Cheryl B. Klein

This isn't "internal recriminations." It's voters expressing overwhelming opposition to what the people they elected to represent them are doing, and anyone--either in journalism or politics--who characterizes it as infighting is either not seeing and hearing what's right in front of them or lying.

The illustrated cover of a novel called THE MAGNOLIA SWORD: A BALLAD OF MULAN by Sherry Thomas, featuring an intense-looking young Asian androgynous person with a large sword on their back against a pink background

You might like this Mulan adaptation by @sherrythomas.com — all about swords!

Unfortunately still true bsky.app/profile/adam...

ICYMI for writers from over the weekend

Maybe Zohran Mamdani should have come out for ending the shutdown so Democratic Senators could have opposed it.

Fine, I’ll do it. I’m a resident of New York State and I’ll primary Chuck Schumer.
#IVolunteerAsTribute

The best explanations I’ve seen are 1) they didn’t think the GOP would ever bend & the SNAP concerns are real, 2) holiday travel is coming and they prioritize middle-class & above travelers’ needs over non-middle class health care, 3) laziness and cowardice.

Every educated adult in the U.S. knows this but the senate shouldn't exist. There is no justification for North Dakota and South Dakota to have four senators between them when the combined population of both states is smaller than that of Chicago.

You know how we say TACO for Trump Always Chickens Out? Feels like we should call our senators DOLLs — Dems (who) Only Like Losing.

This is predatory capitalism. They gave tax breaks to billionaires so that folks could get bills like this for healthcare.

graphic in the mamdani font/colors saying: CALL YOUR SENATORS and TELL THEM NO SHUTDOWN DEAL WITHOUT ACA FUNDING 202-224-3121

Find your senators at reps.fyi or call 202-224-3121

I have D senators (effing Schumer himself!) and I just called & left a message saying this—no donations to D senators as long as he’s leader & keeps giving in. This whole thing is shameful, spineless, stupid.

A smiling blonde woman in glasses and a black shirt with flowers stands in a tall atrium with a round chandelier at the center.

A black-clothed signing table with two of my picture books — IT’S HARD TO BE A BABY and HAMSTERS MAKE TERRIBLE ROOMMATES — standing tall

At the absolutely stunning Brooklyn Museum for today’s Brooklyn Children’s Book Fair. Open today until 3:30, lots of great authors, artists, & activities on a rainy day. Come on through!

People are GREAT. ChatGPT could never come up with characters like this.

An Yves Saint Laurent waistcoat for everyday!

Fedora man unmasked: Meet the teen behind the Louvre mystery photo Fifteen-year-old Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux has become an internet sensation after an Associated Press photo captured him outside the Louvre on the day of a crown jewels heist.

Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...

The opening text of Master and Commander, but its the style of a Zohran for Mayor poster. "April, 1805. Napoleon is master of Europe. Only the British fleet stands before him. Oceans are now battlefields."

Yeah :D

Pitching comps are more important. See further down the thread for more thoughts.

(meaning author’s prior successful sales track, gigantic marketing campaigns, awards, TV series, etc.).

One last note: I think it’s fine for pitching comps to include bestsellers like HOOT, Percy Jackson, THE MARVELLERS, HEARTSTOPPER, etc., if they give a sense of plot/chars/milieu. The problem is expecting those to be selling comps when they became bestsellers for reasons other than pure content

If a kids/YA book pub’d in the last two years has more than 50 reviews, it’s probably sold decently or created some buzz. Worth a try as a comp if it fits your book too.

All of this is IMO; other editors’ or agents’ opinions may vary; etc.

originality (“SIX OF CROWS on contemporary Wall Street? Yes!”). Hook the agent, & then the agent or editor can figure out the selling comps.

But if you CAN provide decent selling comps, great! One loose metric for sales is # of Amazon reviews:

(Sorry for the gaps in this thread: Saturday parenting!)

So I think writers should concentrate on pitch comps: a book or two the agent is likely to know, where the comparison will interest the agent for its narrative promise (“Ooh, what does SERAPHINA x A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO VICE look like?”) or

Agents often supply both kinds of comps to editors in their pitch letters, & so it’s useful if writers can provide those to agents in turn. But it is hard for writers to find out sales numbers for selling comps, I know! So I think it’s more important for writers to offer pitch comps —

Selling comps are books that editors would suggest to their salespeople as models for how a particular book will sell. They ideally match the book contentwise, were published in the last five years, AND have sold in strong numbers.

Pitching comps are what you’d use to get an agent or consumer interested in your work—“FROZEN meets HATCHET,” say, about two feuding sisters lost in the wild, or “WHEN AIDAN BECAME A BROTHER x ON THE DAY YOU BEGIN.” Ideally one gives a sense of plot/genre and the other of culture/theme/character.

For querying writers: I did a critiques today for an SCBWI conf & got questions about what kind of books you can cite as comps, & I think it’s worth distinguishing between *pitching* comps and *selling* comps. A brief 🧵:

The prequels actually could have been good if the credits said “Story by George Lucas” and then “Screenplay by” and “Directed by” … someone/two people with more interest in nuanced human beings.

I get this a lot too. I don't use ChatGPT or any LLMs in my work because I want my writing to sound like me, not like the averaged-out voice of the internet. But also, writing is thinking, and thinking is a habit. I don't want to get out of that habit.