BOOKBUSTERS | BookClub discussion

For the contemporary month of January, BookBusters will be reading For Real by Alison Cherry! You can add For Real to your Goodreads TBR here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Author Alison Cherry will be answering your questions, please ask them here! Ask her anything, it's a free Q&A with the author of the book we're reading this month!

You can buy For Real HERE on Amazon!! You can also buy For Real HERE on BookDepository with FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING!!

The For Real liveshow will be on February 1st at 7:30 PM EST on Grace’s Channel, LovingDemBooks (https://www.youtube.com/user/lovingde...). You can RVSP TO THE LIVESHOW HERE: https://www.goodreads.com/event/show/...

Don't forget to use the tag #READFORREAL on social media while reading!

SO EXITED!

Arezoe wrote: "SO EXITED!"

I AM TOO!!

Very exited to read this book!

Question for Alison Cherry: What advice do you have for a aspiring writer that's struggling to get words on the page, like myself?

Hi, Kente! I have two pieces of advice for you. The first is this: Don't be afraid to suck. Think your draft is terrible? So is absolutely everyone's. I assure you that every book you think is perfect started out as an absolutely awful draft. You can't fix the words until you get them down on the page! When I'm drafting, I write absolutely everything that comes into my head, regardless of whether it's terrible or serves the story. When I'm done, I usually have to go back and cut 20,000-30,000 words of extraneous feelings and boring dialogue and paragraphs where I've said exactly the same thing six different ways. But the great words hide in among the awful ones, and that's the only way I've found to get them out effectively!

The other piece of advice comes from Anne Lamott's brilliant book BIRD BY BIRD. (I highly recommend you read the whole thing!) She suggests you look at your writing in terms of small assignments. When you sit down to write, she suggests you focus on just one thing that can fit inside a one-inch-by-one-inch picture frame. Instead of thinking, "I have to write the Thanksgiving dinner chapter," tell yourself you only have to write the description of the food on the table, or what everyone says when they go around the table and share what they're thankful for, or a portrait of the main character's dad asleep in front of the football game after the meal is over. If you finish your tiny assignment and want to do another, go for it, but you only HAVE to do one. They add up quickly. :)

Best of luck to you!

I have a question! Oh my, well this is bogus of me saying it to the internet but heres the truth. Last year I have gotten straight A's in english. But last term I got a freaking C! I swear I dont know what the hell happended that made me drop big time, like seriously I work hard everyday and schools all I have got. I CANT BELIEVE IM SAYING ALL THIS. But I know there are times that everyone feels like giving up, so Im asking you...What would you do if you were in my shoes?

So my question is: after what draft do you send your manuscript out to agents? I know there's the first draft, where you're just getting everything out there and it's rough. What happens after that? Do you send it out for querying or do you edit? Are there specific stages of drafts (write, proofread, revisions, etc.)?
Sorry if the questions don't really make sense, but I've just always been wondering this, as I want to try to be published one day

Arezoe wrote: "I have a question! Oh my, well this is bogus of me saying it to the internet but heres the truth. Last year I have gotten straight A's in english. But last term I got a freaking C! I swear I dont k..."

Hi, Arezoe! I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble. Definitely don't give up! Have you spoken to your teacher about the situation? Perhaps he or she has been looking for something you didn't know you were supposed to be doing—a certain kind of critical thinking, a certain structure to your papers, etc. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful, but I don't feel like I know enough about the situation to give any more advice than that!

Maddie wrote: "So my question is: after what draft do you send your manuscript out to agents? I know there's the first draft, where you're just getting everything out there and it's rough. What happens after that..."

Hi, Maddie! Books generally need to go through tons and tons and TONS of revisions before you query agents! I can't really tell you how many rounds of revisions, since everyone's process is different, but you should only start querying when the book is the absolute best, most polished piece of work you can produce on your own. I generally outline my first draft, then write it, doing a bunch of editing as I go. Then I do one huge overhaul by myself before sending it to three or four critique partners. They give me notes, and I do another huge overhaul, then read the entire thing out loud to myself before sending it along to my agent and editor. (You catch a lot more things when you hear it out loud, trust me!) Then I do ANOTHER huge overhaul with them, followed by three more smaller revisions—line edits (changes on a sentence-by-sentence level,) copy edits (nitpicky little stuff like misplaced hyphens,) and first pass pages (proofreading.) It's a very, very long process.

So, the first thing you need is some critique partners. If you know some other aspiring writers, you might ask them to read for you. If not, you might consider joining a forum like AbsoluteWrite... I'm not a member, but I'm pretty sure people meet critique partners there sometimes. If you're over 18, you can join SCBWI (the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators,) which has a service to match people with CPs. When you are ready to query, check out AgentQuery.com; it's full of great resources about writing a successful query letter and finding the right agent for you. Good luck!

Question for Alison Cherry: What inspired you to write this book? I love the game show aspect. I thought it was different.

Hi, Gabriella! The idea for this book originated in 2011, when I was trying to sell my first book. I was complaining to a friend how difficult it was, and she tried to comfort me by saying that breaking into publishing is incredibly hard for everyone, unless you're a reality TV star or something. That got me thinking about ulterior motives people might have for auditioning for reality TV, even if they didn't actually LIKE reality TV. Originally, I considered writing about a girl who went on a reality show for writers in order to win a book deal, and I think we can all be glad I abandoned that train of thought, as it would've been unbelievably boring. (Weirdly, there IS now a reality TV show for writers in Italy that's nearly identical to the one I made up...)

That's actually really cool. I really enjoyed reading it. (:

For Real was so good! Read it in one sitting.

Thanks, Julia! :)

i just bought the book today and i am already reading it .. so excited

I read the book and it was soo good, for real!
I loved how the ending had resolved in a way that benifited everyone! I really loved the TEAM REVENGE idea aswell
Is there going to be like a book 2? I know the race ended but, I think I would love it if there was more to it!
Ps: I LAUGHED SOO HARD AT THE FINAL LEG

Arzoe wrote: "I read the book and it was soo good, for real!
I loved how the ending had resolved in a way that benifited everyone! I really loved the TEAM REVENGE idea aswell
Is there going to be like a book 2?..."

Thanks so much, Arzoe! I'm glad you enjoyed it. There is not going to be a sequel, but I do have another unrelated YA called LOOK BOTH WAYS coming out in the summer of 2016!