Ah, the dreaded comp titles. You know you need two similar books to your own when you send a query to a literary agent, but how are you supposed to find them? And how can you figure out which ones to choose? I’ve helped a lot of authors land agents over the years, and I’m […]
Guest post by E. S. Foster What do you know other than writing? While it’s the norm to specialize in one area and perform one specialized set of skills, understanding the mechanics of fields outside our typical scope can be highly beneficial. You can’t just be a writer. You have to know another field. Being […]
A full solar eclipse will be visible in Mexico, the United States, and Canada on April 8, 2024, and I’m thrilled about it. The last one was in 2017, and I took my five-year-old twins and drove all the way up to Oregon and camped in a field to watch it. It was one of […]
Every member of my book club has decided to list our top 25 novels of all time, and in the spirit of that disclosure, I decided to make mine public here at Bookfox. A list of the most important books is like a horoscope reading of your soul. Give me someone’s list, and I’ll tell […]
I did not read as many books as I would have liked this year, but I still read 70. That’s a dip from last year’s total of 100, but in my defense, I did midwife a number of books of other authors through developmental editing and publishing. I also finished editing my own novel, which […]
“In my life there are many silences,” wrote the novelist Juan Rulfo, “and in my writing, too.” It’s important to think about how your story uses silence. Most of the craft of writing focuses on all the noise — the dialogue, the cacophony of the senses, the action. But silence is not just an absence, […]
School visits are an important source of income and exposure for most children’s book authors, but if you haven’t been in a classroom in awhile, reaching out can be intimidating. (What if you say something wrong and end up in the principal’s office?) As a veteran teacher of 17 years, I’ve seen my share of […]
So you want to start a children’s book, and you’re faced with a blank page. Where do you begin? Well, the first line of your children’s picture book is the most important line. It sets the tone for the rest of the book, and grabs the reader’s attention. Mess it up, and the reader, either […]
Not that many children’s book authors think about the pacing of their book. But pacing is incredibly important — it’s the difference between a child becoming bored, and wanting to read your book again and again. When authors do think about pacing, they usually make this common mistake: they think that faster pacing is always […]
Every single word in a children’s picture book is precious. That’s because you don’t have very many of them. Most picture books are between 200 – 800 words. That means every single word needs to carry its weight, and any words that aren’t doing their duty need to be cut, pronto. As an editor, I’ve […]
