June 7, 2025 • 56 mins
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
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Craft Chat Chronicles, the go-to podcast
for tips on craftingbest-selling fiction.
Here at Craft Chat Chronicles,we bring you expert interviews,
insights and tips on writing,publishing and marketing.
For workshops, show notes andmore information, visit
(00:25):
jdmyhallcom.
On episode 10 of Craft ChatChronicles.
J.D. Myall (00:30):
we have 2025 debut author Jamie D'Amato talking
about her debut novel the GoodVampire's Guide to Blood and
Boyfriends guide to blood andboyfriends, her debut experience
, writing craft and more.
I'm good, what was?
Author Jamie D'Amato (00:54):
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 couldsay there was a time where I
started to take more writingmore 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 Iwas like six or seven.
(01:14):
I started loving books andwanting to write them.
Um, so I guess after high schoolis when I started taking it
seriously as publishing andwanting to, like, really hone my
craft and push myself to, youknow, be writing the kind of
books that I loved reading.
Before that, I mean, I justlooked at writing differently
(01:44):
versus like as a fun thingversus as a craft.
You really have to hone in assomething I wanted to, you know,
make money off of, hopefully,and do as like a business as
well.
But before writing, writing Imean I really barely remember
because I mean there was aperiod before I started being an
avid reader that I slightlyremember, but I don't know.
Everything changed once Istarted reading a lot more, I
(02:05):
feel like, and that just becamemy personality and the thing
that I loved.
J.D. Myall (02:10):
What inspired you to want to become an author.
Author Jamie D'Amato (02:14):
I think it was just being an avid reader
that I loved books so much, andI loved stories of all sorts not
just books, but movies andvideo games and TV and
everything and so I was justreally fascinated with stories
and the way they were told.
And writing was the mostaccessible to me because you
really just needed a notebook.
(02:34):
It wasn't like filmmaking whereyou have to have equipment and
a team.
It was something that I coulddo on my own.
So that was the one that I kindof latched onto.
Creativity wise was just booksand yeah, I think there were
just lots of books that I reallyloved and I was like I want to
do more of this, like I want todo that too, and I was always a
(02:56):
very imaginative child.
So, you know, I had all sortsof things buzzing in my head and
I think it was like a wantingto express that in a way that I
didn't always know how verbally,um.
So the books and the storiesbecame a way to like focus that
energy and yeah, um.
So yeah, I think just reading alot and wanting to do that too
(03:18):
was really why.
J.D. Myall (03:19):
Well, tell me about your publishing journey.
Um, how did you get your agentand all that good stuff?
Author Jamie D'Amato (03:26):
yeah, um, I have like the most average
publishing journey ever.
I feel like like the ideal.
I think, as far as I, this wasthe first book I ever queried.
I wrote one before that I likewas starting to revise and then
realized I kind of had leveledup past it and needed to write
(03:47):
the next one.
And then I wrote the next oneand that's my debut.
Um, so I I queried for likefour 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.
I was just flabbergasted becauseI totally didn't expect him to
(04:09):
even respond, let alone berepresenting me.
So I adore him and I just sentsome extra materials for the sub
package and stuff and we wereon submission for about a month
(04:31):
and we got one offer and then wehad another person interested
and then one that failed atacquisitions so we ended up
having an auction just with thetwo houses because we thought we
were going to have three.
But so I feel like I've had themost seamless, like I can't
complain about anything Like,even though it's stressful along
every step of the way.
(04:51):
It's like I got my first, thefirst book I queried, I got a
book deal with and I was notwaiting as agonizingly long as
so many people wait.
So I feel like yeah, I feelvery lucky in that sense it's a
lottery.
The publishing gods have, yeah,blessed you thoroughly.
Um, yeah, because you hear somany horror stories and I did a
(05:13):
lot of research before evenstarting and so I heard all
those horror stories and I wasreally 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 thevery conventional way of cold
querying, um, and stuff likethat.
(05:34):
You know, I didn't do, I trieddoing, but I didn't do well, in
like twitter pitch contests andthings like that.
So, yeah, it was just theconventional cold query and then
get really lucky.
J.D. Myall (05:46):
That's awesome.
Tell me a little bit about.
Tell me the story behind thestory.
Tell me how you your currentnovel or your debut coming soon
you know by the time we releasethis coming soon.
When exactly is it coming out?
And tell me a little about that.
Author Jamie D'Amato (06:02):
So my debut is the Good Vampire's
Guide to Blood and Boyfriendsand it's a gay vampire rom-com
for teens and young adults abouta depressed college student who
wakes up and he's turned into avampire after an accident and
it's just him navigating thatnew life and struggling to keep
(06:24):
the secret.
Meanwhile there's a little bitof mystery.
There's a girl missing at hisschool that he's not totally
sure he has nothing to do with.
Of course, the romance where hehas a cute librarian that helps
him keep his secret.
There's lots of fun stuff, um.
But as far as like the storybehind the story, um, on a
(06:46):
personal level, it was a bitabout my own sort of struggle
with mental health in collegeand, um, I don't know if I
should be like trigger warningthings, because the story does
have to do a little bit with theaftermath of a suicide attempt
and so for me I had had my ownstruggles with mental health in
(07:10):
college and I attempted suicideand survived and it was kind of
a very strange experience.
Obviously that you don't, youdon't.
I think you see in stories alot, the tragic suicide, right,
but you don't see the whathappens after and the wanting to
, the deciding to keep living,basically like the healing from
that, and so that was the storyI wanted to tell.
(07:32):
So I know it's like it's arom-com and there's all this
dark stuff, so balancing thatwas a real struggle.
But yeah, at the heart of it itwas wanting to deal with, you
know, my own trauma and see thatstory told.
But then also just combined withat the time I was reading Casey
McQuiston's Red White and RealBlue had just came out it was
2019.
(07:53):
And I just adored that like theromcom, the campiness, the
tropiness, the feeling like fanfiction sort of vibes.
Um, and I also read Carry On byRainbow Rowell, which was such
an interesting play on like theHarry Potter story in its own
original way, and so I kind oftook those things where I was
like I want to do a cool rom-comlike Red White and Royal Blue.
(08:14):
I want to play with like thetropes the way that Carry On did
with Harry Potter.
I wanted to do that withTwilight and like the era of
paranormal romances that I likegrew up with.
And then, of course, the soulof the trauma.
Mixing those things together iskind of how it happened.
(08:35):
Yeah.
J.D. Myall (08:36):
Sounds immensely interesting.
I can't wait to read.
Thank you, so tell me aboutyour debut experience so far.
How did you get the call um?
Did he email you first and justcall like?
Author Jamie D'Amato (08:51):
describe that experience of when I got
the offer for the book, or frommy agent oh, okay, from my agent
.
He emailed me.
I remember specifically I I wasdriving 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 Igot the email on my phone from
(09:13):
John, who had had my book for, Iwant to say, like almost three
months.
So I kind of had written it offand he was just saying I
couldn't put it down and wouldyou have time for a call?
And the language he used madeit pretty clear.
Like, oh, this is going to bean offer.
Like I didn't, I was trying toprepare myself for for being let
down.
Like I was like, oh, it couldbe an R and R, but he sounded
(09:33):
very enthusiastic, Um, so it waspromising.
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 agonizinglong weekend ever, Um, and then
we hopped on a call and, yeah,he just got it.
And you know I had, I had hadsome rejections from querying
(09:53):
that made it clear that, likethey didn't, like I don't want
to say that any rejection islike they just don't get it,
because the rejections can bevalid and have good criticism.
But I had had a few rejectionsthat very clearly didn't get the
heart of the book.
And he did, he really did, andhe he loved it and wouldn't have
wanted to change that, whichsome people did want to change
(10:14):
things.
But yeah, so right off the batwe just clicked and of course
he's got like an amazingreputation and sales history.
So there wasn't really a doubtin my mind.
Even when I was nudging andseeing if other people would
want to offer, I was kind oflike, yeah, he's the one, Um,
and the book offer was.
(10:37):
It was like the last day beforeThanksgiving weekend um of 2022,
it would have been, which feelslike ages ago.
Um, and yeah, I think I just Igot the email.
Well, we had gotten warningthat there were bites and that
people were interested.
So my last response from myagent was that somebody um the
(11:01):
first offer that we got hadcalled him asking some sort of
questions and said she wasreally enthusiastic and he said
it sounds like she's gearing upto make an offer.
So I kind of had that knowledgealready before we actually got
the offer.
And then the second offer thatI ended up going with, which is
(11:21):
Wednesday, wednesday books they,at that same time, we're saying
we're bringing this to secondreads and we love it and we're
we're maybe interested.
So then I got the first offer.
J.D. Myall (11:33):
Wait a second, real quick.
Author Jamie D'Amato (11:34):
Yeah.
J.D. Myall (11:35):
What editor at Wednesday books was it?
Author Jamie D'Amato (11:38):
Vicky Lame , which I know is your editor.
J.D. Myall (11:40):
I thought that, but I didn't want to say it, in case
I was wrong.
Author Jamie D'Amato (11:43):
Yeah, we're editor siblings, but I
also work with Vanessa Aguirre.
J.D. Myall (11:47):
They adopted me how exciting.
Okay, continue, I'm sorry.
Author Jamie D'Amato (11:53):
No, no, you're fine.
So the first offer was fromSourcebooks and that came in and
I was like already, like okay,well, that's the thing.
Like we did it, we sold thisbook, whether whatever happens
next, it's going to getpublished.
That was awesome.
And then the WednesdayWednesday kind of said we're
standing by, if you're going todo an auction, we're going to
participate.
(12:14):
Just keep us updated.
But they didn't send an offerright off the bat and again,
since this was right beforeThanksgiving weekend, we had a
little.
They were all willing to waitlonger.
Uh like, usually you have liketwo weeks ish to or a week ish
to nudge people, um, but sinceit was Thanksgiving weekend,
they were all really flexible toto delay that a little bit.
(12:36):
And then we had the auctionlike a good week and a half
later, which again was the mostexcruciating wait ever at the
time.
Um, and during that time we hadall sorts of editors bowing out
saying, oh, we either failed atacquisitions or, oh, this was
close but not quite, and then weended up just having the two um
(12:57):
come to the auction, but one ofthem was Wednesday and I adore
them and and I adore all theirbooks and they were kind of a
dream imprint for me from thebeginning.
Oh sorry, one second, let meSorry, phone ringing Okay, and I
actually.
Yeah, when my agent put us onsub, he put together a sub list
(13:20):
and he did have SMP St Martinson the list.
But I specifically asked can weadd Vicki Lane?
Because I adore so many of herbooks and she also works with
adult and so I liked that Icould write in either and
theoretically work with her.
And so we added her to the listand she ended up being my
editor.
So she was a dream editor rightfrom the beginning.
And then it was just the bonusof the fact that Vanessa and her
(13:42):
would be working together.
So it was like two editorialbrains and two different people
to work with and to sort offight for my book in-house.
