jessica-meats

[jessica-meats]

This is a bit of a long thread but the bit that made me laugh was the description of querying agents as easy. "It's like an easier form of job-hunting because all you're submitting is a cover letter for your book." This tells me that the person writing this reblog has not submitted a book.

You don't have to submit just a cover letter. Most agencies want a cover letter. They also want the first few chapters/a specific number of words from the start of the book - this is fine because you've already written it. Then they want a synopsis. And this is where it gets complicated, because summarising your book in a way that gets the important information across is difficult, but also because it feels like no two agencies want exactly the same thing. Some will want a 1000 word synopsis, or a 1500 word synopsis, or a 500 word synopsis. Some measure by page counts and want a 2-3 page synopsis, or a 1 page synopsis. And so on.

And sometimes they ask for different levels of details. When I was looking up places to send one of my words, one website's submission information said that the synopsis needed to contain "every twist and turn" of the plot, and the very next website I looked at said, using the same phrase, that they didn't need to know "every twist and turn".

You have to write about ten different synopses to cover all the bases.

And then some of them ask for an author bio, or a bibliography of your other previous work, or something else like that as well. You have to tailor your submission to every single agency because they're all ever so slightly different and that is time-consuming and frustrating as hell.

Then you have to figure out which agents to send your book to, because most agencies are specific about the genres and age ranges they're interested in. Often, you have to submit to a specific agent within the agency, so you have to figure out which one is going to most likely be interested.

And sometimes, you think you've found someone who's list of what they're looking for lines up perfectly - and then you click to find out how to submit to them and it says they're closed for submissions.

And as for working with editors, quality varies. I've worked with a couple of great editors. The editor I had for Wolf Unleashed was fantastic. His feedback was helpful and clear and shaped the book into a polished version of the story I had in mind. Then there was the copy-editor who worked on one of the books of the Shadows of Tomorrow trilogy who was terrible and actually introduced grammatical errors into the text. Things like putting the apostrophe in the wrong place in plural possessive cases and muddling up "past" and "passed". I had to write to the publish and point out these mistakes and demand that they get a different copy editor to go over the book again.

And even when you think things are going well and you've got success, something can come along and blindside you. I had a novella A Monster's Kindness accepted by Less Than Three Press (a small LGBTQ+ focused publisher) and I was really excited. They worked with me on edits and created a cover for the book - and then the publisher sent out an announcement to all the authors that the publisher was going out of business. This was about a month before my book was due to be published.

The original message of this video can be summed up as "A book can be great and still be rejected" and "Even if you're rejected a bunch, it doesn't mean it's a bad story." That is encouraging. That's not rage bait. That's reassuring to people who are in the process of collecting a huge pile of rejection letters.

The whole "we don't know if this should be YA or adult" is something that happened to me with my first book. I had two agencies state that as the reason for rejecting me.

And they were the ones who gave me a reason. There are several agencies I've submitted to that basically say "we don't reply to everyone; if you don't hear from us within X weeks, assume you've been rejected." A lot of places just give a generic, copy/paste "your book did not meet our needs" response.

If you are a writer trying to get your work traditionally published, "don't tie your self-worth into whether you're getting offers," is a fantastic piece of advice. Because sending your work on submission sucks. And even when someone says yes, it's not guaranteed to lead to success, or even a published book.

When my first book was published, I was doing a lot of promotional legwork (because the first reblogger on this thread is not correct about the publisher doing all the promotion either) and I went to a school careers day to talk about being an author. The advice I gave to those kids was not dissimilar to the advice at the end of this video. I told them to have a backup plan with a more stable form of income, because making money from being a published author is uncertain and unpredictable.

Some truths about the publishing industry because I certainly got blindsided when going in. Now I'm so broken by this industry I struggle to encourage aspiring writers lmao

[jessica-meats]

Some truths about the publishing industry because I certainly got blindsided when going in. Now I'm so broken by this industry I struggle to encourage aspiring writers lmao

[jessica-meats]

I had to rewrite the first 6 or so chapters of Shadows of Tomorrow completely, because I thought Cassie was going to be the protagonist, but then Gareth started making all the important plot decisions and being in the heart of the action, so I had to go back and make him the protagonist from the start.

In Child of the Hive, a character whose only purpose was to deliver some exposition refused to go away and ended up being a plot-critical member of the main ensemble in the second half of the book.

The protagonist of the Codename Omega series was originally going to be the antagonist, but the story just kept stalling out until I started writing it from her perspective.

Sometimes characters just insist on being a bigger part of your story whether you want them to be or not.

the worst part of writing is when you realize you accidentally gave a side character a better arc than the main character.

