Public Speaking Tips for Authors
Authors, do you need to hone your presentation skills for your next speaking engagement, pitch, or interview? Maybe you’re joining us for Pitchapalooza? In today’s video, we share simple public speaking tips for authors.
Do authors need public speaking skills?
As an author, you’re called upon to do live performances or appear in media. As Truman Capote counseled young writers: “Socialize. Don’t just go up to a pine cabin all alone and brood. You will reach that stage soon enough anyway.”
And when you’re in front of an audience, you’ll need to present your book in a captivating way.
Public speaking tips for authors
Do some physical activity before you speak.
Do a physical/vocal warm-up so you’re not cold and stiff. Try jumping jacks. Get the blood pumping and boost your energy.
Take your time.
Too many authors rush through their presentations. Slow down. Pick places where you can pause and look out at the audience.
Take a glass of water with you.
David likes to take a glass of water with him because it slows him down. If you can’t think about what to say, take a sip and formulate your thoughts.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
No matter how comfortable you are in private, the natural instinct when you’re on the spot is to freeze up and squirm. And the first step toward overcoming that instinct is to have the pitch for your book down so cold you can do it in your sleep. Which will help when you have to do a radio interview at 4:15 in the morning.
Film yourself.
David has been a media coach for years. One of his most effective techniques is to have you videotape yourself making a presentation or doing a mock interview, then have you play the tape back for yourself. It’s as simple as using your phone. Then you can watch yourself in horror and figure out what you need to change. It’s shocking how often authors unconsciously tap their fingers, twiddle their thumbs, fiddle with their collars and say “uh” every seventh word. And they don’t even know they’re doing it. Better to be humiliated by yourself in your living room than in front of the world.
Practice in front of friends and family.
Don’t just practice by yourself in the mirror or to your smartphone. Practice in front of those who know and love you, and in front of those who can be a little critical. Ask for feedback.
Test and revise your material.
Almost everyone is going to ask you: “So what is your book about?” You must have a pithy, fascinating answer that lasts under a minute. That’s your pitch.
Do eyes glaze over? Take that part out of your pitch. What makes your listeners say “oh, wow”? Amplify those parts of your pitch.
Project your voice.
Your audience has to be able to hear you. Watch David demonstrate a technique that’ll help you project your voice.
One more word: passion. Hopefully that’s what has been fueling your book the whole time. Your passion, in the end, is what will sell your book and make you an interesting, captivating speaker.
Working with a presentation doctor/media coach
Need a little more help? A good presentation doctor or media coach can help you feel comfortable with yourself and your message in front of an audience, a TV camera, a radio mike or a web cam. Presentation doctors and media coaches may come from the world of publishing, from the world of public relations or from the world of acting/directing. A good one will evaluate your presentation skills, determine your strengths and weaknesses and help you with everything from your appearance to eliminating nervous tics, to relaxation techniques, to making eye contact; from something as simple as what to do with your hands to something as complex as comic spin. A good coach will also help you find your message, hone your pitch and learn to deliver it in graceful, potent 15-second sound bites. If you need a presentation doctor or media coach, drop us a line.
SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel for tips on how to successfully publish your book.
Our book, The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published, takes you through the entire process of conceiving, writing, selling, marketing and promoting your book.
Writing Communities – Interview with Poet Patricia Spears Jones
We met Patricia Spears Jones at Rutgers Writers Conference and knew we had to share her wisdom with you. She talked with us about poetry, writing communities, and her advice for writers.
Filmed at Rutgers Writers Conference 2019.
RELATED VIDEOS
Author Wayétu Moore on Publishing | When Art & Commerce Meet
Author Brad Parks on Journalism, Literary Agents, and Publishing Award-Winning Thrillers
Joshua Mohr on Writing and How to Publish a Book
PATRICIA SPEARS JONES
Patricia Spears Jones is the recipient of The Jackson Poetry Prize, one the most prestigious awards for American Poets via Poets & Writers, Inc.
Spears Jones was named in Essence.com as one of its “40 Poets They Love” in 2010. In 2018, her poem “Seraphim” is listed in The New Yorker’s Year in Poems.
