#writementor 2020

#writementor 2020

I’m proud and excited to be a #writementor mentor for 2020!

I was one of the first group of mentees back in 2018. I worked with the genius Lindsay Galvin and ended up signing with an agent who spotted me in the showcase. Last year I returned as a mentor and it was an amazing experience that I can’t wait to repeat!

This year I’m asking for Middle Grade submissions only – I’ve realised this is where my strengths lie.

I’m offering a full manuscript package. I’ll read your entire book and give you structural and big-picture notes. I’ll be there to brainstorm and bounce things off as you work on your edit. Before the showcase, I’ll go through your first chapter, synopsis and query letter with you line by line to make sure it gleams. If there’s time, I can have a second look at your manuscript to look over the changes and perhaps do some line editing – no pressure, though! It’s going to be a busy few months and I’d rather we got the story rock-solid than rushed through to prose-level edits.

I will mostly be working via email or slack, giving you inline notes as much as possible for clarity.

When reading the submissions I’ll be looking for a really active protagonist who drives the story and faces real problems, both internal and external. I enjoy most genres though I don’t know very much about high fantasy (wizards and dragons and mages, etc). I particularly love strong friendships, awful baddies, happy endings, humour, ghosts, witches, all things spooky, unreliable narrators and high-concept stories.

Don’t worry if your book doesn’t meet all (or even most) of those criteria – often the best books are the ones we didn’t know we were looking for.

Books I’ve enjoyed recently include: A Pinch of Magic, The Secret of the Night Train, Ghouls of Howlfair, The Secret Deep

My perfect mentee will be someone who feels ready to move into the professional publishing world and is willing to do the work to get there. I will be completely honest with you about any problems I see (though I will be sure to let you know what I love, too). Please be willing to make changes, but be reassured all the decisions remain yours. I hope we can develop from colleagues to friends and I will be cheering you across the finish line when you get that book deal.

PLEASE NOTE: The mentor-mentee pairings are due to be announced the same day my debut book is released. That might mean my mentee doesn’t hear from me for a few days – please sit back and enjoy the glow of being selected, and I will be in touch soon.

Because the timing isn’t ideal, I can’t promise feedback to everyone who applies to work with me. Thank you for trusting me with your work, and I look forward to bumping into you around the writing community!

If you have any questions, the best place to find me is twitter @jennispangler1

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