Writers With Wrinkles

Your graphic novel isn't a novel. It's a screenplay, and editors can tell from page one whether you know the difference. First Second Books editor Ivan Taurisano explains how to write and submit a graphic novel script that gets read.

Kids ages 8 to 12 head straight for the graphic novel shelf, and prose writers are trying to follow them there. But Ivan says a submission that misses the format doesn't just earn a "not for me." It can earn a "don't send me your next one." Here's what he wants you to know before you write a single panel.

In this episode:

• Why writing a graphic novel is closer to writing a screenplay than a prose novel
• Revealing character through dialogue alone (no "she looked wistfully at the ocean")
• Why editors talk page count, not word count, and the "70,000-word graphic novel" red flag
• What to submit for a script-only project vs. an author and illustrator team: script, pitch, synopsis, and 20–30 sample pages
• How much art direction is too much, and the one question to ask before you leave an art note
• Why illustrators usually earn more than writers
• The biggest mistake Ivan sees: art that doesn't match the audience you're pitching
• Why kids who read "slightly above their level" become lifelong readers
• Adult graphic novels and First Second's sister imprint, 23rd Street

Ivan's manuscript wishlist:

• Middle grade graphic novels about girl friendship that capture how big those fights and bonds feel at 10, 11, and 12
• Dragons
• Early reader graphic novels for ages 4–7, 64–96 pages, any topic
• Stories with fresh magic systems
• A joyful, new take on the immigrant journey that shows the excitement, not only the hardship

Ivan's inbox ([email protected]) is open to agented and unagented creators, and he gives feedback when he passes. 

Books and resources mentioned:

• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud (Ivan's must-read before you write a graphic novel)
• The Investigators by John Patrick Green
• Dog Man by Dav Pilkey
• Pizza and Taco
• Narwhal and Jelly
• Parachute Kids
• Tuck Everlasting (graphic novel adaptation)
• Clara and the Devil
• How to Catch Santa Claus (How to Catch series)
• James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Hit play, then grab a graphic novel for the age group you want to write for. Follow Writers With Wrinkles so you don't miss our next Ask Beth and Lisa episode, and send us your questions!

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We just turned 150+ episodes of hard-won publishing wisdom into one book — and it's finally here. Write, Revise, Publish: Essential Lessons from the Writers With Wrinkles Podcast is up for pre-order now, and today Beth and Lisa are pulling back the curtain on why they wrote it, what's inside, and how it can save you from making the same missteps they did.

If you've ever finished a podcast episode thinking "that's such a good tip" — and then completely forgotten it by the next day — this book is the fix. Beth and Lisa gathered the best insight from over five years and 150+ conversations with agents, editors, and authors, organized it by where you are in your process (first draft through published book), and added end-of-chapter worksheets so you can actually use it, not just read it. Plus: they're launching a brand-new segment called the Confetti Club, where debut and new-release authors get the mic to pitch their own books — no interview pressure, just celebration.

In this episode:

• The cover reveal for their new book, Write, Revise, Publish: Essential Lessons from the Writers With Wrinkles Podcast
• Why they built the book around 150+ episodes of guest wisdom instead of just their own opinions
• How the book is organized so there's a spot for you whether you're drafting, revising, querying, or publishing
• The personal (and often embarrassing) asides from Beth and Lisa woven into every chapter
• End-of-chapter worksheets designed to turn the book into a practical writing tool, not just a read
• Introducing the Confetti Club — a new short-form segment spotlighting authors with books releasing within 30 days
• Who's lined up for the first three Confetti Club episodes
• A teaser for a third big announcement — coming next month
• Release date, pre-order details, and (of course) a Taylor Swift tangent

Pre-order Write, Revise, Publish on Amazon now — it releases in ebook and paperback on October 6th. And if you've got a book coming out in the next 30 days, keep an eye out: the Confetti Club wants to celebrate you too.