She is author of the poetry collections: Painkiller and Femme du Monde from Tia Chucha Press and The Weather That Kills from Coffee House Press and five chapbooks including Living in the Love Economy. Her fourth collection: A Lucent Fire: New and Selected Poems from White Pine Press (White Pine Press Distinguished Poets series) which features her 2017 Pushcart Prize winning poem, “Etta James at the Audubon Ballroom.”
Learn more at https://psjones.com.
SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel for tips on how to successfully publish your book.
Our book, The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published, takes you through the entire process of conceiving, writing, selling, marketing and promoting your book.
Writing Advice from Grant Faulkner, NaNoWriMo Executive Director
We met up with our dear friend Grant Faulkner, executive director of National Novel Writing Month, at BookCon. Grant talks about fostering the right creative mindset, building a writing community, and his writing advice.
Filmed at BookCon 2019.
WHAT WE COVER
0:15 What is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)?
2:14 NaNoWriMo success stories & NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza winners
3:43 Opening up the publishing gates: NaNoWriMo crashes through the gatekeepers and encourages everyone to embrace their identity as a writer.
5:58 Writing advice: writing is about persistence and practice, not natural talent.
6:42 What is the editing process after NaNoWriMo?
10:30 Why should writers connect with other writers?
12:49 Should writers be envious of other writers?
13:10 Grant shares his advice for writers.
RELATED VIDEOS
Author Wayétu Moore on Publishing | When Art & Commerce Meet
Author Brad Parks on Journalism, Literary Agents, and Publishing Award-Winning Thrillers
Joshua Mohr on Writing and How to Publish a Book
NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing.
On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel. Find out more at http://nanowrimo.org
GRANT FAULKNER
As a boy, Grant spent his allowance on all sorts of pens and paper, so there was never much question that he would become a writer. He received his B.A. from Grinnell College in English and his M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. He’s also the co-founder of the journal 100 Word Story.
He has published short stories in dozens of lit mags and placed essays on creativity in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Writer’s Digest, and The Writer. He recently published a collection of one hundred 100-word stories, Fissures, two of which are included in The Best Small Fictions 2016. His book of essays on creativity, Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Prompts to Boost Your Creative Mojo, is out from Chronicle Books.
SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel for tips on how to successfully publish your book.
Our book, The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published, takes you through the entire process of conceiving, writing, selling, marketing and promoting your book.
When Art & Commerce Meet – Interview with Wayétu Moore
Wayétu Moore, author of SHE WOULD BE KING and founder of the nonprofit One Moore Book, shares the publication journey for her debut novel and reflects on art, writing craft, commerce, and more.
Filmed at Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival 2019.
WHAT WE COVER
0:35 Writing a draft of SHE WOULD BE KING and exploring identity as an African in America and as an African-American
2:19 Pressures writers put on themselves, writing craft, and not resenting your art
3:26 Writing discipline and respecting your art
4:01 Publishing industry trends
4:23 Wayétu Moore’s next novel is about mermaids
5:32 Publishing SHE WOULD BE KING
6:00 Meeting literary agents at conferences
7:06 Editing a manuscript with a literary agent and making a book as strong as possible
7:54 “If you’re writing for yourself, keep a journal, but if you do commit to writing for others and being mindful and considerate to the sensibilities of others, then you do need to be conscious of what readers would be in to, how they would process your work. . .”
8:23 Shopping a manuscript to publishers, dealing with rejections, and the reality of when art meets commerce
9:14 Publishing SHE WOULD BE KING through Graywolf and the benefits of being with an indie press
12:00 Cover design and avoiding cliches designers use for African, Islamic, and Indian narratives
15:04 The meeting of art and commerce as well as time and capacity in Big Five publishing
15:59 Versify, an imprint by Kwame Alexander, and One Moore Book, a nonprofit serving children who rarely see themselves in print
RELATED VIDEOS
Author Brad Parks on Journalism, Literary Agents, and Publishing Award-Winning Thrillers
Versify: an Imprint from Kwame Alexander
Joshua Mohr on Writing and How to Publish a Book
WAYÉTU MOORE
Wayétu Moore is the author of She Would Be King, released by Graywolf Press in September, 2018. Her memoir is also forthcoming with Graywolf.
Moore is the founder of One Moore Book. One Moore Book is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that encourages reading among children of countries with low literacy rates and underrepresented cultures by publishing culturally relevant books that speak to their truths, and by creating bookstores and reading corners that serve their communities. Her first bookstore opened in Monrovia, Liberia in 2015.
