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My experience with eGlobal Creative Publishers

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Hi everyone! It's been a while since I posted here, and I'm just getting used to the new layout! Everything is different! There are few older threads here that discuss eGlobal Creative Publishers, but I didn't want to resurrect anything. I did, however, want to share my experience with them briefly because I signed with them about a year and a half ago, so I have some feedback for those of you who were wondering if it is a legitimate company and safe to work with. Both answers are yes--they are legitimate and safe to work with. I signed a huge chunk of back list titles with them in Dec 2019 with non-exclusive contracts so I could keep them wide. I've made a little bit of money from those back list books, but I've made more from learning to write web novels. eGlobal offers training to authors who want to learn the differences between writing novels and serialized fiction. From their training, I've gone on to make a sizable amount of income from web novels. This month, I will make more from web novels than I will on Amazon. I have been continuing to publish new novels on Amazon as well, so it is possible to do both. This is just another revenue stream, one that is beginning to take off. Whether you're considering listing your back list with eGlobal or want to complete their training to make the most of writing web novels, they are great to work with. If anyone has any specific questions, feel free to message me. They've also just redone their website and have a lot more information there. I'm not sure if I can link to it without breaking forum rules, but it's pretty easy to find if you search for their name.  

How much did they charge you for the training?  

It's free. None of their services cost anything.  

Litakurn

ID Johnson said: Hi everyone! It's been a while since I posted here, and I'm just getting used to the new layout! Everything is different! There are few older threads here that discuss eGlobal Creative Publishers, but I didn't want to resurrect anything. I did, however, want to share my experience with them briefly because I signed with them about a year and a half ago, so I have some feedback for those of you who were wondering if it is a legitimate company and safe to work with. Both answers are yes--they are legitimate and safe to work with. I signed a huge chunk of back list titles with them in Dec 2019 with non-exclusive contracts so I could keep them wide. I've made a little bit of money from those back list books, but I've made more from learning to write web novels. eGlobal offers training to authors who want to learn the differences between writing novels and serialized fiction. From their training, I've gone on to make a sizable amount of income from web novels. This month, I will make more from web novels than I will on Amazon. I have been continuing to publish new novels on Amazon as well, so it is possible to do both. This is just another revenue stream, one that is beginning to take off. Whether you're considering listing your back list with eGlobal or want to complete their training to make the most of writing web novels, they are great to work with. If anyone has any specific questions, feel free to message me. They've also just redone their website and have a lot more information there. I'm not sure if I can link to it without breaking forum rules, but it's pretty easy to find if you search for their name. Click to expand...

If you're talking about the boot camp program, it depends. It's mostly royalty based, though there is usually a small advance. The royalties earned will depend upon the genre you write in and how well your book does, just like with most any other publisher. They also have a ghostwriting program that pays per thousand words completed, and the rate is based on the amount of experience the writer has. With boot camp, writers have made five figures a month from one book when it's in a popular subgenre, like wolf shifter, but there are a lot of variables at play. Every author's experience is different, of course. If you have any other questions, I will do my best to answer them.  

They were supposed to send me a contract over 2 months ago and I've heard nothing back after nudging twice. I was excited since they get you on many serial apps at once but I'm not going to chase them.  

I'm sorry--I know they're getting hundreds of submissions for boot camp every day so it might've gotten lost in the shuffle, but that's frustrating, I'm sure. Hopefully, it will come through soon if you're still interested.  

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LitRPG & Progression Fantasy w/Matt Dinniman, Shirtaloon, & Abby

COLOSSUS RISING has risen!

Colossus Rising

Colossus Rising

Available now on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited , Audible , and as a print paperback , this is a sci-fi odyssey you won’t want to miss. In the gripping second volume of this electrifying sci-fi fantasy series, the battle for survival reaches new heights in the unforgiving depths of space.

A ragtag group of escapees hurtles through the vastness of space, pursued by armadas, saboteurs, and kamikaze armies. The Earth they once knew is blocked by the relentless Torth Majority who now threaten all of humanity.

Among the escapees is Ariock, a powerhouse of a gladiator with illegal superpowers, a legacy from his legendary great-grandfather who defied the Torth. Ariock is determined to follow in his footsteps. Then there’s Thomas, a brilliant supergenius, physically challenged but gifted with a mind that’s both awe-inspiring and enigmatic. His resilience is shrouded in mystery, even to his foster sister Vy.

