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Craft Chat Chronicles
Craft Chat Chronicles
Episode 10: Debut Author Jamie D'Amato's Road to Becoming a Published Writer
Ever wondered what it takes to turn a childhood passion for stories into a published novel? Join us on Craft Chat Chronicles as we sit down with debut author Jamie D'Amato also known as J.L. D'Amato to discuss her journey to bringing "The Good Vampire's Guide to Blood and Boyfriends" to life. Jamie's delightful and humorous gay vampire rom-com embodies the essence of a college student's transformation into a vampire while unraveling a mystery and finding love with a charming librarian. Through her captivating storytelling, Jamie shares the highs and lows of securing an agent and navigating the publishing world.
Experience the exhilaration and anxiety of a book auction through Jamie's eyes, as she recounts the nerve-wracking wait for that all-important offer and the emotional rollercoaster of multiple rejections and eventual success. We delve into her admiration for her dedicated editors at Wednesday Books, Vicky Lame and Vanessa Aguirre, who believed in her vision. Discover the serendipitous and thrilling moments that led to her dream becoming a reality, making this segment a must-listen for aspiring authors and book enthusiasts alike.
Lastly, we explore the broader aspects of the publishing journey, from the importance of sensitivity readers to the financial intricacies of writing for intellectual properties (IP) for the Stranger Things series. Jamie shares her insights on managing a growing Discord community for other debuts and the strategic nuances of marketing her book. We also celebrate the evolving landscape of publishing, highlighting the significance of diverse and inclusive narratives. Tune in for a rich blend of personal anecdotes, professional wisdom, and heartfelt reflections that promise to inspire and inform.
Keywords: Debut author, Jamie D'Amato, published novel, writing tips, Craft Chat Chronicles, publishing journey, "The Good Vampire's Guide to Blood and Boyfriends", gay vampire rom-com, college student, vampire, mystery, love, captivating storytelling, literary agent, publishing, publishing journey, sensitivity readers, financial intricacies, intellectual properties, Stranger Things series, Discord community, debuts, marketing, diverse narratives, Stranger Things: The Dustin Experiment, J.L. D'Amato
Commercial before HG release.
Welcome to Craft Chat Chronicles, the go-to podcast for tips on crafting best-selling fiction. Here at Craft Chat Chronicles, we bring you expert interviews, insights and tips on writing, publishing and marketing. For workshops, show notes and more information, visit jdmyhallcom. On episode 10 of Craft Chat Chronicles.
J.D. Myall:we have 2025 debut author Jamie D'Amato talking about her debut novel the Good Vampire's Guide to Blood and Boyfriends guide to blood and boyfriends, her debut experience, writing craft and more. I'm good, what was?
Author Jamie D'Amato:your life like before you started writing? Oh my gosh. Well, I started writing really, really young. So that's hard to say. Yeah, I mean, I guess I could say there was a time where I started to take more writing more seriously, where I used to do it for fun, like all through, you know, elementary school, middle school, high school. I mean I started writing when I was like six or seven. I started loving books and wanting to write them.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Um, so I guess after high school is when I started taking it seriously as publishing and wanting to, like, really hone my craft and push myself to, you know, be writing the kind of books that I loved reading. Before that, I mean, I just looked at writing differently versus like as a fun thing versus as a craft. You really have to hone in as something I wanted to, you know, make money off of, hopefully, and do as like a business as well. But before writing, writing I mean I really barely remember because I mean there was a period before I started being an avid reader that I slightly remember, but I don't know. Everything changed once I started reading a lot more, I feel like, and that just became my personality and the thing that I loved.
J.D. Myall:What inspired you to want to become an author.
Author Jamie D'Amato:I think it was just being an avid reader that I loved books so much, and I loved stories of all sorts not just books, but movies and video games and TV and everything and so I was just really fascinated with stories and the way they were told. And writing was the most accessible to me because you really just needed a notebook. It wasn't like filmmaking where you have to have equipment and a team. It was something that I could do on my own. So that was the one that I kind of latched onto.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Creativity wise was just books and yeah, I think there were just lots of books that I really loved and I was like I want to do more of this, like I want to do that too, and I was always a very imaginative child. So, you know, I had all sorts of things buzzing in my head and I think it was like a wanting to express that in a way that I didn't always know how verbally, um. So the books and the stories became a way to like focus that energy and yeah, um. So yeah, I think just reading a lot and wanting to do that too was really why.
J.D. Myall:Well, tell me about your publishing journey. Um, how did you get your agent and all that good stuff?
Author Jamie D'Amato:yeah, um, I have like the most average publishing journey ever. I feel like like the ideal. I think, as far as I, this was the first book I ever queried.
Author Jamie D'Amato:I wrote one before that I like was starting to revise and then realized I kind of had leveled up past it and needed to write the next one. And then I wrote the next one and that's my debut. Um, so I I queried for like four or five months and I got my agent and he was the only offer. But he was a dream agent so, um, I was super happy to go with him. He's John Cusick at Folio.
