A Second Query and First Pages Summer Workshop

Well, in a move that wildly surprised me, the first workshop I posted sold out almost immediately. And I’ve seen had a bundle of people ask if I might do another one.

So… I’m listening.

If you missed it the first time around, well, I wanted to host another webinar / workshop before I logged off for paternity leave. I’ve basically declined every conference and workshop imaginable for the foreseeable future, and thought I’d do my most popular chats in single workshop before I go into full nesting mode.

These workshops are helping me pay for the free events my agency is hosting, donating funds to the bookshops and the colleagues who are kind enough to join me.

So! You can sign up for this second query and first pages summer workshop here. Seats are very limited, and you can snag a spot here.

Over the course of a few weeks, we’ll workshop your query letter, polish up your opening pages, and dig into what agents look for in all of those. Spoiler? What agents like to see in opening pages, tends to be the same thing readers like to see.

Zooms will be recorded (so if you can’t make them, you’ll get the video!), and will be at 8PM EST, every other Thursday. By the end of this, it’s my hope you’ll have a query package you’ll be proud of, from the pitch letter to your first ten pages, as well as a fresh community of new people to network and share work with. Though that last bit is really up to you and how social you want to be.

Registration is here (yes, I’m linking it a lot, and it is also linked at the bottom), and here are the dates for the live Zooms.

• 6/5 - Welcome Zoom: Get to know your summer cohort! Why yes, I am treating this like an MFA class. We’ll chat, talk about what we’re working on, and maybe find a few critique partners while we’re at it. Afterwards, we’ll have a chat about query letter basics, answer your questions and concerns, and send you off to work on your pitch. Already have a query? Then the advice will help you polish it up.

• 6/19 - Query Letter, Workshop #1: Tonight we’ll dig into those queries that you’ve been writing (or editing and polishing up), and chat a bit more about what makes really great jacket copy… the part of the pitch that makes up the core of describing your book. For those of you feeling brave, we’ll dig into a few live and share some tips and direction. And over the next two weeks, you’ll be revising your query with me.

• 7/3 - First Pages: Today we begin digging into first pages. You’ll be sharing your first ten pages (New Times Roman, double spaced, 12 point font!) with me for notes and edits, and if you’re comfortable, your cohort. But first, we’ll discuss what makes excellent first pages. We’ll look at examples and talk about what works.

• 7/17 - First Pages, Workshop #2: Tonight, a few brave souls will share their polished up opening pages, and we’ll discuss them in real time, gently! While we won’t have time to dig into them ALL live, everyone will get notes from me over the next two weeks before the wrap up. It’s my hope that not only will you leave with pages that feel ready to paste into a query, but that maybe this discussion might rattle around some ideas about revising a good chunk of your book. Sometimes a book starts off in the wrong place! We’ll see!

• 7/31 - Wrap Up Zoom: We’ve spent the early summer polishing your query and then digging into pages… now let’s chat and unpack the advice, answer questions, and of course, say our farewells. 

Registration is $125. Spaces are very limited (there are only so many query letters and pages I can critique in one summer, friends!), so scoop up a pass while you can.

And as always, if the price point is a stumbling block, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. People have offered to pay for spots, and I never want cost to keep me from being accessible.

Register Here

Query and First Pages Summer Workshop

Well, summer is here. And I really wanted to host one more webinar or workshop before I logged off for paternity leave this August (surprise!), and found myself not doing any conferences for a while. The most popular of my webinars have been the query letter and first page chats, so I’ve put together a summer workshop to really dig into both of those.

Ideally, doing these occasional workshops and webinars can help pay for the free events my agency is hosting, because as much as I love having colleagues join me… I want to pay them for their time, as well as the bookstores gracious enough to host.

So! Come join me for a new kind of webinar… a workshop! A query and first pages summer workshop. Please note, seats are VERY limited for this. You can grab a spot here.

Over the course of a few weeks, we’ll workshop your query letter, polish up your opening pages, and dig into what agents look for in all of those. Spoiler? What agents like to see in opening pages, tends to be the same thing readers like to see.

