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When I submit a manuscript to an editor, is it a good idea to include my (childrens book related) blog with my contact information? Is this something an editor would be interested in?

Sure, it wouldnt hurt.

My agent is pitching my YA novel. Controversial subject. (But not chick lit or about vampires in any form.) I have received a few thoughtful, longish rejections, each with faint or nice praise. I agree with the critiques and am doing some revision. Is it best to wait for more comments or do significant revision now?

This is something to discuss with your agent. Tell her youre thinking of revising, and wonder if she should stop sending the manuscript out until the new draft is ready, or if she would rather keep pitching it while you rewrite. Whatever decision you come to should make sense to both of you.

Ive received a fair number of "good" rejections from editors over the years with favorable comments in spite of the rejections. Several editors have invited me to submit other work. I have continued to submit work to them (picture books) as well as other open houses. The difficult spot I find myself in now is that I am considering trying to get an agent to open doors to closed houses. However, as I have already submitted some of my manuscripts to numerous publishers, Im afraid that I have, in a sense, tied an agents hands when representing my work. Should I give up on the idea of finding agent representation for some of these manuscripts or should I wait until I have something new that has not yet been submitted?

Because Im not an agent and I dont know who youve been submitting to, I cant be sure whether your previous submissions will hamstring a potential agent. You might be able to find an agent now--as long as youre up front with him/her in your initial contact about where the manuscript youve sent them has already been shopped, and why (those personal connections sometimes make a difference). Your chances may be better, though, with a brand new manuscript.

I am writing my first YA novel; extremely to succeed. I have all these thoughts in my head and sometimes find it challenging expressing them, not only because writing genuinely is hard, but because Spanish is my native language. I just purchased two books on writing YA and quit my job to finish my novel. I know, my mother-in-law said I was crazy. Then again, "nothing ventured, nothing gained". What does it take to be a great writer? What advice you would give to someone really willing to follow it? A million thank yous from Puerto Rico.

There are different definitions of what makes a writer "great", and the ways that different writers go about being their version of great varies a great deal, too. So unfortunately there is no simple formula for greatness. But I do strongly recommend reading every day and writing every day, faithfully and persistently, and wanting to live the rest of your life that way. Greatness is not achieved through a passing interest or periodic dabbling, and most writers first work (or works) do not get published. I can tell you at least that no one ever achieves greatness by wanting to be a writer-- only by being one.

Addendum: some great writerly advice from Patrick Rothfuss, courtesy of Maine Character.

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More Questions and Answers Regarding the UC Budget

One of the most surprising facts that have come out of my exchanges with the budget office of UCOP is that only 38% of the cost of instruction is spent on faculty salaries and benefits. Another interesting fact is that the university claims it spends almost the same amount of money on departmental support as it does on faculty salaries. Furthermore, in a new response to my questions regarding this data, I have been told that only 62.8% of state funds go to support general campus activities; in other words, 37.2% of state funds go to the health sciences, research, and public services.

While the UCOP budget office feels that I have unfairly called them non-transparent, they also freely admit that none of these calculations of the cost of instruction can be found on any of their web sites. They have also added that their budgeting methods are highly complex, and there is often no clear way of tracing how funds are actually spent. For example, in response to my inquiry into how much state funds go to support summer instruction, I got the following: “The amount of State funding dedicated to summer sessions is not easily determined due to the variety of funding arrangements both within and across the campuses and the fact that recent budget cuts have reduced significantly the amount of funding available for all of instruction.” I think this is an honest answer, but it shows how difficult it is for the university to have any type of real budget transparency.

This problem of following the money is evident in UCOP’s response to my question concerning the different costs of educating undergraduates versus graduate students: “Due to the costs and the cross-subsidization of undergraduate and graduate instruction and research, and at the suggestion of the Legislative Analyst’s Office, these analyses were discontinued. No analyses were done to determine the undergraduate versus graduate costs of operating libraries, maintaining facilities, or managing the University.” Since the university cannot figure out how to separate costs for graduate and undergraduate students, it now simply uses a generalized average that makes it impossible to tell how the system is actually spending its money.

The problem of budget transparency is so important because even though the university claims that reducing undergraduate enrollments is a way to save money, they really do not know if this true. In fact, while the official policy of the regents is to increase the number of graduate students versus undergraduates, it is clear that the campuses are doing the opposite, and I suspect the reason for this conflict is that the local leaders realize that undergraduates are the only real source of flexible income.

In order to correct these problems, we need to work with the Legislative Analyst and the Department of Finance to require the university to calculate the real cost of educating undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. We should also require the university to report on its non-instructional costs with the goal of seeing how much the campuses are spending on administration.

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Name That Iron Man Artist! Game Answers Are Up!

Check them out here, and see how well you did!

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Name That JJJ Artist! ANSWERS are up!!

The answers to the "Name That JJJ Artist!" game are up, including who made the most correct guesses - including the top person, with an astounding EIGHTEEN out of twenty-nine correct! Check the answers out here.

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