August 23: Beyond the Basics of Pitches and Queries
A discussion with freelance editor Emma Heggem
Submission forms. Slush piles. Waiting and waiting for a response. In today’s oversaturated market, getting a publisher to choose your manuscript from the dozens (or hundreds) of others is, in many ways, the greatest hurdle of the publishing process. In this discussion, Emma Heggem will share—from a publisher’s perspective—tips and tactics for crafting pitches and queries that will get noticed.
Bio: Emma Heggem worked for 6 years at Future House Publishing, where she managed the acquisitions and editing process for MG and YA fantasy and sci-fi novels. Now she is a freelance editor who uses her experience to help authors polish their manuscripts. Emma graduated from BYU with a bachelors in English Language and a minor in Editing. Whenever she gets a chance, she loves to attend writers’ conferences to give manuscript critiques and talk to aspiring writers about the mysterious world of publishing.
Note: For the last 15 minutes of the recording, we had some intermittent interruptions by a Zoom bomber.
