As always, a few recent posts from Ask Allison:

(Once again, I'm posting some highlights from the past few weeks  For more, check out http://allisonwinnscotch.blogspot.com.)

I was wondering how long it took to sell your book from the time your agent sent it out to when it sold. Also, how often were you talking to your agent during this process? Would you mind sharing?

Happy to share. Officially, it took ten days. Unofficially, it took a little longer. Why? Because my agent was savvy. The ms was ready to go toward mid-December, but she didn't want to send it out during the dead period of the holidays. So what she did instead was call all of the editors who were on her list a few days before they left for their vacation, telling them that it would land on their desks on Jan 3rd, the first day they were back. Her enthusiasm must have transfered over the telephone line because a few editors requested a sneak peek, which meant that they toted it home with them over the Christmas holiday. So by the time everyone got back to their offices and cracked open the ms, we already had a few requests for second reads and a lot of positive feedback. Which meant that all of the other editors, who might normally have tucked the ms at the bottom of their bags and gotten to it when they got to it, read it within a few days. Thus, we had four offers about a week later.

Keep in mind, however, that there really isn't a set timeline for how quickly a ms should or will sell. I remember reading that Meghan Daum's The Quality of Life Report sold in, like, a day (seriously!), and that James Frey's A Million Little Pieces (I know, I know) was rejected by 13 imprints before Nan Talese made an offer. Whatever you think of Frey and his book, it's still an example that it only takes ONE offer, and that offer might be the first or last one you get. Who cares, really? As long as it's an offer.

As far as how much contact I had with my agent during the submission process, well, I had a lot, which I think I've mentioned on the blog before. We emailed or spoke on the phone every day, even if it were only for her to calm my nerves. But again, this will vary. I chose my agent in part because I liked her collaborative approach: I'm a hands-on type of gal, so it was important to me that a) my agent knew this and b) she was cool with my involvement. She was and she still is. We still talk fairly often, whether it's about the cover art or film rights or whatever. If you're on the agent hunt and want to be more actively involved, ASK your agent HOW she feels about this. If you don't, and you find yourself shut out, you really can't complain much.

Any other authors out there want to share their own timelines?

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I've fallen waaaay behind in updating the blog here on MySpace, but I'm adding in a few recent posts today.  For the complete Q/A, head to http://www.allisonwinnscotch.blogspot.com.

Just What Can I Expect from My Agent for 15%

Before I start answering the questions, I just want to give a BIG shout-out to my fellow writer, Diana Peterfreund, whose book Secret Society Girl is launching TODAY!! Yahoo! I've pre-ordered two copies from Amazon (one for me, one as a gift), and given the great reviews it's been receiving, I recommend you do the same.

Now, down to the nitty-gritty. Thanks, first, for all of your questions, both on the blog and off! I'm going to answer a few a day, contingent on how much other work I have, and contingent on whether or not I know the answer right away. If not, I'm turning out outside sources (agents, other pubbed writers), and will post when I hear back from them. Also, I'm not necessarily answering in the order received: if you've asked five questions at once, I'll probably break them up so I can satisfy a few different folks per day. But fear not, I PROMISE that I'll answer them all! And while I'm placing some ground rules, go ahead and shoot me any magazine questions you might have. We'll do a little mix and match with the Q/A...and I'm just going to keep the blog focused on this until we all get bored. (Or run out of questions!) :)

The Revise: How to Make It Less Torturous
How much of the book changed during the revision process? (And if you have any tips to make it less painful ...!) (From Swishy, who's blog is side-splittingly funny. Check it out!)

This question made me lose sleep last night. Seriously. The second part doesn't have an answer, but I'm tackling it right out of the gate. I'm going to stick to talking about THE DEPT LOST/FOUND because that's the one that sold. TDLF went through, I think, two fairly decent rounds of revisions. When I say "decent," I mean adding in an extra side-plot, making the heroine slightly more sympathetic, tidying up the ending, and (drumroll) cutting the first five chapters (yes, really!) and restarting the book right in the thick of the action.

NOW. That sounds like A LOT. But, and this is partially where the answer gets complicated, along the way, not too much of the story itself changed - I knew the story that I wanted to tell from the beginning, and I refused to be swayed from that. But from a reader's (not author's) perspective (and these are often two very different things), certain elements were missing. My agent helped point those out, and I was able to go back into my creative well and figure out how to fill those holes. (And I should add, learned how to write a better novel in the process - I surely won't repeat those mistakes the next time around.) For example, my Type A heroine needed to be more relatable, so I created an obsession with the Price is Right. I think that if you're sure of the story arc and the saga you want to tell, the revisions will only strengthen the book because you'll think, "oh, aha, of course, that makes perfect sense, and I know how to do that pretty easily." It's only when you're UNSURE of where you want the book/story to go that you run into problems and the revisions get messy. Does that make any sense at all? In sum, with each revision, the book grew stronger, more honed, less expository, and a better flowing read. But through it all, it was still the same story of a young woman who is thrown into chaos and is forced to overhaul her life.

Now, that said, how do you make revisions less painful? Beyond having a clear idea of who your characters are and what they would or wouldn't do, and a clear idea of your story (as mentioned above), I think it's critical to take your ego out of the equation. As a magazine writer, I'm used to constant edits, so revisions for me weren't that big of a deal. I never took them personally, and I never (well, rarely) grew so attached to a paragraph or scene or set of words that I couldn't edit or cut them. And this is key. If you're too attached to what you've written, you likely won't see it objectively, and objective is exactly what agents and editors are. What you might see as brilliant insight into your heroine's mind might be boring the pants off the rest of the readers. And if they collectively tell you that, you know what? Lose the section. When you go back and reread it a few weeks later (which is important - put down the ms for a while, then go back to it with a refreshed mind), you'll recognize that your book is stronger for it.

