Meg Skellington 💀
Literary Agent
Steven Literary
Agent @StevenLiterary • #RevPit Editor • Mentor @BreakthroughWBC • (She/They) • Latinx 🇵🇷 Opinions are my own.
Literary Agent
Anne Tibbets 🚀👻☠️🏰🏹🔪 @AnneTibbets
LOTS of writers in my DMs with small press offers who have a LOT of questions...What you should ask first:
1) Do they have print distribution?
2) Do they have ebook distribution (besides Amazon)?
3) What are their royalty rates? What are their DISCOUNT royalty rates?
Some good questions to ask if you get an offer from a small press!
It can be so tempting to say YES to any offer but you can harm yourself and your book by not asking questions.
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Literary Agent
I've been seeing a handful of one sentence queries/synopses so please do your research!
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Literary Agent
Hey #writers! Just a reminder I put together a whole page of resources dedicated to querying.
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meganmanzano129.wordpress.com/agent-tips/
Literary Agent
Cat Bakewell @catbakewell
Hi there!!! If you want to read a bit about pitmad expectations AND how to write a pitch, I have some advice over on my blog!catherinebakewell.wordpress.com/2019/03/06/pit… pic.twitter.com/aeUMtBNJMC
With PitMad around the corner, this is an excellent post on how to nail your pitch!
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Literary Agent
Erin Hahn @erinhahn_author
Annual reminder: I found my agent through good old querying. My books never made much of a splash in contests, but “You’d Be Mine” had a wild time in slush piles.I think I sent 45 queries for YBM, over 2 months? And had 15 full requests and multiple offers.
Good ole querying works! Some books don't grab eyes during a pitch contest but will make a splash in an agent's inbox.
Both methods are valid.
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Literary Agent
Literary Agent
Word count is important! There are expectations from agents, readers, and the publishing market.
Below is a great breakdown of word counts per genre/age category.
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writersdigest.com/guest-columns/…
Literary Agent
Hey #writers ! I've created a page of resources for querying, writing a synopsis, and navigating a career pre and post agent.
Check them out below and feel free to share!
#writingcommunity #amquerying #pubtip #writetip
meganmanzano129.wordpress.com/agent-tips/
Literary Agent
These instances aren't always easy to notice/trim but they come with writing and rewriting and learning craft.
The more you learn, the more you'll be able to change up your words and the movement of your characters.
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Literary Agent
Say your character sees a person who wronged them. Instead of saying they walked over and punched them, you can simply say they punched them.
It's implied they closed the distance to deliever the blow.
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Literary Agent
There are also instances where you can have a character perform an action that implies they moved somewhere or towards someone.
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Literary Agent
What's the emotion of your character? If they're angry, they can stomp. If they're sad, they can drag their feet.
Simple changes like that add a layer to the movement, change up verbiage, and add detail to your character.
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Literary Agent
The same can be said for the word walking. Obviously characters need to move but there are other ways to imply movement/description to consider.
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Literary Agent
Ultimately, these movements can all be implied by the sentence: "I ran my fingers through her hair."
It's a common enough motion that we as readers can visualize it and fill in the blanks of your narrative.
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Literary Agent
While it is true your body would perform these movements, in writing, this list heavily weighs on your narrative.
It slows down pace. It loses the interest of your reader.
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Literary Agent
For the latter, I'll sometimes see paragraphs like:
I walked over to her. I lifted my arm and spread my fingers before pushing them through her hair. I dropped my hand back to my side, fingers grazing my hip.
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Literary Agent
One thing I've noticed in a few manuscripts I've worked on is the repetition of the word 'walked' or a grocery list of words/phrases to imply movement.
It's thread time!
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Literary Agent
I forgot to add to the end of this thread that I'm a developmental and line editing type of agent. I want stories to be in their best shape before going on sub.
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Literary Agent
It is a tedious process but one that shakes up how your story can strike readers. We all have favorite lines or paragraphs that gives us chills and line editing can enhance those favorite moments.
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Literary Agent
Line editing can take longer than developmental editing b/c instead of the big picture, you're editing at the most micro level. You're rereading, testing out improvements, and trying to elevate a story as a whole through structure.
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