Elena Taylor

Writing Faster Does Not Mean Writing Better

Writing Faster . . . Writing Faster We live in a fast world. It has been speeding up for generations. Now we have movies and television instantly streaming to our devices and Zoom meetings that can put people together immediately no matter where they are in the physical world. We can get test results emailed […]

Show Vs Tell or Active Vs Passive Writing

Show vs Tell: What are agents and editors referring to with this “issue” in a manuscript? In my humble opinion . . . Show vs Tell can also be understood by thinking about active vs passive writing or writing with the reader and writing at the reader. Here’s what I mean by those three things. […]

Seven Motivations to Keep Writing in Winter

Motivations to keep writing can be a challenge in winter Motivations to keep writing during the winter in the Northern Hemisphere can be tricky. The  cold, winter weather can drive us indoors, leading to hibernation and binge watching our latest Netflix obsession. (Currently mine is Unforgotten on Masterpiece) That can be a good way to […]

An Agent Requests Your Manuscript . . .

An Agent Requests Your Manuscript, Now What? Conferences can be a great way to find an agent. I recently attended the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Conference in Seattle, Washington, as a senior editor with Allegory Editing, along with the founder, Andrea Karin Nelson. It’s a lively conference with terrific speakers, excellent panel topics, and the […]

To Query or not to Query . . .

That is the Question! Following up on my blog post about Publishing Basics, which covers the “three” tiers of the publishing world, I wrote about the differences between editors and agents and PR groups. In The Query Letter post, I covered some basic tips for writing a solid query letter. Today I want to talk […]

The Query Letter: A basic overview

Publishing is a long road. But writers have to start somewhere. Write, rewrite, repeat … then query. As the final installment of my three-part series on the basics of publishing, I’m including a quick overview of the query letter. I’ll be following this post up with another on how to know when your work is […]

Agents and Editors and PR Companies, Oh My …

This week I continue my three-part series on Publishing Industry Basics. Last week I discussed Three Tiers Of Publishers (Big 5/6, Indie/Small Press, and Self Publishing). Before I talk about the basics of when and how to submit material to agents and editors, I thought it might be useful to understand the roles those individuals play in the […]

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