Zooms will be recorded (so if you can’t make them, you’ll get the video!), and will be at 8PM EST. By the end of this, it’s my hope you’ll have a query package you’ll be proud of, from the pitch letter to your first ten pages, as well as a fresh community of new people to network and share work with. Though that last bit is really up to you and how social you want to be.

Registration is here (and also linked at the bottom), and here are the dates for the live Zooms.

• 6/2 - Welcome Zoom: Get to know your summer cohort! Why yes, I am treating this like an MFA class. We’ll chat, talk about what we’re working on, and maybe find a few critique partners while we’re at it. Afterwards, we’ll have a chat about query letter basics, answer your questions and concerns, and send you off to work on your pitch. Already have a query? Then the advice will help you polish it up.

• 6/16 - Query Letter, Workshop #1: Tonight we’ll dig into those queries that you’ve been writing (or editing and polishing up), and chat a bit more about what makes really great jacket copy… the part of the pitch that makes up the core of describing your book. For those of you feeling brave, we’ll dig into a few live and share some tips and direction. And over the next two weeks, you’ll be revising your query with me.

• 6/30 - First Pages: Today we begin digging into first pages. You’ll be sharing your first ten pages (New Times Roman, double spaced, 12 point font!) with me for notes and edits, and if you’re comfortable, your cohort. But first, we’ll discuss what makes excellent first pages. We’ll look at examples and talk about what works.

• 7/14 - First Pages, Workshop #2: Tonight, a few brave souls will share their polished up opening pages, and we’ll discuss them in real time, gently! While we won’t have time to dig into them ALL live, everyone will get notes from me over the next two weeks before the wrap up. It’s my hope that not only will you leave with pages that feel ready to paste into a query, but that maybe this discussion might rattle around some ideas about revising a good chunk of your book. Sometimes a book starts off in the wrong place! We’ll see!

• 7/28 - Wrap Up Zoom: We’ve spent the early summer polishing your query and then digging into pages… now let’s chat and unpack the advice, answer questions, and of course, say our farewells. 

Registration is $125. Spaces are very limited (there are only so many query letters and pages I can critique in one summer, friends!), so scoop up a pass while you can.

And as always, if the price point is a stumbling block, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

Register Here

New Year, New Webinar: Mastering Your Opening Pages

Well, here we are. 2025 is upon us.

I did a little polling on social media about what kind of webinar folks would like to see from me in the New Year, and everyone seemed to be interested in discussing opening pages. Which I get! There’s a lot of pressure to really grab someone out of the gate, especially when you’re querying a project around. I’ve given a talk like this at SCBWI conferences and the like, on how to make an opening really sing, and I’m happy to do that in a webinar.

So! Join me on January 30th at 8PM EST (later for my fellow parents who need to do this after bedtime) for a chat about mastering your opening pages. I’ll talk about what agents (as well as editors and readers) tend to look for, we’ll go over some examples from books I’ve worked on, and we’ll even dig into why prologues actually aren’t that bad (a hot take, I know!).

I think this webinar will be the most helpful for anyone writing MG, YA, or adult fiction projects. I don’t really work on picture books or chapter books all that often, and I want to make sure you’re getting info you need from me.

As a fun bonus, something I’ve noticed folks seem to really love during workshops and webinars at other conferences, we’ll also jump into five projects towards the end of the webinar, live, with notes and feedback. Obviously I can’t promise I’ll get to yours, I’ll pick five at random from whoever feels brave enough to share. It’ll be the first five pages, and I’ll send submission requirements on over to those who register.

Afterwards, you can expect a lengthy Q&A, where we can chat about opening pages, but also query letters, the industry, you name it. As anyone who has attended one of these with me will tell you, I tend to go late with answering questions, as long as I have my tea with me.

See you on January 30th! Registration info is below.

Mastering Your Opening Pages

January 30th, 2025, 8PM (EST)

Zoom Registration

Query Letter + First Pages Webinar: November 1st!

Oh wow.

Someone pointed out I haven’t done a webinar since February of this year, and the query letter webinar has been quiet since… October of last year? And I love doing these things! I talk until my voice is gone! I devour cough drops in front of everyone! It’s a wild time.

So, I’m putting a webinar together to close out the year, using some of my best discussions from conferences over the course of 2024.