So it just felt like fate,honestly.
So again, it felt very luckyand how was that call?
J.D. Myall (13:58):
Was it on Zoom?
Author Jamie D'Amato (14:02):
Yeah, so we had the auction and that was
all over email.
But then, after we accepted, Ihad my first meeting with both
the editors or no, I did haveone beforehand, before the
auction, once they knew thatthey were going to participate
and once I was still decidingbetween the people.
Yeah, I had a call with theeditors on both offering sides
(14:25):
and that was Zoom Um and how didthat go?
J.D. Myall (14:30):
Um, were you nervous ?
Were you excited?
Author Jamie D'Amato (14:33):
I was not really nervous.
I was so just excited because Iwas like at this point I knew
that I had two offers and I wasjust pleased as punch, like I
couldn't really complain, and inhindsight I wish I'd asked so
many more questions, like I wishI I knew what to ask.
Because then, like the last thecouple months, but between now
(14:54):
and then, it's like I I'vethought of all these different
things as far as what doesWednesday do to promote their
authors and and how they treatdebuts and how they treat second
books and things like that.
But I just didn't ask anythingbecause I was just so excited to
be there.
You know, I was just like Ilove that you guys offered, they
love the book.
So what could go wrong?
Um, so I think I was a littlebit cotton candy glasses, uh,
(15:21):
because I was just so excited.
So, no, I didn't, I didn'treally ask, but they they just
talked about what they lovedabout the book and obviously it
meant a lot to me.
And, um, they mentioned therewere a couple things they
mentioned that did like alsosell me on them, which is that
they mentioned we want to getsensitivity readers on this and
I said, yeah, absolutely, Iwould really want to do that as
(15:44):
well.
So I was glad that theyproactively mentioned that and
they were also more specificabout their editorial vision
than the other editor was Like.
The things that they said theywanted to change were small, but
like I knew that it needed andI trusted their sort of their
(16:04):
guidance on it and, yeah, Ithought it all just resonated
really well.
J.D. Myall (16:08):
So I was I was very excited when I had my call with
Vicky, I froze and I was reallyshocked with myself because,
like I interview people all thetime and like yeah you'd like
some famous writers andcelebrities and stuff too.
Author Jamie D'Amato (16:24):
Yeah.
J.D. Myall (16:25):
I never froze before , but because this is like a
dream, right.
And then you're like in my headI was way too in my head,
because in my head I'm thinkingshe has the power to give me
this book, to give me this dream, or to take it.
Author Jamie D'Amato (16:36):
Yeah.
J.D. Myall (16:37):
And I froze like a deer in headlights for like the
first couple of minutes.
Author Jamie D'Amato (16:40):
Yeah, Because it feels like like this
is the person who has the powerto change your whole life right,
or like we're not if they don'tlet you or not right rose
completely for like threeminutes but um, you know she was
gracious and wonderful goodstuff and yeah, no, I feel you,
the call was just a blur to mebecause I'm like I'm sure they
(17:01):
asked me questions, but I justremember being just like I'm so
happy to be here, like itdoesn't even matter that it was
just floating through, um so howfar in are you?
J.D. Myall (17:12):
um?
Have you gotten a lot ofeditorial notes from her back
yet, or yeah?
Author Jamie D'Amato (17:16):
so we sold in 2022 and originally they
talked about putting me insummer 2024, but then that was
just when we were likeoriginally talking about the
offer, um, and then very quicklywe were like, okay, no, we're
gonna do january 2025.
And then just recently I gotpushed to august 2025.
So I've been done with with allof my edits, except for copy
(17:38):
edits, for like a year now.
So we went through, we did tworounds of developmental edits,
two rounds of line edits andwe're doing copy edits
theoretically August, septemberof this year, much later.
Once we're kicking offproduction.
So I'm I'm basically throughwith the bulk of the editing.
(18:01):
No-transcript.
(18:23):
Really the most exciting part,I think.
Once I think it'll startfeeling really real, once
there's an actual cover and likebecause that's like the, the
product version, like themanifestation of what the book
is.
J.D. Myall (18:34):
So it's very yeah and the long runway is good,
because then that gives you moretime to work on the stuff you
want to do as far as, like yourown marketing or you know, yeah,
everything ready to go.
Author Jamie D'Amato (18:46):
Yeah, and every time I've been moved
they've told me it's becausethey 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 justtrying to like.
Appease the author.
J.D. Myall (19:11):
But I like to believe that it's true and that
it is about giving the book thebest shot you know.
So, going into this, what doyou think, what do you wish you
would have known as like a brandnew debut, just getting the
offer on day one, like forpeople who will see this, and
they just took that call today.
Author Jamie D'Amato (19:22):
Yeah, um, I think, just like when you're
on sub and you're pre debut, prefirst book deal, you're really
like I feel like you're a littlebit desperate for anything and
you really need some like what'sthe word?
Just the your validation thatyou're doing a good job and that
(19:45):
you are a good writer and it'sworth chasing that.
I think sometimes people acceptdeals or accept working with
somebody that they're not soldon, because they they just want
to get their foot in the door.
And I know it's like, so Ican't say like to say no to
things totally, because it'slike that can be such a
(20:09):
privileged thing, because whatif I don't know people's
financials and I don't know whatthey're doing?
But I think there's alwaysanother book and you need to be
with somebody you trust to fightfor your book and with a
publisher who's going to doright by your book.
Be with somebody you trust tofight for your book and with a
publisher who's going to doright by your book.
And, yeah, and I think thatdetermines your process
completely and I don't know, Idon't, I guess, not being afraid
(20:33):
to fight for yourself and andknow what's right for your book
and who, who you're going totrust with it.
Um, like I got lucky that bothof the offers that I had were
people that I felt like would doa good job and, especially
where I ended up, I like reallytrusted them.
But I've heard just so many substories of like people getting
(20:55):
these really like low balloffers or like offers that won't
budge on anything or editorialvisions that don't align, and
they're just so desperate forthe book deal that they'll take
anything.
And I get that, because moneyand publishing and everything.
But yeah, you have to know yourworth and you have to fight for
(21:16):
your book, because there'sgoing to be other books too that
you'll.
Yeah, I don't know, sorry soyou've mentioned money.
J.D. Myall (21:25):
Um how long did it take you to get your check on
signing?
Oh gosh forever.
Author Jamie D'Amato (21:30):
My contract took like five months
or six months, which isn't eventhe longest I've had to wait for
contracts the internationalones have been crazy, um.
So it was about five months toget the contract and then a
month after signing I got paid.
So six months, but I got laidoff from my job right around the
(21:52):
time that I was getting paid.
So I kind of launched intodoing the mostly full-time
author thing on accident andthen my agent came to me with an
IP project.
J.D. Myall (22:03):
They have announced the novel now, so I can
excitedly share with you thatthe IP project that she keeps
referring to is a StrangerThings novel.
She's been asked to write anovel for the Stranger Things
franchise.
Yay, so that's what she'stalking about when she says IP
(22:24):
project.
Author Jamie D'Amato (22:25):
Really I was excited about and so that
kind of validated the full-timeauthor thing.
But I don't know how long it'sgoing to continue to work
because the juggling advances ishard and I'm currently on my
parents' insurance but thatwon't be the case next year, so
there's just lots of likeadult-y things that it's very
(22:45):
hard to make it work as afull-time author, especially
when you're early career and youdon't have, like I don't know,
ideally, royalties coming in atsome point what prompted you to
do the debut group?
So I, like I said, I got my bookdeal quite early compared to
most 2025 people, and so I wasin the 2024 group on Slack and I
(23:12):
knew that those kinds of groupscould be super helpful.
And there was, like I said,there wasn't a 2025 group yet
and I I knew like just a coupleof authors on discord who would,
who also had 2025 deals andwanted to have a group, and it
was also kind of like thecontrol freak in me being like,
well, if I take the lead, then Ican have control over certain
(23:33):
aspects.
Like I hated that the 2024 groupwas on Slack, because unless
you pay for Slack, it erasesyour messages after 90 days,
which makes it impossible to useas like a resource, um, or for,
or like a depository ofknowledge, which is what I think
the debut groups are best forsharing resources and being able
to search certain things, um.
So I was like I want this groupto be a discord and if I have
(23:58):
to do do it myself to make thathappen, then I will do that.
Um and there's and yeah, so Ijust started it with a small
group of people and then, asmore people joined, I asked
other mods to help um, and thenI.
This is no shade to the 2024group because the mods have done
(24:20):
so much, especially recently,but before the whole Kate Corain
incident of the 2024 debutscandal, there wasn't a lot of
moderation going on or skimmingto make sure there's not bots or
lurkers and things like that.
J.D. Myall (24:40):
Catch me up.
What was the scandal?
Are you familiar with Kateatecorain at all?
I don't remember um who is theauthor.
Author Jamie D'Amato (24:52):
Like the bad author friend thing or was
that something else similar?
But no, she was.
Um, she was review bombing herother authors on goodreads,
making like fake accounts, likedozens and dozens of fake
accounts to one star, hercompetitors, books, primarily
marginalized authors, um, andpeople of color, and she's this
and yeah, no, it's just, it wasa mess and she was in the 2024
(25:15):
group and a whole lot of dramawent down in that group once
that was uncovered.
And just as a person who'smoderated discords before and
like done some communitymanagement, that's like my
nightmare and I was like we haveto make sure that like those
things don't happen and alsothat we have people who we can.
(25:35):
We have moderators that wetrust who can jump on things
like that if they do happen.
Um, so yeah, so that's just howthe discord grew into being more
like sort of we're being morecareful about making sure
everybody posts in the directoryand they can be like a verified
person, even if they're notposting super often, just like
(25:57):
having that small requirement tomake sure that there's no bots
and lurkers and then, of course,just having our little mod team
who are checking the discordregularly and making sure like
there's no shit storms brewingbasically, so that's been really
awesome.
I don't like we're not likeleaders of the 2025 debuts
(26:20):
overall.
We're just in charge of thediscord, but, um, I've been
helping with some of the designstuff too, and yeah, um, it's
nice to have a little community,because we're all going to go
crazy during debut year, so wemight as well do it together,
right.
J.D. Myall (26:34):
Exactly, exactly, exactly.
Where are you at?
Where are you based at?
Like what state?
Author Jamie D'Amato (26:39):
I'm in Louisville, Kentucky.
J.D. Myall (26:41):
I used to live in Fort Campbell, kentucky, when I
was a kid.
Okay, I was somewhereeverywhere.
Yeah, do you have um a lot ofplans or any plans yet for what
you're going to do as far asmarketing and stuff like that in
your day to day?
Author Jamie D'Amato (26:56):
I have all sorts of brainstorming type
things, um, but I don't haveanything solid.
I really want to see what mypublishers are planning and sort
of figure out how I can augmentthat the best I can.
I know I want to start anewsletter.
