Don't Say It: 15 things that should never be in your query

Before we get down to business, let's stop for a second and celebrate. This is my 100th post at YAtopia!

So we're talking about pitching this month at YAtopia (Just in time for Pitch Wars, too!). Rae Chang and I were just chatting on twitter about what phrases in queries are giant red flags for us. Some of these may seem obvious, but I guarantee anyone who has read slush has seen them more than a few times.

If you find yourself writing any of these phrases into your query, it may be a simple matter of ... you know, not writing them. However, some of these might require some research and maybe an attitude adjustment.

1) "All the YA books out there are poorly written, but mine is different" or some variation thereof

Well. Check out the ego on this guy.

Don't write in a genre/category you don't respect. Period. This may be a matter of you not reading widely enough in your genre, which is easily fixed. Otherwise, it's a lack of respect for the genre/category itself, in which case, why are you bothering? If you believe everything on the shelves in a well-established genre/category is trash, find another genre/category.

2) Putting down literary agents, whether as a group or individuals.

We all know the agent-publisher system is slow and frustrating. However, it's the best we have and we're just all trying to work within it. Why some people think it's okay to complain about literary agents' "greed" or response time or judgement or whatever while also asking those agents to represent them - I will never understand.

3) "There's nothing like this on the market"

Yes there is and I can name ten examples off the top of my head. Again, read more widely in your chosen genre; you don't know your market well enough.

Unless this is literally true, in which case, it's probably unpublishable. Hey, a guy in my first writing group tried to convince me that not having a single piece of punctuation for 9 pages was perfectly fine in commercial fiction (yep, not even literary or experimental).

HOWEVER, every time I've seen this in a query, it's been the former, not the latter.

4) "My book will appeal to readers of Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Divergent, Twilight, and Jane Austen."

Sure it will, Sparky.

If you can't find comp titles that aren't mega-bestsellers, you (say it with me, I'm going to be saying it a lot) don't know your market well enough.

And you really have to love the authors who are just a little bit bolder and say things like "this book is the next Harry Potter, a guaranteed bestseller."

Listen, not even Harry Potter was the next Harry Potter when it was pitched. Nobody knows whether or not a book will take off like that. Keep your expectations reasonable.

5) "I've loved books since I was five years old when..."

This isn't a turn-off so much as it's ... boring. Loving books doesn't make you special in this industry, so saying this in a query is a waste of ink/electrons. If you don't have a lot to put in the "bio" section of the query, that really is totally fine! You can actually leave it out if you don't have anything beneficial to add there. The book is the most important thing.

6) Drop the cliches

As much as you can, eliminate cliches from your query letter. You have such a short space to show how your book is unique, why would you want to use phrases that we see all the time? Things like "so-and-so was just a normal girl until..." and "will never be the same" and "more than he bargained for" and "an incredible journey" and "falls into the wrong hands" and "to make matters worse" and "will change everything" will make experienced query readers roll their eyes.

7) Your age

It doesn't matter and all it can do is create subconscious bias.

8) That your friends/family love the book

Of course they do. My friends loved the first book I wrote. And it was absolute crap. (Not saying yours is, but I'm saying the opinions of your friends/family (or even your old English teacher) will not sway an agent/editor.)

9) Personal information about the agent

Knowing professional information (the agent's clients & the books they've sold) is great. But when you mention anything that doesn't have to do with the agent's professional career, you've crossed a line. Stalking is a real thing that many agents have to worry about, so there's no reason to raise a red flag like this.

10) "Dear Agent"

Write out their name. To the agent, lack of personalization in the greeting, means that you are mass emailing every agent for whom you could find an email address.

11) "Fictional novel"

All novels are, by definition, fictional.

12) "doesn't really fit in a genre"

If your book sells, it's going to have to go on a shelf somewhere. Pick the closest thing so I know roughly what to expect.

And tbh, most of the time this is said, the book fits perfectly into a genre, which tells me you know don't your market very well.

13) First person POV from your character.

It's often creepy, but sometimes it's just confusing and clunky. All book and character descriptions should be in 3rd person present tense, no matter what the book is in.

14) Rhetorical questions

You are not the exception to this rule. Don't do it. Just don't. Please, trust us on this. They don't work.

15) "trend" and "diversity" in the same sentence.

Diversity is not a trend.
Diversity is not a trend.

