Why Not Add a Little More Madness?
I've piled another project onto my plate, plus another free writing resource
(Image description: my old edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass sitting open on a white table. Text of the first page of chapter 11 on the left side with continued text on the right broken up by a black and white illustration of the White Rabbit holding a scroll in one hand and a trumpet held up to his mouth in the other.)
Falling Down Rabbit Holes
I’ve found another rabbit to pursue.
I’m already running around in circles trying to keep up with:
Parenting and home life
Freelance writing
Running a publication with my sister
This newsletter
Occasional editing projects
My picture book
Novel writing
Which is a lot.
But, as crazy as it all seems, I’m (mostly) enjoying the chaos because I’ve always got something to work on and something I’m excited about.
Plus, this new one I’ve added is short-term, I promise.
Here goes: I’ll be participating in PitMad this Thursday!
For those of you who’ve never heard of PitMad, it’s a Twitter event where authors tweet out a pitch of their book (it has to fit within one tweet) and agents and editors come along and like pitches they’re interested in.
Big whoop! you might be thinking. But it’s more than just a like on your tweet. It means that you can submit your manuscript directly to the editors and/or agents who’ve liked it (still following all their submission guidelines, of course) and you have a chance at starting a conversation with a professional in the industry.
Publishing is incredibly hard to break into. I’ve heard stories upon stories of authors submitting manuscripts to lots of agents and not hearing back from most of them. It’s not because agents are being rude. It’s because they receive so many submissions that it can be hard to sift through them all and they often need to just focus on the submissions that really reel them in.
A tweet provides an opportunity to grab the attention of agents and editors outside of the usual application process.
Does it guarantee success? Definitely not. But if all it requires is a 280-character tweet (plus a completed, unpublished manuscript all ready to go) then I may as well give it a go with my children’s picture book (I wrote about that last week if you didn’t catch that one). There are plenty of success stories where authors have ended up signing an agent as a result.
Even so, it’s quite possible I won’t have any likes on my tweet at all, but I’m looking forward to giving it a go and seeing what happens before I officially start querying. I’ll keep you all updated — even if it’s to say that nothing much really happened.
In the wise words of the Queen of Hearts: “Off with their—” no, not that one:
Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
Wish me luck!
Writing Resource
Last week I mentioned the Picture Book Agent List I’d started creating. A few days ago I added it as a free resource on signing up for my newsletter, so see the link below to access it.
So far the majority of agents on the list have come from the PB Pitch list, which is another Twitter pitching event just for picture books, and a few from Picture Book Spotlight.
The list will be ongoing as I start querying but I’ve tried to only add agents who are currently open to queries and not agents who only accept author/illustrators because I cannot claim to be an illustrator even if I want to (seriously, my family always joke about my tiny attempts at drawing while playing Pictionary).
Please note: agents’ wishlists will change as will their open to submission times, so ensure you do your own research before querying anyone I’ve added to the list. And if you find anything amiss, do let me know so I can update it on my end.
How to Juggle Writing and Parenting
Speaking of chasing lots of rabbits and adding more madness to my already chaotic life, back in February I wrote about ‘How I Finally Figured Out a Balance With Writing and Parenting’. (Fun fact: the article actually ended up being published the day my son was born.)
Things have changed since then and I do have a new article in the works about how to write with a baby and a 3-year-old — it’s just not finished yet because … well, you know, trying to write with a baby and a 3-year-old! But, the points I made do still hold true, so check out the article below and feel free to share any juggling tips you might have.
Share Your Thoughts
Feel free to reply to this email with your thoughts so far, what you’re hoping to find here or for some general chitchat over a (virtual) cuppa.
Hit the subscribe button if you haven’t already signed up.
One Last Thing …
After all that, I still want to help people.
If you haven’t heard already, once I reach 100 subscribers, you’ll have the chance to win a mini writing mentorship/free editing (one mentorship to win per month) where I’ll edit up to 10 pieces of your writing for a month.
(Subscriber update: I’ve tipped over the halfway point with 51 subscribers. It might not seem like much to some, but I thought I’d be lucky to have even 10 people sign up, so this is a big milestone for me! Now to keep it moving forward!)
Stay tuned for more details coming straight to your inbox, and in the meantime, share with some friends to help me reach that magic 100.
Good luck!!
Good luck with PitMad :D