My Personal Path To Publication - Kymberlee Burks-Miller

My guest today is another author with whom I have become friends with courtesy of facebook.  Author Kymberlee Burks-Miller and I met on a facebook group where we were both asked to be judges for a short story contest along with another author I featured here, Scott Prussing.  In the process, I learned about her debut novel, Compulsion, and watched her and her book become fan, and reviewer's, favorites.  I knew I wanted to showcase her here.  Then I lost touch with her.  It turns out eveyone did.  Kymberlee disappeared into a hospital!  After an illness which waylaid her for awhile, she is back, and working feverishly on Book Two in the Compulsion series.  She is self-publishing Compulsion in ebook form at the end of this month, with print to come soon after, following a dissatisfying interaction with a publisher.  This has happened to me, I am in fact in the middle of that as we have read, and it has happened to other authors.  When it happened to Kymberlee , she used it as her call to action. She has agreed to share her personal journey to publication with us here today, so we can see exactly what one person did when it happened to them.

1.   How long have you been writing? 

I have been writing since elementary school but seriously since High School.  My Drama teacher told me that I had a knack for it:) Writing is my peaceful time to let everything in my head out!

2.   Are you published and if so, how long have you been a published author?  If not, what’s your plan?

I was contracted but that didn't work out so...I will be self publishing but continuing to submit to other publishers:)

3.   Which route did you choose for becoming published, the traditional route, with an agent, the “indie” route, going directly to the publishers yourself, or deciding to self-publish? 

I am going the Indie route now, originally I was being published, but the company was NOT what I thought that it was.  That was a hard lesson to learn. We had too many differences in what we thought was best for me.

4.   Why did you choose that particular route? 

I was kind of thrown down this path, but in hindsight I would have gone this route from the beginning had I known then what I know now.  Advice* Please read your own contracts and do NOT leave it up to someone else.

5.   How long did it take you to write your first novel? 

About 2 months but with all of the changes it has taken over a year to get it really ready.

6.   How long did it take you to publish it? 

With the former publisher, they actually contacted me. So it happened overnight. Going to self pubbing route I am learning as I go, so...it is taking a little longer.

7.   How many times did it get rejected before it got published? 

Good Heavens I stopped counting. lol It comes with the territory. When you're an artist, and writing is an Art, not everyone will LOVE your work.  Please don't get discouraged when you receive a rejection letter it just means that particular publisher was not a perfect fit for you.

8.   Tell us about worst rejection letter.  

The worst one was 6 months ago just a rejection, no rhyme or reason. No explanation, nothing.

9.   What was the best news you ever got in your writing life and how did it make you feel? 

When my Alpha readers gave me their feedback. I truly hoped that everyone would love Compulsion as much as I do, but their words were amazing!

10.  What’s the worst piece of advice you ever got? 

Someone once told me that I was a wife and a mother just be happy with that. I did not NEED a career.  That's true, I don't NEED a career.  Writing allows me to express myself in ways nothing else ever has.

11.    What’s the one thing you would want an aspiring writer to take away from your personal path to publication? 

Always pay attention to what is best for you.  If going Indie is what's best for you do it. You'll find out out in the end that what feels right to you, is right.

12. Where can we read your blog?  Buy your books?  Connect with you on facebook?  On Twitter?  Your website? 
My blog is kymberlee-burks-miller@blogspot.com www.facebook.com/CompulsionSeries my twitter handle is kymberlee1975 and my website is www.kymberleeburks-miller.com

Back of the book Blurb

                After Lilyann Moon's grandmother dies under suspicious circumstance, she and her eleven young family members are thrown into the world of witchcraft and the paranormal. A world they know nothing about, and need to learn fast! Lily's the most powerful witch in over five centuries, but she's untrained and uninitiated. Now the vampires have found out that the Moon line didn't end with her grandmother and they're coming to claim their prize, Her Blood! The only bright spot in this nightmare was meeting Mason, but is she in love with the enemy.  She’s in a race against time to save her coven. Will Lily survive with her heart and neck intact?

