by Michelle | Jul 25, 2015 | agenty stuff, authors, chapter books, diversity, I like, illustrations, kidlit, MG, MSWL, picture books, querying, recent, social media, writing, YA
Once again #MSWL day is upon us. For the uninitiated, #MSWL is a Twitter hashtag that agents and editors use to indicate the kinds of manuscripts they’d like to see in their query inbox. These include a variety of genres, age groups, subjects, ideas, characters,...
by Michelle | Jul 13, 2014 | editing, grammar, writing
Really. I’m totally serious here. If you do these five simple things right now, the flow and readability of your manuscript will improve immediately and exponentially. Guaranteed. 1. Excise all that “just,” “so,” “really,” “very,” “well” fluff. Well, for one...
by Michelle | Feb 25, 2014 | agenty stuff, authors, bookselling, publishers, publishing, querying, writing
There’s so much more that goes into the decision to represent or acquire a book than simply whether it’s a good story that’s well written. I and probably most others in publishing wish it weren’t, but it’s an inescapable fact that not every book we like or even love...
by Michelle | Feb 18, 2014 | authors, critique groups, editing, my authors, writing
The followed stemmed from a conversation I had with one of my super-amazing authors, Betsy Schow, over pie shakes* during a writers conference last year. Without further ado, I give you Betsy in her infinite wisdom. ***** Allow me to teach you the simple trick of...
by Michelle | Feb 4, 2014 | publicity, publishing, querying, self-promo, social media, writing
Yeah, yeah. I know what you’re thinking. “But haven’t you told us before that there aren’t rules when it comes to writing, and that there are always exceptions?” Okay, well, you got me there. But these rules are so simple and so, like,...
by Michelle | Jan 28, 2014 | agenty stuff, authors, editing, grammar, storytelling, writing
Writers are an interesting lot. We’re so full of—and surrounded by—dichotomies, it’s a wonder we don’t second-guess ourselves every moment we spend in front of the computer tip tap typing away. Focus on the story. Well, okay. Maybe we don’t spend every moment...
