Heidi Heilig

Day In The Life of a Debut Author…

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Hey all! So, inspired by the epic Victoria Schwab and her post detailing a day in the life of 18 incredible authors, (such as the fabulous Rae Carson, and the talented Ashley Blake, and of course Ms. Schwab herself!) I thought I’d share a day in my own weird life during this strange time running up to the pub date. (A hypothetical day–an amalgam of days–not a specific day, because sometimes specific days are taken up entirely with watching my phone blow up because I can’t resist running my mouth online.)

So this is A Day In The Life of a Debut Author with a 15 Month Old Baby and also Bipolar Disorder who Is Trying To Promote Book 1, Write Book 2, Outline Book 3, and Fight Injustice*

5:30-6:30am: My day starts when my baby wakes up. He’s 15 months old right now and the three of us live in a tiny studio apartment (less than 400 square feet) so when he’s up, I am immediately aware and I go to him, because my husband stays up late at night to get his own work done. Soon after the baby wakes, there is frantic coffee and baby wrangling and throwing one of 4 “work outfits” onto my person (yes, I wear one twice in one week. Yes, I need to go shopping. I hate shopping. A typical day will NOT include shopping.)

7am: DOUGHNUT

7:05am: I’m on the way to the office, where I work as a receptionist. On quiet days, my day job is my haven. When the phone isn’t ringing and the guests aren’t arriving, I can get some writing done. Currently this includes promotional content for book 1, which comes out in just under 5 months (gulp.) I’ve also had to figure out travel and schedules recently, because there are some book events coming up. I’m also, as mentioned above, trying to fix the problems with Book 2 (I’m on draft 11) and outline book 3.

When I’m stumped on one project, I switch to the next. Unless of course I see something infuriating online, in which case I get some arguing done. I need to get better at time management probably, but it’s also a manic thing for me, to chat and talk somewhat frantically on the internet. Also, bigotry is evil and fighting it is not something I regret.
Lunch happens sometime during this block.
3pm: After my day job, I head right home to do my second job, which is superintendent of the 32-unit building where I live in Brooklyn. I make sure the place is clean, and 3 days a week I haul the building’s trash to the curb. (THE GLAMOROUS AUTHOR LIFE.) Then I go up to my house and hopefully grab a quick shower and do home stuff–make dinner, care for the baby, mop the floor (if you have ever been near a 15 month old you know why mopping the floor is a daily task.)
7:30pm: The small one finally falls asleep and I can write or do internet stuff again. Usually by now my brain is pretty tired (I write best in the morning.)
9pm: Sleeping if I can. My kid is not a great sleeper so I usually wake up with him 2-3 times a night. I try to sleep at least 7 hours total a night because it’s one of the ways I control my bipolar disorder. My husband needs more sleep than I do (yes, medically), so he is not on night duty.
Trying to review this through the eyes of someone who doesn’t live in my skin, I realize that it probably seems like I do very little actual writing. But I am really privileged to have the writing time I do have. I’m lucky to be able to make it work.
And of course, my baby won’t be a terrible sleeper forever. (I HOPE I HOPE)
So, if you are reading this and you are swamped with work and family and medical stuff and you want to be an author, I wish you the luck that I have in finding the time to write. I believe in you!
*it’s kinda specific, sorry–I’m at a bit of a weird place in my life. But i’m betting there are people who can relate.

The Girl From Everywhere Cover Reveal and Giveaway!

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Are you the type to judge a book by its cover?

If so, get out your gavel!

Are you excited? I am. The fantastic artist, Ray Shappell, made eight–EIGHT!–cover comps to look over, and everyone fell in love with this one. And here’s a sneak peek of the first line, if that will help sway the court.

To enter the US giveaway for an annotated ARC, head to YA Books Central!

That’s right: if you win, you get to read the book 6 months early (without having to time travel!), along with all my random notes, musings, and doodles in the margins.

And if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, add the book on Goodreads. Or if you’re want to go absolutely wild, pre-order it at HarperCollins or Amazon.

The “Ta-Da”–Timelines in Publishing

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I’m seeing lots of Twitter Chatter (Chitter? … Uh) about the Bologna Book Fair, and that’s how I know that my Book Deal is just about one year old!