Diversity is not a trend.

Diversity is not a trend.

Diversity is not a trend.

Diversity is not a trend.

Diversity is not a trend.

Diversity is not a trend.

Diversity is not a trend.

Diversity is not a trend.

While we're at it, you didn't write "an LGBT novel" unless you have lesbians, gay people, bisexual people, AND trans people represented in the book. You probably wrote a f/f romance or a novel featuring a trans character, etc. 

10 Tips for an Outstanding Query (Plus win a query critique!) #pitchwars

People think I'm crazy when I say this, but I LOVE query letters. I love writing them, I love editing them, I love reading them. When I worked for a publisher, reading queries was my favorite part! With #pitchwars coming up and the workshop on query writing I just taught at my local library, I've been thinking a lot about queries lately.

My fellow YAtopian Lori covered the 10 basics to writing a query in her March post. Once you've mastered the basics, here are some of my tips for making your query letter really zing.

1: Infuse Voice

If your book is funny or voice-y in any way, a dry query is not going to do your book justice. It can sometimes be hard to do this without seeming gimmicky or cheesy, but a few well-chosen words or phrases can breathe true life into your query.

Author Elana Johnson presents one method that will help you infuse voice into your query. (Read that post! It's a great trick!)

One of the lines in my query for Dragons are People, Too was: "...the Commander In Chief himself has the balls to ask her to launch a secret rescue mission..." Anyone who has read DAPT can tell you that certainly sounds exactly the way Kitty would paraphrase the situation.

2: Your MC Must Act

... in every sentence of the query. You use maybe ten sentences to describe your book, right? If your character is a passenger in any of those sentences, she is seen as passive, just letting things happen to her. Your character should drive the story, not the other way around - and this needs to be true in the query as well.

Speaking of action...

3: Use Strong, Specific Verbs

List the verbs in your query separate from everything else. If you spot any "to be" verbs or any other word that kinda bores you, see what you can do to eliminate those. See how I said "eliminate" instead of "get rid of?" The latter was in my first draft. See how much fiercer of a verb "eliminate" is?

Some recent edits I've made in queries (mine and others'):

"gives him his power" --> "imbues him with power"

"when she finds out the truth" --> "when she uncovers the truth"

4: Cut the Cliches

"His world will never be the same again."

"She must make the most difficult decision of her life."

"He gets more than he bargained for."

These phrases can describe thousands of books. Find the sentences that can describe only your book. What makes your book unique?

Rule of thumb: If you have ever heard a phrase or sentence used to describe another book or a movie, see if you can re-word to make it more specific. Sometimes you can't, but most of the time you can.

5: Conflict and Stakes

The two most important questions a query answers are: What (specifically) is standing in the way of your character getting what he wants? What (specifically) happens if he doesn't get it? Do not let your query end without showing us the answers to these questions.

6: Keep Your Ego in Check

Chip MacGregor just posted on Facebook that he received a query with the sentence, "This is the most important book that can ever be written for the benefit of everyone." This is a bit of an extreme example, but you'd be surprised how many queries contain similar statements.

Look, your book is probably not going to be as successful as Harry Potter. Maybe you will, you never know. But saying that in a query is a red flag that we're dealing with either erroneously high expectations or a egomaniac.

And if you say that your book is better than all the other books in your genre/subgenre, an agent is just going to assume you either haven't read widely in your genre or you have no respect for it. Either way, it's not a good sign for the quality of your work.

7: Raise Questions without Asking Them

We all know rhetorical questions are big no-no in querying.

Right?

But you can raise questions without putting a question mark to paper.

A line from my query: "Kitty soon discovers that no one’s loyalties lay where they should – or at least where she wants them to."

Questions this line raises in the reader's mind: Who betrays Kitty? Everyone? In what way? How do Kitty's priorities differ from what "should" be?

Even though I would never actually ask those questions on paper, I am guiding the reader towards asking herself those questions. And the only way to get those questions answered? Read the book. (Cue evil laugh!)

8: Know What to Omit

Sub-plots. Characters that don't drive the plot. Weird words/concepts that slow the reader down. Exclamation points. "Fiction novel."

Self-deprecation. Irrelevant personal information. Politics. Religion (unless for a religious book). Jokes. Your age. Comments about the state of the industry or market. Agent's personal information or comments on their appearance. How long it took you to write the book. Your query history. Editorializing. Attachments (unless requested).

