Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Is anyone else following the mining saga in Chile? What an incredible story! We'd be hard-pressed to write something that captures the human spirit, tenacity and ingenuity much better than this!

Nice work! I agree with most of the suggestions here, and I second Thermocline's question about Io's age. The fun tone of this query almost sounded more MG than YA to me. I like the concept though - sort of like a parallel world Breakfast Club.

This is much improved from your first version. I think you can tighten the beginning even more to get to the catalyst—the plague—sooner. "Deccaura spends her days exploring her father’s groves and fostering an uneasy friendship with the exotic, low-caste Piorri, but that carefree existence is s...

I don't think Kristin specifically made the distinction, but I think Jessa is probably right. I also was a little surprised to hear the 150K comment. Prior to that, I'd always taken 120K as the standard. Okay, I'll admit I was thinking of Brandon Sanderson's Elantris re: debut authors. I recently ca...

I attended Kristin Nelson's webinar on SF&F queries last week, and she mentioned an acceptable range from 100K to 150K.

I agree that it can be confusing when looking at the fantasy shelves. Even the debuts from new authors seems to push the 200K mark.

What a fun topic! I love Bon Jovi's "Right Side of Wrong." But my all-time favorite is Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Eve and Other Stories" album. The entire album tells a story - it's so cool - and during concerts, they have an amazing narrator who talks between the song...