New Submission Guidelines Coming Soon

The Knight Agency is getting ready to institute new submission guidelines in the next few days. I will announce it here and on Twitter, in addition to the agency’s own announcements when it goes live. Consider this a heads up. We’re very excited about this change.

To give you a general idea, we decided to migrate submissions to a Query Manager account, allowing us to automate certain things and personalize others. No more wondering if we received your submission, or whether we responded and the email went astray. Full submission information will continue to appear on The Knight Agency website, including details about what we each rep. We will include access to our individual Query Manager pages there, and I will add mine here on the site.

We will, of course, still respond to all submissions sent through the existing system. You won’t need to resubmit if you already have a query, partial, or manuscript waiting to be read. Likewise, if I requested material from you at a recent conference, please go ahead and send per that request.

And on that note, I’m off to read submissions. Keep an eye out for news the new system has gone live, and happy writing!

Submissions Update and the State of My Inbox

Submissions Update

I have a quick submissions update for all of you before I come back later with this week’s Friday Links. As you might have gleaned from the state of this blog, this year has gotten off to a busy start. But I will be opening to new submissions again starting Monday, January 22nd. As always, I ask you to check out and follow our agency submission guidelines, available here.

The State of My Inbox

Regarding outstanding submissions, I am in the process of sending out responses to a huge pile of work I read over the past couple of weeks. I’ve been under the weather, including some stubborn headaches, which means I’m reading offline to minimize eye strain. Normally, I read and reply, so this system has put me a bit off my game. Thank you all for your patience as I get these emails written and sent.

On Monday, I will post a more thorough update on previous submissions, so you’ll know if you should have heard back regarding your material.

Closing to New Submissions

Temporarily Closing to New Submissions

I will be closing to new submissions as of October 10th. I need to work my way through an enormous backlog of submitted work right now. Plus a tall pile of client manuscripts threatens to kill me daily. (Or maybe that’s my clients waiting for comments/edits.) Please note that my coworkers at The Knight Agency will still be accepting new material. As always, you can find our agency submission guidelines and other information at The Knight Agency’s site.

If I request or have requested material from you already, either by email or at a conference, please do send it. Previous queries do not count as new submissions, nor do conference pitches. If you are waiting to hear back on a query/partial/manuscript, thank you for your patience. I’ll be getting back to you as soon as possible.

I will reopen to new submissions once I have the current landslide under control. Keep an eye on this blog and/or social media for additional announcements. Thanks!

Mini Blog Hiatus

Greetings, all! First, a quick apology for the lack of Friday Links this past week. Things have just gotten incredibly busy recently, both on the work and the life front, and while I’ve known for a while that I’ve been letting this blog slide, last week just confirmed that I need to take a little bit of a break.

I love blogging here and I love pulling together a collection of links to share with you all based on my readings over the week, but at the moment I’m juggling a few too many commitments and something needs to give. So, I’ll be going quiet here for a few weeks until I get past some of the projects currently demanding my attention. I really don’t anticipate it being a long time — two or three weeks at most — and then I’ll be back and hopefully up to speed again.

Thanks for your understanding! Keep making time to write and enjoy great books, and I’ll see you again some time in September.

Conference and Course Update

Greetings, all! I know it’s been on the quiet side here, with the exception of Friday Links, and I’m attempting to pull myself out of my reading/editing cave to remedy that a bit. I’m kicking off with a few small announcements today. First, we’re heading into conference season, so I’ve updated my Conference and Travel page with my schedule for the next few months. You can check in there to see what conferences I will be participating in, as well as any I’m simply attending. Please feel free to say hello if you’re going to be at one of these! I love meeting you all.

Next up, I’m pleased to announce that I once more will be teaching my webinar through Writer’s DigestConquer the Dreaded Synopsis: Construct the Ultimate Sales Tool. The course takes place online on June 1st, 2017, at 1pm ET. Please note that if you register ahead, you will receive an email after the live course with a link to a complete replay for your reference, and information on how to submit your synopsis to me for critique. So even if the time is not convenient for you, you might still consider signing up. I have plenty of students who register and take the class after the fact as best suits their schedule and submit their work for critique.

Twitter Pitch Fest with The Knight Agency!