Their common thread is fear of the unknown. Crash-landing on a distant, toxic planet, they discover it’s the ancestral home of the Torth, their galactic enemies. The remnants of the Torth era of origin still haunt this poisoned wasteland.

As they face mutant horrors and relentless galactic foes, Thomas envisions only doom and despair. But for Ariock and the streamship exiles, it’s a do-or-die struggle for survival—a quest to uncover light in a city trapped in eternal night.

With over 750,000 views as a web serial, the Torth series begins with Majority . Superpowered mavericks and supergeniuses vie for galactic dominance against a collective armada composed of 38 trillion personalities. Higher stakes than Red Rising or The Expanse . One of the 100 Best Indie Books of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews .

If you read these books, please rate them or leave a review!

Goodreads : Majority | Colossus Rising

Amazon : Majority | Colossus Rising | World of Wreckage

Sign up for infrequent Abby Updates and merchandise giveaways!

Majority by Abby Goldsmith

abbygoldsmith.com/majority

Publication day for MAJORITY

Today is the day!  I am now a published novelist.

What a journey it has been! I will have more books published, including the sequels to this one, which are already written. But this one is special. It’s the one I spent the most time on. It’s my first novel on Amazon. It’s the one with all the pressure on it, as a series starter. And it’s the start of a series that I stand proudly behind.

Reviews and sales are immensely important to authors. I really appreciate everyone who bought a copy, and those who are planning to write a review, or who already wrote one on Goodreads or Amazon.

If sci-fi isn’t your thing, I would appreciate it if you tell a friend, or perhaps gift it to someone who loves thoughtful sci-fi! For freebies and peeks into my life, you can subscribe to my newsletter .

Thanks for being part of my life!

Majority by Abby Goldsmith

Also, I gave a bunch of interviews for this one!  If you’d like to see what I’ve been up to, check out John Scalzi’s blog , Rune S Nielsen’s blog , Jendia Gammon’s substack , Bookishly Jewish , Queen’s Asylum , Bryan Aiello’s YouTube channel , Hinterspace podcast , NFS podcast and a Reddit AMA !

★★★★★ “Engaging from the start, this complex space opera features relatable, believable characters; highly original, meticulous world building; and difficult moral and ethical dilemmas.”

Booklist review

★★★★★ “Thoughtful explorations of morality, altruism, justice and mercy, and the idea that godlike powers come with godlike responsibilities add depth and breadth to this auspicious entry in SF literature’s mutant-superman genre.”

Kirkus review

Signed a 6 book deal with Podium!!!

I have very incredible and awesome news to share. I’ve signed a 6 book series contract with Podium Audio !!!

My epic 1+ million word Torth series will be coming out in print, ebook, and audiobook editions, probably starting late this year or in 2024.  This is super thrilling for me.  My magnum opus dark sci-fi series is going to hit Amazon & Audible in a big way!  (Books 1 & 2 will be combined.)

I owe it to taking a chance on serialization.  I’m having a blast on RoyalRoad + Patreon.  Feel free to ask me anything.  Now I’m diving into edits!  ❤️

If you’re unfamiliar with my Torth series, here’s a brief blurb:

In a galaxy-spanning utopia where societal leaders are networked together for instant communication, nothing goes unnoticed.

There’s no crime. No secrets. No privacy. And no way to escape.

Until Thomas unintentionally captivates the top super-genius influencer.   If he’s going to help his enslaved friends, he’ll need to trick her… plus her audience of thirty trillion mind readers.

And so Thomas’s galactic conquest begins.

A.I. Artwork And Writing: a writer-artist’s perspective.

From what I’ve seen, A.I. generated artwork has a certain aesthetic to it. Faces are rarely defined. Imagery may be riotously detailed, which gives a superficial impression that it was lovingly worked on by hand for many days, but it lacks a coherent theme. That gives the impression that it is dreamlike imagery, or slap-dabbed together by someone in a creative frenzy. It is a certain look.

Perhaps that aesthetic will always be appealing. But I wonder if it will wear out its welcome? I’m already getting worn out on it. I feel as if I can recognize it when I see it, and it’s not what I want for my finalized novel covers. (Short stories, maybe.)

And I think the same applies to Jasper A.I. and other A.I. writing tools. People who read a lot of blogs and articles are learning to recognize overly emotional language that is incongruously used for conveying generic or low-value content.