Author Jamie D'Amato:I was just flabbergasted because I totally didn't expect him to even respond, let alone be representing me. So I adore him and I just sent some extra materials for the sub package and stuff and we were on submission for about a month and we got one offer and then we had another person interested and then one that failed at acquisitions so we ended up having an auction just with the two houses because we thought we were going to have three. But so I feel like I've had the most seamless, like I can't complain about anything Like, even though it's stressful along every step of the way. It's like I got my first, the first book I queried, I got a book deal with and I was not waiting as agonizingly long as so many people wait. So I feel like yeah, I feel very lucky in that sense it's a lottery.
Author Jamie D'Amato:The publishing gods have, yeah, blessed you thoroughly. Um, yeah, because you hear so many horror stories and I did a lot of research before even starting and so I heard all those horror stories and I was really expecting it to be brutal and in some ways it was. It's brutal, no matter what, but overall I know that I had a super, super easy way through it. Um, but it's also it was the very conventional way of cold querying, um, and stuff like that. You know, I didn't do, I tried doing, but I didn't do well, in like twitter pitch contests and things like that. So, yeah, it was just the conventional cold query and then get really lucky.
J.D. Myall:That's awesome. Tell me a little bit about. Tell me the story behind the story. Tell me how you your current novel or your debut coming soon you know by the time we release this coming soon. When exactly is it coming out? And tell me a little about that.
Author Jamie D'Amato:So my debut is the Good Vampire's Guide to Blood and Boyfriends and it's a gay vampire rom-com for teens and young adults about a depressed college student who wakes up and he's turned into a vampire after an accident and it's just him navigating that new life and struggling to keep the secret. Meanwhile there's a little bit of mystery. There's a girl missing at his school that he's not totally sure he has nothing to do with. Of course, the romance where he has a cute librarian that helps him keep his secret. There's lots of fun stuff, um. But as far as like the story behind the story, um, on a personal level, it was a bit about my own sort of struggle with mental health in college and, um, I don't know if I should be like trigger warning things, because the story does have to do a little bit with the aftermath of a suicide attempt and so for me I had had my own struggles with mental health in college and I attempted suicide and survived and it was kind of a very strange experience. Obviously that you don't, you don't. I think you see in stories a lot, the tragic suicide, right, but you don't see the what happens after and the wanting to, the deciding to keep living, basically like the healing from that, and so that was the story I wanted to tell. So I know it's like it's a rom-com and there's all this dark stuff, so balancing that was a real struggle. But yeah, at the heart of it it was wanting to deal with, you know, my own trauma and see that story told.
Author Jamie D'Amato:But then also just combined with at the time I was reading Casey McQuiston's Red White and Real Blue had just came out it was 2019. And I just adored that like the romcom, the campiness, the tropiness, the feeling like fan fiction sort of vibes. Um, and I also read Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, which was such an interesting play on like the Harry Potter story in its own original way, and so I kind of took those things where I was like I want to do a cool rom-com like Red White and Royal Blue. I want to play with like the tropes the way that Carry On did with Harry Potter. I wanted to do that with Twilight and like the era of paranormal romances that I like grew up with. And then, of course, the soul of the trauma. Mixing those things together is kind of how it happened. Yeah.
J.D. Myall:Sounds immensely interesting. I can't wait to read. Thank you, so tell me about your debut experience so far. How did you get the call um? Did he email you first and just call like?
Author Jamie D'Amato:describe that experience of when I got the offer for the book, or from my agent oh, okay, from my agent. He emailed me. I remember specifically I I was driving to New York with my dad because we have family there, and it's like a 13 hour drive and I was halfway through and I got the email on my phone from John, who had had my book for, I want to say, like almost three months. So I kind of had written it off and he was just saying I couldn't put it down and would you have time for a call? And the language he used made it pretty clear. Like, oh, this is going to be an offer. Like I didn't, I was trying to prepare myself for for being let down. Like I was like, oh, it could be an R and R, but he sounded very enthusiastic, Um, so it was promising. And then we had the call. That was like on a Thursday, but he said he was busy the rest of the week. Could we do Monday? So it was the most agonizing long weekend ever, Um, and then we hopped on a call and, yeah, he just got it.
Author Jamie D'Amato:And you know I had, I had had some rejections from querying that made it clear that, like they didn't, like I don't want to say that any rejection is like they just don't get it, because the rejections can be valid and have good criticism. But I had had a few rejections that very clearly didn't get the heart of the book. And he did, he really did, and he he loved it and wouldn't have wanted to change that, which some people did want to change things. But yeah, so right off the bat we just clicked and of course he's got like an amazing reputation and sales history. So there wasn't really a doubt in my mind. Even when I was nudging and seeing if other people would want to offer, I was kind of like, yeah, he's the one, Um, and the book offer was.
Author Jamie D'Amato:It was like the last day before Thanksgiving weekend um of 2022, it would have been, which feels like ages ago. Um, and yeah, I think I just I got the email. Well, we had gotten warning that there were bites and that people were interested. So my last response from my agent was that somebody um the first offer that we got had called him asking some sort of questions and said she was really enthusiastic and he said it sounds like she's gearing up to make an offer. So I kind of had that knowledge already before we actually got the offer. And then the second offer that I ended up going with, which is Wednesday, wednesday books they, at that same time, we're saying we're bringing this to second reads and we love it and we're we're maybe interested. So then I got the first offer.
J.D. Myall:Wait a second, real quick.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Yeah.
J.D. Myall:What editor at Wednesday books was it?
Author Jamie D'Amato:Vicky Lame, which I know is your editor.
