✨Vanessa Walters on why you need to trust what "makes writing fun for you"✨
Plus: More practical and inspiring insights to make your queries shine courtesy of The Query Lab, our Q&A video in which the hosts answer all your burning questions, May's bonus episode—and more!
Happy Friday, writing friends!
We hope you’ve all had a productive enough week that you feel you can tear yourself away from those WIPs to spend some time with us today. This week’s newsletter and podcast are jam-packed, so before you settle in, grab yourself a fresh cup of coffee/tea/your beverage of choice (it’s twelve o’clock somewhere—we won’t judge!) and get ready to have your writerly minds expanded…
First up on the podcast, Bianca, Carly and CeCe share their thoughts on the risks of opening your book in the past as they discuss a listener’s query for a book club fiction manuscript, after which Carly talks to playwright and author of The Lagos Wife Vanessa Walters, who has some words of wisdom (and comfort) for all our aspiring authors out there.
It’s also time once again for our monthly bonus episode, this time featuring Bianca in conversation with Courtney Preiss about her journey to publication with her debut novel, Welcome Home, Caroline Kline, and bookseller extraordinaire Emilie Sommer is back with more helpful comp title ideas for you.
But wait! There’s more! We’ve got another round of The Query Lab and this month’s Q&A, with Bianca, Carly and CeCe answering nine intriguing listener questions on topics ranging from what to do when your novel’s hook turns out not to be as novel as you’d thought, to querying memoirs, parting ways with your agent—and more (including a question we’ve never been asked before)!
Plus: More great learning opportunities, the final day to enter our giveaways, and a special price on a special book (Editor’s Note: Bianca would never call it that herself, of course, but I was promised editorial autonomy, so...😉 Go grab yourself a copy of The Witches of Moonshyne Manor now, while it’s still only $2.99!).
Still want more? Don’t forget we offer our 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 ask that you consider joining our paid community.
Here’s what you get for just $8USD a month or $80USD a year:
an exclusive newsletter on Tuesdays featuring bonus author Q&As and other 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 are joined by listener, Kelly Fuller, as they critique her book club fiction submission. They discuss:
Picking comps that match the genre you're writing in
Using your query to discuss the plot of the book rather than backstory about your characters
Ensuring your stakes are high enough
Pitching the right agent for your book based on its content
The need for plot that showcases causality in your query
Writing a book that's as long as it needs to be
Balancing plot development and character development
Being mindful of intentionally writing an unlikeable character
Tips for making a character more relatable, and
How readers attach themselves to whoever the opener is in a multiple POV work.
“I always worry [that] opening in the past, even if it's a dual timeline, we're never fully caught up emotionally to the momentum and the dominoes tipping over that we need in the present. Because I think also as humans, we are in the present. And no matter what, backstory is always backstory. Past is always past, in my opinion.”
— Carly
After which, Carly interviews Vanessa Walters, playwright and author of The Lagos Wife. The two discuss:
The themes in Vanessa's latest novel
What inspired it
Vanessa's ability to comment on specific social and political issues without being heavy-handed
The novel's title and cover changes
Why Vanessa chose a dual timeline for her work
Why she framed motherhood in a specific way; and
Vanessa's advice to aspiring writers.
“Trust the thing that makes writing fun for you. We like to look at what's selling, and we like to look at what are the hot genres and what agents say they want. But when it's time for you to query, all that could have changed…. I would really just trust the thing that's going to make you finish your work. And make it something that you're very proud of and the best it can be.”
— Vanessa
More information about Vanessa can be found here. She's also on Instagram.
You can purchase The Lagos Wife 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 📚❤️
May’s Bonus Episode 😍
In this month’s bonus episode, Bianca chats with Courtney Preiss to discuss her debut novel, Welcome Home, Caroline Kline. They talk about the inspiration behind Courtney's novel and her journey to publication; her experiences with rejection during the querying process; being aware of cultural moments that could propel your novel forward when you’re timing your querying; the process after Courtney acquired an agent; the importance of knowing what genre you're writing in and who your readers are; Courtney's definition of upmarket women's fiction; the role personal essays can play in marketing your book; and Courtney's advice for emerging writers.
After which Emilie Sommer of East City Bookshop provides the invaluable service of suggesting comp titles to our listeners!
More information about Courtney can be found here. She’s also on Instagram!
You can purchase Welcome Home Caroline Kline on our Bookshop.org affiliate page here! 🌟
Tuesday Teaser 😉
In next week’s newsletter exclusively for our paid members, author Susie Orman Schnall talks about building meaningful networks through social media, how writing a book is like building a house (and how to ensure “your freaking house doesn’t fall down”!), and why she’s a huge fan of Anne Lamott’s advice to allow yourself to write a “shitty first draft” (which is just one of the reasons we love Ms. Lamott and her fabulous craft book Bird by Bird here at The💩).
