Twitter pitching. I always said I’d never do it. And then my friend Lidija Hilje, the Pitching Queen, talked me into it. Lidija also helped me put the final polish on my query letter, so since she also said she would help me polish my Twitter pitch, I agreed. Of course she talked me into it two days before PitMad! So after many iterations of my pitch (lots and lots of back and forth on a Google Doc!), we decided to do an impromptu Mom Writes episode about Twitter pitching contests. Well,...

We had a really great question come in from my friend and fellow writer, Mindy. She wanted to know about “the nudge.” She wanted to know when it was okay to nudge an agent who has your manuscript. (Side note, Mindy has been working her butt off querying agents while writing her second book. She’s had quite a bit of action on her query, which is super exciting! She’s killing it, and I’m super proud of her!)I was glad Mindy asked this question, because I wanted to know when it was okay to...

This is not a full episode. This is an invitation. I’ve decided (very spontaneously, mind you) to do something a wee bit different this week. As some of you may know, PitMad is on Thursday. PitMad is a Twitter pitching contest. Now, as some of you may also know, I’ve sworn I will never participate in a Twitter pitching contest. Mostly because I’m not that good at The Twitter. But also because, it’s a crazy, frenetic energy that I really don’t dig. However, I also said I would never...

My first rejection is in the bag! Actually, my first two. Jennie made me promise to screen record opening my first response from an agent. So this episode starts with me (actually) opening and reading my first rejection and Jennie’s response to it. The theme of today’s episode is don’t take it personally. It’s easy (very easy, because we are storytellers at heart!) to make up all sorts of stories about what is (and isn’t) happening to your email queries that are out in the world. I was...

Today Jennie and I talk about the toxic “Pick Me!” attitude that many writers have towards querying. We look at the different types of energy we as writers bring to the pitching process, and how feelings of desperation hurt more than help. As I look to continue to query, I know I need to personalize each one for the agent it’s being sent to. Seems easy, right? You just take out Dear Mrs. X and replace it with Dear Mr. Y. Then you erase the sentence about why you chose X and replace it with...

This episode actually made me feel a zillion times better about querying, and it gave me some patience with the process. It’s really no surprise that after only a single week (we’re talking not even seven full days) I’ve heard nothing from the one (ONE!) agent that I exclusively queried. It’s very easy to take this personally. But should you? I mean, you sent her (or him!) this thing— your thing!—that took you years of blood, sweat, and tears to write. Is it just sitting in their inbox? Did...

Hip hip hooray! Today we invite you to join us as we press send on my (Abby’s) first (and exclusive) pitch. There’s not much to sum up today, except to say that Mel makes her first appearance in Season 3! She comes to give us an update on where she’s at with her book and to support me while I make the big leap. The three of us catch up and share all the feels as I read my query letter, and in the excitement I nearly commit a cardinal sin and forget to put a subject in my email! In...

In this episode, we review the overall pitching process.  Here's a run-down if you've missed it: Get your manuscript in "good enough" shape to pitch. Remember, there's still more work to be done once you get picked up! Make sure your query is stellar. (No pressure, right?!) Write short personalizations for each agent on your short-list. Double-check each of those agent's submission requirements.   Don't rush! The process of pitching takes time. You don't want to make a mistake with one...

It's the Query Letter Episode!!! I have written my query letter no less than 45 times (and it feels like 45 ka-zillion times). Some passes over my query letter have involved big, sweeping changes. Others have been small tweaks, looking to do things like cut an overabundance of adjectives. But every change brought me closer and closer to what Jennie has deemed a query that is "KILLER GOOD." The first time we tackled my query was on Jennie's Creative Live class called How To Land A Literary...

When you finally choose an agent to pitch (or 20 or 30), what do you do? I'm interested in sending out a series of exclusives. It's a weird strategy, and it might not work. (As a matter of fact, I might scrap the whole thing after this first round. You never know!) But for whatever reason, this is where my gut is telling me to start. In this episode, we discuss the one cardinal rule in pitching agents: FOLLOW ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS TO A "T." If the agent says they want the subject line to...

Today we have (surprise!) more talk about agents. What if you're pitching an agent, but you are open to eventually dipping your toes in self-publishing or hybrid publishing? Or changing genres? Or co-writing? Jennie says, "And when you get to a conversation with an agent, these are things you might want to say: I have a million ideas! I might want to do a collaboration with someone. I might want to do a picture book. I might want to do an adult thing. And I know you might not represent all...

Today Jennie breaks down agents and strategy in all kinds of different ways. First, she talks about agents and what they strategically do for your career (and what they don't). Agents aren't going to say to you, "Llamas are hot right now! Bring me a book featuring llamas!" (Llama just say, I thought this was kind of how it worked.) All agents work differently and have different personalities and styles. Some are more editorially focused. Some are great at laying out a strategic career...

