← The Shit No One Tells You About Writing
The Shit No One Tells You About Writing
Successfully Pitching at Conferences
00:28:03
Author Interview with Emma White
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- [00:01]
A
Have you been sitting on the fence about signing up for the Beta Reader matchup? Or have you signed up before but haven't yet found your writing soulmates? The next matchup is the last one for the summer, so don't snooze on it. Get matched up with those writing in a similar genre and or time zone so they can critique your work as you critique theirs. Your manuscript doesn't have to be complete to sign up for this 3,000 word evaluation. This particular matchup will be open to registrations from now until the 1st of June, with the matchup emails going out on the 2nd of June. For more information and to register, go to Biancamarae.com and go to the Beta Reader Matchup page.
- [00:45]
B
What's up everyone? This is cece. So I recently grabbed lunch with an acquiring editor from HarperCollins who told me that the number of submissions she's been getting has nearly doubled. And I wasn't surprised at all because every agent and editor I know has been talking about how the volume of submission keeps increasing. So, personally, that is a wonderful thing because it's more reading for me, but it also means I have more chances of matching with authors. I consider it a privilege to review queries on books with hooks and of course, in my submissions inbox. But at the same time I talk to writers who tell me that they wish agents would read more than a few pages because, and I quote, my story gets better in chapter two. I have to be honest, this kills me. It's like me wanting chocolate chip cookies to have the nutritional value of kale. It's just not realistic. Like it or not, no agent, no acquiring editor is going to stick around to see if a submission gets better. It's not because we're mean, it's because we get dozens and dozens every day. I know it's harsh, but ambitious writers embrace harsh realities. So here it goes. It's your job to make your opening pages irresistible, to make agents crave it, to make agents want to read more. That's why I'm so excited about my upcoming course. Starting it how to begin your story in the best place and in the best way. I created this course after studying hundreds of books. I've mapped out elements that are present in the beginning of all all successful novels and memoirs. And I've designed checklists, actual checklists that you can use to ensure that your story's beginning is seducing your reader. We'll cover how to write a great first line, different types of beginnings, and how you can choose the Best one, the best place to start and the best way to start. Yes, these are totally different things. When it makes sense to add a prologue and when it doesn't. How to frame your inciting incident in an appealing way. How to balance exposition and mystery. How to include context but not weigh it down with too much backstory. And what to do if your story has more than one POV or timeline. Most of all, I'm going to show you how to make readers want to turn to chapter two. Join me for this multi day course designed to help you break through the noise. You'll leave with a clear, actionable breakdown of exactly what goes into a terrific beginning. If you've already signed up, come prepared to take lots of notes. We're talking hundreds of slides with real world examples and specific techniques. Plus a super fun surprise that I can't wait to share. I hope to see you there.
- [03:46]
A
Hi there and welcome to our show, the shit no one tells you about writing. I'm best selling author Bianca and I'm joined by Cece Lera of Wendy Sherman Associates and Carly Waters of P.S. literary. Hi everyone. Welcome to today's Authors episode. Today's guest is a research lawyer living in Toronto. Venom Lake is her debut novel. It's my pleasure to welcome Emma White. Emma, welcome back to the show.
- [04:18]
C
Thank you so much Bianca. I am so happy to be here.
- [04:21]
A
It's so wonderful to have you here because it feels like a full circle moment and we will discuss that shortly. For those of you who are not watching on YouTube, I'm showing the COVID of the book Venom Lake. Very arresting cover and I'm going to read you the flap copy just so that you have context for what we are talking about. On a weekend getaway for their true crime book club, four women retreat to the soul cottage on isolated Snake Bite island. But what was supposed to be a fun weekend of getting trashed on RO and talking serial killers takes a dark turn when a member of the group is found dead on the shore. Murdered by one of her supposed friends. Under the surface, there's turbulence in the group. Blackmail, affairs and addiction, financial misconduct, a missing husband. All the women are hiding dangerous secrets. But how far are they willing to go to keep them? The murder creates a dilemma for the three surviving book club members report the death and have their own lives shredded by an investigation. Or use their true crime knowledge to stage their friend's disappearance on the lake. The consequences of their decision will ripple outwards, creating new risks and threatening to unravel their entire net of lies. Okay, Emma. So you were one of the first querying authors that we had on books with hooks back in like 2021, I think it was. Please take us through your incredible journey to publication, starting even before then, if you need. Because as writers, we love some good backstory.
