I got a great question from a young author, and wanted to share it, and my answer, with all of you, in the hopes that it would be helpful. Tyler writes: I’m 13 and was wondering what it would take to get my book checked out. It is YA and […]
young writers
12 posts
I do hope you’re not getting tired of these glances back into the archives. I’ll admit, I post them with a bit of an ulterior motive — I’m gearing up for a week’s vacation (tomorrow is my last day in the office!), and with everything else I’m trying to get […]
Thanks to everyone who shared their teen writing. It was a lot of fun to read! As promised, I used random.org to pick one winner from the comments for a one-on-one phone consultation (not a pitch session!) with me, at a time to be mutually agreed upon. And the winner […]
If you follow news about YA literature at all, every once in a while you’ll see articles or blogs about an actual teenager who did the seemingly impossible and signed a contract to publisher his or her teen writing. Now, I’ve talked in the past about John Scalzi’s advice for […]
Another pause in our About My Query posts to answer a question from a blog reader. Also, for your information, these are the shoes I wore in high school. Anyway! Erin writes: I am a high school junior, and I have been re-writing my most recent novel. I believe that […]
You may have heard about Quirk Books' upcoming zombie retelling of Pride and Prejudice, but did you know Maureen Johnson did it first? GalleyCat has the story.
Just went through another pile of queries and it sometimes amazes me the simple things that queriers don't do. Is it that hard to personalize your email? To make sure your book's title actually appears in your query? I know I throw a lot of information up here on the blog, and I don't expect people who are querying me to read every word I've ever written (some of them -- like that Sweet Valley High rip-off novel I wrote in middle grade, about a dancer and the guy she liked named Lance -- are totally stink-o), but don't blithely ignore the easy-to-find submission guidelines and list of genres I'm looking for, ok?
Shoes that were given away in a contest for C.C., who writes, "Okay I have written a manuscript and am now trying to find a good publisher. I had a publisher interested but when he found out I was only 14 he kind of stopped writing back. Then I found a web site about the Random House Young Novel writing contest. But if submit my manuscript, I am legally not allowed to send in the novel into anyone else until they pick the winner in roughly 8 months. I was really hoping you could give me some insight on what is a good decision, to submit or not to submit."