“Be original. Don’t look at what’s selling and try to imitate it…”
We sat down with the delightful Zoe Griffiths, Senior Commissioning Editor at Bloomsbury Kids, to ask her some questions about finding brilliant children’s fiction.
Category: Advice from publishing experts
How to make an agent or editor fall in love with your book
A really brilliant opening line, followed by a brilliant opening paragraph, is crucial. It gets your prospective agent or editor’s attention and makes them more inclined to like the rest of your writing.
How many words are in a children’s book?
How long should my children’s book be? We wish there was a simple, one-size-fits-all answer to this! There are no set rules for how long a children’s novel should be, and the lack of clear guidance can be frustrating. That’s why we often get asked questions like this.
How to tame your writer: living with someone who is trying to get published
It’s not easy living with a writer, whether they are well-established, or still trying to find an agent or publisher. Here’s how to support your writer as they go through the process of getting published.
When Jimmy Met Chardonnay
Whether you’re writing an intimate first person narrative, or juggling several different narrators, keeping a consistent point of view is a great way to strengthen your novel. And even if you have muddled up the perspective here and there, it’s usually easy to fix. Here’s an example…
Five tips for staying sane while querying agents
OK, it may not be up there with divorce, moving house or trying to avoid Game of Thrones spoilers on Twitter, but having your manuscript out there in the big, bad world being judged by big, bad agents* is pretty darn stressful. Here are our top tips for staying sane when you’re looking for an agent.