[jessica-meats]

Hello, spamming every platform with the B&N sale because hey look, my weird, queer dragon books got fancy exclusive editions with sprayed edges (feathers and clouds!)! They're currently chilling in the top 200 on the website just behind SJM, which is surreal. These both come out March 4th, so in just under a month! Emberclaw is a brand-new release, the (somewhat delayed) follow-up to Dragonfall, and I was pretty excited that B&N decided to give the first book a glow up, too. It had a standard hardcover and I know people really like matching sets.

Pantomime comes out in September and is my revised and revamped preferred text of my debut, which first came out all the way back in 2013. Thanks to Dragonfall taking off in paperback, I got the chance to go back to R.H. Ragona's Circus of Magic, which is pretty cool. This was the first YA book with an intersex protagonist in any genre, as far as I can tell, though Micah has now been aged up to 17/18 and it is slightly more adult in this re-release.

A month before Dragonfall's launch the first time, I was a freaking wreck. This time, I am anxious, not least because releasing a trans book in today's climate is, well...it's something. I fly to the US at the end of the month for my little tour to New York, Rhode Island, and Boston, and who knows what will be going on in the country by that point. But there's lots to look forward to, and I've gotten really nice messages from people who love the series. Links if you'd like some pretty copies for 25% off (the code is PREORDER25), and it ends Feb 7th, 2025. Any help spreading the word would be great. You can also pre-order from your favourite indie store, too, if you prefer, or request from your local library.

Link to Dragonfall Exclusive Hardcover

"In Dragonfall, Lam has forged a fresh and intricate world, a smoldering romance, and a fire-new take on dragons."—Samantha Shannon, New York Times-bestselling author of The Priory of the Orange Tree

Long ago, humans betrayed dragons, stealing their magic and banishing them to a dying world. Centuries later, their descendants worship dragons as gods. But the "gods" remember, and they do not forgive.

Thief Arcady scrapes a living on the streets of Vatra. Desperate, Arcady steals a powerful artifact from the bones of the Plaguebringer, the most hated person in Lumet history. Only Arcady knows the artifact's magic holds the key to a new life among the nobles at court and a chance for revenge.

The spell connects to Everen, the last male dragon foretold to save his kind, dragging him through the Veil. Disguised as a human, Everen soon learns that to regain his true power and form and fulfil his destiny, he only needs to convince one little thief to trust him enough to bond completely—body, mind, and soul—and then kill them.

Yet the closer the two become, the greater the risk both their worlds will shatter.

Link to Emberclaw Exclusive Hardcover

"What you will find here may be exactly what you love in fantasy: Dragonfall is an intriguing blend of magic, a thief, trickery, and an unexpected dragon." —Robin Hobb, New York Times-bestselling author of Fool’s Assassin

Arcady faces their greatest heist yet: posing as a noble student at the arcane University of Vatra. When the University announces the reinstatement of archaic trials of magic, the ever-penniless Arcady seizes the chance. If they win, they not only prove their worth, but the scholarship will give them more time to unlock secrets and reveal, once and for all, that their grandsire was not the Plaguebringer. Yet grief still leaves Arcady broken, and when they close their eyes, they dream of a certain dragon.

Everen, once the hope of dragons, is now hated by his kind. When he is eventually released from his prison, the Queen is clear: while he may help protect the island from wraith attacks, he is no longer a prince of the realm. As he struggles to find his place in Vere Celene, visions of the past, the future, and tantalizing glimpses of Arcady still haunt him. If he steers the wrong path through fate’s storm, he may never be able to create a future where both humans and dragons live in harmony.

Arcady soon realizes that to survive the rising threats from both their old life and their new one, they must use every trick at their disposal—even magic stolen from a dragon they thought dead. And as time runs out before an ancient danger awakens, Everen must fight his way back to Arcady, earn their forgiveness, and learn what it truly means to be an Emberclaw.

Link to Pantomime Paperback (dunno yet if it's getting an exclusive edition--fingers crossed!)

"Pantomime is a fantastical, richly drawn, poignant take on a classic coming-of-age story . . . a vibrant tale told with surety and grace" — Leigh Bardugo

In a land of lost wonders, the past is stirring once more . . .

Micah runs away from a debutante’s life at home and joins the circus, harboring two secrets–one: he was born between male and female, and two: he may have powers last seen in mysterious beings from an almost-forgotten age.

Micah discovers the joy of flight as an aerialist, courting his trapeze partner, Aenea, and confiding in the mysterious white clown, Drystan. He finally feels free. But the circus has a dark side, and Micah’s past isn’t done with him.

