Page Created: 02/06/11. Last Updated: 03/10/11.
JOHN M CUSICK
Novels:
GIRL PARTS
Author's Website: http://johnmcuscik.wordpress.com/
Scott Treimel Associates Website: http://www.scotttreimelny.com/
MEETING SUMMARY
Meeting Date: February 12, 2011.
Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center. Upper Saddle River.
Official Attendance: 25.
Meeting Program: Talk by YA Writer / Literary Agent.
Notes:
Here are a couple of comments which did not make it into the Newsletter Account:
On John himself:
John is a total internet fiend. He doesn't like enhanced books, he reads to get away from the internet. He loves good page-turning fiction by writers like Stephen King and Michael Crichton.
On GIRL PARTS:
He thought he'd written a fairly tame novel, and then looked it over to see if there were any Red Flags which could be waved. Hmmm. Drug abuse. Teen suicide. DWI. Sex. Gays.
On YA literature:
Only the good die young.
If you are a parent in a YA book, you are either dead, missing or insane.
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2011 Philip J De Parto:
We rebounded from a disappointing January Meeting to a terrific February gathering on Saturday, February 12, 2011. The General Meeting was held at the Saddle River Valley Cultural Center in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, and virtually every aspect of the evening went well.
The evening began with Justin Moy and Patrick Taylor of the North Jersey Anime and Manga Meetup to show FLCL at our Animation Associates pre meeting video event. Justin was a bit skeptical that there was no one else there at the start of things, but I was proved correct as people kept drifting in over the course of the event. A similar situation occurred upstairs with Barry Weinberger’s Ice Nine discussion which covered many aspects of the genre including the internet (fan STAR TREK videos), movies (BLACK SWAN and COWBOYS AND ALIENS), television (NOVA and JEOPARDY) and authors (Robert Jordan, Peter Hamilton and K J Taylor).
Our speaker was John M Cusick. Mr Cusick is the author of the near future YA science fiction novel, GIRL PARTS. He is also a literary agent at Scott Tremiel Associates, a boutique (two person) agency specializing in works for children (up to six years old), Middle Grade (7 - 12) and Young Adult (13+). Accompanying John was his girlfriend, Sarah Elmaleh, who plays the part of Dr Paula Love of the Sakora Corporation in the video book trailer for the opus.
John Cusick was a geek from the get go. The girl robot, Vicky, of SMALL WONDER was his first love. He wrote his first story when he was six on an IBM Selectric typewriter and wrote fan fiction in grade and high school. He went to Wesleyan University where science fiction writer Kit Reed became his mentor. Among other things, he walked her dog (Ms Reed’s previous dog walker became Lemony Snickett). The traditional path to sf publishing is to build an audience by writing short stories, but our guest was not interested in going that route. Instead, he landed a position at Scott Tremiel, which was then a one-man outfit. Our guest stated that the best education a writer can get is to work on Young Adult books at a literary agency.
The distinguishing characteristic of work for a YA audience is forward momentum. The story has to be a page turner. This is what separates genre YA from non genre work which happens to feature a young person as the lead character. Pretty language is not going to keep them reading. Plot and pacing is the key. Like most writing everywhere, the majority of YA is not very good.
GIRL PARTS is a near future work about two boys and a girl, girl robot, that is-–rich, spoiled jock David Sun and much less well-off, socially awkward Charlie Nuvola, and Rose. It is a story of self discovery and relationships. It is also a book about patterns and connections, with lots of deliberate coincidences.
Quick story overview: the Sakora Company of Japan, a leader in the robotics industry, is field testing a new series of robots in a couple of selected markets in America and Japan. The robots are designed to help socially “disassociated” young men (the definition is broad enough to include nearly every teenaged boy) form meaningful relationships with the opposite sex. The plot is set in motion when David’s parents learn that their sun watched a classmate commit suicide on her video blog and did nothing to try to stop it.
Rose is a metaphor for fiction. She is fake (an artificial woman), but at the same time real. She is a programmed artificial intelligence which can learn and adapt. She also has a wireless connection to a wealth of Sakora databases. While the book is a Pinnochio story on one level (it gets compared to A.I. a lot), the label is misleading. Rose does not want to be more human, she wants to be more Rose, i.e., she wants to fulfill her potential. She has an epiphany when she discovers the art form of origami. When she loses her link to Sakora, it’s like going away to college. She is on her own for the first time. This is the author’s lens. John feels that GIRL PARTS is the story of Rose. However, his agent and his editor both feel that the book is about David and Charlie.
After an hour or so we took a break. When we resumed, John was wearing his agent’s hat.
Scott Tremiel (the person) was trained by Marylin Mc Caw of Curtis Brown. While the agency often charges the industry standard 15%, they may charge 25% if international sales are going to be a significant factor to compensate their overseas associates. The rationale is that 75% of something is better for a writer than 100% of nothing.
Scott Tremiel (the agency) averages 15 queries per day, 7 days a week. In order for them to do a quick screening of submissions, they accept electronic submissions only via a format detailed on their website. This allows Scott and John to reject the great majority of submissions in a week’s time. If the book makes it through the first filter, the following timeline normally comes into play: 30 days for the agent to read, re-read, and weigh the merits of the book, 60 days to develop a
detailed commentary, a variable amount of days for the re-write (most books require 3 major re-writes). It then makes the rounds to the publishers. If an editor wants to buy the book, the actual store appearance of the work takes about another 1-1/2 years.
Agents act as lawyers for authors. Their business is to manage the author’s career and to make sure that the writer is paid. Anyone considering doing business with an agent should check with A.A.R., which certifies that an agent is adhering to industry standards. Childrens’ writers have an additional resource: The Society for Childrens’ Book Writers and Illustrators.
Another function of an agent is to place a manuscript in the proper editorial hands. There were two publishers interested in GIRL PARTS. Scott and John felt that the book might take time to find its audience and would be better nourished at a small house like Candlewick than at a big conglomerate where the inclination would be to lose interest in a book which was not showing blockbuster status. It was Candlewick which made the decision to do the book trailer. A professional model was used, and then photoshopped to make her look less like a model.
Mr Cusick mentioned that publishers are now seeking App rights. This is because Apps can become an important revenue stream for some books. This works bests for books which have discrete components, like a cookbook. An App might allow a user to download a particular recipe for .99 instead of buying the entire book.
As mentioned above, things went really well at this meeting. John Cusick was fun and interesting. Additional notes will be placed on the February 2011 Meeting Page at sfabc.org. Our thanks to David and Blanka vun Kannon for providing transportation to John and Sarah, and to everyone else who helped out in any way.