Writer Resources

The online writing community can be phenomenal, but it can also be overwhelming. Some great resources have been shared on the Pitch Wars hashtag over the past week to help navigate the rules and language of publishing. Here are my favorites:

1. Dahlia Adler's Abridged Glossary of Pub Speak. 

What is a WC, you ask? (Hint: It's not a potty in France.) The publishing biz loves abbreviations. A few years ago Dahlia Adler shared a fantastic glossary to help you wade through the alphabet soup of MSs, LIs, and CPs.  

2. Query Shark

Literary agent Janet Reid hosts this must-read resource for querying writers. Though new-comers should read the entire website, in the post linked above, the shark herself boils down the answer to the essential question: What is a query letter? 

3. Wordcount Dracula

Literary agent Jennifer Laughran keeps her former blog open for references like these, and Wordcount Dracula is one of the most popular posts. In it she explains the accepted norms for word counts (WC) in children's books.

4. Talent and hard work

Literary agent John Cusick addresses taking measure of yourself as a writer. He also recently posted here about effective queries. 

Pre-order of the Week - My Seventh-Grade Life in Tights

Last year, my friend Angelica R. Jackson wrote great post on what pre-orders mean for authors. (You can read the full post here.) Today I wanted to share some of that information, along an awesome middle grades book available for pre-order now!

Ordering ahead rocks for readers. You get the book delivered to your door on or sometimes even before release day, and you don't have to worry about a brick-and-mortar not having the title you've anxiously awaited.

Pre-orders can also be a great boost for the author. These numbers can increase the size of the initial print run and/or the promotional budget.

For all of those reasons, I was thrilled to pre-order My Seventh Grade Life in Tights by Brooks Benjamin last week! Check out the gorgeous cover and all the info:

Pre-order it here!

Football hero. Ninja freestyler. It's seventh grade. Anything is possible.
All Dillon wants is to be a real dancer. And if he wins a summer scholarship at Dance-Splosion, he’s on his way. The problem? His dad wants him to play football. And Dillon’s freestyle crew, the Dizzee Freekz, says that dance studios are for sellouts. His friends want Dillon to kill it at the audition—so he can turn around and tell the studio just how wrong their rules and creativity-strangling ways are.

At first, Dillon’s willing to go along with his crew’s plan, even convincing one of the snobbiest girls at school to work with him on his technique. But as Dillon’s dancing improves, he wonders: what if studios aren’t the enemy? And what if he actually has a shot at winning the scholarship?  Dillon’s life is about to get crazy . . . on and off the dance floor in this kid-friendly humorous debut by Brooks Benjamin. 

I can't wait to read it! Congratulations, Brooks!

Music for today: Mercy by Muse