Her writing can be found in The Paris Review, Frieze Magazine, Guernica, The Atlantic Magazine and other publications. She has been featured in The Economist Magazine, NPR, NBC, BET and ABC, among others, for her work in advocacy for diversity in children’s literature.
She’s a graduate of Howard University and the University of Southern California, and is currently a Margaret Mead Fellow at Columbia University Teachers College, where she’s researching the impact of culturally relevant curriculum and learning aids in elementary classrooms of underrepresented groups. Moore is an Africana Studies lecturer at City University of New York’s John Jay College and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel for tips on how to successfully publish your book.
Our book, The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published, takes you through the entire process of conceiving, writing, selling, marketing and promoting your book.
Brad Parks on Journalism, Literary Agents, and Publishing Thrillers
We sat down with award-winning thriller author Brad Parks at Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival. We picked his brain about how being a journalist influenced his fiction writing, the mistakes he made on the path to publication, and how he found the right literary agent and set himself on the road to publishing success.
Watch the video or read the transcript below.
David: Hello. We’re the Book Doctors.
Brad: I’m not a Book Doctor.
D: No. We’re talking to Brad Parks, who just told us that he has all his own teeth, and I think that’s important as a writer. Not that you can’t be a writer if you’re missing teeth. . .
B: No. It’s not necessary to the writing process. I’ve never tried to type with my teeth, but it’s good to know I could if I wanted.
How Being a Journalist Helps Brad Parks Write Novels
D: We were just talking about journalism, and you were a journalist first. I always tell people when they’re young and out of school that it’s a great way to learn how to be a writer because you’ve got to pump out the words in a small space.
Arielle: And on a deadline.
Finding a Story
D: Will you talk about how that helped you?
B: How did it not help me? For starters, I was a sports writer starting out, and in modern day sports, everybody knows the score already, like they’ve seen the stats, and so you’re going to the ballpark every day and it’s find a story, tell a story. Find a story, tell a story. That’s a great muscle.
And then there’s the discipline. You don’t say, “I don’t feel like making a deadline today. I’m not inspired.”
D: The muse hasn’t struck.
Meeting Deadlines
B: We were just talking off-camera–not that they would know–about my young days as a reporter for The Star-Ledger. I’d just gotten hired at the paper and our Yankees beat writer left, so suddenly they threw me onto the Yankees beat in a temporary situation. So big pressure.
The sports editor sat me down and explained that sometimes they would hold an entire edition of the newspaper waiting on the Yankees score. And you have to hit the button as soon as the game ends. He said for every minute the trucks and presses are waiting, it costs $15,000. “And what do you make a year, young man?” That’s a deadline, my friends.
D: We always say, “What are the stakes in the story?” The stakes are high.
B: The stakes are very high. And you can’t sit there going, “Is that really the word? I’m just, I’m not sure that has the right shading.” No, you’re just jamming it out.
Debut Novel Writing Mistakes
A: Before you sold your first novel and you were writing it, did you set your own deadlines?
B: No. So before I sold my first novel, I did everything wrong.
Lack of Discipline
I am the poster child for writing discipline because I would make excuses for myself, like I had this full-time job that involved writing and so I would do the worst thing you can possibly do, which is I would write really dedicated for a month or two and then something would happen, news would break at work or something would happen in the family, and two months later I’d be coming back to this going, “Wait, what? Aunt Ellie? Who the hell is Aunt Ellie? What was I doing with her?”
And then a beautiful thing happened. I sold a novel and signed a contract. Now I’m a journalist so deadlines are meaningful to me. I signed this contract in July that said the second book in the contract was due in January, and it was like, “Whoa!”
A: And you hadn’t written it?
B: I had not written a word.
We were offered a two-book contract and my agent was like, “Oh, you have a second book, right?”
And I’m like, “Oh, yeah. Of course I do. I just want to polish it a little bit.”
How Brad Got His Discipline Back
So I did a thing where I’m a nerd and I did a spreadsheet, and I figured a thousand words a day, that’s a newspaper article plus a little padding, and I can do that. What a difference it makes when it’s a thousand words every day and you’re into the story. I always say it maximizes your bottle-washing time. I call it bottle-washing time because we had small kids at the time so I was washing a lot of bottles. While you’re doing this monotonous thing, your brain is always churning on the story and you’re just staying in touch with it. So even now, I’m a thousand-words-a-day writer. That is my thing. That is my jam. That’s my discipline.