I haven't yet and I need to,and I also and this might change
(27:16):
what with politics and currentagenda things but I was going to
dedicate myself to TikTokbecause I actually have fun with
it honestly and, um, I thinkthat's where a lot of the
readers are.
But uh, we'll see how that goes.
But yeah, and I would love todo like a pre-order campaign
just to have some little extragoodies that I can like reward
(27:37):
people who, like it's mostlygoing 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 isgoing to do and what I'll have
to do to augment that.
J.D. Myall (27:53):
I just had a really cool idea.
If you're gay, sure said you'regood at TikTok and you like
TikTok.
What if we made a TikTok forthe like the 2025 debuts and
then?
Author Jamie D'Amato (28:04):
oh, I think there definitely should be
, but I don't think I'm theperson to do that.
J.D. Myall (28:08):
I'm definitely not even on TikTok.
I'm not savvy enough to do yeahlike I have.
Author Jamie D'Amato (28:12):
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 (28:20):
I know that there's like a little social committee
squad that have been talkingabout things, so hopefully
people will divide and conquerthe different channels and do
some stuff, good stuff bring itup to them if somebody mentions
it, and then maybe everybodycould like make little you know
video montage or little thingsabout their launch, and then we
could share my channel and thencross promote each other.
(28:42):
Yeah, then tell me a little bitabout writing an ip how's that?
Author Jamie D'Amato (28:46):
been different um, it's been really
fun.
So it helps that this was afranchise that I'm like a huge
fan of already and I'm also likea person who writes fan fiction
.
So to me, working in somebodyelse's like playground is kind
of familiar, um, but it's alsojust been interesting.
(29:07):
You know, you're not justwriting with your own vision
anymore, you're writing withthese different stakeholders in
mind.
Um, and beyond just your editorand the publisher, there's the,
the show's creative team, andthen the, the fans.
The owners of them havedifferent, more business
(29:29):
oriented approaches than thecreative team does, which is
different from what thepublisher might have.
So, juggling all the differentperspectives and then also, of
course, thinking about what thefans are going to say in the
future but you don't really havetheir input right now.
So there's a lot of thinkingabout the different, the
different stakeholders and how,to, you know, thread that needle
(29:52):
of appeasing everybody'sdifferent views and goals.
So, yeah, that's been achallenge, but really fun.
But no, for me it was just alot of.
It was just a lot of funbecause 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 (30:13):
And the intellectual property company.
They reached out to your agentto have you write the idea.
Or did you guys collab on anoutline for you to write the
idea?
How did that part work?
Author Jamie D'Amato (30:21):
So my agent already worked with this
property with another one oftheir authors, and so what
happened was I met my agent forlunch in New York a while ago
when I was visiting, and I endedup geeking out about this
property for a while of thelunch.
And he was, just like you know,geeking out about this, this
(30:42):
property, for a while of thelunch, and he was, just like you
know, I work with them, right,like I helped them do their
books, and I was like give melike, put me in coach.
No, but he, I just said like ifthere's ever the opportunity,
yeah, I would love that.
And it was like a bunch ofmonths later he was like, hey,
remember that conversation wehad.
(31:06):
I've been working dark magic andwe might have this job for you.
Do you think would you be ableto work under these tight
constraints of this many wordsin this short period, um, and
for this much money?
J.D. Myall (31:13):
and what's the short period?
Author Jamie D'Amato (31:15):
uh, originally it was going to be
like like a month for 60,000words.
I ended up having like sixweeks, which I somehow did
really well and just had.
Um, I had my outline and I didmy like daily word count and I
was really focused and it was anawesome, super fun writing
(31:35):
process actually.
J.D. Myall (31:36):
But I definitely couldn't do that normally or
regularly now, do they give youthe whole outline or do you
collaborate on it?
Because I've heard differentthings with different they gave
very little.
Author Jamie D'Amato (31:47):
They gave a very broad view of things.
That of like, they gave likeone or two things that we
shouldn't touch and then sent abunch of pitches and that
brought up a whole lot of otherthings that we shouldn't touch.
Kind of like we didn't reallyknow the guardrails until we
were bumping into them and theneventually we we narrowed it
(32:09):
down to ideas that we could useand I wrote the whole.
I mean, I outlined it myselfand the story was still very
much mine.
It was just using the characterof that and their world and
trying to um think of thedifferent, their different
perspectives, of not wanting toplay too hard on this
(32:32):
relationship and not wanting toum break the canon of where it
lays between seasons and thingslike that.
But I lost my train of thought,but yeah, I love that.
J.D. Myall (32:50):
I love that.
I love that.
And I'm wondering you can be inthe ballpark or you cannot
answer this at all if you don'twant to, okay, I'm just
wondering for my own curiosity,what?
What was the pay like?
Did they pay good on thisparticular property?
Um?
Author Jamie D'Amato (33:07):
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'tallowed to talk about the pay.
I feel like I probably am um,the.
The main thing is that this wasan.
I mean, this is the case formost IP, but not all IP.
(33:27):
But for most IP you don't keepthe copyright, and this was
specifically work for hire.
So I was a contractor hired forthis one story and that's it,
and I don't get I't getroyalties.
It's a one-time fee, basically,and it's $32,000 for 60,000
(33:47):
words, which for me it was greatbecause, 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 canmake this full-time writer thing
work, and it was alsoultimately about three, three
months of work, of actual work.
So thirty thousand dollars forme was awesome.
(34:08):
Um, but I'm sure money thingsvery drastically depending on
properties and stuff like that.
They were also very strict.
They wouldn't write in um likebonuses into the contract or
anything.
So there, there was no like ifyou hit this amount of sales, it
was really just that flat fee.
J.D. Myall (34:26):
That's because it's such a big property, they know
the fans will likely buy it andyou'll likely hit this Right,
would be my guess.
Author Jamie D'Amato (34:33):
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 theproperty.
They're not buying it for theauthor or even the story and
hopefully they like the storyand the story is good and that
inspires more people to buy it.
But most people are buying itfor that franchise name.
So I get that the author isn'tnecessarily the most important
(34:56):
part of this process, eventhough they are the product.
The book is the product thatyou're selling.
So it's a strange littlebusiness world, I guess.
J.D. Myall (35:07):
Very true, very true , awesome, awesome.
All right, so I'm going to askyou some craft questions.
Now let's see what do youconsider the core elements of a
successful novel?
Author Jamie D'Amato (35:28):
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'sabout, yeah, about meeting that
genre and meeting the reader'sexpectations of what that genre
includes, but then putting yourspin on it and making it
(35:50):
different in all those fun waysthat you can.
So I think, at the core, though, it's always going to come down
to character and having acharacter that not necessarily,
I don't think.
I don't love the advice that ithas to be someone you can root
for.
It has to be someone you relateto, because I think there can
be really interesting charactersthat go outside that that you
(36:13):
don't relate to and that youdon't necessarily root for, like
when you're having, like Ithink of, like a ballad of
songbirds and snakes.
Like you don't, you're notsupposed to like Coriolanus.
But, you do sometimes root forhim or you do you just you still
love him as a protagonist, aprotagonist, um, even in that
sense.
So I think, yeah, just having acharacter that's, that's
(36:36):
dynamic and capable of changeand that feels really real and
authentic and like they havesomething true or interesting to
say.
Um, and for me and this mightbe leaning more like of the
rom-com and tropiness I think Ilove an element of like over the
topness, of like the charactersdoing things that you, you
(36:59):
would never really do in reallife but you dream of doing.
You know, like, like, gettingreally mad and instead of just
doing, you actually blow up orthrow punches or break something
.
Um, just, those like largerthan life sort of moments, I
think bring something to life.
J.D. Myall (37:15):
So what makes a good first page?
Author Jamie D'Amato (37:19):
ooh it has .
It's just.
It's just the hook.
I mean you have to, but thehook can be so many different,
different things.
So really just giving somebodyreason to keep reading and
usually I would say that comesback to character as well, as
far as like giving us somebodythat we want to see more from
(37:42):
them.
We want to see what they doabout whatever situation they've
been put in um, because wethink that they're they're
interesting, or we think thatthey're they're interesting, or
we think that they're going toreact in some special way that
is maybe over the top or not,not what we'd see every day.
So, yeah, I think, interestingpeople in interesting situations
(38:02):
and just giving peopleinteresting questions that make
them want to flip the page.
J.D. Myall (38:09):
Love that answer.
And how do you avoid the saggymiddle?
Author Jamie D'Amato (38:15):
oh, um, I don't know.
I think I think the biggestthing is having like a super
solid structural midpoint, likeI'm, I love save the cat and
everything and they have a realemphasis on the midpoint turn as
like there's some sort ofrevelation that makes your
character rethink kind ofeverything they've known, or
(38:48):
they're having like amirrorpoint where, like things
really pivot or are forced toconfront themselves in that way
that like really helps andthat's kind of the tent pole
that holds up the middle um,with everything else.
And then I think really kind ofI don't know like geometrically,
(39:09):
like what do I say?
I think really really of Idon't know like geometrically,
like what do I say.
I think really reallystructurally about plot.
And so I'll like have mypercentages and you break up the
middle chunk, which is the 50%in the middle, into your half
and then a half of that half andthen there's key points that
happen at those different, thosedifferent beats.
So for me it's all like alittle bit mathematical of
(39:34):
breaking things down like thatbut just like, yeah, adding in
those little tent poles that areof those main key points of
tension that are going to holdup the middle parts, if that
makes any sense.
J.D. Myall (39:46):
It does, and you know what I love about doing
this.
Yeah, I can ask the samequestion to 50 people and
everybody's response isdifferent.
Like I've never heard anybodyrefer to it as mathematical
before you, but it's brilliantand I get it like I'm seeing the
50 when you're describing the50 yeah, it's like architecture,
like a bridge.
Author Jamie D'Amato (40:06):
You have to have those, the things that
keep everything connected intheir way, how do you approach
resolutions and endings for yourstories, resolutions, endings.
Yeah, I think if you've done agood job with the beginning and
middle, the ending can feelreally natural, the way it comes
together and the way thatyou're forcing the character to
do, to like, confront choicesand confront the different
(40:30):
outcomes of who they could be,basically.
But for me, I don't alwaysdraft clean enough to where it
comes together all like that.
So I'll be, I'll be at the endand I'll realize like, oh, we
need something, we needed tothread something through in
order to make this work to itsoptimal way.
So usually by the time I get tothe ending, I have to do a fair
bit of revision before Iactually write the end, which is
(40:51):
a weird.
I know they say don't edit asyou go, but I'm usually like
don't edit until you reach the75% mark and then you can change
everything before you write thelast bit.
But that's just what works forme, um, but as for what makes it
good, I think, again comingback to character, it's
fulfilling that arc and seeingyou know how, who they are now
(41:15):
versus who they were in thebeginning, and that's again sort
of a save the cat thing of theopening image versus the closing
image.
Um, as these mirror points atthe tail ends of your story, of
seeing, you know, very visually,ideally, like how, like how
they, how they've, they'vechanged or transformed as a
(41:35):
character, so that's a hugething.
