On Coauthoring a Book and Growing Your Career: Interview With Authors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows and My Salty Mary Giveaway and IWSG Post

Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today I’m super thrilled to have authors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows here to share about their new YA book My Salty Mary and how their careers as authors have grown over the years. My Salty Mary sounds like a fantastic mix of historical fiction and fantasy, which I’m excited to read this summer.

Here’s a blurb from Goodreads

Perfect for fans of The Princess Bride and A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, New York Times bestselling authors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows are back with a fantastical, romantical, and piratical historical fantasy remix that marries the story of The Little Mermaid with the life and times of infamous lady pirate Mary Read.

Don't call this mermaid "little"—call her "captain," unless you want to walk the plank.

Mary is in love with the so-called prince of Charles Town, except he doesn't love her back. Which is inconvenient. Since she's a mermaid, being brokenhearted means she'll—poof!—turn into sea-foam.

But instead, Mary finds herself pulled out of the sea and up onto a pirate ship. To survive, she joins them. But Mary isn't willing to just sing the yo-ho-hos. She wants the pirate life, all of it, and she's ready to make a splash . . . by becoming captain. But when Blackbeard dies suddenly, Mary has a chance to become so much more: Pirate King . . . or Queen. She won't let anyone stop her—not Blackbeard's cute son, not her best friend from back under the sea who's having a bit too much fun with his new legs, and certainly not everyone who says she can't be a pirate just because she's a girl.

She may not be the best man for the job, but she'll definitely prove that she's worth her salt.

 

Before I get to June’s interview post, I have my IWSG post.

Posting: The first Wednesday is officially Insecure Writer's Support Group Day.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The awesome co-hosts this month are: Feather Stone, Kim Lajevardi, Diedre Knight, C. Lee McKenzie, and Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen!

Optional Question: Do you use Al in your writing, and if so, how? Do you use it for your posts? Incorporate it into your stories? Use it for research? Audio?

I don’t use Al for my stories. But I would use it in ways suggested in the links in his recent Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog post. I’m not strong on writing descriptions so I might ask it for examples to help me get going if I’m stuck. I might also use it to try to fill in holes in an outline or write a blurb or synopsis. That’s how I see it being useful in writing stories.

I use it more for my work but I’m trying out writing articles again. By the time I give Al enough instructions, edit the article heavily for plagiarism and grammar issues, and rewrite parts of it if it’s too Al-generated, it’s taking as much time as just writing it and I'm enjoying the process more. I’m just deciding as I go.

Interview With Authors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, 

and Jodi Meadows

Hi Cynthia, Brodi, and Jodi. Thanks so much for joining us today.

1. Tell us how a bit about yourself and how you became a writer. (All answer)

Jodi Meadows: Aside from books – my obvious great love – I also do yarn. I knit, spin, crochet, and I recently learned to weave (sort of). I've always been interested in science (especially astronomy), and I'm a cat person. (I think that's enough to count as "a bit?" Let's say it is.)

Like a lot of authors, I always liked telling stories. When I realized that writing books could be a job, I wanted that to be my job. It took (what felt like) a while. I wrote a bunch (yay), got rejected a bunch (boo then, but in hindsight, yay), and worked hard to improve until I wrote something that agents and editors wanted to represent and publish.

Cynthia Hand: I am the history buff of the group–I love doing the research! Bring on the huge books about life in the Tudor era! This may be because I love to study and dig deep into a subject– so much so that I have a PhD in English. I’m a knitter as well, (Jodi taught me years ago) and I dabble in embroidery and sewing. I’m taking banjo lessons. I’m a huge fan of Dungeons and Dragons–I’m playing three different campaigns right now, and I’m the dungeon master in one.

