surprise that she’d one day become a writer. She is author of the Amazon best selling Sophie Washington children’s book series, a former journalist, and a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Fluent in French, Tonya loves learning about other cultures and has traveled to 49 states and 20 countries. She lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and three children.

An entertaining story that celebrates friendship, diversity, environmental awareness, and anti-racism. This engaging, illustrated, middle grade chapter book is a great addition to classroom and homeschool libraries and should appeal to fans of Ramona Quimby, Jada Jones, Judy Moody, and Junie B. Jones.

There is no such thing as Big Foot! Or is there…

Sophie Washington and her classmates are on their way to Camp Glowing Spring for a class retreat. It’ll be two full days of swimming, eating s’mores around a campfire, tug-of-war, archery, and more! Sophie’s been looking forward to the trip all school year and can’t wait to spend extra time with her friends. It will also be great to get away from her bratty younger brother, Cole, and his constant stories about Big Foot. If Cole warns her about what to do if she sees the hairy ape man on the retreat one more time, she’ll put in ear plugs. Everybody knows Big Foot is a hoax!

Once the kids arrive at the retreat site things are as exciting as Sophie imagined. She has fun exploring nature with her besties, Chloe, Valentina, Toby, Nathan, and Mariama, and meeting new friends too. Then the kids see a giant footprint during a nature hike in the woods and the adventure really begins!

TonyaDuncanEllis.com

Middle Grade Ninja Episode 80: Public Relations Expert Sarah Miniaci

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Sarah Miniaci and I discuss her career in publicity from running a literary magazine to her work with many notable authors at Smith Publicity. She explains giving in order to get, get lists, top gets, longest lead gets, and never forgets. We chat about raising your author profile, establishing publicity goals, measuring your success, reader targeting, tearing down discoverability myths, and a chalk-changing, vacuum-knocking ghost.

Having worked in a variety of roles in fields that include education, entertainment, fine arts and publishing throughout the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, since 2011 Sarah Miniaci has brought a broad range of knowledge and experience to her work at Smith Publicity, where she serves as Director, Literary Strategy. An avid and genre-spanning reader, Sarah also serves on the board of Diaspora Dialogues, a charitable organization working to change the face of Canadian literature which supports diverse emerging writers in turning their craft into a career through mentorship, professional development, and opportunities to present and publish their work. She continues to be energized by designing and executing publicity campaigns for debut and veteran authors alike.

SmithPublicity.com

Middle Grade Ninja Episode 78: Editor Sara-Jayne Slack and Author Dorothy A. Winsor

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In a Middle Grade Ninja first, editor Sara-Jayne Slack AND author Dorothy A. Winsor discuss Inspired Quill’s latest release, THE WYSMAN, how they came to work together, and the ins and outs of their professional author/editor collaboration. We also chat about publishing contracts, book marketing, working with authors rather than above them, self publishing vs publishing with a small press, Armageddon, spilling tea, and so much more. And here's the link to that online course Sara-Jayne mentioned: https://sjslack.teachable.com/p/casual-to-committed Esteemed Listeners can use this coupon code so they can get it for $47 (rather than $147) - IQSCHOLAR
Don't miss Dorothy A. Winsor's fantastic guest post Chronology V. Plot: Dawn of New Years (yes, I was the one who titled it, why do you ask).

Sara-Jayne is a social entrepreneur, public speaker, SEO nerd and lover of all things stationery-related. She works as an SEO Project Manager by day, and manages the not-for-profit publishing house Inspired Quill by night. Sara can regularly be found discussing inbound marketing, skills development, and non-tokenistic diversity in publishing, but strives to listen at least as much as she talks. She’s also scarily comfortable talking about herself in third person, and believes that ‘To Do’ lists breed when you’re not looking.

Dorothy A. Winsor writes young adult and middle grade fantasy. Her novels include Finders Keepers (Zharmae, 2015), Deep as a Tomb (Loose Leave Publishing, 2016), The Wind Reader (Inspired Quill, 2018), and The Wysman (June, 2020). At one time, Winsor taught technical writing at Iowa State University and GMI Engineering and Management Institute (now Kettering). She then discovered that writing fiction is much more fun and has never looked back. She lives in Chicagoland.

"The Grabber is just a fright tale."

Former street kid Jarka was born with a crooked foot and uses a crutch, but that no longer matters now that he’s an apprentice Wysman, training to advise the king. When poor kids start to go missing from the city’s streets, though, Jarka suspects that whatever’s causing the disappearances comes from the castle.