And then, I think, just alwayswanting to go out with a bang.
I mean, the climax is theclimax for a reason, so you
don't want it to ever fall flatcompared to the other parts of
your story.
So I think that also goes backto the over-the-topness that I
love in stories and kind of thatdramaticness of you know, don't
(41:59):
be afraid to make it largerthan life.
And, yeah, I think, just makingthings big and fun, even when
it's something terriblehappening, it still feels fun, I
don't know.
J.D. Myall (42:14):
And what elements do you think are helpful for
people who are trying to write akiller rom-com like you?
Author Jamie D'Amato (42:32):
and it's not always something that feels
like learnable or teachable.
I mean, you really you have toread a lot of good banter and
and watch a lot of it andconsume that to sort of learn
the rhythm of it.
But just making the characters,showing the characters are
better off together, like thatthey're strong individually but
the way they work together likejust makes them stronger and
(42:53):
more interesting and morethemselves.
So, yeah, I think again comingback to character, always it's
about them being theseindividuals who are capable of
change and they push each otherin the right direction of change
(43:14):
and they push each other in theright direction.
Um, and a huge thing for me isand this is ironic coming from a
person who's like writing thesuicide 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'tthat funny and it's so
disappointing or it's just kindof, or they're it's women's
fiction branded as a rom-com orsomething like that.
So I think the comedy aspect isjust like not being afraid to
(43:38):
poke fun at your characters andat yourself and at the tropes
you're using.
There's like an element ofself-awareness that I think is
always funny, like for me withthe tropiness and the vampires.
I really leaned into theself-awareness of the genre and
and again over the topness forcomedy.
Just these absurd things arelike things that people wouldn't
(44:03):
say, or that you don't thinkpeople would say, or that you
don't only say on the internetor to your best friend, but
they're just saying them towhoever.
So, um, yeah, having those,those two key elements, the rom
and the com, and using them bothto show that the characters
need to end up together, thatbecause that's like the main
thing if the, if readers aren'trooting for your characters to
(44:26):
be together forever, then you'vekind of failed with a romance
what do you think you did rightthat helped you make it and
become a published author?
hmm, I think, um, one was likeon the publishing side.
I really researched publishinga lot before I ever sent a query
(44:48):
and like I was familiar withthe different do's and don'ts
and the etiquette.
I mean there's only so much youalways have access to, because
there's like whisper networkstuff, like once you're in it
there's things that you hearthat you don't necessarily hear
if you're on the outside.
But doing as much research asyou can that's available,
(45:09):
because there is a lot availablenowadays on the Internet about
the etiquette and about how topublish and the realities of how
it is and how difficult it isand how emotionally taxing it
can be, just so you're preparedfor that.
And then on a craft level, Ithink it was just like really
focusing on learning the rightrhythm to a book.
(45:35):
Like for me learning storystructure was essential I keep
mentioning Save the Cat, butjust like all sorts of story
structure stuff I geek out aboutbut that was essential to me.
And just reading a lot aboutlike character arcs and the
different and parts ofstorytelling and really like
trying to heighten all of themand improve, because when I was
(45:59):
a younger writer I mean likethere's always a part where you
like start a hobby or a newthing and your taste the things
that you like is like way betterthan the things you're capable
of.
And I knew that I wasn't everlike the the overconfident
writer who was like shovingterrible things into people's
(46:19):
faces to read, like I was veryafraid to share my work because
I knew, like, from a criticaleye I was like this isn't as
good as the things I read.
And so really dedicating myselfto I want to write something
that's as good or better,ideally even, than some of my
favorite books, and like pushingmyself to to learn the craft
(46:39):
and dedicate my time to it andwork on one project long enough
to work in all those things.
So, yeah, sticking with thegood vampire and revising it I
mean, that took a full rewriteand then a bunch of revisions
before I ever sent it to anagent, um.
(47:00):
So I think, yeah, just doingyour research both on the craft
and the publishing aspect andputting in that work, I think is
essential.
That's not like the only thingyou need, because you always
need a whole lot of luck, likeno matter what.
Like I recognize that there areso many talented people who
have put in that work who stillaren't able to get their foot in
(47:23):
the door because publishing isa mess.
But those are, I think, somethings that can give you the
best shot.
J.D. Myall (47:30):
And sometimes people can have all the talent in the
world but they don't really knowthe market and they don't know
what's selling at the moment.
That was, honestly, whatimpressed me the most about your
blurb, because the storysounded incredibly entertaining
but I was like, oh, that's likereally high concept.
Author Jamie D'Amato (47:52):
Yeah, the idea of high concept too, and
just like the pitchableness of astory is so essential where, if
you can't distill it down tolike when I say gay, vampire
rom-com, people light up andthat doesn't.
J.D. Myall (47:57):
that's not super in-depth about what the story is
about, but it gives a verybroad picture in just a very few
words, which I think is whatyou're always going for with
pitches and I lit up because,like one of my pet peeves, as
like a writer and a studier ofpublishing, is that people are
always saying, like certaintrends are over or they're done,
or this, that and the third,but there's so many they're
(48:19):
never over.
I don't think there is a neverover, but there's so many trends
that people who are in likemarginalized groups haven't even
got to explore yet, so it'slike super unfair.
Exactly it's done wheneverybody hasn't had the chance
to participate.
Author Jamie D'Amato (48:39):
Yeah, when you pitched with that, when I
heard that I'm like I've neverheard of a gay vampire.
J.D. Myall (48:41):
You know, rom-com that's dope.
Author Jamie D'Amato (48:42):
Thank you, I've never heard of that before
.
Yeah, yeah, I would say a fewyears ago a lot of publishing
would have said that vampiresare dead and that they would.
They wouldn't do it.
But I do think there have beena couple examples recently of
they're willing to give it ashot for those like yeah
marginalized voices who haven'tbeen able to tell their vampire
stories before, like I, I.
There's gay vampires, there'sblack vampires, there's
(49:03):
everybody getting their shot atvampire stories, which I love,
because nothing what's moretimeless than vampires, you know
exactly that book.
J.D. Myall (49:10):
Vampires never get old, if you ever get a chance.
Yeah, that was pretty cool andit was the same thing.
They see vampires and all kindof stuff.
It's like a short storycollection.
Yeah, oh, I love it.
I love it, and I heard somebodysay that before.
They were like vampires areover.
I'm like how can they be overif we haven't got the part?
Yeah, everybody needs to be agreat vampire.
(49:32):
Yes, so you mentioned your chatwith your agent in Manhattan.
That made me wonder what's yourauthor agent relationship like?
Um, by that I mean, like, doyou bring them story ideas and
they tell you which ones theythink would be, you know, more
marketable?
Or do you go to them with thewhole book?
Or you know, like, how doesthat work generally?
What do you go to them with thewhole book?
Or you know, like, how doesthat work generally?
(49:53):
What do you guys chat about?
Can you chat about what's hot?
Author Jamie D'Amato (49:56):
Yeah, yeah , I um, usually I make pretty
like formal little pitch sheets.
I'll have like a mood board andthen like a query, like blurb,
synopsis, um, like just a onepage sort of couple hundred
words.
This is the pitch and the hookand this is what the character
wants and this is what they'restruggling with.
And I will do that for like twoor three stories that I'm kind
(50:23):
of noodling on and I'll sendthat to my agent and be like do
you feel like one of these iseasier 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 likeyou should work on what you
feel passionate about and I'llfigure out how to put that in
the market.
But there's like there's beenlike one yeah, I think,
(50:45):
literally just one thing.
Where it was, it was more likesci-fi, dystopian, and he was
like that's a really hard thingto do in ya right now.
So if you could age it up toadult, maybe, or we can table
that for later when maybe yadystopian is less of a no-go.
J.D. Myall (51:01):
Um how long ago was that?
Because I thought dystopian wascoming back, maybe I think it
is coming.
Author Jamie D'Amato (51:07):
people are saying it's coming back around,
but this was like a year ago oralmost, maybe two years ago.
This was right after I sold thefirst one, so that was 2020.
Okay, but yeah, it was verysci-fi, futuristic weirdness.
It would be fun and I wouldrevisit it.
(51:27):
But the book that I'm workingon now is dragons and romancey,
which is obviously quite trendy.
Um, so both he and mypublishers were excited about
that.
Um, but yeah, as far as workingwith my agent, I he's really
(51:48):
flexible as far as, like, if Iwant to send him the whole book,
or if I want to send him thewhole book, or if I want to send
him the pitches, like whateverI want to do, he'll work with me
.
Um, but for me, it does help toget feedback on the concept
level before I dive intosomething.
Totally.
J.D. Myall (52:02):
Love that, love that .
Is there anything you wanted toshare with aspiring writers or
readers, or just in general,that you wanted to share?
Author Jamie D'Amato (52:16):
Oh, that's so broad.
J.D. Myall (52:18):
What about aspiring writers then?
Anything you want to share withaspiring writers?
Author Jamie D'Amato (52:24):
Yeah, I think the story is the thing is
always going to be the thing youhave to.
That's the one, like there's somuch you can't control in
publishing.
But what you can't control isthe stuff on the page, the thing
that you're writing about andhow you're writing it, and
that's what you have to comeback to, I think always, because
you know when you're queryingor on submission or even when
(52:45):
you have a book deal, there'sall the different stresses, all
the different things you have nocontrol over and, um, so many
things to overthink about.
But you have to.
You have to always be workingon the next day, um, or you'll
drive yourself crazy, and I knowbecause I've been driving
myself crazy.
So I'm trying to get focused onthe next thing.
(53:06):
Um is hard if you wait too long,I think sometimes, Um, but yeah
, yeah, I think, just reallyfocusing 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 theknowledge you need to navigate
it, but you can't alwaysnecessarily like change the
(53:28):
terrible truths about publishing.
Does that make sense?
It does.
J.D. Myall (53:34):
When you get your headshots and when you get your
cover, send those to me Again.
It's not a rush because, like Isaid, I'm not putting this out
right away.
Yeah, I do.
Author Jamie D'Amato (53:42):
I'll send you the photos.
I did just get those, like lastmonth, so and then, yeah, the
cover seems like.
Seems like, I mean, we juststarted talking about it, so
hopefully it'll be within thenext couple months, but it could
be anything.
J.D. Myall (53:57):
I'm excited.
I'm excited.
Um yeah, thank you so much.
Thank you, how can peopleconnect with you?
Author Jamie D'Amato (54:04):
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 mysocials.
Um, my book you can't pre-orderit yet, but it's on goodreads.
You can add to your want toread.
Um, but yeah, if you go to mywebsite, that'll have my socials
.
I'm on tiktok, instagram,twitter.
(54:26):
I'm not active basicallyanywhere, but I pop up
occasionally thank you so much.
J.D. Myall (54:33):
I enjoyed you, jamie .