I asked Kymberlee to tell me something fun about herself.  This is what she wanted you all to know:  

I love to be silly, my favorite clothes are my sweats and Eeyore PJ's, and I absolutely cannot live without coffee and Nutella;) I love talking to people about their lives, mine is boring:)


You heard her; she loves to talk to people!  Make her happy and comment here or make contact with her on her blog, or facebook or Twitter.  Let her know how much you enjoyed reading about her journey.  And buy her book at the end of the month.  The early reviews are raves!      

Things to Remember When Writing YA

I have been asked to be a judge in an upcoming short story contest being held on one of the groups I frequent on facebook.  I consider the request to be a great honour indeed.  Only three authors were asked and of the three, two of us appear to be receiving extremely favorable reviews for our book and one has a huge following for a book due out next month.  One of us is very active in the making of book trailers and all three of us are quite active in the marketing of ourselves, our brand and our published pieces.  We have given interviews, we blog often and mostly about writing, and all that being said, I believe we are all three wonderful candidates as judges.

We are myself, author of Spellbound, Scott Prussing, author of Breathless, and Kyberlee Burks-Miller, author of the soon-to-be released Compulsion.

The contest is a short story contest for a YA short, not to exceed 7500 words, beginning July 30 thru Aug, 6, 2011/  Get details here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=108939899205399.  Anyone who is a member of  YA Reads on facebook is eligible to enter.  Check it out!

I thought it might be a good time to give some of my tips about writing young adult.  These are just my suggestions.  None of these should be cast in stone.

1. Remember at all times that writing for teens doesn't mean write as though they are stupid.  They aren't. In most cases, they are highly intelligent kids, learning about themselves and feeling their way through some of the most enlightening periods of their lives.  Respect that.
2. Don't trivialize what they are going through.  If your think the scene you wrote sounds like a bad after-school special, it probably does.  Treat your characters with dignity, no matter what you have them going through.
3. Don't think the lingo and terminology from YOUR youth will still play today.  It won't.  And your reader will realize it almost on the first page if you try and fake it.  If you intend to write for a specific age group, you have to spend time with them.  Join a library group and read to them, volunteer at a school, or just go hang out at the beach.  But do it A LOT.  One hour at the mall won't do it.  Teens have a whole different language and it will take time and dedication to master it.  There is no Rosetta Stone for teenspeak.
4. Understand a teen's attention span is about the same to us as our life is to the life of the common housefly.  SHORT.  You have to capture it on the first page or they toss the book/ipad/kindle aside and grab a DS/Wii/PSP instead.  There is no world-building/character-study/working-up-to-it-ness allowed in a middle-grade or young, young-adult book.  You have to slam them into the action IMMEDIATELY and keep them there for the whole first chapter.  They have to be asking questions at the end of the first paragraph and wanting answers or you already lost them.
5. Covers are EVERYTHING.  Splashy, gaudy, dripping with color, or with a teen just like them on the cover and they will buy it every time.  Think of every Sarah Dessen book you ever saw.  What's on the cover?  Something that relates to a teen-aged girl, right?  Look at her latest one....back view of low-rise jeans, bottoms covering the feet, hands stuffed in the back pocket in the classic "What-ever." pose.  That cover SOLD that book.  Plus her name of course....synonymous with teen angst and empathy.
6. Here's the plus side:  If you get all that right, teens practically DEMAND books they love get made into movies.  They buy and buy and buy until agents and movie producers sit up and take notice and before you know it Mandy Moore and KStew and Emma Stone are lining up to play your ansgst teenaged heroine in a movie based on your book!  (So I dream.  We all do.  Whatever.  Move on.)

All I'm saying is everyone thinks it's so easy to write YA and I just want you to know, it's not.  Just remember, as complicated as you were when you were a young adult, consider putting all THAT done on paper.  Right?  I rest my case.