Now he needs to watch his step or risk losing the position he fought so hard to win… but when someone close to him becomes the latest victim, Jarka knows he’s running out of time.

His search takes him from diving into ancient history to standing up to those who want to beat or bleed the magic out of him.

Will Jarka succeed in uncovering an evil long-hidden, or will he see friends and family vanish into the darkness? And whose side is the King on, in his determination to bind his nobles to him no matter what black arts they’ve dabbled in? If Jarka fails in his search, his own future won’t be the worst thing lost.

The Wysman follows Jarka after the events in The Wind Reader, but this YA Fantasy can be read independently.

Inspired-Quill.com

DAWinsor.com

Middle Grade Ninja Episode 75: Author Hugh Howey

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Hugh Howey, author of the mega successful perennial novel WOOL, which everyone loves and wants to hear more about, and I discuss one of MY most favorite books, I, ZOMBIE. But we also talk about WOOL, because of course we do, it’s great, and Hugh hints at what we might expect from an upcoming television adaptation. We chat about how he finally wrote beyond the first chapters of manuscripts after 20 years of stopping, self publishing (naturally), his belief in maximum efficiency with all tasks, dealing with enormous success (his), simulation theory, flying saucers, our fundamental lack of free will, STAR WARS, authors retaining control of their IP, the future of publishing after COVID-19, and so much more. I joke that this is the last episode of the podcast, which of course isn't true (I love it too much), but this would be a great episode to go out on.

Make sure you read Hugh's original 7 Question interview.

And his second (he's the only person in the history of the site to face 14 questions).

Hugh Howey is the author of the award-winning MOLLY FYDE saga, the horror classic I, ZOMBIE, and the New York Times and USA Today bestselling WOOL series. The WOOL OMNIBUS won Kindle Book Review's 2012 Indie Book of the Year Award -- it has been as high as #1 on Amazon -- and 40 countries have picked up the work for translation. Television and film versions of WOOL, SAND, and BEACON 23 are all in development.

***WARNING: NOT FIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION***

This book contains foul language and fouler descriptions of life as a zombie. It will offend most anyone, so proceed with caution or not at all.

And be forewarned: This is not a zombie book. This is a different sort of tale. It is a story about the unfortunate, about those who did not get away. It is a human story at its rotten heart. It is the reason we can't stop obsessing about these creatures, in whom we see all too much of ourselves.

HughHowey.com

Middle Grade Ninja Episode 24: Author Dustin Brady

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Author Dustin Brady and I discuss his experiences publishing both independently and traditionally for the middle grade market. We talk at length about his series TRAPPED IN A VIDEO GAME and the LEILA AND NUGGET MYSTERIES. We do a deep dive on his extensive experience as an Amazon seller and their AMS marketing platform. He gives a lot of practical, no-nonsense advice about cover design, book description, and all aspects of creating a quality book that's marketable. We also talk about school visits and his love for reaching reluctant readers. This is an episode you'll want to listen to multiple times through (and take notes).

Dustin Brady writes funny, action-packed books for kids. Although he regularly gets locked out of his own accounts for forgetting passwords, Dustin still remembers the Super Mario Bros. 3 Game Genie code for infinite lives. It’s SLXPLOVS. Dustin lives in Cleveland, Ohio, with his wife, kids, and a small dog named Nugget.

Jesse Rigsby doesn’t even like video games. Yet, here he is with a blaster stuck to his arm, a man-sized praying mantis thing chasing him and…is that the Statue of Liberty taking off like a rocket ship? Something weird is going on, and Jesse had better figure out what it is fast, because he’s about to be trapped for good.

DustinBradyBooks.com

Middle Grade Ninja Episode 10: Author Daniel Kenney

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Author Daniel Kenney and I discuss his career in publishing and his advice for writers. We go to some weird places with our mutual love of flying saucers and even discuss whether or not the moon landing was faked (probably not, but maybe). And I read a selection from BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES. My apologies for coughing and sniffling as I'm getting over a nasty bought of the flu.

Daniel Kenney is the co-author of the hit detective series, The Math Inspectors and the author/illustrator behind the hugely successful Big Life of Remi Muldoon series. He writes funny books for smart kids and his titles include The Beef Jerky Gang, Pirate Ninja, and Katie Plumb and The Pendleton Gang.