Speaker 1 (54:35):
Yeah, thank you turn this off that wraps up today's
(54:57):
craft chat chronicles with jdmayor.
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Welcome to Craft Chat Chronicles, the go-to podcast
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(00:25):
jdmyhallcom.
On episode 10 of Craft ChatChronicles.
J.D. Myall (00:30):
we have 2025 debut author Jamie D'Amato talking
about her debut novel the GoodVampire's Guide to Blood and
Boyfriends guide to blood andboyfriends, her debut experience
, writing craft and more.
I'm good, what was?
Author Jamie D'Amato (00:54):
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 couldsay there was a time where I
started to take more writingmore 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 Iwas like six or seven.
(01:14):
I started loving books andwanting to write them.
Um, so I guess after high schoolis when I started taking it
seriously as publishing andwanting to, like, really hone my
craft and push myself to, youknow, be writing the kind of
books that I loved reading.
Before that, I mean, I justlooked at writing differently
(01:44):
versus like as a fun thingversus as a craft.
You really have to hone in assomething I wanted to, you know,
make money off of, hopefully,and do as like a business as
well.
But before writing, writing Imean I really barely remember
because I mean there was aperiod before I started being an
avid reader that I slightlyremember, but I don't know.
Everything changed once Istarted reading a lot more, I
(02:05):
feel like, and that just becamemy personality and the thing
that I loved.
J.D. Myall (02:10):
What inspired you to want to become an author.
Author Jamie D'Amato (02:14):
I think it was just being an avid reader
that I loved books so much, andI loved stories of all sorts not
just books, but movies andvideo games and TV and
everything and so I was justreally fascinated with stories
and the way they were told.
And writing was the mostaccessible to me because you
really just needed a notebook.
(02:34):
It wasn't like filmmaking whereyou have to have equipment and
a team.
It was something that I coulddo on my own.
So that was the one that I kindof latched onto.
Creativity wise was just booksand yeah, I think there were
just lots of books that I reallyloved and I was like I want to
do more of this, like I want todo that too, and I was always a
(02:56):
very imaginative child.
So, you know, I had all sortsof things buzzing in my head and
I think it was like a wantingto express that in a way that I
didn't always know how verbally,um.
So the books and the storiesbecame a way to like focus that
energy and yeah, um.
So yeah, I think just reading alot and wanting to do that too
(03:18):
was really why.
J.D. Myall (03:19):
Well, tell me about your publishing journey.
Um, how did you get your agentand all that good stuff?
Author Jamie D'Amato (03:26):
yeah, um, I have like the most average
publishing journey ever.
I feel like like the ideal.
I think, as far as I, this wasthe first book I ever queried.
I wrote one before that I likewas starting to revise and then
realized I kind of had leveledup past it and needed to write
(03:47):
the next one.
And then I wrote the next oneand that's my debut.
Um, so I I queried for likefour 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.
I was just flabbergasted becauseI totally didn't expect him to
(04:09):
even respond, let alone berepresenting me.
So I adore him and I just sentsome extra materials for the sub
package and stuff and we wereon submission for about a month
(04:31):
and we got one offer and then wehad another person interested
and then one that failed atacquisitions so we ended up
having an auction just with thetwo houses because we thought we
were going to have three.
But so I feel like I've had themost seamless, like I can't
complain about anything Like,even though it's stressful along
every step of the way.
(04:51):
It's like I got my first, thefirst book I queried, I got a
book deal with and I was notwaiting as agonizingly long as
so many people wait.
So I feel like yeah, I feelvery lucky in that sense it's a
lottery.
The publishing gods have, yeah,blessed you thoroughly.
Um, yeah, because you hear somany horror stories and I did a
(05:13):
lot of research before evenstarting and so I heard all
those horror stories and I wasreally 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 thevery conventional way of cold
querying, um, and stuff likethat.
(05:34):
You know, I didn't do, I trieddoing, but I didn't do well, in
like twitter pitch contests andthings like that.
So, yeah, it was just theconventional cold query and then
get really lucky.
J.D. Myall (05:46):
That's awesome.
Tell me a little bit about.
Tell me the story behind thestory.
Tell me how you your currentnovel or your debut coming soon
you know by the time we releasethis coming soon.
When exactly is it coming out?
And tell me a little about that.
Author Jamie D'Amato (06:02):
So my debut is the Good Vampire's
Guide to Blood and Boyfriendsand it's a gay vampire rom-com
for teens and young adults abouta depressed college student who
wakes up and he's turned into avampire after an accident and
it's just him navigating thatnew life and struggling to keep
(06:24):
the secret.
Meanwhile there's a little bitof mystery.
There's a girl missing at hisschool that he's not totally
sure he has nothing to do with.
Of course, the romance where hehas a cute librarian that helps
him keep his secret.
There's lots of fun stuff, um.
But as far as like the storybehind the story, um, on a
(06:46):
personal level, it was a bitabout my own sort of struggle
with mental health in collegeand, um, I don't know if I
should be like trigger warningthings, because the story does
have to do a little bit with theaftermath of a suicide attempt
and so for me I had had my ownstruggles with mental health in
(07:10):
college and I attempted suicideand survived and it was kind of
a very strange experience.
Obviously that you don't, youdon't.
I think you see in stories alot, the tragic suicide, right,
but you don't see the whathappens after and the wanting to
, the deciding to keep living,basically like the healing from
that, and so that was the storyI wanted to tell.
(07:32):
So I know it's like it's arom-com and there's all this
dark stuff, so balancing thatwas a real struggle.
But yeah, at the heart of it itwas wanting to deal with, you
know, my own trauma and see thatstory told.
But then also just combined withat the time I was reading Casey
McQuiston's Red White and RealBlue had just came out it was
2019.
(07:53):
And I just adored that like theromcom, the campiness, the
tropiness, the feeling like fanfiction sort of vibes.
Um, and I also read Carry On byRainbow Rowell, which was such
an interesting play on like theHarry Potter story in its own
original way, and so I kind oftook those things where I was
like I want to do a cool rom-comlike Red White and Royal Blue.
(08:14):
I want to play with like thetropes the way that Carry On did
with Harry Potter.
I wanted to do that withTwilight and like the era of
paranormal romances that I likegrew up with.
And then, of course, the soulof the trauma.
Mixing those things together iskind of how it happened.
(08:35):
Yeah.
J.D. Myall (08:36):
Sounds immensely interesting.
I can't wait to read.
Thank you, so tell me aboutyour debut experience so far.
How did you get the call um?
Did he email you first and justcall like?
Author Jamie D'Amato (08:51):
describe that experience of when I got
the offer for the book, or frommy agent oh, okay, from my agent
.
He emailed me.
I remember specifically I I wasdriving 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 Igot the email on my phone from
(09:13):
John, who had had my book for, Iwant to say, like almost three
months.
So I kind of had written it offand he was just saying I
couldn't put it down and wouldyou have time for a call?
And the language he used madeit pretty clear.
Like, oh, this is going to bean offer.
Like I didn't, I was trying toprepare myself for for being let
down.
Like I was like, oh, it couldbe an R and R, but he sounded
(09:33):
very enthusiastic, Um, so it waspromising.
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 agonizinglong weekend ever, Um, and then
we hopped on a call and, yeah,he just got it.
And you know I had, I had hadsome rejections from querying
(09:53):
that made it clear that, likethey didn't, like I don't want
to say that any rejection islike they just don't get it,
because the rejections can bevalid and have good criticism.
But I had had a few rejectionsthat very clearly didn't get the
heart of the book.
And he did, he really did, andhe he loved it and wouldn't have
wanted to change that, whichsome people did want to change
(10:14):
things.
But yeah, so right off the batwe just clicked and of course
he's got like an amazingreputation and sales history.
So there wasn't really a doubtin my mind.
Even when I was nudging andseeing if other people would
want to offer, I was kind oflike, yeah, he's the one, Um,
and the book offer was.
(10:37):
It was like the last day beforeThanksgiving weekend um of 2022,
it would have been, which feelslike ages ago.
Um, and yeah, I think I just Igot the email.
Well, we had gotten warningthat there were bites and that
people were interested.
So my last response from myagent was that somebody um the
(11:01):
first offer that we got hadcalled him asking some sort of
questions and said she wasreally enthusiastic and he said
it sounds like she's gearing upto make an offer.
So I kind of had that knowledgealready before we actually got
the offer.
And then the second offer thatI ended up going with, which is
(11:21):
Wednesday, wednesday books they,at that same time, we're saying
we're bringing this to secondreads and we love it and we're
we're maybe interested.
So then I got the first offer.
J.D. Myall (11:33):
Wait a second, real quick.
Author Jamie D'Amato (11:34):
Yeah.
J.D. Myall (11:35):
What editor at Wednesday books was it?
Author Jamie D'Amato (11:38):
Vicky Lame , which I know is your editor.
J.D. Myall (11:40):
I thought that, but I didn't want to say it, in case
I was wrong.
Author Jamie D'Amato (11:43):
Yeah, we're editor siblings, but I
also work with Vanessa Aguirre.
J.D. Myall (11:47):
They adopted me how exciting.
Okay, continue, I'm sorry.
Author Jamie D'Amato (11:53):
No, no, you're fine.
So the first offer was fromSourcebooks and that came in and
I was like already, like okay,well, that's the thing.
Like we did it, we sold thisbook, whether whatever happens
next, it's going to getpublished.
That was awesome.
And then the WednesdayWednesday kind of said we're
standing by, if you're going todo an auction, we're going to
participate.
(12:14):
Just keep us updated.
But they didn't send an offerright off the bat and again,
since this was right beforeThanksgiving weekend, we had a
little.
They were all willing to waitlonger.
Uh like, usually you have liketwo weeks ish to or a week ish
to nudge people, um, but sinceit was Thanksgiving weekend,
they were all really flexible toto delay that a little bit.
(12:36):
And then we had the auctionlike a good week and a half
later, which again was the mostexcruciating wait ever at the
time.
Um, and during that time we hadall sorts of editors bowing out
saying, oh, we either failed atacquisitions or, oh, this was
close but not quite, and then weended up just having the two um
(12:57):
come to the auction, but one ofthem was Wednesday and I adore
them and and I adore all theirbooks and they were kind of a
dream imprint for me from thebeginning.
Oh sorry, one second, let meSorry, phone ringing Okay, and I
actually.
Yeah, when my agent put us onsub, he put together a sub list
(13:20):
and he did have SMP St Martinson the list.
But I specifically asked can weadd Vicki Lane?
Because I adore so many of herbooks and she also works with
adult and so I liked that Icould write in either and
theoretically work with her.
And so we added her to the listand she ended up being my
editor.
So she was a dream editor rightfrom the beginning.
And then it was just the bonusof the fact that Vanessa and her
(13:42):
would be working together.
So it was like two editorialbrains and two different people
to work with and to sort offight for my book in-house.
So it just felt like fate,honestly.
So again, it felt very luckyand how was that call?
J.D. Myall (13:58):
Was it on Zoom?
