The Vent with Megan E. Freeman and AWAY
In Which Megan E. Freeman Hops Aboard and Tells Us About Publishing a Companion Novel Years After the First
Y’all! I’ve been blown away by the response so many of you had to my call for authors to share their experiences through The Vent! In the coming weeks, we’ll get so much wisdom and unique insight from writers who continue to create amazing books, despite the things thrown at us that make us want to vent. It’ll include takes from authors musing about recently published books, books written years ago, books soon-to-come, or books whose pub days are being celebrated as we speak (er…type, rather).
I’m so excited to start this new wave of The Vent with Megan E. Freeman, best-selling author of middle grade sensations ALONE and AWAY. In this Vent, Megan tells us all about her publishing journey, and gives us insight into bringing AWAY to bookshelves years after ALONE was published.
Jason June (JJ): When you started your writing journey, what was the biggest frustration you encountered as you tried to find an agent and/or went on sub to editors for the first time that you wish you could have vented about?
Megan E. Freeman (MEF): I was definitely not used to working in an industry where communication was so inconsistent. In my previous field, responding to emails and phone calls in a timely manner was not only mandated, it was mission critical. So to discover the practice of “no response means not interested” felt really foreign, and frankly, unprofessional. And believe me, I get that the internet and email have made submitting to agents far too easy, and I have no doubt they are swamped with ridiculous amounts of material that has no business in their inbox. And yet…in a world where relationships are key to opening every door, it still seems unfortunate to ghost people in a professional setting.
JJ: How about after you got your first book deal and continued on to publish multiple books? How did your frustrations (if you had any) change, and what would you have vented about or did vent about to author friends?
MEF: I was so overwhelmed with gratitude that someone actually wanted to publish my book, it frankly didn't occur to me to complain about anything. And Courtney Maum’s fabulous book Before and After the Book Deal came out around the same time and was a godsend in demystifying a lot of the process.
That said, I debuted (as you well know, my fellow 21der!) in January of 2021 in the heart of Covid. We didn’t have vaccines yet, everyone was still largely locked down, and people were still dying every day in every state. Forget any in-person events or school visits. But we had also watched the 2020 debut class get completely lost in all the chaos, and by early 2021 there was quite a bit of life happening online. Bookstores and libraries and schools had figured out how to have virtual events, and when I celebrated my book launch, I had friends and family from all around the world (literally!) attend via Zoom. So there were lots of silver linings that I was keenly aware of and grateful for. I made many dear friends in our debut class and on Twitter, and those people have become some of my best and closest friends today. Despite everything that was happening, when I wasn’t terrified of dying or having my family members die, most of what I felt was lucky.
JJ: Tell us about your latest book! And (I bet you know where this is going) what’s the biggest vent you’ve got about the process of creating this novel?
MEF: My new book is called AWAY, and it’s a companion novel to my first book, ALONE. (Yes, I went four years between contracts, during which time I had three manuscripts circulating and not finding publishing homes. Publishing is a long game.) AWAY follows four young characters as they are evacuated and try to solve the mystery of the threat that caused everyone to have to leave in ALONE. AWAY is a hybrid novel, so some of the characters are written in verse, while others are written in newspaper articles, diary entries, correspondence, and screenplay. AWAY and ALONE are each standalone novels where the stories take place at the same time, so they can be read in either order or individually. In fact, when I wrote ALONE, it never occurred to me to write another book in the world. It wasn’t until I heard from so many young readers who wanted to know more about the evacuation that I became inspired to dive back in.
The biggest writing challenge writing came from the fact that I sold it on proposal, which was a first for me and forced me to work in an entirely new way. I wrote the first fifty pages and a very long outline/synopsis, which I had never done before. Then once my publisher bought it, I had about six months to write the first draft. Each character had their own point of view written in their own form, and sometimes the process felt kind of like making a quilt in the dark. Or to use a Colorado metaphor, I often felt like I was out over my skis, about to fall on my face at any moment. The entire process was a real act of faith and I leveraged a lot of help from writer friends and beta readers, not to mention my agent and editor. And the difficulty of crafting the book was compounded by my trepidation about publishing a second book after having a debut novel that surprised everyone when it became a bestseller.
