Maya Reynolds is an award-wining author, earning kudos for her romantic suspense and thriller novels. Her novella, You’ve Been a Bad Girl, was developed into a full-length manuscript and released on September 4 under the title, Bad Girl. It is a work of erotic suspense.CG: Thanks for taking time away from promoting Bad Girl to talk to us about your life as a writer. How exciting is it to see your book in print?
MR: Thanks for having me, Colleen. It’s a pleasure to be here.
I have to say it’s pretty amazing to walk into a bookstore and see MY book on a shelf. It’s even better when I see that, of the four books they ordered, only one is left
CG: What are you doing to promote your book and what is your schedule is like during
the launch?
MR: I have a full-time job so my book-promoting efforts are scheduled around that. I have three books signings this month at various Barnes & Noble stores in the Dallas area. I also have a number of speaking engagements lined up at writers’ groups and clubs. In addition, I maintain a daily presence online.
CG: I’m always fascinated by the diverse backgrounds many writers have. According to your website, you’ve been a teacher, a stockbroker, a psychiatric social worker and a crisis team interventionist. You make the rest of us look like underachievers! How did you go from one job to the other and what led you to writing?
MR: I was one of those people who knew I wanted to write early, but didn’t have the self-confidence to do anything about it at first. I trained to be a high school teacher. During the summer, I took a job at a stock brokerage house, fell in love with it and stayed. The company, Smith Barney, transferred me to Texas where I earned my brokerage license.
After about ten years, I got restless and quit my job to “find myself.” My plan was to try my hand at writing. I wrote and sold a number of short stories, but still didn’t have the discipline to write a full-length novel.
I returned to graduate school and spent three years earning my MSW (Masters in Social Work). During that time, I was selected to be a part of the first psychiatric crisis team in Dallas. The experience was invaluable. Once I had my professional license, I started the first psychiatric crisis team for children and adolescents in Dallas County. I later ran six public mental health clinics for both children and adults before becoming the vice president for operations for public mental health in Dallas County.
In 2003, I decided to try writing full-time and see if I could finish a novel. Between 2003 and 2005, I wrote three novels. Bad Girl sold in 2006 about the same time my insurance situation became untenable. Last December, I started back to work full-time (with fabulous medical insurance) and now write in the early morning, or during evenings and weekends.
CG: (Inner dialogue: Holy crap! I feel like even more of an underachiever now, but I must carry on. Here goes...) You live in Texas now, but where did you grow up and what brought you to Texas?
MR: I was born in Queens, one of the five boroughs of New York City. My family moved to Florida when I was in fifth grade. I grew up and went to college there. Smith Barney transferred me to Dallas when I was twenty-five.
CG: As someone who has never been there, Texas, especially Dallas seems to be the home of big hair and sparkle. Does it live up to its image? How did you fit in?
MR: It took quite a bit of time for me to adjust to living in Texas, but I’d find it difficult to live anywhere else now. The people are the kindest I’ve ever met. In my years here, I have never had a flat tire without someone stopping to help within five minutes of my pulling off the road. Texas hospitality is very real.
I’m not much of a big hair and sparkle gal. I keep my hair very short, wash it in the morning and let the curls dry on my head without using a dryer. When my cat Bob hasn’t made off with my earrings, I do wear sparkles in my ears, but that’s about it.
CG: Let’s talk about writing. Describe the writing and publication of Bad Girl for us. When did the writing begin? How much time did you spend on it? How did your novella grow to a full-length novel? How much time was there from the time you got your publishing deal to release date?MR: Wow! That’s a big order. Bad Girl started as an exercise in a writing class in February 2005. I felt good about it and entered it in the Just Erotic Romance Reviews contest later that spring.
I was thrilled when it won second prize and Ellora’s Cave (an e-publisher) requested the full in August. The only problem was I hadn’t finished it yet because I was working on something else. It was another month or two before I completed it as a 45K-word manuscript and submitted it.
Before I heard back from Ellora’s Cave, Jacky Sach of BookEnds Literary Agency offered me representation in early 2006. She sold the story to NAL Heat (a division of Penguin) in mid-2006. The only catch was that they wanted a full-length novel. They gave me until December to finish it. Then it was another nine months before it was published.
CG: Jacky Sach from BookEnds Literary Agency is your agent. Tell us about your query letter. What made it stand out from the rest to garner Jacky’s attention?
MR: You’d probably have to ask Jacky to be sure, but I wrote a very professional, business-like letter. I just went back and pulled my description of the manuscript:
Sandy Davis, the protagonist of my novella, is a shy, lonely teacher who has been spying on her high-rise neighbors with a telescope for months. One night, she receives a telephone call from an anonymous male saying, "You've been a bad girl, Alexandra Davis." Sandy must decide whether to capitulate to her blackmailer's demands or risk the consequences of being exposed as a voyeur.
CG: Many of us have been filled with fear that a formatting error can cost us a publishing deal. In your opinion, how necessary is perfect formatting?
MR: This is one of the things that writers obsess about unnecessarily. Use a well-known font like Times New Roman 12 or Courier 12, with one-inch margins and double-space and don’t worry about it. You’ll be fine.
CG: In Canada, it still seems to be possible to get published without an agent. Is that the case in the U.S.?
MR: If you’re going with a regional press or a smaller press, it’s still possible. If you’re querying one of the six or seven big New York houses, it’s less likely.
The problem is the sheer volume of queries today. Publishers use agents to vet the queries. It saves on time and staffing because the number of queries is staggering.
As an example, last December, agent Kirsten Nelson reported on her statistics for 2006. She said she’d received 20,800 queries last year. Of those, she requested 54 full manuscripts.
That means she read 400 queries and slightly more than one full manuscript each and every week of the year. And, for all that work, she accepted eight new clients.
CG: Were edits requested from either your agent or the publisher? If so, what was that process like?
MR: I was very worried because I had to add more than 20K words to the manuscript. I made an outline of where I thought I could make the additions, and Jacky was a big help with that. I emailed it to Tracy Bernstein, my editor at NAL Heat (a division of Penguin), expecting a long, drawn out process of back and forth. To my delight, Tracy said she liked it. The two biggest changes she requested were for me to change my heroine’s profession and to change the title.
Jacky had said that Tracy had a light hand, and I would love her. She was right. I agreed with all of her suggestions. In fact, when I was re-reading it recently, I had trouble telling which changes were Tracy’s and which were mine.
CG: Any tips for new writers on landing an agent or a publisher?
MR: Start early, making a list of potential agents. Whenever you hear about a possible agent who accepts work in your genre, jot the name and information down. Then check out the website and google the name. By the time, you finish your manuscript, you should have a list of qualified agents in your genre. I also subscribed to Publishers Marketplace, which has a terrific database of agents, including the sales they’ve reported.
Q: Would you like to add any other advice for pre-published authors?
Start thinking of yourself as a professional writer. When you do that, it influences your decisions. Introduce yourself as a writer, set time aside for your writing, and don’t let your family and friends intrude upon that time. My friends had difficulty with the fact that I wouldn’t just drop everything and go out to lunch or shopping with them because--after all--I was at home. I started telling everyone that I checked messages at noon and again at 4:00 PM. It took a while for them to respect that, but they eventually did.
CG: Best of luck with Bad Girl. Perhaps you can drop by later and let us know how the book is doing.
MR: I’d love to. Thank you for having me.
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Hope you've enjoyed this interview -- and Maya's book -- as much as I have. If you have any other questions for her, please post away!
Colleen
