[Caden]

Dear Mr. Korman,

I  have immensely enjoyed reading your books. After reading my first book by you, "Ungifted", I continued to read more of your books, and was not disappointed. A few of my favorites are "Restart", "Ungifted' and "Unplugged'. While looking at your books, I noticed a book called "This Can't Be Happening At Macdonald Hall" .It was an intriguing and wonderful book. I noticed you wrote this book at a young age. I was curious, how did you find editors, and get it published? I am also trying to write a book, and am having a hard time finding editors that can edit my book, yet not a thousand dollars.

Sincerely,

Kayden K

PS, I'm sorry If I sent this multiple times, I'm wasn't sure if it had worked or not.

[Gordon Korman]

Kayden, hi!

I've noticed your efforts to get through to the Forum. Welcome! I'm pleased to hear that my books have been making such a big hit with you. I hope you'll want to read your way right through my long list -- #100, THE FORT, came out just a few weeks ago.

Your question: I wrote THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING AT MACDONALD HALL as a 7th grade English project. When people started saying it was "just as good as anything in the library," my Mom and I typed it in manuscript form and mailed it to the Canadian office of the publisher, Scholastic. They liked it, and therefore they purchased the rights from me and, as publishers, provided all the editing, printing, art work, etc.

What I'm trying to say is that I have never self-published. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's just not the way I chose to go. The advice I give aspiring authors is to write your book, edit and polish it until you're satisfied it's the best that it can be, and then go to the library and find a book on Writers' Markets and choose a publisher to send it to.

Good luck, Kayden.                                                                       -----Gordon Korman-----

 

[Kayden]

Thank you! This helps a lot.