- [06:00]
C
Sounds good. So I can't believe it's been five years. It feels impossible. I started seriously writing back in 2020. Very pandemic activity, taking it seriously. I'd been interested before and had this idea for a story, but never had really spent the time butt in chair writing it. And so between 2020 and 2021, I wrote my first manuscript, which was what I queried on the shit no one tells you about writing in. I think we recorded an episode in June 2021 and got a few full requests. I got rejections for those full requests, which was devastating because I didn't understand at the time. I thought, you get a full request, you've basically got an offer. Not true. And so that was. That was an important learning curve. But what was really helpful was that the entire time that I was querying the first book, I was working on the second manuscript. So I wrote a second book, I would say 2022 to 2023. Started querying in 2023 again, got a few full requests, got the same rejections back, and in that same time had been working on my third. So Venom Lake is actually my third manuscript. And I wrote that between 2023 to 2024. I took a different approach with this one. I went to a conference in New York. It's called Thriller Fest. And it's the. It's a huge conference for thriller writers, authors, readers, publishers. And they have an event called pitchfest, which I was very interested in, because as anyone who's been in the query trenches knows, you feel like you're screaming into the void sometimes you're just sending things out, no response. You almost just want that written rejection. So, you know. And so what pitchfest offered was an opportunity to face to face do a pitch to literary agents and to some editors with some. Some of the smaller independent publishers.
- [08:00]
A
Just before you proceed with that, take us through the mechanics. Did. Did you have to pay like per pitch, per agent or editor? Was it paid for? Could you pitch to as many people as you liked? Did you have to hand pick five? What was that process like?
- [08:15]
C
Great question. So pitchfest was an add on you paid for at the conference. And then I believe it was either a two or three hour period of time where all of these agents were set up at Tables and you could pitch as many as you could in that timeframe. And so I pitched nonstop and didn't take a break. And I reached 12 people. So that gives you an idea. There are several hundred people there. There was a good number of literary agents and editors there, but there were lineups at each desk. Some editors, some agents had huge lines. You kind of had to make a decision, do I want to spend 45 minutes maybe pitching this, this person, or should I spread out my chances, pitch more people? So I had a. I'd made a short list, a long list. I had my people in mind. I had to pivot on the day. Some agents were there who I didn't know were going to be there. And some agents had long lines. So it was kind of an in the moment decision. And the idea was that you had, you were supposed to spend about three minutes. So you had to have a really tight oral pitch and to leave enough time that they maybe could ask you some questions, express interest. Usually that ended up being, I would say, about five minutes because it really was up to the agent or the editor to stop the person from talking. And people get talking and want to keep talking about their book. So it was, it was a very intense time. But it was so exciting to have real, in person, immediate feedback to a pitch. And so I can talk a little bit about what that was like or.
- [09:44]
A
Well, yeah, I want to actually focus on that because I think a lot of people, when they go into these face to face pictures kind of freeze up. The nerves get the better of them think. They think that they don't have to sort of put together a tight query like they would in writing because they're sitting face to face. And so they tend to sort of ramble and go off on tangents or perhaps fawn over the agent or editor and be like, oh my God, love your work, whatever. So take us through preparing for that to make sure that once you're sitting in front of them, you can just go, go, go, go, go without the will. There's always going to be nerves, but I always say if you don't have nerves, there's not much at stake. But sometimes you can harness your nerves to be your absolute best. So take us through how you prep for it and, and what you say.
- [10:34]
C
Absolutely. And I like to think of that as well, like nerves are excitement. Trying to tell myself, I'm excited to be here. So absolutely, I got very good advice. Before the conference. They did offer preparation session. Actually anyone who was signed up for Pitch Fest, you Could meet with a participating author who gave you some advice. You could run your pitch by them and refine it a bit. And I got good advice about being exactly what you said, very prepared. It's not a casual conversation. You really do have a minute of their time to interest them with your pitch. And so I treated it like I would a query letter. And ultimately my oral pitch is not word for word, but almost word for word. What ended up being the jacket copy for Venom Lake. So I really wanted to have following the books with hooks formula, the title, the word count, the comps, a really tight. A really tight plot summary. And I practiced it until I could do it in my sleep. Two years later, I don't know it off the top anymore. But I. I wanted. And I was timing myself, I wanted to get it to a minute so I could comfortably deliver it, that I wouldn't be fumbling with my notes, that I went, oh, I meant to say this. I meant to say that it was there. And then that would leave room for discussion with agents, which was ultimately really important because they did have questions. Oh, you say it's multi pov. What does that mean? What? You know, there was. There was interest based on questions we had after the pitch. So it was really important to leave time for that discussion.
