FAQ
If you have a question about an interview, publicity, getting an ARC, etc., please contact my publicist at Penguin, Allison Verost, at Allison.Verost@us.penguingroup.com.
Do you have an e-mail address where I can reach you?
Yes. It’s allyATallysoncondieDOTcom. It takes me a little while to respond sometimes, but I do read every single one! If you’re looking for writing advice, read on before contacting me because I might just answer some of your questions below. 
How did you find your current publisher/agent?
I sent out queries to agents who represented young adult fiction. I found their names online at agentquery.com and then researched them at Publishers’ Marketplace and online to make sure they would be a good fit. A friend clued me in to all of these websites—things had changed a bit since I originally queried my first book in 2004!—and that was super helpful. However, almost all of the queries were cold queries. I sent out 25-30 letters and only one of those was a referral (meaning another author friend had recommended me). And that wasn’t the agent who ended up representing me.
So—I am proof that there IS hope! You CAN be found in the slush pile!
Did having books published with a regional press help you land your current agent/publisher?
The short answer is nope. Not at all, in fact. It was kind of a non-issue, actually. Didn’t hurt, didn’t help.
The long answer is yes, absolutely. Because, when I sent that first manuscript to my first publisher back in 2004, they thought enough of it to ask for a revise and resubmit. And that changed everything for me. It gave me the chance to learn how to write. It gave me the encouragement I needed to put writing higher on the priority list. I owe a great deal of gratitude to them, especially to the wonderful Lisa Mangum, who was the acquisitions editor at the time and who was the one who saw promise in that original manuscript and said, “It’s not there yet, but there’s something good here.”
Will you read my manuscript? Will you recommend it to your agent/publisher?
I am so sorry, but I can’t. For the past five years I have read many, many manuscripts for others—including people who I haven’t even met—because that is something I never had starting out and I wanted to be helpful, since I would have LOVED that mentoring. But now, I can’t, and the reasons for this are twofold:
1. I have a hard enough time getting my own writing completed.
2. I have come to realize that I am a TERRIBLE editor. Being an editor is hard. It requires severe amounts of talent and work and knowledge. And I don’t want to do a disservice to you and give you rotten advice on your manuscript!
So, since I can’t read manuscripts anymore, I also can’t recommend them to my agent/publisher (because in order to do that, I would need to have read them).
*So how can you help me?
I can tell you to spend lots of time writing. To find readers who you trust to read your book and help you make it the best it can be. To read lots of great books. To find and attend a writing conference. To not give up. To remember that the best reason to write is because YOU love doing it.
And, I can refer you to some wonderful links of authors and agents who have said everything I could possibly say, only better. Because they know more and have been doing this for a long time, and doing it well. I’m just a beginner in the national market and have so, so much to learn.
Enjoy!