Join me on November 1st, at 8PM EST, for a chat about craft query letters and what agents look for in those dreaded first ten pages. We’ll go over great query letters and what made them work, discuss opening pages and what really lands well, and hopefully, leave you ready to write and polish that query over the holiday season.

Let’s get to work on a Friday night, friends. Gather up that extra Halloween candy. Let’s stay up late and get into it.

Registration is $40, and you can sign up here for the Zoom. Folks who register and tune in will also get a recording that’ll be good for a month. I’ll likely chat for a good hour and a half, and answer questions afterwards until… well, until I can’t. I’m looking forward to staying up late and chatting.

Zoom link is below and linked here. See you there.

REGISTER HERE

Perfect Pitch: Leslie J. Anderson's Query for The Unmothers

So, this is a bit of a wild realization…

I haven’t shared a “perfect pitch” post in a full year.

The last one I posted here was for Tawny Lara’s Dry Humping, a non-fiction sobriety book, back in July 2023. Between then and now, a lot of clients have had option books get scooped up (second, third, fourth books with their current publisher), which has kept me pretty busy. Those clients aren’t really querying, we’re busy with their proposals.

So please, friends. Books are still happening! I’ve got a bundle to-be-announced, that’ll have posts like this in the future. And thankfully, Leslie J. Anderson was willing to share the original query for THE UNMOTHERS, which is due out with Quirk Books on August 6th. With a starred review from Library Journal, an Indie Next Pick from the ABA, some awards already in-hand, it’s a debut that is posed to make a big impact, and I hope you pick it up.

In fact, if this is helpful, please consider preordering (or if you’re reading this after pub date, ordering) Leslie’s stunning folk-horror novel.

Let’s jump in.

---

---

Dear Eric,

Thank you for your kind response to my last book, [Redacted!]. I truly appreciated it. You told me to let you know when I had a new project, and here it is! People of the Horse, a dark fantasy will appeal to fans of The Southern Reach Trilogy, Pet Sematary, and The Lamb will Slaughter the Lion. The book is about 75,000 words. 

Carolyn Marshall (chain-smoker, cynical journalist, recent widow) is being punished by her editor, sent to a small town to investigate a frivolous, tabloid story of a horse that gave birth to a human baby. Despite her resentment for the assignment, she begins to wonder if the story might be true. Pulled into the mystery, Marshall finds a town that births its own monsters and refuses to face its own sins and secrets. 

Marshall finds the baby’s father, Roswell, a damaged boy living in the shadow of his equally damaged mother. Undeterred, Marshall follows Roswell as he moves through the world of Horse People, helping to rescue horses, learning to ride, and facing the trauma of her own recent loss. Meanwhile, the strange tides of the town ebb and flow around her – a drug dealer tries to fight the monster in the woods, a young man struggles to rescue his friend from addiction, a pastor faces the secret violence done in the graveyard at night.

The dark truth, held in trust by generations of Raeford women, is that the creature of the woods is more than a legend. [Redacted Spoilers!] Its very presence brings old disputes to a boil and the town begins to tear at the seams, unable to escape deep-rooted hatreds and the creature they cannot bring themselves to name. Marshall and Roswell claw a way out while the infighting in the town provides a new target for the monster’s wrath.

My writing has appeared in Asimov’s, Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, Daily Science Fiction, and Apex, to name a few. My collection of poetry, An Inheritance of Stone was nominated for an Elgin Award and poems from it were nominated for Rhysling Awards. I am also a cowriter and frequent collaborator on The CryptoNaturalist Podcast which has nearly 80,000 listeners and followers across social media platforms, garnering media attention from The AV Club and The BBC. 

I have a Creative Writing M.A. from Ohio University and currently work as a marketing and communications manager for a healthcare business analytics firm. I am eager to be an engaged and collaborative partner in promoting my work and building a career in popular fiction. I live in a small, white house beside a cemetery with my partner, three good dogs, and a Roomba.

I included the first ten pages.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Best Regards,

Leslie J. Anderson

---

Okay, okay. First. Let’s discuss the redacted bits.

