Get Published Weekly Roundup: June 26, 2017

Book Barcode By Thepwnco [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Change made: from color to black and white.

Welcome to our third Get Published Weekly Roundup! This week we highlight a couple of agents answering your questions on Twitter, notices of approaching writing and submission deadlines, highlights from the past week’s Manuscript Wishlist, and a couple of helpful articles at the end.

We’d love to hear your feedback. Please let us know what you think in the comments and if there are certain types of information you would like to see in the Roundup. Also feel free to tweet at us (@freelancingrads) with any ideas or questions. Have a great writing week!

New Agents Hired

We found no more new hires for June… but we did find some agents answering questions on Twitter

Check out our first two Weekly Roundups from June 12 (click here) and June 19 (click here) for our lists of agents who were hired in June.

Instead, here are a couple of agents who offer spontaneous #askagent sessions on Twitter:

Dr. Uwe Stender is founder and president of Triada Literary. We have noticed that he is open to questions on Twitter on Fridays. In June he could be found answering questions on Friday, June 7th (3-7pm EDT), Friday, June 14th (5-6pm EDT), Thursday, June 20 (2-6pm EDT) – this he called an “impromptu session,” and Friday, June 21 (7-8pm EDT). This seems to be a spontaneous, generous offering so take advantage of it while he is still inclined to do it. Check out Triada Literary’s list of agents here, and how to submit to them here.

Follow Dr. Uwe Stender on Twitter @UweStenderPhD to get in on his next #askagent session (probably this Friday).

Justin Wells is an apprentice literary agent at the Corvisiero Literary Agency and he is currently open to queries in Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Historical Fiction, from Middle Grade through Adult. We’ve noticed that Justin has been on Twitter answering questions almost every day since June 20. He’s also just written an article in Writer’s Digest about the benefits of attending writing conferences (click here).

Follow Justin Wells on Twitter  to get in on his next #askagent session (from a tweet he sent today, he says he’ll be doing this the rest of the week).

Submission Deadlines

Writers, you have until next week:

Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers — Submissions due Friday, June 30 (Annual contest — $$ Award, possibility of publication, short story)

Who: Writers whose fiction has not appeared, nor is scheduled to appear, in a print publication with a circulation over 5,000. Entries must not have appeared in print, but previous online publication is fine.

What: Short story of up to 12,000 words, although most entries are in the 1,000—5,000-word range

Reading Fee: $18

To Submit: Online submission (click here) 

Richard J. Margolis Award — Submissions due Saturday, July 1st (Annual contest — $$ Award, one-month residency at Blue Mountain Center)

Who: New journalists or essayists whose work combines warmth, humor, wisdom, and a concern with social justice

What: Two examples of your work, published or unpublished, at least one example should be non-memoir material. A brief biographical note including current and future work interest, and what you would work on during residency at Blue Mountain Center

Entry Fee: $0

To Submit: Submission via email or hard copy. For guidelines and addresses, click here.

Mentees Helping Mentees Submission Package (query + 1st 10 pages) Critique Giveaway – Submissions due Sunday, July 2nd, 12 a.m. EDT. (Raffle – 7 categories, a separate raffle for each)

Who: Writers looking for help with their submissions material

What: Genre of your manuscript, and Twitter handle (Twitter account not necessary to enter or win)

Entry Fee: $0

To Submit: Entry using Facebook or email (click here)

What Agents Want

This Week on Manuscript Wishlist #MSWL…

Jennifer Chen Tran, Associate Agent at Fuse Literary
Jennifer tweeted that she is looking for “graphic memoirs that touch on medicine and healing,” in the vein of Pedro and Me and Mom’s CancerSource Tweet

Seeking in the following genres/categories:

Jennifer is only accepting unsolicited queries from online events such as #PitMad and #MSWL. So query her if you have a project that matches what she requested in her #MSWL tweet above.

“A distinct narrative voice is a must. A big plus for any stories that deal with ‘otherness’ and for authors who are not afraid to take emotional risks in their work.”

How to submit: Jennifer is accepting queries limited to online events such as #PitMad and #MSWL via email to queryjennifer@fuseliterary.comClick here to read the full submissions guidelines on the company website.

Follow Jennifer on Twitter @jenchentran.

Eric Smith, Associate Agent at the P.S. Literary Agency
Eric tweeted that he is seeking “diverse, geeky Young Adult love stories.” Perhaps, “brown kids smitten at Comic Con?”  Source Tweet

Seeking in the following genres/categories:

Young Adult, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Cookbooks, Blog to Book Ideas, Prescriptive Nonfiction, and Literary & Commerical Fiction (click here to see his manuscript wishlist page detailed descriptions of what he is looking for in each category)

Not looking for: Middle Grade or Picture Books, angel & demon love stories, Heaven/Hell stories, epics that are far over 100k+, non-fiction about sports or politics, thrillers about terrorism, commercial fiction about sports (exceptions made for sports in Young Adult)

“I’m fiercely passionate about YA books. You can also find me blogging about it on BookRiotBarnes & Noble’s Teen Reads, and Paste Magazine. If I talk about something on there, it means I love it.”

