Have you ever wondered why Publishing seems to take so much longer than any other industry?

We posed this question to agent Stefanie Molina, Ladderbird Literary--and discuss what it means for agents, editors, and - most of all - writers.

Want to talk about your work with Stefanie? Schedule a time here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/faculty-members/stefanie-molina

We discuss:

Current Trends in Publishing (00:03:57)


What Makes A work “Fresh”? (00:05:01)


The Importance of BIPOC Voices in Literature (00:06:32)

Communication Challenges in Publishing (00:08:33)


Literary Agents of Change (00:10:52)

Advice for Writers in the Querying Process (00:15:48)

Agents’ Constant Thoughts on Clients (00:28:56)


Hope for Industry Change (00:39:31)

Scholarship Opportunities (00:44:47)

We are so happy to welcome Liv Ivanov, agent at Creative Media Agency, to the podcast!

In this episode, we talk about making your work more addictive (we can all dream of the "I read it in one sitting" agent response!) through:

*Effective pacing

*Structure

*Tension

*Symmetry

*The MICE Quotient

And more!

Liv shares her insights on avoiding excessive exposition, the balance between tension and pacing, and the importance of character development. She also highlights techniques like reverse outlining and reading aloud to improve manuscripts.

We also learn what Liv would like to have in her inbox. Meet Liv here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/faculty-members/liv-ivanov

How do you make your work more commercial--and why is commercial the trend right now?

Join agent Alyssa Jennette (Stonesong Literary) as we talk about:

1) Why is commercial trending right now?

2) What can ALL genres (including literary) do to appeal to readers in this moment?

3) Why you should focus revision efforts on stakes, character, payoff and more to make your commercial and literary works more

4) Why literary and upmarket writers don't need to panic.

This is part of a larger podcast episode (15 minutes) coming soon.

Meet Alyssa here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/faculty-members/alyssa-jennette

Video clip of this episode here: https://youtu.be/F8wl9mwyc9k?si=Tg-lfxW2dBC6CpxR

Learn more at https://manuscriptacademy.com/

Is there a formula for success?

What do you do when "A new twist on something familiar" starts to feel overly simplistic?

Enter editor Ivan Taurisano, editor at Abrams, who works from the opposite direction of most editors: he can think of a concept that's marketable, then put together the team to make it happen.

We discuss:

***Collaborating with Licensing Partners: Ivan works closely with major brands like Disney, Netflix, and others to create books that resonate with current market trends.

***Data-Driven Decision Making: Unlike traditional editors who wait for manuscripts, Ivan actively seeks out market trends and creates content that meets those demands.

***Monitoring Bestseller Lists: Checking Amazon and New York Times bestseller lists to identify common themes and outliers.

***Examining BISAC Codes: Understanding how books are categorized to spot market trends.

***Creating Engaging and Humorous Content: Books should be fun and engaging for children, encouraging a love of reading.

***Finding the Sweet Spot: Balancing humor and content that resonates with children while being appropriate for parents.

Ivan Taurisano was born in Rome, Italy, and moved to the United States almost ten years ago to pursue a children’s book publishing career. The guiding principle of his work is that a child whose life is changed by a book will always be a step closer to becoming an adult who will change the world. Ivan’s all-time favorite book is James and the Giant Peach, and his best friend is a chihuahua named Bilbo.

Ivan has a BA in English and Creative Writing, an MA in Children’s Literature, and an MFA in Writing for Children. He started his career at Sourcebooks as an Editorial Assistant, then moved on to become an Assistant Editor. His responsibilities included developing children’s board books, picture books, and graphic novels, as well as acquiring board books and picture books. Ivan has worked with many successful series and brands, including How to Catch, Little Heroes Big Hearts, Sesame Street, Disney, Tokidoki, and Pokémon.

Currently, Ivan lives in New York and works at Abrams as an Associate Editor on the Children’s Entertainment Publishing and Content Development team. In this role, he focuses novelty books, board books, graphic novels, and select MG and YA titles. He is especially interested in stories with a strong commercial hook, crave-able content, compelling characters, and series potential.

Board books and picture books: Ivan is interested in children’s board books and picture books that are kid-centric, interactive, character-driven, and have series potential. He enjoys titles with a strong hook, fun read-alouds, great rhymes, bold and playful imaginative stories, books that break the fourth wall and invite reader participation, as well as seasonal stories such as Christmas and Halloween.

MG: Ivan is interested in plot-driven, action-packed adventures with a strong commercial hook, compelling characters, magic, quests/competitions, and high stakes.

YA: Ivan prefers strong commercial hooks, well-plotted, character-driven, atmospheric stories, and series potential. He loves fantasy, magic, and quests/competitions. He likes unique, morally grey characters, memorable villains, and propulsive, cinematic writing.

Ivan is not the best fit for nonfiction, retellings, historical fiction, biographies, and novels in verse.

***

Schedule a meeting with Ivan here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/faculty-members/ivan-taurisano

In this 1-hour session, you will learn the essential steps to position yourself and your book as valuable investments to agents, editors, bookstores, and beyond.

(Want more? Join our workshop October 22-24, How To Be Your Own Best Marketer: https://manuscriptacademy.com/product/be-your-own-best-marketer | $39 early bird, $49 regular, $0 members).

Whether you’re preparing for a book launch or just starting your journey, this training will provide you with insights to stand out to publishers, readers, and bookstores.

Key Takeaways:

1. Why Your Brand Matters – How to conduct a personal brand audit and refine your platform to attract attention from publishers and readers.

2. The Cost of Hosting Events – A behind-the-scenes look at bookstore events and how understanding costs can improve your relationships with event partners.