Leave it out.

9: Emulate the Greats

Go to a bookstore and read the back cover copy of many books and pick the five that most appeal to you. Study them, pick them apart. Take a close look at word choice, especially, and tone and sentence structure. Try to figure out what, exactly grabbed you and how it was crafted. Then, copy those techniques (not the words!).

10: Remember the Purpose of a Query

I think too many writers overthink queries because we focus so much on The Rules and the "Dos and Don'ts" and lose focus on the one and only thing a query is supposed to do.

The only thing your query has to do, the whole reason for its very existence is this:

To make the reader want to read the book. 

That's it. That's all you have to do.

I know, I know. Easier said than done.


If you are ready to query, make sure to check out Pitch Wars, coming soon!

And to make things just a little bit easier for someone, I'm giving away a query critique! Check out the Rafflecopter below.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Essential 10: The Synopsis

Before I begin, I have to take a very quick moment to say: MY BOOK IS OUT!

This is my first post since the release of Becoming Jinn on April 21, and I want to thank everyone for their support! It's been a long, two-year road, to get to this point. Along the way I've met so many amazing writers and readers who have helped pass the time, including everyone writing for and reading this blog. So thank you! I'm thrilled that Azra is finally in readers' hands and it's been an incredible couple of weeks!

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming!

For the past two months, I’ve focused on two key elements of a query submission package: the query and the first page. This month, I tackle arguably the hardest element: the synopsis.

Truth time: I am not expert on any of this, but especially not on the synopsis. It’s hard for me and it’s hard for most writers, even ones with multiple books under their belts. It’s a necessary evil, and the best we can all do is minimize our complaining (minimize, not end) and just dive in. 

So here we go: top 10 tips for writing a synopsis.

1. Third person, present tense. Regardless of how your novel is written, write the synopsis in third person, present tense.

2. Names in all caps. Character’s names are written in all caps on first mention so they can be easily picked out.

3. Include the ending. Unlike a query pitch, you must include the ending in a synopsis. The purpose is for the agent to see if you have completed the story and character arcs, and the only way to do that is to spill it all.

4. Just the highlights. Pretend you are telling friends this story over dinner. Pick a movie and describe it in this way. You’ll find yourself easily skipping over parts and embellishing others. You need to do the same with your novel, which is hard because you are so close to it. But that means you have to…

5. Cut, cut, cut. There is not room to tell every thread and every subplot. There may not be room to tell every twist, to include every character. Be brutal. Pick the main plot and ensure you tell it from start to end in a clear, focused manner but don’t leave out the...

6. Emotion, emotion, emotion. Synopses, by design, focus on plot. This runs the risk of leaving out how your character feels about everything that’s happening. Use the character’s emotions as a way to advance the plot that you are telling.

7. Tell the full character arc. The conflict, the stakes, and how the conflict is resolved much be clear.

8. Length. Advice varies. The best I can recommend is always having a one-page synopsis. That way if the agent specifies such length, you are prepared. If you feel you need a longer one, and it is better than the one-pager (which it may not be…often shorter is better), then have one that’s no longer than three pages. You should be adequately prepared by having both in your query arsenal.

9. Don’t forget the writing. Make it energetic and lively. It may not be the place to showcase your fabulous prose, but ensure it’s good, active, and as engaging as possible.

10. Expert advice. Follow the steps written by my Feiwel and Friends editorial sister, Marissa, Meyer, author of the Lunar Chronicles, who sums it up much better than I could!  

With that, you should now have all the tips you need to write a successful query, first page, and synopsis. The only thing you have to do is remember to enjoy it—at least a little!

Lori Goldstein is the author of Becoming Jinn (Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan, now available!!, sequel, Spring 2016). With a degree in journalism and more than 10 years of experience, Lori is a freelance copyeditor and manuscript consultant for all genres. She focuses on the nitty-gritty, letting writers focus on the writing.

Twitter

Author Web site

Goodreads

Facebook

The Essential 10: The First Page

Last month, I started a series on perfecting your submission package for querying. I started with ten tips on how to write a better query letter, and this month I’m focusing on how to craft a first page that works—meaning it entices the agent to read more. That’s all a first page has to do. Sounds much simpler than it is.

