What if you didn’t have to choose between the book of your heart and the book of your wallet? In this cozy, interactive session, Manuscript Academy co-founder Julie Kingsley and editor Jonathan Baker show how books like The Help and The Da Vinci Code paired a question their authors had carried for a lifetime with a powerful, irresistible plot engine.
You’ll learn the “costume test” for theme, a one-sentence exercise for finding your book’s heart, and how to build a central question of theme.
The Q&A is packed with practical help: whether epic fantasy is coming back, how to fit theme into a tight fantasy query, why big themes belong in middle grade, how to pitch a genre blend or hybrid memoir, and how to choose between a powerhouse agent and a hungry newer one. There’s also honest, kind advice for anyone who has spent years on one manuscript.
If you’ve been querying long enough to feel bruised, remember that The Help heard “no” from 60 agents before it found its yes.
Julie and Baker are rooting for you, and so are we.
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About the Instructor
Jonathan Baker
As an editor, writer, and publishing consultant, Jonathan Baker has worked with Richard Powers, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Charles Palliser, John Lahr, and Jonathan Eig, among many other authors, and his projects have been nominated for the National Book Award and the Booker Prize. He lives in Portland, Maine.