Elana Johnson's Blog, page 75

WriteOnCon Prize Drawing!

Dude, you guys!! So you know how you go to a live conference and there are door prizes? Well, guess what??



We have prizes too!



To enter to win, simply leave a comment on this post. We'll draw winners tonight and announce the winners at the tail end of the live panel (10 PM EDT). You have until 9:45 PM EDT to enter.



What can you win?



How about a 10-page manuscript critique from a wicked amazing author?



Your wish, granted.



Lindsey Leavitt, author of PRINCESS FOR HIRE, will crit your...

Becoming a Career Author by literary agent Catherine Drayton

We offer a warm welcome to literary agent Catherine Drayton! She's stopped by to offer some valuable advice about becoming a career author. Take it away, Catherine!

Becoming a Career AuthorIt is every writer's dream – a steady income, a grateful publisher and an audience impatient for your next book. We all know these are tough times in publishing: Many respected authors are struggling to secure deals for their next books and publishers are looking for authors who have the potential to break-...

Bringing the Funny by author Rachel Hawkins

Wow. Can you believe we have the amazing Rachel Hawkins here? She's the author of HEX HALL, one of the best YA novels I've read this year. Yes, I might be a little biased. Whatever. She's frawesome! She's here to tell us how to bring the funny to our writing.

Bringing the FunnyI never set out to write funny books. When I first sat down and started on the book that became HEX HALL, I was convinced I was writing a dark mystery full of DEATH and BLOOD SACRIFICE and all sorts of other things tha...

Illustrating Children's Books by author/illustrator JH Everett and Studio 5 (part 3)

The Illustrators of Studio 5 join us for a three-part series on Demystifying Illustration. Their third segment discusses how "Publishing is teamwork."

Illustrating Children's Books by author/illustrator JH Everett and Studio 5 (part 2)

The Illustrators of Studio 5 join us for a three-part series on Demystifying Illustration. Their second discussion focuses on "Storyboarding and Storytelling."

Illustrating Children's Books by author/illustrator JH Everett and Studio 5 (part 1)

The Illustrators of Studio 5 join us for a three-part series on Demystifying Illustration. First they discuss "Plussing the story."

Myths and Misconceptions by literary agent Holly Root, and editors Molly O'Neill and Martha Mihalick

Have you always wondered what agents and editors are REALLY thinking? Tune into this amazing Q&A session with literary agent Holly Root and editors Molly O'Neill and Martha Mihalick. Don't miss this fascinating inside look at publishing!



Please note: We've posted this discussion in two parts due to it's length, but believe me you'll want to watch the entire thing. Enjoy!



P.S. Special thanks to Holly's husband Jon Root for his mad vlog editing/moderating skills.

WriteOnCon Day One

Oh. My. Heck. The day is here! The day is here!



Today is the first day of the first WriteOnCon. Instead of giving you more to read over the next three days, I'm simply going to post the schedule for WriteOnCon. Each one is linked for your viewing pleasure. Be aware that only the events that have already happened will appear, all others will take you to a broken page.



And I've disabled comments here so you don't feel like you need to tell me how freaking awesome this is.



Just go. Read...

The Many Faces of Elana

Okay, not really. But whatever. I need your opinion. Here's some of my favorite photos from my recent shoot (yes, I cut and colored my hair just hours before showing up in the studio), and I want to know which one you like best.



Disclaimer: Yes, I have yellow teeth. My photog is totally going to whiten those babies up. And make sure my neck-skin doesn't look so freaking white. Etc, etc. I just wanna know which one you like best.



Shameless Plug: If you live anywhere near Logan, Utah...

The Query Contest of Amazingness

(LiLa wrote this post. I have added some commentary for your amusement.) WriteOnCon is quickly approaching and we hope everyone is as excited as we are to dive in. We've have been completely blown away by all of the amazing content we've received from agents, editors and writers and we can't wait to share it with all of you! (I mean, seriously.)



In the meantime, one of our star panelists, über agent Joanna Volpe (squee!) of Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation, has generously...