In case you’re just joining this series, I started it because a writer queried me and brought it to my attention that some newer writers may not know how to build an agent spreadsheet. We’re now on the fifth post in the series (sixth if you count the one I’d written last year on finding…
MG Series Recommendation: The Books of Elsewhere by Jacqueline West
I had another YA book ready to review today, but I bumped it because I finished reading the final book in Jacqueline West’s The Books of Elsewhere series last week and I just have to gush about it. THE SHADOWS, the first book in the series, was one of the first middle grade books I…
Review: UNHARMONIOUS by Laine Boyd
Today I’m turning the blog over to my mom, Karen Faszold (that’s her to the right!), which is only appropriate since she inspired my love of reading. I’m excited because she’s going to review a debut book by a local St. Louis author. I’d love to do it myself, but with my towering to-be-read list,…
How to Research Agents: Submission Guidelines
It’s time to move on to submission guidelines, and this is a really long post, so let’s get to it. We’ll be adding a few more columns to the spreadsheet today. As a reminder, the columns we currently have are: Agent, Agency, Website, Blog, Twitter, Represents, Looking for, Books to Read, Books I’ve Read, Notes…
YA Review: ILLUSIONS OF FATE by Kiersten White
I was a huge a fan of Kiersten White’s PARANORMALCY trilogy, and while I’ve enjoyed her last few books, they haven’t quite lived up to that series for me. Hey, when you really love something, that’s hard to do. However, her latest, ILLUSIONS OF FATE, captured that magic again–in more than one way :). The…
How to Research Agents: What Are You Looking For?
We’re going to step back from adding to the spreadsheet today. Because I realized that if you are new to this process of researching agents, I need to put on the Auntie Michelle hat and give you a bit of advice. It feels a little weird because I’m not an aunt at all, but whatever….
YA Review: VARIANT by Robison Wells
I finally got to the last book in the box from the Scholastic Warehouse Sale. It’s a good thing I only have two and a half months to wait for the next sale! But unfortunately for all of you, I’m not giving this book away. It was just too good, and it’s earned a place…
How to Research Agents: What They’re Looking For
Last week we started researching agents by creating a spreadsheet with the agent’s name, agency, website, blog and Twitter account. Now, because you used your category as the search term in QueryTracker (i.e., Fiction – Middle Grade), you know all of the agents on your list represent the general category. But those categories are broad–particularly…
YA Review: DITCHED by Robin Mellom
So, last week I said I’d read an article by Kami Kinard on humor and promptly requested all of the books she mentioned. Well, DITCHED by Robin Mellom was one of those books, and it certainly delivered. Let me just give you the description and I think you’ll see why. Justina Griffith was never the…
How to Research Agents: Starting A Spreadsheet
The other day I had something very surprising happen: a writer queried me. It was a decent query, and I sent the writer a nice reply with a couple of resources. I can only assume the writer found my email address from this blog, and it got me thinking. While I realize that most of…
MMGM: THE BOY PROJECT by Kami Kinard
A couple of weeks ago I read a post on humor by author Kami Kinard and promptly requested three of the books referenced in her post. Ms. Kinard was actually promoting her second book, but as I hadn’t read the first in the series, I had to read it first and found it thoroughly delightful….
YA Review: ELLA ENCHANTED by Gail Carson Levine
One day in the bookstore I needed a third book to get a deal and spotted ELLA ENCHANTED by Gail Carson Levine. I’d seen the movie and figured the book must be better because, of course, they always are. Plus, it’s a Cinderella story, and we all know how much I love Cinderella stories, right?…
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