J.D. Myall:I thought that, but I didn't want to say it, in case I was wrong.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Yeah, we're editor siblings, but I also work with Vanessa Aguirre.
J.D. Myall:They adopted me how exciting. Okay, continue, I'm sorry.
Author Jamie D'Amato:No, no, you're fine. So the first offer was from Sourcebooks and that came in and I was like already, like okay, well, that's the thing. Like we did it, we sold this book, whether whatever happens next, it's going to get published. That was awesome. And then the Wednesday Wednesday kind of said we're standing by, if you're going to do an auction, we're going to participate. Just keep us updated.
Author Jamie D'Amato:But they didn't send an offer right off the bat and again, since this was right before Thanksgiving weekend, we had a little. They were all willing to wait longer. Uh like, usually you have like two weeks ish to or a week ish to nudge people, um, but since it was Thanksgiving weekend, they were all really flexible to to delay that a little bit. And then we had the auction like a good week and a half later, which again was the most excruciating wait ever at the time. Um, and during that time we had all sorts of editors bowing out saying, oh, we either failed at acquisitions or, oh, this was close but not quite, and then we ended up just having the two um come to the auction, but one of them was Wednesday and I adore them and and I adore all their books and they were kind of a dream imprint for me from the beginning. Oh sorry, one second, let me Sorry, phone ringing Okay, and I actually.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Yeah, when my agent put us on sub, he put together a sub list and he did have SMP St Martins on the list. But I specifically asked can we add Vicki Lane? Because I adore so many of her books and she also works with adult and so I liked that I could write in either and theoretically work with her. And so we added her to the list and she ended up being my editor. So she was a dream editor right from the beginning. And then it was just the bonus of the fact that Vanessa and her would be working together. So it was like two editorial brains and two different people to work with and to sort of fight for my book in-house. So it just felt like fate, honestly. So again, it felt very lucky and how was that call?
J.D. Myall:Was it on Zoom?
Author Jamie D'Amato:Yeah, so we had the auction and that was all over email. But then, after we accepted, I had my first meeting with both the editors or no, I did have one beforehand, before the auction, once they knew that they were going to participate and once I was still deciding between the people. Yeah, I had a call with the editors on both offering sides and that was Zoom Um and how did that go?
J.D. Myall:Um, were you nervous? Were you excited?
Author Jamie D'Amato:I was not really nervous. I was so just excited because I was like at this point I knew that I had two offers and I was just pleased as punch, like I couldn't really complain, and in hindsight I wish I'd asked so many more questions, like I wish I I knew what to ask. Because then, like the last the couple months, but between now and then, it's like I I've thought of all these different things as far as what does Wednesday do to promote their authors and and how they treat debuts and how they treat second books and things like that. But I just didn't ask anything because I was just so excited to be there. You know, I was just like I love that you guys offered, they love the book.
Author Jamie D'Amato:So what could go wrong? Um, so I think I was a little bit cotton candy glasses, uh, because I was just so excited. So, no, I didn't, I didn't really ask, but they they just talked about what they loved about the book and obviously it meant a lot to me. And, um, they mentioned there were a couple things they mentioned that did like also sell me on them, which is that they mentioned we want to get sensitivity readers on this and I said, yeah, absolutely, I would really want to do that as well. So I was glad that they proactively mentioned that and they were also more specific about their editorial vision than the other editor was Like. The things that they said they wanted to change were small, but like I knew that it needed and I trusted their sort of their guidance on it and, yeah, I thought it all just resonated really well.
J.D. Myall:So I was I was very excited when I had my call with Vicky, I froze and I was really shocked with myself because, like I interview people all the time and like yeah you'd like some famous writers and celebrities and stuff too.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Yeah.
J.D. Myall:I never froze before, but because this is like a dream, right. And then you're like in my head I was way too in my head, because in my head I'm thinking she has the power to give me this book, to give me this dream, or to take it.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Yeah.
J.D. Myall:And I froze like a deer in headlights for like the first couple of minutes.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Yeah, Because it feels like like this is the person who has the power to change your whole life right, or like we're not if they don't let you or not right rose completely for like three minutes but um, you know she was gracious and wonderful good stuff and yeah, no, I feel you, the call was just a blur to me because I'm like I'm sure they asked me questions, but I just remember being just like I'm so happy to be here, like it doesn't even matter that it was just floating through, um so how far in are you?
J.D. Myall:um? Have you gotten a lot of editorial notes from her back yet, or yeah?
Author Jamie D'Amato:so we sold in 2022 and originally they talked about putting me in summer 2024, but then that was just when we were like originally talking about the offer, um, and then very quickly we were like, okay, no, we're gonna do january 2025. And then just recently I got pushed to august 2025. So I've been done with with all of my edits, except for copy edits, for like a year now. So we went through, we did two rounds of developmental edits, two rounds of line edits and we're doing copy edits theoretically August, september of this year, much later. Once we're kicking off production. So I'm I'm basically through with the bulk of the editing. No-transcript. Really the most exciting part, I think. Once I think it'll start feeling really real, once there's an actual cover and like because that's like the, the product version, like the manifestation of what the book is.