Daniel and his wife live in Omaha, Nebraska with zero cats, zero dogs, one gecko, two very lost toads, and a large shoe full of kids. When those kids aren't driving him nuts, Daniel is busy with his other passion, traveling the world by jet pack.

Like Mission Impossible... but with Fractions!

Do your kids love math? Hate math? Always ask you: "When am I ever going to use math?"THE MATH INSPECTORS HAVE AN ANSWER!The series people are calling:Like Sherlock Holmes... but with calculatorsLike NCIS...but with milkshakes.Like Jurassic Park...but without the dinosaurs.Wait, what?Each book in this insanely popular mystery & detective series is designed to draw readers aged 9-12 into a mystery so intriguing, with characters so smart and funny, that they forget they're doing math.Because the Math Inspectors know two things. First, math is the greatest thing in the world. Second, crime solving is nothing more than a word problem. And they eat word problems for breakfast!

Bonus: Funny word problems at the end of the book for kids who want to sharpen their own Math skills.~PRAISE FOR THE MATH INSPECTORS:-"I thought this was going to be a sneaky way for me to get them to get some "math" worked into their reading. Turns out, I didn't have to be sneaky at all. My 9 and 10 year old both loved these books." Amazon Customer- “It made sense to my daughter and helped put the math she does on worksheets into perspective and gave her a real world use for math.” Amazon Customer~CRITICISM FOR THE MATH INSPECTORS:- “People who like math as much as the Math Inspectors do need to find another hobby. Like English, for example.” Polly Partridge, leader of the Ravensburg English Club and avowed enemy of the Math Inspectors.- “Do you have any idea how much trouble the four of you are in?” Officer Bobby Evans, Ravensburg Police Department.

MATH INSPECTORS BOOKS

-Book One: The Case of the Claymore Diamond-Book Two: The Case of the Mysterious Mr. Jekyll-Book Three: The Case of the Christmas Caper-Book Four: The Case of the Hamilton Roller Coaster-Book Five: The Case of the Forgotten Mine Coming Spring 2018

MATH INSPECTORS WORK BOOKS

- Like A Math Workbook Only Fun! Grade 3 Coming August 2018- Like A Math Workbook Only Fun! Grade 4 Coming March 2019- Like A Math Workbook Only Fun! Grade 5 Coming November 2019BUY MATH INSPECTORS 1 TODAY!

Facebook.com/AuthorDanielKenney

Twitter.com/danielkenney

Middle Grade Ninja Episode 06: Author Susan Kaye Quinn

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Middle Grade Ninja is available on Soundcloud, Stitcher, itunes, Podbean, Podblaster, RadioPublic, blubrry, Listen Notes, Google Play, and many other fine locations.


Author and indie publishing expert Susan Kaye Quinn and I discuss her career in publishing as well as her approach to writing and editing. She shares many tips for how to be successful as an indie author. You'll want to revisit this episode a few times and take notes because Susan has more knowledge than could ever be packed into a single episode.

Click here to see Susan Kaye Quinn face the 7 Questions.

Susan Kaye Quinn is a rocket scientist turned speculative fiction author who now uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. She writes young adult science fiction, with side trips into adult future-noir and  sweet royal romance. Her bestselling novels and short stories have been optioned for Virtual Reality, translated into German, and featured in several anthologies.

Susan grew up in California, got a bunch of engineering degrees (Aerospace, Mechanical, and Environmental), and worked everywhere from NASA to NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research). She has designed aircraft engines, studied global warming, and held elected office (as a school board member). Now that she writes novels, her business card says “Author and Rocket Scientist,” but she spends most of her time inventing her stories, petting her cats, and rescuing her Roomba from evil socks.

Susan writes full-time from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. She is a member of SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) and is represented by Sarah Hershmann at Hershmann Rights Management.

Warrior faery princes can be very stubborn. Especially when they possess your body. Fourteen-year-old Finn just wants to keep his little sister out of Child Protective Services—an epic challenge with their parentally-missing-in-action dad moving them to England, near the famous Stonehenge rocks.

Warrior faery Prince Zaneyr just wants to escape his father’s reckless plan to repair the Rift—a catastrophe that ripped the faery realm from Earth 4,000 years ago and set it adrift in an alternate, timeless dimension.

When Zaneyr tricks Finn into swapping places, Finn becomes bodiless soul stuck in the Otherworld, fighting spriggans with sharp teeth and rival faery Houses. Back on Earth, Zaneyr uses Finn’s body to fight off his father’s seekers and keep the king’s greatest weapon—himself—out of his hands. Between them, they have two souls and only one body… and both worlds to save before the dimensional window between them slams shut.

