Today I’m on the virtual road with an agent-author chat on Krista Van Dolzer’s blog. She interviewed me and my agent, Elizabeth Bewley of Sterling Lord Literistic, about how we connected. You can read the interview here: http://kristavandolzer.blogspot.com/2018/11/agent-author-chat-elizabeth-bewley-and.html If you’ve been following my blog for a while, Krista’s name should be familiar. We first met…
Querying
I Have An Agent!
Dear friends, I have been waiting to write this post for SEVEN YEARS! If you’ve been following me for a while, you already know that, but if you stopped by because you love how-I-got-my-agent posts, this current story might seem like a bit of a fairy tale, and I want to make it clear that…
What I’ve Learned in Seven Years of Querying
A few weeks ago one of my writing friends posted a wonderfully inspiring tweet: And I replied: Technically, this statement isn’t true. If you’ve seen my posts on tracking my queries, you’ll know that I do keep track of my rejections. However, I’ve never totaled them up for all the manuscripts, and as I thought…
YOUR SECRET’S NOT SAFE WITH ME Aesthetics
In the days leading up to Pitch Wars, mentees posted various novel aesthetics on Twitter, and I thought it would be fun to compile them all here on my blog. I’ve mentioned this before, but my idea for this manuscript started with the setting in the middle of the novel. We were on our annual…
It’s Pitch Wars Time!
The adult/new adult and middle grade Pitch Wars entries are already live, and the young adult entries are scheduled to post tomorrow, although the others have gone up the night before, so it’s very possible my entry for YOUR SECRET’S NOT SAFE WITH ME will go live tonight. My mentors asked me if I was…
Tracking Agent Responses & Knowing When to Revise
If you read my posts on Creating a Detailed Spreadsheet and Querying Strategy and Hitting Send, then you know I’m a bit of a statistics freak. Well, I actually take my statistics even a bit farther once I’m querying. I track how agents are responding to my query and pages so I know whether they’re working…
How to Research Agents: Querying Strategy and Hitting Send!
Earlier this week I posted on how to create a detailed spreadsheet, and I realize most people aren’t going to get as detailed as me :). But one of the reasons I have so many columns in my spreadsheet is because I consider a number of factors when I decide how I’m going to approach…
How to Research Agents: Creating a Detailed Spreadsheet
Thanks to my participation in Pitch Wars, I’ve met many wonderful writers through our Facebook group, and we’re in varying stages of the querying process. It’s reminded me that while some, like me, have been doing this a while, others are just starting out. A few years ago I did a series of posts on…
Tackling a Major Revision, or How I’m Revising for Pitch Wars
In addition to promising to talk about my Pitch Wars mentors’ books (I’ll feature Kristin Smith’s books next week!), I said I’d share my revision process, so here goes. A week after the Pitch Wars announcement, I received a thirteen-page edit letter from my mentors, as well as an invitation to view a Google Doc…
I’m a 2017 Pitch Wars Mentee!!
Based on this title, some of you are probably wondering whether I’ve been drafted into an a cappella group (I was tempted to break into song) or some sort of strange cult. Don’t worry–well, the a cappella group wouldn’t be cause for concern–it’s an amazing, wonderful, exciting opportunity! (I could continue adding on adjectives, but…
What I’ve Learned in Six Years of Querying
Well, friends, here we are: six years of querying. Three weeks ago I was in New York City with my husband. We went on a bike tour of Central Park, and I have asthma, so that’s already a bit of a challenge. But when you add in a cold, plus the fact that my bike…
How to Stalk WriteOnCon Ninja Agents 2017
If you’re in the kidlit community, you probably know about WriteOnCon and missed it as terribly as I did in 2015 and 2016. Well, hallelujah, it’s back! I don’t have anything to query at the moment, but I do have a work-in-progress ready for some feedback in the forums, so I’ll definitely be dipping a…
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