I’m a dreamer, often exploring fantasy worlds and speculative ideas through writing or reading. I'm energetic and enthusiastic, so I have multiple novels in progress from drafting through to querying. I'm also a full time primary school teacher and a traveler, photographing everything that captures my imagination and occasionally writing poetry about it. I have lived, taught and in England, Australia and most recently New Zealand.
Many writers who joined Twitter after Emma Lombard (in my case in 2019), have learnt a lot from her. Not just about how to Twitter as a writer, but also from her blog posts and the example she’s set in areas like developing your author platform as an unpublished author. But Emma is no longer unpublished. I’m excited to say that her debut novel, historical fiction Discerning Grace (book 1) is out now, and to be posting this interview with Emma about it.
What inspired you to write DISCERNING GRACE?
I’ve always been a little nosy—I know, I know … curiosity killed the cat! But back in 2001 during one of my regular letter-writing sessions to my grandmother in England, I decided I’d like to know a little more about our family history from the older generation. Once they’ve passed it’s so hard to find out what kinds of people they knew and the sorts of things they got up to.
So, my darling late grandmother, whom I was incredibly close to, indulgently began answering my questions and documenting memories of her own childhood and stories of ancestors. All it took was for me to read the opening to one of her letters and I just KNEW I had to write a story about it! This is what the letter said, ‘Your GGG grandmother was only 16 when she ran away from home to marry a sea captain … her family cut her off and she sailed the seas with him …’
Come on! What author couldn’t resist a little bit of real-life inspiration like that?
And so, that is how my purely fictional, historical naval adventure— with a dash of romance—blossomed. I’ve been thrilled by the journey of writing it and all the research too, but most of all, I’ve loved imagining the incredible courage and fortitude it would have taken my ancestor to choose such a life! Plus, there is my GGG grandfather’s side of the tale to consider too. As my grandmother put it, they were ‘obviously a very enlightened couple, and she a very, very liberated woman.’
What was the best piece of writing advice you received when starting out?
To give my main character, Grace Baxter, more agency instead of her being a victim of circumstance. I was pushed to get her to create and direct her own circumstances. This was a bit more of a challenge having a female lead character in the early 1800s because of societal restrictions on women in those days. But I also figured that there had to be pioneering women, even back then, who broke the mould. Since Grace is inspired by my three times great grandmother, who indeed bucked the norm in her day by leaving her well-to-do family in England to elope with an English sea captain and live with him at sea, I felt I had a little more leeway to play with when writing Grace’s character. And besides, what’s a rollicking romantic adventure without a feisty heroine!
What is your favourite historical era and why? Do you have a favourite historical female? Why?
I’m open when it comes to reading historical fiction through the different eras, from Jean M. Auel’s prehistoric The Clan of the Cave Bear, to Vikings and Romans, through to later centuries like in Wilbur Smith’s Courtney series. As for writing it, I’ve been so immersed in the 19th century since I’ve been writing my own books, that I have a soft spot for this era. There’s a great balance of knowledge and information out there since it wasn’t too long ago—say unlike the ancient Egyptian era. I have huge admiration for historical authors who write about ancient times. The research required for that is mammoth (snigger)!
While there are many well-known historical females, my research unearthed a whole world of unknown women whose stories have not had a spotlight shone on them. These have been my favourite historical females to find—mothers penning journals about parenthood, sisters writing letters to relatives from the other side of the world, wives aboard ships keeping diaries that recorded tiny details of daily life not captured in a ship’s log books. It took me ages to find some resources that spoke about women aboard ships who were not just there to entertain the sailors, but who played a pivotal role in sailing the ship, raising a family aboard, and supporting industrious endeavours. These are some of my favourites:
Seafaring Women by renowned historian, Linda Grant De Pauw
Female Tars by Suzanne J. Stark
Hen Frigates by maritime historian, Joan Durett
She Captains by maritime historian, Joan Durett
What message are you sharing in your books?
The themes in my first novel, DISCERNING GRACE (Book 1), include:
an independent woman
the importance of love over money
appearances can be deceiving
love can conquer all
triumph over adversity
Does each book stand alone, or are you building a body of work with connections or themes between each book?
I love reading a long series where you can immerse yourself into another world and get to know the characters intimately through several books, so it felt perfectly natural for me to write a series too. It has been a joy to evolve my characters from their young and naïve selves in the first book, and mature them through their life experiences in subsequent books. Discerning Grace (Book 1) is out now. The second book is nearly ready to publish, and I have complete draft manuscripts for books three and four.
A movie producer wants to turn your book into a movie and you get to make a cameo. What would you do in the movie?
Ooo, isn’t this every writer’s dream!
Due to the nature of my story aboard a 19th century Royal Naval tall ship, there aren’t that many female characters, though I could play no role on the ship since I get hideously sea sick!
I would have to stick with a role that is safe on land, so perhaps one of the dinner guests in my opening scene.
You have created images for your main characters, how does that help you write them?
I asked my beta readers to send me images of real-life people who they thought most looked like Seamus and Grace. Those images, along with the descriptions from my book, created the basis for the artwork I’ve commissioned (because I can barely draw a stick man!) They turned out exactly as I envisaged them in my mind’s eye!
It has been marvellous to have them drawn so young and fresh when we first meet them. For the subsequent books in the series, I can envisage the deepening of Seamus’s smile line beside his mouth, or the crow’s feet around Grace’s aquamarine eyes. I don’t necessarily speak to my characters, but I do sit and watch them interact and play out scenes in my head (it must look like I’m staring into space, and not working, when I do this!) I only need to look at their body language in their artwork for an inspirational reminder about how they react physically and verbally to different situations.
Since I own this artwork, I’ve actually created my own Redbubble store called, By-the-Book (yes, like the name of my newsletter), where my readers can grab their own favourite keepsakes.
What do you do for fun? What does a perfect day look like?
In everyday life, I’m Mum to four teenage sons—my men children, all of whom are taller than me—and two cantankerous cats who often thrash it out for a spot on my lap! I live in the perpetually sunny city of Brisbane in Australia. I love building jigsaw puzzles (especially Wasgij, backwards puzzles), playing Candy Crush (my secret shame!), and playing board games with my boys—though gone are the days when used to I beat them, they whip me soundly now. And I totally suck at Risk! Having raised four rambunctious boys, my perfect day these days constitutes solitude and silence. It doesn’t matter where, as long as those two ingredients are present.
AUTHOR BIO
Emma Lombard was born in Pontefract in the UK. She grew up in Africa—calling Zimbabwe and South Africa home for a few years—before finally settling in Brisbane Australia, and raising four boys. Before she started writing historical fiction, she was a freelance editor in the corporate world, which was definitely not half as exciting as writing rollicking romantic adventures. Her characters are fearless seafarers, even though in real life Emma gets disastrously sea sick. Discerning Grace, is the first book in The White Sails Series.
What lies beyond querying, should we be fortunate enough to have a literary agent offer us representation? In this #Pitmad success story, Halla Williams describes how she came to write the March 2020 #Pitmad pitch which led to signing with her literary agent, and what signing and the early stages of working with her agent have been like, over the course of a year like few others (2020).
What was pitching your Epic Fantasy like?
My first experience of pitching felt like jumping in at the deep end without learning to swim first. After I’d got the manuscript as polished as I could, even getting a developmental edit to check the very complex multi-POV plot worked, I went to a writers’ day run by the SFF publisher at Gollancz. I paid £65 to go but it was worth it. Gollancz authors like Joanne Harris and Ben Aaronovitch and some agents and editors were doing panels and then they moved around the audience tables, heard what you were doing and gave you feedback. It was so useful. Jo Abercrombie loved the written pitch he kindly agreed to read. One of the Gollancz editors hated my very under-confident spoken version. I realised that I had no idea how to sell this book verbally.
I thought, ok, I need to slow down and think about what sells. What were the ideas that people could relate to and latch onto, that evoke what I’m offering – which is really complicated and multi layered, and doesn’t have clear main characters and doesn’t have a single clear plot? It was going to be a struggle.
I started writing my query then and foolishly sent it too soon to Joe Abercrombie’s agent and ‘said Jo Abercrombie liked it.” I got a form rejection. Those first few are hard because they just confirm that dread that it’s not going to be easy. So I took it slowly because I knew I didn’t know how to sell it. I only sent them out gradually.
Query Feedback
I started getting in touch with people on Twitter who were also querying. We talked and my query evolved. Then Flights of Foundry [an SFF convention that went online because of the pandemic] came up. There was a lottery for a critique of your query by Jose Iriarte and Elle Ire. I was lucky enough to win a place only 6 people got. I sent it off in advance and they were going to give feedback on the day but the connection was awful. They said, “We’ll email it and you can send your next draft as well.” Jose didn’t like it and Lisa loved it. She really related to the query and he didn’t at all. Then I re-wrote it based on that feedback and Jose said he was amazed at how much I improved it based on what they said. I thought, “Oo, I’m feeling a bit more confident now!”
What was your experience of pitch parties and follow up querying?
After that I wrote a few pitches in response and shared them on Facebook for people to respond to. I looked at feedback and went by my gut to choose which ones to pitch. I pitched in #Pitmad and got no likes. Then I pitched in #SFFPit and botched it. An American agent liked my pitch. He said on his Twitter, “Find out about me. It’s a wooing process. Don’t just send me stuff and don’t know who I am.” So I did loads and loads of research. I wasn’t aware of how far back in the past it went but I picked the most appropriate connection I found. I just got a form rejection back and was disappointed. But at the same con I mentioned earlier, Flights of Foundry, he said, not knowing I was there, “Don’t do what this stalker did and dig years into the past to find something that connects you.”
Elise: And you sat there going, “Awesome. That was me…”
Halla: Yes! I was mortified even though I wasn’t digging through his trash, or hacking his account! I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Just because you’ve got a like doesn’t mean anything. You still need to be able to connect with that person. Just be yourself. Have confidence that you’re offering something that will connect with that person. Don’t scrabble around like an idiot, trying to find a connection that isn’t there.
Query Length
By the time we got to the March Pitmad, I knew my query said what I wanted it to say. It was nearly 400 words – outside the guidelines for what people say is an appropriate length for a query! But the more good examples in high fantasy I see, the less I think it should go down to 300.
Elise I saw a post where an agent reported on average query length in their inbox. Some went up to 450 and the agent believed there were appropriate reasons for them to be that long. I guess that’s the problem with hard and fast rules -they don’t apply across the board.
Halla: It’s quite a long complex novel. At that point, it was 130k words of epicness.
You never know if someone’s going to like the enigmatic ex-mercenary, or the courtesan or if they’re going to be attracted to a rebellious Fae. Skimping too much means you could leave out the ideas that could appeal to the right person.
Getting that down into a Twitter pitch was hard but the same applies – get in the appealing ideas. Although there are so many pitches going by that you may not get seen by agents, it’s still great practice.
Elise: From the pitch parties I attended in 2020, I think if you’re writing adult there’s a chance, but for YA Fantasy the odds of being seen by the industry seem astronomical. I’ve had a few press likes in SFFPit, but that’s the only party my YA Fantasy has got industry attention in. I can see myself querying publishers and then self publishing.
Halla: That’s what I thought I was going to have to do.
How did you know that you have the right agent?
Good First Impressions
After I got the like in the March PitMad, I did some digging into him and I could see that he was a new agent. I liked what he’d been posting and how he came across on Twitter. When I sent the query in, he responded almost immediately. He rang me up and said, “I know people don’t normally ring, but I really like what you sent me and can I have the full please?” No one else had shown interest. He sounded really nice on the phone. We had a chat and a laugh. Afterwards, I realised I hadn’t sent the full to anyone, so I had to format it… chapters a third down the page… Times 12 New Roman 12pt. I worried whether I’d got the right, most up-to-date version. It only took me four hours, but it was really intense between feeding a small child and other things going on to distract me.
He emailed me the next morning and said, “I’m a few chapters in. I really liked when… has anyone else got it?” He was obviously really keen.
Three days later he said, ”Can I call you and talk to you about it?” I thought, is this going to be a revise and resubmit? A phone call was a good thing, but I didn’t know how good. I was having a hell of a day the day he wanted to call me, so I put it off to the next day.
More Good Signs
He called me up and said it was as brilliant as he hoped. He gave me some constructive feedback so I’d get a feel for his edits: “This is happening off stage and is reported. You need to write some actions scenes and get a thrill pulse going.”
He told me so much about my novel that resonated with me that I thought you get what I’m trying to do. We had a good chat and formed a good bond.
I got the references off him. He only had two other clients before me. He’d said, “I want to work with you for your whole career, not just this book.” That was what I wanted and needed. I thought he’s an agent with a small list, I’ll get loads of attention. And he seemed to be a rising star. I was pretty sure he was the one. But the other person who had my query was someone I was really interested in, so I did nudge her and she said, “Send me the full.”
