MSWL Admin 
by Julie Kingsley I spent much of April floored by a head cold. It wasn’t one of those just have a few sniffles colds, but a solid melting into the floor bug. I spent nine days on the couch watching hours and hours of television. This, as you could imagine, filled me with creative self-loathing, … Read more
Melissa Edwards (agent at Stonesong Literary, former lawyer, and founder of MLE Consulting) joins us to talk contracts, specialties, and what happens when another kind of lawyer attempts to negotiate a publishing contract. You’ll learn the worst clause she’s ever seen (it’s so bad you guys), what will stay the same pretty much no matter … Read more
by Julie Kingsley Back in college, I had a professor who railed on the notion that the writing was about sacrifice. I recall him yelling, “If you want to be an effective working writer you will say no to dinner with friends, that day at the beach, the trip to the mall. Instead, you need … Read more
We spoke with agent Erik Hane of Red Sofa Literary about how he got his start, how he used to think fiction writers were hired like contractors–and the programs he’d build if given the funding. We also spend a brief moment talking about how #MeToo has come to publishing. Plus, some dangerous-sounding winter sports Erik … Read more
We speak with author Carrie DiRisio, the voice behind Brooding YA Hero, plus her agent, Melissa Edwards at Stonesong Literary, and her editor, Alison Weiss at Sky Pony Press. Together, we discuss the creation of Brooding YA Hero, and how it became a book that is so much more than a Twitter feed. (Plus, of … Read more
If you haven’t yet tuned in to #MSWL’s free podcast, now is a great time to do so! Many writers worry about whether they can possibly get an agent’s attention, and sell books in the US, if they live abroad. We talked with agent Kurestin Armada (P.S. Literary) and her client, Amy Schaefer, who not … Read more
by Diana Urban, author and Jim McCarthy, agent Diana: A couple of months ago, I finished edits on a YA thriller called The Last Hour. It’s a cross between to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and Abigail Haas’s Dangerous Girls — nine teens get locked in a room and must choose someone to … Read more
by Ben Grange, L. Perkins Agency In my “I’d like the next” section of my MSWL page, I list three stories that to me, represent something impactful in human nature. And yeah, those three stories are in visual format, not the printed word, but if I had found their equivalent in books, those books would … Read more
by Amber Oliver, HarperCollins I’m not much of a TV watcher, I must admit. One of my favorite lines to say to my mother whenever she asks me about a funny commercial she’s recently seen, is to say “I don’t have cable.” Despite the fact that I do have subscription services to Hulu, Netflix, Amazon … Read more
by editor Sarah Guan (Orbit/Hachette Book Group), Jim McCarthy (agent, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management), and Fonda Lee, author of Jade City Sarah: I joined the Orbit editorial team toward the end of 2016, and immediately set about hunting for that perfect first acquisition as I began to build my list here. I wanted a … Read more
