Midge Raymond of Ashland Creek Press
“You want your book to align with a publisher’s strengths not only to increase the chances of being published but most of all to successfully promote the book once it’s published.
Agents & Editors Recommend
A dependable source of professional and creative advice, this regular series features anecdotes, insights, tips, recommended reading and viewing for writers, and more from leading agents and editors.
William D. Waltz of Conduit Books & Ephemera
“Blurbs are funny things that can cause excitement, worry, or annoyance to all involved. Some presses eschew blurbs while some authors would rather rototill a railroad than to bother. But, are blurbs an effective sales tool?
Juwon Jun of Wendy’s Subway
“I am in awe of anyone who continues to write, who cultivates a practice that can only come from their own inner world, who is attuned to what their body and heart have to say.
Eleanor Cousins Brown of Penguin Press
“The books with the longest hold on my memory don’t solve all their struggles. Even the most assertive nonfiction should leave the reader with something to unravel.
Jeremy Schraffenberger of North American Review
“When you feel stuck or uninspired... seek out an old teacher or mentor—not for the sake of asking their advice or picking their brain, but for the sake of remembering and reconnecting with a past version of yourself, a self inspired and eager, someone who didn’t know what they didn’t know.
Sara Lippmann of Epiphany
“Embrace the space around the work, whatever that looks like: running, glass blowing, cloud watching. Let it fill you with wonder. Allow yourself fallow periods. That’s life, too.
Damien Cowger of New Ohio Review
“Rejection is not personal. It’s subjective.
Askold Melnyczuk of Agni and Arrowsmith Press
“Fear nothing—neither the pang of rejection nor the riskier high of success. We’ll always need great poems and novels to, as Flaubert said, do what nature does: set us dreaming.
Emma Dries of Triangle House Literary
“At its most rewarding, writing and art more broadly involve other humans engaging creatively with your work, and to outsource the other part of that equation to a machine is a betrayal of the creative contract.
Sian-Ashleigh Edwards of William Morris Endeavor
“When you think your manuscript or proposal is ready to query, first, congratulate yourself! Then put the material away and don’t look at it for a few weeks.