D: There’s some one, one of those old writers, Somerset Maugham or somebody, who would write 500 words in the morning when he woke up, and no matter where he was in the sentence at the 500th word, he’d put the pen down and say, “Time for a martini! That’s a good day’s work done.” You crank out 500 or a thousand words every single day, you’re going to have a book very quickly.
B: If you do a thousand words a day, you’re going to have a draft three months later.
And, of course, that Somerset Maugham reminds me of my favorite Somerset Maugham quote, which is: “There are three things that make a great novel. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are.”
A: We have that quote in our book, actually. It’s a wonderful quote. We want to always know the publishing breakthrough side of your story because we are here to help people get published successfully. We’ve already heard something you didn’t do right.
D: And something you did do right.
Debut Publishing Mistakes
A: So in terms of the “I got my novel published,” what was something that really got you to that point that you think you did well?
The Wrong Agent
B: How much camera film do you have there? I’m gonna break the cloud if I’m talking about everything I did wrong. I did everything wrong, absolutely everything, because I did it like a newspaper reporter. I figured out I need to get an agent, and what I did was I said, “Who do I know?” “Who do I know” is not the way to go about it. I have become an evangelist for the query process and for actually doing it correctly because “who do I know” is not necessarily going to lead you to the right agent.
It led me to a woman who was very wonderful and very smart, I can say nothing bad about her, except she wasn’t truly a mystery/thriller agent. So when she would walk into those publishing houses and be pitching those editors, they were like “who is this lady?” because she didn’t have anybody else in the genre. That kind of led me to a spot where I wasn’t being taken as seriously.
A: Did you sell a novel with her?
B: I sold a novel with her. But did I sell it well, Arielle?
Before you publish, you think, “If I could just be published, that’s the mountaintop. There it is.” And then you realize it’s the base camp, and there’s this whole other thing you have to climb. I mean, it took a number of years for me to undo the mistakes I made early on in my career.
D: We always tell people to research when you try to find an agent because if you’re a mystery writer you don’t want to get a romance agent or a nonfiction agent.
B: That is very, very true. The wrong agent is worse than no agent.
D: It kind of is in a way.
B: That’s very true.
Making a Weak First Impression
A: Also it can be very hard to sell a second book if the first book doesn’t do as well as everybody had hoped.
B: I always say that you only get one chance to make a first impression in this business, and your debut novel is like this capital that you get to spend once. And everybody is going to be looking at the new kid in town. They’re going to be looking at Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing. And suddenly, Reese Witherspoon likes it. And by the way, Reese, you would love my books. Let’s talk.
You have that one time you get to be that debut novelist that everybody’s going to be checking out. Man, hit that one time right and everything else is smooth.
A: You’re saying you didn’t; yet, you have had prolific–
B: Here I am.
D: You’re the only writer who won the three awards that nobody ever has. . .
B: That is true.
D: What are they?
B: They are the Seamus, Nero, and Lefty awards, which is a little bit like saying, you know, nobody’s ever skied down a ski slope in Florida while making French fries. It’s an odd miss of awards because the Seamus Award is for hard-boiled PI, and the Lefty Award is for humor, and the Nero Award is, like, books written in the tradition of Nero Wolfe.
D: That’s a cool thing. It’s kind of a weird Triple Crown.
A: I think nobody does it exactly right.
D: Stephen King.
B: No. Stephen King struggled at first. David Baldacci did it right. He sold his first book for a million dollars and the movie rights for two million dollars. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.
A: Sometimes luck and doing it right come together. I mean, most people who are novelists aren’t even making a living at it. They are doing other full-time jobs.
B: Right. Making a living . . . (knocks) as I knock on this faux wood . . .
How Brad Found an Agent, Lost an Agent, Then Found the Right Agent
A: I’m going to take exception to you saying you didn’t do it right because you’ve done many things right. So at a certain point you said, this is not the right agent for me, and then what happened?
B: Oh boy, are you sure you have enough film footage? You know, so really, I had at that point launched a series, and it’s very hard to move a series as we all know, so we kind of formulated that, all right, you’re going to have to do a stand alone.
A: With the new agent?
B: With the new agent.
