Julie Swanson

December 6, 2024

 

A couple weeks ago I received some workups for ideas for the cover of my middle grade novel, North of Tomboy (coming out next fall in September of 2025). Although none of them were just right, I was pleasantly surprised that I liked things about almost all of the six or seven ideas I was presented with to look over and give feedback on, and one of them stood out to me as a favorite that I think could be really good with some changes that shouldn't be hard to do, as far as the artwork.

 

Why was I pleasantly surprised, am I a pessimist who expects the worst? No, but as someone who is artistic herself and has such a definite vision of what she wants her cover to project about her book, I was afraid I might be expecting too much. I can be a perfectionist, and this was one part of my book that I had to totally give over to someone else.

 

Would I have liked to design my own cover? No, not totally by myself, but I would like input, and the final say as to, yes, it's ready. I was and have been asked for ideas, lots of them--examples of book covers I like, stock images that seem to fit my main character, photos, ideas for images that might be used on it, fonts I like, colors, color combos, styles... I actually couldn't believe how much input the cover art team gives authors. But while I might have an artistic eye, I don't necessarily know what sells, what's current in the middle grade cover world. Yes, I looked at many recently published middle grade books (art vs. realitic photographs seems to be the thing now) and YA books, (again, art), but as to what kind of art? That was all over the place. In a world where so many books are sold online, a cover image the size of a stamp (on a cell phone or iPad) has to pop, so often the small, little details aren't as important or readily visible, don't show unless a person is interested enough to click on it and see it larger. I didn't want a cover that might look dated either. For those reasons, I really wanted my cover to be designed by someone who does this for a living and considers things in terms of 2024 and beyond. And the cover art team seems receptive to feedback, so I'm excited to see what they do with it. We'll see... Hopefully I can share the cover soon!

 

 

Last week I found out that my publisher's going to stick with the title I've been using for my middle grade novel that's coming out next fall. I hadn't heard, and many other authors in our SparkPress "cohort" of Fall 2025 authors were saying that their titles had been changed, or were going to be changed once they could agree/decide on a new one, but that you really couldn't be sure what your title was until they (someone at the SparkPress) told you they were keeping your title or changing it, and that if they wanted to change it, they would come up with suggestions, things they liked better, but that it was a collaborative thing and they were very good at coming up with title ideas. I haven't heard a thing about my title (sometimes for me, ignorance is bliss, and I'd rather be in the dark than ask and hear the scary answer; but there usually comes a point where I just really need/want to know...), so last week in a Zoom with the publisher to discuss my illustrations, I got up the courage to ask if they'd decided to keep my title or change it. She said something to the effect of, "Oh, we thought you knew; we like it." Phew. So, North of Tomboy it is. Smile. And she said they're fine using the endpaper maps and the little black and white sketches I drew (spot illustrations and vignettes are scattered throughout the book, usually at chapter headings)--they only asked me to improve upon two of them. Another smile. Now I'm curious to see the cover art they come up with for the book...

 

 

(...my new book that's coming out September 2025, that is; see my last Newsletter entry, below this one...)

 

September 4, 2024

 

I always wanted it to be middle grade, worked hard to make it middle grade and thought it was, but there was some talk that it might be marketed as young adult. I'm relieved that it's not. Nothing wrong with YA books (my first published novel was YA, Going for the Record, Eerdmans BFYR, 2004, 2021), but the main character of my story starts out at 9+ years old ends it at 10+, and the story's innocent and young in nature, so I just didn't see teens being interested in a story about a kid that age (not unless they were like my main character growing up). 