J.D. Myall:So it's very yeah and the long runway is good, because then that gives you more time to work on the stuff you want to do as far as, like your own marketing or you know, yeah, everything ready to go.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Yeah, and every time I've been moved they've told me it's because they want to do more things and have more time to do outreach, which, like I don't know how true that is, or they're just trying to like. Appease the author.
J.D. Myall:But I like to believe that it's true and that it is about giving the book the best shot you know. So, going into this, what do you think, what do you wish you would have known as like a brand new debut, just getting the offer on day one, like for people who will see this, and they just took that call today.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Yeah, um, I think, just like when you're on sub and you're pre debut, pre first book deal, you're really like I feel like you're a little bit desperate for anything and you really need some like what's the word? Just the your validation that you're doing a good job and that you are a good writer and it's worth chasing that. I think sometimes people accept deals or accept working with somebody that they're not sold on, because they they just want to get their foot in the door. And I know it's like, so I can't say like to say no to things totally, because it's like that can be such a privileged thing, because what if I don't know people's financials and I don't know what they're doing?
Author Jamie D'Amato:But I think there's always another book and you need to be with somebody you trust to fight for your book and with a publisher who's going to do right by your book. Be with somebody you trust to fight for your book and with a publisher who's going to do right by your book. And, yeah, and I think that determines your process completely and I don't know, I don't, I guess, not being afraid to fight for yourself and and know what's right for your book and who, who you're going to trust with it. Um, like I got lucky that both of the offers that I had were people that I felt like would do a good job and, especially where I ended up, I like really trusted them.
Author Jamie D'Amato:But I've heard just so many sub stories of like people getting these really like low ball offers or like offers that won't budge on anything or editorial visions that don't align, and they're just so desperate for the book deal that they'll take anything. And I get that, because money and publishing and everything. But yeah, you have to know your worth and you have to fight for your book, because there's going to be other books too that you'll. Yeah, I don't know, sorry so you've mentioned money.
J.D. Myall:Um how long did it take you to get your check on signing? Oh gosh forever.
Author Jamie D'Amato:My contract took like five months or six months, which isn't even the longest I've had to wait for contracts the international ones have been crazy, um. So it was about five months to get the contract and then a month after signing I got paid. So six months, but I got laid off from my job right around the time that I was getting paid. So I kind of launched into doing the mostly full-time author thing on accident and then my agent came to me with an IP project.
J.D. Myall:They have announced the novel now, so I can excitedly share with you that the IP project that she keeps referring to is a Stranger Things novel. She's been asked to write a novel for the Stranger Things franchise. Yay, so that's what she's talking about when she says IP project.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Really I was excited about and so that kind of validated the full-time author thing. But I don't know how long it's going to continue to work because the juggling advances is hard and I'm currently on my parents' insurance but that won't be the case next year, so there's just lots of like adult-y things that it's very hard to make it work as a full-time author, especially when you're early career and you don't have, like I don't know, ideally, royalties coming in at some point what prompted you to do the debut group?
Author Jamie D'Amato:So I, like I said, I got my book deal quite early compared to most 2025 people, and so I was in the 2024 group on Slack and I knew that those kinds of groups could be super helpful.
Author Jamie D'Amato:And there was, like I said, there wasn't a 2025 group yet and I I knew like just a couple of authors on discord who would, who also had 2025 deals and wanted to have a group, and it was also kind of like the control freak in me being like, well, if I take the lead, then I can have control over certain aspects.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Like I hated that the 2024 group was on Slack, because unless you pay for Slack, it erases your messages after 90 days, which makes it impossible to use as like a resource, um, or for, or like a depository of knowledge, which is what I think the debut groups are best for sharing resources and being able to search certain things, um. So I was like I want this group to be a discord and if I have to do do it myself to make that happen, then I will do that. Um and there's and yeah, so I just started it with a small group of people and then, as more people joined, I asked other mods to help um, and then I. This is no shade to the 2024 group because the mods have done so much, especially recently, but before the whole Kate Corain incident of the 2024 debut scandal, there wasn't a lot of moderation going on or skimming to make sure there's not bots or lurkers and things like that.
J.D. Myall:Catch me up. What was the scandal? Are you familiar with Kateate corain at all? I don't remember um who is the author.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Like the bad author friend thing or was that something else similar? But no, she was. Um, she was review bombing her other authors on goodreads, making like fake accounts, like dozens and dozens of fake accounts to one star, her competitors, books, primarily marginalized authors, um, and people of color, and she's this and yeah, no, it's just, it was a mess and she was in the 2024 group and a whole lot of drama went down in that group once that was uncovered. And just as a person who's moderated discords before and like done some community management, that's like my nightmare and I was like we have to make sure that like those things don't happen and also that we have people who we can. We have moderators that we trust who can jump on things like that if they do happen.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Um, so yeah, so that's just how the discord grew into being more like sort of we're being more careful about making sure everybody posts in the directory and they can be like a verified person, even if they're not posting super often, just like having that small requirement to make sure that there's no bots and lurkers and then, of course, just having our little mod team who are checking the discord regularly and making sure like there's no shit storms brewing basically, so that's been really awesome. I don't like we're not like leaders of the 2025 debuts overall. We're just in charge of the discord, but, um, I've been helping with some of the design stuff too, and yeah, um, it's nice to have a little community, because we're all going to go crazy during debut year, so we might as well do it together, right.
