BLOG TOUR: Elite (Hunter #2) by Mercedes Lackey - Guest Post + Giveaway |A Thousand Words A Million Books || A Young Adult Book Blog

Title: Elite (Hunter #2)
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: September 6th 2016
Part Of A Series?: Yes, Book Two of the Hunter Duology
I Got A Copy Through: Disney-Hyperion via NetGalley!
Buy Links: Amazon || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Wordery

Blurb Description: Hunting monsters was supposed to be the hard part. When Joy came to Apex City, all she cared about was protecting the Cits from the dangers lurking outside protective barriers. She understood the need for the secrecy surrounding her Hunts—no need to cause a panic by announcing just how real a threat the Othersiders pose.
But as she quickly discovered, the conspiracies of the city run much deeper. And a dangerous new covert mission leaves Joy with a target on her back once more. Under the orders of her uncle, the city’s Prefect, Joy begins patrolling the abandoned tunnels and storm sewers under Apex Central. With her large pack of magical hounds, she can fight the monsters breaking through the barriers with the strength of three hunters.

Then she starts finding bodies. Psimons are turning up dead in the bowels of the city with no apparent injury. Reporting the incidents makes Joy the uncomfortable object of PsiCorp’s scrutiny—the organization appears more interested in keeping her quiet than investigating. Joy’s situation grows more precarious and her relationship with her Psimon boyfriend Josh begins to fray. Long-held tensions between PsiCorp and the Hunters seem to be reaching a breaking point.
While infighting threatens the stability of Apex City, Othersider forces are gaining strength and momentum outside the borders. Joy desperately seeks answers to figure out who her real enemies are before she and everyone she cares about are locked into an all-out war…

If you have't read Book One, look no further:

Title: Hunter (Hunter #1)

Author: Mercedes Lackey

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Publication Date: September 1st 2015

Part Of A Series?: Yes, Book One of the Hunter Duology

Buy Links: Amazon || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Wordery

Blurb Description: They came after the Diseray. Some were terrors ripped from our collective imaginations, remnants of every mythology across the world. And some were like nothing anyone had ever dreamed up, even in their worst nightmares.

Monsters.

Long ago, the barriers between our world and the Otherworld were ripped open, and it’s taken centuries to bring back civilization in the wake of the catastrophe. Now, the luckiest Cits live in enclosed communities, behind walls that keep them safe from the hideous creatures fighting to break through. Others are not so lucky.

To Joyeaux Charmand, who has been a Hunter in her tight-knit mountain community since she was a child, every Cit without magic deserves her protection from dangerous Othersiders. Then she is called to Apex City, where the best Hunters are kept to protect the most important people.

Joy soon realizes that the city’s powerful leaders care more about luring Cits into a false sense of security than protecting them. More and more monsters are getting through the barriers, and the close calls are becoming too frequent to ignore. Yet the Cits have no sense of how much danger they’re in—to them, Joy and her corps of fellow Hunters are just action stars they watch on TV.

When an act of sabotage against Joy takes an unbearable toll, she uncovers a terrifying conspiracy in the city. There is something much worse than the usual monsters infiltrating Apex. And it may be too late to stop them…

Mercedes Lackey is the New York Times best-selling American fantasy author behind the Heralds of Valdemar series, the Elemental Masters series, the 500 Kingdoms series, and many more. She has published over one hundred novels in under twenty-five years.
LINKS: Website | Twitter

Things that nobody knows about the publishing industry

I won’t go so far as to say that nobody knows these things about the publishing industry, but these are the things most people who want to be published have not yet learnt about the publishing industry. Sorry if this is formatted in a wonky manner, I can’t get the pictures to behave.

While it is true that mainstream publishers don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts, it is also true that all the big publishing houses are made up of smaller specialty publishers that they acquired. And all these smaller publishers still exist as semi-independent or completely independent creatures, with their own editors, their own staff, and their own interests. So science fiction. fantasy, romance, thriller, men’s action-adventure, young adult, horror, western and mystery imprints do still accept and read unsolicited manuscripts, and manuscripts that do not come from agents.

Let me explain the process here: This is a slush pile, where unsolicited manuscripts go.

Generally someone like a secretary goes through them and rejects certain things automatically. (Believe me, I am not making this up) Things like manuscripts with illustrations, manuscripts handwritten, written in crayon, written on a yellow legal pad, written on one long continuous scroll, or basically manuscripts that don’t conform to the formatting. Also automatically rejected are books based on someone else’s creation, whether that be a movie, a comic, a TV series, or another book or book series. No one will ever buy your book based on someone else’s creation.

Then they sit there until the First Reader gets to them. There may be more than one First Reader. They are generally someone the editor trusts, who shares the editor’s taste. This, by the way, is not a job you can apply for. The First Readers are all salaried people who look at manuscripts in their downtime. The First Reader reads the synopsis and the first page. That weeds out a lot. Then he reads the first chapter. That weeds out more. Then he reads the first three chapters and the last chapter. If the manuscript passes all that, he takes it home and reads the whole thing. If it still passes muster it goes to an assistant editor where it goes through the whole process, and finally to the editor.
Always remember this mantra: Publishers are not in the business to publish books; like any other business, they are in this business to make money. Thirty or forty years ago, editors could publish niche books they really believed in, knowing that the others would make up for the losses on the oddball books. Not any more. Publishing companies are now owned by media conglomerates, and editors are under incredible pressure to make every book pay off.

You have two options here if you get a rejection letter. You can rewrite your book, or you can try somewhere else. If you keep getting the same reaction, then your only option is going to be a rewrite or self-publishing.

But I can absolutely guarantee you that if your writing is any good it will always take about a year for you to get an answer.

And never, ever say “I’ll never submit to X again!” That’s just cutting off your own foot. Admit gracefully that you didn’t write a book that fit what they were looking for at the time and move on. They didn’t insult your firstborn child. The book just wasn’t what they were looking for and they had the courtesy to give you a short answer why.

Remember: when it comes to sending an unsolicited manuscript, this is not you—

THIS is you—-

And there is an entire room full of people like you just waiting for their manuscripts to be read. So be patient! And while you are waiting write another book!