+ 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…
Struggling to write that dreaded synopsis? Try boiling your book. Pause for a moment and imagine yourself at a doctor’s office where diagrams of skeletal, musculature, and nervous systems are displayed on the wall – reassuring you the physician knows what all your pokey, slimy, and noodly bits are called, while simultaneously giving you an…
Overwrought. After six drafts of my query letter, my partner had to tell me the truth: the letter is overwrought, overwritten, overbaked. I knew he was right, and I felt as if with each iteration I was drifting further from the sharp, tantalizing pitch I wanted to craft. Worst of all, each time I sat…