Welcome to my blog!

Brand-new author B. A. Binns is here today to tell us about her first sale.  Her debut YA novel, PULL, is out now–and I have no doubt the story of her road to publication will have you pulling for her.

In B. A.’s own words:  

In February 2009 I attended a panel discussion on reluctant (primarily teenaged male) readers. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I was engaged in market research with an important group of buyers: booksellers and librarians. Many voiced a desire for more books to appeal to reluctant readers.  I had a character kicking around in my head, a minor character from one of my previous manuscripts.  That character had proven to be a truly obnoxious guy who wanted more page space to explain what made him the way he was. Since the roots of his problems came from his teen years, I chose to use his backstory to create a young adult novel.

The book, told from his POV, almost wrote itself. Five months and three hundred fifty pages later I had a complete manuscript that I titled Pull My String and affectionately nicknamed PMS.  I believed in this story and struggled to create an agent-attracting query as the manuscript began doing well in contests. My queries brought requests for partials and even fulls. Inevitably, those requests were followed by rejection emails telling me they liked my voice, liked the story and characters, but…

Late in 2009, I entered PMS in the Golden Rose contest.  I only chose that contest because it let me enter the first fifty pages and I hoped to get a lot of feedback I could use to strengthen the manuscript before I began another round of queries. I never even paid attention to the identity of the final judge.  Early in December my email brought the news that the final judge had ranked PMS number one AND wanted to see the full. I sent her the manuscript on Friday. Then, ever the realist, I settled down to relax. Experience had taught me that weeks, if not months, would pass before I heard back. And then the response would only be an addition to my growing pile of rejections.  

The following Wednesday I received an email from Andrea Somberg, an agent at the Harvey Klinger agency, saying that she loved PMS and wanted to represent me.  Suddenly I’m doing a frantic internet search and emailing friends for information on her.  I know that was totally backward, but I swear I never once thought I would win, much less get an offer, so I hadn’t studied up on her. 

When we spoke she was friendly, enthusiastic, positive–and she LOVED my book. And don’t we all believe that love conquers all?

I signed with the Harvey Klinger agency in January, 2010.  Once again the realist in me said relax, even with an agent, selling the book to an editor could take forever.  Yes, I discovered, agents get rejections too. Which felt like a good thing, because 2010 also found me dealing with an unexpected diagnosis of uterine cancer.  Following surgery, I recuperated with an April vacation in Miami before the beginning of radiation treatments.  On my last day in Florida I paused during a tour of the Everglades to check in with Andrea.  And there, while I was hanging around with the alligators, she told me that WestSide Books had agreed to purchase PMS, now re-titled PULL.   And, they wanted to fast-track the book for release in October.

October, 2010.

Life has more than a little irony. No more relaxation for me. I struggled with revisions and edits between daily visits to be irradiated.  While everyone else at the RWA convention in August was enjoying the nightlife, I was finishing off final line edits.  But when I held my first ARC in my hands, it all felt worthwhile.  And even though a glitch at the printers delayed the official release, everything’s over now but the shouting. And the promoting—but that’s another story.

BIO

B. A. Binns is the pseudonym of Barbara Binns, a Chicago Area author who finds writing an exercise in self discipline, and the perfect follow-up to her life as an adoptive parent and cancer survivor. She is a member of RWA (Romance Writers of America), the Chicago Writers Association, SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) and YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association). She writes to attract and inspire both male and female readers with stories of “real boys growing into real men…and the people who love them.” 

Her manuscripts have finaled in the 2009 Indiana Golden Opportunity and Maryland Reveal Your Inner Vixen contests, and in the 2010 Golden Heart ® contest. She has won the 2009 Rose City Golden Rose and the Oklahoma Finally A Bride contests and her debut YA novel, PULL, has been nominated for the 2011 Image Awards.  You can view the PULL book trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSjnzWMN9y0 and learn more about the book and the author at http://www.babinns.com

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Barbara here again.

B. A., thanks for sharing with us today.  Your personal story is as inspiring as your novel, and I hope this is just the first of a long list of published books in your future.

Readers, please leave a comment or question for B. A.  sometime today (Friday, December 3) to have your name entered in a drawing for a copy of PULL.  She’ll be dropping in to respond, and the winner’s name will be announced here in a post on Sunday.

Thanks for stopping by the blog!

Barbara