Good References
Just after I sent her the full, I got his references and they were glowing. Both authors were keen to talk to me and sing his praises. Apparently, he’s got a great eye for edits!
I ended up emailing the other agent and saying, “I’m sorry, I’ve made my decision.” It just felt really right and I wanted to move forward. I contacted him and said “I really want to come and work with you. Let’s do it.” And he seemed delighted!
What was signing your agency agreement like?
There were a couple of things I wasn’t sure about, so we talked through the contract. After that I was happy and celebrated and posted a picture of me and my contract – blurred out – on Twitter.
And the next client he signed after me won the Rivers of London Prize. So he’s been able to talk to editors he wouldn’t otherwise have been able to. That book is fantasy, so it has opened doors to talk about mine. I’m very happy about that.
What stage is your book at now, and when might it go on submission?
2020 was a difficult year in terms of getting things done and moving forward. I got my full edits in January (2021). We’re going to make the changes we need to make, then we’ll go on submission. You think you’re going to just do some revisions then it’s going to go out there, but because it’s a big, complicated book, it’s going to take longer than I’d imagined.
Elise: Did he give you feedback officially to do some edits earlier? Has it been multiple rounds?
Halla: He gave me some things to work on when we did the signing at the end of May. I got some broad comments in December. The people he’s signed since are behind me in the queue, so they’re going to take longer. Somebody told me a publishing house editor had hers for 5 months before she heard anything.
Elise: It seems to be the thing with traditional publishing – that it will take time full stop – at all stages.
Halla: However keen I am to push it on and hurry it, you’ve just got to wait for other people.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
How much of it feels like luck.
Just connecting with the right person at the right time is staggeringly unlikely. You’ve got to be good, but you’ve also got to be lucky. Lots of people saying no isn’t necessarily because you’re not good. There are so many reasons why people say no that have nothing to do with you.
I had been getting to the point where I’d queried for a while and I was wondering if it was the pages and whether I should cut the first few chapters. You get to a point where you feel like you should change something. I’m glad I didn’t because I didn’t need to.
What advice would you give people in the querying trenches?
Get lots of people to give feedback on your query and don’t believe everybody. Just take on board what makes sense to you and opens your mind to how other people are perceiving what you’ve written. You know the story so well that you can’t know what the words you’ve chosen are suggesting to other people. They may come across quite differently. Ask people to tell you what kind of person they’re finding that character to be. Are you finding that person engaging? What is charming about what I’ve written? What stands out to you? Really interrogate that.
[I was one who gave Halla feedback on her query. She wasn’t afraid to seek clarification or additional feedback from people who’d already given her feedback. I remember being impressed by how much her queries developed from one revision to the next.]
Different people are going to like different things about it. Take what seems to you to be good advice.
But if you’re trying to write lots of subtlety, you have to cheat it. Make your pitch not quite as complex as it is, to get an agent to read it. You’ve just got to get them to pay attention enough to get hooked into reading. Then they’ll see that it’s subtle and complex.
It is collecting together the ideas that make a good pitch, rather than trying to convey the essence of the story.
I think my pitch makes it sound a bit like a romantic relationship between Ashari and Westorr. That isn’t the case, but there is something about the ambiguity of that relationship which is intriguing. It doesn’t do what it says on the tin, but it was accurate as written and enough to pull somebody in.
More About Halla
Halla Williams writes high fantasy. She’s also a developmental and copyeditor and sings in an acoustic duo called Telhalla.
Having grown up in the small town of Nailsea in England, Halla studied Drama at Exeter University. She then toured as an actor for six years, performing in everything from Shakespeare to comedy musicals to children’s theatre.
Although she discovered many wonderful places, she came back to live in Bristol, near where she grew up, to work as an English teacher. After 16 years, she left teaching to become a proofreader and editor and finally finish Song of the Storm.
Bristol’s live music scene is a particular joy for her and she sings regularly at the ‘famous’ open mic at The Oxford pub in Totterdown. Her favourite local band is the Dusk Brothers.
As a fantasy reader, her favourites include Robin Hobb, Janny Wurts, Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie, Mercedes Lackey and Brandon Sanderson. You’ll find her website here.
Further Reading
If you’re curious about the alternative -signing with Indie publishers- here’s my interview with three authors about how they found, signed with and knew they had the right Indie Publisher for their book.
Most querying writers hope for a literary agent, but what if you get a pitch party like and ultimately are offered a contract by a small press? How will you know if they’re the right press for you, or for this particular book? And what would signing with them be like? In these publisher signing interviews, I talk to authors Nikky Lee, Alexandra Beaumont and C.G. Volgars about their experiences of querying, determining that the press making them an offer was right for their book and signing contracts with their small presses.
What was your experience of querying?
Nikky
Which pitch parties did you participate in and what responses did you get?
Pretty much everything I was eligible for: #SFFpit, #Pitmad and #PitDark were the main ones.
All up I got 18 likes from agents and publishers across 10 twitter pitching events.
The most interest I had by far was at my first pitching event, #SFFpit in Jan 2019, where I got 6 likes in the one event. Unfortunately, I blew it because my book wasn’t ready.
Lesson learned: don’t waste your pitch party “debut” pitching a book that isn’t ready.
I had the most success at the #SFFpit events – 10 of my likes came from those. I was pitching under Adult and YA. My book sits in that awkward New Adult space ideal for 18-25 year olds, though it could happily be read by a mature YA reader or adults who enjoy YA reads [YA crossover being the latest term for this].
How long were you querying all up?
Nikky Jan 2019 to May 2020. But in that were two periods where I stopped querying to do a round of revisions. In hindsight, I started querying too early. The book was not ready and it became pretty clear after that first batch of queries. I like to think of that as my test run. I stopped querying and did some big structural edits and a lot of darling killing. When I came back a second time, it was in August 2019 and I queried fairly consistently with it until May 2020.
Was your contract a result of cold querying or a pitch party?
From #PitDark. I got two likes from my editor at Parliament House Press in that event.
How did the way you got it and how long it took compare to your expectations?
Nikky To be honest, I expected to be querying for a while. I’d read stories of people querying hundreds of agents until one finally said yes, and all up I barely queried 30. I was prepared to query 100 agents before shelving the book and working on something else.
Alexandra
I pitched in #Pitmad in Sept, #DVPit and #Pitdark in October 2020. I got more speed on it by the time I did #Pitdark. It suited me better because my book is dark fantasy. That was how I found the small press that is publishing it. The responses I got were pretty good. Someone on Twitter commented, “That’s like something Neil Gaiman would write,” and I thought, “Great. Publishers and agents looking at pitches might , if I’m lucky, see that someone thinks its like Neil Gaiman.” I thought, “No way is my writing close to as good as Neil Gaiman’s, but I’ll take it if it gets me the exposure.”
When did you feel like you got the hang of pitching?
Alex I think at my second party I got a feel for pitches. I’m quite a straight spoken person, so it took me a bit to get a feel for writing really evocative pitches. I think for the second one I upped the drama a bit more. Its high drama stuff, which I guess is how you get the attention.
I never assumed that this would go anywhere, partly because my partner is a development editor and has worked with books before, as have some of our friends, and everyone said it’s really hard to get a publishing contract. I went into it hoping it was going to go somewhere but also with a very realistic expectation that probably it wasn’t going to. That said, their support and experience really helped get me over the line and helped me know what to do.
C. G.’s Querying Experience
Looking back, I can’t lie–it wasn’t the most fun time period in my life. Every time I got an email alert, my heart jumped into my throat. A twitter friend suggested using a secondary email purely for queries, so I wouldn’t have a mini heart attack at every Gmail notification. That definitely helped. But no, I didn’t really enjoy querying.
That said, I met a lot of talented writers through #AmQuerying and #StrictlyWriting and learned a lot about pitching and querying with them. Also, because I’m with an indie press I’ve been able to incorporate some of my pitches into promo materials and even parts of my query and synopsis into marketing copy. Querying was rough, but it made me practice explaining and selling my book to people. So, I guess I got something out of it. Meh.
When did you feel like you got the hang of pitching?
I felt a lot more comfortable pitching the second time I started querying Static Over Space. The first time I had no idea what I was doing: I didn’t know the rules of writing a pitch. I didn’t know what made my story stand out. I didn’t know how to connect with other #AmQuerying authors.
The second time was about a year and a half later. I had several killer pitches ready that I’d been retooling for months, I had a good group of writer friends to help me hone them, especially the #StrictlyWriting gang. Most importantly, I knew what made my writing stand out–VOICE. By the time I jumped back in, I felt really excited and pumped!
Which pitch parties did you participate in and what sort of responses did you get?
The first go-around I was doing everything under the sun–#Kisspit, #Pitdark, anything you could remotely fit a genre fiction under. The second time I knew I had to be real and narrow it down. My first pitch party after rebooting was April 2020 for #DVPit. I got 16 likes… three of which were actually people in publishing! [In Twitter Pitch Parties, liking tweet pitches is reserved for agents and publishers to request submissions, but some writers always forget and like pitches anyway].
How long were you querying all up?
My querying journey was spread over three years, but totalled two. The first year and a half, I got one full MS request from a cold query and no Twitter pitch love. After I stepped back and retooled, I queried for 6 months before an offer was made.
How did the way you got a publishing contract and how long it took compare to your expectations?
Interesting question. I don’t love that it took as long as it did… But there’s also no question in my mind that this version of Static Over Space is infinitely better than the first one. So double meh.
Querying Specs
Authors
Home Country
Genre
Audience Age
How long did you query and where before signing your contract?
Nikky Lee
New Zealand
Dark Fantasy
YA crossover
1 year & 3 months Mostly in US, some UK.
C.G. Volgers
SciFi Fantasy
YA Crossover
3 years, mostly US, some UK.
Alexandra Beaumont
Dark Fantasy
Adult
4 months (NB: this is exceptionally rare) Uk, US & Europe.
How did you know you had the right publisher?
Alexandra
You kind of go with the one you’ve got the offer on right?
Elise not necessarily. [We had an off the record conversation about other writer’s experiences confirming this statement].
Alex I did get an R and R, with a publisher that was more of a coffee subscription box who published books on the side. I didn’t go with them.
When I researched Gurt Dog Press, they seemed very friendly and professional and I liked the artwork that they’d done and some of their other books. A lot of their other authors seemed to have good experiences.
Elise Was there any particular person you had contact with who made you feel that way about them?
Alex I spoke to the editor and the marketing manager. They seemed to be everything that I expected and were really friendly. They’re early on in their publishing house journey. It was quite nice in a way, having a first novel being out with a publisher that’s also starting out, both being in it together. They are working on expanding and have had some great successes in their first year, so it feels like a really exciting place to be.
Elise Do you know who they sell to?
I think it’s mostly Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords and online, but they’re looking to expand. Some of the authors have got their books placed in local bookshops too.
Nikky
What struck me about Parliament House Press was they had a good range of books and they published regularly—they were clearly an indie press working towards becoming a mid-sized publisher.
They also had a “monster shop” section in their online store, which I loved. And I could see my book fitting into that. They also had very professional looking covers.
On the business side, they had recently teamed up with a digital distributor to help spread their books.
Audiobook rights were on the table too—I’m a big fan of audiobooks so that really sold it for me that this publisher was future focused and knew where the trends were.
I contacted three of their authors, and they had nothing but good things to say. There were the usual caveats of going through a small to mid-sized publisher e.g. you have to be prepared to roll up your sleeves and put in the effort to market and promote the book. But to be honest, you still have to do that anyway, even if you’re published with the big 4. And I work in marketing, so that bit wasn’t so daunting.
C. G.
I had sooo many signs Outland Entertainment was the right place for SOS! First, my editor, Alana Joli, made a really funny Avarian joke while we were discussing Outland’s offer. I knew right then not only did she understand the story, but really understood the characters and world. She also has a great sense of humor and a keen eye for what makes a story shine. Her idea to switch Yula’s gender (a big Wookie-like character) to female will forever be one of the most genius edits for Static Over Space ever.
The second sign was when I saw the Art Director and Founder’s art portfolio and larger career. Jeremy Mohler not only teaches art at the college level, he’s worked with some of the biggest comic book names out there- Marvel, Blizzard, and IDW Comics. His street cred and art style was exactly what I’d always dreamed of finding for SOS.
Third, I sent the contract to the Author’s Guild Legal team [the Author’s Guild offers free Contract Review to paying members]. They looked over the contract, gave me a few pointers, but overall agreed it was really fair and even-handed.
The final green light was from someone I trusted inside publishing. Through #LatinXpitch I’d made a connection with an editor from a prominent imprint. He wasn’t looking for a YA SciFi when we met, but he’d remained a trusted mentor. Later when Outland made the offer, he asked around and gave them the thumbs up!
What stage is your novel at?
I’m waiting on the full edits, and the book will be out in April.
