Sarah Alderson's Blog: Writing and all the bits in between

Very excited to be doing two signings, talks and Q&As, the first on July 11th at Waterstones in Birmingham (see their website to book a ticket) and the second in London on August 6th to celebrate the launch of my non-fiction book CAN WE LIVE HERE?

Here are the details on the London signing.

London Stanfords invites you to an evening with Sarah Alderson talking about her book 'Can We Live Here?' at our London Store on Thursday 6th August 2015 from 6.30pm to 8.00pm.

Join best-selling YA author and screenwriter Sarah Alderson as she talks about her new travel memoir Can We Live Here? - a wildly entertaining and inspiring tale of her and her family’s global search for home.

Quitting their jobs in London, Sarah, her husband and their 3 year old daughter spent eight months travelling the world looking for a place to settle before they landed in Bali and immediately knew they’d found what they were looking for.

From navigating India with a toddler, to battling black magic curses in Indonesia, to close encounters with bears in the US, Can We Live Here? is part travel memoir, part guide to quitting your job and following your dreams.

Sarah will be reading excerpts, talking about her family’s journey and how it changed their life, and signing books.

Tickets are £3
For tickets and more information click here

Five years into my career as an author and I’m finally at the stage where I write full time and I need only submit an opening chapter and synopsis to my publishers in order to get a book deal. I make money as an author. I don’t take that for granted. I’m aware that next year I could be in the position of not being able to sell a book to any publisher (this doesn’t scare me that much as I’ve already self-published and would do so again).

It’s become harder than ever to get a book deal. I’ve seen my advances shrink over the last four years. And they were never exactly big to begin with. Publishing is a difficult business to be in. It offers very little in the way of security or certainty. Between worrying about reviews, sales, whether your next book is going to be any good and whether you’re going to be dropped by your publisher there are days I find it hard to summon enthusiasm for writing.

And let’s not glamorise being a writer. It’s a job. It’s how I pay the bills. It’s my only source of income. I work 12-15 hour days a lot of the time, mainly on PR and marketing. My writing takes up less and less time as I struggle to make a name for myself in an increasingly saturated market place.

Someone asked me yesterday how it’s possible to quit the day job and become a full-time writer. My advice would be not to. Don’t quit your day job. Not unless you –

- Have a private source of income to sustain you during the lean months.

- Are the one in a million author who signs a seven figure deal for your first book, alongside a major film deal.

- Have a partner who can pick up the slack in the months you are waiting for your advance to get paid.

- Can move somewhere like South East Asia where you can live on a lot less (this is what I did!).

How do I manage to write full time on an author’s ‘salary’?

- I live in Bali. There is simply no way that I could live on what I earn in the ‘west’.

- I have a husband who earns more than me and who can pick up the slack when I’m broke.

- I earn extra money by running workshops on writing and retreats.

- I sold the option for Hunting Lila to a film production company (highly recommend this!).

- I learned screenwriting and was paid to co-write the screenplay for Hunting Lila.

- I got myself a film agent off the back of spec writing several scripts and my rep as an author and am now moving more fully into screenwriting (that’s where the real money is and I enjoy telling a story through this medium).

- I stopped providing free content or giving my time away unless there was a valuable return (fundamental lesson: value your time).

- I write books that are as ‘filmic’ as possible in the hope that they get optioned (you’re looking at between $5000-10,000 a year just for option rights, so if you can get it this is a brilliant passive income stream).

- I write fast. I am prolific. I write 3-4 books a year. And I now have two publishers, meaning that I can publish around 3 books a year (remember a publisher will normally only publish one book a year). If you are going to spend ten years writing a book then forget being able to live on the advance.

People are always remarking on how successful I am. Yes, from the outside I am successful. Eight books in four years with major publishers, worldwide translation deals, a film deal, a life in Bali. I’m incredibly blessed. I love my life. I travel, I have no ‘boss’, no 20 days holiday a year, no working for ‘the man’. But I also have no security and no savings. Would I change that? No. Never. I love my life and my job.

