The Manuscript Maven

Sharon Mayhew  has been a blogging buddy and a critique partner for years. And I also consider her a good friend. She’s helped me get my writing up to snuff and has always been exceedingly supportive, so I'm excited to be able to return the favor.

Read on to find out about her new endeavor and how you can enter to win a critique!

If you'll recall, I spent a lot of time this year critiquing/editing/and coaching writers. I seriously considered working for a literary agency, but one of the things I learned is that literary agents never have an ending point. Yes, when they sell a book and it gets through the publishing stage they only have to worry about marketing that book, right? Well, not exactly. They do an amazing amount of work.

So, if you have an agent be grateful for all of their hard work and if you are looking for an agent, be patient and understand the amount of work they are doing. It is NOT a 9-5 job!

I did gain some perspective, along with a lot of new writing friends. I LOVE LOVE LOVE editing and critiquing. It's a great feeling to help someone move their manuscript forward or to help them write a query that catches someone's attention. I love having a beginning and ending point with each project I undertake. Not that I don't continue thinking about people's manuscripts. I don't know how many times I've sent someone an email starting with: I was just thinking about your manuscript....

This experience led me to where I am today. I'm launching my own website offering my services for manuscript critiques, line edits, query critiques, and general coaching. I hope you will pop over and check out The Manuscript Maven. If you have any feedback or suggestions to improve my site, please leave them in the comments.

To celebrate, the winner on each blog will have the choice of the first 250 words of a picture book critique/line edits, the first seven pages of a novel critique/line edits, or a query critique/line edits.

The winners will be picked by random.org on December 19th. Please leave what genres you write in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a lovely Fall!