I just handed off the MS to my editor [January 10th]. From here we’ll do initial editing, then copy editing, then layout!
I’ve just finished my first round of edits from my editor. There’ll be a few more to come in the next six months or so. My publisher has already set up the digital preorders for it.
We’re looking at a tentative April/May 2020 release for book 1. It’s still too soon to say for Books 2 and 3.
What Advice Would You Give Querying Writers?
Alex
I don’t have a lot of advice that I imagine people aren’t already doing, but perseverance is definitely a strong part of this. I was initially like I’ll just query 10 favourite agents and that didn’t go anywhere. My main one is everyone understandably thinks I’ll go through an agent, and my books will go to the big publishers and be published by the end of the year.
But that’s not always the case. I think there needs to be more recognition of other routes to publishing. Like it’s all valid. I came through it not knowing a lot about the small presses and only thinking about the big 5, but then I got into it and thought ok, there’s a mid band of publishing houses and a whole load of small presses as well. At the end of the day, getting your book out doesn’t have to be in that way. Getting a book out is still an achievement.
That’s the main thing i’ve taken away from it: not everyone’s going to be best selling authors and that’s ok. It depends what your ambitions are, but as long as your story’s out there, that’s the main thing for me.
The small press I’m going with is Swedish so I don’t think it needs to be in your own country. I was originally like ‘I’ll only query UK agents’ but someone said to me, “It’s a fairly international audience these days so you don’t need to pigeonhole yourself in your own country.” I think there’s no reason not to go wide.
Nikky
This is hard because everyone’s journey is so different. But based on my own experience, make sure the book is truly ready before you send it out. That means beta read -several rounds if need be, edited and proofed to the best of your ability. I blew my chances with several major NYC agents because I sent it to them before it was ready.
As for querying, I do think it is a numbers and timing game, and I do think it’s smart to try different avenues for getting noticed i.e. cold query, twitter pitching, conference pitching where possible.
C. G.
Find a great writer, preferably someone in the industry, to give you real, no-holds-barred feedback. After querying the first time I sent my MS to three #AmQuerying authors that I knew were amazing storytellers and Gina Damico, a YA author with several published books who offered novel consulting through Grubstreet.
I couldn’t afford to pay her to look through the entire MS, but I got her advice on the first chunk. She told me, point-blank: here’s what you’re good at, here’s what you have to work on if you’re going to break through querying. It was painful at first. I basically had to rewrite half my book! But in the end, it was worth it.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Alex
It’s become a Twitter #WritingCommunity cliche, but I never expected the level of support and community there is on Twitter. I’ve met some great people in a Query DM Group who have read the opening chapters. I’d say while the online presence is helpful, don’t worry too much about it.
Its easy to go down the rabbit hole of spending a lot of time thinking about your writing, and having an author platform -I work full time in a busy job, so my time is fairly constrained. Making sure you’re not spending all your time doing all of this stuff is important for your sanity.
Speaking as someone who both wrote a pitch and signed a contract within half a year, it was a big effort to do all that and I kind of gave my life over to it for half a year. So my reflection and advice to people doing this for the first time is: its great and do calve out time to do this stuff if you’re passionate, but don’t kill yourself, because the market will still be there next year.
C.G
Yes! Edelweiss.plus is a great way to find comps for books that have no comp. And trust me– I would know!
Alexandra
Nikky
Alexandra was raised on fairy tales, folklore and legends. She followed adventures at every turn: exploring the old parts of London, taking part in medieval re-enactments, and writing in every spare moment. When not writing, Alexandra has a wanderlust for exploring new places, roaming the countryside and taking part in Live Action Fantasy Role Play. (Meaning she’s often covered in mud, grass and leaves.) Her passion for exploring new worlds drives her creative endeavours. Her debut novel, Testament of the Stars, will be published in April 2021 by Gurt Dog Press.
On Testament of the Stars:
Astrologers govern the lives of both the blessed from the plateau of Gemynd and the downtrodden from the planes of Rask.
When Einya reluctantly joins the settlement’s ruling star-cult, she thinks only of the rights it will give her: the permission to marry her Raskian lover. Instead she is thrown onto a treacherous path of betrayal and political strife, trapped within the cult persecuting Rask.
Forced to drink the blood of the stars and steal their thoughts, Einya ends up at the heart of a fierce rebellion, caught between a fight for freedom and the strange luring power of the stars.
Alexandra’s website no longer exists. (2026 update.)
Nikky is a New Zealand-based writer who grew up as a barefoot 90s kid in Perth, Western Australia. With eight years in content marketing and copywriting, she’s published numerous articles on behalf of businesses and for magazines.
In her free time, she writes speculative fiction, often burning the candle at both ends to explore fantastic worlds, mine asteroids and meet wizards. She’s had over a dozen short stories published in magazines and in anthologies around the world. Her debut novel, The Rarkyn’s Familiar—a dark tale of a girl bonded to a monster—will be published by Parliament House Press in 2022. Nikky’s Website.
C. G. Volgars
CG Volars is the debut author of STATIC OVER SPACE, that Gender-Bending Scifi coming from Outland Entertainment in Spring 2022.
CG currently resides in California with her family and two grey cats—Skittles and Rosie. In her spare time, she writes, uses potty language and collects SciFi pins.
Further Reading
If you’re sad the Twitter referred to in this post no longer exists, I recommend trying Blue Sky. This Guide will help you get started.
For more information about Pitch Parties, see this post.
Another useful site in researching publishers is Preditors & Editors, which is unfortunately in maintenance mode, but you’ll find their resources and updates on their Facebook Page.
You’ve found a critical reader or a story to read! How can you ensure that working with the reader or the writer is a positive, productive experience? I’d like to say the hard part is finding each other and from now on it will all be sunshine and rainbows. But I’ve heard stories of critical reader feedback such as, “This is wrong” or “That was poorly done.” Or maybe you agreed to read a novel, you get it and… it’s not your cup of tea. Or it’s so raw that re-reading to figure out what’s happening will take more time than you want to give it. So to help you create effective partnerships (and pull out of ineffective or negative ones), here’s 6 critical reader tips for positive partnerships, and 6 for productive partnerships.
6 Tips for Positive Partnerships
1.Ensure feedback is given with the aim of improving the quality of the writing
Ideally, feedback will indicate where the writing can be clearer, easier to follow and a more engaging read. It will spell out when the reader gets confused, starts to lose interest, what they want more of and what they enjoy. It won’t be, “This is wrong/ rubbish/ you should never…” Aside from being negative, all that really says is, “I think something here doesn’t work.” That’s of limited help. Whereas feedback like, “This scene was a bit slow for me,” suggests the problem and a solution.
General positive statements can also help with editing. Its easy to lose sight of whether your writing is any good when you edit. So as a reader, commenting on things you find effective, entertaining or which really impact on you can help writers identify what’s working. And to not lose sight of or edit it out.
2.EnsureFeedback accounts for the reader’s personal bias.
If you want to make a suggestion but can’t cite an objective reason, its good to let the writer know so. Eg. “This might just be my preference but…. ” As opposed to objective statements like “This should…” The latter may imply ‘everyone’ sees it that way and the reader’s suggestion must be taken, yet reading can be very subjective.
3. Feedback Is Honest.
Holding back to ‘spare the writer’s feelings’ does not improve the quality of the writing. Yes, feedback can be painful. Especially if the writer sees every observation or suggestion as something they ‘did wrong’, as opposed to something they ‘can do more effectively.’ But the writer is asking for feedback because they believe comments about how a reader sees their story can help them tell their story more effectively. If you’re inclined to hold back because of prior experience with giving a writer feedback, the below might be the problem.
4. The Writer Must Be Receptive to Feedback.
No, I don’t mean ‘the writer has to edit everything the critical reader says.’ A critical reader may love that character and want to know more about their backstory. Or for the book to delve deeper into theme x. The writer may disregard that feedback because it doesn’t fit with what they’re trying to do with their story.
I’m talking about writers who are consistently defensive or argumentative. Writers who seem unwilling to receive constructive feedback, let alone act upon it. I’m also talking about writers who appear to think a critical reader’s job is to shower them with praise, not indicate that they have work to do. If either description matches the writer you’re reading for, your time may be wasted on them.
Writers, I’m not saying you can’t wince or flinch when you get feedback, especially on your first book. Nor am I saying the reader won’t make occasional comments about your story that are factually incorrect. But if your standard reaction to feedback is to defend yourself or argue, then you need to step back. I suggest figuring out why you respond this way to constructive criticism before seeking it.
Is Feedback Positively Phrased?
Is it “This is poorly done” and “Why are you doing that?” Or is it, “This word is repeated 5 times in 2 lines”? Or “I’m not convinced by the character doing x because y”. There is a line between being honest and direct and being arrogant, talking down to people or telling them they’re doing it wrong. It can be hard to spot, and different people may perceive it as being at different points. But if you’re finding feedback stressful, if it’s eroding your confidence, wellbeing or writing, you may need to part with your critical reader’s negativity. (It may also be that you’re not in the right frame of mind to work with critical readers.)
6.Does Feedback speak to the writer or reader as an equal, or lecture them?
Have you ever asked someone a question about a particular topic, and they assume you know nothing and explain everything? Don’t be the writer who assumes the reader has completely misunderstood your character and explains things the reader’s comments signal they know. Don’t be the writer who spots a potential gap in your critique partner’s craft and starts lecturing them on that aspect 101. Its likely you’ve found one of many author bias blindspots, which may include knowing there’s an issue, but underestimating it.
If you aren’t sure what was unclear to the reader, ask a clarifying question. Eg. “Were you unsure how Barry’s relationship with Fred impacted Barry’s decision?” Don’t lecture your critique partner about pacing, just say, “I want the story to move on now.” Or, “I think you could cut this paragraph without the story losing anything.”
6 Tips for Productive Partnerships
1. Only agree to read (or swap) the first 1-3 chaptersinitially.
As a Reader You may find that the book isn’t your cup of tea. That you don’t want to read the whole thing. Or perhaps you find it interesting, but so much isn’t working for you. And or commenting on this novel would be a bigger time commitment than you’re prepared to make.
As a Writer You may find critical reader feedback unhelpful. Eg. you’ve asked the reader to comment on character and plot development and how they find the overall story, but they mostly comment on punctuation. In that case, I’d be saying, “Sorry, I don’t think we’re well-matched.” If this happens, here’s some places to find more critical readers.
2. Talk about how much you can read/ edit and over what time period upfront.
How many chapters are you aiming to read a day/ week/ fortnight? Don’t assume you have a similar balance of day job, family life, reading/ writing etc as your reader/ critique partner. Some of my initial CPs finished editing their whole books with other CPs while we were only up to commenting on each other’s chapter 6-9. Knowing what your goal is helps you have realistic expectations about what to expect from each other, and when.
3. Tell the reader what you’d like them to focus on, or tell the writer what you’re likely to notice and comment on.
As a Reader: the writer may be grateful for any and all feedback, but they may also want feedback on particular things. If, for example, you’re strength is commenting on pacing and identifying info dumps, and the writer is desperate for feedback on characters -you may identify from the outset that you’re not a good match.
As a Writer: if you don’t ask your critical readers to comment on anything in particular, they may not happen to comment on things your editing focused on. That may leave you unclear on whether those edits did enough to support or engage the reader. You may also find that your critical reader comments only on what they like, or don’t like, or -if they’re also a writer- on aspects of craft which happen to be their personal strengths. This can leave you without an overall impression of how readers see your character, plot or tone and can mean missed editing opportunities. Yes, these impressions are subjective, but I recently noticed that one of my battle scenes may be far darker than I intended for a YA Fantasy. That kind of overall impression is useful for a writer to know.
4. Critique Partners: Allow for Stylistic Differences
I was conscious of this from the first as a critique partner. One of the writers I was reading for favoured longer phrasing and descriptive writing, while my style is more concise. I had to think carefully about whether his style was slowing the pace and losing story tension at a chapter level. Or whether I was getting hung up on his sentences because I didn’t like their style. As a CP style isn’t your concern. But things like losing interest because of drawn out sentences slowing the pace is. So if your CP’s writing style is different -respect it- and try to only comment on it when it poses problems for you as a reader.
5. When you’ve Given/ Received Feedback
As a Writer Don’t hesitate to ask the reader if they could comment a bit less or a bit more about certain things. I have a tendency to get hung up on sentence structure, but some of my CPs have been more interested in my thoughts and feelings on characters and how engaged I am in the story. So if you want less feedback of one kind or more of another, ask for it.
If you get feedback you think is helpful, but you’d like to know more, ask a follow up question. When I interviewed Halla Williams recently, she said that when she got feedback on her query letter, “I really interrogated it.” She asked follow up questions based on reader comments, then revised certain things and asked if people could take another look. As one of her critical readers, I saw how much her drafts developed and how much stronger her query letter became from one revision to the next.