J.D. Myall:Exactly, exactly, exactly. Where are you at? Where are you based at? Like what state?
Author Jamie D'Amato:I'm in Louisville, Kentucky.
J.D. Myall:I used to live in Fort Campbell, kentucky, when I was a kid. Okay, I was somewhere everywhere. Yeah, do you have um a lot of plans or any plans yet for what you're going to do as far as marketing and stuff like that in your day to day?
Author Jamie D'Amato:I have all sorts of brainstorming type things, um, but I don't have anything solid. I really want to see what my publishers are planning and sort of figure out how I can augment that the best I can. I know I want to start a newsletter. I haven't yet and I need to, and I also and this might change what with politics and current agenda things but I was going to dedicate myself to TikTok because I actually have fun with it honestly and, um, I think that's where a lot of the readers are. But uh, we'll see how that goes. But yeah, and I would love to do like a pre-order campaign just to have some little extra goodies that I can like reward people who, like it's mostly going to be my friends and family pre-ordering, I feel like, but just to give a little bonus, something, um, but yeah, it's going to come down to like I wonder what my publisher is going to do and what I'll have to do to augment that.
J.D. Myall:I just had a really cool idea. If you're gay, sure said you're good at TikTok and you like TikTok. What if we made a TikTok for the like the 2025 debuts and then?
Author Jamie D'Amato:oh, I think there definitely should be, but I don't think I'm the person to do that.
J.D. Myall:I'm definitely not even on TikTok. I'm not savvy enough to do yeah like I have.
Author Jamie D'Amato:I have fun with it a little bit, but I also haven't posted in months, so like the consistency is not a thing for me. Um, but no, I would.
J.D. Myall:I know that there's like a little social committee squad that have been talking about things, so hopefully people will divide and conquer the different channels and do some stuff, good stuff bring it up to them if somebody mentions it, and then maybe everybody could like make little you know video montage or little things about their launch, and then we could share my channel and then cross promote each other. Yeah, then tell me a little bit about writing an ip how's that?
Author Jamie D'Amato:been different um, it's been really fun. So it helps that this was a franchise that I'm like a huge fan of already and I'm also like a person who writes fan fiction. So to me, working in somebody else's like playground is kind of familiar, um, but it's also just been interesting. You know, you're not just writing with your own vision anymore, you're writing with these different stakeholders in mind. Um, and beyond just your editor and the publisher, there's the, the show's creative team, and then the, the fans. The owners of them have different, more business oriented approaches than the creative team does, which is different from what the publisher might have.
Author Jamie D'Amato:So, juggling all the different perspectives and then also, of course, thinking about what the fans are going to say in the future but you don't really have their input right now. So there's a lot of thinking about the different, the different stakeholders and how, to, you know, thread that needle of appeasing everybody's different views and goals. So, yeah, that's been a challenge, but really fun. But no, for me it was just a lot of. It was just a lot of fun because it was, like I said, a world that I just loved. So it felt like. It felt like just a nerdy, amazing opportunity for me.
J.D. Myall:And the intellectual property company. They reached out to your agent to have you write the idea. Or did you guys collab on an outline for you to write the idea? How did that part work?
Author Jamie D'Amato:So my agent already worked with this property with another one of their authors, and so what happened was I met my agent for lunch in New York a while ago when I was visiting, and I ended up geeking out about this property for a while of the lunch. And he was, just like you know, geeking out about this, this property, for a while of the lunch, and he was, just like you know, I work with them, right, like I helped them do their books, and I was like give me like, put me in coach. No, but he, I just said like if there's ever the opportunity, yeah, I would love that. And it was like a bunch of months later he was like, hey, remember that conversation we had.
Author Jamie D'Amato:I've been working dark magic and we might have this job for you. Do you think would you be able to work under these tight constraints of this many words in this short period, um, and for this much money?
J.D. Myall:and what's the short period?
Author Jamie D'Amato:uh, originally it was going to be like like a month for 60,000 words. I ended up having like six weeks, which I somehow did really well and just had. Um, I had my outline and I did my like daily word count and I was really focused and it was an awesome, super fun writing process actually.
J.D. Myall:But I definitely couldn't do that normally or regularly now, do they give you the whole outline or do you collaborate on it? Because I've heard different things with different they gave very little.
Author Jamie D'Amato:They gave a very broad view of things. That of like, they gave like one or two things that we shouldn't touch and then sent a bunch of pitches and that brought up a whole lot of other things that we shouldn't touch. Kind of like we didn't really know the guardrails until we were bumping into them and then eventually we we narrowed it down to ideas that we could use and I wrote the whole. I mean, I outlined it myself and the story was still very much mine. It was just using the character of that and their world and trying to um think of the different, their different perspectives, of not wanting to play too hard on this relationship and not wanting to um break the canon of where it lays between seasons and things like that. But I lost my train of thought, but yeah, I love that.
J.D. Myall:I love that. I love that. And I'm wondering you can be in the ballpark or you cannot answer this at all if you don't want to, okay, I'm just wondering for my own curiosity, what? What was the pay like? Did they pay good on this particular property? Um?
Author Jamie D'Amato:um, for you turning the cartwheel for me. I think it's good. I don't know, I mean there's. They didn't say I wasn't allowed to talk about the pay. I feel like I probably am um, the.
