Agents

Author (& Agent) Interview: Caroline George

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Pen Friends ~ You are in for a treat! We have the lovely Caroline George, both an agent and YA author, with us today for an inspiring and insightful interview talking about her upcoming book, Dearest Josephine, her 3 book-deal with Harper Collins/TN, social media, agent life and the hardcore pursuit of writing!

Caroline's Headshot

SP: Hi Caroline! I’m so excited to have you -for the second time- on the Spinning Pen! And, with more amazing news! Congrats on your 3-book deal with Harper Collins/TNZ! Before we get into all the new juicy book stuff, here is  Caroline’s new bio:  Continue reading →

The Querying Show, Episode 2- The First Rejection

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Welcome to The Querying Show’s First Episode!

Each week for the next six months you will witness every juicy (or completely stagnant) detail of our SP Staff Member’s querying life in the SLUSH PILE!

(Check out our rules and reasons in our intro post here!)

Will CR’s/Write_Or_Left achieve AGENT success? Or will it result with a querying and MS reboot? Dying to know? Follow us to see how Write_Or_Left ‘s querying journey will end up!

Today is the 2nd week of CR’s journey. Let’s check in our with brave querying fellow and see how things are progressing. (Click below for Episode 1.) Continue reading →

The Querying Show – A Fishtank View of SP Staff Member Querying

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Pen Friends ~

Did you know that the success rate through querying through the slush pile is less than 1%? Does anyone else feel intimidated by this number?

How would you like to see an up close & personal FISH TANK view of one of our staff members querying in the slush pile? Witness his joy of requests and his disappointment of rejections? Witness him get an agent or end in utter despair? (Lol. Sorry.  We’re more hopeful than that.)

At The Spinning Pen most of us are part of private writing groups that share our querying (and submission) ups and downs. We journey together until that special day of celebration comes when we signed with an agent or editor or publisher! Often, without our group’s support, encouragement, answering questions, and persevering alongside each other, it would have been a lot harder.

So we thought, What if we journey with you all? LIVE. WEEKLY. WE’LL BE OPEN. VULNERABLE. EMBARRASSED. CELEBRATE. Together? Continue reading →

How I Got My Agent, Guest Post by Ellen McGinty

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Lately, a lot of my friends are doing these “I got an agent” posts. I love hearing their stories. But if you haven’t got there. If your critique partners haven’t got there. It’s OKAY. Where is “there” anyway?

Go climb mountains.

Tear down lies.

Celebrate life NOW.

And yes, I can say that with two kids under five, hay fever stalking my house, and depression howling like the wind. This is a journey. It’s a loooong one and I need lembas bread, not just potatoes. Continue reading →

How to Find Your Way in the Realm of Traditional Publishing

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How to Find Your Way in the Realm of Traditional Publishing | The Spinning Pen

Once upon a time…

…there was a group of young and promising writers. They had great ideas, finished manuscripts, and starry eyes filled with hope of Bestseller’s Lists. The only question was, what should they do next?

Our intrepid writers set out to explore their options: should they go indie and self-publish, or try the traditional publishing route? While a couple members of the group chose to investigate the self-publishing path, this narrator decided to follow the group who went toward the traditional path first. (Check in with the indie group here!)

Continue reading →

How to Find the Right Literary Agent

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pexels-photo-165226-mediumHow to find The One.

If you have no clue about how to find the right agent, go on this journey with me to find the one…

I want to develop a career as an author, say, for the next 30 years, so I’ll want to take researching an agent seriously. It’s not as easy as buying a pair of new shoes or I’d have one already, but it’s not as involved as getting married –somewhere in between. And, with all relationships, there is a bit of risk involved, but there are also ways to narrow down the search to agents that seem like a good fit.

So. Where do I start? With agents that represent books I like and genres I write.

I read about them on query tracker and publishers market places, writers blogs, and interviews. I do the research. Make sure their agency is legit/established and operates with integrity. Find out if the agent has a good track record. Pubrants has great thoughts on this.

Go deeper. I reflect.

Continue reading →