A Series of Rejections
So I have to do a stand alone with the new agent. I’m going to cut to the chase on this. I wrote one, threw it away. I wrote another, threw it away. I wrote another–
A: Wait, I have to interrupt you. When you say, “throw it away,” had you sent each of these to the agent?
B: Yes.
A: And the agent said?
B: This is good but . . .
Then we got to the fourth one, the one I really thought was it, he fired me. He said, “Look, I can’t do this anymore. You know, he got to a point where he felt like . . . I’d made a bad storytelling choice, admittedly, and I think the weight of the previous three novels, he just felt like he couldn’t.
Querying Again
It was a wonderful and devastating thing to have happen, but it really made me go back and I actually did the query process right for the first time. I actually said, “Okay, really, truly who do I want? What am I looking for?” I talked with a number of agents. I spent five months looking for an agent, which by that point, as a guy with my track record, I could have called somebody and said, “Will you represent me?” They would have said yes. Done. But I really wanted to make sure I did it right.
Benefits of Having the Right Agent
I found a woman named Alice Martell, who really worked the book with me in a rigorous way. It’s like that one person who can force you to dig deeper and say, “Nope, that wasn’t good enough.” And like, “Right here, you need to step on the gas pedal for about a paragraph or two.” I do? What? You want more? Okay, there’s more there, I’m sure. Somewhere.
D: The funny thing is when the person is right, you always go back and say, “How did I not see that?”
B: It’s so funny. Publishing moves so fast sometimes editors don’t really have time to edit. This is where being an ex-newspaper guy is a bit of a curse. If you write clean copy, they kind of go, “Okay, well, that’s good enough.” Here was somebody finally in my life saying this is not good enough. We went back and forth for about another five months doing, I think, three more rounds of edits. She finally said, “Okay, it’s time.” Within a week, she had two major houses bidding against each other, and that novel, Say Nothing, has since sold in 15 countries. It was a best seller in Germany.
It’s a wonderful story but it only took about seven years to get to that point.
How Brad Dealt with Rejection
A: One last question. When you had the agent, how did you deal with that form of negative feedback around your work? Did you go into a hole? Did you say, “I’m going to come and kill you during the night?”
B: All of those things. Actually, the first book I was okay. The second book . . . I always say that the first time I ever saw my father cry was when his dad died. The first time my kids saw me cry was when that book died. The third one, I felt I dealt with it in a much more mature way. I snapped at my kids for no reason, stormed out of the house, went to the local grocery store, bought a box of cookies, and ate them in the car with tears streaming down my face. That’s how you’re supposed to deal with your feelings. (Laughter.)
D: That’s a wonderful image.
B: Man, we don’t talk about this enough as writers, but it’s grit. You’ve got to have grit.
I’m fortunate in that I have no other marketable skills so it’s not like I had anything to fall back on. But man, you’re going to get knocked down so much, and you got to get up off the mat and try a different way.
A: Many people would have given up after the first one. And this is the thing that we tell people all the time is the perseverance.
B: It is.
A: That’s a beautiful story. Thank you.
JOIN THE BOOK REPORT TO RECEIVE MORE INTERVIEWS AND TIPS ON HOW TO GET PUBLISHED!
International bestselling author Brad Parks is the only writer to have won the Shamus, Nero, and Lefty Awards, three of American crime fiction’s most prestigious prizes. His novels have been translated into 15 languages and have won critical acclaim across the globe, including stars from every major pre-publication review outlet. A graduate of Dartmouth College, Parks is a former journalist with The Washington Post and The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger. He is now a full-time novelist living in Virginia with his wife and two school-aged children. Learn more at BradParksBooks.com.
The Montclair Literary Festival is a community-wide event that aims to exchange ideas, inspire future literary works and engage with different points of view. Working closely with the Montclair Public Library, Watchung Booksellers and a team of local volunteers, the festival will also generate lasting connections between arts institutions, the schools and the community, benefiting a broad cross-section of participants and attendees.
NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza 2019
UPDATE: Congratulations to our 2019 winners!
The 2019 NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza winner is Polyglot by Devyn Fussman.
Fan Favorite goes to Solving for X by Bob Luckett.
You can watch NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza 2019 below.