I’ve seen A.I. performers, where people pay a service that simulates an actor to read lines. There is an uncanny valley effect with those. The “actor” looks quite human, but they blink a bit too often, and their smiles are quick and small and weirdly constrained.

I don’t know how the arts will adapt to these things. But speaking as a writer-artist, I’m not thrilled about it. I think this is all part of the race-to-the-bottom in the arts. Companies don’t want to pay artists and writers. Now they don’t have to.

The question is: Will the public accept A.I. art and writing as equal to the real thing? Or will they tune it out eventually? Will they tend to gravitate towards art and writing created by real people? Or will enough people fail to see the difference, or fail to care, so that the money flows towards A.I. tools more than it flows to human writers and artists?

Epic Series Writers group

A lot professional advice aimed at novelists doesn’t quite apply to writers of epic series. Everything about a major series is different from stand-alone novels. The approach, plotting, and methodology are different. The pitching, audience building strategies, and marketing are different.

I want a place where we can find on-target advice and support, without needing to dig through a morass of posts aimed at other types of novelists. So I made a focus group.

Epic Series Writers on Discord

Epic Series Writers on Facebook

Come join if you write epic series! Lurkers are welcome, but I want this group to stay very focused on the unique challenges and concerns of writing a series with 3+ books, totaling more than 150,000+ words collectively, that has to be read in the correct order.

Written Serialization Hubs

Where can you reach readers with your written serialized fiction? Here’s a list.

NON-EXCLUSIVE SERIALIZATION PLATFORMS with MONETIZATION OPTIONS

  • Wattpad (65+ million users)
  • Tapas (graphic novels as well as written)
  • Radish (requires application)
  • RoyalRoad (litRPG focus, monetize through Patreon)
  • Booksie (teens and poets)
  • Neovel / Neoread
  • Inkitt (may want exclusivity, glitchy, Germany-based)
  • Creative Novels (min 30k words)
  • Commaful (multimedia, short stories)
  • Channillo (curated; requires application)
  • PenPee (U.K. based, short stories)
  • Booknet / Litnet
  • Literal (education?)
  • BetaReader.io
  • LoveNovel (LGBQT+)

NOT MONETIZED SERIALIZATION and CRITIQUE FORUMS

  • Listing Hubs such as WebFictionGuide
  • Reddit (such as r/redditserials)
  • ScribbleHub (favors anime-inspired)
  • Honeyfeed (Japanese)
  • Bhooks (crit system)
  • Inklings (Christian, clean fiction)
  • Critters (SFF, crit forum)
  • Absolute Write (crit forum)
  • Scribophile (crit forum)
  • Mythic Scribes (SFF, crit forum)
  • Critique Circle (crit forum)
  • Savvy Authors (crit forum)
  • Wacky Writers (crit forum)

MONETIZED ONLY / ROYALTY-PAYING SERIALIZATION

  • Amazon’s Kindle Vella
  • KISS / Scream / Crazy Maple Studios
  • EGlobal Creative Publishing (3rd party distributor, Hong Kong, reports of them ghosting writers)
  • PublishDrive (3rd party distributor)
  • Flamingo Fiction / StreetLib / 365 Media (3rd party distributor)
  • FicFun / Dreame
  • Lure
  • Glose (France based)
  • Simily (short stories)
  • Unbound (crowdfunded print editions)
  • PopInk (Hong Kong based)
  • ShareStory (Webnovel parent company)
  • GetInkspired
  • Kongfubooks

And what if you want to self-host?

PAYWALL HELP FOR WEB SERIALS / SELL ADVANCE CHAPTERS

  • Laterpress.com
  • Ko-fi , and other crowd-funding platforms
  • Gumroad (all-purpose)
  • Steem (I hear ad bots rule)
  • Medium (ideal for non-fic)
  • Back matter in ebooks with a similar readership

FANFIC FOCUSED SERIALIZATION

  • Ao3 / Archive Of Our Own (popular fanfic site with a section for original fiction, apply to join)
  • Quotev (old community)
  • FictionPress (pre-dates Wattpad, may want exclusivity)
  • Mibba (section for original fiction, young writers)