Faery Swap is an action and druid-magic filled portal fantasy, told by both a runaway faery prince and the boy he’s tricked into taking his place. This Prince and the Pauper meets Warrior Faeries tale is suitable for all ages.

Includes four interior illustrations.

Fantastic Irish and American accents in this fun warrior faery fantasy!

SusanKayeQuinn.com

GUEST POST: "Are Authors…Mentally Unstable?" by L. R. W. Lee

I’m just gonna put it out there: After several years in the publishing industry I’ve concluded authors are either nuts or sadistic. There, I said it. 

Why have I come to that conclusion? We take a brilliant idea, build a world, add characters and put them through horrendous obstacles. And if we’re good writers, we wrench our reader’s emotions in an oh so unkind way in the process. Why? Because they like it (I’ll not go into that mental disorder at the moment). At some point, we play god and let our characters overcome their obstacles returning the reader to the world from which they wished to escape for a time. But even then, we know the readers, too, are sadistic enough to want to put the characters through another set of equally wretched problems in the future. In fact, we authors hope for it. 

If you’ve been mentally unbalanced (I mean, an author) for any amount of time, you know that’s fifty percent of your job. Only fifty percent, you say? (Please ignore the fact that I’m talking to myself. It’s nothing really). Absolutely. Don’t deny you long to prey on increasing numbers of victims (readers, I mean), inflicting your brand of mental instability on them to create an addiction. And there’s only one way to do that… that nasty “m” word (and no, it’s not mental institution): Marketing.

For many authors, especially if you’re indie published and write middle grade fiction, that ‘m’ word causes either silver bullet psychosis or severe depression—both states manifest the underlying malaise in which we authors live. We all want to sell more books, but how do we get noticed? As one who has suffered from this disability right along with you over the last four years, I’d like to share what I’ve found to work for me and my Andy Smithson, MG/YA coming-of-age, fantasy adventure series. A word of warning: you’ll not find any silver bullets. But perhaps you can take away a nugget or two and see if it’ll work for you.

The middle grade fiction market is tough. Our readers, in large part, aren’t old enough to be online. Some authors go the school visit route and proclaim success, but I’ve never found those opportunities turn a profit. If your objective is to sell thousands of books and become a full time author you need to scale your efforts. 

Since I published the first book in my series back in April 2013, I’ve distributed over 200,000 books. But even with that, I’m unknown to most book buyers. I’m going to assume you’ve been in this business for some time and already follow traditional advice and practices (professionally designed book cover, professionally edited content, write more books, etc). 

I’m always looking to see what actions produce the greatest return. Some folks rave about social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc). Blogs are much the same. While I have over 50k Twitter followers, based on Twitter stats, I don’t see much interaction happening there. And Facebook pretty much makes you pay to talk to your followers which I refuse to do. My blog isn’t much better. Sure I post periodically, but a single post doesn’t usually get much traction. 

Don’t get me wrong, these tactics used to work, but they don’t anymore. So what’s an author to do to sell more books these days? What I’ve found is as follows:

First, permanently set the price of one of your books to free and use it to give potential readers the opportunity to get to know you and your work at no cost to them. If they like the first book, they’ll buy more.

Second, run promos on BookBub and similar reputable sites. These sites have gathered thousands of email addresses of interested readers and they send them deals on discounted books daily. I’ve run five BookBub promos since I started, all promoting my freebie novel, and I’m never disappointed. The initial downloads get the freebie out there and the follow up sales of the rest of the books in my series make it profitable. The key is to get the freebie novel out there. After that it’s just math that determines success. Of the 200,000 books I’ve distributed, three quarters are freebies that fueled the 50,000 copies I’ve sold.

Third, turn yourself into BookBub. What I mean by that is make building your own email list a priority. As you’ve probably found by now, BookBub is very selective. But what would it be like to have an email list of your own, of readers interested in YOUR books that you can contact whenever you want. You only need a handful or two of raving fans to make a go of publishing as a career. I’ve taken to running Facebook ads, giving away my freebie, book one in the series, as the enticement to sign up. Yes, it’s an investment, but isn’t it worth it if you can build a career?