It's interesting that some books with younger main characters are marketed as YA, or even adult. I'll never forget when The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (by Kristin Kemp) came out in 2006 and was marketed as YA when it has a main character who's nine. Yes, it's about Auschwitz and the Holocaust and much of that might be a bit much for young kids, depending on how it's presented, how in depth, but I just wondered how many young adult readers would choose to read about a nine-year-old, or how the publisher was going to make sure younger readers or their parents would come to know about this book. Maybe they felt they had to do this, given the subject matter (I read somewhere that the author himself didn't recommend it for 9-year-old readers), so that parents could decide whether or not to let their children read this. My son was nine at the time it came out. We read books together nightly, a chapter or more at bedtime from some middle grade novel. So I decided to try this book out with him, thinking I could assess as I read to him, stop and talk over or explain anything that seemed difficult or too much for him. We devoured this book; he seemed very interested. We had some great discussions, and nothing brought up by the story seemed to be more than he could understand or handle (I mean who can really understand what happened there?). But I thought it was an interesting choice, to initially market that book as YA. It was reviewed by Booklist as for "Gr. 7-10" and by School Library Journal as for "Grade 9 Up," and I've read other places that it's recommended for teens and adults, but I see now on Amazon that the reading age, according to customers, is given as 9+. So maybe more middle graders are getting their hands on this book now, years after it came out. Books like this are tricky. I tend to agree that this might be one that's best read with a parent, and yet if my son had come home from the school library with this one as a 9-year-old or if I'd found out he was reading it at school all on his own during silent reading each day, I don't think I'd have been worried or upset, even if I knew what the book was about.
 
Having said all that about The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and a story theme that could be considered too mature/difficult for younger readers, I don't see my book as being in that catagory. Yes, my book deals with gender-identity, but in a totally non-sexual and historical way (by which I mean no one is discussing LGBTQ labels/issues or putting anything on the kid or in their mind as some suggest is happening currently; except for the misogyny inherent in my mc's culture, which isn't to be dismissed, everything else is coming from within the kid and how they feel/think/percieve things. I don't see my book ending up on a banned book list, but then I wouldn't have predicted a lot of the books that are on banned book lists would be!

 

 

August 30, 2024

 

I'm excited to announce that I have a new book coming out, tentative publication date of September 2, 2025. I don't want to say too much too soon, but it's juvenile historical fiction set in 1972-73, a semi-autobiographical novel. More to come as I can reveal title and cover. But it's been a long time coming and will be available everywhere books are sold.

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"It is only by expressing all that is inside that purer and purer streams come."
~Brenda Uela­nd

My favorite Writing Books:

The Virgin's Promise, by Kim Hudson

 

Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Magic Words, by Cheryl B. Cline

 

Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Behind the Plot, by Peter Dunne

ME, by Brenda Ueland

If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland

On Writing, by Stephen King

Walking on Water, by Madeliene L'Engle

The Forest for the Trees; An Editor's Advice to Writers, by Betsy Lerner

Take Joy, by Jane Yolen

Bird by Bird; Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott

Plot, by Ansen Dibell

Beginnings, Middles & Ends, by Nancy Kress

The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler

Picture Writing, by Anastasia Suen

Writers Dreaming, by Naomi Epel

Hooked, by Les Edgerton

Scene and Structure, by Jack Bickham

 

Save the Cat!, by Blake Snyder

 

The Plot Whisperer, by Martha Alderson

I don't pretend to have any writerly advice to give that you can't read a hundred other places. Read, write, write, write, get feedback, revise. Learn all you can wherever and from whoever you can. I would only add; pour it all out there, every little thing you want to, and then prune it, perfect it, ...however long that takes.

For me, it's all about patience and persistance. That's not a fun thing to hear when you are starting out (or when you've just published your first book and are trying to get someone interested in your other manuscripts!) but it's the truth. When I look back and think of some of the things I submitted and how I hoped and prayed that someone would publish them, I just have to say, "Thank God for unanswered prayers!" Time and waiting are really not your enemies; they are your friends. With them, you will only get better, and when that story of yours is finally published it will be so much better than it is now. And if that story means so much to you that you have years' worth of hard work invested in it, then don't you really want to do justice to it and have it be the best it can be?

So we write on, and we believe in what we're doing because we have this story we just have to share. Is it worth it? Is the story that important that we should invest so much in it when we could be doing other things with our time? If we are still working away at it years later (I've been working on one for 37 years, and I still have not lost any enthusiasm for it), then it must be that important to us. And if we are working so hard on something, then it cannot help but be good when it is finished. I don't think that sort of investment is selfish--quite the opposite, I think it is very unselfish to want to share something that badly. To put yourself out there in front of everybody, naked, and not to be doing it for money (most of us will never earn a living doing this), but because you have this story you just must share. That's work that is love.

I write for the child I used to be, and for all of them out there who struggle with the same things I struggled with, or love the same things I loved, the child who I know is dying to read the book I'm writing.

And in all honesty, I also write in the hope (however naive) that one day my writing will enable me to contribute financially to my family. Ha!