Building Fantasy Worlds with Jonathan Auxier

Building Fantasy Worlds with Jonathan Auxier

NYT Bestselling young adult and middle-grade author Jonathan Auxier joins Mary Kole to discuss visual writing, worldbuilding, and how different media use dialogue to create action.

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Podcast Episode 29: Leslie "LAM" Miller, CEO of Girl Friday Productions

Podcast Episode 29: Leslie "LAM" Miller, CEO of Girl Friday Productions

CEO of independent publisher Girl Friday Productions Leslie Miller talks all things publishing, marketing, and building your platform as an author. She discusses the differences between traditional publishing, self-publishing, indie publishing, and hybrid publishing, and how to know which option is right for your project.

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Episode 6: Gail Carson Levine, Historical and Fantasy Author
Episode 17: Anna Staniszewski, Children's Author
Reaction into Action: How to Turn Negative Feedback Around
How to Find a Literary Agent for Children’s Books

How to Find a Literary Agent for Children’s Books

You’ve written a killer query, researched your comps, and crafted your bio. Your opening is polished, and you slogged through the synopsis. Your submission package is ready! Now, how do you go about finding a literary agent for your children’s books?

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Learning From Failure

Learning From Failure

It may seem weird to talk about failure and rejection in writing context as a good thing. But I really want to help you reframe it, because the actual writing journey is rather long. If you don't enjoy the actual writing process, you're gonna have a tough time because there is so much rejection and failure inherent in that journey.

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How To Write a Query Letter

How To Write a Query Letter

One way you might think about how to write a query letter is as a cover letter. It has its own rules and formatting for the literary world, but essentially you are pitching your project to your potential employer. So, what are the rules? How do you start?

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Manuscript Length

Manuscript Length

If you have spent any time on the submission trail, you will notice that there are manuscript length guidelines for manuscripts that you may want to submit, and they are very category-specific. Here’s a run-through of children's books guidelines to get you started.

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The Unagented Submission

The Unagented Submission

Writers are usually advised against braving the publishing world without an agent to represent them. Yet, unagented submissions exist for a reason, and there’s a time and place when they work—when they might even be the best option.

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How to Query A Series

How to Query A Series

As a debut author querying a potential series, you’re in a much stronger position if you write one amazing manuscript with “series potential” than you are if you were the one needing multiple books to get your story told.

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Story Mastermind Interview with Rachel Orr

Story Mastermind Interview with Rachel Orr

Decades-long agent, Rachel Orr, talks about real life clients as she shares what agents and editors are looking for, what to include in your query letter, and how to challenge the status quo.

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Finding Another Literary Agent
Offer of Representation
Resubmitting a Revision to an Agent

Resubmitting a Revision to an Agent

Will agents and editors consider a revision of a manuscript they've already rejected? Check out this week's video for tips on resubmitting a revision to an agent.

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Literary Agent Pitch Session

Literary Agent Pitch Session

How do you catch an agent's attention during a pitch session? Here are some tips and tricks for crafting a successful pitch and making a good impression.

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Literary Agent Revision Request

Literary Agent Revision Request

If you're wondering about how to handle a literary agent revision request, how that informs your submission round, and what to expect when working more closely with an agent before an offer of representation, check out this video.

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Changing Literary Agents | An Agent’s Perspective

Changing Literary Agents | An Agent’s Perspective

I love talking about switching literary agents because I want to normalize it. I want to make sure that people don't feel alone if and when something happens to them in their agent-writer relationships, because like any relationship, they might not work out the way we anticipate.

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Hooray! An Agent Asked for My Full Manuscript

Hooray! An Agent Asked for My Full Manuscript

An agent asked for my full manuscript, hooray! This exciting situation opens up a lot of questions that you may have about literary agents. Learn all about literary agent manuscript requests in this class.

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Literary Agent Response Times

Literary Agent Response Times

If you're wondering about literary agent response times, when to submit, and when to expect to hear back on your manuscript submission to agents, check out this video.

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