Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial)

Just wrote a note for a romance author that the two romantic leads need "to kiss earlier and more often, and probably engage in the horizontal polka."

At least no one will ever accuse me of editing with ChatGPT. A.I. *wishes* its sense of humor was as bad as mine.

The best manuscripts I edit are the ones where the main character has a clear want, strength, and weakness.

Then the plot is geared toward exploiting that specific weakness, neutralizing that specific strength, and blocking that specific want with worst-case-scenario antagonistic forces.

My office today:

Info-dumps are cheat sheets. They are notes and maps and guidebooks. Don't make it so easy on your reader! Make them LIVE in the world to figure it out!

"But they'll be confused!"

Yup. And they'll keep reading to get un-confused. Use disorientation and discovery to your advantage!

(2/2)

Tip for world-building to avoid info-dumps:

Imagine your reader has been dropped into your world with no warning, no notes, no maps... nothing. How would they learn about this world, its landscapes, its magic, its laws, etc?

By observing, living, making mistakes, and learning.

(1/2, cont'd)

a man with a tree face and a beard is holding a large axe Alt: a man with a tree face and a beard is holding a large axe from The Green Knight

Get yourself a copy editor like Joel who fixes ALL your mistakes and makes your sentences flow without changing your voice… and also cheers for zombie rules by chopping heads 😂 (I think there is a Sir Gawain reference somewhere in that 👀)
@joelbrigham.bsky.social

Also huge thanks to Joel Brigham (@joelbrigham.bsky.social), whose newsletter alerted me to the existence of this contest!

Yay, @reviseresub.bsky.social!

Query re-writes are hard, but I'm thankful for @joelbrigham.bsky.social's keen eye on my query package to identify why it's not working in the trenches! If you're only getting form rejections, consider booking a critique with him. He'll find the problems & give you tools to fix them.
#amquerying

Being a delight is literally my only goal in life. Appreciate the boost!

I was hoping you'd see the shout-out!!!

May Newsletter Comic-Con, client book deals, hip-hop, and this months' reading list, all inside!

Been a busy, busy month. But the latest newsletter is live:

open.substack.com/pub/brighame...

Clearly @rebeccawilcox.bsky.social is a talent unmatched in our day and time. Look at this adorable artwork!

And may your pondering be fruitful!

It would not surprise me in the slightest!

Here's a little hack for your opening pages: make the first physical description of your main character anything other eye color, hair color, skin tone, height, weight, or clothing.

"What's left?" you're asking. That's up to you, but you can bet it'll be unique.

Yes! I'm doing that email before the weekend!

From the logline, I knew this was going to be one I would love. The book lived up to expectations, and plenty of potential yet to tap into. Can't wait to work with Kirra!

That's it for this batch, gang. You are all so talented and so creative, and I'm honored to have been chosen to consider your books!

If you're looking for my first batch of #10Queries, you can find them here:

P10 – This is a romcom, not a contemporary romance. It’s too funny not to be. I do worry that these opening pages are too banter-heavy, as the conversation keeps the characters from actually doing anything. Let’s give the MC a tough choice to make, and then let’s see how she reacts!

Q10 Adult Romance – We don’t meet the love interest until about 70% of the way through the pitch, which is way too late. Squash the stage-setting and let’s show the agent why these two will make for good romantic reading right out of the gate.

P9 – The pages are really well done. Playful, tense, engaging prose and immediate clarity that this is an author who knows how to dance with words. This is basically a novella, though, which just isn’t my jam. Objectively very good, but will be tough to sell.

Q9 Adult Fantasy – There’s no easy way to say this: your word count is going to hold you back with this manuscript. I’m used to seeing fantasy go way, way beyond reasonable debut author word counts, but going way, way under is less common. This is going to need some bulking up!

P8 – The author is talented, and the pages are clean, though the portion I read felt a little devoid of emotional color and tone. Its sensory descriptions could use some punching up with more carefully-chosen descriptive words aimed at creating the mood/tone the author intends.

Q8 – Adult Contemporary – Billed as contemporary, the setting of this manuscript is more than old enough to classify as Historical, instead. Also, your word count is way, way too high. Big books are expensive to edit, print, and ship, and publishers tend not to take big financial risks on debuts.

P7 – Another great opening line! This one has the tension I love, but it also leaves enough unsaid where I feel compelled to keep reading to orient myself. Very thin on setting, though. Despite lots of great stuff, I felt like I was reading in a white cloud, which made it hard to connect.

Q7 Book Club – The concept is really interesting, but I worry that the author is a little too creative in setting up the query. The first paragraph is logline, and the second paragraph is preamble. I suggest cutting both and digging right into the pitch itself. This gets good from there!

P6 – Opening line is great, and the first page is full of tension. However, the pages dip into tell-don’t-show interiority. It’s hard to avoid laying it all out for readers because we believe they need context. They don’t! A little disorientation is a good thing, as it’ll make readers keep reading!

Q6 Adult Fantasy – You forgot to mention the target age audience in the query, and since this word count is so low, it may create confusion. Also, the genre is VERY specific, so I suggest simplifying. Agents want to know what shelf it’ll sit on at Barnes & Noble. They don’t need every micro-genre!

P5 – The pages are written beautifully. Like, really beautifully. My concern, though, is that the language is too lofty for your target audience. This feels less like something written for kids and more like something written for adults wrapped up in an MG-shaped package.

Q5 MG Fantasy – I love everything about this. The pitch is so unique, and the comp titles made me really curious to see what you would do with the concept. I honestly don’t think there’s much you could do with the query letter to improve it. You should be raking with this right now.