Nano Nation Wrimos from all over the world graced us with our ninth straight pack of pulse-pounding pitches for NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza 2019! A lawyer who could melt your face with her mind, a teacher trying to make world peace using West Side Story, glittery ducks, a cat on a leash, a chameleon confessing, a homeless boy sleeping in his run-down car, Vincent van Gogh eating yellow paint, a serial arsonist, and a polyglot. As ever, we were jaw-dropped and gobsmacked by the vast volume and undeniable awesomeness of the writing that poured forth from Wrimos from this planet and we suspect, from several others… And yet, we were not in the least bit surprised. It was pure pleasure and privilege for the Book Doctors to breathe in the rare air of NaNo Nation. We can’t wait to do it again next year.
Now for the 411: The 20 pitches were selected randomly. You can watch the recording of NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza to hear our feedback. It’s our mission to try to help all you amazing writers not just get published, but get published successfully. That’s why we’ve told you what works, but also what needs to be improved.
But don’t let our opinion sway your vote. What story intrigues you? What pitch would prod you from the couch to the bookstore (or, if you’re really lazy, to buy it online)? The pitch that receives the most votes by 11:59 p.m. PDT on April 1, 2019 will be awarded the Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250). We’ll announce the Fan Favorite on April 2, 2019.
But please note: YOU CAN ONLY VOTE ONCE! So please choose carefully. Don’t just read the first couple of pitches — read them all. You owe it to your fellow Wrimos. Encourage your friends, family and random strangers to vote for you via the link to the poll. Connecting with your future readers is a vital part of being a successfully published author today. And this is a great way to get some practice.
We will also be posting these pitches—a couple a day–on social media. We encourage anyone to like your entry but only poll votes from the webpage will count toward the Fan Favorite.
Finally, through April 2, 2019, we are still offering a free webinar (worth $75) to anyone who buys a copy of our book The Essential Guide To Getting Your Book Published. Just email a copy of your receipt to nanowrimo@thebookdoctors.com and we’ll be in touch to set up a webinar.
Write on, Wrimos!
NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza 2019 Voting
Click the writers' names to read their pitches. Then vote for your favorite.
- Solving for X by Bob Luckett (34%, 1,298 Votes)
- Revenge Prose by Beth Burnett (27%, 1,007 Votes)
- Hear Our Voices! by Michele LeNoir (22%, 826 Votes)
- The Fire Under the Mountain by Kirstie Ellen (5%, 196 Votes)
- East Side Story by Elizabeth Wilder (3%, 113 Votes)
- Untitled by Brianna Bolduc (2%, 69 Votes)
- Polyglot by Devyn Fussman (2%, 57 Votes)
- Amelia Raglan and the Haunted Barn by S. A. Sinclair (1%, 53 Votes)
- All the Yellow Suns by Malavika Kannan (1%, 53 Votes)
- Library Hell by Kristina Cooper (1%, 26 Votes)
- Girls Break Things by Amren Ortega (1%, 20 Votes)
- Meritocracy by Michael Sherrin (0%, 14 Votes)
- Love, Lust and Romance in the Age of #MeToo by Veronica Monet (0%, 14 Votes)
- Northern Souls by Georgiana Derwent (0%, 12 Votes)
- Confessions of a Chameleon by Becky Ances (0%, 10 Votes)
- More Than Meets the Eye by Tonya Preece (0%, 9 Votes)
- Love Boy by Margarita Maldonado (0%, 5 Votes)
- Untitled by SShea (0%, 2 Votes)
- Expect the Unexpected by Denisa Stefania Stoian (0%, 2 Votes)
- The Twilight Stone by Fiona Kehoe (0%, 2 Votes)
Total Voters: 3,788
Kirstie Ellen
The Fire Under the Mountain by Kirstie Ellen
(YA / (High) Fantasy)
In a dying world of magic, five tribes are divided against each other.
A sixth, has not been seen for centuries.
A tyrannical king with twisted secrets readies himself for war.
But one girl holds the answers to uniting magic and saving the planet.
The six tribes of Runelle have been divided for centuries, shutting off their magic from each other. But their separation means the planet is dying and with it, its people. In a battle for power, tribes will turn against each other, magic will be stolen and unknown secrets will be revealed as the ruthless, deranged king of the sky tribe, Kino, slaughters all who stand in his way.
