In today’s Books with Hooks, Carly and CeCe critique two queries each, discussing strong hooks; coincidences; describing a character indirectly; grief, day-to-day, and voicey-ness in the pages; submitting polished queries, character observations tying in with their story-forward intentions, characterization, covering a

In today's Bonus Episode, Carly and CeCe answer all your questions and Emilie Sommer from East City Book Shop gives you comp titles. After which, CeCe chats with Susie Yang, author of White Ivy, which was a Books with Hooks Book Club pick in the spring. CeCe and Susie discuss fairytale elements and omniscient POV; how

In today's Books with Hooks, Carly and CeCe review a resubmission and in the process discuss an impressive author paragraph; writing the subtleties of familial relationships; the difficulties of a plot that hinges on a secret that isn't revealed in the query; and an example of a very good hook. After which, Bianca chat

In today's Books with Hooks , Carly and CeCe each critique two query letters. In the process, they discuss stories with magical elements and why the author chooses that specific world as the vehicle for the story; the importance of not revealing too much about a character’s ending state of interiority in a query letter

In today's Books with Hooks, Carly and CeCe evaluate two submissions each and discuss not feeding the reader all the information right up front; how the reader should be the co-pilot; that understanding how much you should reveal is a complicated  dance; not starting with a child's POV when it’s an adult novel; and hav

In today's BONUS Episode, Carly chats with Andrea Dunlop, author of We Came Here To Forget, about comps and why they’re so important; what it feels like to be out on submission; writers not getting what they need in terms of knowing how to market themselves and their books; a day in the life of; and NaNoWriMo goals. Af