Hey Friends! Hope everyone is enjoying what for us is an unseasonably warm November. Not that Bustopher (my cat) minds a bit. Just means he can spend more time out in the “catio” (a mesh tunnel network perfect for birdwatching without escaping). He can tolerate amazingly brisk temperatures, but then, he has a fur coat and I don’t.
I could not be more excited about next year’s WriterCon Cruise! It’s a day longer this time and in a new location, the Eastern Caribbean. Alaska was fabulous, but this cruise leaves from Ft. Lauderdale so it’s a bit less expensive. Lara and I will both be teaching, as will Betsey Kulakowski, author of the award-winning Veritas Codex series, plus one of the best agents in the business, Katharine Sands, who has sold many books for many people (including me). Katharine has committed to not only speak but to meet individually with anyone in our group who wants to do so. Katharine also wrote the article below on “Querial Killers.”
There will be much to see, but we’ll also have onboard classes and small or private meetings with attendees for a total of over 20 hours of instruction—but only while the boat is at sea. I know when we’re in port you’ll want to get off and look around. But when we’re on the water, we’ll be doing everything we can to make your writing dreams a reality.
Click here to see the entire itinerary. Then register and come join us! Payment is due not due in full till January, but you can reserve a room now while we still have space available.
AND DON’T FORGET:
WRITERCON RETREAT July 15-19, 2026
We are returning to the Canebrake Resort for a five-day writing retreat next year. The Retreat gives us more time to work on your individual manuscript in a workshop setting. Hoping for some feedback on your work-in-progress? This is where you get it. Plus you’re in one of the most gorgeous, inspirational settings on earth. Click here for more details.
WRITERCON CONFERENCE Sept 4-7, 2026
And of course, the conference will return. This is the Big WriterCon event. This year we had almost 300 people attending. More than 60 speakers. More than 100 breakout sessions. And next year, we will have even more. Click here for more details and to see the awsome writers already on board.
Here’s a great video shot and edited by my son Ralph Bernhardt. I felt like he captured the spirit of the conference.
Your reader takes in information in a very different way. Your reader needs a way in, to become engaged and immersed in the storytelling. As author, you know the scope of your story and know the themes that fuel and inform it. Not so the reader. We need camerawork to point us. This is your story portal, the place to spotlight the ‘story’ universe; you want to create this right away.
You need to convey reader takeaways quickly. We need to get things fast. We read to zero in on the Zeitgeist, seek sales engines, and to identify the salient points for the primary audience—the ideal, intended audience—be engaged by the all-important voice and to determine the answer to two pressing questions: Why you? Why now?
The best pitches give off sparks, create a moment, or pose a provocative question, just to give a taste of the project. What are the key elements? And how does a writer/author do it effectively to key audiences: agent, publisher and reader?
Why would you read you? Why?
“Pitchcraft” is the writing you do about your writing. It is the speaking, engagement, and promotion you do about your writing. There needs to be more rising energy—that builds to an epiphany, a discovery, an admission, an understanding, or an experience. The reader should feel as though every scene drives the story forward, ends in such a way that s/he just has to know what happens next. Otherwise, it is a whir of details enwrapped in intelligent writing.
Do: To get a literary agent to respond to your writing you need to supply the Eureka Moment. Understand that as a writer you are always going to be asked to introduce your work, to share your enthusiasm for your writing, and to get others excited about what is exciting to you. Pitchcraft is the writing that you do about your writing, the speaking that you do about your writing, the communicating that you do about your writing—and this is every bit as important as the writing itself. You need to put as much passion and as much crafting and as much imagination into your pitch as you do the writing.
We really do think of ourselves as book dowsers—meaning there’s a kind of visceral reaction when you do come across an author-to-be. When it comes to your pitchcraft, your pitch is a message in a bottle but it’s also a job interview, it’s something of an x-ray to an agent and an agent is looking to make a prognosis for your career as an author—not just commune with what you’re doing as a writer.
Here are the most common mistakes writers make when they set out to woo and win a literary agent:
Don’t: You may have ideas from your books but you’re only going to pitch them one at a time. Why is that? Because we tend to short-circuit if too much is going on—it diffuses the message that this work could work. And that’s what your pitch is. Your query is a message in a bottle. It is the opportunity to have an agent review your work with a specific focus on market readiness and publishing potential.