- [12:03]
A
Incredible. Okay, so can you take us through that pitch so we can hear it?
- [12:08]
C
Sure. It's going to be a bit repetitive from the jacket copy, but the difference is kind of in the intro. So I just sit down, Agent. So nice to meet you. Get right into it. My debut novel, Venom Lake is a multi POV psychological thriller, complete at 75,000 words. Venom Lake features a toxic friend group reminiscent of May Cobb's the Hunting Wives and contains a true crime podcast element similar to Lisa Jewell's. None of this is true. On a retreat for her true crime book club, Marta and her girlfriends are the only people on Snakebite Island. But what was supposed to be a fun weekend of getting trashed on rose and talking serial killers takes a dark turn when Marta finds one of the women dead on the shore, murdered by one of her supposed friends. Under the surface, there's turbulence in the group. Blackmail, affairs and addiction, financial misconduct, a missing husband. Everyone is hiding dangerous secrets. But how far are they willing to go to keep them? The murder creates a dilemma for the three surviving book club members report the death and have their own lives shredded by an investigation. Or use their true crime knowledge to stage their friend's disappearance on the lake. Under duress and against her better Judgment. Marta agrees to help conceal the crime. But she comes to regret her decision as the effects of the COVID up ripple outwards, creating new risks and threatening to unravel their net of lies. That's the pitch.
- [13:30]
A
That's incredible. And you know you've got a good pitch when most of it makes its way onto the flat copy, let's be honest, because most times publishers completely rewrite that. So, okay, so who was the agent who expressed interest? Were there more than one? How did that happen?
- [13:47]
C
So I had a really successful and was very lucky at Pitchfest. I did get six full requests, three partial requests, and then three requests for letter and 10 pages. So that was really encouraging. And then ultimately it was kind of a nice story because I'd gone all the way to New York. I'm from Toronto, I live in Toronto. And the pitchfest had actually lots of agents there in person. They also had a Zoom room for agents as a Zoom room. So. So agents who couldn't be there in person would be on Zoom. And it was the same format. Put on the earphones, talk to them for three minutes. My agent who I signed with is Carolyn Ford from Transatlantic Agency based in Toronto. So I went all the way to New York to meet my Toronto based agent over Zoom and we had a nice laugh about that.
- [14:33]
A
That's hilarious. But again, you know, we now in our substack on Tuesdays have got a segment called Meet yout Dream Agent. And a lot of them are saying where they get their clients from. Is it from pitches? Is it from conferences? Is it the slash pile? And it's so interesting to see each of them in terms of their breakdown. But I think it is possible to make more of an impression when you are sitting across from an agent and they can see your face and you're having a conversation rather than just the slush pile. Were the questions that Carolyn asked you afterwards?
- [15:06]
C
Yes, she asked, um. I'm trying to recall now. I believe she asked a little bit about the points of view because I did pitch it as multi pov. How many? You know, first person, third person. I believe she asked me how that was structured. And then she had some more personal questions about me and what I did for my day job and how I thought about writing as a career, you know, thrillers. I think there is a very successful formula to do a book a year and was that something I was interested in? So we actually had. She had a few questions about the pitch itself, but then also just a few personal questions for me of how I was thinking about writing as a career and kind of how seriously I was taking it.
- [15:47]
A
Amazing. So for those of you, of our listeners who are going to do these pitch events, remember to have that in your back pocket in case you get asked that. And then don't fumble on that. So I mean that's four years, three manuscripts. I think you said like 90 rejections.
- [16:04]
C
Yes.
- [16:04]
A
Were both of those other manuscript thrillers as well? Emma, have you maintained genre?
- [16:10]
C
Absolutely. Psychological thrillers, all three of them. And it's the genre I am most passionate about at this point at least. Can't imagine in writing any other genre. It was playing with different formats, different, you know, is it multi pov, single POV structure, linear, non linear? Before I kind of found my stride with this one.
- [16:32]
A
Did you find that you learned anything from the rejections? Those 90 something rejections? Because again, we're saying that agents do not have the time to give personalized feedback. They most of the time they just like thank you, but no. Was there anything that you got during those 90 rejections that helped you or was it just a case of by book three you'd learned some things and you were a better writer or perhaps an amalgamation?