Hit play, and let's dive in. And if you love the show, a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts takes two minutes and helps us keep ironing out the wrinkles every week.

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Harry Potter didn't just create a fantasy phenomenon — according to one Big Five editor, it quietly helped break middle grade publishing. Every book that tried to chase that success got longer, older, and harder for actual kids to read, and now imprints are shutting down because of it.

In this encore episode, literary agent, bestselling children's author, and founder of At-Home Author Vicki Weber breaks down what's really happening in publishing right now — the layoffs, the imprint closures, and why "everybody's throwing spaghetti at the wall." Then she gets tactical: her #1 piece of advice for authors in the query trenches (hint: it's not "wait for The One agent"), how to read between the lines of an agent's wishlist, and why chasing a "dream agent" is quietly sabotaging your confidence.

In this episode:

• The real story behind Vicki's viral Substack post on the state of middle grade
• The "Harry Potter theory" — how one runaway bestseller reshaped an entire category
• Why editors loving your book is only the beginning, not the end, of acquisitions
• Vicki's #1 tip for querying authors: write another book (and why the process isn't a straight line)
• How to research an agent's actual taste, not just their stated genres
• Why "my dream agent passed" is the wrong way to think about rejection
• Self-publishing vs. traditional: how to decide which is right for your book
• What to do about a "bad" sales track record (and how to reframe it)
• Simple, low-cost ways to build an email list and audience before you're published
• Vicki's current manuscript wishlist: horror-tinged, commercial, with social commentary

We had a new guest lined up for this week, but a family emergency meant we had to reschedule — so we're bringing back one of our favorite conversations instead.

Find Vicki's Substack and more show links in the notes at writerswithwrinkles.net.

Hit play and let's get to it!

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Most rejected picture book and middle grade manuscripts aren't turned down because they're bad — they're turned down because an editor has already seen five just like them. Susan Marston, the new editorial director of Albatros Books' US expansion (and former 25-year editorial director of the Junior Library Guild), joins us to lay out exactly what's landing on her acquisitions list right now — and what's already been done to death.

We talk about why Albatros — the largest publisher in the Czech Republic — is betting big on the American market, what makes a manuscript feel "irresistible" to an editor who's read literally thousands of submissions, and why she thinks the industry needs way more funny books, shorter word counts, and readers who aren't just "a boy and a girl who are best friends." Susan also gets specific about the exact gaps she's trying to fill: mysteries that go beyond the Sherlock-and-sidekick formula, horror-lite for middle grade, memoir, magical realism, and chapter books that actually try something new.

If you write for kids, this is the episode where an active acquiring editor tells you, out loud, what she wants to see land in her inbox.

In this episode:

• Why Albatros Books chose now to expand into the US market
• What "fun nonfiction" means as an acquisitions strategy
• The gap in chapter books Susan is actively trying to fill
• Why humor is one of the hardest — and most underrated — things to acquire
• Her take on the "boy and girl best friends" trope in middle grade, and why it's fading
• Why she'd take a great 200-page book over another 400-page epic any day
• Where to send your submission (and what she's hoping lands in that inbox)

Submissions: Albatros Books is actively acquiring picture books and chapter books from North American authors. Submission guidelines are on their website — send yours to [email protected].

Hit play, grab a pencil, and get ready to take notes — then head to writerswithwrinkles.net for the full breakdown and links mentioned in this episode.

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AI companies are shredding rare books to train their models—and now authors are the ones being told to prove they didn't use AI to write their own. Beth and Lisa unpack the double standard rocking publishing right now.

From a debut novelist's multi million dollar book deal getting pulled over AI suspicion, to writers being told to reinsert typos and kill their em dashes just to "prove" they're human, the burden of proof has landed on exactly the wrong people. Beth and Lisa dig into who gets accused (and who conveniently doesn't), why the "nudge theory" behind blue recycling bins explains what's really happening here, and why voting with your dollars might be the only leverage writers have left. Plus: the AI-sounding conference invite that had Lisa convinced she was being scammed — until it wasn't.