To anyone who wants to become an author though and visualises a life of glamour and riches I hope this post has given a more truthful look at the reality. I do live an amazing life. What people aren’t seeing however are the evenings when I lie on my bed crying and demanding to know from my husband that everything is going to be OK. They also don’t see the 15 hour days spent slogging.

To be a writer requires not just the skin of a rhinoceros, it also requires nerves of steel and the ability to accept uncertainty and thrive on that (oh, and a talent for social media). ☺

Sarah writes young adult fiction for Simon & Schuster UK & US. Her novels include: Hunting Lila, Losing Lila, Fated, The Sound, Out of Control and Conspiracy Girl.

She also writes adult fiction for Pan Macmillan under the name Mila Gray.

Come Back To Me is just 99p on Amazon right now. And if you share this picture on Instagram / Twitter or FB you could win a signed limited edition early copy of the paperback!

Just don't forget to tag me in the post. @sarahalderson on Twitter
@sarahaldersonauthor on Instagram

Check out my website here for more details

Come Back to Me

Come Back To Me is just $1.69 / 99p on Amazon right now. And if you share this picture on Instagram / Twitter or FB you could win a signed limited edition early copy of the paperback!

Just don't forget to tag me in the post. @sarahalderson on Twitter
@sarahaldersonauthor on Instagram

Check out my website here for more details

Come Back to Me

7 things you don’t know about my books

1. I wrote Hunting Lila on a borrowed laptop on my bed, every evening after work. It took me four months. It sold to Simon & Schuster 3 months later.

2. The character of Alex Wakeman was based in part on the actor Alex Skarsgard, after I saw him in Generation Kill playing a Marine. But I borrowed my husband’s eyes and personality (yes, I am the luckiest woman to be married to a real-life Alex Wakeman).

3. I never thought about being a writer until I was 31 and quit my job and needed something to pay the bills (oh, how ironic).

4. I have two books sitting in my drop box folder that I haven’t yet published. One is a dystopia set on a slave-carrying ship in space, and the other is a literary fiction book based on a relationship I had in my early 20s with a South African guy who grew up under apartheid.

5. Though Come Back To Me is my first new adult book, I’ve actually published an erotica too - under a pen name I will never tell anyone. I took the world from Fated and put a twist on it!

6. I set all my books in places that I’ve been. I love California and New York. I nannied in Nantucket. That’s why I set all my books there.

7. I’ve just written the screenplay for the Hunting Lila movie. The BFI funded the development of the script and we have an amazing production team behind it. Now we just need to find a director and finance it!

I have set up a Rafflecopter contest which you can enter via my website

The prizes include a £60 voucher to the store of your choice, £20 Amazon Voucher and signed books. It's only open for another two days!

(the original appeared on Serendipity Reviews wonderful book blog!)

Come Back to Me IS OUT tomorrow (19th June) in the UK.

To celebrate I'm running a giveaway over on my website:

click here to enter

You can win ££ vouchers and a signed copy of OUT OF CONTROL.

1. Make sure you’re pitching to the right agent.

Buy the Writers’ and Artists’ Handbook (in the UK). Identify those agents that rep your genre. Google them and find out what their submission guidelines are.

Check out who their clients are. This will give you an idea of how big a player they are — how much influence they have in the publishing world.

An agent with lots of high profile authors might not have as much time for you as an agent with fewer clients. On the upside a bigger agent will have more influence with publishers and be able to get your MS onto desks quicker.

Don’t go overboard with contacting every agent in the book. I contacted 12. I had 7 responses, two of which were very polite no thank yous, three of which were ‘we really think this has potential but we have no room on our list’, and 2 who wanted to sign me immediately.

I signed with the agent who I felt I had the best rapport with but she also happened to be very established with a great client list.

2. Have a complete manuscript

If pitching fiction you MUST have a complete manuscript. It must be edited to the best of your ability and as good as you can make it. Don’t waste an agent’s time by submitting a partial.

3. Keep your cover letter brief and to the point

Keep your cover letter to a maximum three paragraphs. In the first para introduce yourself briefly. Try to think of a hook about yourself — what sets you apart from the thousand other people on the slush pile alongside you. I mentioned in my letter the fact I had just quit my job and was going travelling around the world with my family to find a new place to live.

