Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Bill Murray, John Candy, Harold Ramis, and Ivan Reitman when I was an extra in the movie Stripes.

One of my humanities professors in college, a rather portly fellow I’ll call Dr. Gibbs, once told me vigorous physical exercise is actually very bad for you. You’re only allotted a certain number of heartbeats per lifetime, he said, and exercise makes them tick off way faster than necessary. Hmm... ...

One of the problems with writing YA is that you have to get past the parents and librarians first. I'm thinking a lot of them would associate tarot reading with the occult and wouldn't want their girls dabbling in it. Your query is pretty good, I think, but the subject matter might be holding you ba...

Just remember that the main function of a query is to entice an agent to read the manuscript. Good luck!

HERE IS AN UPDATED VERSION OF THE QUERY - Thank you all for your feedback! Dear ---, Facing seemingly inescapable legal problems and disappearing options , best friends Derek and James have to decide between fighting for their future s and running for their lives . After accidentally killing a girl...

Dear Awesome Agent: Psychotherapist Letty Whittaker, a professional secret keeper, has a few secrets of her own. When Wayne, a client’s abusive boyfriend, decides to make Letty pay for “conspiring” with his fleeing girlfriend, Letty must learn to protect herself, her client, and her own newly - achi...

Info dumps are usually boring. I say get on with the story.

Some good points Hyrum, Rena, and Casnow. Thanks.

It’s called the fight or flight instinct, but in reality it is a probability analysis made from thousands of pieces of data that occurs over the course of seconds, hours, or days. The analysis changes and evolves with the situation and the severity of the outcome – the result determines who we are. ...

I'm not sure how this usually works, but maybe Nathan can shed some light on it. If an editor is interested enough to send a revision letter and then re-read the ms after a rewrite, shouldn't s/he get an exclusive look?

I'm confused. Is the 2nd publisher reading the version with revisions based on comments from the 1st? Did the 1st end up passing on it?

Thanks, Mira and Nathan. Good advice.

This is a mock-up pitch for a work in progress. Just wanted to get some thoughts/suggestions: Welcome to Pewee Valley, Tennessee, population 642. Three retired carnival workers--a clown, a fortuneteller, and a magician--friends since childhood, are celebrating Thanksgiving at different locations whe...