6. Be Flexible
Even if a critical reader wants to read the whole book, or both critique partners are invested in commenting on each other’s books till the end, life happens. Circumstances can differ and vary across time. During my country’s second lock down, I had a few restless days where I wanted to escape and smashed through half my CP’s novel. Then I reached a point where I was so emotionally drained and exhausted that I couldn’t write comments which made sense, and had to stop reading for her for 3 months.
As a writer, you can have critical readers or CPs pull out for one reason or other at any time. So don’t rely on one or two critical readers. Get more if you can. If someone can only comment on your first 3 chapters when you’d really like feedback on the entire book -take them up on three chapters. It all helps.
Act 1 is crucial in guiding readers into your character’s world and maintaining reader engagement. Critical readers can help evaluate how your Act 1 impacts on readers, but in my experience, they may be inclined to comment only on what annoys them, what they love and if they’re writers -their personal strengths in writing craft. If you don’t ask your critical readers to comment on anything in particular, let alone provide a critical reader checklist, their feedback may exclude clues about which aspects of your craft -or a particular novel- may need developing.
This beta reader checklist asks reflective questions to help guide well rounded critical reader feedback throughout Act 1 (and in some cases beyond). As a writer, you may like to select or adapt some questions to give your readers. As a reader, you may consider where the strengths and weaknesses of the story you are reading lie and which questions you’ll give feedback on. If you missed it, you’ll find my Chapter One Critical Reader Checklist here.
Do You Understand The Point of View Characters?
Do you have a clear sense of point of view character goals?
Do you understand what drives these characters?
Do character actions make sense to you? And do characters emotional, physical & verbal reactions match what you’ve read about them so far?
If you feel jarred by a character’s actions or reactions, telling the writer so can help focus their edits.
If the pov character thinks in italics, do you read the italics and do you find them effective or annoying?
Do you get a good sense of who a character is and what they’re thinking and feeling through their dialog, actions and internal thoughts, or do they seem distant or unknowable?
What is your overall impression of point of view characters?
Telling the writer can help them reflect on whether they have accurately and consistently represented their characters throughout their story.
Do you get a Good Feel For Character Relationships?
Can you see why new friends/ love interests are drawn to each other?
Do you get a feel for the dynamics of the main characters key relationships?
If these draw you into the story, it can help the writer to know this. If you can’t get into the story because characters or their relationships feel flat, stereotypical or underdeveloped, knowing they don’t engage you also helps inform the writer’s edits.
How Do You Find the Setting/ World Building?
Does what the MC sees, hears, smells, thinks and feels about their world draw you into the setting?
Are you getting a sense of the setting through the characters experience, or through chunks of disembodied narration? Either way, does it engage you?
If there is a magic system, or an alternate political or class system, do you understand how the system impacts on characters lives and the story? Is this made clear to you, or are there details you need to understand to follow the story which seem murky?
Photo by yours truly.
How Do You Feel About the Antagonist?
Do you feel like you’ve ‘met’ the antagonist early enough? Or are the characters wandering around having a lovely time, and you don’t feel drawn into the story because there doesn’t seem to be any tension or signs of conflict?
Do you understand the nature of the threat the antagonist poses? Is the worst they (or it) can do at any given point in the story made clear to you?
If the antagonist is a person, do you understand what drives them and what their goal is?
Is the Story Engaging?
Are you meeting interesting people, seeing interesting places & learning interesting things about characters and their world?
Do you feel like the story is going somewhere? Are there signs of things being not quite right, growing tensions between characters or within the world or signs of danger or trouble to come?
Are point of view characters having overlong internal monologues where you’re dying for someone to do or say something?
Do any details of narration bog you down, overwhelm or confuse you? Or do you want to skip ahead at any point?
Are you staying engaged throughout scenes? If your engagement drops, I suggest commenting when it does and if you think you know why, saying so.
Larger Casts, and Characters acting in groups
Does each character speak with their own distinct voice? (Ie. in speech patterns which reflect their personality, age, background, education, class, culture etc.)
Can you see that the characters have different personalities?
Do they show their emotions with different gestures and behaviours or do multiple characters act like they’re the same person emotionally?
Can you remember which character is which within a scene and across chapters, or do you feel like there’s too many characters to keep track of?
Or are some characters so similar that you get them mixed up?
Letting the writer know this may indicate that they need to differentiate characters more or to amalgamate similar characters (who don’t need to be separate people), so the reader can keep track of and get to know the remaining characters properly.
If the characters are working in a group, do they have their own ideas about how to precede? Is there tension and different opinions on how the group should respond to story problems? Or does everyone agree with each other to an unrealistic extent?
Social media is an ideal space to think about how you present and to begin interacting publicly as a writer. Twitter is a Nazi Bar, but alternatives Bsky and Mastodon have good Writing Communities. Instagram is (or was?) a great space to share your writing life and books with personal contacts. Any of these plus Pinterest, Youtube and others are potential spaces to reach readers and promote your published works. And Tik Tok? If you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ll know writers are selling books over there. So which social media is most appropriate to you as a writer, which account is best to start with and how do you get started on your writer social media?
(Author’s Note: this blog was written before Musk broke Twitter from 2022-23, and well before Zuckerberg allied with Trump early in 2025. It has been substantially edited, as well as updated since then.)
Social Media Introductions
Twitter
Twitter used to be a great starting point, because of its #WritingCommunity. The pandemic hit it hard and Musk virtually destroyed what was left. The final tweets I saw before deleting my account were people asking if the community still existed. Algorithms and Musk’s garbage were hiding most people they knew. I don’t recommend it now, as much for moral and ethical reasons as site dysfunction and #WritingCommunity disintegration. With Musk heiling King Trump, it’s time to delete the (formerly extensive) Twitter section of this blog. Which is fine, because the new Twitter/ #WritingCommunity is Bsky, for which I wrote a separate blog.
Twitter Alternative: Mastodon
This is a different category of social media, because it isn’t algorithm based. You can go offline as long as you like, and it won’t change your visibility or content on your feed, unlike Instagram. Unlike Insta and Facebook pages, you can’t even see how many impressions your toots get. Best of all, its crowdfunded, so it isn’t littered with promoted posts. It’s decentralised, so you join a server and can view toots on it’s feed. You also have access to the Fediverse, which is every server linked to the one you join.
It’s tricker to be seen there, as algorithms don’t boost you hours after you toot. But boosts (re-toots) put your toots on the feeds of people following your boosters, and on the Fediverse. As a nonbinary, neurodivergent person, I can report that it’s a friendly space to marginalised people, especially in terms of accessibility.
I recommend checking out the daily #WritersCoffeeClub, #WorldWeavers, #PennedPossibilities and #ScribesandMakers prompts. And not just posting and running; reading other’s prompt responses and interacting. (This is how I’ve gotten to know writers on Mastodon and my favourite thing about it.) These prompts are a great bridge, connecting writers across Mastodon instances (servers). You may also find daily prompt hashtags to stimulate your shorts or poetry toots (alas the ones I listed here are no longer active).
Twitter Alternative: Blue Sky (my new home)
Bsky is basically Twitter. It looks the same same, and has most of the same functions (group DM’s being the only thing I’m missing as of May 2026). It doesn’t have sponsored ads, an algorithm, or transphobes or rage tweeting. It’s got feeds filtered by topic (and keywords on posts.) It’s a friendly, inclusive space with A LOT of writer prompts and chats, and plenty of pitch parties.
If you like text based or shorter post social media; this is my top recommendation for that. I don’t just interact with writers and authors there, I also talk to fellow Aussies, queer, neurodivergent and disabled people. Bsky uses feeds (explained here) which mostly filter posts by keywords, instead of depending on people remembering and appropriately selecting hashtags. Feeds make it an easy platform to find and interact with whichever kind of posts you like. You can also make your own feeds, via Skyfeed (no coding skills needed. I’ve made writing and diverse book, and queer identity feeds, which you can browse via Bsky profile.)
Twitter Alternative: Threads
Having not used Threads, I didn’t add this section in the original Twitter alternatives updates to this blog, circa 2023. I’m adding it now because all I’ve heard about Threads on Bsky is non-stop drama. I’ve heard of (quite a few) silly writing ‘community’ arguments about genre over there. And of general toxicity and a trend of posts provoking disagreement over banal, time wasting topics. It sounds like a pointless time suck.
Instagram
If you have a personal Instagram account and feel at home there, its #WritingCommunity are welcoming. Check if #MeetTheWriter and #FindMyWritingCommunity are still being used. If so, I suggest introducing yourself on them, including a photo of yourself for increased engagement). Instagram also has #Bookstagram and is a great place to promote your books to readers. For more see Getting Started on Social Media below.
Who can you reach there? Hootsuite’s 2022 research found Insta still more popular than Tik Tok for Gen Z, and most popular with Gen Z and millenials (18-34).
2025 Update: I’m not hearing of the same toxicity issues as Threads. Though again, this is a Trump aligned platform, and has Meta’s hate speech policy, which Amnesty International say risks inciting violence. Human Rights Campaign are one of many groups concerned about how the policy endangers queer people. Myself and many fellow queer writers have deleted our accounts over this policy change.
Facebook Page
Given the above hate speech changes, and Zuckerberg having aligned himself with the Trump Regime, I don’t know why anyone would be creating a Facebook page, which doesn’t connect you with friends, family, colleagues etc, but purely promotes books, in 2025.
Pinterest –Ethical Image Alternatives
Alas, Pinterest is now overrun with gen ai ‘art’, aka the produce of planet burning plagiarism machines. If you’re looking for photo inspiration, try unplash. It has many free images and tells you the photographer’s name, so you can credit them for their work. If you’re interested in Pinterest as a means of reference images for your cover artist, Adorkastock, which my cover artist for Sythe Series is using, and TrueRef have photos of humans in many different poses. They also display different body types and a mix of genders in different poses. So they’re a great option to support realistic character art.
Tik Tok
(Original content). I’ve seen a few posts in an author Facebook group (20Booksto50k), noting an increase in book sales which appears to correlate with an increase of book promo on Tik Tok. An advantage of Tik Tok is that hashtags are a big factor in how your posts are seen. So if you choose the right hashtags and use popular sounds, you’ll potentially be seen by more than your followers.
Another advantage is that when you start typing hashtags, TikTok will tell you how many people post on that hashtag. That makes it easier to select popular ones.
Lastly, Tik Tok’s like of people being themselves, not polished, scripted versions you may see more on Youtube, makes it friendlier to a budding writer. And if you don’t like showing your face, #BookTok is fond of book trailers, so videos of you aren’t necessary.
Hootsuite (2022) reports that 40% of Tik Tok users prefer it as a search engine over Google and Instagram, and that while still popular with teens, in 2022, 31% of its users were aged 24-35. Its still growing in popularity with all ages and many walks of life.
2026 Addition: Tik Tok also has Tik Tok shop, which a couple of authors at SelfPubCon 2025 reported selling very well on, so that’s another possibility to explore.
Youtube
(2023 content.) This may not be technically social media, but Youtube is competing with Facebook’s levels of active monthly users in the US. Hootsuite (2022) has lots of encouraging statistics about audiences reachable on it. A few writer friends with established channels have recommended Youtube. If you have an interest in film, acting or audio narration, or if your day job involves public speaking, this may be a natural platform to establish yourself as an author.
An advantage of Youtube is that it basically functions as the Google of videos. Users regularly search it for content, so again this it doesn’t depend on a large following or interactions nudging algorithms to display your posts to more users. If it isn’t in your comfort zone, again I’d get started where you feel more comfortable.
2025 note: if you feel strongly about gen ai/ our planet, note that Youtube has embraced using and enabling gen ai videos, the most environmentally destructive and wasteful form of gen ai. Not that gen ai ‘writing’ and ‘art’ isn’t terribly wasteful already. (More details on gen ai water and fossil fuel powered electricity guzzling in my Resisting Enshitification blog.)
Whichever social media you start with, find and follow some writers. Consider also following people who share similar interests to you. Spend some time looking at what content they post, how they interact and getting a feel for that space. Consider which content could resonate with potential followers and readers there.
When you start your second social media account, post asking other writers if they are on it. Then begin your new account by connecting with and learning from writers you already know from your first.
Note: my guide to Getting Started On Bsky is a separate post, as it’s a comprehensive introduction, and would make this post too long. Bellow is a general social media starting guide, and original 2023 content.
Social Media Names and ProfilePhotos
I’ve read that your name is your brand —not your book title. So my name on all my social media profiles is @ElisesWritings. My first and last name are also the dot com name and header of my site. My social media profile photo and the most prominent head shot on my site are the same.
Consistency across all these spaces lets you build your brand —you— so when choosing a user name, think of something appropriate across every social media you plan to use (including Discord, even email, so fellow writers, beta and ARK readers can recognise you). I’ve seen some writers develop logos as profile photos, but I find logos easy to forget, while faces are memorable, as well as being more personable, so I prefer profile photos of the person/ their avatar/ portrait.