Mention any cool awards or work you’ve had published (but only if they are impressive — leave out any High School awards etc).

In the second paragraph talk about your book. Do NOT say that you think it is the next ‘Harry Potter / Hunger Games / Dan Brown’, nor that everyone you’ve shown it to thinks it’s guaranteed to become a bestseller. No surer way to send your MS to the bottom of the pile.

Detail what the genre of your book is (young adult / new adult / literary fiction / contemporary / sci-fi), how many words the manuscript is and, if for kids, what age it is aimed at.

- In the third paragraph detail how you can be contacted and why you are interested in working with that agent (without being sycophantic).

4. Follow the individual submission guidelines to the letter.

Never submit a handwritten MS. Make sure it’s formatted neatly in Arial or similar, at 12pt, with 1.5 spacing (and not on pink paper).

5. Don’t harass the agent for an answer.

They will respond if they are interested.

Sarah Alderson is repped by Amanda Preston at Luigi Bonomi Associates. She has published 5 books with Simon & Schuster UK & US and 1 book with Pan Macmillan under the name Mila Gray.

www.sarahalderson.com

@sarahalderson

I’m at a kids birthday party when a woman I barely know grabs me by the arm and declares: ‘I have an idea that you should write about.’

I glance over her shoulder for the exits, my smile fixing into place, wondering if I should tell her it’s not ideas I’m lacking just hours in the day. ’Human trafficking,’ she announces, ‘you need to write about it.’

I tell her with an apologetic shrug that I write young adult fiction; ‘lots of car chases, hot boys and kissing. That sort of thing.’ Even as I say it, I can feel myself shrinking in her estimation, and, it must be admitted, my own. She’s talking about human trafficking and how it affects over thirty million people worldwide and I’m talking about girls with mind powers and shape-shifting demons.

I left the party with a niggling feeling, which was compounded when I got home by the sight of a post-it stuck over my desk with ‘make your words count’ scrawled on it.

With my first four books, all published by Simon & Schuster, I had established a name as a writer of fast-paced thrillers. When asked about my inspiration I frequently cited Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sarah Conor from Terminator (Yes, I am that highbrow).

While I’d always prided myself on the fact my female protagonists were kickass and intelligent, now I was confronted by the fact I could be writing something with real power, something that could have impact, something that could potentially help change lives.

‘No,’ my agent sagely advised. ‘A book about human trafficking is very hard to sell.’

She was right of course and there was also the fact that I had no real authority or knowledge of the subject. True, I had no knowledge about telekinesis or secret military units either and this had never stopped me writing about them (Wikipedia, Google and my imagination are my best friends) but human trafficking was something else entirely.

So I sat down to write my next novel - inspired by a combination of Ryan Gosling in Drive, the police station scene in Terminator and a trip to New York - and had an epiphany. I could write about human trafficking after all. I would slide it sneakily into the book. It would still be a young adult thriller, with all the chases, action and kissing required, but at the heart of it would be a human trafficking conspiracy. Immediately I started researching and chatting with friends who worked for the UN, discovering that more people today are enslaved that at any other point in history and that human trafficking has fast become the third largest criminal industry in the world.

Instead of writing about a victim, something I didn’t feel confident enough to do, my protagonist became the teenage daughter of a man who runs a government task force tackling gang-related trafficking and I set her in the midst of a conspiracy involving her father and the New York gangs he’s up against.

The book was eagerly received by my publisher in the UK and snapped up by Simon & Schuster in New York too, making me realise that just because I write young adult fiction doesn’t mean I have to write about sparkly vampires and love triangles. But neither do I have to sacrifice thrills and action in order to make a serious point.

As an author I’ve learned that empowering teenagers isn’t just about giving them strong role models, it’s also about using the medium of storytelling to open their eyes to issues that we all need to take a stand on.