• One, I don’t really want to dish details about Leslie’s other book, which we are still planning to pitch around. “But didn’t you pass on it?” Sure, but now we are working together and digging into that book and getting it ready for a new life. This is a thing that happens. Shelved books aren’t always shelved forever, friends.

• Two, the query does giveaway a bit of the plot, in a way that I really liked in the pitch letter, and that I used to pitch editors, but we didn’t opt to dish on the jacket copy of the actual book with the publisher. So, no spoilers, sorry friends.

Now, let’s talk about what this query does so wildly well, and why it grabbed me.

When Agents Say Send the Next Thing, They Mean It: Seriously. I don’t say it wildly often, but every now and again I read a whole manuscript that is so stunning and powerful, but I don’t quite know how to sell it, or I have something similar to it, and I just know I want to hear from this writer again. I’d said it to Adam Sass when he queried Surrender Your Sons, and that went very well. Same thing here.

I knew I wanted to see anything Leslie wrote next, and it was this book. And seeing as I was already a wild fan of her writing from that first project, I inhaled this immediately.

So please. When we say to email that next book, please do. We’re not just being nice. Though a lot of us are nice.

Perfect Comparative Titles: We have nods to Jeff VanderMeer, Stephen King, and Margaret Killjoy. I knew immediately the vibe Leslie was going for with this book, and it absolutely delivered. “But aren’t those authors too popular?” Please, I’m begging you, dear writers. If a comparative title or author is perfect, use the popular one.

When pitching around Jill Baguchinsky’s So Witches We Became, we comped it to Stephen King’s The Mist. It was fine. In fact, it says that on the jacket copy. When we pitched K. Ancrum’s Icarus around, I comped it to The Goldfinch. Again, we did just fine.

A Big Cast, Perfectly Pitched: One of the many remarkable things about Leslie’s book, is that it has a huge cast of characters. Writers often get worried about querying their big shifting POV cast books, but here, she gives us a quick peppering of the people we’re going to meet, without going all in on them. And she sticks to the core of the story… a reporter investigating something strange.

Bringing Up Relevant Writing: I love it when writers dish a little bit about where they’ve been actively publishing. Not everyone does it, because not everyone has that, and that’s fine. But when you do have something to share, bring it up. We like to see that there has been buy-in for your writing in the spaces you’re writing in.

A Note on the Title: Yes, yes, it’s not called People of the Horse anymore. Writers, don’t get too hooked onto your titles. They do often change.

---

Alright, that’s all we got here.

I hope you found this helpful, and please, order Leslie’s book. It’s astonishing.

Pitching Non-Fiction and Building the Non-Fiction Book Proposal: A Webinar

New Year, New Webinar!

I’ve really loved putting together my query letter webinars. I did two last year, but if there’s one topic people keep asking me about, it’s on crafting the dreaded non-fiction book proposal, and how to pitch non-fiction, specifically.

Really, it shouldn’t be dreaded. And pitching non-fiction shouldn’t be scary, my friends. After-all, if you’re writing non-fiction, it means you’re an expert on the topic. You’ve got nothing to be afraid of. If anything, maybe I should be afraid of how you’re able to pitch that true crime murder story.

Whether you’re writing memoir or working on a cookbook, crafting a pop-culture book or writing a wellness title, this webinar is a guide to pitching non-fiction and creating a book proposal that sings. I’ve worked on a bundle of non-fiction books (lots are pictured up there in the banner!) and hopefully I’ll be able to help you in this chat.

We’ll take the time to go over:

• The classic elements of a non-fiction book proposal and how they differ from topic to topic (ie: a memoir is going to have different things from say, a cookbook, which might need some sample photos and recipes).

• What agents and editors mean when they discuss “platform” regarding non-fiction (hint: it’s not always social media, it’s definition is broad), and how it’s never too late to think about creating one.

• How to craft a query for that non-fiction project, and what should go in it.

And we’ll go over actual successful book proposals and pitches for non-fiction projects I’ve been lucky enough to work on, and why they worked for me and for editors.

We’ll spend a good hour and a half digging into these tidbits, and have a half hour of Q&A to get into your specifics. And if you’ve done a webinar with me before, you know it’ll likely go way over that when it comes to questions.