Yet one brave and clever girl is the planet’s last hope. Sharmay finds herself unwittingly tasked with a quest to unite the people of Runelle. It’s a race against time to not only bring the tribes together before all is lost but to also find the missing sixth tribe. From the dark tunnels of the earth tribe, to the murky waters of the underwater kingdom, Sharmay will face her worst fears, find help in unexpected places and stand heroically for what she believes in.
While Sharmay prepares to face the odds alone, Kino’s son, Radon, escapes the abuse of his father, fleeing his home on his own mission to save Runelle. In a weaving of tales, these two fated beings will find the answer to the eternal question: what difference can one person make?
Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
Click here to listen to our feedback on this pitch.
Michael Sherrin
Meritocracy by Michael Sherrin
In a city governed by test scores, Abel Allen is the most average citizen. He’s been stuck in the same job for years; he eats the same bland meal every night; and he’s not allowed to ask out the woman he loves, all because of his test scores.
After a co-worker is murdered, Abel discovers something that can replace studying: a pill that contains all the answers to all the tests. This answer key is rare and highly illegal. He must decide if breaking the law is a worthwhile price to no longer feeling average.
But something that valuable doesn’t stay secret for long. Abel’s boss, the mob, and the police all want the answer key, forcing Abel to decide who to trust and how to avoid getting caught. He discovers strengths and skills not found on his test results, and sets upon an adventure that puts the entire city under evaluation.
MERITOCRACY is a sci-fi noir with a dark sense of humor that questions how a standardized system can be fair to our individual qualities. Fans of bureaucratic nightmares will find much to love in this mash-up of 1984 meets Office Space.
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Devyn Fussman
Polyglot by Devyn Fussman
Polyglot: a person who knows multiple languages, AKA, Isabell Berzynski. She’s the only seventh grader who loves French class and the 6 other languages she’s learning for fun. Her dream job is world traveler, starting with Madame Angélique’s spring break trip to Europe.
Though Isabell’s immersed in the world of words, her protective parents don’t understand a thing she says about traveling. They want her safely in Plainville (population: 1,000), preparing for her bat mitzvah and making Jewish American friends. Not spending hours in GoGlobe chatrooms with foreign kids and reading travel guides. Besides, they can’t afford the class trip. They’re too busy paying for a venue, a caterer, and everything else a Jewish girl needs to come of age.
Isabell has 6 months to earn $2,100 and convince her family, especially her mother, that her baby, her only baby, is ready to leave the nest and see the world—even if she’s eleven.
Soon Isabell’s teaching English to immigrants with Madame Angélique, Latin to the deaf kids at her dad’s school, and French to her fellow classmates—all while juggling Hebrew school, regular school, and studying the Torah with Rabbi Josef. Still, earning the money is only half the battle. Winning over her mother is the hard part.
Every day Isabell’s yearning to see what’s beyond Plainville’s Jewish community grows. She has to follow her dream, even if her mother isn’t ready for it.
Polyglot is a 50,891-word middle-grade novel inspired by my Jewish American family and semester abroad.
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Elizabeth Wilder
EAST SIDE STORY by Elizabeth Wilder
Newly minted diplomat Jennifer Westfield thinks she landed her dream job in Jerusalem, until realizes she has been set up to fail. Her staff is MIA; pampered multinational toddlers (and their parents) have overrun her office; and the Palestinian and Israeli undergraduates in her program (who are enrolled in Conversational English) refuse to speak to each other.
As Jennifer gets to know her students, she realizes they are powerless in an endless conflict. Challenging typical diplomatic assumptions, she tries something (gasp!) new. The students won’t talk – but maybe they’ll sing.
Starting with six fellow music lovers, Jennifer teaches folk songs to the students. While the words are confusing – why is Suzanna crying? – their shared passion for music elevates the program and attracts both notoriety and praise. With the help of operatic UN diplomat Timot Kovac (from the ADIPOSE unit), Jennifer’s expanded show-choir attempts to stage a musical that should have been set in Jerusalem: West Side Story.
Can she find a performance venue? Will any VIPs attend? And will this ruin her budding career? Jennifer has to look within and around her to recruit a team of fellow diplomats who want to “dream the impossible dream”.
EAST SIDE STORY is a Christopher Buckley style satire crossed with a little Glee. I’m a musical-loving expatriate who sings only in the shower. EAST SIDE STORY is a 60,000-word NA contemporary novel.
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