Twitter_Logo_Hd_Png_01-300x237The Knight Agency celebrates 20 years in business in July, so to kick things off with a bang we’ve announced our first ever Twitter Pitch Fest. The pitch fest takes place tomorrow, June 29th, from 9am to 5pm Eastern Time under the hashtag #TKA20. You’re welcome to pitch us any genre that we as an agency represent, as long as you have not already submitted it to us through normal channels. TKA agents will “like” your Tweet to indicate interest. Full details, including how to follow up on agent interest, are available on TKA’s blog here.

I’m currently seeking projects in the following genres: Women’s fiction, single-title romance (including contemporary, historical, romantic suspense, paranormal), historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and young adult and middle grade fiction. In addition, I’ve updated my Wish List with some things I’d especially love to see.

We’re all very excited about this Twitter Pitch Fest, so I hope to see many of you out there participating!

FYI: Where in the World Is…

I’m happy to share the addition of a new page on the site, one dedicated to keeping track of my travel schedule in terms of conferences and other events I plan to attend/participate in. Conferences and Other Travel can be found as  a drop-down link in the top navigation bar, beneath About.

The idea is not just to let you know what I’m up to, but to give you a chance to connect with me if I’m in your neck of the woods. While some events are obviously the sort that require registration, others will be more me-in-the-neighborhood, such as the LA Times Book Festival (free to attend), book signings, etc. Hope to see you around!

Conquer the Dreaded Synopsis: Webinar for Writers

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Long-time readers of this blog know I occasionally teach a course on synopsis writing through the Writer’s Digest webinar series. The course focuses on how to organize your thoughts in order to distill a full-length manuscript or the plot of a work-in-progress into a brief synopsis — either very short, to be used in query letters, or several pages that can be sent to agents or editors who request it or used to sell a project on partial. The live online format means attendees sign into the course and go through it in real time, but they also receive a file of the completed webinar later by email, including both audio and the slide presentation, to review at their leisure. Anyone who registers to take the live course may also submit a single completed synopsis for critique after applying what they learned in class.

Interested in whipping your synopsis into shape? Feel overwhelmed by the task, with no idea where to start? Join me for Conquer the Dreaded Synopsis: Construct Your Ultimate Sales Tool on Thursday, March 17, 2016, at 1pm ET. Please keep in mind that, even if you can’t attend live, you will receive the complete course and audio by email, and only those who register ahead will be eligible for the critique.

Check out the course description for complete details, including information on system requirements, etc. I hope to see you in class!

Welcome to the Writing and Rambling Relaunch!

canstockphoto_WelcomeMat

Welcome to the new home of Writing and Rambling! I’ve been talking about making the move to a self-hosted site for a long time but just never seemed to get around to it. Although I write about topics related to work, this site has always been a labor of love, somewhere I can chat about books and writing and agent life. It lets me reach out in a small way to all the aspiring writers and die-hard readers and the folks who are simply curious about the world of publishing. Moving Writing and Rambling to this new space will allow me a little more flexibility in terms of changing the appearance of the site and adding more features, and I’m excited to have finally taken the leap. So please update your bookmarks and join me!

Those of you coming over from the previous location will note the shiny new look, but rest assured that all the posts have migrated and the links all seem to be working. I’ll be adding new pages and other features to the blog as we go — you might notice a few new social media links to the right — as well as updating existing features, but for now the content remains pretty much as it always was. If you’re looking for a specific post, all you need to do is update the root of the URL to https://nepheletempest.com/ and leave everything after the .com on your old link the same. That should take you to any page you wish to find.

Anyone who previously subscribed to the site at the old location in order to receive an email when I update, please hang tight as I’ve put in a request to the good WordPress people to migrate my subscription list over to this site. As soon as that takes place, notifications shall resume. If you don’t wish to wait, there’s a subscription opt-in at the top right of the navigation section, but you may end up with duplicate notifications if you received them before.

Business as usual will resume here in a day or two, and the old site will begin to redirect to this location. Thanks to all of you have been reading and commenting for the last few years, and welcome, everyone, to this new, relaunched version of Writing and Rambling. Have a wonderful day, and don’t forget to get some writing done.

The Art of Writing the Other: Online Class

I mentioned this course — The Art of Writing the Other — the last time it was offered, and it’s coming up again. It will be a shorter, more intensive version, and therefore cost less than the last course did. However it takes place over the New Year’s holiday weekend: January 1-3. Registration opens tomorrow, December 5th. Head over and check out the details ASAP if you’re at all interested. It should be a really great course.