Interview with Charlie Holmberg, Newly Agented Writer

I have a really special treat for you guys today! Charlie Holmberg is fresh off the query train, and she has landed herself an agent! Take a look at what she has to say, then feel free to ask her follow up questions in the comments!

“I knew that if I studied and worked hard I would become a stronger writer, and eventually my books would become strong enough to earn merit.”

1. You recently signed with Marlene Stringer of The Stringer Agency. Yay! Tell us a little bit about the manuscript that landed you an agent. 

Yes! I’m so exuberant about it. Honestly, it doesn’t feel real. Yet.

I queried Marlene with THE PAPER MAGICIAN, which is a YA fantasy inspired by Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle. To make things easier on myself, I’ll just post my pitch (WHICH, readers, underwent Lauren’s mighty query skillz):

Nineteen-year-old Ceony never wanted to be a paper magician. After all, she didn’t attend the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined to enchant paper for the rest of her life. But when a shortage of Folders takes away her dreams of be-spelling metal, she’s forced into an apprenticeship under the peculiar Emery Thane.

Though Ceony’s first impression of her teacher pins him as possibly mad, she soon discovers there’s more to the man than paper spells. But just as she begins to appreciate Magician Thane, a woman barges into Thane’s home, rips his heart from his chest, and leaves him to die. Acting quickly, Ceony crafts Thane a paper heart, but the weak organ only grants Thane a couple more days of life at best.

Despite her fledgling abilities in paper magic, Ceony is determined to take back Thane’s heart before the paper replacement fails. But what she doesn’t expect is that to reclaim the heart, she’ll have to literally travel through it—and if learning Thane’s darkest secrets isn’t jarring enough, one wrong move may leave her trapped inside them.

(note from Lauren: Thanks for the shout-out, Charlie! If you guys want to read more about my query editing services, you can check this page out…after you finish reading this interview, of course!)

2. You’ve already detailed your publishing journey thus far over on your blog, but can you tell me more about querying previous manuscripts?

I would hardly say my publishing journey is over, but the road is certainly a lot shorter now!

I’ve been taking writing seriously for about seven years, and THE PAPER MAGICIAN is the ninth book I’ve written, and the sixth I’ve queried. I never queried the first book I finished (it was very flawed and extremely long), and books seven and eight are still in their revision stages.

I queried my second book because my mentor at the time, Brandon Sanderson, more or less required us to do so for our final (this was a creative writing class at Brigham Young University). I only sent out six queries for that book because I knew it wasn’t actually publishable. I only sent out 11 queries for my third book because again, I knew it wasn’t ready to be published (I still hadn’t mastered the active protagonist at this point). I did receive two requests, though. That was nice.

My fourth book was the first one I thought could get me somewhere, and it’s actually currently sitting on an editor’s desk. I queried that one fairly thoroughly, but outside of this particular publisher, I ultimately got rejections all around. My fifth book (man, this list is getting long…) I queried extensively. I got a handful of requests, but they ultimately ended in rejections for one reason or another (one because the magic was too weird, ha!).

I only recently halted queries on my sixth book, FOLLOWED BY FROST, which is also sitting on an editor’s desk. I got several partial requests for it, and even an R&R. Unfortunately, I think I missed out on a lot of agents because the book lacked emotion in the first half. I’ve actually withdrawn the manuscript from a couple agents because I signed with Marlene.

Then there was THE PAPER MAGICIAN, and that’s history. 😉

3. If one manuscript was continuing to be rejected, how did you know it was time to move on to a new project? What was the hardest part about moving forward?

I wouldn’t say there was a “time” I needed to move onto a new project because I always had a new project going. While querying one book I would be revising or outlining another. I stopped querying a book when I simply ran out of agencies and publishers to query, though I did open up to small presses at the beginning of the year.

The hardest part of moving forward for me is when I know a book is good, but I’ve run out of options and fear it will never see the light of day. I didn’t feel this confident about a book until FOLLOWED BY FROST, though, so moving on only started getting hard about a year ago.

4. Was there ever a time you thought about giving up on your writing dream? If so, what motivated you to keep writing?

Never give up, never surrender! /namethatmovie
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I never considered quitting. There were times where I started wondering, “What if this never works out?” But deep down I knew it would. I knew that if I studied and worked hard I would become a stronger writer, and eventually my books would become strong enough to earn merit. The biggest question was, “When?”

I always told myself I could make it to book #13. Brandon Sanderson, who also happens to be my favorite author, was working on book #13 when he sold book #6. So I always told myself, “Just make it to 13!”

5. One of the most impressive aspects of your writing from my point of view is your worldbuilding. Tell me a little bit about your process.

Aw, thanks! That means a lot to me. 🙂

You know, it kind of depends on the book. Six out of my nine books are epic fantasies, and once I have an idea for those, I go to the map. I want to know what the continent looks like, what the country looks like, etc. The way a world works greatly affects the people living on it, and the people affect the stories, so I have to start with the world. Exports, imports, races, customs, cultures, etc. Sometimes I make it from scratch, sometimes I steal it. One of the books currently in revision is based off ancient China, which required a lot of trips to the library.

As far as my YA books go, I get the basic idea of the world and then let it develop from there. My YAs are simpler and smaller in scope, so they don’t need as many specifics. THE PAPER MAGICIAN’s world was inspired by Downtown Abbey, and my sixth book’s world was inspired by Little House on the Prairie. I took those ideas and molded them to fit what I needed.

Anyway, for anyone writing science fiction or fantasy, I definitely recommend How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card. Worldbuilding at its finest.

6. What advice can you give to querying writers? (Bonus points if it’s something other than “keep going!”)
Ha ha! Keep going!

But really, one of the best pieces of advice I ever received for querying was, “If you haven’t queried into the triple-digits, you’re not done querying.” That means at least 100 queries per book! If nothing else, people will start to learn who you are. I had a few agents who knew exactly who I was when I queried them for the second–or sixth–time because I had a query on their desk every three to six months. (And you know that when an agent finally starts calling you “Mrs. Holmberg” instead of “Mr. Holmberg,” they’re getting familiar with you).

My other piece of advice is this: If you’ve sent out partials and aren’t getting any bites, stop and look at your manuscript, especially the pages you’re sending as a sample (usually the first 50). What are you missing? I think I would have had more success with FOLLOWED BY FROST if I had caught the flaw with my first 50 pages sooner. I found a brand new CP who told me what I was missing, and after that I got a lot more requests.

The publishing world really is subjective, so don’t get disheartened. 🙂

Thanks so much for the interview!

And that’s a wrap! If you have questions for Charlie, feel free to ask them in the comments! I also recommend that you follow her on twitter 🙂

 

 

P.S. This post is part of the wonderful Thursday’s Children blog hop! I am so amazed by my writer friends, that I thought I’d let Charlie be my inspiration of the week!

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