Our January workshop will open for submissions on Saturday, January 4th at noon, EST. In addition to our wonderful permanent mentors, we have Karly Caserza of Fuse Literary as our guest agent mentor and Meredith Miller as our guest author mentor!
The workshop is designed to help writers struggling to find the right opening for their novel or for those looking to perfect the all-important first five pages before submitting for publication. Why the first five pages? Because if these aren’t perfect, no agent, editor, or reader will continue reading to find out how great the rest of your story really is!
So get those pages ready because we fill up quickly!
Why is the First Five Pages Workshop a GREAT Opportunity?
- You are mentored by the guest author as well as least one and usually two traditionally-published published or agented authors from among our permanent mentors for the duration of the workshop. These authors have been through the trenches and know what it takes to get a book deal, solid reviews, and sales.
- In addition, you receive feedback from the four other workshop participants.
- Feedback is given not just on your initial submission, but on two subsequent opportunities to revise your manuscript based on the previous feedback so that you know you’ve got it right!
- The final revision is reviewed by our mentoring literary agent, who will also give you feedback on the pitch for your story–the pitch that may eventually become your query letter or cover copy.
- The best entry from among the workshop participants will receive a critique of the full first chapter or first ten pages from the mentoring agent, which may, in some cases, lead to requests for additional material.
How It Works:
Please see the complete rules before entering the workshop, but in a nutshell, we’ll take the first five Middle Grade or Young Adult entries that meet all guidelines and formatting requirements. (Double-check the formatting – each month we have to disqualify entries because of formatting.) Click here to get the rules. We will post when the workshop opens and closes on Adventures in YA Publishing and on twitter (@eliza_daws, @etcashman) with the hashtag #1st5pages. In addition to the rotating team of our wonderful permanent author mentors, the final entry for each workshop participant will be critiqued by our agent mentor.
April Guest Literary Agent Mentor: Karly Caserza
Karly Caserza was born in the Philippines and immigrated to Northern California as a child.She is a Literary Assistant at Fuse Literary. In her spare time, Karly is an Adobe Technical Trainer, freelance graphic designer, Young Adult author, video game geek, and art noob.
Karly has a deep love for characters with a strong voice and seeks out stories she can get lost in. Diversity in genre fiction is a major bonus. She specializes in middle grade and young adult genre fiction (fantasy, science fiction, and contemporary). To query Karly, please send a brief synopsis and the first 10 pages of your work using the form found at this link: Submissions
January Guest Literary Author Mentor: Meredith Miller
Meredith grew up on Long Island and later worked in advertising photography in the city. She then went on to live in Oregon, New Orleans, and England, and now she lives in Wales.
She’s done a few degrees in English Literature and published some academic books. She’s been an angry performance poet, learned to swallow fire, done itinerant farm work, and was once a cleaner in a leather bar.
That whole time, she was writing, first poetry and then fiction. Like everyone else who writes novels, she wrote a really bad one first and put it away in a drawer.
Then she wrote Little Wrecks, a novel inspired by growing up on Long Island, and people liked it. She has more novels lined up and waiting to get to you. . .
Connect with her online!
Twitter: @meredithseven
Author site: https://www.meredithmiller.me/
HOW WE LEARNED TO LIE
This isn’t a love story, but it is a story about love.
This is the story of Joan Harris and Daisy McNamara and the year everything in their lives came apart.
It starts when Robbie McNamara appears at Joan’s house with someone else’s blood dripping from his hands. Then it all unravels from there in a string of bad angel dust, good biology teachers, rusty scalpels, and stunning car crashes. People keep disappearing, and everyone is lying.
There was always Joan and Daisy, just Daisy and Joan. The thing is, even if you love someone, how long should you hold on before letting go to save yourself?
