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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.

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Laura Leffler's avatar

Yes I love these additions! Thank you!!!

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Caitlin Kunkel's avatar

As a humor writer, I recommend that fiction writers learn to write a McSweeney's-style piece, to your second point. First off, it's 750 words MAX, a delight, and the readers of that site love literary humor and would be inclined to search out your book if they like your short piece.

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Laura Leffler's avatar

Smarttttttt

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Lena Gilmour's avatar

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

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Emma Vail's avatar

argh the waiting is just endless...

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Faye Embry's avatar

Loving all these tips - just went on sub myself and the waiting is so tough….

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Laura Leffler's avatar

Congrats!!!!

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Maria Hanley's avatar

Great list. Thank you!

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Bruce Landay's avatar

Thanks for the pointers and hard lessons along the way!

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Liz Alterman's avatar

Great advice and I love your nail polish color!

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Laura Leffler's avatar

Ha, thank you! Coincidentally my galleys arrived the same day I had my first manicure in months ✨stars aligning✨

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Liz Alterman's avatar

Yes! Complements the cover perfectly!!

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Caitlin Kunkel's avatar

Um, why am I taking notes on your newsletter because it's SO HELPFUL??

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Laura Leffler's avatar

You just made my day Caitlin! 😍

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Andromeda Romano-Lax's avatar

All great advice!

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Amanda Karch's avatar

these are such great tips (especially the comp list!!)

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Paige Geiger's avatar

This is such great advice! I am waiting while querying and going to start working on these one by one. Thanks Laura!

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