Holly Robinson I am no fan of Halloween. Maybe that's because, as a young child, I started having waking nightmares about a cloaked figure with a pumpkin head that would regularly appear and sit in a rocking chair beside my bed. He never said anything. Just rocked and rocked, until I screamed for my mother. […]

Sierra Godfrey I am a reader. Yes, I read books, but I mean an agent’s reader. I read requested manuscripts. I read your requested manuscript. Readers are one of the secrets of the industry—most agents utilize them as there are simply too many manuscripts and not enough pairs of eyes. Some agents use one or […]

Kathryn Craft Turning Whine Into Gold To navigate the gauntlet that is publishing today, your best strategy for success can be to embrace your new paradox: you are both artist and businessperson. Why? Because it’s not all business. Your publishing team is well aware that they would not have their salaried jobs without the creative […]

Tasha Seegmiller When I was just starting on my writing journey, I attended a workshop where a children’s book writer and illustrator said something along the lines of, “If you like to do anything besides writing, do that.” Writing is hard. Writing takes grit. But this is the case for lots of things in life. […]

Susan Spann “Advances” – technically, advances against royalties, are lump-sum payments some publishers pay to authors “in advance” of publishing the author’s work. More simply, an “advance” is the money an author receives up front on a publishing deal. Not all authors receive advances, and not all publishers offer them. Small and micro-publishers often pay […]