Do: To get an agent from the get-go, start in a logical place, yet from a compelling perch.
Do: Encapsulate in clear core points the coming attractions that whet the reader’s appetite for more.
Timing is everything. Does the query afford immediate possibilities? Or would it be deemed early, in terms of crafting?
When forming first impressions, I think about the author’s intentions, and I evaluate how the execution of the query letter syncs up with those intentions. This is not necessarily based on the ‘facts’ of the matter, just the impressions that lingered.
Takeaways. Takeaways are what one takes away, what I could tell you hours or days later about the story I think I’ve read—or what the book is about.
We want to see how your memoir offers a relatable series of stories and insights. Does your premise dovetail with new interest in female-led narratives? Do you approach an alt universe in a fresh and imaginative way?
Orient the reader to the book by bringing these elements forward: place, person, pivot. Remember, you are introducing your observations—culture, time period, people you met or made up. I did not get a very clear picture of you. It is a bit tricky to get a bead on the narrator.
As someone who is reading a query—your material—for the first time, I need you to establish the time and place much, much more for the reader who may not be familiar with either—or to demonstrate the unique features or retelling that is on offer.
Is your memoir a potpourri of interesting moments and musings—but does it pair seamlessly with introducing what would be deemed a memoir (of a year in a challenging and changing landscape, interior and exterior)?
These are strong examples of writing that would work in a memoir. Who would be interested—and why—is made clear. This is also informative for anyone who wonders what the experience would be like, which, remember, is the reason readers would buy your book.
It is only for me to react. And to share those first responses. My thoughts divide into author intentions—and ways to enhance reader experience. To illustrate points, I am drawing from the pages—not in the order they are presented.
You are well set up as the reliable narrator of your life and times as you are, in effect, the hub of the wheel. That said, the premise would benefit from more focus on aspects that are not as reliant on a recounting of comment-driven narrative, but more storytelling.
Step one is to round out the observations and insights and use the fact-based timeline—the things that stand out in your memory—to weave more of an experience for your reader.
Find your voice. Hone your idea. Your pitch is a performance. Whether you deliver it in person or on the printed page, hone the on-page elements and in-person aspects of the pitch to create the actual script you will use in a query letter, at a conference, and beyond.
Your pitch must get an agent from the get-go. Start in a logical place, yet from a compelling perch. It must encapsulate in clear core points. Create coming attractions that whet the reader’s appetite for more—and show why your work matters to others, not just to you.
Avoid querial killers. That’s how to get past the gatekeeper.
Literary Arts Fund. Here’s some good news: a $50 million initiative for nonprofits promoting the literary arts. (The money is for organizations, alas, not writers, though some organizations give grants to writers). Learn more about it.
Grammerly Steps Up. Grammerly has a new version of its iconic editing software with an AI interface called Superhuman Go that gives it even more tricks. Does that make it better? Post your thoughts in the show notes! Learn more about it.
New agent at Enliven Endeavors
Former editor Calvert Morgan joins Enliven as a literary agent. He looks to represent “writers of vision and ambition.”
New nonfiction imprint at HarperCollins
Harper Edge launches in the spring with Jim Collins’s What to Make of a Life. This imprint is “a new home for authors who are pioneers, seasoned experts, and catalysts for change—guiding readers through pathways of self-discovery, transformation, and renewal.”
New agency: The Swyer Agency
Rachel Swyer has opened the Swyer Agency in NYC, representing both fiction and nonfiction. They are currently open to submissions.
The WriterCon Facebook Page
For more breaking news from the publishing world, join our Facebook group! Doesn’t cost a thing and guarantees you’ll know about important matters that affect writers when they happen. My favorite part of the page, though, is seeing how many WriterCon writers are successfully publishing and marketing their books. Click Here to Join.
I’m including a link to our recent podcast featuring an interview with Shanna Hatfield, who has a lovely new Christmas book titled The Bridge. We also tell you what you need to know about the Anthropic settlement and how to avoid a wave of scams currently targeting authors. Click here to listen.
Till next time, keep writing, and remember—you cannot fail if you refuse to quit.
William Bernhardt
willbern@gmail.com
www.writercon.com
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