We’ve also got Carly and Susie in conversation and—as an added bonus since you asked for it and we love giving the people what they want—a video of Carly, CeCe & Bianca’s Origin Story.
Not a paid member? Don’t miss out—upgrade today!
The Query Lab 📝🖊
Welcome to The Query Lab where each Friday for the next few months we’ll be
sharing a successful query letter that got an author their agent AND their book deal.
Today we’ve got a query from Angela Brown, author of Olivia Strauss is Running Out of Time 😍:
Dear Agent:
My name is Angela Brown and I’m writing to ask if you would consider representing my first novel, Olivia Strauss is Running Out of Time.
My writing has appeared in the New York Times, Real Simple, Saveur, New Jersey Monthly and Food52, among other publications. In addition, I have an MFA from Fairleigh Dickinson University, where I studied with authors such as National Book Award Finalist Rene Steinke. Likewise, I’ve been awarded an Artist’s Grant from the Vermont Studio Center for my writing. I live in Morristown, New Jersey, with my husband, a New York City restaurant owner, and our daughter.
Olivia Strauss is Running Out of Time is approximately 90,000 words. It’s perfectly suited to readers of Rebecca Serle’s In Five Years (Atria, 2020), Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Penguin, 2017), and Maria Semple’s Today Will Be Different (Little Brown, 2016). I admire the sort of authors and women’s fiction you represent (in particular, I adore REDACTED; I had the opportunity to hear her speak at a book festival in my town a short while back) and therefore hoped you might have an interest in my work. I’ve included a synopsis of the novel below.
Olivia Strauss is definitely not having a midlife crisis. Not like all the other women in her sleepy suburban town. On the eve of her thirty-ninth birthday, despite her neighbors’ incessant comments about her age, Olivia still considers herself young. Or at least young enough to assume that she still has decades — emphasis on the plural — left to mark off all the boxes in her life she has left unchecked. Sure, the list is long. But Olivia knows she’ll eventually cross off each item. Just not today. Or tomorrow. Or — let’s face it — the day after that. Which is fine. After all, Olivia knows one thing for sure: she still has plenty of time left to live.
That is, until Olivia’s best friend — the eccentric, city-dwelling, Marian — presents her with an unusual birthday gift: a visit to the Nettle Center — a trendy, New Age wellness clinic, whose founder claims to have created a genetic test that can predict the exact date of one’s death. Both women assume the test is bogus and that the experience will serve purely as a quirky, “we’re only here for the story” sort of outing. However, when Olivia’s results come back unfavorable, she must consider a question she has avoided for far too long: what is she actually doing with her life?
Olivia Strauss is Running Out of Time is a heartfelt comedy of errors about reinvention, the complexities of aging, adult friendships, and learning to live in the face of hardship. Despite Olivia’s anxieties — and despite her self-imposed roadblocks — when confronted with her greatest fear — the possibility of her own impending death — she is forced to stop making excuses and to face one life-changing fact: no matter your age, there is always time to start over, become the person you want to become, and finally learn how to truly live. At your request, I would love the opportunity to send you sample chapters. Thank you for taking the time to consider my work. I look forward to your response.
Kindly,
Angela Brown
You can purchase Olivia Strauss is Running Out of Time on our Bookshop.org affiliate page here 🥰
Click below for the downloadable version of Angela’s successful query!
Bianca, Carly & CeCe Answer Your Burning Questions🔥
We’re taking a bit of a break in June and July to recharge (something we recommend everyone do from time to time to keep your creativity in peak condition), so this is our last listener Q&A until August. We’ll be opening the lines again in July so you can get your questions in before we resume and in the meantime, we’re leaving you with a jam-packed edition that should keep your wheels turning for a while. Enjoy!
Last Day to Enter Our Giveaways! 😍🌟
Giveaway #1 😍🌟
Win one of two personalized copies of Nearlywed, the latest novel from Nicolas DiDomizio.
An engaged couple’s compatibility is put to the test during their ill-fated early honeymoon in this smart, dazzling, and provocative summer comedy perfect for fans of People We Meet on Vacation.
Ray Bruno and Kip Hayes are horrible on paper. Ray is a chaotic millennial ex-clickbait-writer who’s been oversharing his every thought online since he was a teenager, and Kip is a pragmatic Gen X doctor who values privacy above all else.
But somehow it all manages to work…until Ray convinces Kip to join him for an early honeymoon at a famous lux resort in Ray’s coastal New England hometown, eschewing the tradition of bachelor parties and hoping to recharge before their end-of-August wedding. When a surprising encounter with another couple at the resort leads to a series of escalating mishaps and miscommunications, Ray and Kip are forced to look at their many differences in a stark new light, turning the trip into less of a vacation and more of a test: will they be able to work through their issues in time for the big day? Or is this marriage over before it begins?