I’ve always loved writing. I wrote little fairy and unicorn stories all through elementary school, so much that all of my teachers told me I should be a writer. In middle school and high school I had a group of friends I wrote fan fiction with, and I was considered the editor of our group. But I didn’t really think it could be my career–writing was just something I loved and did on the side. I was pre-law in college, until one fateful day in the law library when I had the revelation that  I didn’t want to be a lawyer, so I started applying for masters programs in creative writing, and was lucky enough to get into one. Which eventually led me here.

Brodi Ashton: I’m Brodi! I am an original book nerd. My mom raised me to play word games on the trampoline, like onomatopoeia where we would have to say a word that sounded like itself, like “grumpth” and “quack”. Words were all I ever cared about. Writing a series of books with my best friends was a dream come true.

Your Writing Process and Co-Authoring Books Together

2. Where did you get the idea for My Salty Mary and what plotting did you do before you started drafting it?

Lady Janies: One of the main things we look for in a historical figure's life is some kind of patriarchy-induced tragedy we can rewrite to give them a better ending. (Having a name that fits the theme is also key!) Mary Read definitely fit both: she had to disguise herself as a boy in order to survive in the tough world she was born into – and the tough world she found herself in when she was captured by pirates. And then, of course, she got caught and died.

So we knew we wanted to fix that! Pairing pirates with The Little Mermaid – another story where things didn't go quite right, particularly in the original version – made a lot of sense.

When we plot books, we look at the history and try to work with as much as we have. Or any original stories there are (The Little Mermaid in this case, but Jane Eyre with MY PLAIN JANE). We decide which characters will be the most useful for telling the story we want to tell, which ones should be secondary, and which ones we need to invent completely.

From there, we outline like our lives depend on it.

3. This isn’t the first book you’ve collaborated on. This is the third book in this series. You’ve also written The Lady Janies series, and My Lady Jane was released as an Amazon Prime TV series on June 27, 2024. How exciting! How did you decide to write books together and what was your process of writing My Salty Mary and your other series? And why did you believe that two vs. three authors writing a book together would work?

LJ: Cynthia was the one who brought us all together to write MY LADY JANE!

We met on book tour in 2012; Cynthia was there for her second book, and Jodi and Brodi were there for their first books. We had insta-friendship and, for the next year or so, found excuses to hang out together, even though we all lived in different parts of the country. In 2013, Cynthia approached Brodi with an idea for a book: about a tragic queen who died, but her version of this story would be funny? It wasn't a good pitch. Cynthia didn't give up, though; a few months later, when all three of us were doing events together, Cynthia brought it up again, this time to Jodi, and this time skipping what the book would be about. It was just an invitation to write together. Smart.

Some months after that, we were all in LA together, with plans to go to Disneyland the following day. Buuuut we got started talking about the book, so we decided to skip Disneyland and write instead. It was so much fun that we made a date to meet up again and write more before giving it to our agents.

So, in a way, these books exist because we just wanted to spend more time together. And a trio really worked for balancing our strengths and getting the best work out of all of us.

4. That’s a cool story of how you started collaborating. After you write your first draft, how do you tackle revisions together? Do you ever have disagreements about changes to your story and how do you resolve them?

LJ: We do a lot of revision as we draft, actually – and then even more later. When we're drafting, we aim to write a chapter a day (each), then read them out loud to one another in the evening. During that, we take notes on what needs to change, how certain scenes could be improved, and we usually have a lot of that work done before the first draft is even finished.

Then we read the whole book, figure out what needs work on a larger scale, and all take care of our own chapters again, for this round. Once we've done what we can individually, we go through the entire book together – as many times as it takes – to smooth out scenes, make sure characters are consistent, and make sure our collective voice remains true.

We do sometimes disagree on things, of course! It's important that we all have the same vision for the story, though, so we talk it out. Everyone gets to make their case. And if it's possible (it usually is), we work hard to incorporate the things everyone sees as important into the story. These books are our books.