3. Creative Book Events – Strategies for planning engaging, memorable book events that go beyond traditional bookstore settings.

By the end of the training, you will have a clear understanding of how to present your book and author brand as a smart investment, setting the stage for future success.

We love Bonnie Jo Pierson. Not only is she a Manuscript Academy alum and a published author, she’s a member of a 20-person writing group—and an expert on knowing what feedback to take, what to ignore, and how to tell the difference.

After 17 years of writing, her novel is ready—and we talk about keeping work fresh, learning and growing as a person, and remaining emotionally open to your work and your life.

Bonnie Jo is the author of What Happens in Idaho, July 24, 2024.

Gifted with a short attention span, Bonnie Jo Pierson wants to experience and do as much as she can. Using the great powers of YouTube she’s taught herself how to knit, crochet, paint with oils, acrylics, and watercolors, coach volleyball, play the piano and cello, ride a motorcycle, renovate a house, sing, sew, raise livestock, bake, and most importantly how to write. With a degree in biology, she’s a lover of all things science, especially in the microscopic world.

She and her Navy veteran husband have four children and spent several years bouncing around to various locations in the United States. Now she’s made her home in small-town Idaho, where she’s attempting to resurrect her great-grandparents one hundred year-old farm.

You can email her at [email protected] or you can find her on:

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorbonniejopierson/

goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/23922408-bonnie-jo-pierson

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bonniejopiersonauthor

twitter: https://twitter.com/BonnieJo_author

tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bonniejo_author?lang=en

Today is a special live recording of the Manuscript Academy podcast!

In front of Manuscript Academy members, Jessica and Julie are joined by faculty member and Macmillan editor Christina Lopez in another installment of our Mystery Agent/Editor segment.

Listen in as Christina critiques writer Karissa Riffel’s YA horror query and first page, and answers all your questions.

Want to apply for next Mystery Agent/Editor Consutlation? Sign up here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/submissions

Learn more about membership here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/membership

Want to meet with Christina? Sign up here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/faculty-members/christina-lopez

Have you ever been tempted to say "My book is for everyone"?

We get it! It sounds like the perfect way to convince an agent your book is a slam dunk bestseller--right?

Wrong. Realistically, no book is for everyone--and this is a great thing.

We're happy to join Emma Peters, editor at W.W. Norton, to discuss:

*Why you need to define your audience--and pitch an agent on this reader

*How specificity in your book description is your friend

*What is a “build a book” and why do agents work on them?

*Balancing professionalism, enthusiasm & marketing

*How to use your friends as a focus group

Emma is available for query consultations. Meet with her at: https://manuscriptacademy.com/faculty-members/emma-peters

We are so excited to welcome math teacher Ben Orlin to the podcast!

Ben Orlin is a math teacher who can't draw. His book Math with Bad Drawings (2018) has sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide, and has since been followed by Change is the Only Constant (2019), Math Games with Bad Drawings (2022), and most recently, Math for English Majors (Sept 2024). His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Popular Science, Slate, Vox, and The Los Angeles Times; he himself has appeared in the lines to ice cream stores everywhere. BBC star and leading mathematician Hannah Fry once described him as "terribly bad at drawing" before kindly adding “he’s also fantastically clever and charming.”

We discuss:

* How to position your proposal as an expert in your subject, for an audience who is not as well-versed

* Using metaphor to connect and create new meaning

* The ways agents seek out nonfiction clients

* How to incorporate math in your querying and editing process

Learn more about Ben and his new book here: https://mathwithbaddrawings.com

We are so happy to welcome Nour Sallam, agent at P.S. Literary, to the podcast!

We discuss:

*How agents should advocate for clients from signing to offers to contracts to publication and beyond

*Why messy characters and their interiority are often the one thing missing from your work

*Why we should experience empathy for your villain

*Opportunities to build tension, pulling the reader (or agent!) into your story

Meet with Nour here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/faculty-members/nour-sallam

See a clip of this episode here: https://youtu.be/xBbNAb0d5sM?si=8NLlvwhX3X04p5vB

Transcript and timestamps here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/podcast-nour-sallam

Nour Sallam is an associate literary agent at P.S. Literary Agency representing adult fiction and nonfiction. Nour has previously worked in editing, podcasting, communications, and journalism. She got her start at the University of British Columbia where she studied English Literature and Political Science. She then got her publishing certificate at Toronto Metropolitan University. As an Arab woman and an immigrant, she loves books of any genre that amplify joy and connection, or feature complex and nuanced histories, power dynamics, or underrepresented narratives.

Nour is seeking commercial and upmarket fiction titles as well as select literary fiction, edgy psychological thrillers, mysteries, and light horror. In fiction, she gravitates towards voicey characters that are haunted by something: a secret, a past, a fear— or an actual haunting! She’s actively seeking character-driven stories featuring women in power, unhinged women, and stories of female rage. She also has a soft spot for unreliable narrators, family sagas with dysfunctional families, protagonists in their 20s-30s navigating adulthood, protagonists on the cusp of major life changes, and stories that focus on friendship dynamics. She is also drawn to stories that explore the diverse experiences of underrepresented groups and challenge our understanding of diasporic experiences and/or cultures. Bonus points if these stories are also fun and celebrate joy.

For nonfiction, Nour welcomes fresh and accessible perspectives on big ideas or industry deep dives as well as personal narratives on pop culture, art, and nature. She appreciates books that offer incisive commentary on culture, socio-economic structures, corporate underbellies, health and wellness, and lifestyle. Her taste in non-fiction gravitates towards books that generally challenge what we know or explain what we might not know.