An interview with lit agent Sam Copeland from RCW Literary Agency. A resource for querying authors. Find out what stands out in a good submission, what warning signs suggest a manuscript isn't ready…

A common snag is when there is too much telling and summary in the opening chapters and writers try and cram in too much information without letting the story get going and unfold organically.

Should you go on a writers retreat?

YouTube video by The Manuscript Academy, LLC

They say you can’t start a story with a character waking up, with them crying, or knowing so much about themselves that they would never act against their own interest. But what if this isn’t a story, what if it’s a string of beautiful, covalent adjectives and adverbs, that sound of the bell of a heart chilled by the lack of notice, for him waking, for the first gasp of acknowledged breath in the morning, for the spill of cigarette smoke that blends with an unpolished sunset, that blends wit the smog of molten metal harvested down the street, the one that floods every time that it rains, and we let the kids wade in up to their waists, shoeless, and naïve to the dangers that swirls between their toes, that nature will bite and thrash, to survive in the droughts to come? Don’t ask questions, don’t dwell into the guts of anxiety and fear and loathing, and let us guess and judge, so that we, the dear reader, can feel a moment of mercury on the tongue, that quicksilver succor that keeps us projecting and never reflecting, for the light can never enter, otherwise it would bleach us to bone, and from bone to dust, to earth returned, and we have just awakened, and refuse to sleep, for we can’t admit to ourselves or to others one more death, for the sunsets only appear if we are a witness, the cast across our pupils the victory.   --- Tommy Dean is an associate literary agent with Rosecliff Literary, the author of two flash fiction chapbooks and a full flash collection, Hollows (Alternating Current Press, 2022). He is the Editor of Fractured Lit and Uncharted Magazine. His writing can be found in Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, and elsewhere. Find him at tommydeanwriter.com.

Plus, it's Books with Hooks week on the podcast, literary agent Kate McKean is here with tips for surviving self-promotion, and Gloria Chao has a contest for you!

Alt: a cartoon of a man wearing sunglasses holding a clipboard that says MID