- [16:58]
C
Amalgamation, I think is the best way to put it on. I think a few of the full requests I received for the first and second manuscript because I actually didn't query the third manuscript traditionally I purely took it to Pitchfest and did the oral pitch. But the rejections I accumulated were on the first two manuscripts. And the through line, which I think was helpful was pacing. And in any kind of non linear or dual timeline, everything needing to be equally compelling. And so that was something for me to really pay attention to with manuscript three was in the first two manuscripts, pacing had been an issue and not having equal interest in either both characters or in both timelines. So trying to have a more even handed approach. But I find pacing, it's very hard or keeping things even, extremely challenging. So still something I'm working on today.
- [17:55]
A
Yeah. Pacing, intention. And a lot of people think it's just for thrillers. It's not. It's for. For pretty much any kind of genre. Okay, so before I move on to our next question, we're just gonna have a break for a word from our sponsor.
- [18:09]
D
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- [21:36]
A
Okay, so then after you signed with Carolyn, how much editing did you do between the two of you before going out on submission?
- [21:46]
C
So we did one round of edits. I signed with her in June of 2024 and or early July, she came back to me with her notes. So there were a few things that she thought could be strengthened before we went out. I worked on those over the summer and we took it out in early September. So it was a one, one, one substantive round. And then we wanted to wait till the beginning of fall when it was people are back from vacation. And so then we went out on sub in September and very, very fortunate sold it a few weeks later to HarperCollins Canada in October 2024.
- [22:29]
A
That's amazing. Normally that wait is the worst. I mean, I know some authors who finally got a yes something like seven or eight months after it went out to editors. So I mean that's always excruciating. So I'm glad you didn't have to go through that. And then after that with your HarperCollins editor, were there further extensive edits? What happened there?
- [22:51]
C
Yes, we did a few rounds of edits. We had a couple of phone calls as well, which I found. We did an introductory meeting to talk about her larger vision for the book in areas she thought needed work. And then based on that, she sent me her editorial letter. But then that was really nice to combo that with a phone call to talk through that. Fortunately, I had a really excellent editorial experience where our visions really aligned and I felt like her suggestions made everything stronger. So I would say we did one really big round of edits and then a couple more rounds of smaller edits after those large ones went through. And I will say as well, though, I with the. I was so lucky with the sale in Canada not to have to wait, but I did get to experience that excruciating. Why, why doesn't anyone want to buy this on. On the US side of things? Because we just kept getting rejections in the US and didn't sell it there until late 2025. So very different experiences selling it in different places.
- [24:00]
A
I mean, what I loved about the book is it's clearly based in Toronto, right? It's Canada. So, you know, were the Americans wanting the setting to be changed at all or.
- [24:12]
C
No, I didn't get any setting feedback, but I can imagine that that may have been a part of it. I think what's interesting as well is that it's going to be published under a different name in. In the UK and in the us.
- [24:25]
A
What did they. What did they.
- [24:26]
C
So they, they are calling it the Wives of Murder Club. And so to me, I also read that as I think we have a big lake culture in Canada. I think, you know, being on an isolated island on a wild lake is a. Maybe a more familiar setting. And so this was not something that was going to resonate with UK or American audiences as much, perhaps. I'm speculating. This was never told to me explicitly, but I think that could be tied to as well, with it being a very set in Canada story and so the appeal maybe being stronger at home.
- [24:57]
A
Yeah, we've got so many amazing Canadian authors who are basing stories in Canada, which is wonderful. And so it's great to see more and more stories set here as opposed to, you know, us being forced to set them somewhere else. So talking about the book itself, it's really, really tough to write multi POV characters when the characters, for example, are similar, because here you've got all women sort of similar ages. So speak a bit about how you differentiated them. In the reader's mind because that's something that a lot of emerging authors struggle with.
- [25:32]
C
So there are, like you said, they're all women. And it's mainly three. We have three main characters. One character gets one chapter, a fourth. But we're largely in the hands of three of them. And part of the fun for me, and the big reason why I like writing psychological thrillers is because I think people are. People are fascinating. Character is fascinating. And I'm a pantser. I'm not a plotter. I write by trying to get into these characters minds and figuring out what they would do. I actually didn't know. I knew there was going to be four of them. I knew one of them was going to be murdered. I didn't actually know who had killed her while I was writing it up to a certain point because I wanted to give them each other motive. I wanted to make it possible that anyone could have done it. And so what I had fun with when writing this was each character I would just kind of play as her. And so what? How would she react in this situation? They're coming, they're going to this event. They're interpreting this event very differently. What's this one focused on? What's that one focused on? And so I think that helped me develop what hopefully comes across as a unique voice for each character.