You can sign up here via Zoom (or the big link below), and participants will have access to the webinar video for a solid month afterwards.

See you there!

Pitching Non-Fiction and Building the Proposal Webinar

February 1st, 2024, 8PM EST, $40

With or Without You: The Book Tour

Well, With or Without You is right around the corner (don’t forget to preorder and get free stickers!), and I’m hitting the road for a few days to meetup with readers and talk about why mushrooms do not belong on cheesesteaks.

Ahem. I digress.

Here’s where you can catch me for that book, as well as a virtual event for Nicole Chung and Shannon Gibney’s astonishing When We Become Ours anthology, which is out this month (right after my birthday!).

You might notice a little “giveaway” note below every day. If you’re not in publishing, you might not have heard about Harlequin shuttering Inkyard Press, the imprint that’s published a number of my YA novels (Don’t Read the Comments, You Can Go Your Own Way, and well, this one I’m touring for). There are a few debut authors this year who suddenly find their imprint and support gone, so…

I’m taking their books with me.

The first few folks to the stop to see me, will also get a free book by Davaun Sanders, James Ramos, Ivelisse Housman, or Ananya Devarajan, depending on the stop. It’s definitely a “while supplies last” kinda thing, so come nudge me or a bookseller the second you pop in.

Thursday, October 19th
Harrisburg Book Festival (Harrisburg, PA)
In Conversation with Chloe Gong + Alix E. Harrow
Early copies of With or Without You will be available!

Tuesday, November 7th
Harriett’s Bookshop (Philadelphia, PA), 7PM
In Conversation with Farah Naz Rishi
Giveaway: Keynan Masters and the Peerless Magic Crew by Davaun Sanders

Wednesday, November 8th
One More Page (DC / Arlington, VA), 7PM
In Conversation with Amanda Quain
Giveaway: The Wrong Kind of Weird by James Ramos

Thursday, November 9th
Word Bookshop (Jersey City, NJ), 7PM.
In Conversation with Navdeep Singh Dhillon
Giveaway: The Kismat Connection by Ananya Devarajan

Saturday, November 11th
The Fountain (Richmond, VA), 1PM
In Conversation with Lamar Giles
Giveaway: Unseelie by Ivelisse Housman.

Monday, November 13th 
Tampa-Hillsborough County Library (Tampa, FL, Virtual!)
A Reading for When We Become Ours with Nicole Chung, Shannon Gibey, and Stefany Ramirez

See you soon!

Crafting the Query Letter: A Two Hour Fundraiser Webinar on November 2nd

Hey friends, and happy autumn! The last time I did a personal webinar outside of a conference was all the way back in January at the start of the year, as a benefit for some friends and family. And well, now I’m doing it again.

One of my good buddies here in Philly could use a hand when it comes to medical expenses (here’s a link to her GoFundMe for more info), and last time you were able to help me raise a nice amount that I could Venmo right to her and her family. I’d like to do that again.

Also, my brother-in-law is struggling with some final expenses for his graduate degree (here’s a link to that GoFundMe). I cannot even tell you how hard this guy has worked all the years I’ve known him, and I’d like to help to push this over the edge for him.

So, benefit webinar time, take two.

How does this work? It’s all pretty simple!

Whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction, this two hour webinar will cover all the basics and dig into the complex questions. How do you choose comparative titles? What kind of platform should you showcase? Why is having a hook so important? What does the query absolutely need to tell you about the story?

If you’ve done one of these query webinars with me, this is largely the same as the other one. Just being honest here.

We’ll unpack all of it, and will have a solid Q&A session. Like the last one I did, this isn’t a recorded chat. It’s all live with me, and we’ll kick back and talk about your specific questions at the end of the chat, or at least, as many as I can get to. Last time we went like an hour over time and I lost my voice, it was great.

Attendees will also get a recorded version of the webinar, that you’ll be able to access for a month.

Registration is $40, and you can sign up below. I get to help you with your query, you get to help out my friends and family, everyone wins. If that price point is out of your range, or don’t use PayPal, honestly, just let me know.

I’d like folks to be able to afford this AND help the people out close to me.

REGISTER HERE

November 2nd, 8PM EST