Here is the content Lisa references: 

1) Any AI use can never be completely “safe” but using for research, brainstorming, etc. can be acceptable. Usage for critiquing, improving prose or pacing, generating drafts is NOT. AI generated text is NOT copyrightable.

2) When using AI, stick to paid plans or walled gardens. Read the terms of use carefully re: training, storage of your prompts, input text, etc.

3) Avoid inputting your manuscript. Use prompts instead.

4) Cross-check all output for accuracy (false answers, hallucinations, poor nuance).

5) Keep all evidence of your process whether original or AI-involved. 

 Okay.  Now hit play, then tell us: has AI made you paranoid about your own writing voice?

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Your opening pages have about 30 seconds to keep a literary agent reading — and most manuscripts lose that fight before the first paragraph ends.

Developmental editor Joel Brigham returns to unpack exactly what makes an agent stop reading (and what makes them keep going): the four ingredients — tension, suspense, mystery, and unfairness — that hook a reader in the first few pages. He breaks down why agents almost universally reject prologues, the two-highlighter trick for catching your own info-dumps before an agent does, and where your inciting incident actually needs to land depending on your genre — it's earlier than most writers think.

If you've ever gotten a same-day rejection and wondered why, or you're prepping pages for a conference critique or your next query batch, this is the fix-it guide for those first ten pages.

Hit play — then check the chapter markers below to jump straight to the section you need.

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Note: If you downloaded this episode before 8/3 and experienced audio issues, please delete the download and hit re-download to grab the clean audio file!

Wendelin Van Draanen spent 10 years collecting rejections before anyone said yes to her Sammy Keyes mystery series — she just kept writing the next one anyway. Now, 40 books and 30 years later, she's still with the same editor who finally did.

If you've ever wondered whether to keep pitching a project nobody wants yet, or whether staying loyal to one editor for decades is a mistake in an industry that rewards jumping ship — this conversation is the counter-argument. Wendelin also gets candid about the moment Rob Reiner called to option Flipped, what it actually takes to hand your book to Hollywood without losing your mind, and the book-festival disaster that had two authors comparing notes on the exact same nightmare bookstore.

Ghosted, Wendelin's new romantasy, is up for pre-order now ahead of its October 6th release.

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You could finish four books this year and only ever get to publish one of them.

That's the traditional publishing timeline in a nutshell — and it's why more authors are quietly going hybrid: keeping one foot in a trad deal and self-publishing everything else on their own schedule, without waiting on anyone's calendar.

In this episode, Beth and Lisa break down what a hybrid author actually is (not to be confused with a hybrid publisher — totally different thing), why it's suddenly everywhere in publishing conversations, and the different ways real authors are structuring it: splitting genres between trad and self-pub, keeping e-book/audio rights on a trad print deal, reissuing backlist titles that reverted back to them. They also get into the real tradeoffs — creative control and faster cash flow vs. running two jobs at once (author and small business owner) — plus a few authors doing it well right now, like Rebecca Thorne.

Also in this episode: a shoutout to listener and author Kate McCarrell Moore's new release, Walter and Benny: Good Guys, Nature Spies, and a preview of next episode's guest, bestselling author Wendelin Van Draanen.

Hit play, and if you're new here, follow the show — new episodes every week. Find more at writerswithwrinkles.net.

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New York Times bestselling author Jason June (Out of the Blue, Jay's Gay Agenda) returns to Writers With Wrinkles for a wide-ranging conversation covering his growing acting career, the current state of the publishing industry, and his upcoming adult rom-com Santa and Krampus' Cozy Killer Christmas, out fall 2027. Jason is refreshingly candid — about book advances, about the anxiety running through publishing right now, and about finding joy in the work when the business side gets hard.