Author Jamie D'Amato:The main thing is that this was an. I mean, this is the case for most IP, but not all IP. But for most IP you don't keep the copyright, and this was specifically work for hire. So I was a contractor hired for this one story and that's it, and I don't get I't get royalties. It's a one-time fee, basically, and it's $32,000 for 60,000 words, which for me it was great because, like I said, I had just gotten laid off from my job, I got my first book deal, so I was. So this was the opportunity. That was like, okay, we can make this full-time writer thing work, and it was also ultimately about three, three months of work, of actual work. So thirty thousand dollars for me was awesome. Um, but I'm sure money things very drastically depending on properties and stuff like that. They were also very strict. They wouldn't write in um like bonuses into the contract or anything. So there, there was no like if you hit this amount of sales, it was really just that flat fee.
J.D. Myall:That's because it's such a big property, they know the fans will likely buy it and you'll likely hit this Right, would be my guess.
Author Jamie D'Amato:They probably. You know, I'm guessing they. Just I get it because for IP, most of the time people are buying it because it's the property. They're not buying it for the author or even the story and hopefully they like the story and the story is good and that inspires more people to buy it. But most people are buying it for that franchise name. So I get that the author isn't necessarily the most important part of this process, even though they are the product. The book is the product that you're selling. So it's a strange little business world, I guess.
J.D. Myall:Very true, very true, awesome, awesome. All right, so I'm going to ask you some craft questions. Now let's see what do you consider the core elements of a successful novel?
Author Jamie D'Amato:I think that depends hugely on genre, because you know, obviously, what makes a romance novel effective is different from, like, a sci-fi or something. So I think in some ways it's about, yeah, about meeting that genre and meeting the reader's expectations of what that genre includes, but then putting your spin on it and making it different in all those fun ways that you can. So I think, at the core, though, it's always going to come down to character and having a character that not necessarily, I don't think. I don't love the advice that it has to be someone you can root for. It has to be someone you relate to, because I think there can be really interesting characters that go outside that that you don't relate to and that you don't necessarily root for, like when you're having, like I think of, like a ballad of songbirds and snakes. Like you don't, you're not supposed to like Coriolanus.
Author Jamie D'Amato:But, you do sometimes root for him or you do you just you still love him as a protagonist, a protagonist, um, even in that sense. So I think, yeah, just having a character that's, that's dynamic and capable of change and that feels really real and authentic and like they have something true or interesting to say. Um, and for me and this might be leaning more like of the rom-com and tropiness I think I love an element of like over the topness, of like the characters doing things that you, you would never really do in real life but you dream of doing. You know, like, like, getting really mad and instead of just doing, you actually blow up or throw punches or break something. Um, just, those like larger than life sort of moments, I think bring something to life.
J.D. Myall:So what makes a good first page?
Author Jamie D'Amato:ooh it has. It's just. It's just the hook. I mean you have to, but the hook can be so many different, different things. So really just giving somebody reason to keep reading and usually I would say that comes back to character as well, as far as like giving us somebody that we want to see more from them. We want to see what they do about whatever situation they've been put in um, because we think that they're they're interesting, or we think that they're they're interesting, or we think that they're going to react in some special way that is maybe over the top or not, not what we'd see every day. So, yeah, I think, interesting people in interesting situations and just giving people interesting questions that make them want to flip the page.
J.D. Myall:Love that answer. And how do you avoid the saggy middle?
Author Jamie D'Amato:oh, um, I don't know.
Author Jamie D'Amato:I think I think the biggest thing is having like a super solid structural midpoint, like I'm, I love save the cat and everything and they have a real emphasis on the midpoint turn as like there's some sort of revelation that makes your character rethink kind of everything they've known, or they're having like a mirrorpoint where, like things really pivot or are forced to confront themselves in that way that like really helps and that's kind of the tent pole that holds up the middle um, with everything else.
Author Jamie D'Amato:And then I think really kind of I don't know like geometrically, like what do I say? I think really really of I don't know like geometrically, like what do I say. I think really really structurally about plot. And so I'll like have my percentages and you break up the middle chunk, which is the 50% in the middle, into your half and then a half of that half and then there's key points that happen at those different, those different beats. So for me it's all like a little bit mathematical of breaking things down like that but just like, yeah, adding in those little tent poles that are of those main key points of tension that are going to hold up the middle parts, if that makes any sense.
J.D. Myall:It does, and you know what I love about doing this. Yeah, I can ask the same question to 50 people and everybody's response is different. Like I've never heard anybody refer to it as mathematical before you, but it's brilliant and I get it like I'm seeing the 50 when you're describing the 50 yeah, it's like architecture, like a bridge.
Author Jamie D'Amato:You have to have those, the things that keep everything connected in their way, how do you approach resolutions and endings for your stories, resolutions, endings.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Yeah, I think if you've done a good job with the beginning and middle, the ending can feel really natural, the way it comes together and the way that you're forcing the character to do, to like, confront choices and confront the different outcomes of who they could be, basically. But for me, I don't always draft clean enough to where it comes together all like that. So I'll be, I'll be at the end and I'll realize like, oh, we need something, we needed to thread something through in order to make this work to its optimal way. So usually by the time I get to the ending, I have to do a fair bit of revision before I actually write the end, which is a weird. I know they say don't edit as you go, but I'm usually like don't edit until you reach the 75% mark and then you can change everything before you write the last bit.
