✨Elba Iris Pérez on how writing contests can launch your career✨
Bianca, Carly, and CeCe critique two queries and then Bianca interviews Elba Iris Pérez. We link to a survey and a giveaway!
Hello lovely listeners! We’ve finally made it to February; anyone else feel like January was three years long? 🌟
In this week’s episode, Carly and CeCe critique two queries on Books with Hooks. Then, Bianca interviews Elba Iris Pérez 😍 We’ve also linked to a new giveaway from Readerly, and a very quick survey, which we’d really appreciate your participation in!
Don’t forget, we’ve launched a TSNOTYAW Membership Program so you can get even more The Shit No One Tells You About Writing goodness! Our podcast episodes and Friday newsletter issues will continue to go out free of charge (we *love* sharing all this amazing content with writers like you). But as TSNOTYAW has grown, so too have the many, many hours our team pours into it, and in order to be able to keep showing up for our lovely listeners, we decided to launch this exciting new venture.
For just $8USD a month or $80USD a year, you can receive our paid newsletter on Tuesdays which features weekly bonus author Q&As, exclusive content from industry experts, weekly access to Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra’s written notes on queries from the podcast’s Books With Hooks feature, monthly bonus podcast episodes, AND regular Ask Me Anythings / Q&As with Carly, CeCe, and Bianca Marais. If that doesn’t kickstart your writing journey, we don’t know what will!
Thanks for reading ❤️
The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team
This Week’s Podcast✨🎙️✨
In this week’s 📕Books with Hooks🪝, Bianca, Carly and CeCe critique an upmarket/southern-gothic query and a book club romance. They discuss
A "perfect" first query paragraph; the importance of accurate framing in a query
When a content warning is necessary
Tips for elevating your line level writing along with examples of sophisticated writing
Writing protagonists' thoughts in a realistic way
Mistakes writers make that make their writing appear less polished, and
Examples of how to build curiosity into your pages
After which, Bianca interviews Elba Iris Pérez, debut author of The Things We Didn't Know. They discuss:
Elba's winning of the Simon and Schuster "Books Like Us" award and Elba's subsequent journey to publication
The benefit of taking writing courses
Writing magazines as good resources for finding contests
Immersing readers in scenes that are unfamiliar to them, and
Writing children in first person in a convincing manner
More information about Elba can be found here, or you can connect with her on Twitter!
You can purchase The Things We Didn’t Know on our Bookshop.org affiliate page here. Buying books through this link supports a local indie bookstore, as well as The Shit No One Tells You About Writing 📚❤️
Giveaway From Readerly 😍
See what it’s like to have a Book Coach! Enter to win a First 5000 Word Review from Robin at Readerly Book Coaching. Find out what is working in your novel and what might need a rethink. She will analyze the opening and synopsis for plot, reader engagement, characterization, and more. This prize includes a 45-minute coaching call to go over the review.
More information can be found here. Don’t miss out on this amazing giveaway! Thanks, Robin 🥰
Q&A and Comp Requests are Back ❤️🌟
Now that the holiday season is over, TSNOTYAW is once again accepting question and comp requests! Call and leave us a 60 second message (an exercise in being concise 😅) either asking a publishing/writing related question, or requesting a comp for your novel! Carly and CeCe will answer your questions, and the lovely Emilie Sommer will give you comps that’ll bring your query letter to the next level— she’s the comp master 😍 Give us as much detail as you can, so that we can do our best to assist you on your writing journey ❤️ Further details and the link to leave a message are here.
A Quick Survey 🤓📈
In order to make sure we're getting the best podcast sponsors for you, we'd love for you to take 1 minute to fill out a quick demographic survey.
That’s all for this week’s news! If you enjoyed it, why not share the love? 🥰
Until next week, happy writing! Sending you luck and inspiration for your writing journey! 😍
❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team
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Great show as always! I was excited to have Massachusetts get a shout out from Ms. Perez. As a lifelong MA resident, I have never heard of Orinoco, MA. Is it a small village within a city or town? Thank you for sharing your journey to publication! 🙏