And believe me, I’m speaking from experience. When I wrote Becoming Jinn, which releases in a mere 17 days (cue panic attack! . . . and cue shameless plug: I'm running a signed bookmark and $5-$50 gift card giveaway if you preorder or buy by April 25! Details here), I spent a long time on the opening of my novel. I thought it worked. It didn’t. I found that out when I got passed over in many contests. Everyone thought the hook was great, but the first page didn’t live up to it. After participating in the terrific First Five Pages Workshop (which if you don’t know about, I urge you to find out about and participate in!), I realized that my novel was starting in the wrong place.

I had too much scene setting, too much world building, too much *yawn* slowness. I took what was Chapter 3 and reworked it to be Chapter 1. The inciting incident now happens on page 1. This was not easy. This took me weeks, during which I wanted to give up, thought it’d never be good enough, thought everyone was asking too much of me.

They weren’t asking too much; they were asking just enough. Because it is with that new first page that I started to have success. In contests and in querying. And that first page is still the exact same first page of Becoming Jinn. Through revisions with my agent and with my editor, not a word changed. Hard work pays off may be a cliché, but it’s also true.

Here are my tips, based on both my own experience and the numerous critiques I’ve done over the past couple of years, on how to craft a first page that works.

1. Don’t be a stickler for the “rules.” This may sound funny as here I am giving you “rules” in the form of tips. But the rules I’m talking about are the ones that say 100% don’t do this or 100% do that. Because rules like that can never apply to all stories. When I reworked my first page, do you know what happened? The novel started with—gasp!—a character waking up. One of the things we are told to “never” do. But my character did and still does. Why is it “okay”? The answer is simple: because it’s core to the story. It’s the inciting incident for her story problem. It’s where her story begins. The “rules” about not starting with a character waking up or with the weather shouldn’t be taken so literally. What the rule is trying to imply is this: don’t start with the mundane. Don’t have a character wake up, get out of bed, see that it’s raining, take a shower, dry off, eat breakfast, etc. and THEN actually do something. We get it; we all wake up and shower (most of us) and eat breakfast. We don’t need to see that happen to accept that it does happen. Get to what’s core to your story and if happens to happen in the shower or when the alarm clock goes off, that’s okay. Just make sure it’s the absolute best place to start and you can be a rule breaker too.

2. Give us a whopper of a first line. This is subjective, right? Yes and no. Because when we all see a great first line, we know it. When we see a mediocre one, we know that too. The first line must catch the reader’s attention by surprising them, by giving tremendous voice, or by incredible writing. There are many ways to craft a first line, but the ultimate goal is to leave the reader with no choice but to read on. However….

3. Starting with dialogue is tricky. This isn’t a rule but is more like a caution. You can start with dialogue, and it can work. But that dialogue has to be very targeted, specific, and follow tip number 2, which is to catch the reader’s attention. Consider the difference between starting a book with this:

“I have no idea what to wear,” I say to my BFF, as I rifle through my closet before my big date. (from my boring brain)

And this:

“Dad’s dead,” Wendy says offhandedly, like it’s happened before. (from Jonathan Tropper’s This Is Where I Leave You)

In both instances, we have the quintessential problem with starting with dialogue: which is that we don’t yet know the characters who are speaking and as such it is hard to care about what they have to say. It’s hard for the dialogue to mean anything or matter to us this early on. However, the second example is so damn good and compelling and shocking that not knowing the characters doesn’t matter one bit. It catches our attention. It does what a great first line should do.

4. Introduce your main character. This isn’t a deal breaker. A first page doesn’t have to introduce your main character, but if it doesn’t, there should be a very good reason for that. Your main character is who we will be following in this story, and the earlier we get to say “hi” to them, the better.

5. Give us or be leading to the inciting incident. As I said, my inciting incident happens on page 1. The same is true for a lot of books. This isn’t a necessity, so long as you are leading us to that inciting incident. We need to understand why your story starts today, not yesterday, and not tomorrow. What is different about today? While there is good advice that says we need to know a character’s world before the inciting incident, that doesn’t mean we want pages and pages of the character’s world before something happens. You can give a lot of hints and clues to a character’s “before” quickly and efficiently. And then you fill in as the story, and the inciting incident, plays out.

6. Hint at the story problem. This ties into the inciting incident tip above. And while it is very difficult and not necessary to give us the full extent of the character’s story problem, hinting at it through tone, attitude, or your character’s reaction to that inciting incident is all we need to latch on and keep reading.

