Writing in the Multiverse

Recently I've been working on a requested revision of a picture book for my agent. It's a quite a bit different than the original, which is not uncommon for picture book revisions. Often a revision is a complete rewrite, taking the same concept down to a blank page and beginning anew. Other times, it's more like a variation on the motif -- new elements added, others deleted, to stay at that elusive 600 word mark within the framework. Sometimes at the end, only a handful of the original words remain.

But this version is a split from my original story -- an alternative, not replacing my previous one, but existing alongside it. Which is the real version? They both are. It feels like I'm writing in a multiverse -- each story is an equally true, existing at the same time. 

I have a friend who rewrote a fantasy into a realistic contemporary into a ghost story. Same character, same motivation, but that single character lives in a different instance of the multiverse where her story plays out in different ways, where magic is real or not real or operates under different rules.

Writing in a multiverse has its challenges. When the versions diverge,  commas corrected or sentences tightened in one version remain in the others. It's frustrating to come across an error you remember fixing, only to realize you were working in another universe when you fixed it.  

Rewriting a book in another direction can be an interesting exercise, whether the revision is requested by an editor or agent, or the writer is trying to make a well-loved story more saleable. Or maybe he's just wondering what would happen if some condition in the story changed -- what if the character chose a different option from a "choose your own adventure" map.

So when you have two or five versions of the same multiverse, which is the true one? For me, it will be the one that gets published. But until then, they are equally true.

Do you have more than one version of a story with a major change or different set of rules? Do you keep separate versions of any novels or does the new version always overwrite the other? Have you ever a sold a version of the story that you didn't feel was your "A" version -- that another iteration was better or truer?

The Blank Page

It's nearly 2013, which means the New Year's Revisions Conference is almost here. But it also means turning a new page on the calendar.

Writers often say that you can't revise a blank page, but on a calendar, the blank pages are the only ones we can change. The future is ours to write, shape, change as we will, even as events and forces change us. It is the past we cannot revise.

Serial writers -- from Dickens to TV series to comics -- may have a plan, but they write and publish as they go. That's how life works too -- we're always fast-drafting. Hopefully we get better at it as we learn from mistakes.

And as 2013 approaches and 2012, my page looks very blank. How will I fill it? What will I write? I'm not even sure of the genre. What career moves will I make? It's clear that "career" for now is something that exists alongside my writing, and that's a blank page too.

I'm proud of the page I wrote in 2012. I published a book,  signed with an agent, wrote some new manuscripts, and returned to on-site employment after years of freelancing. Mostly importantly, I spent another wonderful year with my daughters, husband, and family, and that's what I'll remember when the calendar is 50 years advanced. 

So bring on the blank page. It's not empty. It's unmarred, unspoiled. It's unwritten, and I'm ready to write it.

In Operation Awesome News: 

Get ready now for the Critique Partner Match-up on January 3rd, leading into our New Year's Revisions Conference on the 4th, 5th, and 6th. 

Not to mention a January Mystery Agent Contest on January 1st. If your page is blank now, it soon won't be!

Why I Lost a Y: On Pen Names

Now that my friends and family are finally getting their hands on DEADWOOD, they keep asking the same question:

What happened to the Y?

DEADWOOD by Kell Andrews (not Kelly!)
Order from Amazon now!

That's because I'm publishing under the name Kell Andrews, and all my real-life friends and acquaintances know me as Kelly, with a Y (not an I, IE, or EY). So let's get this straight: The missing Y is not a typo! It's a pen name.

As pen names go, this one isn't exactly a secret identity, but it has advantages. Kell is more gender-neutral, which is helpful since I'm trying to reach boy and girl readers with my middle-grade fiction. Kell Andrews is more unique --  I'm the only Kell Andrews in the U.S., while I'm one of 261 people (81.79% of us female) named Kelly Andrews -- not to mention Kelli, Kellie, and Kelley Andrews, and those in other countries around the world.

But the real problem was Google. Not only do other Kelly Andrews dominate, there are some that I definitely don't want to mix with on a search results page.

I'm not talking about Kelly Andrews who is the head of the Green Party in Northern Ireland. I wouldn’t mind being confused with her.

