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Jacqueline
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What are some of the primary differences between your pitch and the section of your query letter devoted to summarizing your book?
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Dave Wright
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Many stories start with the MC already in a negative situation (it’s part of impetus), but when you want to start the MC in sunshine and picket fences before you drop the anvil on their head, are there tricks to doing it successfully?
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Hannah
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Do you have any tips specifically regarding the first line?
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aneeqah
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What are some ways to clearly and succinctly establish a character in your opening hook? Thanks so much for your time!
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Martha
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Should your opening hook involve comp titles? What are the advantages and disadvantages of comp titles?
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Kathie
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Sound is garbled for me. Anybody else?
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Tamara
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Yes.
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Sally
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Very garbled! But I got in late and I’m in Munich, Germany.
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Natasja
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Is there a preference for opening the query with a good hook involving the compts or hook involving the summary of the novel?
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I’ve heard that opening with a line of dialogue is a bad idea. Your opinions, please?
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janewrites
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Do you prefer queries that start with the stats of a book (genre, word count, comps, etc.) or a hook into the story?
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Katie
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Extremely garbled. I emailed the tech contact and asked that the presenters be asked to get closer to the mic. No response yet.
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Ana
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The sound is not so clear to me. Is that happening to anybody else?
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Response: they are working on it 🙂
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Kathy
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Can each of you speak closer to the computer mike? Your words are garbled sometimes. thanks.
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Ge'Vonna
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How recent should comp titles be?
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Can you both speak slower. It is hard to hear sometimes. Thanks.
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Erica
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Any recs for strong hooks you’ve seen recently? Thank you!
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harder to hear Amber.
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Should we start with the character already in his problematic situation or should we introduce the character first?
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Would a UK agency be interested in Historical fiction that takes place half in the US an half in the Soviet Union? Or is it better to stick with US agencies?
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Amy
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How can you craft a gripping opening line without seeming like you’re trying too hard?
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Do you have any tips for making sure the start of every new chapter is just as gripping and engaging as the first?
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HI AMBER!!!! If there are multiple places a story *could* start (several points of action), can you speak to how writers might find the correct beat to begin on?
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What does the first paragraph of a book need to get across?
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Cynthia
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If you have a Prologue, with it’s opening hook, do you also have to have an opening hook in Chapter One?
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Hi, Cynthia! Did you get your question answered? It was really garbled on my end and I had the same question. Sally
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Cynthia can probably come in and add more — but the gist of their response to this was that if you have a prologue, you have to do all of the things they talk about twice (hook for both etc) because you are basically starting twice.
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(They answer this at minute 45:05 if you want to watch it!)
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Does it make a difference if you write in 1st or 3rd person? PB
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This is really to bad, I can hardly understand a word. I think I’m missing out on a lot of info! 🙁
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We do our best to ensure that events are accessible and audible, but sometimes technology just works against us! We’re sorry this one is so hard to hear.
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Too bad, not to bad.
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Hello,
Great interview. Your suggestion to keep the focus so tight you can describe you book in one sentence will be a huge help to me going forward. Thank you, THANK YOU, for contributing time and energy to WriteOnCon.
Best wishes,
Diane -
Amber Caraveo
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Hello everyone. Thank you so much for your comments and questions during the Q&A. I’m sorry to see here that the sound was so bad. That’s a real shame and we’ll be sure to try to find a way to make the tech work better for the future. In the meantime, I hope you were able to get the gist of the answers to your questions and do please keep us in mind when you’re ready to submit your own novels. We always love to see new work! Also, you can reach out to us on Twitter. We are… @AmberCaraveo @JoannaMoult and @SkylarkLit. There is also more info on our website – http://www.skylark-literary.com
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