Your Road to Publication and Continuing to Publish More Books

5. It sounds like you’ve got a great system for working together. Tell us about how you got your agent and your first publishing contract. (All answer)

 

JM: Honestly, I got my agent the old-fashioned way. I wrote a bunch of books, got rejected a bunch, and then wrote a little more. Eventually, I wrote something agents thought they could sell. I signed with Lauren, my agent, and she sent the book on submission to the editors she thought might like it. She was correct.

CH: I published a short story in a literary journal, and a few agents contacted me afterwards to ask about what else I was working on. Out of those agents, I chose to work with Katherine Fausset, who just seemed to get me and my writing. I worked on a literary novel for about five years after that, just busy living my life and not writing a ton, but then one year I was inspired and wrote a YA novel out of the blue. I was so nervous to give it to Katherine, because she didn’t represent any YA authors at the time, but she ended up loving the book, and we found a home for it at HarperTeen not long after that.

BA: I also got an agent the old fashioned way. I wrote a book and sent out query letters. After a few roadblocks, I landed with Jenn Laughran, who is phenomal in her support of our books.

6. You’ve all continued to have books published since you got your first publishing contract, and you all have quite a few published books. How were you able to continue to sell books when other authors who’ve written great stories, too, sometimes are only able to sell one or two books or have long periods of time between sales? What advice do you have for other writers on how to grow their careers? (All answer)

JM: Ooof. Well, first of all, I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to stay published. It's a constant fear that any book could be the last book!

There's so much we just don't control in this industry. The only thing we control is the writing, and that's probably the only thing I can point to that I did that kept me publishing. And even then, I know that doesn't always work! I, too, have books I wrote even after being published, that didn't go anywhere. Either they died on submission or I decided they weren't going to work.

I wish I could offer actionable advice for actively improving one's career, but . . . mostly I've got hugs and well wishes.

CH: I’m with Jodi–this is hard. For me it was nice (and lucky) that I had a fairly successful three-book series to start out with, and I got the chance to prove myself that way. I have always sold my books in multi-book contracts that have overlapped a bit, so I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be able to just keep writing, just keep writing. . . But I am also aware at the end of each contract that this could be it.

BA: Yes this is incredibly hard! Some people hear that you’re published so now you can quit your day job. That is not necessarily the case. Writing books is hard. Hands down. But I always tell people that when it comes to writing advice: Butt in chair, hands on keyboard.

Marketing Your Books

7. I agree with you that you have to be very careful about quitting your day job. It can feel overwhelming when you’re a debut author to figure out how to build your social media platform and market your books. How have your approaches to maintaining your social media platforms and promoting your books changed over the years? Why? (All answer)

JM: Social media itself has changed a lot since I began. (All of us, really, since we started around the same time.) It seems to me that most authors are just trying to find a good balance in an algorithm-run landscape. I know I am! But while I still think social media can work for discoverability, I don't think authors should rely on it – or put too much of their energy into it!

I'm sure I'm not the only author who's had a post go viral and not seen a significant jump in book sales. (Small ones, sure. But definitely nothing like you'd think.) I mean, it can happen. And we definitely hear about it when it does! But it's not reliable. So I focus my social media on sharing stuff I want to share, when I want to share. I post what makes me happy, not what's trending. If people like it, great! If anyone actually sees it, even better! But the writing always has to come first.

CH: I’m not very adept at marketing or social media. Just when I think I’ve figured out one platform, everyone’s attention seems to move to another one! There was a year there (around the publication of My Calamity Jane) that I threw myself into learning how to do social media effectively and finding a bigger audience for us. I spent nearly as many hours planning, writing, making posts, scheduling and maintaining our Lady Janies instagram page as I did writing that year. So. Much. Time. And in the end, it didn’t move the needle for us at all. So I decided to focus my energy back on the writing. It always comes back to the writing.

BA: I’m so old school. I still believe Facebook is the way to keep in touch with people. I have no idea how succesful marketing looks like. Maybe if I were 20 years younger, I would have a better idea! I just know that I share my words and hopefully people will find them.

