Queries post for WriteOnCon

WriteOnCon is an annual online conference aimed at writers of children’s and YA books. There’s a little something for everyone: live blogs and panels, critique forums where you can post your work and possibly get it read by an agent, and discussion threads. Last year, I participated in a pitch discussion thread, and this year I wrote a blog post: 60 Queries in 60 Minutes. 

For this post, I did a live blogging of my slush pile reading. It takes about a minute for me to read a query letter and decide whether I’d like to look at the sample pages, so I chose 60 queries at random from my slush pile and posted my reactions to each one. Even though the conference is aimed at children’s and YA writers, I included some adult books in there as well, because a great query can happen in any genre. Also, some elements of what makes a great query (clear picture of what the characters are like, showing me what they have at stake, etc.) are universal across genres.

You can see all the blog posts from agents, editors, and authors for this year’s WriteOnCon here: WOC Program.

My interview at Literary Rejections

Recently, I had the opportunity to do an interview with James of Literary Rejections, and he asked me some terrific questions, including “During your career as a librarian what aspects of that community did you find invaluable and fear might be lost to future generations?” and “How important was the branding of CK Webber Associates in an industry of ever-increasing competitors?”

Check out my answers here: Literary Rejections interview with Carlie Webber, to see some of my thoughts, including the web design wisdom I learned from Google.