NON-ENGLISH / FOREIGN SERIALIZATION MARKETS

  • Belletristica (mostly German)
  • Pratilipi (Indian)
  • Novello (Hong Kong)
  • Joara / Full Novels (Japanese)
  • KakaoPage (Korean)
  • Snack Book (Korean)
  • Bagle (Korean)
  • Livory (German, owned by Tapster)
  • MoboReader (Changdu’s English outreach, requires application)
  • CreativeNovels.com (webnovel translation site, requires application)
  • WuxiaWorld.com (China webnovels translation)
  • Gravity Tales (China/Korea translation)
  • Scribay (French)

EXCLUSIVE / INVITE-ONLY / TOWARDS TRADITIONAL DEAL

  • Galatea (an Inkitt venture)
  • Realm / SerialBox (SFF audio, hard to get in)
  • FierceReads (rebranded Swoon Reads, Macmillan YA sourcing site)
  • ThePigeonHole (sources from trad publishers)
  • Boke Technology (romance only)
  • Episodic Reading (2yr exclusive)
  • Alexi Books (sources from trad publishers, looks defunct)

CHAT / TEXTING STORIES

  • Hooked.co (texting style stories)
  • Tap by Wattpad (texting style stories)
  • Lure Fiction
  • Peep.jp (was Taskey.me; Japanese; crowd-sourced translation if you serialize for free, texting style stories)

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE / BRANCHING STORIES

  • Episode (primarily romance)
  • Scripts: romance episode
  • Sana Stories
  • Dorian ($2m funded, Lionsgate Films)
  • Tales (learning curve)
  • Choice of Games / Heart’s Choice
  • 4thewords.com (Costa Rica based, international)

SKETCHY / SCAMMY / POSSIBLY ABANDONED

  • Webnovel (China, Qidian’s English site) and Boxnovel
  • Tencent / Qidian.com (huge serialization platform in China; they may take all rights)
  • EMP Entertainment and A&D Entertainment (3rd party distributor, Singapore partner for Webnovel)
  • CreativeNovel (foreign, iffy on rights)
  • NovelHD (steals stories from Wattpad) owned by contabo.de
  • Foxteller (ghost town, may be iffy on rights)
  • HiNovel (rights grabby, contact [email protected] )
  • iReader, Fictum, Bytedance Group (reports of selling work without permission, Writer Beware)
  • EStory (grabby contract)
  • authorbitz (founder: Lucinda Hawks Moebius, looks abandoned)
  • www.orton.io (sketchy w mispellings)
  • Movellas (looks sketchy, possible plagiarism?)
  • taylz.com (short fiction critique site, free, UK-based)
  • 2Tale (may be abandoned)
  • EGlobal Creative Publishing
  • Libri (will take all your rights)
  • BravoNovel (theft)
  • Friver group
  • NovelBee (plagiarism)
  • BeeNovel (red flag, they steal)
  • LITeReader (nonpayment)

CLOSED / DEFUNCT

  • Curious Fictions
  • LitHive.com (fanfic)
  • Describli (seeking backers on IndieGoGo)
  • ReaderCoin (audio focus)
  • JukePop Serials (crowd-funded)
  • WriteOn (Amazon; more like a critique group)
  • Book Country (Penguin Random House; more like a critique group)
  • Authonomy (HarperCollins)
  • Readitt.com

It’s 2018? Holy Crap, Life Got in the Way.

Happy New Year! It’s 2018, and I’ll turn forty in a few weeks.

Some of my peers have enjoyed major leaps forward in their career, or their family, during the past year or two. I don’t feel as if much has changed for me. That’s a frustrating feeling. When I look back at what I accomplished in a year, it doesn’t seem like enough. I finished the final draft of Book 1, and I’m halfway through finalizing Book 2. I also began writing Book 6. I’m on track to finish my enormous epic series this year or next.

But where’s my audience? Shouldn’t I be building my readership? How do I expect to compete with the millions of other SFF authors who are busy promoting and cross-promoting?

Yeah. That’s what I need to work on.

If you are one of my readers, please understand how grateful I am. My blog posts sometimes veer into naked angst, as I’m on the journey to becoming an “authorpreneur,” or self-made author. My heroes are Scott Sigler, Hugh Howey, Andy Weir, Drew Hayes, Michael J. Sullivan, and a bunch of other self-made authors who built an underground following and made it into the mainstream. I want a career like theirs. I write epic sci-fi and fantasy, and I’m confident that I’ve got something original and unique, and, well, exceptionally good. But proving that is different from doing it. There’s writing books, and then there’s selling books, and those two endeavors are not the same.