Fourth, rewrite your weakest book. I think we would all agree that our first book is our weakest. Back in January 2016, when I published the fifth book in the Andy Smithson series, I committed to rewriting my weakest book. It had been four years of learning and improving my craft and I knew I had grown as a writer. I knew that even though I give it away free, it is the determining factor of whether folks chose to buy the next book in the series, or not. Since republishing it in March, I’ve seen book two's sales steadily increase month over month. In fact, the improvement has rejuvenated sales of the entire series. Now that I’m about to publish book six with the final book seven to follow, my revenue is growing.

A final word: The publishing industry is constantly changing. Strive to do the same. Blogs, free social media, and similar tactics used to sell books. They don’t anymore (except this blog--MGNinja). Stay informed as to the current trends by listening to podcasts like The Sell More Books Show or Self Publishing Formula. Join Facebook author groups with authors who aspire to become self employed from their publishing efforts. Take the time to fill your mind with narratives that will help you succeed as an author at this time in history.


If you found this post informative and helpful, I encourage you to join my email list at http://bit.ly/MiddleGradeNinja. You’ll get the first book in the Andy Smithson series for free at the same time!

L. R. W. Lee is the award-winning author of the Andy Smithson juvenile fiction series of epic fantasy books for kids 9 to 99 including teens and young adult, set in medieval times with knight, magic and mythical adventures. Her characters are young and fearless, but in real life L. R. W. can't handle scary movies, Stephen King novels, or cockroaches. She knows she wouldn't last long in one of her books. Nope. But give her a drink and a Hawaiian sunset and she'll be just fine. 

She lives in scenic Austin, TX with her husband. Their two children have flown the coop. One came to roost at Microsoft and the other in the Air Force.

Andy Smithson just found out how much the zap of a wizard's curse can sting. But after an epically bad day, he finds wizards are the least of his problems. 

An otherworldly force draws him to a medieval world where fire-breathing dragons, deranged pixies, and vengeful spirits are the way of things. Trading his controller for a sword of legend, Andy embarks upon an epic quest to break a centuries-old curse oppressing the land. It isn't chance that plunges him into the adventure though, for he soon discovers ancestors his parents have kept hidden from him are behind the curse. 

Blast of the Dragon's Fury is a coming-of-age, epic fantasy adventure featuring fast-paced action, sword fights, laugh-out-loud humor, with a few life lessons thrown in. 

www.LRWLee.com

GUEST POST: "Hybrid Me" by C. Lee McKenzie

I never thought I’d self-publish a book. Why should I? I’d sold two novels to publishers, I’d found a small press to publish two more. I’d learned the ropes about querying, signing contracts, meeting deadlines and marketing the way the publisher wanted. But here I am officially a hybrid author.

Maybe I should go back and explain that I write in two fiction categories, young adult and middle grade. My four young adult books are what I’ve sold. The two, and soon to be three, middle grade stories are what I’ve published on my own.

I did query a lot before I took the Indie route, but while I had many requests for fulls of my teen books, I received almost no interest in my younger reader books. In fact, when I signed with an agent, she was very clear that she didn’t handle middle grade, but had no problem if I found another agent to take on my other category.

Not another agent quest, please!

I’ve searched the agent data bases, and so far I haven’t found one who seems open to taking only middle grade stories when an author also writes young adult and is already represented in that category. It seems that young adult sells and middle grade might, but not as well. At least, that’s what I’m hearing.

And based on my sales, I believe it’s true. I sell more YA than MG, even though my MGs are well-reviewed, including a great Kirkus write up.

I did, however, continue to seek out a second agent until recently, then I decided to stop. I’ve been writing for a few years now, and I’m at a point in my life when I want to do other things as well. I like to travel, so I try to make a major trip each year. I like to hike, practice yoga, garden and cook. And I like to spend time being a little lazy. I don’t want to spend any more of my time writing queries. It’s just that simple.

Besides, I’ve found that I rather enjoy being in charge of some of my work one-hundred percent. From concept to cover, it’s all my responsibility. While it can be exhausting, it can also be very satisfying. And as long as I can produce professional books, I feel okay about my decision to go hybrid.

A native Californian, C. Lee McKenzie, has always loved to write. But she's also been a university lecturer and administrator, and for five years, she wrote and published a newsletter for university professors. She's published articles on linguistics and intercultural communication, as well as on general magazine topics. Her fiction and nonfiction for young readers has been published in the award-winning e-zine, Stories for Children, and Crow Toes Quarterly has published her ghostly tales. Sliding on the Edge was her first young adult novel, which was followed by this second one, The Princess of Las Pulgas. When she isn't writing, Lee hikes in the mountains in Los Gatos, California.

cleemckenziebooks.com