ARCHIVE FOR Katrin Schumann

by Katrin Schumann

I'm going to start with a confession: I hardly wrote any notes while attending the 15th annual Muse & the Marketplace conference this past weekend. I was so immersed in the experience, so enjoying the sessions, the eager crowd of attendees, the brilliant authors, that I allowed myself to absorb it without the pressure of trying to capture it in words. So when I looked over my conference packet to put together this insightful blogpost, I found a whole lot of nothing.

By Katrin Schumann

My husband never really got over it when my athletic, nimble oldest child, Peter, quit lacrosse. When my middle child failed to make varsity in either of her beloved sports, Kevin was shaken to the core. And even though he accepted with seeming equanimity that my youngest never once picked up a ball or a stick, I know that secretly he felt an enduring sense of loss.

By Katrin Schumann

Back in London when I was a teenager, I knew a boy who was very tall, very handsome, and very shy. He always had a camera slung around his neck. I haven’t seen him in over 30 years. 

Not surprisingly, