E.M. Anderson's Blog, page 2
June 20, 2022
SJ Whitby on Self-Pub, Superheroes, and Series Writing
An interview with one of my favorite people, who happens to be a very talented author!
Welcome to the latest edition of my occasional interview series “How Tho?!” in which I ask cool writers doing amazing work about their writing path and process. Today I’m chatting with S.J. Whitby, author of the Cute Mutants series (now, with their first multi-author anthology in the world, legitimately the Cute Mutants Extended Universe!)
SJ Whitby is a nonbinary author who lives...
June 6, 2022
5 things I wish I’d known about querying before diving into the trenches
This post is for writers.
I know my blog is a quiet little place with maybe 20 readers, but all my posts automatically post to Twitter. And some agents follow me there. And agent-editor-author burnout discourse makes the rounds constantly, and writers who complain about querying frequently get subtweeted and shutdown, which is one of many reasons I don’t usually complain about querying in general and on Twitter in particular.
So on the off chance any agents wind up here, I’ll say it again:...
April 4, 2022
The Publishing Industry Is Not Okay. Now What?
This is the house that oligopoly built…
When I originally set out to blog on this topic two weeks ago, I intended to write an explainer of WHY publishing is not okay. My first draft focused on professional burnout, the oligopoly of the Big Four, disruptive technology, and how labor exploitation lines the pockets of four extremely rich conservative families. Fun, right?
As I dug further into the topic, I just couldn’t bring myself to post it here. It was to...
March 14, 2022
Relearning My Mind: ADHD and My Writing Journey
Welcome to my brain circus!The way I relate to *checks notes* basically all of this
It’s Disability Awareness Month, and I’m a writer with Attention Deficit Disorder. That makes this as good a time as any to share my experience of learning late in life that I’m neurodivergent, how my diagnosis has shifted my self-image, and how adjusting my brain chemicals has brought new ease to my writing process.
After seeking answers for over a year, I finally got assessed...
March 10, 2022
(Traditional) Publishing & Our Brains: We Are Not Equipped for This Shit
Recently for dayjob, I went to another training from Kevin Ashworth, founder of the Northwest Anxiety Institute. I’ve seen Kevin speak before, and I am a bit obsessed with him. He’s funny and smart and one of those presenters where everything he says has your brain and heart screaming yes and oh god it’s not just me and can you talk for like five hours more because my blood pressure really likes this.
Anyway, Kevin often starts off his talks with explaining the difference be...
March 1, 2022
Release day: Awakenings
actual image of me this morningHappy release day, everyone!
It only occurred to me late last week that “Something Witchy This Way Comes,” my short story appearing in SJ Whitby’s anthology Awakenings, is my first-ever published prose.
You’d think I would’ve known that from the beginning, but? it? somehow? didn’t compute until SJ sent pictures and a video of the proof copy.
And then it computed very much all at once, because HOLY SHIT. LOOK AT IT. IT’S IN A BOOK. WITH PAGES AND EV...
February 22, 2022
This is where I thrash talk about Author Mentor Match
Because I pledged in like January to do a better job not stealing my own joy, I’ve spent the last several weeks trying to write up a “how I got into Author Mentor Match” post, because (spoiler alert) I got into Author Mentor Match. And I figured a follow up was due, since I talked about submitting to AMM in my rare querying post.
But every time I go to write a celebratory “here’s how it went” post, I end up roasting myself instead. And then I spend far too long on the actual story.
if yeet...
January 31, 2022
An anthologies announcement
…okay, this is, like, a semi-announcement, because I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it elsewhere on the blog, and I’ve definitely mentioned it on Twitter.
But WHATEVER, we’re announcing it anyway, all official and shit.
me pretending I haven’t literally been tweeting about this for 2 months alreadyI have two short stories appearing in anthologies in 2022, wooooooo!
Something Witchy This Way Comes
MARCH 2022. AWAKENINGS
The CMU’s getting a little bit bigger.
The first Cute M...
January 26, 2022
How to Create Book Trailers in Canva
What a long strange week it’s been! My book launch for CAMBION’S LAW was a wild ride, though I’m starting to feel the comedown now (note to self: do NOT keep looking at my sales rank). My publisher has assured me the release was a strong success by their metrics, for which I’m extremely relieved and grateful. And some other good things maaaay have happened behind the scenes that I can’t really talk about yet.
Anyway, I’m supposed to celebrate my accomplishments or...
January 17, 2022
Live from the trenches, it’s querying updates
I don’t normally write querying updates, both because I’m just the right (or wrong) kind of superstitious and because I don’t want to sound like a whiny bench.
If I complain about querying, maybe the universe will be all, “I’ll GIVE YOU something to complain about.” If I celebrate a request, maybe the universe will be all, “Your head’s getting too big, time to take you down a peg.” I don’t want to complain to friends who are agented because I don’t want to bring them down, and I don’t want to...