Before I publish Book 1, I need to send out ARCs (advanced reader copies), and ask for reviews and endorsements. I need to firm up my launch plan and set a date. I need a good cover artist, and I need to find a good audiobook narrator. I want to hire a virtual assistant to help me with ads and promo and newsletter activities. I’m afraid of blowing a lot of money on the launch, only to have the whole series fizzle and die along with my author career. This launch will be the culmination of decades of hard work, for me. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime risk. I’ll publish other series, but I doubt I’ll ever put this much effort and stress into one again.

You can help by asking for a copy of the first book of my series. It has an ending, so even if you’re not a series reader, you’ll still get a kick out of it, especially if you have any interest in exploring crowd psychology through a SFF lens. I’ll be happy to send you a free e-book version, in exchange for an honest review when I hit the “publish” button.

Here’s a few highlights from my past year:

  • I enjoyed a vacation in South Korea, right when all those nuclear threats were flying around.
  • I visited New Orleans for the first time, during the French Quarter Festival.
  • I made a few dollars worth of passive income, through RedBubble, 3DExport, and TurboSquid. I only have a few illustrations and 3D art assets for sale, so it’s cool whenever someone buys one, because I know they’re a random browser who doesn’t know who I am.
  • I’m very proud of the short story I have published in the Futuristica sci-fi anthology. This is one of my best.
  • I got into trading cryptocurrencies, and it looks like I may make a few extra hundred or thousand dollars, although nothing is guaranteed in the crypto underworld. It’s a lot more exciting than investing in stocks, since it’s so volatile, with so much mystique.

And a few things upcoming in 2018:

  • I’ll have an article published by Writer’s Digest .
  • I’m going to get a Lasik consultation. Since my eyesight is -10, I probably won’t be eligible for the surgery, but I’m curious about new alternatives, such as lens implants.
  • My travel plans include the Cayman Islands, thanks to the awesome company where I work.
  • And I’m likely going to take a trip Europe later this year, possibly to Scotland, or to Austria.
  • I’m still co-hosting the Stories for Nerds podcast, but I’m considering attempting something strange and new on Twitch.tv.
  • I will try my best not to let being forty years old and single get me down. Treasure what you have.

Interview by Brian Donald Wright

Thanks to Brian Donald Wright for the interview. There are some tidbits in here that I don’t usually share on social media.

Direct Link

Torth Series

Author ID Johnson

Every author needs a place to connect to the reader, to offer insight into the expanded lives of the characters, answer questions, and share the thinking behind those crafty plot twists. This is where I will let you in to my world as I create the people and places you love to read about.

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Why i'm writing webnovels, and you should be too.

novel writers eglobal creative publishing

3 comments:

novel writers eglobal creative publishing

Do u have a newsletter?

I do! Thanks for asking: https://books.bookfunnel.com/idjohnsonnewslettersignup

I'm someone who has lived a life seemingly in the background, I must say this final indignity I have suffered almost too much to endure. You see, I have been sickly and weak since the day I was born and doomed to go through my life weakling. I seemed to have always suffered from one illness or another and could never play with the other children as I so desperately wanted to. Mother always made such a big fuss over me, also, making the situation worse as the other boys teased me mercilessly after they saw it. I was browsing  the internet searching on how I could be transformed into a powerful person when I came across the email of a man named Lord Mark. who was a VAMPIRE so I told him that I has always dreamed of becoming a  VAMPIRES, All i did was just to follow the procedure that i was been told, and i bet you that procedure I took change my entire life to something i ever desire, freedom, sickness free, pains free, fame, influence, connections and even more that i can. Thanks to Lord Mark. Do you want a life full of interesting things? Do you want to have power and influence over others? To be charming and desirable? To have wealth, health, and longevity? contact the vampires creed today via email: [email protected]

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Great Books, Great Minds

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TRANSLATIONS

Since 2017, we've translated over 100 novels from Chinese to English, Spanish and other languages. Founded by two passionate readers of Chinese novels, our aim is to provide the best quality stories for readers all over the world. 

novel writers eglobal creative publishing

We are actively seeking native English writers to publish with us. As a part of our collaboration with multiple international websites, we want to help creators promote and market their novels and comics to reach a wider audience through our platforms. You retain all the rights to your work with a non-exclusive collaboration, and we do the groundwork to make it available to even more readers around the world!

Online Courses in Writing and Editing!

We at jianlai global are proud to introduce two new online educational courses.  created by our sister company eglobal creative publishing, inc., these courses aim to educate students on online literature writing and translation editing.  more courses are coming soon .

