Hello, Skye!  Thanks for that compliment, it makes my day!  Here you go:

Okay, so a publisher says, hmm, when do we want this book to come out?  Keep in mind, they need to think ahead, write ad copy, put the book in their brochure, and make sure the publication doesn’t interfere with other books being published.  They also think hard about when would be the best time of year to publish.  For example, if it’s the first book of a series, they may not want to publish in the summer, when fewer people are buying books.  (Or maybe they’ll prefer the summer because the book has a beach theme!)  Once they decide on a date, they’ll need to make sure they have enough time to plan publicity — making sure they can get the word out to bookstores, libraries, and teachers; scheduling author tours with schools and stores, etc.  All of this takes lots of advance planning.  Bookstores need to know well in advance, so they can decide which books they want to put on the shelves, what they’ll need to make room for, etc.  Once the publisher decides on a date (let’s say March 2014), they need to make sure the author gets the first draft in on time, usually more than a year in advance (so, January 2013).  Why a year?  Because you need a lot of time, care, and professional brainpower to make the book GREAT.  Here’s what happens:


a.  The editor goes over the book and makes comments for the author to improve the book.  This is crucial, because — well, none of us is the best judge of his or her own work!
b.  The author rewrites the book and submits the second draft.
c.  Repeat steps a. and b., one to three more times!
d.  A copyeditor reads the manuscript, looking at very particular things, like grammar, punctuation, and careless mistakes (for example, the book begins in the winter and people are in shorts, or the author refers to a street name that doesn’t exist).
e.  The author correct the mistakes and sends the copyeditor chocolate in deep gratitude.
f.  A proofreader goes over the book one more time.
g.  So does the author.
h.  The book is typeset into its final format.  The editor looks at it again.
i.  So does the author.  Sometimes changes are made here.
j.  Repeat steps h. and i.
k.  The book finally gets sent to a printer (meaning a printing company, not  a printer like the one on your windowsill!).  That printer has thousands of books waiting to be printed, so the job must take its place in order.  So it’s a good idea to get the project to them months in advance.
l.  Thousands of books are printed, bound, put in boxes, and shipped to warehouses.  Then they are sent out to libraries and stores.  The warehouses have a schedule too.  So it’s a good idea to get the books to them with a few weeks to spare, in case anything goes wrong.
m.  Whew.  That’s a lot of coordination.  So you see, for all of this, a year isn’t really such a long time!



It takes about nine months to a year to write a 39 CLUES book.  This includes researching, outlining, and actual writing.  For example, I began working on THE DEAD OF NIGHT in January 2010, finished writing the first draft in about January 2011, worked on revisions until May 2011, and theen the book was published in March 2012.
Whew.  That’s like asking a dad which child he loves the best.  The answer: all of them, of course!

I did read TRUST NO ONE, and I’m about to read DAY OF DOOM.  As a 39 CLUES writer, I also read the master outline for the series.  Because I kind of know what will happen, I have to disqualify myself from the question.  For me to pretend to be a reader guessing what would happen if I didn’t know what I already know would involve some mental gymnastics beyond my talents.  Whew, even thinking of it makes me want to take a nap.
Thanks for the kind wishes on SEVEN WONDERS!  Have you seen the new website?  I’m so psyched about it.  There's a sneak peek of Chapter 1 and also a pretty crazy video from Comic Con.  The link is [pl-popup content="http://bit.ly/7WSite" title="SEVEN WONDERS website" width="1200" height="640"]here[/pl-popup].

As I mentioned in another question, I’m working on the answer to this and will let you know!

Well, if I answered these questions, I would violate the no-spoilers rule at the top of this page and my website would not only crash but EXPLODE!

Wow, sounds great!

Hi, Lily!  Yes, the series is about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and we have a new website devoted to it [pl-popup content="http://www.sevenwondersbooks.com/" title="Seven Wonders series website" width="1200" height="640"]here[/pl-popup]! (If you click on “Extras” at the top of that page, you can read an excerpt from the book.)
And actually, you’re exactly half correct on your list.  Even at Comic Con, people had a tough time naming them all:

Thank you, Mahala!  I hadn’t intended to write a sequel.  I wanted to leave the end open, to show a ray of hope in what will be a very long recovery.  I wanted the book to be realistic, like life, and these kinds of injuries require years of treatment, so a more happy ending would have felt false.  But it would be cool to pick up the story a year or so later and examine what happens.  I’ll have to think about this!  Many thanks for writing.

Hello, Michaela!  Thanks so much.  I was delighted to have been invited to speak at Finley, and to know that my visit inspired you is a great honor indeed!  Glad you had fun writing the article, and if you post it online, I’d love to read it sometime.  Regards to everyone!

You’re welcome.  Killing characters is too devastating for my fragile constitution.