New YA Novels Soon to be Published

Ahhhh!!!! Ok. I’m good now. Sorry about that, I’m just a little bit excited. My two YA novels I had mentioned before in “The Joys of Writing a Book” are going to be published!!! For those of you who don’t know, the publishing process, in my opinion, is probably the trickiest part of the whole writing business. There are many steps, and only if you have passed all of them will you go on to become a published author.

1. You must write a query letter (see mine below) and send it out to agents or publishers depending on which route you wish to take.

2. You must wait for two to four weeks for a response (uuugh, so annoying). Some agents/publishers don’t even respond.

3. If they say no, repeat steps one and two. If they say yes, you then send either a partial or full manuscript, depending on what they ask for.

4. Again, just waiting, this time for like 1-2 months….. boring. So stressful though. I refreshed my email like 20 times per minute hoping to get a reply.

5. If they say no thank you, repeat steps 1-4. If they say yes, you either give them the full manuscript if you haven’t done that yet, or you move on to sign a contract with them.

6. Congrats, if they liked everything so far, then you sign a contract with them and you are on your way to be published.

So there you have it, that is pretty much the process, which, finally, I have made it through. I am going to be published with a small company called Winslet Press. The editors there will work on my book with me until they are satisfied with how it reads.

A cover is what causes readers to look at the back flap, or put the book down.

It’s true, so naturally, it is a very important part. After editing, we get to discuss what cover options there are, and what would look best. Personally, designing the cover sounds like the most exciting part of the process.  After it’s finished, all there is left to do, is publish the books, and then market them. Marketing is a whole other process, but it is too much to explain in one post, so I will have to write about it later.

The Last Pages (working title) is a YA historical fiction/fantasy

Here is the query letter for this book:

When Kale meets Leon, who insists that she must join him for her safety or die, she embarks on a journey that changes her life forever.

Fourteen year old, fun loving Kale led a simple life with her mother in a small 18th century town. That changed when fifteen year old runaway, Leon, forced her into joining him. Soldiers want Leon for treason. They want Kale now, too. She thinks it’s because she is with Leon, but he knows better.

In the quest to prove that he is innocent, Leon and Kale journey across untamed lands, discover secrets and romance, meet long lost siblings, and find out the truth about their pasts; a truth that should not have seen the light. It is truth, which may send the nearby kingdoms into war. They must try to keep each other alive, stop war from ravaging the land, and undo the mistakes they have made before it is too late.

Hope this gives you a sense of what it is about.

Frozen Flames (also a working title) is a YA Urban Fantasy (could be sci fi) novel

Here is the query letter for this one:

Lexi loves flying and turning invisible—or she would, if the FBI didn’t want to kill her for it.

She was a bystander, someone who happened to walk by at the wrong time when a recently discovered liquid combusted in a lab. As a result, her body accidentally absorbed the liquid, giving her abilities never before seen in the real world. In order to complete the biggest break-through known to man, the FBI needs the liquid inside her back—but extracting the energy will kill her. One of the recruits hired to bring her in is a fifteen year old boy named Alex Milton; a boy that was chosen for the job because of his ability to gain Lexi’s trust, his lack of family connections, and supposedly normal past. When he meets her, instead of bringing her in, he makes a different call.

Lexi must try to survive while fighting off her emotions towards Alex. Alex wants to be independent and fulfill his duty to the agency. What neither of them know, is that they set in motion something that cannot be stopped. One Head of the F.B.I has some intentions of his own. Something sinister is brewing at the agency, and it is bigger than both of them.

Well there you have it! The intro to both my books. If they sound interesting, subscribe or follow this blog, or follow me on twitter. I will be posting updates about my progress and when the books will be hitting the shelves.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!

Lara

P.S. Please feel free to comment down below. Let me know what you think of my books!