7. Action. Action doesn’t mean a car crash or an explosion. All it means is your character must be doing something. This harkens back to tip number 1. Eating cereal is technically an action, but it’s not an action that’s going to make me want to keep reading. Unless there’s a diamond ring at the bottom of the bowl and the character swallows the engagement ring her fiancé not-so-wisely dropped in and she’s rushed to the ER where she realizes this guy is a doofus and she cannot marry him. See how we started with an action that led to an inciting incident that led to her story problem? All by eating cereal.

8. Be wary of flashbacks. Starting in the wrong place is a problem for many first pages, and a quick start and segue way into a flashback may be a sign of that. If that incident in the past is so important, why not start there?

9. Understand the pressure. What I mean by this is that there is a lot riding on your first page. A scene that may be perfectly fine later in the book may not cut it for the first page. The weight of your entire manuscript sits on the foundation of your first page. It simply has to be great. Not okay, not “enough to get by” until you get to the “good stuff.” It has to be the good stuff; it has to be the great stuff.

10. Above all else, voice. Here’s one rule I’m sure is true: you can ignore everything else I’ve just said if you write a first page that drips with voice. How do you do that? Why, funny you asked. Check out my series on voice right here on YAtopia!

Next month, I tackle what many consider the worst part of the submissions package: the synopsis. *shudders*

Lori Goldstein is the author of Becoming Jinn (now available for preorder; Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan, April 21, 2015, sequel, Spring 2016). With a degree in journalism and more than 10 years of experience, Lori is a freelance copyeditor and manuscript consultant for all genres. She focuses on the nitty-gritty, letting writers focus on the writing.

Twitter

Author Web site

Goodreads

Facebook

The Essential 10: The Query Letter

Great story idea? Check. Terrific writing? Check. Requests from agents? Goose egg? Near goose egg?

Before you toss that manuscript in a drawer, I want you to take a look at your submission package, which consists of three very important pieces: the query, the first page, and the synopsis.

If you’re querying, about to start querying, or hope to query in the future, this three-part series on getting yourself in tip-top shape is for you.

Necessary disclaimer: I am not an agent. I don’t claim to know all there is to know about writing the perfect query, first page, or synopsis. What I do have is my own experience, what I know has worked for others, and some perspective. As a Pitch Wars mentor for the past two years, I’ve read a lot of queries, first pages, and synopses. And I recently critiqued an abundance of queries and first pages as part of a preorder campaign I conducted for my debut Becoming Jinn (Macmillan, April 21, 2015).

With many of the same problems popping up over and over again, I wanted to share some essential tips for creating the strongest query package you can.

This month I tackle the query.

The Essential 10

1. Query the right agent. Don’t ignore this advice. It’s probably the most crucial element of querying. Agents aren’t being mean or narrow-minded if they say they only represent romance or young adult contemporaries. They say this because their job is to sell your work. And in order to do so, they must be aware of what editors want to buy. It would be quite a feat to know and have relationships with all editors in all genres at all publishing houses. It’s simply not possible. So if they say they only represent certain categories, believe them. Don’t think yours will be the exception because it’s just that good. It might be (I hope it is!), but it doesn’t matter. If the agent only knows editors who buy self-help books, he or she can’t sell your picture book. It’s a basic fact. If you adhere to this rule, you’ll cut down on the rejections in your inbox (as well as the irrelevant ones in agent’s inboxes!).

2. Personalize. How can you assure agents you are following tip number 1? By personalizing the query letter. You should be taking the time to research all the agents you are querying. If you are, then following this tip is easy because you’ve already read about them on their Web site, read interviews with them on some place like Literary Rambles, or checked them out on Agent Query. You know the genres they represent and the authors and books on their list. Which means you can kick off your letter with something akin to the following:

"Dear Agent,

Having read on Literary Rambles that you are looking for stories about sea creatures, I believe my 75,000-word Young Adult fantasy, MONSTERS OF THE ATLANTIC, may appeal to you."

Starting this way has the bonus of giving context to the pitch you are able to lead into. While I know there is mixed advice on this, with some saying to end with personalization, I’m a firm believer in starting with it—if it’s short like this. Knowing the title and genre do wonders for understanding the pitch and I think any negatives are easily outweighed.