- [26:47]
A
Yeah, very, very much so. And as a pantser, I'm like applauding Yay. Because that's how I wrote my book. Because as I didn't know who died, who killed them, why they were killed, and it works out. It's not very efficient, but it does work out in terms of like we sometimes think of the unreliable narrator being first term narrative, like if first person point of view. But each of these women has got secrets. And so as you writing them in the close third person, you have got to be aware of those secrets. And you can drop curiosity seeds for the reader so that the reader is theorizing what they are. But you've really got to be in control of the calibration of what gets released. When was that something that you found in the rewrites or was it something that even as a panther you were able to figure out in first draft?
- [27:42]
C
I think some of it was there in first draft, but largely it's in the rewrites because I had to go back through and make things more consistent. You know, if I set everyone up to be the killer, you know, not everyone is the killer. So I had to maybe dial some of them back a Little and then amp. Amp up the more murderous tendencies of others. So a lot of it, a lot of it is in the rewrite. I actually love editing. And when you were asking about the editing process with my agent and my editor, it is my favorite thing to do. And being confronted with a blank page is very scary. It can be fun once you get into the swing of it. But I love editing. So I would say a lot of that recalibration came in the rewrite. Once I'd figured out what was actually happening and who was doing what.
- [28:27]
A
Yeah, I used to hate edits, used to despise them. Like my first draft, that's what I loved. And now I've trained myself well, I think it's the opposite way. And I hate first drafts. And I love the editing phase. Something you do as well, that a lot of people get cautioned against, but you did it really well, is that if you can have multi POV characters, don't have them discussing the same scene. Have one scene told from one character's perspective and then move on to a second scene. And that can be told from another character character's perspective. But you discuss like certain events from different characters perspectives while still making it interesting. The reader's not going, I already know this, I already know this. Why are we going over this ground? So again, like, can you give us your approach to that to ensure that the reader was never bored that even though it's the same event, they're getting completely different information in terms of plot, motives, characterization?
- [29:31]
C
That's a really good question. I think that that was something I had to work on, certainly with editing, because I think when I wrote the first draft, it was very messy and I think it was probably a bit too repetitive because I was feeling out how each character would have experienced different events. I think that part, part of it was trying to segment different events. So sometimes picking up in the same scene but just like a minute later than what we've already kind of experienced through a different character's eyes. So we're still right with them in that scene, but we're, you know, we're moving it forward. And then for the. I think it's the, especially the first three chapters. We have all three women experience their first meeting of their. Of their True Crime book club. And it is trying not to repeat any of the details I've given from the previous characters perspectives and really dive into the interiority of the character who's experiencing it. And that's a great place, I think, to drop those curiosity seeds. She's not thinking about actually what's happening at this book club meeting. She's thinking about what she experienced that afternoon. So while we're actually at the same event, we're getting completely different information from her, because what's happening at the meeting is just kind of a spark to make her think about the things she's actually worried about.
- [30:50]
A
Right. Excellent. Excellent advice there. Let's talk about the podcast. Sort of interstitials. You have transcripts from a podcast. Was that there all along in the beginning? Was that something that came with the rewrites?
- [31:05]
C
The podcast was there from the beginning, but it appeared in a very different way. So when I initially wrote it, I had the podcast starting in the latter half of the book. So actually, after they get back from the cottage and everything that happens there, then I picked up the podcast because I needed a way to kind of convey information a bit more objectively that wasn't coming from any of these three characters. And one of the great pieces of advice I got from my aunt Maureen White. She's a brilliant writer as well. She's. She's just. She's fantastic. She gives me great advice. And she. She was like, why are we starting so late with this podcast?
- [31:44]
B
Get it.
- [31:44]
C
It's got to flow through the entire book. And so that was one of the. That was a great note that I received on how to. How to integrate that more into the story.
- [31:54]
A
Yeah, that is so important. You know, if. If people are using newspaper headlines or podcast transcripts or, you know, it does need to flow throughout the book because if you suddenly get it in the second half, it does feel a bit weird. Same goes for, like, mostly alternating characters, because people attach to the character they meet first. So if you have a whole bunch of Imogen chapters and then suddenly we move on to somebody else, it can feel disorientating. So it was. It was great the way you balanced all of that. Was there anything that surprised you as a debut author that you wish you'd known before the whole process? I know the book. When is the book out? So it hasn't come out yet fully. While we're taping this for our listeners, we tape quite far ahead. We're taping this in April. But where you are now, is there anything that has surprised you or that you wish you'd known or that you wish you could tell other debut authors?