To enter:
Follow @nicdidomiziobooks on Instagram
Tag someone in our giveaway post who you think would like to read Nearlywed (one entry per tag)
Bonus entries if you share the post in your stories and tag us.
Contest closes TODAY (May 31st)! Winners will be announced June 1st on the TSNOTYAW Instagram!
Giveaway #2 😍🌟
Win a signed copy of I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This by Chelsea Devantez.
A dynamic memoir-in-essays by comedian, screenwriter, and podcaster Chelsea Devantez, detailing her tumultuous upbringing and uproarious career path into Hollywood.
There are things Chelsea Devantez probably shouldn’t be telling you. Many of them are in this book: some are embarrassing (like her three-year spell of celibacy that she tried to break with a guide of seduction tips). Some are confessional (getting sentenced to the “hell hill” at Mormon church camp). Some are TMI (a series of outrageous doctor visits that ended with one doctor misdiagnosing her as “pregnant.” Woopsies!)
Then there are things Chelsea really shouldn’t be telling you: like the time her biggest family secret got publicly outed, or about the drive-by shootings and the precipitating domestic violence she survived. Yet through the ups and downs, it’s the women in Chelsea’s life who kept her going – from the lowest points of her childhood when she and her mom had only $100 left to their name, all the way to her career highs as the Emmy-nominated Head Writer for The Problem with Jon Stewart and sensational podcaster deemed “the memoir whisperer” by her fans.
In I Shouldn't Be Telling You This, Chelsea centers each story around a different woman who shaped her life, taking us on a tour of friends and strangers, fictional characters and celebrities, heroes and villains who will destroy any Netflix algorithm for a “strong female lead.” Reading this book will feel kinda like that moment at a party when your friend beckons you close, sloshes her martini around, and covertly whispers, “I really shouldn’t say this, but…”
To enter, click below!
Contest closes TODAY (May 31st)! Winners will be notified directly.
The Witches of Moonshyne Manor is Just $2.99 Today—Grab Yours Now!
The Kindle version of our very own Bianca’s witchy, patriarchy-smashing, hilarious heist novel is just $2.99 on Amazon (here on amazon.com and amazon.ca), but you’ve got to act fast—the sale ends today!
Be Part of Carly’s Masterclass 😍📝
Carly’s class includes 10+ hours of writing and publishing video lessons you have lifetime access to, monthly Q&A sessions, and fresh content every quarter. Did we mention there’s an app, too? You can keep learning on the go. Don’t miss a minute of Carly’s top career advice for aspiring, emerging and published writers. Get the writing career you’ve always dreamed of.
Last Chance to Sign Up for this Round of Bianca’s Beta Reader Match Up! 😍🌟
Are you looking for beta readers, some of whom might potentially become writing group members down the line?
Are you wanting to be matched up with those writing in a similar genre and/or time zone, so they can critique your work as you critique theirs at the same time?
Your manuscript doesn't have to be complete to sign up for this 3000-word review!
Registrations are open from now until the 2nd of June with the match emails going out on the 3rd of June!
For more information and to register, click below!
That’s all for this week’s news! If you enjoyed it, why not share the love? 🥰
Until next week, happy writing! Tune in again then for more invaluable wisdom from our wonderful hosts! 😍
❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team
Our work takes place on land now known as Toronto and Ottawa and we acknowledge that these are the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat Peoples as well as the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. Toronto is covered under Treaty 13 and the Williams Treaties. We respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures, languages, and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada. We invite you to learn more about the land you inhabit, the history of that land, and how to actively be part of a better future going forward together at Native Land or Whose Land.
Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra are literary agents at P.S. Literary Agency, but their work in this newsletter is not affiliated with the agency, and the views expressed by Carly and CeCe in this newsletter are solely that of themselves and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of P.S. Literary Agency.
A thought occurred to me when listening to your latest episode, when the guest expressed a wish that we could submit 10 pages instead of 5. I understand this sentiment, as all of us newbie writers, I'm sure, would love to have one of the three of you sitting next to our desk every week, reading and giving us feedback on each chapter we write.
But, in reality, 10 pages is twice the work of 5, and my thoughts went to how much work and effort Bianca, Carly, and CeCe devote to proving us with free content. I don't know how they create so much content for the podcast, AND have agenting jobs, (or in Bianca's case, teaching writing and writing her own books) AND have families, and still have the stamina to examine our queries and our pages and give feedback with such grace, such passion, such goodwill, such professionalism.
I just want to take a moment to send you three some big bundles of love, hugs, gratitude, and cheers. If there was a national award for "devotion to writers" who thinks these three should receive it? Raise your hand! 🙋♀️
WOW! You just got a new fan (and subscriber)! This is why I LOVE Substack! Coming into contact with other creatives is so inspiring!
Most importantly as a new writer myself I really want to look as rol models and understand how to be better at it. And seeing the powerhouse you all are is so motivating and wanting me to keep moving forward!
So all my praise and accolades to yalls!