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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—–