A trend I’m noticing: fiction as a means to write characters we hate and love to hate. I call it The White Lotus effect. Yesteryear springs to mind, and Best American Short Stories of 2025 had a ton of these in it. Why do we do it?
Read MoreGenre-Switching Without a Pen Name? A Trend Examined
Here’s a phenomenon I’ve noticed recently: Writers are increasingly publishing in more than one genre without developing a pen name and related brand. Instead, they’re publishing all their works under the same name (usually their legally given one).
How is this working for them? What are your thoughts?
Read MoreThe Personal to the Universal, and Other Priorities in Contemporary Memoir
Have you browsed the narrative nonfiction shelves lately and thought, “Oh man, I don’t have it in me to read another grief memoir”?
Here are a few thoughts on the memoir market as it stands, a few things you might prioritize inside and out of your own work. A note before we get started: This blog post should be seen as a primer. It contains observations I’ve made in the recent past, while working with memoirists who have attained agent interest, that I feel will help improve memoirists chances of trade publication, but it is certainly not the be all, end all of advice.
Read More6 Tips for Finding and Using "Comp" Titles
If you've been querying agents for more than five minutes, you've likely heard of comps.
"Comp" or comparative titles are exactly that: books—and in some cases TV shows and movies!—that your book's plot, characters, and/or theme can draw a direct line of comparison to.
Read MoreHatch Editorial Roundup: Resources for Writers Querying Their Books
It’s standard practice for the publishing industry to take a much-needed break over the winter holidays, which means you have the next two weeks or so to feel less rushed as you gather resources and information to help you successfully query literary agents.
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