I know how some of us are feeling. We've worked hard (possibly for years) on a book, and when it comes time to pitch it, there is a worldwide pandemic.  So what do we do? Do we change our stories to reflect the new "normal?" Do we hold off pitching agents? Are agents still working? Are they taking writers?  Do any of these things even matter?  Today Jennie and I talk about how the pandemic has affected the pitching process. My question to Jennie was this: is it better to pitch more...

Today we talk about what to expect when you’re pitching agents. From what to do with your documents to how to keep track of agents, Jennie lays out all the things you need to consider when starting the pitching process. (And I have one word for you, folks: spreadsheets.) I also fret because my top, wish-listed agents represent some pretty big names. But Jennie has some good advice for me there, too. “They're not usually like, 'Well, that's it. I got one really big one! I'm done!' They're in...

Season Three of Mom Writes is all about pitching your completed manuscript to agents! Book coach Jennie Nash walks me, Abby Mathews, through the process of pitching my middle grades novel in hopes of finding an agent, and in turn, a publisher.  But let’s start at the beginning. The first eight episodes are dedicated to preparing your pitch and your agent query.  Today, Jennie talks about the number one thing people get wrong when they pitch their books to an agent: they RUSH.   We also...

Hi, everyone! We have a Mom Writes season 3 update. One important announcement I have is that Mom Writes is moving! You will no longer find our current show notes on the Author Accelerator website. Seasons 1 and 2 still live on the Author Accelerator site, so all our old show notes are there. But anything new from this point forward will be…here! On my website www.AbbyMathews.org.   And you guys, I spell my last name with ONE T. Like the everyone’s least favorite subject in school, math....

Abby's spent years writing this book, and through various drafts the one thing she never wavered on was the age and grade of the readers she was writing for. But in this episode, she finally realizes and accepts that it's elementary kids, not middle school kids, that she wants to write for. Sometimes at the end of a book, you feel a whole wide range of emotions - one of those is definitely "what happens next?" After each of her submissions, Abby always knew what to do next - write the...

In this episode: This week, Mel finds her own mistakes - the fuzzy pronouns, the over-generalities, what Kemlo calls "the curse of knowledge" - giving too little information on the page because it's all in your head. It might be clear to you, but it's not clear to the reader! Experienced editors will find these things on their own, and it's a good sign when you can read through your own work and pick out common missteps in a first draft. For Mel, this tends to happen in scenes with lots of...

Melanie gets her turn in the time-looping barrel this week (finally!). In the first part of her chapter, she was interrupting the narrative with some unhelpful backtracking. It wasn't moving the present story forward. As Jennie Nash says, "things were happening...offstage". Mel thinks she was attempting a flashback, or trying to work some offstage information into the narrative, but it stood out like a sore thumb. On the upside, the back half of the chapter went swimmingly, and all Kemlo had...

In this episode: Listen to the preview to find out why...if only we'd known then that spending all your time at home and not going out wasn't actually the best thing ever. We hope everyone is safe and healthy out there. This week, we talk about wrapping up Abby's story in a nice little bow. This might be Abby's last submission for this draft, but it's not ending in the same place her first draft ended! What will need to happen to convince Abby's protagonist to come back to the real...

Mel's chapter 17 benefits from the magic of alone time this week, and that - plus not being exhausted! - made for a well-rounded chapter with an active narrative voice. But Mel was able to fight against her old nemesis, "show where your characters are at emotionally," and we're counting that as a big win for today. Mel's been working on this book for a really long time. She says it's hard to immerse yourself when you have a lot of years-old pre-conceived notions of what your book "should"...

This week's discussion revolves around the pacing in Abby's middle-grades novel - and all about what she did right. (Plus, it's six months in the past, so enjoy this trip to October 2019, a simpler time.) How difficult is it to show the emotional layer in middle-grade lit without slowing down the pacing? VERY, as it turns out - but this week, Abby gets the gold star from Kemlo. Word choice plays a big part here. Words like "chattering" and phrases like "a normal person" convey an...

Welp, it’s official, folks. It’s finally here. This is the point in the quarantine where I, Abby Mathews, has officially— yet good-natured-ly— lost her mind. (See, I’m even making up words.) I don’t even know what day it is anymore. Is it a podcast release day? Beats the heck out of me. So we’re just gonna go with today for an encore episode of Mom Writes. Why an encore episode? Because I just can’t do one. more. thing. I know you parents feel me. And I’m sending you my love. And if you...

This week, Kemlo gives Abby some advice on a little thing that becomes a big thing... "Am I a weirdo? Because I do that little thing?" -Abby Abby wrote a scene where Logan's parents show up for the first time, and actually modeled Logan's mother after a mom she knew in middle school. She doesn't remember the mom's husband's name because they always called him...Daddy. Team Mom Writes debates whether this is a weird thing, not a weird thing, or not even a thing at all. Abby was trying to...