Author Jamie D'Amato (14:02):
Yeah, so we had the auction and that was
all over email.
But then, after we accepted, Ihad my first meeting with both
the editors or no, I did haveone beforehand, before the
auction, once they knew thatthey were going to participate
and once I was still decidingbetween the people.
Yeah, I had a call with theeditors on both offering sides
(14:25):
and that was Zoom Um and how didthat go?
J.D. Myall (14:30):
Um, were you nervous ?
Were you excited?
Author Jamie D'Amato (14:33):
I was not really nervous.
I was so just excited because Iwas like at this point I knew
that I had two offers and I wasjust pleased as punch, like I
couldn't really complain, and inhindsight I wish I'd asked so
many more questions, like I wishI I knew what to ask.
Because then, like the last thecouple months, but between now
(14:54):
and then, it's like I I'vethought of all these different
things as far as what doesWednesday do to promote their
authors and and how they treatdebuts and how they treat second
books and things like that.
But I just didn't ask anythingbecause I was just so excited to
be there.
You know, I was just like Ilove that you guys offered, they
love the book.
So what could go wrong?
Um, so I think I was a littlebit cotton candy glasses, uh,
(15:21):
because I was just so excited.
So, no, I didn't, I didn'treally ask, but they they just
talked about what they lovedabout the book and obviously it
meant a lot to me.
And, um, they mentioned therewere a couple things they
mentioned that did like alsosell me on them, which is that
they mentioned we want to getsensitivity readers on this and
I said, yeah, absolutely, Iwould really want to do that as
(15:44):
well.
So I was glad that theyproactively mentioned that and
they were also more specificabout their editorial vision
than the other editor was Like.
The things that they said theywanted to change were small, but
like I knew that it needed andI trusted their sort of their
(16:04):
guidance on it and, yeah, Ithought it all just resonated
really well.
J.D. Myall (16:08):
So I was I was very excited when I had my call with
Vicky, I froze and I was reallyshocked with myself because,
like I interview people all thetime and like yeah you'd like
some famous writers andcelebrities and stuff too.
Author Jamie D'Amato (16:24):
Yeah.
J.D. Myall (16:25):
I never froze before , but because this is like a
dream, right.
And then you're like in my headI was way too in my head,
because in my head I'm thinkingshe has the power to give me
this book, to give me this dream, or to take it.
Author Jamie D'Amato (16:36):
Yeah.
J.D. Myall (16:37):
And I froze like a deer in headlights for like the
first couple of minutes.
Author Jamie D'Amato (16:40):
Yeah, Because it feels like like this
is the person who has the powerto change your whole life right,
or like we're not if they don'tlet you or not right rose
completely for like threeminutes but um, you know she was
gracious and wonderful goodstuff and yeah, no, I feel you,
the call was just a blur to mebecause I'm like I'm sure they
(17:01):
asked me questions, but I justremember being just like I'm so
happy to be here, like itdoesn't even matter that it was
just floating through, um so howfar in are you?
J.D. Myall (17:12):
um?
Have you gotten a lot ofeditorial notes from her back
yet, or yeah?
Author Jamie D'Amato (17:16):
so we sold in 2022 and originally they
talked about putting me insummer 2024, but then that was
just when we were likeoriginally talking about the
offer, um, and then very quicklywe were like, okay, no, we're
gonna do january 2025.
And then just recently I gotpushed to august 2025.
So I've been done with with allof my edits, except for copy
(17:38):
edits, for like a year now.
So we went through, we did tworounds of developmental edits,
two rounds of line edits andwe're doing copy edits
theoretically August, septemberof this year, much later.
Once we're kicking offproduction.
So I'm I'm basically throughwith the bulk of the editing.
(18:01):
No-transcript.
(18:23):
Really the most exciting part,I think.
Once I think it'll startfeeling really real, once
there's an actual cover and likebecause that's like the, the
product version, like themanifestation of what the book
is.
J.D. Myall (18:34):
So it's very yeah and the long runway is good,
because then that gives you moretime to work on the stuff you
want to do as far as, like yourown marketing or you know, yeah,
everything ready to go.
Author Jamie D'Amato (18:46):
Yeah, and every time I've been moved
they've told me it's becausethey 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 justtrying to like.
Appease the author.
J.D. Myall (19:11):
But I like to believe that it's true and that
it is about giving the book thebest shot you know.
So, going into this, what doyou think, what do you wish you
would have known as like a brandnew debut, just getting the
offer on day one, like forpeople who will see this, and
they just took that call today.
Author Jamie D'Amato (19:22):
Yeah, um, I think, just like when you're
on sub and you're pre debut, prefirst book deal, you're really
like I feel like you're a littlebit desperate for anything and
you really need some like what'sthe word?
Just the your validation thatyou're doing a good job and that
(19:45):
you are a good writer and it'sworth chasing that.
I think sometimes people acceptdeals or accept working with
somebody that they're not soldon, because they they just want
to get their foot in the door.
And I know it's like, so Ican't say like to say no to
things totally, because it'slike that can be such a
(20:09):
privileged thing, because whatif I don't know people's
financials and I don't know whatthey're doing?
But I think there's alwaysanother book and you need to be
with somebody you trust to fightfor your book and with a
publisher who's going to doright by your book.
Be with somebody you trust tofight for your book and with a
publisher who's going to doright by your book.
And, yeah, and I think thatdetermines your process
completely and I don't know, Idon't, I guess, not being afraid
(20:33):
to fight for yourself and andknow what's right for your book
and who, who you're going totrust with it.
Um, like I got lucky that bothof the offers that I had were
people that I felt like would doa good job and, especially
where I ended up, I like reallytrusted them.
But I've heard just so many substories of like people getting
(20:55):
these really like low balloffers or like offers that won't
budge on anything or editorialvisions that don't align, and
they're just so desperate forthe book deal that they'll take
anything.
And I get that, because moneyand publishing and everything.
But yeah, you have to know yourworth and you have to fight for
(21:16):
your book, because there'sgoing to be other books too that
you'll.
Yeah, I don't know, sorry soyou've mentioned money.
J.D. Myall (21:25):
Um how long did it take you to get your check on
signing?
Oh gosh forever.
Author Jamie D'Amato (21:30):
My contract took like five months
or six months, which isn't eventhe longest I've had to wait for
contracts the internationalones have been crazy, um.
So it was about five months toget the contract and then a
month after signing I got paid.
So six months, but I got laidoff from my job right around the
(21:52):
time that I was getting paid.
So I kind of launched intodoing the mostly full-time
author thing on accident andthen my agent came to me with an
IP project.
J.D. Myall (22:03):
They have announced the novel now, so I can
excitedly share with you thatthe IP project that she keeps
referring to is a StrangerThings novel.
She's been asked to write anovel for the Stranger Things
franchise.
Yay, so that's what she'stalking about when she says IP
(22:24):
project.
Author Jamie D'Amato (22:25):
Really I was excited about and so that
kind of validated the full-timeauthor thing.
But I don't know how long it'sgoing to continue to work
because the juggling advances ishard and I'm currently on my
parents' insurance but thatwon't be the case next year, so
there's just lots of likeadult-y things that it's very
(22:45):
hard to make it work as afull-time author, especially
when you're early career and youdon't have, like I don't know,
ideally, royalties coming in atsome point what prompted you to
do the debut group?
So I, like I said, I got my bookdeal quite early compared to
most 2025 people, and so I wasin the 2024 group on Slack and I
(23:12):
knew that those kinds of groupscould be super helpful.
And there was, like I said,there wasn't a 2025 group yet
and I I knew like just a coupleof authors on discord who would,
who also had 2025 deals andwanted to have a group, and it
was also kind of like thecontrol freak in me being like,
well, if I take the lead, then Ican have control over certain
(23:33):
aspects.
Like I hated that the 2024 groupwas on Slack, because unless
you pay for Slack, it erasesyour messages after 90 days,
which makes it impossible to useas like a resource, um, or for,
or like a depository ofknowledge, which is what I think
the debut groups are best forsharing resources and being able
to search certain things, um.
So I was like I want this groupto be a discord and if I have
(23:58):
to do do it myself to make thathappen, then I will do that.
Um and there's and yeah, so Ijust started it with a small
group of people and then, asmore people joined, I asked
other mods to help um, and thenI.
This is no shade to the 2024group because the mods have done
(24:20):
so much, especially recently,but before the whole Kate Corain
incident of the 2024 debutscandal, there wasn't a lot of
moderation going on or skimmingto make sure there's not bots or
lurkers and things like that.
J.D. Myall (24:40):
Catch me up.
What was the scandal?
Are you familiar with Kateatecorain at all?
I don't remember um who is theauthor.
Author Jamie D'Amato (24:52):
Like the bad author friend thing or was
that something else similar?
But no, she was.
Um, she was review bombing herother authors on goodreads,
making like fake accounts, likedozens and dozens of fake
accounts to one star, hercompetitors, books, primarily
marginalized authors, um, andpeople of color, and she's this
and yeah, no, it's just, it wasa mess and she was in the 2024
(25:15):
group and a whole lot of dramawent down in that group once
that was uncovered.
And just as a person who'smoderated discords before and
like done some communitymanagement, that's like my
nightmare and I was like we haveto make sure that like those
things don't happen and alsothat we have people who we can.
(25:35):
We have moderators that wetrust who can jump on things
like that if they do happen.
Um, so yeah, so that's just howthe discord grew into being more
like sort of we're being morecareful about making sure
everybody posts in the directoryand they can be like a verified
person, even if they're notposting super often, just like
(25:57):
having that small requirement tomake sure that there's no bots
and lurkers and then, of course,just having our little mod team
who are checking the discordregularly and making sure like
there's no shit storms brewingbasically, so that's been really
awesome.
I don't like we're not likeleaders of the 2025 debuts
(26:20):
overall.
We're just in charge of thediscord, but, um, I've been
helping with some of the designstuff too, and yeah, um, it's
nice to have a little community,because we're all going to go
crazy during debut year, so wemight as well do it together,
right.
J.D. Myall (26:34):
Exactly, exactly, exactly.
Where are you at?
Where are you based at?
Like what state?
Author Jamie D'Amato (26:39):
I'm in Louisville, Kentucky.
J.D. Myall (26:41):
I used to live in Fort Campbell, kentucky, when I
was a kid.
Okay, I was somewhereeverywhere.
Yeah, do you have um a lot ofplans or any plans yet for what
you're going to do as far asmarketing and stuff like that in
your day to day?
Author Jamie D'Amato (26:56):
I have all sorts of brainstorming type
things, um, but I don't haveanything solid.
I really want to see what mypublishers are planning and sort
of figure out how I can augmentthat the best I can.
I know I want to start anewsletter.
I haven't yet and I need to,and I also and this might change
(27:16):
what with politics and currentagenda things but I was going to
dedicate myself to TikTokbecause I actually have fun with
it honestly and, um, I thinkthat's where a lot of the
readers are.