What Should I Post? -Generally, on any platform.
Marketing 101 —don’t only post book adds! Your account will look like spam and you’ll put people off following you. Vary your content. A ratio a few authors like to use is 80% give, 20% ask. That could be 80% entertaining posts —quotes, photos, jokes, discussion questions related thematically or by genre to your writing. It could be personal interest or update posts and some work-in-progress posts. Then 20% ‘sign up to my newsletter’, ‘here’s my latest review,’ ‘please vote for my cover,’ or ‘my book is currently on pre-order/ discounted’ posts.
On Instagram
Yes, if you’re time-pressed and mostly write Bsky/ other short posts, you can just share them on Insta. But Insta is a visually focused space. My favourite posts to view and read are ones with thoughtfully selected quality photos or images, which compliment a thoughtful personal update, or someone’s reflection on life or writing.
Insta is a great place to share mood boards for your works in progress, character art or sketches. Posting a good photo of yourself can signal a personal update or a reflection on your writing post. You might also like to post photos of and write about some of your other interests —especially if they tie in to your books— and make those connections clear to your followers.
Whatever content you choose, Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags to boost your post’s visibility. It has multiple equivalents of #WritingCommunity hashtags and many hashtags for posting about books. Here’s a list of around 70 writer and bookish tags to get you started.
#Bookstagram is full of book covers artfully arranged with props, coloured fabric backing, glitter ect. So if you’re posting book reviews or adds on Insta —be creative. Make your cover the focus of a visually pleasing scene, or explore short animated video add options.
If you want to share quotes or questions, I suggest getting on canva and designing an Insta post image with a coloured (or photo) background and a nice font. Using the same font on all Insta posts helps them become recognisable by it, as well as looking good.
An Insta book promo post by Marion Blackwood of her Storm Series.
No, you don’t have to do the above
Yes, people will follow you if you just take photos of your cat or not-very-visually-pleasing photos of your device with your work in progress on its screen and write comments about those. But if you want to gain (and retain) followers, and to attract potential readers to your account, I suggest making full use of the space by creating visually pleasing and interesting content and taking book add inspiration from #Bookstagram.
How Often Should I Post?
Until I hit around 500 followers, I routinely got unfollowed by multiple people if I didn’t post for a week or 2. You’ll gain the most followers posting daily —and may keep them if you post popular content like motivational quotes, but you’ll attract a lot of people follow for follow-backs unfollowing you too. For me, posting every second or third day was the best balance to gain the kind of followers who stick around and not be unfollowed for not posting.
Following & Bots on Insta
There are quite a few bot accounts on Insta —particularly those of single men following women— and some bots which write generic comments on your posts. The bots’ aim seems to be the same as that of people who follow you, wait till you follow back, then unfollow you —to gain followers (or ‘DM me to promote your books -for a fee). Its annoying. The best safeguard against it is setting your account to private, so bots can’t bother you. (Yes I’ve done this, and yes I get requests from people wanting to follow me, even though they can’t see my posts —my bio alone seems to be enough).
You can get apps to track follows and unfollows, but there’s a LOT of Insta following apps, so I’d choose one carefully. (I don’t use an app, ignore bots and follow back carefully, screening my followers by taking the steps in When Following Backon Instagram below.)
Promoting a Blog On Instagram
The provider of my social media share button (Social Warfare) doesn’t include an Instagram share button. Their research shows over 80% of Instagram users stay on Instagram and don’t want to visit other sites advertised there. However, having found great quality photos on unsplash to illustrate and promote my blog posts with, I post those on Instagram. I write a blurb relating to my personal experience of the blog topic and I include a discussion question for people to reply to. Then I paste the text of the link (which people have to copy and paste into their browser, as Instagram posts don’t do hyperlinks).
Generally my Insta posts about my blog get more likes than elsewhere. So if you have a blog to promote and you join the Writing Community on Insta, I encourage you to experiment with posting about it.
For more advice on creating an appealing look and on what to post, see:
You might feel great gaining your first followers, and be tempted to follow them all right back. Don’t. Most writers following you in #WritingCommunity’s are probably fine (but don’t assume so). I only blocked 4 jerks on Twitter in my first 2 years -so I didn’t unwittingly follow them- but its always a good idea to screen accounts before following back, in case they happen to be a troll, a jerk or to post content you dislike. So before following back, check the account:
-has a bio and has posted (writing a comment and using hashtags on Insta, not just posted a photo) -so you don’t follow a (basic) bot account.
-look at posts and see if you want that person’s content on your feed.
-check if the account is only following a few hundred but followed by thousands -they’re an influencer who’s likely to unfollow you after you follow back.
Also be aware that while some writers will always follow back fellow writers, others may follow or follow back through interaction only (in my case when replying to people’s posts).
Further General Social Media Reading
Social Media Tips by Marc Guberti is aimed at businesses generally, but has some useful tips for writers.
The first five to ten pages may be what you hope to gain a manuscript request, or hook a reader’s interest with. Yet as a critical reader the main advice I’ve given is to delete or rewrite whole paragraphs of opening pages. With so much to set up, it’s easy to focus on content, as opposed to, am I presenting my main character as relatable and or interesting? Do I foreshadow intriguing story problems to come, without slowing the pace or boring readers with info dumps or confusing them with time jumps? To help you reflect upon and edit, or plan and write your opening pages in a clear and engaging way, I’ll unpack 9 reflective questions.
What do I Want the Reader to Know About my Setting?
Let’s orient the reader. Show them that the main character is on another planet or it’s the year 1492. I’d try to get at least one clear thing about location and era the story is taking place in on the first page. I’d consider doing it while introducing the MC, by thinking about things such as: what technology is your MC using? What clothes are they wearing? If they’re traveling, what is transport like in your era/ world?
Eg. In my second trilogy, my main character has to go through a checkpoint in the stone walls. It sounds like the modern world until my MC gazes out the window at the massive, magically shielded fence lining a deserted highway, and expresses his hope to see monsters it’s designed to keep off the road flying overhead. Having established that my contemporary-sounding novel actually takes place in a fantasy setting, my story moves on, elaborating on world specific details and history bit by bit, later on.
Where is the Best Location to Introduce My MC?
You’ll also want to consider, what’s most important for a reader to know about my main character initially? Which personal factors or relationships will impact their arc? Which factors in my world/ planet, country, government or society’s beliefs impact my MC’s life or the lives of people they love? In other words, which location is most appropriate to show the deepest desires of my MC’s heart? To show their goal, or the lie they believe and hint at the truth and personal flaws they may address along the way? If your external conflict extends beyond your character, I’d consider where can I place my MC to show these things and the external conflict?
As your MC moves through the opening scene, I’d slip in casual references to what they see, hear and do, to show your reader the time and place your character is living in.
What Do I Have My MC Do in the Opening Scene?
That depends on what you want to show about them and their world. For example, don’t explain that Geoff works on a planet being mined for star fuel which powers the galactic empire’s space travel and is under constant threat of meteor strikes. Instead, you could have him stub his toe on a large rock, and comment, “Haven’t they finished clearing the meteor strike yet? If the empire doesn’t staff this mine properly soon, we’re going to get buried and they can kiss their precious star fuel goodbye.”
Whatever you have your MC doing, choose a location, action and or dialogue which shows the reader who and where they are. For example, I open my prologue with Prince Ruarnon strolling through the palace of their people’s long-time enemies. As heir to the throne, they wear a mask of calm, posing to enemy servants, officials and enemy guards their walking past as the grave-faced ruler they believe they need to be. They conceal their inner tension -an act and a lie tested by their character arc. They walk, not with friends or family, but with adult body guards, showing that this teen moves in the adult world and struggles with the isolation of it.
What can I have my MC doing to show through their organic reactions in thought, feeling and behaviour, what guides their beliefs? And foreshadow their role in my story’s external conflict?
Whatever you decide, try not to begin with logistics. Have your MC already at the place, doing something interesting. If you open with them driving somewhere, have them sweating and cursing as they rehearse the conversation in which they’re about to persuade their spouse to move somewhere the spouse hates, because your MC has a fantastic job opportunity. Ie. start with character action or conversation hinting at underlying tensions, in personal relationships or the entire SFF world, or at something being wrong.
What can I show through dialogue?
Who are the key people and what are the key relationships in your MC’s life? What is the nature of those relationships? Are they under strain/ impacted by past events or will they undergo change during the MC’s journey? If so, how can you use dialogue, gestures and other actions to indicate the current state of your MC’s key relationship/ relationships in an early scene? You might also like to consider how you can use dialogue to show what’s relatable to readers, or interesting about your MC’s relationships. Is there tension, suspicion or lack of trust beneath the surface? Banter? Do your MC and their significant other anticipate each other’s thoughts and wishes?
What other details do I Want My Reader to Know?
Answers which may leap to mind include showing off the MC’s personality. This would include indicating their background, life experience, education, knowledge and skills, or prior learning which will help them tackle the story problem. But first, consider; what’s the minimum the reader needs to know at any one point for this scene to make sense?
If page one opens with your main character being yelled at by her office boss and thinking it’s time for a career change, do we need to know then that she was raised by a single mother? If she meets her mother for coffee after work on page two, and that conversation is the inciting event which inspires her to turn a love of deep sea diving into a career assisting marine archaeologists -maybe. But if anything you want to introduce isn’t relevant to what your MC sees, hears, thinks or feels about whatever they’re doing in the present scene, now isn’t the time to mention other stuff.
How Much Info Do I Show At Once?
Ideally, as little as possible. Your character comments on a strange crack in the wall, which later turns out (like Dr Who series 6) to be a crack in the universe. Then the scene moves on. Your thieves gather after a heist, one comments that someone is missing, the others decide there’s no time to waste and get out of there. Only later do they learn of the missing member’s body being found and that they have rivals.
An ice cavern in Iceland, 2016. If your MC is walking through here, give an impression of this space, but don’t try to cram the MC’s backstory or the history of the city in the heart of the ice cavern by the time your MC has walked to the far end of this space.
Each time you introduce a little piece of world building via dialogue or what your character observes, I would move your character further into the scene or through a location. Have them take in scenery or do the next action, before slipping another piece of world building or backstory in. Give your reader time to ingest new information.
This is especially true for bringing new characters onto the scene. If possible, stagger their arrivals. Give time and show a unique thing or two the reader can remember them by, before bringing the next character on stage. And don’t have multiple character names starting with the same letter, or similar names. That’s likely to set readers up to confuse characters.
What does the Reader Need to Know about Backstory?
There’s a reason this question isn’t, “what do I want the reader to know?” The answer could be “all of it” and the likely result is info-dumping, disconnected from the present scene. That makes it hard for a reader to get into your story or know what’s going on, let alone want to keep reading. So, I would ask, what must my reader know about my character’s past to understand my character’s actions in the present scene?
The question I asked to write my first prologue was, “how do I give the reader an idea of the state of affairs between the empire and small kingdom it always wanted to conquer, but never held?” I did it by getting my MC to wander through the enemy palace on a diplomatic visit. Ruarnon’s thoughts and their reactions to the presence of their long-time enemies standing all around them tell the reader a lot about how Ruarnon feels about their enemies, and gives present story context for snippets of backstory. I hope its just enough for the reader to understand the present state of uneasy peace my story begins with. Then an assassin tries to kill my MC, and my book continues to reveal more about past conflict in the context of my MC grappling with signs war will break out again -soon.
As your opening scene unfolds, continue asking: how does what my MC is seeing, doing and thinking relate to backstory?
Is it essential to reader understanding that I tie in backstory every time it relates to my character’s thoughts? Which bits of backstory can wait until the reader is better oriented in the present story?
How often across the first 5 pages (and whole first chapter) have I slipped in references to backstory? Is there too much information across those pages for a reader to easily take in information AND follow present events?
Is the backstory ‘backstory’ -or does my present story start in the wrong place?
If the narration of your first chapter narrates past events in past tense, you risk making both past and present events difficult to grasp. You also risk the reader getting bored with what reads as interruption to present story and skipping over backstory. Because if the backstory mattered, surely it would be the present scene?
If you keep writing full paragraphs about a key event prior to the current story -that prior event might need to be your opening scene, so it neither bores, nor confuses the reader as they get orientated in the story.
Are Your Characters Moving in the First Five Pages?
A memorable run in Canada 2015. There’s no movement quite like sprinting on snow ?
If your character is on the move, going somewhere to do something, that gives the feeling that your story is going somewhere. Slip clues in that something isn’t quite right, hinting at tension and or conflict to come, and you have an engaging first five pages. Having everyone sitting around talking may make the reader wonder where the story is going and if it’s actually going anywhere.
