… including its clichés.
How well should you know your fiction genre? Well enough to know not only its expectations, but also its overused elements.
If you’re writing romance, you should be familiar enough with what others have published that you avoid like the plague the well-worn technique of having two potential love interests literally bump into each other.
Continue reading
A writers conference may be just what you need.
This past week, a literary agent vented his frustrations about the submissions he’d reviewed that morning. Though the writers assumed they were ready for the Big Leagues, their responses betrayed serious shortcomings.
They lacked a basic understanding of not only the vocabulary, but also the expectations of professional publishing. Without that foundation, no … Continue reading
Make sure your submission is dressed for success.
Once glance at the manuscript told me the author was at best a hobbyist—not serious about the craft of professional writing.
All that without reading one word of his novel.
Even if the story were great, any literary agent or acquisitions editor would begin an evaluation having already counted several strikes against it.