All of this said, there are certainly times to put your foot down. Agent #1 wanted me to cut a diary element of the book. I knew the diary was inherent to understanding what my heroine was going through, and I refused. The book wouldn't have been the same without it. But on just about everything else -smaller things that really didn't affect the overall scope of the book - I was willing to hack away. And I suggest that you do the same. More often than you realize, you can cut something out and lose nothing.

Okay, so as I mentioned below, I thought I'd take this week (or however long people want) to share my story about how I landed the book deal for THE DEPARTMENT OF LOST AND FOUND (Morrow, May 2007). From there, please feel free to send me any questions you might have about the query/agent/publishing process, and I'll do my best to answer. If I can't answer, I'll try to tap into a friend or resource who can. You can email me (if you want anonymity) or just post your question in the comment box.

So...here we go.

It all began about 4-5 years ago: I was a relatively successful magazine writer (more on that next week - happy to answer those questions too, so fire them to me whenever they strike), but wanted to branch out, so I started banging out a ms whenever inspiration struck. Like a lot of aspiring novelists, I got half way done and more or less gave up. Another year went by, and I added some more, but I couldn't finish the damn thing. (This is at least part of the reason that agents demand a completed ms from you: who knows when and how you'll finish it!) Finally, in the summer of 2004, just before my son was born, I figured that if I didn't finish it then, I'd NEVER finish it, so I joined an online writers' group, got my butt in gear, and cranked it out, wrapping up the ms two weeks before my babe popped out. So this was in October of '04.

In January of '05, I started querying agents, (exclusively by email, I should add), and I signed with one in late-Feb. (And yes, I do think this was a rather short query period, compared to the average, but I'm guessing that my magazine credits helped open doors that might not have otherwise been opened. But all of my queries were blind, regardless.) Anyway, the book needed a lot of work - first novels are VERY hard to do perfectly and often very rough, even when you think it's genius (trust me, I did) - but my agent really helped me overhaul the whole ms until it was ready to go. We sent it out in late-April and received glowing, glowing notes. Alas, glowing as they were, they were rejections. Several editors asked for revisions and a resubmit, but my agent thought it was smarter to simply write a second book and go back out with it, since most of the editors - even those who rejected it flat-out - asked to see my next work. Sigh. And *$q. That's pretty much how I felt. Oh, and demoralized too. Let's not forget that!

But by June, I was writing again, and by August, I was actually done with the next ms. (This was a personal subject, so it was very easy for me to write.) My agent and I went through several rounds of revisions until she said she was happy with it. She just wanted to get one more read within the agency. So imagine my surprise when she called me a week later and said that she didn't love the book, that she thought it would do "more harm than good for my career" to send it out, and gave me three options: 1) we could revise book #1 and send it back out, 2) I could start on another ENTIRELY NEW book, or 3) I could break the contract and seek other representation. Sigh. And *$q. That's pretty much how I felt. Oh, and demoralized too.

Actually, this time, I only felt demoralized for about 1/2 a second. See, I KNEW that this book was excellent. I KNEW that it was 10x better than the first, and that my agent's opinion was just one opinion. (Granted, I also had some outside readers' opinions as well, all of whom told me the book was great.) So...I made the scary but still thrilling leap of parting very amicably with my agent and getting back on the query bandwagon. As soon as I walked away from agent #1, I knew it was the right thing to do. I felt liberated and fabulous about leaving a person who only half-heartedly believed in the book (she admitted as much, so I don't think it casts her in a bad light to say this) and was determined to find someone who loved it as much as I did. Because the book was so much stronger this time around, I received a lot of agent interest immediately. Within three weeks (by early December of '05), I had several offers of representation and signed with my current agent who, quite possibly, loved the book even more than I did.

From there, we did some minor tweaking over the holidays, and she sent it out on January 3rd of 2006. Ten days later, we had four offers - wildly exceeding my expectations - and accepted the offer from William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins.

So...that's my story. Certainly, there are a few lessons in there about I learned along the way. One has to do with accepting advice from others (without a doubt, agent #1 helped me hone my writing); another has to do with trusting yourself and your instincts; a third has to do with knowing when to let go (book #1) and when not to (book #2); and..on and on.

Okay, so that's my (long) story. Now, fire away any and all questions! If I can help and answer 'em, I will!

This is my thought of the morning: if I had to survive on one food alone, surely, it would be cereal. I adore, adore, ADORE cereal. Seriously, I mean it: I think I could live off of it. In the mornings, I have a whole system down. I layer five different cereals on top of one another - right now, I'm working Kasha Heart Healthy (which sounds nasty but is really sweet and yummy), Kix (I steal them from my son), Quaker Toasted Oatmeal, All-Bran (because I'm a health writer and know how good fiber is for the bod), and Golden Grahams (again, pilfered from my son's stash). My husband is a fan of Oreo Cookie Cereal (yes, they really do make that) and Honey Bunches of Oats, which I occasionally dabble in myself, but only when he buys the kind with strawberries or bananas.

So...if you had to survive on one food alone, what would it be? Or more importantly, am I missing out on any to-die-for cereals? (Because you know that I could spend hours lingering in the cereal aisle, so I'm always up for suggestions!)