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YOUR WRITING, YOUR FUTURE

Eglobal creative publishing, begin your journey in the innovative publishing world of serialized online fiction today, auth or boot camp, eglobal's premiere publishing program.

Our Author Boot Camp program provides expertise on web publishing and a unique opportunity for writers to work closely with an editor as they develop a novel from start to finish.

RIVETING ROMANCE CONTEST WINNERS

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Read them here! Immortals University, by author Cambria Covell:   https://radishfiction.com/stories/27955 Bodyguard to the Mafia's Daughter, by author M. T.:  https://radishfiction.com/stories/27947 Bedroom Hymns, by author Seph Meadowes:  https://radishfiction.com/stories/27949 Demon's Unholy Maiden, by author Mari Hockett:  https://radishfiction.com/stories/27948

Check out our new releases.

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Lucille DeMarco thought her ‘happily ever after’ was coming true when her billionaire boyfriend asked her to join him on the island of Tucunia. When Seeley arrives after him, she learns the relationship she sacrificed everything for was a joke to him. Heartbroken, Seeley, meets an attractive pro surfer, Asher.

After getting to know each other and finding out they both have demons to face, she and the heartthrob surfer come to an intriguing arrangement to help each other out—a fake relationship.

Read it here:

https://www.webnovel.com/book/forbidden-depths_27515250208009105

novel writers eglobal creative publishing

Serialized online fiction is a rapidly growing industry and an incredible opportunity for authors of all experience levels. 

Authors post daily updates to novels that can run for hundreds and even thousands of chapters, attracting thousands of fans around the world and successfully monetizing their work.

We invite any English-language authors to inquire about our programs to help them get a leg-up in this market!

FEATURED STORY: IMMORTALS UNIVERSITY

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Iris Miller is a human girl who doesn't believe in mate magic that starts school at the prestigious Immortals University. There she meets arrogant future alpha Malaki Crescent who just might change that.

Immortals University is created by Cambria Covell, an eGlobal Creative Publishing Signed Author.

Read now!  https://radishfiction.com/stories/27955

Are you a novice author or editor? Take our expertly-crafted education courses and learn the ins and outs of serialized online literature and translation editing.

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BESTSELLERS

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"On the bed." My new master, the Alpha of Drogomor, commanded.

I walked toward the bed, naked, ashamed, and full of tears.

I was about to lose my virginity, but it meant nothing to the man who was going to take it.

I am Rosalie, 20 years old, sold to the most terrifying alpha by my own father.

"You're nothing to me but a breeder." he said to me cruelly.

I had long known that my love for him was hopeless and foolish.

However, I was naïve to think that was the end of the story.

Once the baby is born, I will be put to death.

People thought I was dead, but I survived.

"It's you!" He grabbed my hand, and his eyes were filled with emotions I couldn't understand. "Come back to me, Rosalie."

"Sorry." I calmly looked back at him, "but I think you've got the wrong person."

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Meet the 2024 Writing Freedom Fellows

By Jim Plank / February 13 2024

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Published on 

How to write books for American Girl

Northeastern professor Kathryn Reiss made her career authoring historical mysteries for tweens. In addition to her wholly original novels, writing for the iconic doll and book company has been a perfect fit.

novel writers eglobal creative publishing

In “The Silver Guitar: A Julie Mystery,” by Kathryn Reiss, Julie Albright, a 10-year-old girl living in 1970s San Francisco, gets involved in a glitzy auction to raise money for an oil spill disaster cleanup off the California coast. The most prized item on offer — a silver guitar that once belonged to a Jimi Hendrix doppelgänger — becomes central to a slowly-unfolding whodunnit involving San Francisco’s hippie elite, a class project, and a conspiracy to steal scores of precious artifacts and replace them with fakes, including a Van Gogh sketch and Abraham Lincoln’s top hat.

By the end, Julie and her friends solve the mystery, learning a valuable, overarching lesson about the danger of snap judgments along the way:

“Why would you suspect me?” a character asks Julie in a passage near the book’s resolution. “ Because we jumped to conclusions, Julie thought. She had suspected nearly everyone based on what she thought was evidence. Just as the oil spill wasn’t really the ship captain’s fault. Mom had helped her see that the blame for the oil spill in the bay was not clear cut. Now Julie realized that the theft of the silver guitar was also more complex.”