And its hard to show a character has agency if they’re sitting and chatting with friends in the opening scene. The first five pages need to prove your MC is an active character, who’s going to do interesting things. ‘Active’ doesn’t have to mean taking control of their life or achieving milestones. That might not be possible for them at present. If not, I’d show your MC’s aspirations and small steps your MC can and is taking to meet them.
Exceptions
One of my novels has my MC sit at a table with his mother and father on page 3. Mum has baked a cake to celebrate my 15 yo MC’s achievements and is trying to play proud mum (if not happy wife.) Dad is being rude, ungrateful, self-centred and domineering. My MC’s internal monologue about his father is overtly aggressive and he’s sitting with fists clenched under the table. The characters are still because stillness amplifies the tension of family dynamics and my MC’s inner tension.
So consider, is having my characters remain stationary at any point in the first five pages a necessary or effective way to show something about them, their relationships, world etc? If you don’t have a particular reason for keeping your characters immobile -get them moving!
Recap
Orient the reader in space and time.
Consider: Where can I place my main character and what can I have them doing to show, via thoughts, feelings and behaviours, what guides their beliefs and thinking?
How can I foreshadow their role in my story’s external conflict?
1. Start with character action or conversation hinting at underlying tensions; at an interesting story to come.
2. Introduce world building and backstory in small snippets. Place character movement or action in between, to give the reader time to digest information.
3. Consider: what must my reader know about my character’s past to understand their actions in the present?
4. Make sure narration focuses on the present scene. Have no more than a sentence or two of backstory or world building, to let the reader get oriented.
To get help your critical readers comment on how effectively you’ve done all of the above, see my Chapter 1 and Act 1 (links to Act 2 & 3) Critical Reader Checklists.
There’s a general structure for query letters and query letter pitches, but there are also specifics about which literary agents may have differing personal preferences. In the query letter tips below, I outline what I’ve learnt from giving feedback on an estimated forty queries, and reading a similar number of successful ones. I’ll provide structure and advice on specifics (with tips on how to identify literary agent preferences).
Beginning YourLetter
The Greeting Yes, you want your greeting to be professional, but the formal “Dear Mr/ Mx/ Mz etc” may sound distancing. It also requires you to check a female literary agent’s marital status, and runs the risk of misgendering a literary agent. As a literary agent is a potential partner in bringing your book into the world, I prefer Dear First Name, as do a few literary agents (in a Twitter thread deleted when they deleted their accounts). If you’re not sure how best to greet an agent, you might like to do a search of their @ on social media, #AskAgent and ‘greeting’ to see if they’ve posted a preference.
If you Prepare Queries for Multiple Agents At Once-make sure you have their name right! Have a system to ensure you fill details like names and personalisation correctly —every submission. I fill in the email subject line for all first, name each, personalisation each, then copy the pitch. Sometimes I alter the bio to suit the agent, then paste my sign off and contact details. Is spelling an agent’s name wrong cause for rejection? Not for Kortney Price (stated in a tweet deleted with her account), just don’t call her “Dear Sir”.
Line One
I never begin with ‘I am seeking representation for…’ If your query is by email, your subject line will probably read, “Query, TITLE, Genre, Audience Age” -so the agent knows what you want. If you’re submitting via Query Manager —again, they know. Besides, can you imagine receiving a few hundred (or thousand) queries a month beginning with the exact same phrase?
Paragraph One
There is a lot of advice saying that the title, genre, audience age, wordcount and comp title paragraph goes after the pitch. I’ve come across agents wanting to read the pitch first (eg. Carrie Howland & Pam Phonomena -tweet deleted), and agents who don’t mind (eg. Anne Rose -tweet deleted). Query Shark insists the pitch goes first. But I’ve also seen advice to put the manuscript title and word count upfront (eg. Susan Dennard).
I include my title, genre, audience age and word count with personalisation. That way, the agent knows my genre (which could be Scifi or Fantasy from my pitch) upfront, and my word count shows straight away that my manuscript isn’t in dire need of editing and isn’t a hard pass on those grounds. (My comp titles go in a separate paragraph after my pitch.)
Personalisation-What Does it Meanand Why Does it Matter?
For some literary agents, a polite greeting by name is enough for personalisation (eg. Maria Vicente -tweet deleted, Naomi Davis- tweet deleted). Other agents like to see indications you’ve done your homework about them, or their agency (eg. KT Literary). To see if a particular agent has a preference beyond being greeted by name, do a social media search of ‘@(whomever)’ and ‘personalisation’ with ‘#AskAgent’. If you’re lucky, the agent you’re querying will dislike personalisation sentences altogether (like Jessica Alverez -tweet deleted), and you won’t need to bother.
If You Add Personalisation, What Should it say?
Don’t be weird -eg. don’t tell them the dream you had about them. Or gush about how wonderful they are. If you’ve had prior contact, via a conference for example, or if an agent liked your pitch party pitch, that’s worth opening with. (Embed the pitch or paste its text and a link to it above your query pitch).
If you’re keen on a particular agent and research their clients and books, you could mention how either is similar to yours (yet also different -your work not being a duplicate). Alternatively, you could Google literary agent interviews/ profiles to see if your share a taste in books or films (as Peter Knappe -tweet deleted- likes), or have other shared interests impacting your writing.
What if you don’t fancy researching 50+ agents?
I personally don’t look at interviews and sometimes not even at social media at the query stage. It’s a time consuming investment which I suspect is unlikely to pay off. I check the agent’s long Manuscript Wishlist, and their MSWL tweets, filtered on this site and make a connection between my novel and the agent’s MSWL. If the agent doesn’t have MSWL, I make connections to particulars on their agency or personal website. If that doesn’t turn up much, you might jump straight to the pitch -the most important part- as Mandy Hubbard and Naomi Davis advocate (tweets deleted).
The Pitch
The Hook
A concise hook and that packs a punch about your MC (who is ideally a hook too) or something unique about your premise/ story, is an ideal way to begin. You want your hook to say “this book is interesting, original and you want to read my pages.” If you struggle, perhaps write and revise your pitch first, then decide what the hook should highlight. Writing a Killer LogLine by Graeme Shimmin may help.
Orienting the Reader in YourStory
If your querying SFF or a setting crucial to plot that isn’t contemporary Earth (or you query America with a non-American setting) -orient the reader. Begin with a clear indication of time and or location. Example, ‘It’s 1923 at the Bermuda Triangle…” If you don’t state genre until after your pitch, you could suggest it with genre-specific clues (eg. airships signals steampunk), within the pitch.
TheMC
Photo by Ferdinand studio
This isn’t just an introduction. This is your chance to tell a literary agent what makes your MC different to the many other’s in your genre and their inbox. It’s your chance to show off some of your MC’s personality. You can do this in how you describe them and their job, or their wants or goal in the first line. In introducing your MC, you want to show an industry professional a character they want to spend time with. You’re persuading them to follow that character’s journey throughout the story. Try and show something about your MC which is relatable, invites a reader to make a personal connection and to root for your MC.
The MC’s introduction is also a place to begin showcasing your novel’s voice. To help develop your voice, consider how would your MC describe themself? What would they want others to know about them? What would their friends or family say about them? Is there a key sentence of dialogue or narration you can adapt from your MS into your MC’s intro?
Inciting Incident
This may not be a sentence of its own. It might follow on from the MC intro or even combine with it.
Eg. “College student Lizzie didn’t plan on receiving her education by distance, but when a loan shark’s fists show up wanting the money her absentee uncle owes them, life on the run is suddenly appealing.”
You might also want to include how the inciting incident makes the MC’s initial goal or want harder.
“Lizzie thought balancing part time work with completing a dissertation was hard, but meeting assignment deadlines while dodging armed thugs is a whole new project.”
At this point, it’s crucial to remember that a literary agent has no idea the “government” your “rebels” are rebelling against are aristocratic werewolves, who hunt unsuspecting plebs at full moon. This section of your query isn’t just about making your conflict clear, it’s showcasing what’s unique, and how the protagonist and antagonist interests clash. SFF writers, if you name anything which doesn’t exist outside your story world —tell/ show the reader what it is. I’ve critiqued a few SFF query pitches where “whatever-that-thing-is” is crucial to the plot, and its frustrating reading.
Character Role
I’ve critiqued pitches where there’s a big external conflict, and the query pitch doesn’t state the main character’s role in it. No matter how elaborate your external plot and story world may be —character is key. You’ve got to sell your MC at every stage of your pitch. Don’t stop with “MC joins the rebel fight against the evil empire.” Say what drives your MC. If you can, include something unique the MC draws on to fulfill the role only they can play in combating the evil empire.
Stakes
“Or the world will be destroyed” might be your stakes. But the reader doesn’t know much about your world, or its rebels. They’re just vague entities and faceless people the reader has no emotional attachment to. Why should we care if either dies? But if the evil empire demolishes the suburb where dear old grandad, who inspired your MC to join the Justice League lives, and he’s going to die and your MC will be devastated, then we’ll care. ‘Stakes’ can mean external stakes, but if you want to have an emotional impact on the reader -make stakes personal to your MC too.
Complication
Sure, my MC is 16. The uncle they love dearly -their mentor- is dead. Their parents have been abducted and they’re under siege by a vastly more powerful enemy. But what if something else amps up the stakes? Speeds up the ticking clock? There’s already a war between two kingdoms in my novel, but both sides are humans. Until a monster horde unleashed by a third ruler with an unknown agenda rocks up, and the entire continent is threatened.
Examples of this; in fleeing for her life, Lizzie discovers that not only are loan sharks after her uncle’s money, but her uncle has indebted himself to the mafia to pay back the loan sharks. Or the rebel learns the aristocratic werewolves are allied with vampires to dispose of political opponents. You might want to mention how a complication threatens your MC (and their dog for good measure) and makes their role in the conflict more difficult.
End with Tension and or an Impossible Choice
The rebellion needs your MC’s help to fight the vampires who threaten everyone’s families. But it’s the full moon, and a werewolf aristocrat (mistakenly) suspects your MC’s best friend joined the rebels and is after said friend’s blood. There’s no-one to defend said friend, unless your MC abandons the rebels. In other words show how, to fulfil their goal and save the day, the MC must risk or sacrifice something precious to them. Or mention the complicating threat your MC can’t see, which is charging at them sideways, then end with that tension.
As said above, your title, genre, audience age and word count (if you didn’t share them above) go here. Different literary agents may hard pass on the basis of differing word counts for the same genre and audience age range. This thread by Kelly from Rees Agency gives an indication on certain genres and ages.
Comp Titles
How many do you need? Two seems preferred, as indicated by former Literary Assistant Christina Kaye (tweet deleted). The most common advice I’ve seen on these is published within the last five years, with variations being within the last three. Choosing two such titles shows there is a market for your book and that you know what it is. If you struggle to find a title of a similar style book to yours, you can cite major elements in common.
For example, one of my titles is to comp a complex political and military conflict, while the second is for friendships and mentoring relationships. If you want to use older comps, it’s worth checking if a particular agent is ok with them (as suggested by three agents on a now deleted thread).
FindingComps
I Google (genre), (audience age), top 20/50 books of (2020/ 2019 etc), sometimes including ‘Goodreads’ or ‘Amazon’. Local librarians can be a great help. They tend to be avid readers, so I’d describe your novel to them and see what potential comps they can recommend. If you’re struggling to find a comp (most of us do), bear in mind vague or ill-fitting comps can be worse than none, as Jim MacCarthy warns (in a now deleted tweet). For more information about comp titles and advice on how to find them, see this post by An Willis.
Bio
Put it last -you’re pitching a novel, not yourself. So keep your bio brief and highlight why you personally are qualified to write this book. Include any publishing credits or writing qualifications, including life or #OwnVoices experiences related to your MC, their situation, or your audience. For example, I write YA and my bio mentions that I’m a teacher.
If you’re a debut author (I wouldn’t state so), and have participated in a mentorship (eg. Author Mentor Match etc) I’d include that. It demonstrates dedication to your craft and your willingness to grow as a writer. I’d also mention if you’re a member of a writers society, example Society of Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators, for the same reason.
If you don’t have writing qualifications, or publishing credits, you might just mention other qualifications, your day job, family, being a cat’s slave etc. As James Gowan says (in a deleted tweet) -simple is fine. Furthermore, this isn’t just the “Why I’m the right person to write my book and a professional writer” paragraph. It’s also the “here’s an insight into what I’m like as a person you may want to work with paragraph.” So you may want to include a fun fact and or show personality in your bio’s writing style.
SignOff
I wouldn’t worry about, “I have attached x in accordance with your guidelines”. For an email submission -they’ll assume you have, unless you aggravate them by not following guidelines. But do thank the agent/ acquiring editor for taking the time to consider your work.
Contact Details
I‘m not going through Query Shark’s archive to find and link the blog in which she said not to include the words ‘phone no.,’ ‘email,’ ‘twitter’ ‘website’ ect because literary agents will recognise them. I’m just going to say, save words in the precious word count by stating each of your contact details on a new line.
