Tomorrow begins the @/thirty30writingchallenge in place of #NaNoWriMo
I created a group but am sort of flying by the seat of my pants here (shocking)
Join! Let's encourage each other!!!
thirty30k.com/groups/6904d...

Any time I work with a nonfiction client, I ALWAYS refer them to Eric’s resources. If you’re writing nonfiction, this workshop is absolutely sure to be gold.

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“Agents can’t possibly tell if they’re gonna love the book in just the first five pages!!!”

Right. But they can tell if it’s not right for them in that amount of time. Sample pages are a filtering tool, and if the agent isn’t hooked, then they’re never gonna fall in love the way they need to.

Today I told A Man what I do for a living and in the course of that conversation he laughed at the phrase “self published rapid release romances”

So, in case you need some spite and rage to fuel your work today 🫡

Literary agents are paid on commission. When you receive money from a publisher, your agent takes a 15% cut.

They do not charge reading fees or submission fees or maintenance fees. Do not pay for representation up front.

Well that’s a delightful new thing to worry about.

It keeps coming up with some version of “I buy SOME books so it should be okay that I only steal SOME OTHER books” and that just simply isn’t how ethics work

I don’t know why the pro-book-pirating crowd keeps popping up in my algorithm but I don’t support piracy.

Use your library. Shop used. Borrow from your friends. Ask for books/bookstore gift cards as gifts.

Unless you live in a place where the book is literally illegal:
Don’t. Steal. Books.

It’s always a different question. Sometimes it’s about stakes, sometimes about structure, sometimes motivations.

But there’s always *something* the author couldn’t see and I love helping them see it.

I’ve been doing “premise and plot” chats with authors, helping them work through stories that are giving them trouble and it has to be some of the most rewarding work I’ve done.

There’s always one question that the author hadn’t thought of that unlocks the whole story. It’s like magic.

This is the truth

Prologues, but on youtube instead of tiktok this time. And they decided I was too ugly to be taken seriously at my actual job so that’s fun too 🙃

And also… they can just do a hard thing and ignore the lady on the internet!

Absolutely love when someone asks for advice and I give advice to that person and basically the advice is “that’s gonna be hard to sell and here’s why” and dudes come from all over to tell me I’m wrong because their favorite something something whatever did it forty years ago so I must be stupid

I’m a “training wheels” and “bumper pads” kind of parent so we slowly introduce elements of smart phones but when I was a teacher I was genuinely shocked by how many kids just … had the whole internet in their pocket with no supervision at all

1. Scam alert thread! 🧵

Watch out for out-of- the-blue emails from supposed marketing experts claiming they just happened on your book & are eager to promote it. This is something I'm seeing more and more of. Marketing scams aren't new, but this is a new twist.

I’m just an editor, standing in front of your manuscript, begging you to stop making your characters wink every couple pages

The medium and big publishers have huge marketing departments. Watch BookJobs.com for marketing job opportunities

The same as more than half of all vowels I say: uh. Which is also how the “a” sounds in that word

So much of it is just a bunch of unsexy business decisions and people do not want to hear about it

If you think traditional publishing doesn’t do *any* marketing, you might just not understand what marketing is.

They can and should do more, especially for their marginalized authors and mid list authors. But they are never doing “nothing”.

If you start writing a new wonderfully weird idea, but you run into trouble executing that wonderfully weird idea, there are two possible causes:

1. it’s a dumb idea that won’t work
2. you’re a visionary genius & the only person who can pull it off

The only way to know? Keep writing.

Woke up to lots of A.I. and… em dash discourse?

If you’re a new writer getting stressed over that, please know using the beloved em dash, en dash, or just a regular ol’ dash is normal and perfectly fine.

Don’t let social media twist you into knots over here.

This is what unilateral control of the federal government looks like. And it’s bad.

My ten-year-old is playing Fortnite in his Homer Simpson slippers with headphones on, singing along to Kpop Demon Hunters soundtrack at the top of his lungs and it’s the cutest thing to happen in my house in a long time

And I’m doing that. I have monthly recurring donations to a local food bank and immigrant protection group. Our jobs (the whole family) are all doing the good work. We’re involved in the community. I just feel totally helpless.

I don’t know what to do.

I voted. I volunteered. I called my reps (though they all voted against it from the start). I donated. I had hard conversations, so many that I lost friends and lost contact with family. I’m raising my children to do the right thing.

But I’m at a loss. What else is there?

Does anybody remember that Adam Sandler movie where he gets a remote control so he can skip over all the fun parts of his life and get back to work?

No reason.

Considering the AI summary of my text messages routinely tells me the exact opposite of what the 12-word text message actually says…
It’s gonna be a hard “no” from me on this.

Do not ever under any circumstances trust an AI summary of your contract.