Published in 2011, “The Silver Guitar,” is an entry in the American Girl imprint’s “Mysteries” series. Julie, as AG devotees know, is a doll with long, center-parted blond hair and a peace sign T-shirt from the iconic toy brand, which sells dozens of doll characters with fully fleshed out canons often set against the backdrop of key periods in U.S. history. There are clothes, furniture and accessories to go with them — not to mention dozens of books and short stories.  

Reiss, a creative writing professor on Northeastern University’s campus in Oakland, California, has authored several mystery novels for American Girl alongside her award-winning, wholly original middle grade fiction. In addition to three other Julie mysteries, she has written for the 1900s-era Rebecca and Depression-era Kit characters.

“Kathryn’s American Girl books are among the ones I’ve enjoyed reading [the most],” says Kristin McGlothlin, a fan and fellow middle-grade author who especially loves Reiss’ “A Kit Mystery: Intruders at Rivermead Manor. ” 

“The historical context is written into the story seamlessly,” she says. “I’ve found reading some of the American Girl series that the era’s trends can stick out to the reader.”

A stack of two books, one titled 'The Tangled Web: A Julie Mystery' on top.

Julie was an ideal muse for Reiss, and not just because they both call the Bay Area home. American Girl books writ large bring together elements the author is drawn to in all her work: the historical past, memory, enterprising female protagonists, mystery with a light element of peril, trenchant life lessons. Her work for the company, which has stretched from the early 2000s to her most recent “Julie” book in 2018, has been a welcome complement to the rest of her career.  

That includes her role as an educator: Many of Reiss’ creative writing students have become successful novelists in their own rights, including Nina LaCour and Carly Anne West.

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“I think about her a lot in terms of having this really outsized influence on multiple generations of middle grade writers,” says Stephanie Young, a poet and literary scholar who has been on the faculty with Reiss since 2005.

LaCour, a 2006 MFA graduate, wrote her debut novel with Reiss an adviser. “I respect Kathryn’s career so much,” she says. “She was my first example of a real working writer —someone with such talent and skill and tenacity.”

She describes her professor as an enthusiastic scholar of the Young Adult genre, always discovering new works. “She stayed very current with her book selections. She had some core novels that she taught over and over but would always weave in newer releases, too. She taught YA as an ever-evolving category of literature, which was so beneficial.”

‘Creepy ghostie’ novels

Reiss realized she had a knack for stories centering kids and teens in the middle of her first manuscript. After finishing up her undergraduate degree at Duke in 1980, she was on a Fulbright fellowship in Germany when she began sketching out an idea for a novel. “I thought, well, it’s going to be a mystery, it’s going to be about time, there’s going to be a big old house, there’s going to be the possibility of a ghost,” she remembers.

Originally she told the story — about a girl who becomes entranced by a dollhouse in her attic — from the perspective of the girl’s concerned parents.

“I was writing it from the mother’s point of view, that she’s watching her daughter grow obsessed with this dollhouse,” Reiss says. “I had handwritten 40 pages of that before I realized: No, the really good story is not the mother worrying about her daughter’s sanity, but the daughter who has really stumbled upon magic. When she looks into the dollhouse, she can see into the past of what happened in their own house.”

I respect Kathryn’s career so much. She was my first example of a real working writer —someone with such talent and skill and tenacity. Nina LaCour, a bestselling YA novelist and Kathryn Reiss’ former student

The eventual novel, “Time Windows,” came out in 1991 and was a commercial and critical hit. Still in print, Reiss’ debut was an American Library Association Best Book for young adults; Kirkus Reviews called it “well-wrought and entertaining.” 

“Dollhouses plus time travel? I was sold,” remembers Jessie Schiewe, a fan who discovered “Time Windows” in a California thrift store in the early 2000s and became a devoted reader. “I don’t read thrillers or suspense novels normally. I have never enjoyed a murder mystery. But Reiss’ suspense is a different kind of suspense. It’s rooted a bit more in fantasy and touches on many of the spooky things I dwelt on as a kid.” 

A sequel, “Pale Phoenix,” shortly followed “Time Windows,” and Reiss has published 18 more novels marketed under the “middle grade” or “young adult” designations since. Often, her work takes the form of suspense thrillers involving history or time travel; she affectionately calls them “creepy ghostie” novels.  “I’m sort of writing for myself as a kid,” Reiss says. “The books I would want to be reading.”