The Query Letter Feedback
I can’t say enough about how important it is to get other writers, with no idea what your novel is about and fresh eyes, to give query letter feedback. If you can’t see the wood for the trees, seek feedback from writers you know, post offering to trade it, or join a Discord Server to trade it. If you’d like to join my Writers and Authors Discord, which, as you’ll see from this bsky post, is more indie author focused, reply to that post! Or use my contact page.
As with your manuscript, judging when your query letter is ready to submit is a difficult decision. Premature querying is common (tips on avoiding that here). Circumstance with critical readers and my editor prevented me from premature querying not once, but twice.
Author bias can you blind you to ‘obvious’ mistakes or unclear sentences etc. Critical readers have an important role to play in helping ensure your query package is truly the best you can produce without a literary agent or editor’s assistance.
Further Reading
Patrick Bohan’s Mad Libs Formula Blog Post uses humour in a fictional pitch to accentuate everything your query letter needs to get right. Susan Dennard’s successful query letter is annotated with what to do for each section.
As a member of a querying writers group, I’ve watched writers wait 6 months to receive full manuscript rejections, or go months without receiving so much as a form rejection for queries. I’ve learned a lot about having realistic expectations and how to tackle the querying process. In these querying interviews, I interview some of those writers, with the aim of giving newly querying writers insights into what to expect on your journey, and advice. And to give those of you already on your querying journey a chance to reflect and possibly tweak your approach to querying.
2026Note: this blog is from Oct 2020. Three of these six authors (and myself) have since self published. (I’m about to release my fifth self published novel.) One writer now has a literary agent for her debut novel and is not yet published. I lost touch with the other two when Twitter died.
Meanwhile, querying friends reported the extreme rarity of personalised as opposed to form (pretty much a copy paste ‘no thanks’) rejections after the lockdown era and the Great Resignation. In other words, querying was never easy, and has only become harder in recent years. I say this not to discourage you, but to ask; are you certain you want to query? It’s hard work, and unlike indie authoring, which releases a book into the world; your return on investment of time and energy may be remaining unpublished. So how much time and energy are you willing to put into querying? I strongly recommend answering that question before you begin doing it.
Where Are You Querying From & Which Genres?
(Scroll right to see Debbie Hadad’s details).
Cheryl Burman
Alexandrina Brant
Susan Waters
JulianaSavia Clayton
Melissa
Debbie Hadad
From
UK
UK
Canada
US
Australia
Israel
Genre
Historical
Fantasy
Scifi
Dystopian
Scifi
How long for?
3 years
2 months?
5 months
7 months (Tapered off July to write second).
1 month
1.5 years
What did you Think Querying Would Be Like?
SusanWay, way back I thought it was going to be every door slamming before I could get near it, but then when I learned that normal people can get literary agents, I realised I could be one of them. But at any point you get reminded it’s going to be hard and you’re going to get lots of rejections.
AlexandrinaThis is not my first time querying. This time round I wanted to go in with my excel spreadsheet and make it as ordered as possible. 10 queries at a time, wait 2 months, do another 10. I came into querying with a definite plan. I didn’t stick to it.
DebbieI think I underestimated how disheartening it could be and how much emotional energy it takes to keep going. If only you could just hand it to an agency to keep submitting or if there was an app like Book Tinder! Put your query up and if an agent likes it they swipe right and get your pages!
Melissa I did a lot of research and had an idea of agents taking a long time to respond, or not at all. I knew it was pretty hard to find an agent -if at all. I never planned to write a picture book. I’m not relying on this to get an agent.
It would be wonderful to be traditionally published for that kind of validation…
–Cheryl
What has Querying Actually Been like?
Susan’s Querying Experience
I definitely know now that literary agents are normal people. Some of them have giant egos. Some of them are very, very humble. You learn which one you might want to work with.
And Twitter is a good way to see, at least, from what they choose to put out there, what they might be like. You still get an idea of their sense of humour and professionalism. It’s a good place to look for red flags, if nothing else.
SusanPersonalisation, I don’t know what to do with that. Eg. “I saw on September 17th that you like spaghetti”. [My blog on query letters will address this later this week, and be included in my newsletter going out Oct 23rd].
Cheryl’s Querying Experience
In the UK you can only really query agents directly. The big publishing houses don’t take direct submissions, like some of them do in Australia. It’s a really time consuming process, just hunting down agents who potentially might be interested.
“Because that one (Cheryl’s second novel) is totally in my control… I have made the decision to self publish that. It could have been a minimum of four years before Keepers got on the market. I’ll be on my walking frame by then, so I just want to get it out there. I’m not interested in making gallons of money. That would be nice, though that’s not going to happen.
Alexandrina‘s Querying Experience
Every rejection you get is a knock back. That feeling of ‘do I need to leave this for another month? Do I need to hold back on my next batch? And re-work it and look for more querying partners?
EliseDo you feel like you’re overthinking or being a bit too cautious?
I always go by the reactions I have per round. If I haven’t got a reaction out of ten or from agents with similar things on their list then something’s not quite right.
AlexandrinaFor my third round, I’m focusing on the whole novel, not just what could be wrong in the opening. There’s always a chance I could get that full request, so I want the whole novel to be the best.
EliseHow long do you think querying might take and how long are you prepared to pursue traditional publishing?
AlexandrinaI could send 100 queries then call it quits. It depends how much feedback I can get.
Debbie’s Querying Experience
I sent out a few, then waited a few months. It’s like, will you please reject me? I rewrote my first chapter 6-10 times after letting it sit for a year. Then I got a request.
What have been your Biggest Learnings so far?
Alexandrina Be more social. I never actively searched for a critique partner via Twitter. I never found DM groups. Pitch parties… I feel like I have more confidence to say, ‘Hi. I see you’re doing x, y, z. Do you want to swap pages?’
Susan How much you should be ready to put yourself in a box. They want you to be clearly one thing. I wrote a book about an 18 yo, and it’s not really a dystopia… but it might be, and there’s serious situations, and comedy, and I don’t really know how to do comps but please just read this!
MelissaIt’s well worth paying for services like Query Tracker. I learnt the value of it when it was discussed in my query group. Looking back, I probably queried prematurely. I had revised a lot. I did have feedback. But I think I needed to go through again.
Juliana’s Learnings
I didn’t make too many tweaks. I know a lot of people make many on their first pages. I think that way lies madness. At some point you have to let your baby go.
About a month in, when I wasn’t getting the response that I wanted I reached out to an editor, @AmQueryingH, and she’s amazing. She did my query and first five pages. I had the bones of the query, but she really amped it up and that was the query that got me a couple of responses.
I didn’t realise how competitive the market is. Its more about being better than good enough. And a million other things that you don’t know about.
That was such an eye opening moment. It wasn’t my writing. It wasn’t that it was a dystopia. It wasn’t that he thought it wasn’t marketable. It was just that he already had that book.
You don’t have all the reasons why (for a rejection). Sometimes that makes it sting a little less. Sometimes the bourbon makes it sting a little less. And cuddling the cats and a very supportive husband…
Debbie’s Learnings
People always say don’t take it (rejections) personally. To pick yourself up after a rejection is hard. After a while you develop fatalism. It’s like “has my rejection come through yet?”
The more I learned, the more I realised I didn’t know. I learned you need to let it (your manuscript) sit. You are completely blind to the first draft. You have to have other eyes on it. When you read for someone else you pick up patterns. You need someone to help you notice yours and break you out of them.
Listen to feedback you trust. Listen to your gut. If you listen to feedback from everyone, you’ll go mad.
Be willing to implement advice. Get rid of things you really like if it improves the story. You need to be confident enough to think you’re good enough and humble.
You’re blind to your manuscript’s faults because you’re so in love with it that you can’t see what’s wrong with it.
Like phrases you use too much. I removed characters and rewrote from third person past tense to first person dual point of view.
What Advice would you give to Writers Beginning Their Querying Journey?
MelissaI don’t put all my eggs in one basket. You can’t rely on one path to get you through. Have a process for dealing with rejections. (Some writers)… have a dream agent or a few dream agents in mind and I feel like that’s setting yourself up for disappointment.
AlexTake on feedback. Actively look for feedback. Know this agent looks for this because of this interview.
SusanEven if you do fit into more than one category, you have to know how to make yourself fit into the boxes the agents want to fit. Accept that you’ve got to follow the established rule for comps. Actually read at least enough of them to understand why you’re comping it. Ask people who have experience with querying… who’ve gotten to have informal conversations with agents (at conferences). Go to any conferences available to you. If not, find people who’ve been there (not stalking ?).
Cheryls’ Advice
Do not start querying until you are super, super happy with your manuscript. Give it to as many readers as possible and beg for their honest views. Re-write. Re-write.
-Cheryl
Tell them you’re not just interested in where the commas are. You really want to know if the story works and how do the characters come across. So ask questions. [For an example of possible questions, see my chapter onecritical reader checklist.]
Think about your comps very carefully. Think about style, tone, voice -is it similar? Don’t be too specific about the story.
Make sure you read the submission guidelines very, very carefully. If they ask for 50 pages, send 50.
In terms of getting your manuscript ready, make sure you’ve actually written it technically properly… point of view… dialogue.. make sure you learn those things from other writers. From reading books like Dave King and Renee Brown’s Self Editing for Fiction Writers.
Because an agent’s just going to throw it out the door… they need just the slightest excuse to move on to the next one.
Juliana’s Advice
After living the rejections, it gets easier. It really does.
By my 80th rejection it was, “well at least I heard back. That was nice.” I had 5 agents say, “That wasn’t for me, but I hope you’ll keep me in mind for future work.” So make sure you read your rejections all the way through, because it usually comes at the end if they say that…
If they say “I’d love to read this”, that means they want the full…
Keep track of it. Query Tracker is a really good website.
For my future queries, I have that sheet with who wanted more and whose responses were kind and personalised. I got a couple that were kind of scathing like, “consider joining a critique group.” Like, I am. I got one that just said, “Thank you. This isn’t for me.”
I can’t emphasize enough: have a support system. Nobody gets it like a writer gets it.
Debbie’s Advice
Seriously, make a list of 50 people. Collect 100 rejections. Treat it as an exercise. Be persistent. It’s a long long process. Finding an agent by Friday is like walking down the street and finding a bag of gold. It’s like going on a first blind date and expecting that person to be the one. You need to date a lot of weirdos before you find the one. It’s the same with querying.
Agents have to practically marry your manuscript to represent you. They’re going to be going over it so many times and pushing it to other people.
I need to make a decision if I’m going to keep querying or self publishing. I really love my books and I think they are publish worthy. I believe they will find a home in readers hearts. You can’t know if there’s a cavern of gold and you’re centimetres away. We don’t know how far we are from the cavern or if there is a cavern.
I kind of want to say don’t give up because you could succeed tomorrow, but you don’t want to be querying forever.
Debbie Iancu Hadad
Two short stories of mine appeared in the anthology ‘Achten Tan: Land of Dust and Bone (Tales from the Year Between, Book 1)’. Currently querying a couple of YA SFF novels, participating in three different anthologies, writing vss on Twitter and buying way too much stuff on Aliexpress. For my day job I give lectures on humor and serve as a personal chauffeur for my two teenagers. Residing in Meitar, Israel.
Susan Waters
lives in Ontario, Canada. Her writing, however, usually features her east coast roots, whether by landscape or by culture. Her first novel is an upper YA Speculative Fiction she hopes is the first volume in a series. Currently she’s penning an adult romantic comedy while plotting half a dozen stories, most of which blend science fantasy and humour. You’ll find her on Bsky @bymaggiestone.bsky.social.
Cheryl Burman
lives in the beautiful Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, UK. Her first novel was a fantasy middle-grade trilogy but she has since taken to adult historical fiction. Her co-authored novel The Shanty Keeper’s Wife is currently being queried and she has also written a romance set in Australia in the 1950s. Her current WIP uses the Forest of Dean as its backdrop and is a magical realism novel about a young woman who becomes a hedge witch – and a little bit more.At the end: She also writes short stories and flash fiction, a few of which have won prizes. She also writes short stories and flash fiction, a few of which have won prizes. You’ll find her on Bsky @cherylburmanauthor.bsky.social.
Juliana Savia Clayton
I write young adult novels and picture books. Currently, I’m working on a YA Romcom. I am an active SCBWI member, serving as the Indiana chapter’s Volunteer Coordinator. I am also a member of the Indiana Writers Center. In my day job, I edit environmental documents, and I have one published non-fiction article in my field.