But uh, we'll see how that goes.
But yeah, and I would love todo like a pre-order campaign
just to have some little extragoodies that I can like reward
(27:37):
people who, like it's mostlygoing 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 isgoing to do and what I'll have
to do to augment that.
J.D. Myall (27:53):
I just had a really cool idea.
If you're gay, sure said you'regood at TikTok and you like
TikTok.
What if we made a TikTok forthe like the 2025 debuts and
then?
Author Jamie D'Amato (28:04):
oh, I think there definitely should be
, but I don't think I'm theperson to do that.
J.D. Myall (28:08):
I'm definitely not even on TikTok.
I'm not savvy enough to do yeahlike I have.
Author Jamie D'Amato (28:12):
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 (28:20):
I know that there's like a little social committee
squad that have been talkingabout things, so hopefully
people will divide and conquerthe different channels and do
some stuff, good stuff bring itup to them if somebody mentions
it, and then maybe everybodycould like make little you know
video montage or little thingsabout their launch, and then we
could share my channel and thencross promote each other.
(28:42):
Yeah, then tell me a little bitabout writing an ip how's that?
Author Jamie D'Amato (28:46):
been different um, it's been really
fun.
So it helps that this was afranchise that I'm like a huge
fan of already and I'm also likea person who writes fan fiction
.
So to me, working in somebodyelse's like playground is kind
of familiar, um, but it's alsojust been interesting.
(29:07):
You know, you're not justwriting with your own vision
anymore, you're writing withthese different stakeholders in
mind.
Um, and beyond just your editorand the publisher, there's the,
the show's creative team, andthen the, the fans.
The owners of them havedifferent, more business
(29:29):
oriented approaches than thecreative team does, which is
different from what thepublisher might have.
So, juggling all the differentperspectives and then also, of
course, thinking about what thefans are going to say in the
future but you don't really havetheir input right now.
So there's a lot of thinkingabout the different, the
different stakeholders and how,to, you know, thread that needle
(29:52):
of appeasing everybody'sdifferent views and goals.
So, yeah, that's been achallenge, but really fun.
But no, for me it was just alot of.
It was just a lot of funbecause 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 (30:13):
And the intellectual property company.
They reached out to your agentto have you write the idea.
Or did you guys collab on anoutline for you to write the
idea?
How did that part work?
Author Jamie D'Amato (30:21):
So my agent already worked with this
property with another one oftheir authors, and so what
happened was I met my agent forlunch in New York a while ago
when I was visiting, and I endedup geeking out about this
property for a while of thelunch.
And he was, just like you know,geeking out about this, this
(30:42):
property, for a while of thelunch, and he was, just like you
know, I work with them, right,like I helped them do their
books, and I was like give melike, put me in coach.
No, but he, I just said like ifthere's ever the opportunity,
yeah, I would love that.
And it was like a bunch ofmonths later he was like, hey,
remember that conversation wehad.
(31:06):
I've been working dark magic andwe might have this job for you.
Do you think would you be ableto work under these tight
constraints of this many wordsin this short period, um, and
for this much money?
J.D. Myall (31:13):
and what's the short period?
Author Jamie D'Amato (31:15):
uh, originally it was going to be
like like a month for 60,000words.
I ended up having like sixweeks, which I somehow did
really well and just had.
Um, I had my outline and I didmy like daily word count and I
was really focused and it was anawesome, super fun writing
(31:35):
process actually.
J.D. Myall (31:36):
But I definitely couldn't do that normally or
regularly now, do they give youthe whole outline or do you
collaborate on it?
Because I've heard differentthings with different they gave
very little.
Author Jamie D'Amato (31:47):
They gave a very broad view of things.
That of like, they gave likeone or two things that we
shouldn't touch and then sent abunch of pitches and that
brought up a whole lot of otherthings that we shouldn't touch.
Kind of like we didn't reallyknow the guardrails until we
were bumping into them and theneventually we we narrowed it
(32:09):
down to ideas that we could useand I wrote the whole.
I mean, I outlined it myselfand the story was still very
much mine.
It was just using the characterof that and their world and
trying to um think of thedifferent, their different
perspectives, of not wanting toplay too hard on this
(32:32):
relationship and not wanting toum break the canon of where it
lays between seasons and thingslike that.
But I lost my train of thought,but yeah, I love that.
J.D. Myall (32:50):
I love that.
I love that.
And I'm wondering you can be inthe ballpark or you cannot
answer this at all if you don'twant to, okay, I'm just
wondering for my own curiosity,what?
What was the pay like?
Did they pay good on thisparticular property?
Um?
Author Jamie D'Amato (33:07):
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'tallowed to talk about the pay.
I feel like I probably am um,the.
The main thing is that this wasan.
I mean, this is the case formost IP, but not all IP.
(33:27):
But for most IP you don't keepthe copyright, and this was
specifically work for hire.
So I was a contractor hired forthis one story and that's it,
and I don't get I't getroyalties.
It's a one-time fee, basically,and it's $32,000 for 60,000
(33:47):
words, which for me it was greatbecause, 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 canmake this full-time writer thing
work, and it was alsoultimately about three, three
months of work, of actual work.
So thirty thousand dollars forme was awesome.
(34:08):
Um, but I'm sure money thingsvery drastically depending on
properties and stuff like that.
They were also very strict.
They wouldn't write in um likebonuses into the contract or
anything.
So there, there was no like ifyou hit this amount of sales, it
was really just that flat fee.
J.D. Myall (34:26):
That's because it's such a big property, they know
the fans will likely buy it andyou'll likely hit this Right,
would be my guess.
Author Jamie D'Amato (34:33):
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 theproperty.
They're not buying it for theauthor or even the story and
hopefully they like the storyand the story is good and that
inspires more people to buy it.
But most people are buying itfor that franchise name.
So I get that the author isn'tnecessarily the most important
(34:56):
part of this process, eventhough they are the product.
The book is the product thatyou're selling.
So it's a strange littlebusiness world, I guess.
J.D. Myall (35:07):
Very true, very true , awesome, awesome.
All right, so I'm going to askyou some craft questions.
Now let's see what do youconsider the core elements of a
successful novel?
Author Jamie D'Amato (35:28):
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'sabout, yeah, about meeting that
genre and meeting the reader'sexpectations of what that genre
includes, but then putting yourspin on it and making it
(35:50):
different in all those fun waysthat you can.
So I think, at the core, though, it's always going to come down
to character and having acharacter that not necessarily,
I don't think.
I don't love the advice that ithas to be someone you can root
for.
It has to be someone you relateto, because I think there can
be really interesting charactersthat go outside that that you
(36:13):
don't relate to and that youdon't necessarily root for, like
when you're having, like Ithink of, like a ballad of
songbirds and snakes.
Like you don't, you're notsupposed to like Coriolanus.
But, you do sometimes root forhim or you do you just you still
love him as a protagonist, aprotagonist, um, even in that
sense.
So I think, yeah, just having acharacter that's, that's
(36:36):
dynamic and capable of changeand that feels really real and
authentic and like they havesomething true or interesting to
say.
Um, and for me and this mightbe leaning more like of the
rom-com and tropiness I think Ilove an element of like over the
topness, of like the charactersdoing things that you, you
(36:59):
would never really do in reallife but you dream of doing.
You know, like, like, gettingreally mad and instead of just
doing, you actually blow up orthrow punches or break something
.
Um, just, those like largerthan life sort of moments, I
think bring something to life.
J.D. Myall (37:15):
So what makes a good first page?
Author Jamie D'Amato (37:19):
ooh it has .
It's just.
It's just the hook.
I mean you have to, but thehook can be so many different,
different things.
So really just giving somebodyreason to keep reading and
usually I would say that comesback to character as well, as
far as like giving us somebodythat we want to see more from
(37:42):
them.
We want to see what they doabout whatever situation they've
been put in um, because wethink that they're they're
interesting, or we think thatthey're they're interesting, or
we think that they're going toreact in some special way that
is maybe over the top or not,not what we'd see every day.
So, yeah, I think, interestingpeople in interesting situations
(38:02):
and just giving peopleinteresting questions that make
them want to flip the page.
J.D. Myall (38:09):
Love that answer.
And how do you avoid the saggymiddle?
Author Jamie D'Amato (38:15):
oh, um, I don't know.
I think I think the biggestthing is having like a super
solid structural midpoint, likeI'm, I love save the cat and
everything and they have a realemphasis on the midpoint turn as
like there's some sort ofrevelation that makes your
character rethink kind ofeverything they've known, or
(38:48):
they're having like amirrorpoint where, like things
really pivot or are forced toconfront themselves in that way
that like really helps andthat's kind of the tent pole
that holds up the middle um,with everything else.
And then I think really kind ofI don't know like geometrically,
(39:09):
like what do I say?
I think really really of Idon't know like geometrically,
like what do I say.
I think really reallystructurally about plot.
And so I'll like have mypercentages and you break up the
middle chunk, which is the 50%in the middle, into your half
and then a half of that half andthen there's key points that
happen at those different, thosedifferent beats.
So for me it's all like alittle bit mathematical of
(39:34):
breaking things down like thatbut just like, yeah, adding in
those little tent poles that areof those main key points of
tension that are going to holdup the middle parts, if that
makes any sense.
J.D. Myall (39:46):
It does, and you know what I love about doing
this.
Yeah, I can ask the samequestion to 50 people and
everybody's response isdifferent.
Like I've never heard anybodyrefer to it as mathematical
before you, but it's brilliantand I get it like I'm seeing the
50 when you're describing the50 yeah, it's like architecture,
like a bridge.
Author Jamie D'Amato (40:06):
You have to have those, the things that
keep everything connected intheir way, how do you approach
resolutions and endings for yourstories, resolutions, endings.
Yeah, I think if you've done agood job with the beginning and
middle, the ending can feelreally natural, the way it comes
together and the way thatyou're forcing the character to
do, to like, confront choicesand confront the different
(40:30):
outcomes of who they could be,basically.
But for me, I don't alwaysdraft clean enough to where it
comes together all like that.
So I'll be, I'll be at the endand I'll realize like, oh, we
need something, we needed tothread something through in
order to make this work to itsoptimal way.
So usually by the time I get tothe ending, I have to do a fair
bit of revision before Iactually write the end, which is
(40:51):
a weird.
I know they say don't edit asyou go, but I'm usually like
don't edit until you reach the75% mark and then you can change
everything before you write thelast bit.
But that's just what works forme, um, but as for what makes it
good, I think, again comingback to character, it's
fulfilling that arc and seeingyou know how, who they are now
(41:15):
versus who they were in thebeginning, and that's again sort
of a save the cat thing of theopening image versus the closing
image.
Um, as these mirror points atthe tail ends of your story, of
seeing, you know, very visually,ideally, like how, like how
they, how they've, they'vechanged or transformed as a
(41:35):
character, so that's a hugething.
And then, I think, just alwayswanting to go out with a bang.