 Guest
Jason June — NYT bestselling author, actor, screenwriter, and self-described "Laura Dern stan" based in Dallas, TX. Known for YA rom-coms Out of the Blue and Jay's Gay Agenda, and publisher of The Ventorship, a newsletter on author finances and transparency.

 Highlights
•     Auditioning post-COVID: why self-tapes democratize acting, and what's lost without an in-person redirect from a casting director

•     How years of writing fiction sharpened Jason's instincts for character and story on set

•     The "greater sense of unease" in publishing right now — AI concerns, slow timelines, and authors questioning why traditional publishing can't move faster

•     Self-publishing's rising role, the discovery gap it still faces, and why hybrid careers are becoming more common

•     The Dungeon Crawler Carl story as a case study in trusting your own artistic vision

•     Why Jason publicly shares his advances and royalties through The Ventorship — and the argument that most of that "secrecy" is self-imposed

•     Publishing as a side hustle: debut culture, shrinking advances, and the myth of the "cushy" author life

•     The MER Principle (Beth's term): find the niche community obsessed with your book's specific hook, not a general audience

•     The premise behind Santa and Krampus' Cozy Killer Christmas — a "dark cozy" where Krampus only kills the people who'd otherwise doom humanity

•     Jason's advice to aspiring authors: chase the joy, and aim to be "prolific, not perfect"

 Key Takeaway
Whether you're navigating traditional publishing, weighing a hybrid career, or just trying to market your next book, the throughline is the same: get specific. Specific about your niche audience, specific about your finances, and specific about what actually brings you joy in the work.

Have a marketing tip that's worked for you? Beth and Lisa want to hear it.

•     Beth: [email protected]

•     Lisa: [email protected]

•     Join The Waiting Room, our Facebook community for writers

•     Website: writerswithwrinkles.net

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Episode Summary

In this episode of Writers With Wrinkles, hosts Beth McMullen and Lisa Schmid welcome back returning guest Lisa Frenkel Riddiough to discuss her brand-new picture book, Furious Turtle (Disney Hyperion), book two in the Forest School of Big Feelings series. The conversation quickly moves into the heart of the episode: Lisa's experience losing her longtime literary agent to retirement and having to re-enter the query trenches after years of being represented.

Lisa walks through how her second querying experience differed from her first — a small, curated list built mostly on personal referrals, a calmer and more strategic mindset, and the ability to separate emotional attachment from business decision-making. She also shares the exact query letter that landed her new agent, breaking down why it worked so well, including her formula for picture book pitches (title + word count + comps, story gist, and the twist/ending).

The episode wraps with candid advice for writers who've lost an agent — take stock of the career you've already built — and Lisa's biggest publishing lesson: it's okay to make mistakes.

Key Topics Discussed

• New release: Furious Turtle, a rhyming picture book about managing big emotions, releasing the day after this episode airs
• Book launch event at Old Haunts Bookstore in Granite Bay, CA
• Losing an agent to retirement and starting the query process over
• Building a small, referral-based query list instead of mass-querying
• Using leverage (an editor offer) without abandoning the goal of finding an agent who loves the full body of work
• Reading her actual query letter aloud, line by line
• Picture book pitch formula: title, word count, comps → story gist → the twist/ending
• Keeping old manuscripts organized — shelved drafts can resurface as the right opportunity later
• Pitching picture books vs. middle grade novels
• Reframing job loss (agent loss) as not career loss — taking stock of everything already built
• Embracing mistakes as part of the growth process in publishing

Notable Quotes

• On what a great query needs: the title should convey nearly the entire premise of a picture book.
• On business vs. heart: writers need to separate emotional attachment from evaluating what's genuinely a good match professionally.
• On losing an agent: the fact that someone once represented you is proof a career already exists — that career doesn't disappear with the agent.
• On mistakes: mistakes are simply how writers learn, and grace matters more than perfection.

Guest Info

Lisa Frenkel Riddiough writes board books, picture books, and middle grade novels using wordplay, humor, rhyme, and whimsy. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University. More at lisariddiough.com.

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