Kira Bruner

I love this!

I want to read this, agents, please

Readers definitely judge books by their covers. When you're looking at books on the shelf at the store, or online, the cover is the first thing you see and it acts as an ad for the book itself.

As a writer who also works as a designer / in marketing, I would invest in your website, your cover, and getting your book in the hands of readers that can make a difference (whether that is sending PR boxes to content creators who would be a good fit or attending book events in your area).

Just coming on here to say, if you can afford to hire an illustrator to bring your manuscript to life, it’s a magical experience.This one is for my MG project, NORA AND THE NIGHTMARE KING. And do not, please do not, use AI. Support human beings 💕 Illustration by Savannah Lazo! (Savannahlazo.com)

Full rejections hurt. ❤️‍🩹

Do not ever do this under any circumstances. You will be held to the actual contract, not the AI summary, and the AI summary has no way of knowing which terms you might personally care about or have questions about. Dooooo notttttt dooooo thissssss.

Writing & Querying My Second Manuscript Part Three of How I Got Here

In this post, I talk about what I did differently this time around and share some of the feedback, rejections, and positive comments I received throughout this process.

Including the query letter I sent out and my query stats 🫣

Writing & Querying My First Manuscript Part Two of How I Got Here

My second Substack post is up: Writing & Querying My First Manuscript open.substack.com/pub/kirabrun...

I currently have so many books that I want to read bad enough that I've considered just reading them all simultaneously. It's an incredible and also stressful position to be in. Is this how agents and editors feel all the time?

Hmm… I'm gonna go with plot epiphany for my new WIP. There are a couple chapters that could use some love and I haven't decided how I want them to play out yet.

How I Got Here Part One

My first ever Substack Post is live! In my next post, I'll talk about writing and querying my first manuscript, including the query I sent to agents, what I did wrong, and querying stats. Let me know if there's anything specific you guys would love to know about!

If any literary agents or editors see this, I'd love to know your thoughts on writers querying in the summer 👀 It seems like so much has changed over the years when it comes to querying. Is summer still considered a "bad" time to query?

Repost w/ the five shows you would be happy to rewatch over and over again for the rest of your life, as your sole TV diet:

Parks and Rec
Madmen
The Wire
Game of Thrones
Buffy the Vampire Slayer

What an insane list I just created.

Did they adopt his beliefs as well? lol

I don’t want to “streamline” my writing. I don’t want to “increase my output.” I don’t want to “write a novel with one click.” I want to write stuff only I can write. I want to read and write novels with soul and heart and a unique voice. Fuck AI. Long live real writers.

I was going to say that I wish I knew exactly how many hours I've wasted just staring at my queried agents list, but I really don't want to know.

NOT saying Memorial Day isn't important, nobody come for me

That's the real holiday this weekend haha

AnnenMayKantereit's cover of Toxic, because Feryn's a little obsessive and loves men with deep voices (one man in particular: her very hot, secretive boss) haha

I had to miss the after party but loved the event, hopefully I catch the next one!

Tell me why on top of my full time job, querying, working on a new project, and just generally trying to stay alive, I decided to start a Substack? Anyway, you can find me there @ kirabruner. Planning to start posting in June, will share updates

This is incredible.

Starting my day scrolling through the posts in #amquerying... and celebrating ALL the successes that you are having! Even a rejection is a success, because it means that we've completed an amazing project and are brave enough to put it out there to the world!

Keep on! 😀💕

#writingcommunity

My hopes definitely rose and fell. But, this is my second time querying a project and my first didn't get any requests, so it's progress! Maybe another agent will connect with it more.

Got my first rejection on a full request today, and it definitely hurt more than any query rejection I’ve gotten, but it’s all a part of the journey.

I'm so happy for you!! Can't wait to see what comes next 💕

Feeling sentimental tonight, but sometimes you gotta stop and appreciate where you’re at.

I’ve finished 3 manuscripts and queried 2, and even if the world never gets to read those stories, I love them alongside my favorite books and I’m beyond grateful that I got to experience them. All of my characters are with me always, and that is just such an incredible thing.