Alexander McCaw

I always mix real folklore into my stories. Some of it very close to home. #WritingCommunity #folklore #faeries

@Holliiejanes Five

Writers - how many active WIP's do you have going? Is having more than one WIP psychotic? #WritingCommunity

@KalamCenter 137

Interesting puzzle here. What do you think?

@jennnixon Seems the corporations are running amok everywhere. 😭 Fingers crossed on prices!! 🤞🏻

@Alexander_McCaw Last year we were paying $6 - and now all those companies are getting refunds for ripping us off. But we're not getting any refunds. I hope they come down for you soon too!

Went to the story yesterday. Dozen #eggs were $1.06. No lie. WTF

Following up on my post last night. The reality of being an unknown author is that I just want my story to be read. Starting right now, my debut crime thriller love story The Party Never Ends is completely FREE on Amazon for the next 3 days. I truly hope you enjoy it. 🙏📖 🔗 amazon.com/dp/B0GKJC7C69

@MadelynKnecht I thought you were very positive and polite. 🙏

Yall, AI is not writing form rejection letters from agents. There’s just typical language we use and only so many ways we can politely pass on something

@theajennda Not a novel. More just daft fun. amazon.co.uk/Millicent-Scat…

Hello! I'm about to be free to write another book review. Is your book on KU and does it have fewer than 10 reviews on Amazon? Link, please! 🌻

Thought I'd give #SmallPitch a go. Seems like a fun way to get my book noticed. Now back to writing the second one! 😎

@richard_froste I'm still quering. 💪🏻

I am sure I will get hate messages for this - but... 100% of the writers I have seen in the past week that are posting that they have gotten manuscript requests/offers/reps from lit agents have been women. Are men not getting offers? Not querying? Not posting when they do?

@talishammas Someone who 'gets' the potential in what I've created. Probably heresy to say, but I want someone who can see not just the book, but the series of books and beyond. I want a champion who can get as passionate about what I've created as me.

I've shared what I look for in potential clients, but #amquerying writers, I'm curious what you look for in a potential agent!

@KGRussellwrites @markemusgames @whimsillusion Sounds like I'm on a similar journey

Don't get discouraged, which is far more difficult than me saying it. If it helps, here's my querying journey: September 2024: I began querying my first for-publication novel, Ren Fairy Tale. 50+ queries sent, 2 fulls, one small press offer which I backed out of. The publisher folded shortly thereafter. Queried more, about 30 more times, and received only crickets. February 2025: Took the world-building from Ren Fairy Tale and wrote SWEET WITCHTEEN, targeting "more marketable" YA Fantasy. It didn't turn out as I expected. April 2025: After working with an editor for editorial assessments, I improved the novel and began querying. I received a 50/50 mix of "not the right fit" form rejections and personalized "not the right fit" rejections. A chef's kiss is I received conflicting rejections about 20 minutes apart—one praising the voice and characters but loathing the plot, the other liking the hook (the plot) but hating the voice and characters. May through August 2025: I abandoned trying to listen to agents' MSWLs and bled onto the page, writing what I wanted to read, my story. I also worked more with the same editor for assessments and finally "got it" and followed my heart. August-September 2025: I queried every agent open to YA Fantasy, about 56 agents, and got the same results, but one rejection stood out. It told me that the protagonist's age places the novel "firmly" in YA, but the tone, mood, and events make it adult horror fantasy, which makes positioning nearly impossible as it's too Ya for adults and too adult for YA/ too horrific for fantasy and too fantasy-like for horror. I leaned into that. It became my superpower, my brand, and the novel's identity. I revised my query, leaning into the dark fantasy and horror aspects in lieu of YA appeal, then resumed querying. During this time, I wrote the sequel, Witchful Thinking, because writing the sequel to a novel nobody wanted to rep was "wishful thinking." I also revised Sweet Witchteen to better align with my improved craft and the mythology that grew out of the second novel. December 202- February 2026: Having exhausted nearly every agent on the continent, I turned to publishers who accepted unagented submissions and began getting interest in the form of full requests and a couple of offers. December 2025: With 1 novel finished, being read by dozens of readers in my target audience, and the second completed, I decided to self-publish and market it as a trilogy, and began creating a long-term plan. I continued querying and submitting when I could, but only racked up rejections, and a few fulls. February 2026: A publisher on my "I'd love to work with" list sent me an R&R. Luckily, the changes I'd made aligned nearly perfectly with their desires, and I only needed to make a few tweaks. March 2026: I sent the revised manuscript to the publisher and got an offer on the condition that it still needs "a few blistering rounds of developmental editing." I signed. April 2026-present: I finalized Witchful Thinking and sent it to the publisher and have about 25K of the third novel written. Sweet Witchteen is due out in fall of 2027. Final summary: over two queried novels, I went through literally hundreds of queries and submissions, learned that my craft is at its best when I be myself and bleed onto the page, and that if your writing is strong and your is unique enough to stand out that perseverance pays off.

Writers who are still querying, how many query letters have you sent out so far? I'm curious what is "normal".

Must remember hashtags...🤓 @FaerieMagazine @FantasyArtZ @MythologySource #InternationalFairyDay #FairyMagic #Fantasy #Enchanted #Magic #FairyTales

I've hit a milestone. 70 rejections. But I soldier on. On a lighter note, theyve all been quite nice and full of praise. Seems my topic of choice is rather niche. In the meantime...Guide to Faeries still on Amazon. Get it while it's hot.

🤦‍♂️That moment when you somehow double pasted the same sentence into your query...and only see it when its sent. 🥴😭 #WritingCommunity

@WilChanWrites 100%

Do you think Amazon make more money from Amazon Ads for books than from selling actual books on KDP?

@elizanane Sounds good

If you’re seeing this as a fellow writer, you’re officially invited to our small Writing Discord Server! We have a red flag agent list, query critiques, a supportive community and more~ Please drop a comment and open your DMs if you want to join! 🌸🫶👇

@KiraMWatson If only you were looking for UMG. Good luck with your hunting regardless! 🙏🤓

FYI janklowandnesbit.com/people/kira-wa… #amquerying #WritingCommunity #writing

@jrostopovich Charles Dickens loved an em dash. Just use them appropriately and you're good.

AI literary contest scandals really putting a damper on my liberal use of em dashes. For the record *I* was abusing them first.

5 more queries out today. I think I've found the 'perfect' agent for my book too. But it occurs to me...if they reject it. Then maybe the book needs more work. Querying is terrible for confidence. #WritingCommunity

@ChristineNanfra Still waiting 3 months in.

Querying authors, I have a question: How long did it take for an agent to respond after requesting additional pages (partial, full, or 100 pages)? Days? Weeks? Months? Asking for a writer who is trying very hard not to refresh her inbox every five minutes.