I’ll tell you a secret. The hardest thing about having all your dreams come true is accepting it when it happens. The small self is terribly prone to self-sabotage. So I was doing a lot of inner work as well as outer work, and I leveraged a lot of resources to navigate the whole experience.
JJ: Any words of wisdom you have for writers whether they are at the beginning of their journey or multi-published?
MEF: There’s a riddle that I find comforting.
Question: What’s the one thing that every traditionally published author has in common?
Answer: They didn’t give up.
Succeeding in this industry is about having tenacity and a growth mindset. When I thought my book was ready to query, it absolutely wasn’t. My writing wasn’t close to good enough and the manuscript was riddled with issues. Could I see them? No. Did I query too soon? Absolutely. Did I get rejected? You better believe it. Did it take me years to figure out the problems and address them successfully? Yes. Eleven years, actually, between conception and publication. Did I give up? No. Did I resist the urge to blame circumstances and invent reasons for my inability to make it happen? Yes. Did I keep taking workshops and webinars, reading craft books and articles and interviews, studying mentor texts, revising, re-drafting, getting critiques, going to conferences? Yes. And that’s why I’m still here to tell the tale.
The reason I wanted to be traditionally published was because I wanted to be held to a professional standard. I didn’t want to publish a book; I wanted to publish a great book, and I wanted the bar to be high. Thank God no one bought that early draft. I would be mortified. I’m so grateful to everyone who turned it down.
Here’s what I know. A craft is a combination of skills that can be learned, if the student is willing to set ego aside and put in the time. Rejection is a gift. Resilience is required. Excellence doesn’t come easily, and art deserves excellence. The universe likes momentum. We have agency over our creative lives.
Thanks for inviting me along on the cruise. May we all have smooth sailing on our journeys!
JJ: Thanks so much for joining us aboard the Ventorship, Megan! Author-passengers, read below for more info about Megan and AWAY!
About AWAY
When an imminent threat alert causes a midnight evacuation in Colorado, four kids relocated to the same shelter become unlikely friends. After they stumble onto evidence casting doubt on the legitimacy of the evacuation, they begin an investigation that causes them to question everything and everyone around them. Through a series of covert and courageous endeavors, the friends uncover the facts behind the “imminent threat” and must decide how—and if—they can expose the truth. Set in the same universe as Freeman's bestselling novel ALONE and told in a variety of poetry and prose forms, AWAY is a companion novel sure to please fans of adventure and mystery stories alike.
About Megan E. Freeman
Megan E. Freeman attended an elementary school where poets visited her classroom every week to teach poetry, and she has been a writer ever since. Her New York Times bestselling novel in verse, ALONE, won the Colorado Book Award, the California, Illinois, Indiana, Japan, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, and Vermont Children’s Book Awards, is an NCTE Notable Verse Novel, and is included on over two dozen "best of" and state reading lists. Megan is also a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, and her poetry chapbook, Lessons on Sleeping Alone, was published by Liquid Light Press. Her latest novel, AWAY, was an instant New York Times and Indie Bestseller and is a companion novel to ALONE, told in hybrid formats. Megan used to live in northeast Los Angeles, central Ohio, northern Norway, and on Caribbean cruise ships. Now she divides her time between northern Colorado and the Texas Gulf Coast.
Website: www.MeganEFreeman.com
Authors, the Ventorship is looking for traditionally published writers to be featured with their latest book release in a future edition of The Vent! Email me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com with the subject: VENTORSHIP to let me know you’re interested. All you’ll need to be featured are answers to the same four questions asked above, as well as an author bio, cover image, and book description.
If you’d like to vent about anything author/writing related, write to me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com with the subject: VENTORSHIP. I’ll give you my take in a post, and we’ll crowdsource author opinions in the comments. You’ll remain anonymous, and any haters will be thrown overboard. Ultimately, I think you’re going to be buoyed up by author love and support as we realize we really are all in the same boat 🛳️
Great post. It's validating to hear such a successful author say that the ghosting in this industry is unprofessional. But, I also really appreciate her thoughts on wanting to be held to extremely high standard of excellence. She used the rejection to drive herself to improve, rather than crush her spirits. Awesome story.
Wonderful interview! Thank you, Megan and Jason June!!