Nathan Bransford - The Forums

In case you haven't heard, the internet went BOOM yesterday after a self-published author posted a blog claiming a VERY BIG agent had contacted her and sold her manuscript literally overnight. Many people believed it -- we hear "overnight" success stories all the time. But it turns out tha...

I've never been a big fan of the implication that certain words dictate a "lack of imagination." I don't find it to be accurate. I've read many books that use profanity to great effect. It's not about the specific word used, it's about the context in which it's being used. As several other...

There's one semi-hard "rule" for YA literature, and that's that it must be relateable for pre-teens/teenagers. If the content doesn't speak to the intended audience on some level, then it won't work as YA. There are many other factors that go into the majority of YA novels, but the categor...

Congratulations! That's a very big deal. I'm thrilled for you

Many well wishes. Take care of yourself, bcomet.

I'm enjoying it a lot so far, but I'm definitely still feeling it out. Like Sommer, I want to watch the privacy stuff and see how that goes. I do really like the idea of Circles, though. They integrated some of the usability of Twitter with the "feel" of Facebook.

Blog: http://maybegenius.blogspot.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/maybegenius Google+: http://gplus.to/maybegenius GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3136149-stephanie YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/sesinkhorn Tumblr: http://yaflash.tumblr.com LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ste...

Personally, I'd keep the subtitle out. It may imply to some agents that this is a distinctly American story. Also, I've heard (and I agree) that it's generally best not to get too deep into telling a perspective agent about the themes/intent of your novel. It's usually best just to tell them the plo...

I've noticed a trend within the trend also. There's no books where the person starts out a mermaid. Its mostly 'they felt the call of the sea and the land tearing them apart' type stuff. I may have to write one where the whole thing takes place underwater. :P CV Jackson Pearce (author of Sisters Re...

There are some really intriguing elements here -- I really like the marking/color signifying future career -- and some fairly strong writing. It sounds like a great start and potentially interesting premise. I did get hung up on the opening sentences and a few other elements because they felt very s...

Great suggestions by Sommer and Cookie! Here are a few more:

Sea by Heidi R. Kling
Breathing by Cheryl Renee Herbsman
Ash by Malinda Lo (this is a lesbian retelling of Cinderella)

I think what really irks me is: 1.) The assumption that in order for a teenager to "go through hell," they have to be an extreme outlier case, like a severely abused child. A teen can go through hell by a million small cuts a day. It doesn't have to be some momentous, tortuous incident. So...

In the general writing world, particularly in the literary writing world, kidlit as a whole is generally regarded as "fluff" by other writers. As in, something that kids can read to pass the time until they're old enough for "real" books. Article after article has come out in whi...

Ms. Gurdon wrote a rebuttal to the reaction to her original piece. It pretty much says, "I'm still right."

New article: http://dft.ba/-AWY

Yeah, I think reading frequently and widely is a requirement of being a writer. It expands your literary repertoire, gives you a sense of what's currently selling in your genre, and can help you learn the ins and outs of successful (and unsuccessful) plotting/characterization/tropes/etc. I can't rem...