3. Don’t forget the details. Your query is the first time you meet a blind date, a friend’s parents, your potential boss. It’s a first impression and the details matter.  They include:

• All book titles are written in all caps.
• Include the word count (rounded up, not 73,489).
• Include the category (Adult, NA YA, MG, PB) and genre (fantasy; science fiction; romance; etc.). Resist the urge to create new genres. Your work will fit in one of the existing, I promise.
• Don’t use throwaway words. The query is a writing sample. If it’s not good enough, agents won’t move on to your first page. Treat every sentence and every word in the pitch with the same care that you do your novel. That means not using the same word repeatedly, not using “look” when “ransack” is better, and of course, not having spelling, grammar, or other errors. Read your query over—many times. Ask someone else to read it over. And then you read it over again. And again.

4. Ground the pitch. One of the biggest issues in query pitches centers on the idea of grounding the reader. Remember that we are newbies. We have no idea if your book is set on this planet, in this time, has twelve POVs or one. Including the title, world count, and genre as I suggest above is one way to begin the grounding. But continue it by ensuring in your first couple of sentences that you give the reader a sense of what this world is. It can be done (and should be done) subtly with details sprinkled in that give us a clue, like if the character is in high school or lives on a spaceship. We understand the world via the details you include so you don’t have to “info dump.”

5. Be specific. Queries should tell the plot—and the specifics of your plot. With so many stories out there, agents need to know what’s unique about yours. To say someone faces a challenge or screws up is way too general. What challenge do they face? How do they screw up? Give us character, conflict, and stakes. We should know what your character’s story problem is. We should understand what he or she wants, the obstacles in his or her way, and what will happen if he or she doesn’t achieve this goal. Think of going up to the 25% point of the novel and then…

6. End with a zinger, not a cliché. Aren’t all YA novels coming-of-age stories when you get down to it? Aren’t all novels about a character facing a decision or a challenge? Instead of saying, “Will Mary find love?”—and, please, avoid the question form if at all possible—say, “Mary faces the choice of following the love of her life on a rocket ship to Mars or nursing her ailing father through the flesh-eating virus that’s slowly killing him.” End it with specifics, be as enticing as you can, and make the agent HAVE to read your novel.

7. Drop the cutesy. Agents read hundreds of queries a week. I assure you, an excess of puns, exclamation points, or “fun” facts about you that have nothing to do with the writing, get old fast. Unless you are a master of it, don’t try.

8. Ditto for the self-deprecating. Don’t welcome them to tear your work apart. Don’t tell them you know it could be better. Don’t apologize for your writing, for being a debut author, or being new to the writing world. Owning your work shows that you have confidence in it. Because if you don’t, why should anyone else?

9. Just the facts. Don’t be worried if your bio is short. It’s better to keep it to what’s directly relevant to writing or the manuscript’s topic than to try to pump your bio up by including references to the chapter book you wrote when you were seven or the instructions you wrote up for your husband on how to program the TIVO. There’s nothing wrong with being a new writer. In your bio, give your education or work background if it relates to writing or the novel itself. For example, if you are a nurse and your book is set in a hospital, that’s relevant. If you once spent the night in the ER, that’s not.

10. Closing remarks. Show that you understand an agent’s time matters. Don’t ask them to send you feedback. If they do, great. If not, never send an e-mail back asking for it. End your query with something along the lines of:

"Thank you for your time and consideration. I would be happy to send you a full or partial manuscript upon request."

Bonus 11: Overall, be professional. An agent is choosing to represent you as much as your work. And that means, never badmouth another author or book. It’s in poor taste in any context. But beyond that, here, in a query, understand that this publishing world is very small. You very well might be trashing that agent’s client, best friend, or colleague. Be professional above all else. Who knows? If you are, and your work isn’t right for this agent, you increase the chances of them passing you along to someone else or maybe asking to see your next work.

Join me next month for tips on the first page and the following month for a look at the dreaded synopsis.

Lori Goldstein is the author of Becoming Jinn (now available for preorder; Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan, April 21, 2015, sequel, Spring 2016). With a degree in journalism and more than 10 years of experience, Lori is a freelance copyeditor and manuscript consultant for all genres. She focuses on the nitty-gritty, letting writers focus on the writing.

Twitter

Author Web site

Goodreads

Facebook