New Spin: Celebrating the Release of “Battle Bunny”

Imagine taking a sweet picture book about cats and then altering it completely – crossing out and penciling in new text, drawing over the illustrations and scribbling laser beams that shoot out from the cat’s eyes with a permanent marker. Back when we were wildly imaginative kids, we did this to books all the time…. Read more »

What I Learned About The Evolution of Story With Lisa Cron

Lisa Cron is the author of WIRED FOR STORY: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers From the Very First Sentence, and her video tutorial Writing Fundamentals: The Craft of Story can be found at Lynda.com. She’s worked in publishing at W.W. Norton, as an agent at the Angela Rinaldi Literary Agency,… Read more »

What I Learned About Reading Like a Writer from Erin Harris

Erin Harris is a literary agent at Folio Literary Management who represents literary and book club fiction, YA, and narrative non-fiction. Her clients include Times Magazine contributor Carla Power, New Criterion editor David Yezzi, and debut novelists Daniel Levine and Jennifer Laam. Erin received her MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. Outside of… Read more »

Writing Across Genres: Q&A With Kat Martin

We are pleased to host New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin, focuses on romantic suspense in her novels. Her newest book AGAINST THE MARK–the ninth installment of the AGAINST series– releases today! Romance Reviews says of the AGAINST series, “Every book in this series is excellent with hot romance and murder.” You can find Martin’s… Read more »

Reading and Studying Mentor Texts

Most writers are readers. We grew up absorbed in books. I was one of those kids who grew up without a television, so I was reading a book a day on average.  I still read a lot now, but unfortunately, I don’t absorb good writing technique automatically. I have to be deliberate about it. I… Read more »

Announcing New Reading Resources at DIY MFA

Writers must be readers first. In fact, we could argue that reading just as important as writing. According to Stephen King, ‘If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” And we couldn’t agree more. To that end, we’ve put together a go-to list of DIY MFA articles about… Read more »

The Art of Giving Up on Books

The art of giving up on books is something I have practiced in short seasons for two years now. I never would have done it before, because books are sacred and I had convictions about finishing each one before I moved on. Practical reasons compelled me to betray those convictions. And I think you should… Read more »

Writer’s Guide to Book Expo

Tomorrow publishers, booksellers, writers and industry professionals gather in New York City for one of the most most magical–not to mention, massive–events of the book industry year. Book-lovers rush in droves toward that glorious concrete behemoth overlooking the Hudson River (AKA the Javits Center), united by a passion for the written word and the hope… Read more »

What Writers Can Learn from Children’s Books

Today I am so excited to be hosting literary agent, Mary Kole. Aside from her role as Senior Literary Manager at Movable Type Management, Mary is also the mastermind behind the website KidLit.com where she shares tons of excellent information for writers. While her primary focus is children’s books (affectionately called “KidLit” by those in… Read more »