“So why isn’t it out already?” says all my very well-intentioned family and those friends who are not aware of publishing timelines.
Why does your book still look like a stack of printer paper?
Is this some kind of marketing thing?
A year and a half ago, I, too, would have been asking this question. I had a very hazy idea of How Huge Word Docs Become Books. It seemed a bit like magic. “See here, in one hand, an agent, in the other, a publisher–I bring them together and ta da!”  A puff of smoke, and there you are in a ruffled party dress, sitting on a tall stack of your own books at the launch party in your favorite local indie. Right? 
Well. Ask any magician, they’ll tell you that “ta-da” covers the interesting and complicated part. 
Unfortunately, in publishing, unlike in magic tricks, the ta-da can take years. (Which is still faster than in musical theatre where the ta-da can take decades…but that’s another timeline!)
So far, my timeline looks like this:
  • Mid-November 2012: “What’s this thing everyone’s doing writing books or something?”
  • July 2013: “Finish” manuscript. 
  • August 2013: Finish Query Letter. (Thank you Query Shark!)
  • Fall 2013: Querying. I try to send out one letter a week, taking the time to make sure that I’ve got the submission correct–first five pages pasted into the email, or first ten in a pdf? Or no pages at all? I always feel like it shows respect to follow directions and I wasn’t in a rush.
  • December 2013: I speak to two agents and sign with Molly at The Bent Agency.
  • January and February 2014: I polish the manuscript with Molly–one of the reasons I felt like she was the best fit for me was that she had ideas to edit the MS and her comments were very astute.
  • March 2014: Molly takes the manuscript to Bologna. Editors are interested. There is a bit of upheaval at home; I have an out-of-town friend visiting in our tiny studio apartment, I’d just gotten out of the hospital for pre-term labor problems, and some of the editors are wondering if I have ideas for second (and possibly third) books in the series. I’m supposed to be on bedrest but my friend needs the couch, so I lay on pillows on the floor in the kitchen and put my computer on my lap and bang out some outlines for potential future works. 
  • April 2014: There was enough interest that Molly sent out auction rules. Then multi-book pre-empt offers come in with Greenwillow at HarperCollins and Hotkey in the UK, and we accept happily.
  • May 2014: I panic and start working on Book 2.
  • June 2014: I have a baby! The birth is very dramatic. Also, I get my edit letter. Good times! If you have never rewritten your debut novel with a sleeping newborn on your lap you are missing out. Does wonders to focus the mind. I get the work done two weeks before the deadline. (I just reread this: it sounds snarky but I am in complete earnest. I was high on hormones and adrenaline and it was marvelous.)
  • August 2014: The contract from Hot Key arrives. 
  • September 2014: I send back my edits, and the contract from Harper Collins arrives. (All this time, my tireless agent had been negotiating behind the scenes with the contract people at both Hot Key and HarperCollins; Molly is like a swan, poised and lovely but the feet are paddling like mad under there. Also, she’s can be dangerous; if you see her heading straight towards you, divest yourself of any buns and get out of there.)
  • October 2014: I get my 2nd round edit letter.
  • November 2014: I send back my 2nd round of edits. I am asked about my ideas for covers and I sort of shrug and flap my hands to try to indicate exactly how bad I am at visual and artistic design.
  • January 2015: I get a few more small notes and make the fixes. I realize that Book 2 is due in another few months and I start freaking out all over again.
  • February 2015: I get ONE more note, no biggie, just REWRITE THE FIRST PAGE which was more angst than every single other rewrite thus far. I use nearly the entire allotted time to work on it and get it in just a day before deadline.
  • March 2015: I get a couple more edits, I send them back the same day. BOOM. Done with line edits. Uh. . . except now we’re off to copy edits!
And that’s where we are now. Sometime soon, I’m aware that covers will be developed. Jackets and layout will be designed and copy written. Then ARCs will be printed, I think? People will read and possibly review them. “Marketing” will happen. (I think probably marketing is a magic trick of its own.) I will try to plan a launch party, complete with ruffled party dress. Other things too, I’m sure–I’ll keep you posted. But you can see that there’s a lot going on, and even just editing and contracts take a while to happen. 
Part of it is that the book is complicated–time travel is always particularly hard to edit. I also did so much research but I have a terrible memory so I have to keep checking notes–for example, I remember looking at reports from Honolulu in 1884 to figure out the phases of the moon (Full-moon parties were A Thing, before electricity was as widespread as it is today.) If we changed things by even a day, the phase of the moon might be off and that Just Won’t Do. (The copy editors might be happy knowing I already looked at that stuff? I hope so.)
The other thing is that we had a little more time built into the contract–a lot of other books that sold around the time mine did were slated to be published in Fall ’15, but Greenwillow’s fall list was already full by then.
But looking back at the past year, I’m quite happy with the process. After all, the “Ta Da” is where all the magic happens. And I need time to shop for that party dress. 

Four Letter Word, Rhymes with Duck

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Luck, of course! What did you think I meant?

Recently, a friend who’s just finished a manuscript wanted to talk about my path to publication. Her first question was an interesting one:

“How much of getting published is luck?” she asked.

My immediately answer was: LIKE ALMOST ALL.



I mean, on top of accident of birth to a privileged family which resulted in, among many things, excellent schooling and lots of disposable time to read and write, I had a story in me that managed to interest both The Greatest Agent In The World and The Best Editor On The Planet. And we all work really well together. Also, I live in an apartment where 3 gourmet donut shops have opened within walking distance in the past year. This is like primo luck and I did nothing to deserve it.

Because that’s what luck is, right? The stuff we can’t control.

So I thought about that and wondered, how useful is it to talk about luck, really? Maybe instead I should talk about the stuff I know I had a hand in. The stuff I can recommend doing. 

So what isn’t luck? What can you control?

The writing, of course. You start with a blank page–you control every word that goes on it. They’re your accomplishment–or your fault. So make them good. Reread them and make them better. Then go off for a bit and read other people’s words very critically, and then come back to your words and make them the best you possibly can.

What else though? Well, it gets a little tricky there. 



You can do a lot of research and query the right people for your project. You can try to pay attention to larger trends or manuscript wish lists so your work has a better chance of being au currant. You can be your best self and a good Literary Citizen so that when it comes time for you to work with agents and editors, you’ve practiced your social graces and can make good small talk. But all of these things take luck, and also sometimes they don’t matter. 

Personally, I didn’t know much about agents before I started querying, I didn’t know what a manuscript wish list was, and I am socially very ungraceful: like I said, I’ve been very very lucky. And the nature of luck is very unfair. 

But it can also be very freeing.

Because knowing the rest is ultimately out of your hands means you can focus on those beautiful words. And–at least for me–that’s always been what I cared about most.

So fill those pages. Tell your stories. Write. 

And I wish you the very best of luck!