Currently, I am in throes of writing book #3, THE WITHERWOOD CHOIR, and by #3, I actually mean book #4 (because the first book I wrote, THE LAST GODDESS, absorbed its twin in the womb and popped out with two wobbly heads and a single spine while weighing in at a hefty 190k words). It…
+ the query that led me to my agent Today, I’m bringing you a pastiche of wisdom-learned-the-hard-way, resources-I-wish-I-knew-about-earlier, and the query that got the attention of a Big5 editor and that landed me with my agent (I swear, someday I’ll write a HIGMA post about that wild tale). #1 Pitch Your Friends First. Y’all, my…
Did you know that losses are twice as potent as their equivalent gains? This psychological concept underpins the idea of “loss aversion,” a cognitive bias that often tests a writer’s will to continue on through the query gauntlet. For some, the cumulative pain of rejections can outweigh the potential gain of snagging that offer, which…
Okay, it might end up being a love-hate relationship, but still… A special lull exists between when you gently press your writing into someone else’s arms for critique and when they drop off your book like an Amazon delivery guy with a full bladder and no health insurance. During that lull, your mind fires off…