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Shook Chapter 12: The Idea On The Way Home
Dyan has finally finished her book! Now all she has to do is find away to get an agent to look at a ten year-old's mnuscript. Maya decides to give Dyan a meanimgful gift...
Dyan spent the next few days in the dining room typing her book in Mrs. Blue’s document cloud.
Dyan watched videos and read website articles, reading and watching anything she could to find about how to publish a book.
Most places pointed her to finding a ‘literary agent’ which was a person who was supposed to represent her book to all the big publishing companies.
There were tons of literary agents online, but they all wanted something called a ‘query’.
“What’s a query?” Dyan asked. The only people around were Mrs. Blue and Navy, who were in the kitchen.
“It’s a letter you write to an agent so that they might take your book to a publishing company.” answered Mrs. Blue. “Why? Are you about to write to an agent?”
“Mm-hmm! but I want it to sound just right so I’ll write it up in a document first, and then send it to the agent.” Dyan went to an empty document and got to typing. After spending days writing her book on an online document, she had gotten pretty fast at typing.
“I can help you write it if you want. My teacher says all my essays look professional.” Said Navy, who was busy crunching on cookies.
“Sure.” Dyan slid the computer in between them. “Here’s what I’ve written so far: ‘Hello, my name is Dyan and I’m 10 years old. I have an adventure book for kids named Spirit and the Aliens, that I would really like for you to represent. Thank you.”
“Mm, it’s good,” Said Navy, with crumbs lining the side of his mouth. “But I have a few suggestions. First, when you tell the agent that you're 10, they're probably going to want to click off the email. Most adults want to speak to other adults, because they think kids are too young for stuff.”
“But I have the talent now, so why wait?” argued Dyan.
“That’s a good question to write in the query,” said Navy. “Go ahead.”
Dyan wrote the question wearily. She wasn’t used to talking to adults in such a way, even if it was in writing. And not even seen by the adult yet.
“Good, and secondly, You can’t say you have a book. You have to say you have a manuscript ready. A manuscript is basically a story that’s written, but isn’t officially a book yet.”
“The agent probably won’t be a geek like you Navy. There’s no reason to use words like that.” said Maya, coming to steal some of Navy’s cookies.
“Shut-up Maya. Who asked you?” Navy snapped at his sister.
“Kids, cut it out,” said Mr. Blue as the two ran off. Then he turned to Dyan. “What are you up to?”
“Navy was helping me write a query letter to an agent I found online. Hopefully they’ll take my book but I think the chances are slim since I’m just a kid.”
Mr. Blue grabbed the cookie bag and leaned on the counter. “If the chances are slim, then work to raise them up. How about you copy the letter you're writing to that agent, and paste it in the emails to a bunch of other agents?”
Dyan smiled. “That would make things easier… but isn’t that cheating?”
Mr. Blue raised an eyebrow. “Cheating at what!? All you're doing is making life easier on yourself.” Then he leaned the cookie pack out to Dyan, who took some thankfully.
So, that’s exactly what Dyan did. She copied the email, and pasted it into the emails of about four agents. Then by the afternoon, she decided to give it a rest.
“Done!” she smiled, putting a fist up.
Mrs. Blue smiled back at Dyan, but her cheeks puffed up. Mrs. Blue only did this ‘bubble in her mouth’ face when she had something to say, but didn’t want to say it.
“What is it?” asked Dyan.
“Oh, sorry to burst your bubble, but things aren’t done yet. I have a friend who’s a writer, and she told me there’s lots more to getting a book published than most people think. Once you get a literary agent, they’ll email all those big publishing companies the same way you emailed them. Then, if all goes well, in one to two years, your book will be published!”
“One to two years!?” Dyan said with wide eyes. “Why will it take that long!?”
“Because the publishing house will have to edit and promote your book, not to mention they’ll have other books to promote.” Mrs. Blue explained.
The two heard a loud wail from upstairs.
“Well, that’s my calling card,” said Mrs. Blue, and she rushed off.
Dyan sat and thought to herself. Two years is a long time. She’d be twelve in two years!
“Hey, Dyan,” said Maya, who came over with a paper in hand. “I finally finished that drawing of Spirit I was working on in Arizona.”
Dyan looked at the notebook page and gasped. There sat a beautiful drawing of Spirit. It had the same features Dyan had described Spirit with, but looked completely different from Dyan’s drawing of spirit. Maya’s drawing added lips to Spirits face, and a bit of…freckles? Her blue hair had white shine marks, and she had on a black shirt with wrinkled short sleeves, kind of like the shirt Dyan had met the blues with.
“Wow, this is beautiful! You gave her freckles!?”
Maya laughed. “No, those are tiny moles, like the ones on your face. I just imagine Spirit would have them.”
Well, she doesn’t, Dyan wanted to say to correct Maya, but the painting was so beautiful she couldn’t bring herself to.
“You can draw really well Maya,” said Dyan.
“Oh. Well now I know for sure. My family says that all the time, but they're my family so they could’ve been lying.”
“Can I keep this?” Dyan asked.
When Maya nodded, Dyan wrote the date on the back and folded the page back into her notebook. She would never forget the drawing, or the artist who drew it.
Find out what happens next in the next part!
Hey there! I’m Shila! I’ve loved books since I could read, and decided I would write books I wanted to see written for others! Check my children’s book Imagination on Amazon!
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