Meanwhile, the strange 'ghost' of a woman with damselfly wings whispers to Micah that only he can help magic return to the realm, and he fears she may be right…

Micah has much to learn, and he must do it quickly—before his past and future collide, with catastrophic consequences.

[jessica-meats]

[jessica-meats]

I'm here to clear up some confusion about YA books. When some people hear that label, they think "meant for children." Why is it, then, that some books classified as YA have tons of explicit content that doesn't seem "appropriate"? There are actually complex and messy industry reasons behind this, mainly to do with female, qu33r, and POC authors getting pushed into the category and then pigeonholed there. (Also, totally not a coincidence that such authors get funneled toward a lower-paying category.)

I go over the main 3 reasons in this video, but basically, everyone's lives would be better if a clear distinction existed between Teen Lit and New Adult Lit, but this did not work out and forced the YA category to house more than it's nominally supposed to. Pearl-clutching at individual authors (or worse, calling for book bans "in the name of the children") is not the way to resolve this. The industry itself needs to commit to recognizing the necessity of New Adult, or it'll always be forced to room with YA and scandalize people.

[jessica-meats]

They say self-publishing is harder and more expensive and less likely to get you noticed, but traditional publishers are making their writers do all the same shit I have to do as a self-pub, so what's the point of trad pub anymore?

When trad pub authors are having to self-promo and do all their own marketing, the exact same way self-pub authors are, it's beyond time for the publishing industry to fix its shit or get dismantled.

Trad pub sucks, and I am grateful I switched tracks when I did.

[jessica-meats]

You can fight AI in indie publishing by leaving reviews.

Seriously.

Ai-generated garbage is flooding the self-publishing market. It works as a numbers game- put out ENOUGH fake crap and eventually someone’s aunt will buy them the ebook as an unwanted gift, and you’ll have made two dollars. This tactic works at SCALE, which means real independent titles are now a needle amongst a haystack of slop.

If you have read a book this year that has less than 5 reviews, your rating is an algorithmic spotlight on that needle.

A one sentence review helps. Really. A star rating helps if you really can’t think of anything to say, but if you can muster up even “I laughed at the part about the tabby cat” you are doing indie authors a favor like you cannot believe.

(Also if you left a review on one of my books this year I am kissing you so softly on your forehead and I adore you)

[jessica-meats]

not to derail the low income writer thing, but I’ve actually had this discussion before, many times, in smaller writing circles, with how so much of the current writing and publishing “climate” does not adhere nor even acknowledge how difficult writing (or any creative outlet tbh) can be for people to pursue - even as a hobby - when your energies are sapped into simply surviving, into struggling through life, working full-time, perhaps even balancing multiple jobs, or care-giving children, elderly or sick family, with little to show for it beyond the absolute minimum. how the current economic living crisis has been inevitably crushing creatives, and potential creatives, when there are so many limitations, not just financially, but in time and in energy

advice akin to “those who want to write will find the time” is insulting to those who are already running ragged just trying to get by, whether due to jobs, brain fog, illness or a combination of all the above and more. “get up earlier or stay up later” doesn’t take into consideration how much people are already sacrificing everywhere else. how out of touch a lot of it is, mostly offered by those who are already successful, or from those who have the luxury of time

most low income writers are self-publishing their work already prepared for a significant loss, after cover art, marketing budgets, editing etc, and so, some low income writers will never be able to justify self-publishing at all. and money aside, other avenues aren’t exactly easy either, patreon subscribers, for example, look for discord access, social media presence, weekly or bi-weekly updates, asking for more time and more energy from the author. simply the way readers engage now, expecting immediate sequels, long series, multiple books published a year, constant engagement, this entire set-up is making it almost impossible for low income writers to keep up, and it goes way beyond the monetary limitations. 

[jessica-meats]

Hey there, I really liked Dragonfall and I've seen you tell people on here that the best way to help support the book is to leave a review! I'm really new to giving book reviews and was wondering if there were specific places to review that would help the most. I have recommended it to my friends, but I don't really have any social media reach. Dragonfall made a setting that made it feel like somewhere I could actually belong and I love the slow gradual pace of it and all the little details I give. But yes, best places to give a book review for Dragonfall?

Hello, thanks for asking. Helpful places: - Retailer websites like Amazon, B&N, Waterstones, Bookshop.org, Audible, places like that. - Review websites like Goodreads, Fable, or Storygraph, romance.io Obviously, posting all those places would be a lot, so the top 3 most helpful are probably Amazon, Goodreads, and Storygraph.