How to submit: Eric is accepting queries via email to query@psliterary.comClick here to read the full submissions guidelines on the company website.

Follow Eric on Twitter @ericsmithrocks & click here to check out his website. 

Whitley Abell, Agent at the Inklings Literary Agency *actively building her list*
Whitley tweeted that she is looking for “a book that warps mind blowing physics theories (ex, string theory, parallel universe) into wickedly smart story.” Source Tweet

Seeking in the following genres/categories:

Middle Grade: Contemporary, Magical Realism, Fantasy, Sci-Fi/Speculative, Adventure, and Historical

Young Adult: Commerical/Literary Contemporary, Historical, Magical Realism, Sci-Fi/Speculative, Thrillers, Mystery, and Horror

Select Commerical Fiction: Women’s Fiction and Fantasy

Not looking for: genre romance, crime, mysteries, or epic fantasy for adult audiences, picture books, poetry, non-fiction, new adult

How to submit: Whitley is accepting queries via email to query@inklingsliterary.com. Click here to read the full submissions guidelines on the company website.

Follow Whitley on Twitter  & click here to check out her website. 

Brent Taylor, Agent at TriadaUS
Brent tweeted that he is looking for “a beautiful author-illustrated Picture Book with a fresh & unique art style,” in the vein of Moe Bonneau’s: Source Tweet

Seeking in the following genres/categories:

Children’s: Picture Books, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Graphic Novels for kids and teens

How to submit: Brent is accepting queries via email to brent@triadaus.com. When querying Brent, he requests that you include the first ten pages in the body of the email and put “query” in the subject line. Click here to read the full submissions guidelines on the company website.

Follow Brent on Twitter .

Nicole Payne, Agent at Golden Wheat Literary
Nicole tweeted that she is “practically drooling for a sci-fi romance with a compelling story,” in the vein of Sense8 and In Your Eyes Source Tweet

Seeking in the following genres/categories:

Fiction: Romance, Mysteries, Contemporary, Suspense, Thriller, Speculative Fiction and Science fiction and fantasy (depending on the story).

How to submit: Nicole is accepting queries via email to submissions@GoldenWheatLiterary.comClick here to read the full submissions guidelines on the company website.

Follow Nicole on Twitter @tnicolepayne & click here to check out her website. 

Samantha Wekstein, Agent at Writer’s House
In response to @broodingYAhero who tweeted “It’s a well-known fact that the more kickass a Young Adult (YA) heroine is, the fewer female friends she has. Other girls distract from her awesomeness,” Nicole tweeted “the opposite of this. I’d love a kickass girl group. Female friendships are so important in YA, give them to me!” Source Tweet

Seeking in the following genres/categories:

Fiction: Romance, Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Juvenile Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women’s Fiction, New Adult

How to submit: Samantha is accepting queries via email to swekstein@writershouse.com. Send a query letter in the body of your email and the first chapter as an attachment.

Follow Samantha on Twitter @SWekstein & click here to check out her Publisher’s Marketplace member page.

Ejusdem Generis

  • Agents on Twitter (see here) have mentioned that word count can be a serious red flag for them when reading through submission materials. To check out this Writer’s Digest guide on word count for novels and children’s books, click here.
  • Are you writing a Middle Grade novel? Maria Vicente, Associate Agent at P.S. Literary Agency, will be offering a webinar Thursday, July 6th EDT called “Mastering Middle Grade: Writing, Revising, and Pitching your Middle Grade Manuscript.” The cost is $89.99 and includes a critique of your query letter and the first 1000 words of your manuscript if you sign up for the live webinar. 

Webinar Description: Mastering Middle Grade: Writing, Revising, and Pitching Your Middle Grade Manuscript covers the most important topics to keep in mind while writing and revising middle grade novels, as well as the process of writing a query letter that will effectively pitch your manuscript and entice literary agents. This webinar includes a live presentation, a Q&A session, a critique of your query letter and the first 1000 words of your manuscript, and downloadable worksheets that will help you write, revise, and pitch your manuscript long after the webinar is over. Even if you can’t attend the live webinar, registering for this live version will enable you to receive the On Demand webinar and a personal critique of your material. Purchasing the On Demand version after the live event will not include a critique. 

For more information and to purchase, click here.

  • Do you ever wonder if the photo you want to use in your blog or book is protected by copyright? Click here to check out a helpful post that includes an easy to use infographic to help you discern if you need to secure permissions for the images you’d like to use. 

Grad Student Freelancers (GSF) is dedicated to helping authors take care of the details of the publication process. Part of the process includes sifting through huge amounts of information to find important news, events, and tips that can give you an edge in the publication process. Every week GSF will provide three lists of curated information focused on helping writers get published. Our goal is to gather what’s important from the web in the past week, so you can focus more on your writing.  

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