Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Peggy Acott's avatar

What an incredibly helpful list - (and congratulations on your galleys!)

I would add a couple things to your list that has been helpful for me, lately:

1) along with bios and letters (smart idea, thank you) I would add honing essay-writing skills. I have heard that one might be called upon to provide a personal "craft essay" from time to time.

2) Practice/play with other forms of writing. Now that I am in the querying slog, I have found that going back to working with poetry has helped to stretch the writing muscle in some different directions, and lever me out of waiting purgatory. Or, change out the creative channel entirely - music? ceramics? - I recently revisited drawing and collage in a very fun and challenging workshop, which really helped to get me unstuck.

What I have discovered is that there is all these different "forms" of creativity feed and help inform, energize the others. Who knew? Not to mention a pleasant distraction. Now re-energized and with some new perspective, I am ready to wade back into the query trenches for the next round of submissions.

Thank you again for your generosity in letting us follow along on your publishing experiences.

Expand full comment
Lena Gilmour's avatar

This is SUCH helpful advice, Laura!! Thanks as always for your excellent insight - love this newsletter ❤️

Expand full comment
16 more comments...

No posts