INK Sisters Write

Dear Kim, Did we really just get to spend the entire weekend together? Thank you very much, SCBWI!  Two days of writerly quality time with my writing BFF was amazing. And while I'd like to say the THEME of the weekend was friendship, it seems the hunt for competition took over as top topic for the weekend. No not this kind of competition: More like: We spent the weekend looking for THE competition.  Our competition.  Well, our book's competition in the marketplace.  For the querying author it is important to know what books your story will compete with for a reader's attention (and marketing $$$).  During our last Novel Nuts & Bolts class with Empire Literary agent, Carrie Howland we talked about developing research skills to find our competition in the marketplace as well as how to research comparison books that convey the tone and/or the theme of our stories. Let's slice into those research skills one at a time. "I GET T...

Dear Kim, Last week I spoke with a group of writers at  Life in the Spotlight.  One of the authors asked me about using Twitter to reach her readers. You know I have a weak spot for The Twitter-sphere and shared my feelings as such with this writer. I think Twitter offers a great space to meet other authors, connect with teachers and librarians, share news about publishing, celebrate books, and even, for a select few, a place to nab a book deal. In 2014 I entered Brenda Drake's PitchWars contest.  This online contest provides authors of unpublished novels the opportunity to work with a mentor, polish a manuscript, and then place the manuscript in front of Brenda's team of reputable literary agents. My team, made up of Coach, Natalie Traver , and mates, Julie Dao and Jerilyn Patterson , quickly became more family than team and worked together to bring home second place in the contest. What began with a single pitch, turned into a crash course in whole novel revision, ...