Alexandrina Brant
Raised on a diet of Tolkien, Doctor Who, and Agatha Christie, Alexandrina Brant grew up around the city of Oxford, England. After graduating from the University of Reading with joint honours in Psychology & Philosophy, she hightailed it to London to study a Master’s in Linguistics at UCL, where her focus was sociolinguistics and dialect blending. She currently lives in Yorkshire with her husband and two warring cats. Her short stories have been published in several local anthologies and she is working on a Steampunk novel about a linguist’s journey to rescue her fiancé and a Doctor-Who-esque sci fi about lesbian aliens trying to save a corrupt planet. She keeps up with the bookish community on Instagram @lingua_fabularum. You’ll find her on Bksy @alexandrinabrant.bsky.social
Melissa-Jane Nguyen
is an Aussie freelance writer and editor and mum to two little ones. She has writing published in Kidspot and Essential Baby, she sends out a fortnightly newsletter that combines aspects of writing and parenting, and she runs a short story publication with her sister. Melissa is currently working on querying and writing picture books, planning a middle grade novel, and letting a young adult manuscript marinate for a while before turning it on its head and rewriting the entire thing. Melissa is (sort of) becoming an expert at juggling lots of projects simultaneously. If you can get her to sit down for a chat, she’s partial to any kind of tea and will happily relate all she’s discovered about celebrities and topics she has no real interest in but has researched thoroughly as a result of falling down rabbit holes.
In this post I’ll include pitch parties locations (Bsky, Google Form, their own website etc), links to official party websites and note when parties have been discontinued. I’ll also give detailed advice on effective pitch and party preparation and on making the most of Writing Community support.
But First… If you’re pitching to query; Is your book Ready?
Have you edited your MS for every aspect of character, conflict, story tension etc you’ve read up on? Have you received constructive feedback from critical readers focused on making the book a better reading experience? Did you edit again and possibly get a second (and third round) of critical readers? (Especially if you’re a fellow pantser ?). Is your query letter up to scratch? Have you researched its contents, how to ‘sell’ the book to literary agents or acquiring editors in your pitch, and received critical feedback? If not, see this post to kick your query letter into shape!
Which Pitch Party is for Me?
Note: while pitch parties began exclusively for writers querying literary agents, and some presses, many of Bsky’s are also open to wips and indie authors, who are pitching for writing community interest/ to readers. So there are two sections here; #AmQuerying, and below that Bsky Hype parties, the latter being the open to all publishing paths parties.
Parties for #AmQuerying
#P2Ppit is a mixed hype (so wips and indie books), and Querying party. Its for all genres and audience/ reader ages. (Participating agents are listed on their website). Website. Jan 17th, 9am-9pm EST, 2025. On Bsky. 2026 TBC
#JoyPitch The opposite of Pitdark, for ‘light hearted feel good fiction and non-fiction’ of all categories and age ranges. June 6th, 8am -8pm, 2025, on Bsky.Bsky account2026 TBC
#SmallPitch, for writers wanting to query small presses. January 19th- 25th, 13th July 2026, Bskysmallpitch.org
#QueerPit writers who are queer and querying. July 1st, 2026. Website
#PitchDis for authors with a disability & neurodivergent authors. Sept 8th-10th, 2026, By Google Form.PitchDis Website.
#PitBLK For black authors. September 21st-24th, 2025. Party ontheir sitewww.pitchpitblk.com2026 TBC (in Fall)
#SFFpit Scifi & Fantasy Writers, September 21, 2025. 2026 TBC. Website.
#LatinxPitch T/ #LatinxPitch Bsky -For Latino Writers of PB-YA Fiction- September 15th, 8am-8pm CDT, 2026, on Bsky. Latinx Pitch Website.
#KitLitGen, October 3rd- 7th 2026, for writers and illustrators of children’s graphic novels. Pitch on theirWebsite.
#AmQuerying Cancelled Parties
#IWSGpit Most fiction. Last event March 17th 2024, 8am-8pm EST, Twitter. IWSGCancelled?
#KidLitPit Children’s books from PB to YA. January 11.59pm in your time zone (all/ any).On Twitter. Last ran (and blogged) in 2024. Their Website. Cancelled?
#PBPitch -Picture Books. PBPitch Website.discontinued June 2024.
#QueerPitch LGBTQIA+ Authors, August 1st, 2023. Queer Pitch Website. Does not appear to have run in 2024. Cancelled?
#PitDark Dark Fiction. May 24th & Oct TBC, 8am-8pm EST, 2024. website. 2025? Twitter. Cancelled?
#MoodPitch Fiction, all audience age ranges and genres. 2023 November party ran on Twitter, Bsky and Instagram. Website still says stay tuned for future direction. Moodpitch website.Cancelled?
Bsky Hype Parties
Participation Note: many of these are open to all writers; querying, wips, indie authors, all identities, genres etc. Some, like #PosterPit, are also likely to have literary agent participation.
#BluePit, all writers, Jan 13, 2026, midnight 11.59pm till 14th. Website
#UnhingedPit. All writers. They don’t do dates, or a website. They’re not big on rules and such. But they say if they’re posting lots, a party is coming. Their Bsky account.
#QuestPit All writers. Feb ???, April 29, Aug ???, and Nov ??? 2026, on. Website
#WippIt, for WIPs (works in progress), May 23rd 2026, November 22nd 2026. No website. Bsky account.
#MiseryPit Mysteries, Thrillers, and True Crime. February 2nd, and ‘later in 2026 TBC’, Mystery, Thriller and Crime. No website. Bsky account.
#PosterPit All writers. April 18th, August ???, 2026, midnight till 11.59 17th. PosterPit website.
If you haven’t taken this step, chances are there’s a lot you don’t know or understand about how to write a successful pitch. If you don’t know where to find pitch advice, mine is here for starters.
Reading as many strong pitch examples as you can also helps. To find them, search the pitch party hashtag and the hashtags you plan to pitch on. The ‘top’ feed may have some great examples, but it also has rather ordinary pitches with lots of interaction on them, so I also suggest skimming ‘latest’ too. A third source of inspiration and understanding is successful query letter pitches. Here’s a spreadsheet of 600+ successful query letters by genre.
2. Comparison Titles & Formatting
Use comps in your pitches. They can indicate more about tone, setting and themes than you have room to indicate in 300 characters. For party pitches, you’re not limited to books published within the last 5 years (unlike query pitches). Film or tv series and older books are ok. Ideally your comps will be recognisable to agents and publishers, and or contrast with each other (e.g. my MG tweet pitch comps were MATILDA X kids INCEPTION).
Alternatively, you could have a notable twist on a comp, e.g. gender-swapped (fairytale/ well-known story) or for example Downton Abbey —with witches. Putting your comps in ALL CAPs at the top of your pitch can help them stand out and encourage industry folks to read and pay proper attention to your pitch.
3. Party Hashtags
Agents and publishers will search genre, audience age and marginalised writer hashtags to find pitches of interest to them. Whichever party you’re pitching in, check if it has its own hashtag list. If so, use hashtags from that list, so your pitches are seen by industry professionals (some party tags vary). I’ve linked every pitch party I know of’s website above.
As you’re identifying the main relevant hashtags for your pitch, and having already chosen comp titles, now is a good time to type your pitch and hashtags into a post or do a character count to check each pitch with comps and hashtags fits the platform or specified party character limit. If you’re struggling with this, you might want to skip to step 4.
4. Get Feedback on Your Pitches
There are a few options for doing this.
Pitch Feedback Parties
This was a Twitter thing that doesn’t seem to exist anymore. However, some pitch parties have pre pitch day events, often of the ‘get to know you’ or ‘get excited’ kind. See party website links above for details.
Asking For Feedback
You can post asking for feedback, or search your pitch party’s hashtag for people offering feedback. Or you can or do a search of ‘Discord’ and ‘#AmQuerying’ to look for servers which may have pitch feedback channels. Mine offers feedback, though as you’ll see from this Bsky post you can request an invite from, its more indie author than querying focused.
5. RT or Comment Lists
Back in the Twitter days/ now on Insta, RTs and comments help boost pitches because algorithms liked them. Bsky doesn’t have algorithms, so interaction in pitch parties now is more about encouraging fellow writers/ making friends etc. People still seem to be posting ‘Support lists’ on Bsky, and I’m sure its popular elsewhere. You can post offering to make your own support list, or type ‘(insert pitch party name) list/ support list’ and see if posts offering to add you to their lists come up.
6. Join a DM Group
Group DM’s and having company in them made querying parties worthwhile back in the day, because you could celebrate with people who got agent likes, answer questions in real time, and keep each other company. They’re also good spaces to ask questions about agents and submitting. Bsky doesn’t allow group DM’s, but some Discord servers will have pitch party channels. Again, mine is quite on this front, but there’s a Bsky post you can reply to, to join it.
7. Post to Explain Pitch Party Etiquette
It never hurts to tell followers you’re pitching. Crucial with so many industry AND hype events on Bsky is posting to tell your followers whether its a hype party in which likes from fellow writers are welcome. Or an industry party, in which likes are (ideally) industry professionals -agents or publishers- asking a writer to submit their work.
You may like to include a mood board for your wip in this post, as your party participation is also telling your followers (and ideally generating interest) in your writing.
8. Mind Set
2021 March’s #Pitmad saw over 570k tweets on the hashtag (yes this includes LOADS of RTs). Its possible your pitches won’t be seen by industry professionals during a party and its VERY common not to get industry requests. Some agents and publishers made under 20 requests -period not just per genre- in March’s 2021 Pitmad. But if you go in expecting nothing from the industry, and prepare with the goal of improving your pitch craft, making writer friends, and of testing how your pitches are received by fellow writers, to learn what works well for future parties- you’ll be all set for a positive experience.
9. Decide Which Pitch to Post First
This is important because your first pitch is likely to get the most impressions, as people who are supporting pitching writers are most likely to repost and comment during the first hour. (And your followers of all stripes may be more interested in the first pitch than say the third+). So try to identify which pitch sells your character best, makes your conflict and stakes clearest and most engaging, and ideally also the pitch with the most voice. If you’re not sure how to write a pitch, or don’t know the difference between a pitch, a log line or a blurb (book pitches are different to both and must include certain things to be successful), here’s my post on short (as in pitch party) pitch crafting (not to be confused with a book blurb, which should be longer and more detailed).
But when do you post your other pitches?
Hourly for some parties, but only 2 or 3 pitches max for others. Parties tend to get increasingly quiet after 1pm EST -especially in the final hours- so you may wish to post all your pitches by as early as the first half of the party. That said, I saw a few agents tweet that they were beginning to check Pitmad pitches in the last few hours of March 2021’s Pitmad, so if you are online during the party, checking when agents are online is your best way to decide. You’ll sometimes find their ‘I’m checking out (insert party)’ tweets on the party hashtag’s ‘Top’ feed, including agents searching party hashtags the day after the party. If you have particular agents or publishers in mind, you could also check their social media profiles, as they will normally post when they start checking pitches.
10. Schedule Your Pitches
Fedica allows you to schedule Bsky posts. Whether you’re home all day and awake during a party, sleeping because your timezone isn’t compatible with the US east coast, or working -or both- scheduling pitches takes pressure off you during the party. If you’re online, scheduling lets you focus on interacting with other pitching hopefuls.
TimezonesNote: If you’re not on US EST time, most parties run on it, so check your party’s times above (its often 8am to 8pm but again, not always) and convert them to your timezone! If you’re pitching from Australia or New Zealand, remember it’s often the date after the party because we’re a day ahead!
10. Pin your Pitch
This is so writers you know and kind random strangers can easily find and interact it -if you’re also reposting other writers and your feed is cluttered. (To pin your pitch to the top of your profile, hit the ̇ ̇ ̇ then select ‘pin to your profile’ on Bsky.)
11. During the Party
Get in your pitch group and or the party’s hashtags to comment on each other’s pitches. When you find pitches of writer friends, associates or pitches you like, reply saying what you like about them. We’re all nervous, so acts of kindness like words of encouragement can really make people’s days. And yes, hopefully you will get some of what you have given -and you will have earned it.
12. After the Party
Celebrate, commiserate -ask how writers how they fared and share anything you learnt or ideas you have for next time with anyone likely to participate again. If you pitch in a future party, try and connect with the writers you’ve met this time and see if you can continue supporting each other in future. This is also a great chance via Discord or post, to offer to trade query letter and synopsis feedback with querying writers.
Whichever pitch parties you participate in, Good Luck!
For a list of resource links spanning Query Letters & Synopsis to Finding & Communicating with Literary Agents, see this post.
For realistic takes on querying, a topic I’ve seen too little public discussion of, see Querying Your First Book.
Writer Mentoring Events
#Revpit is Revision & Editor Mentoring for MG, YA & Adult Fiction, which begins with pitching on Twitter in March. For more details, visit the Revpit Website.
G'day! I'm an Aussie (they/ them) who graduated from playing imaginary games in my extensive backyard to writing YA Fantasy. In between educating energetic, enthusiastic minds as excited about life as I am —kids— and adventures in Europe, North America, South-East Asia and locally, I enjoy writing adventures and epic conflicts for the young and young at heart.
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