Author Jamie D'Amato:But that's just what works for me, um, but as for what makes it good, I think, again coming back to character, it's fulfilling that arc and seeing you know how, who they are now versus who they were in the beginning, and that's again sort of a save the cat thing of the opening image versus the closing image. Um, as these mirror points at the tail ends of your story, of seeing, you know, very visually, ideally, like how, like how they, how they've, they've changed or transformed as a character, so that's a huge thing. And then, I think, just always wanting to go out with a bang. I mean, the climax is the climax for a reason, so you don't want it to ever fall flat compared to the other parts of your story. So I think that also goes back to the over-the-topness that I love in stories and kind of that dramaticness of you know, don't be afraid to make it larger than life. And, yeah, I think, just making things big and fun, even when it's something terrible happening, it still feels fun, I don't know.
J.D. Myall:And what elements do you think are helpful for people who are trying to write a killer rom-com like you?
Author Jamie D'Amato:and it's not always something that feels like learnable or teachable. I mean, you really you have to read a lot of good banter and and watch a lot of it and consume that to sort of learn the rhythm of it. But just making the characters, showing the characters are better off together, like that they're strong individually but the way they work together like just makes them stronger and more interesting and more themselves. So, yeah, I think again coming back to character, always it's about them being these individuals who are capable of change and they push each other in the right direction of change and they push each other in the right direction.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Um, and a huge thing for me is and this is ironic coming from a person who's like writing the suicide rom-com is that you have to have the calm in the rom, like I think I see a lot of rom-coms nowadays that aren't that funny and it's so disappointing or it's just kind of, or they're it's women's fiction branded as a rom-com or something like that.
Author Jamie D'Amato:So I think the comedy aspect is just like not being afraid to poke fun at your characters and at yourself and at the tropes you're using. There's like an element of self-awareness that I think is always funny, like for me with the tropiness and the vampires. I really leaned into the self-awareness of the genre and and again over the topness for comedy. Just these absurd things are like things that people wouldn't say, or that you don't think people would say, or that you don't only say on the internet or to your best friend, but they're just saying them to whoever. So, um, yeah, having those, those two key elements, the rom and the com, and using them both to show that the characters need to end up together, that because that's like the main thing if the, if readers aren't rooting for your characters to be together forever, then you've kind of failed with a romance what do you think you did right that helped you make it and become a published author?
Author Jamie D'Amato:hmm, I think, um, one was like on the publishing side. I really researched publishing a lot before I ever sent a query and like I was familiar with the different do's and don'ts and the etiquette. I mean there's only so much you always have access to, because there's like whisper network stuff, like once you're in it there's things that you hear that you don't necessarily hear if you're on the outside. But doing as much research as you can that's available, because there is a lot available nowadays on the Internet about the etiquette and about how to publish and the realities of how it is and how difficult it is and how emotionally taxing it can be, just so you're prepared for that. And then on a craft level, I think it was just like really focusing on learning the right rhythm to a book. Like for me learning story structure was essential I keep mentioning Save the Cat, but just like all sorts of story structure stuff I geek out about but that was essential to me. And just reading a lot about like character arcs and the different and parts of storytelling and really like trying to heighten all of them and improve, because when I was a younger writer I mean like there's always a part where you like start a hobby or a new thing and your taste the things that you like is like way better than the things you're capable of.
Author Jamie D'Amato:And I knew that I wasn't ever like the the overconfident writer who was like shoving terrible things into people's faces to read, like I was very afraid to share my work because I knew, like, from a critical eye I was like this isn't as good as the things I read.
Author Jamie D'Amato:And so really dedicating myself to I want to write something that's as good or better, ideally even, than some of my favorite books, and like pushing myself to to learn the craft and dedicate my time to it and work on one project long enough to work in all those things. So, yeah, sticking with the good vampire and revising it I mean, that took a full rewrite and then a bunch of revisions before I ever sent it to an agent, um. So I think, yeah, just doing your research both on the craft and the publishing aspect and putting in that work, I think is essential. That's not like the only thing you need, because you always need a whole lot of luck, like no matter what. Like I recognize that there are so many talented people who have put in that work who still aren't able to get their foot in the door because publishing is a mess. But those are, I think, some things that can give you the best shot.
J.D. Myall:And sometimes people can have all the talent in the world but they don't really know the market and they don't know what's selling at the moment. That was, honestly, what impressed me the most about your blurb, because the story sounded incredibly entertaining but I was like, oh, that's like really high concept.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Yeah, the idea of high concept too, and just like the pitchableness of a story is so essential where, if you can't distill it down to like when I say gay, vampire rom-com, people light up and that doesn't.
J.D. Myall:that's not super in-depth about what the story is about, but it gives a very broad picture in just a very few words, which I think is what you're always going for with pitches and I lit up because, like one of my pet peeves, as like a writer and a studier of publishing, is that people are always saying, like certain trends are over or they're done, or this, that and the third, but there's so many they're never over.
J.D. Myall:I don't think there is a never over, but there's so many trends that people who are in like marginalized groups haven't even got to explore yet, so it's like super unfair. Exactly it's done when everybody hasn't had the chance to participate.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Yeah, when you pitched with that, when I heard that I'm like I've never heard of a gay vampire.