Out of Control by Sarah Alderson (published by Simon & Schuster) is OUT NOW.


http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/
http://www.antislavery.org/english/
http://www.stopthetraffik.org/

This feature originally appeared in The Big Issue (may '14)

Haters gonna Hate. I have those words etched on a post-it stuck right over my desk. It’s a daily reminder to stay away from Goodreads and to avoid Googling myself. Obviously I fail. It’s like trying to tell me to stay away from coffee and chocolate. I know they aren’t good for me but I CAN’T HELP MYSELF.

I still remember being about 8 years old and sobbing to my dad about something — probably about only getting the silver in the Beckenham Festival for my poetry recital — and him telling me ‘one hundred people can tell you you’re amazing and if just one person tells you you’re not, why do you listen to the one?’

BECAUSE I’M HUMAN? (Because I wanted the gold?)

Show me a person who doesn’t listen to that one in a hundred? It’s hard, I’d go so far to say, impossible not to. One must develop a thick skin in life. One must develop the skin of a diamond-plated rhinoceros to be a writer.

The more public notice I get as a writer (I now have seven books published), the harder the job becomes in many ways. I am so dependent on reviews that when a new book comes out I glue myself to Amazon and Goodreads, hitting refresh every five minutes, adrenaline rushing like a tidal wave through me at the sight of a new star rating. Heart rate pumping, a bubble of nausea rising up the throat, fists clenching unclenching. I’m pathetic. And I loathe myself for caring. But of course I do. My career is on the line. Or, at least, that is how it feels.

I am living on Cortisol and coffee right now. I had a book come out in the US on Tuesday, another coming out this Thursday in the UK, and yet another is out in a month. Reviews are coming in for all three so I feel triply tripped out.

Luckily the reviews are all so far pretty good and I’m happy, but like I said, there’s always that one in 100 that makes me teeter for a moment over the abyss called QUITTING.

—-

I want to take this moment to differentiate between critics and haters. I’ve received bad reviews, but beautifully written ones, with great constructive feedback, which I’ve taken on board and really appreciated. They’ve helped me improve my writing. If you get this kind of feedback, toss it aside like a tennis ball or toy with it, take it on board, and then toss it aside.

For the purposes of this post though I’m not talking about them. I’m talking here about haters. The people who use memes and gifs as well as words to tear apart your book, often spending what appears to be more time constructing their ‘review’ than you took to even write the book in the first place. They take the piss, sling low blows and are just plain, well, mean… There’s nothing constructive in their review. Only destructive.

They are laughing at someone, encouraging other people to laugh at someone — someone who has tried and put themselves out there, into the arena. That’s bullying in my mind. And the people who then ‘like’ these posts are the same people that stand in a circle and egg a bully on.

So what do you do in this situation — when confronted by a review that eviscerates you, makes you cry and want to quit and call down all sorts of Tarantino-style retribution on their heads?

Here are my 8 steps to dealing with haters. I hope they help.

Don’t ever respond.
That’s a given. Not even if they have fundamentally misunderstood every word you wrote and you want to help clear up that misunderstanding. Not if they have insulted your child or your face or your dog or anything. DO NOT FEED THE BEAST. It will never work out in your favor. EVER.

And besides, if they are not in the arena, daring greatly, what do you care what they say? (see point 8).

2. Remember it’s NEVER about you. It’s about them.

When people are vitriolic or plain nasty they are often using you as a dumping pot for all their own issues. They see you and your efforts and then they see their own failings, their own frustrations reflected back at them, and vent on you. In which case empathy is the answer because…

3. …This person is sad

Honestly, I never write bad reviews. Sure, I read books I don’t enjoy. I stop reading them and move on. Life is too short. Do I then feel the need to rant and rave about said book? No. Because I know exactly how much work and effort and dedication and sweat and tears it takes to write a book (also, usually I’m too busy reading the next book!).

I herald anyone who goddamn tries. In my opinion haters must be really unhappy. Who needs to belittle the efforts of others to feel big about themselves? Not a happy, well-adjusted person who loves themselves. I know this. I’m 36 years old. It’s taken me a while to get there but now, surrounded by happy, well-adjusted people, I know for a fact that only unhappy, wounded people feel the need to attack others and humiliate / destroy them. Happy people do not act this way! So therefore…

4. Offer loving kindness

OK, I admit this one takes practice. But my philosophy is that the more you hold onto the anger and sadness the more it brings you down. Yes you want to rant and rave at the mean, horrible asshole who wrote such nasty things about the book you spent months crafting but that’s WHAT THEY WANT. Why are you going to give them what they want?