I mean, the climax is theclimax for a reason, so you
don't want it to ever fall flatcompared to the other parts of
your story.
So I think that also goes backto the over-the-topness that I
love in stories and kind of thatdramaticness of you know, don't
(41:59):
be afraid to make it largerthan life.
And, yeah, I think, just makingthings big and fun, even when
it's something terriblehappening, it still feels fun, I
don't know.
J.D. Myall (42:14):
And what elements do you think are helpful for
people who are trying to write akiller rom-com like you?
Author Jamie D'Amato (42:32):
and it's not always something that feels
like learnable or teachable.
I mean, you really you have toread a lot of good banter and
and watch a lot of it andconsume that to sort of learn
the rhythm of it.
But just making the characters,showing the characters are
better off together, like thatthey're strong individually but
the way they work together likejust makes them stronger and
(42:53):
more interesting and morethemselves.
So, yeah, I think again comingback to character, always it's
about them being theseindividuals who are capable of
change and they push each otherin the right direction of change
(43:14):
and they push each other in theright direction.
Um, and a huge thing for me isand this is ironic coming from a
person who's like writing thesuicide 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'tthat funny and it's so
disappointing or it's just kindof, or they're it's women's
fiction branded as a rom-com orsomething like that.
So I think the comedy aspect isjust like not being afraid to
(43:38):
poke fun at your characters andat yourself and at the tropes
you're using.
There's like an element ofself-awareness that I think is
always funny, like for me withthe tropiness and the vampires.
I really leaned into theself-awareness of the genre and
and again over the topness forcomedy.
Just these absurd things arelike things that people wouldn't
(44:03):
say, or that you don't thinkpeople would say, or that you
don't only say on the internetor to your best friend, but
they're just saying them towhoever.
So, um, yeah, having those,those two key elements, the rom
and the com, and using them bothto show that the characters
need to end up together, thatbecause that's like the main
thing if the, if readers aren'trooting for your characters to
(44:26):
be together forever, then you'vekind of failed with a romance
what do you think you did rightthat helped you make it and
become a published author?
hmm, I think, um, one was likeon the publishing side.
I really researched publishinga lot before I ever sent a query
(44:48):
and like I was familiar withthe different do's and don'ts
and the etiquette.
I mean there's only so much youalways have access to, because
there's like whisper networkstuff, like once you're in it
there's things that you hearthat you don't necessarily hear
if you're on the outside.
But doing as much research asyou can that's available,
(45:09):
because there is a lot availablenowadays on the Internet about
the etiquette and about how topublish and the realities of how
it is and how difficult it isand how emotionally taxing it
can be, just so you're preparedfor that.
And then on a craft level, Ithink it was just like really
focusing on learning the rightrhythm to a book.
(45:35):
Like for me learning storystructure was essential I keep
mentioning Save the Cat, butjust like all sorts of story
structure stuff I geek out aboutbut that was essential to me.
And just reading a lot aboutlike character arcs and the
different and parts ofstorytelling and really like
trying to heighten all of themand improve, because when I was
(45:59):
a younger writer I mean likethere's always a part where you
like start a hobby or a newthing and your taste the things
that you like is like way betterthan the things you're capable
of.
And I knew that I wasn't everlike the the overconfident
writer who was like shovingterrible things into people's
(46:19):
faces to read, like I was veryafraid to share my work because
I knew, like, from a criticaleye I was like this isn't as
good as the things I read.
And so really dedicating myselfto I want to write something
that's as good or better,ideally even, than some of my
favorite books, and like pushingmyself to to learn the craft
(46:39):
and dedicate my time to it andwork on one project long enough
to work in all those things.
So, yeah, sticking with thegood vampire and revising it I
mean, that took a full rewriteand then a bunch of revisions
before I ever sent it to anagent, um.
(47:00):
So I think, yeah, just doingyour research both on the craft
and the publishing aspect andputting in that work, I think is
essential.
That's not like the only thingyou need, because you always
need a whole lot of luck, likeno matter what.
Like I recognize that there areso many talented people who
have put in that work who stillaren't able to get their foot in
(47:23):
the door because publishing isa mess.
But those are, I think, somethings that can give you the
best shot.
J.D. Myall (47:30):
And sometimes people can have all the talent in the
world but they don't really knowthe market and they don't know
what's selling at the moment.
That was, honestly, whatimpressed me the most about your
blurb, because the storysounded incredibly entertaining
but I was like, oh, that's likereally high concept.
Author Jamie D'Amato (47:52):
Yeah, the idea of high concept too, and
just like the pitchableness of astory is so essential where, if
you can't distill it down tolike when I say gay, vampire
rom-com, people light up andthat doesn't.
J.D. Myall (47:57):
that's not super in-depth about what the story is
about, but it gives a verybroad picture in just a very few
words, which I think is whatyou're always going for with
pitches and I lit up because,like one of my pet peeves, as
like a writer and a studier ofpublishing, is that people are
always saying, like certaintrends are over or they're done,
or this, that and the third,but there's so many they're
(48:19):
never over.
I don't think there is a neverover, but there's so many trends
that people who are in likemarginalized groups haven't even
got to explore yet, so it'slike super unfair.
Exactly it's done wheneverybody hasn't had the chance
to participate.
Author Jamie D'Amato (48:39):
Yeah, when you pitched with that, when I
heard that I'm like I've neverheard of a gay vampire.
J.D. Myall (48:41):
You know, rom-com that's dope.
Author Jamie D'Amato (48:42):
Thank you, I've never heard of that before
.
Yeah, yeah, I would say a fewyears ago a lot of publishing
would have said that vampiresare dead and that they would.
They wouldn't do it.
But I do think there have beena couple examples recently of
they're willing to give it ashot for those like yeah
marginalized voices who haven'tbeen able to tell their vampire
stories before, like I, I.
There's gay vampires, there'sblack vampires, there's
(49:03):
everybody getting their shot atvampire stories, which I love,
because nothing what's moretimeless than vampires, you know
exactly that book.
J.D. Myall (49:10):
Vampires never get old, if you ever get a chance.
Yeah, that was pretty cool andit was the same thing.
They see vampires and all kindof stuff.
It's like a short storycollection.
Yeah, oh, I love it.
I love it, and I heard somebodysay that before.
They were like vampires areover.
I'm like how can they be overif we haven't got the part?
Yeah, everybody needs to be agreat vampire.
(49:32):
Yes, so you mentioned your chatwith your agent in Manhattan.
That made me wonder what's yourauthor agent relationship like?
Um, by that I mean, like, doyou bring them story ideas and
they tell you which ones theythink would be, you know, more
marketable?
Or do you go to them with thewhole book?
Or you know, like, how doesthat work generally?
What do you go to them with thewhole book?
Or you know, like, how doesthat work generally?
(49:53):
What do you guys chat about?
Can you chat about what's hot?
Author Jamie D'Amato (49:56):
Yeah, yeah , I um, usually I make pretty
like formal little pitch sheets.
I'll have like a mood board andthen like a query, like blurb,
synopsis, um, like just a onepage sort of couple hundred
words.
This is the pitch and the hookand this is what the character
wants and this is what they'restruggling with.
And I will do that for like twoor three stories that I'm kind
(50:23):
of noodling on and I'll sendthat to my agent and be like do
you feel like one of these iseasier 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 likeyou should work on what you
feel passionate about and I'llfigure out how to put that in
the market.
But there's like there's beenlike one yeah, I think,
(50:45):
literally just one thing.
Where it was, it was more likesci-fi, dystopian, and he was
like that's a really hard thingto do in ya right now.
So if you could age it up toadult, maybe, or we can table
that for later when maybe yadystopian is less of a no-go.
J.D. Myall (51:01):
Um how long ago was that?
Because I thought dystopian wascoming back, maybe I think it
is coming.
Author Jamie D'Amato (51:07):
people are saying it's coming back around,
but this was like a year ago oralmost, maybe two years ago.
This was right after I sold thefirst one, so that was 2020.
Okay, but yeah, it was verysci-fi, futuristic weirdness.
It would be fun and I wouldrevisit it.
(51:27):
But the book that I'm workingon now is dragons and romancey,
which is obviously quite trendy.
Um, so both he and mypublishers were excited about
that.
Um, but yeah, as far as workingwith my agent, I he's really
(51:48):
flexible as far as, like, if Iwant to send him the whole book,
or if I want to send him thewhole book, or if I want to send
him the pitches, like whateverI want to do, he'll work with me
.
Um, but for me, it does help toget feedback on the concept
level before I dive intosomething.
Totally.
J.D. Myall (52:02):
Love that, love that .
Is there anything you wanted toshare with aspiring writers or
readers, or just in general,that you wanted to share?
Author Jamie D'Amato (52:16):
Oh, that's so broad.
J.D. Myall (52:18):
What about aspiring writers then?
Anything you want to share withaspiring writers?
Author Jamie D'Amato (52:24):
Yeah, I think the story is the thing is
always going to be the thing youhave to.
That's the one, like there's somuch you can't control in
publishing.
But what you can't control isthe stuff on the page, the thing
that you're writing about andhow you're writing it, and
that's what you have to comeback to, I think always, because
you know when you're queryingor on submission or even when
(52:45):
you have a book deal, there'sall the different stresses, all
the different things you have nocontrol over and, um, so many
things to overthink about.
But you have to.
You have to always be workingon the next day, um, or you'll
drive yourself crazy, and I knowbecause I've been driving
myself crazy.
So I'm trying to get focused onthe next thing.
(53:06):
Um is hard if you wait too long,I think sometimes, Um, but yeah
, yeah, I think, just reallyfocusing 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 theknowledge you need to navigate
it, but you can't alwaysnecessarily like change the
(53:28):
terrible truths about publishing.
Does that make sense?
It does.
J.D. Myall (53:34):
When you get your headshots and when you get your
cover, send those to me Again.
It's not a rush because, like Isaid, I'm not putting this out
right away.
Yeah, I do.
Author Jamie D'Amato (53:42):
I'll send you the photos.
I did just get those, like lastmonth, so and then, yeah, the
cover seems like.
Seems like, I mean, we juststarted talking about it, so
hopefully it'll be within thenext couple months, but it could
be anything.
J.D. Myall (53:57):
I'm excited.
I'm excited.
Um yeah, thank you so much.
Thank you, how can peopleconnect with you?
Author Jamie D'Amato (54:04):
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 mysocials.
Um, my book you can't pre-orderit yet, but it's on goodreads.
You can add to your want toread.
Um, but yeah, if you go to mywebsite, that'll have my socials
.
I'm on tiktok, instagram,twitter.
(54:26):
I'm not active basicallyanywhere, but I pop up
occasionally thank you so much.
J.D. Myall (54:33):
I enjoyed you, jamie .
Speaker 1 (54:35):
Yeah, thank you turn this off that wraps up today's
(54:57):
craft chat chronicles with jdmayor.
Thanks for joining us.
If you like the episode, pleasecomment, subscribe and share.
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