- [32:53]
C
I don't think I should have been surprised because the information is out there that publishing moves really slowly. And yet I was still surprised at just how. How extended the timelines were so, you know, selling the book in October 2024, it's coming out in 2026. I was surprised that it would take that long. And then just the multiple rounds of edits. I think it was interesting and a bit surprising to find out how many people are involved. So suddenly it wasn't just with my editor anymore, but there's, you know, the copy editing team and there's multiple people there and then there's the COVID and there's multiple people on those emails. So really getting to peek behind the curtain of this is a. This is an industry and it's a business and there are lots of people involved in this. So that, that was. Even though I don't think I should have been surprised, I still was a bit. Yeah. To find out how it really works was very interesting.
- [33:44]
A
Yeah. For me, the worst is the hurry up and wait. So you'll wait for 10 months, hear nothing from anybody and then suddenly you'll get from three different people who need something within the next week. So. So I think that was, that was the part that, that I struggled with. Emma, it's been so lovely chatting with you. I do want to give a shout out to Tara. So that's the Toronto area woman authors. Lydia Laceby runs that and we get together every sort of two to three months. And I saw Emma at one of those recently. And if you are near Toronto, it is a wonderful way to meet other emerging authors, to meet published authors and to just find a sense of community. So you can find Tawa on Instagram and I'm pretty sure there is a website as well. So take a look at that. Emma, we wish you all the luck with the book. I'm holding it up again. Venom Lake. For those of you in Canada, remember, it's going to be a different title in the US we're going to link to it on our bookshop.org affiliate page. If you get it there, you support the podcast and an independent bookstore at the same time. Good luck with it, Emma.
- [34:51]
C
Thank you so much, Bianca. And thank you for having me back on the podcast.
- [34:54]
A
And that's it for today's episode. I hope you'll join us for next week's show. In the meantime, keep at it. Remember, it just takes one.
- [35:02]
C
Yes.
- [35:08]
A
Have you been sitting on the fence about signing up for the beta reader matchup? Or have you signed up before but haven't yet found your writing Soulmates? The next matchup is the last one for the summer, so don't snooze on it. Get matched up with those writing in a similar genre and or time zone so they can critique your work as you critique theirs. Your manuscript doesn't have to be complete to sign up for this 3,000 word evaluation. This particular matchup will be open to registrations from now until the 1st of June, with the matchup emails going out on the 2nd of June. For more information and to register, go to Biancamarae.com and go to the Beta Reader Matchup page.
- [35:53]
B
What's up everyone? This is cece so I recently grabbed lunch with an acquiring editor from HarperCollins who told me that the number of submissions she's been getting has nearly doubled. And I wasn't surprised at all because every agent and editor I know has been talking about how the volume of submission keeps increasing. So personally that is is a wonderful thing because it's more reading for me, but it also means I have more chances of matching with authors. I consider it a privilege to review queries on books with hooks and of course in my submissions inbox. But at the same time, I talk to writers who tell me that they wish agents would read more than a few pages because, and I quote, my story gets better in chapter two. I have to be honest, this kills me. It's like me wanting chocolate chip cookies to have the nutritional value of kale. It's just not realistic. Like it or not, no agent, no acquiring editor, is going to stick around to see if a submission gets better. It's not because we're mean. It's because we get dozens and dozens every day. I know it's harsh, but ambitious writers embrace harsh realities. So here. Here it goes. It's your job to make your opening pages irresistible. To make agents crave it. To make agents want to read more. That's why I'm so excited about my upcoming course. Starting it how to begin your story in the best place and in the best way. I created this course after studying hundreds of books. I've mapped out elements that are present in the beginning of all successful novels and memoirs. And I've designed checklists, actual checklists that you can use to ensure that your story's beginning is seducing your reader. We'll cover how to write a great first line, different types of beginnings, and how you can choose the best one, the best place to start, and the best way to start. Yes, these are totally different things. When it makes sense to add a prologue and when it doesn't. How to frame your inciting incident in an appealing way. How to balance exposition and mystery. How to include context, but not weigh it down with too much backstory and what to do if your story has more than one POV or timeline. Most of all, I'm going to show you how to make readers want to turn to Chapter two. Join me for this multi day course designed to help you break through the noise. You'll leave with a clear, actionable breakdown of exactly what goes into a terrific beginning. If you've already signed up, come prepared to take lots of notes. We're talking hundreds of slides with real world examples and specific techniques, plus a super fun surprise that I can't wait to share. I hope to see you there.