8. Thanks for the advice not to stress out too much about our social media platforms. What advice do you have for debut and newer authors about social media and marketing their books? (All answer)

JM: Don't let social media take over! It's not your job. Social media doesn't get the book written. It's not paying the bills. And – for most of us, anyway – it's not doing what we want it to do, as far as promoting books. It's a tool that has its uses, but it's not going to make or break you.

Just write your book. :)

CH: What sells books, I believe, is word of mouth. You can use social media to try to get people to know that your book exists, which is great, but it won’t make a ton of difference unless you can generate that all-important word of mouth. And you know what makes people talk about a book? If it is a really amazing, kick-ass book! I like Steve Martin’s advice about becoming an actor. When people would ask him how to get big in Hollywood, he’d answer, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” Now, is luck and timing often involved? Yes. Absolutely. Do less-than-stellar books sometimes sell well? Also yes. But you can’t control those things. You can only continue to hone your work, get in those hours you need to work toward mastery of this craft of storytelling, figure out and improve upon your flaws, and figure out how to write to showcase your strengths. In other words, just write your book. :)

BA: Butt in chair, hands on keyboard.

9. What are you working on now? (All answer)

JM: Without being specific, I'm working on another middle grade contemporary (my first one is BYE FOREVER, I GUESS) and another fantasy book.

CH: I’m working on a new contemporary YA that I’m super excited about.

BA: I’m working on a LITTLE WOMEN prequel.

Thanks so very much for sharing all your advice, Cynthia, Brodi, and Jodi.

Jodi Meadows wants to be a ferret when she grows up and she has no self-control when it comes to yarn, ink, or outer space. Still, she manages to write books. She is the author of the INCARNATE Trilogy, the ORPHAN QUEEN Duology, the FALLEN ISLES Trilogy (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen), and the NIGHTRENDER duology (Holiday House). She is also a coauthor of  New York Times bestsellers MY LADY JANE, MY PLAIN JANE, and other books in the Lady Janies series (HarperTeen). She lives in Virginia.

Visit her at www.jodimeadows.com

Newsletter: https://jodimeadows.substack.com/

Cynthia Hand is the New York Times bestselling author of several books for teens, including the Unearthly trilogy, The Last Time We Say Goodbye, The Afterlife of Holly Chase, The How & The Why, and With You All The Way. She also writes the Jane books with fellow authors Jodi Meadows and Brodi Ashton: My Lady Jane, My Plain Jane, My Calamity Jane, My Contrary Mary, My Imaginary Mary, and My Salty Mary. Before turning to writing for young adults, she studied literary fiction and earned both an M.F.A. and a Ph.D. in fiction writing (although please don't refer to her as "Dr. Hand," because that sounds like a cartoon supervillain.) She currently resides in Boise, Idaho, with two kids, two cats, one needy dog, one nerdy husband, and a mountain of books.

Visit her at www.cynthiahandbooks.com

Giveaway Details

Jodi, Cynthia, and Brodi’s publisher is generously offering a hardback of One Salty Mary for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by August 17th. If your email is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog and/or follow me on Twitter or follow Jodi or Cynthia on their social media sites, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This book giveaway is U.S.

Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops

Monday, August 12th I have an agent spotlight interview with Erica McGrath and a query critique giveaway

Friday, August 16th I’m participating in the Old School Giveaway Hop

Monday, August 19th I have an interview with author Julie Abe and a giveaway of her MG Tessa Miyata Is So Unlucky

Monday, August 26th I have a guest post by debut author A.Y. Chan and a giveaway of her MG The Legendary Mo Seto

Wednesday, September 4th I have an interview with author Natalie Lloyd and a giveaway of her MG The Witching Wind and my IWSG post

Saturday, September 7th I’m participating in the Holiday Kick Off Giveaway Hop

Monday, September 9th I have an agent spotlight interview with Alex Brown and a query critique giveaway

Monday, September 16th I have an interview with debut author Callie Miller and a giveaway of her MG The Search for the Shadowsoul

I hope to see you on Monday!