Take a deep breath and in the words of Elsa (or was it Anna?) let it go instead.

Meditate for ten minutes offering compassion and loving kindness towards them. Imagine them bathing in white light. Sounds bliss ninny I know but what it does is release you from the chains of negativity that bind you to the reviewer and it allows you to move on with peace — better than dwelling and stewing in hate and sadness. And who knows, maybe the reviewer, might suddenly have an awakening. And even if they didn’t, you can dream that they have!

5. Be successful!

Nothing destroys a hater like success.

I love this quote from Tina Fey, collecting her Golden Globe for Best Actress:

“If you ever feel too good about yourself, they have this thing called the Internet and there you can find a lot of people who don’t like you. And I would like to address some of them now…You can suck it.”

Haters want you to quit. Nothing would give them greater pleasure than to see you fail because then their own failings won’t seem so bad in comparison. They can then keep on telling themselves; ‘hah, what’s the point of even trying? Everyone fails.’

Are you going to give them that satisfaction? No. Goddamn it you are not. GET BACK ON THAT HORSE. Trample the haters into the dust with your next book which will be so awesome it will win you thousands of new fans (and of course a few more haters, because if you are doing something well…you’re going to get haters…).

6. Make good art

Watch this masterpiece by Vi Hart on how to deal with negative comments and trolls.

She reminds us that to create is much braver and more difficult than to destroy and that haters have no power over you that you don’t give them.

And when you’re done watching that, watch this film by Neil Gaiman which reminds us that the only worthwhile response to hate is to make good art!

Thank you to Brainpickings, my favourite website for putting me onto these videos.

7. Laugh

Laughter helps lift the spirits. It puts everything into perspective. It helps. I love Emma Stone. This is what she does when she Googles herself.

‘I don’t usually like what I find,’ she says. ‘But some of it is really funny.’ Stone mentions Internet comments that referred to her as a ‘Bland Basic Bitch,’ which was probably meant as a dig, but she found it hilarious, to the point that at dinner she now begins to refer to herself as ‘That Bland Basic Bitch.’

8. Keep being vulnerable

Although it hurts sometimes more than you think you can bear, being vulnerable is the only way to live. Brenee Brown is one of my heroes. Her TED talk on Daring Greatly, and her book of the same title, really nails it.

“It’s not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the person who is in the arena. Whose face is marred with dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly … who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly …”

As Brown says: “If we want to be courageous and we want to be in the arena, we’re going to get our butts kicked. There is no option. If you want to be brave and show up in your life, you’re going to fail. You’re going to stumble. You’re going to fall. It’s part of showing up.

I think being vulnerable feels dangerous, and I think it feels scary, and I think it is terrifying,” she says. “But I don’t think it’s as dangerous, scary, or terrifying as getting to the end of our lives and wondering, what if I would have shown up? That, to me, is what daring greatly is.’

Watch her awesome speech whenever you need a boost.

Engrave this on your soul. Never forget to dare greatly. Is writing hate-filled reviews daring greatly? It is not. Is writing a book or creating any form of art daring greatly? YES!

So you my friend have already won.

VIEW THIS POST ON MEDIUM (and get the links) https://medium.com/p/ad3e52e208db

Sarah is the author of young adult novels Hunting Lila, Losing Lila, Fated, The Sound and Out of Control (all Simon & Schuster). Her first adult novel Come Back To Me is out June (published by Pan Macmillan).

Follow her on Twitter @sarahalderson

www.sarahalderson.com

The Sound is out today in the US.

link: Here's a little video of me talking about my inspiration for the book (I nannied in Nantucket when I was 17) and reading from a section.

I'm also running a giveaway. over on my Facebook page

Do help me spread the word by telling all your friends and if you did love the book then please also add your review to GR or Amazon. We authors really do need those reviews! :)