J.D. Myall:You know, rom-com that's dope.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Thank you, I've never heard of that before. Yeah, yeah, I would say a few years ago a lot of publishing would have said that vampires are dead and that they would. They wouldn't do it. But I do think there have been a couple examples recently of they're willing to give it a shot for those like yeah marginalized voices who haven't been able to tell their vampire stories before, like I, I.
Author Jamie D'Amato:There's gay vampires, there's black vampires, there's everybody getting their shot at vampire stories, which I love, because nothing what's more timeless than vampires, you know exactly that book.
J.D. Myall:Vampires never get old, if you ever get a chance. Yeah, that was pretty cool and it was the same thing. They see vampires and all kind of stuff. It's like a short story collection. Yeah, oh, I love it. I love it, and I heard somebody say that before. They were like vampires are over. I'm like how can they be over if we haven't got the part? Yeah, everybody needs to be a great vampire. Yes, so you mentioned your chat with your agent in Manhattan. That made me wonder what's your author agent relationship like? Um, by that I mean, like, do you bring them story ideas and they tell you which ones they think would be, you know, more marketable? Or do you go to them with the whole book? Or you know, like, how does that work generally? What do you go to them with the whole book? Or you know, like, how does that work generally? What do you guys chat about? Can you chat about what's hot?
Author Jamie D'Amato:Yeah, yeah, I um, usually I make pretty like formal little pitch sheets. I'll have like a mood board and then like a query, like blurb, synopsis, um, like just a one page sort of couple hundred words. This is the pitch and the hook and this is what the character wants and this is what they're struggling with. And I will do that for like two or three stories that I'm kind of noodling on and I'll send that to my agent and be like do you feel like one of these is easier to sell than the other? Like I'm open to everything, but I want to hear your insight. And for the most part he's like you should work on what you feel passionate about and I'll figure out how to put that in the market.
Author Jamie D'Amato:But there's like there's been like one yeah, I think, literally just one thing. Where it was, it was more like sci-fi, dystopian, and he was like that's a really hard thing to do in ya right now. So if you could age it up to adult, maybe, or we can table that for later when maybe ya dystopian is less of a no-go.
J.D. Myall:Um how long ago was that? Because I thought dystopian was coming back, maybe I think it is coming.
Author Jamie D'Amato:people are saying it's coming back around, but this was like a year ago or almost, maybe two years ago. This was right after I sold the first one, so that was 2020. Okay, but yeah, it was very sci-fi, futuristic weirdness. It would be fun and I would revisit it. But the book that I'm working on now is dragons and romancey, which is obviously quite trendy. Um, so both he and my publishers were excited about that. Um, but yeah, as far as working with my agent, I he's really flexible as far as, like, if I want to send him the whole book, or if I want to send him the whole book, or if I want to send him the pitches, like whatever I want to do, he'll work with me. Um, but for me, it does help to get feedback on the concept level before I dive into something. Totally.
J.D. Myall:Love that, love that. Is there anything you wanted to share with aspiring writers or readers, or just in general, that you wanted to share?
Author Jamie D'Amato:Oh, that's so broad.
J.D. Myall:What about aspiring writers then? Anything you want to share with aspiring writers?
Author Jamie D'Amato:Yeah, I think the story is the thing is always going to be the thing you have to. That's the one, like there's so much you can't control in publishing. But what you can't control is the stuff on the page, the thing that you're writing about and how you're writing it, and that's what you have to come back to, I think always, because you know when you're querying or on submission or even when you have a book deal, there's all the different stresses, all the different things you have no control over and, um, so many things to overthink about. But you have to. You have to always be working on the next day, um, or you'll drive yourself crazy, and I know because I've been driving myself crazy. So I'm trying to get focused on the next thing.
Author Jamie D'Amato:Um is hard if you wait too long, I think sometimes, Um, but yeah, yeah, I think, just really focusing on the writing and being the best writer you can be, because the industry stuff is so out of your control. You can equip yourself with the knowledge you need to navigate it, but you can't always necessarily like change the terrible truths about publishing. Does that make sense? It does.
J.D. Myall:When you get your headshots and when you get your cover, send those to me Again. It's not a rush because, like I said, I'm not putting this out right away. Yeah, I do.
Author Jamie D'Amato:I'll send you the photos. I did just get those, like last month, so and then, yeah, the cover seems like. Seems like, I mean, we just started talking about it, so hopefully it'll be within the next couple months, but it could be anything.
J.D. Myall:I'm excited. I'm excited. Um yeah, thank you so much. Thank you, how can people connect with you?
Author Jamie D'Amato:um, the main thing I would say just go to jamiedamatocom, j-a-m-i-e-d-a-m-a-t-ocom, and that will have a link to all my socials. Um, my book you can't pre-order it yet, but it's on goodreads. You can add to your want to read. Um, but yeah, if you go to my website, that'll have my socials. I'm on tiktok, instagram, twitter. I'm not active basically anywhere, but I pop up occasionally thank you so much.
J.D. Myall:I enjoyed you, jamie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you turn this off that wraps up today's craft chat chronicles with jd mayor. Thanks for joining us. If you like the episode, please comment, subscribe and share.