A few years before “Time Windows,” in 1986, Pleasant Company (the brand that would become American Girl) had launched its initial line of dolls and books depicting pre-teen girls living in U.S. historical periods from the Colonial era to World War II.

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A mother of seven, Reiss first came across the first American Girl books when her children were little. “I remember reading them [with my kids] and thinking, ‘I would have loved these books,’” she says.

Reiss teaches on the history of middle grade and young adult novels dating back to the 19th century, and she points out that American Girl came along just as the market for kids’ historical fiction was booming. “There were some books in earlier decades, but there weren’t whole series of them until the ’80s. American Girl was one of the first. They really had a huge impact and got people thinking about how to present history for children and be accurate, but also not overwhelming.”

Playing with dolls

By the ’90s, American Girl had become a household name and grown to include a full-blown publishing imprint with several spinoff novel series. Reiss’s first book for American Girl was “Riddle of the Prairie Bride” (2001) an entry in the now-discontinued “History Mysteries” series of original stories elucidating true historical scenarios. The plot focused on a young girl whose father married a mail-order bride on the Kansas prairie in the 1870s, a common practice at the time. Reiss followed it up in 2003 with a mystery set during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake , then didn’t hear from American Girl for nearly a decade.

The Julie doll came out in 2007. After she got over her initial confusion about the ’70s being considered history —  “I thought ‘Oh no, I guess I’m getting historic too,’ she laughs — Reiss took on an assignment to write books for a new mystery series linked to the company’s ever-growing roster of historic doll characters. She eventually wrote four for Julie and six in all between 2009 and 2017.

Writing for beloved, existing characters, all with several books of what the industry terms “core fiction” constituting their backstories, was a different type of creative challenge for Reiss. “I imagine it’s a bit like writing episodes of a TV series,” she explains. “You can’t have anything upset the established timeline.”

For instance, Julie’s parents are divorced. “I can’t get them back together again,” Reiss says. “All of the mysteries are completely my own invention, and I can bring in new characters, but they can’t change the basic life [Julie and the other core characters] are living.”

I imagine it’s a bit like writing episodes of a TV series. You can’t have anything upset the established timeline. Northeastern University Oakland professor Kathryn Reiss on writing books for American Girl

A fun perk of writing for American Girl: a doll was included with every book contract. Between those and the dolls her four daughters had growing up, Reiss has amassed quite a collection. “I even have Julie’s best friend, Ivy,” she says. “Now we have grandchildren, and my husband and I were just saying, ‘Oh, maybe we should get them out of the closet.’”

Writing, living history

American Girl has been a fun detour for Reiss, but it also dovetails nicely with themes that preoccupy her in her primary writing and teaching career. She thinks a lot about the ways literature can help us make sense of a shared, historic past.

“The morning after 9/11, in 2001, I was teaching a creative writing class, and the towers were still burning in New York,” she remembers. “I was saying to my students, ‘the horror of what’s going on right now … eventually there will be books written about this, even though we can’t imagine how this is going to translate into fiction.’”

Especially in children’s literature of previous decades, there was a long processing time between historical events happening and them being distilled into fictional narratives; young adult books about the Holocaust, for example, didn’t really rise to the fore for about 40 years. Lately, though, Reiss has noticed fiction grappling with an increasingly recent past.

“After the 2016 election, there were new books coming out by YA authors about refugees and immigrants fleeing desperate situations that were much more contemporary,” she says. “Now I think there’s more of a push to write about events that are still pretty current, rather than waiting a decade or so to process it.”

That recency creep is present in American Girl products as well. When Pleasant Company’s first three dolls came out in 1986, the most “recent” character, Molly, lived in the 1940s. Last year, the company introduced a “historical” pair of twins, Nicki and Isabel, anxiously anticipating Y2K. Reiss herself is finishing up revisions on a young adult manuscript set during the lockdown days of the COVID-19 pandemic; the plot involves the U.S. foster care system, an old house, and, true to form, a time portal. “I’ve had a great time writing it,” she says.

“Her writing has never been static,” says Young, Reiss’ Northeastern colleague. “She’s an example of what a writer can be over a long career, and that’s so amazing for younger writers to see. You can have this kind of reach. You can have this kind of variety.”

Schuyler Velasco is a Northeastern Global News Magazine senior writer. Email her at [email protected] . Follow her on X/Twitter @Schuyler_V .

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  22. How to write books for American Girl

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