I mean Kelly Andrews, the English "glamour model" (wink, nudge), whose photos dominate the first page of Google and are definitely NSFW, and even less safe for a kidlit writer who is trying to reach 8- to 13-year-olds and their parents, teachers, and librarians.

So Kell I am, at least as far as my books go. My pen name is unique but easy. I own the domain www.kellandrews.com. It's recognizable to those who know me. And it's recognizable to ME, so that if someone calls me Kell, I don't look for someone standing behind me.

Good Reasons for Pen Names

Real name is too common. You might need something to distinguish you from similarly named writers -- although Dan Brown and Suzanne Collins did OK with boring names. 

Real name is too difficult. If your name is hard to spell, potential readers might not find you in search engines. If it's hard to say, they won't talk about you for fear of botching it.

You write in several genres. If you write in unrelated genres, like adult nonfiction and picture books, different names might allow you to distinguish your identities. This is common even with closely related subgenres, such as romance, where many writers use different names for contemporary versus historical or paranormal romances, or to indicated different heat levels.

Your day job (or your writing) is sensitive. Many writers like to keep their writing and career identities separate. This is especially common for the spicier genres.

You publish in several modes. Writers who publish with traditional presses and self-publish sometimes keep the identities separate, often for the same reasons as above.



What are your thoughts on pen names? Anybody famous (or infamous) have your name? What’s a good reason to write under an assumed name? Do you use your own name or another one?

And here's an article from Rachelle Gardner on this subject:

Should I Use a Nom de Plume?

Getting Ready for a Small Press Launch

My debut middle-grade novel, DEADWOOD, will be officially released December 1 by Pugalicious Press (and can be ordered now!), a new small press that is releasing five new titles in its first year of publication, and I'm getting more excited by the day. A small press book release is a bit different than a big one -- at least, my release is. It's a slow build rather than a huge initial push.

DEADWOOD by Kell Andrews - coming December 1!

I’m realistic about what being published with a small press means: my book will have an opportunity to be reach actual readers. I have a gorgeous cover and an editorial and marketing team behind me. I also know what it doesn’t mean: I probably won’t be in the major bookstore chains and big box stores. But you know what? A Big Six publisher is no guarantee of B&N placement either.

I have an additional challenge, since DEADWOOD is a middle-grade book, and middle-grade readers are hard to reach online. Because of that, I decided not to do a huge blog tour, which is the staple for YA books from presses large and small. There just aren't enough blogs for middle-grade kids, and there's evidence that users are tuning out blog tours anyway (interesting discussion at Creepy Query Girl here).

So what am I doing? Through Pugalicious, I spoke with Kirsten Cappy of Curious City, a children's book marketing consultants. We identified some avenues, and she reaffirmed that some of the things I'm doing (many of which I started on the advice of author friend Dee Garretson (WILDFIRE RUN, WOLF STORM), are the right direction. My goal is do school visits and Skype with classrooms, which are two of the most effective ways to reach middle-grade readers, but first I need to build those connections and credibility. That includes:

• Building an online presence that has subject-area information. In addition to writing about writing here at Operation Awesome, I'm blogging about trees and outdoor education at kellandrews.com and treeandtwig.tumblr.com in order to create resources for students, teachers, librarians and parents.
• Reaching out to teachers and librarians. Instead of doing a lot of blog giveways, I'm sending most of my author copies to teachers and librarians who I hope read the book, share it with students, or include it in their collections, and spread the word.
• Reaching out to related educational organizations. Although DEADWOOD is a fantasy, it has a major theme of appreciating connections with the natural world. I'm contacting outdoor educators who might enjoy and share the story. 

This is a lot of work, and I haven't gotten it all done yet. But I don't have to do it all now. Because I'm NOT in big chains, I don't need to sell a ton of books out of the gate or risk flooding the warehouse with thousands of unsold returns.

My goal is to do something everyday -- to write guest posts here and there, to reach out to educators, to spread the word over the course of the next year, not the next few weeks. We'll see what happens -- it's been fun so far, and I'm only getting started.

Here's where you can order DEADWOOD now! Thanks for all the support from the readers of Operation Awesome.

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Books-a-million

IndieBound