In its initial release, I kept pitching it as 'sexy dragons' and certain retailers also sometimes positioned it as a fast-paced, spicy romantasy. But I don't think it aligns enough with romantasy subgenre expectations, in retrospect. I've since tried flagging that it's more epic fantasy with romance, experimental narrative positions, etc, but it's still hard to know how to best help it find its readers. It's a fundamentally weird thing, to release a piece of art, which is such a vulnerable act, and have it graded on a 5 star scale. To feel like the average rating is somehow its final grade, even though that's not how art works, especially in our current culture war, and negative reviews can still convince readers to pick up a book, too. But I've always written to connect, and I struggled with feeling misunderstood for most of 2023 and a good chunk of 2024. I know an author's personal social media doesn't really move the needle, per se, but it is also getting harder to get the word out about my books directly. And as soon as you put in the work to establish a platform and wrangle with the whims of algorithms, it gets banned (TikTok) or becomes unsafe (Twitter, Meta, and even here on Tumblr). I don't look at reviews directly anymore, but sometimes a friend goes in and sends me some anonymised nice quotes. It's a gift when I get a reader message. It bolsters me because I know there are those out there who get what I'm trying to do without me having to compromise my voice or the way I like to tell stories. People can be so very loud with their hatred, it sometimes risks drowning out the love.

I'm feeling a lot better here in 2025, which is why I'm sharing this. There's so much to be grateful for and to look forward to, both for the Dragon Scales series and re-releasing my debut series later in the year. And I am really happy (and relieved) that so far, those who liked Dragonfall seem to love Emberclaw, too.

TLDR: Word of mouth, online or offline, is magic. Readers have the power to keep series alive.

I'll leave you with the dedication I put at the start of Emberclaw (out March 4th or 6th): "To the readers who told me Dragonfall and The Lumet did feel like home. It meant and means the world to me." -Lx

[jessica-meats]

Too many writers are using generative 'AI' to make their book covers, so I've written a guide on how to make your own cover for free or cheap without turning to a machine.

If you can't afford to pay an artist, you CAN make your own!

I hope this is a helpful overview that covers the basics and points to some free resources.

[jessica-meats]

A Christmas Present to Authors

If you want to give a Christmas present to your favourite author, especially if that author is published through a small press or self-published, write them a review. Go on Amazon or Goodreads or the website of another bookstore and leave a review about one of their books. Reviews can make an enormous difference to authors. Even if you don't like Amazon (for very valid reasons), a lot of authors have to go through Amazon to have any chance of sales (or because their publisher will push the book through Amazon without even thinking of asking the author's opinion on the matter) and reviews on Amazon can make an enormous difference to what gets promoted.

If you don't want to go to any bookseller's website, you can help your favourite author by giving them a shout out here on Tumblr to let people know about their books.

So if you want to give a Christmas present to an author, please think about leaving a quick review.

I'll start by mentioning some books I've read this year that I thoroughly enjoyed:

And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky - a really interesting take on portal fantasy stories that poked a bit of loving fun at the Narnia series along the way and that brilliantly incorporated the 2020 lockdown into its storyline.

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher -  a delightful adventure, aimed more at kids/young teens, but still thoroughly enjoyable as an adult with creative use of magical bread.

Life in the Present by Liz Climo - I've reblogged Liz Climo's comics on Tumblr so I gladly ordered the book, which contains more amusing comics featuring cute animals expressing relatable sentiments

[jessica-meats]

reblog with one creative goal that you would like to pursue in 2025 in the tags

it doesn’t have to be ‘big’ and there is no pressure to complete said goal. but i’d love to hear from writers, artists, performers, academics, designers, coders, and so on! 🤍

if it’s a creative outlet, it’s included. let’s inspire each other ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚

[jessica-meats]

we have GOT to abolish the paperback only being released a year later scheme brother i simply am not purchasing your $40 hardcover book

[jessica-meats]

I've checked their website and it looks like their prices have gone up a bit since then - their standard front cover package is $645 USD. https://damonza.com/cover-design/

how much does one expect to pay for book cover design? in theory I'll pay anything including with my life

[jessica-meats]

I paid a little over £300 for the cover of Behind Enemy Eyes and got a very professional service and several design iterations. They took my ideas and gave me two very different versions. I then said what I liked about both versions and they took that and made a third version which combined bits of both. I gave a few bits of extra feedback, which they used to make the final version, and then they did the back cover and spine to match.

I went with the company Damonza for this and I would happily go with them again. Yes, it's a significant chunk of money, but they did great work with it and they were happy to do multiple iterations until I ended up with a design I was delighted by.

how much does one expect to pay for book cover design? in theory I'll pay anything including with my life

[jessica-meats]

we have GOT to abolish the paperback only being released a year later scheme brother i simply am not purchasing your $40 hardcover book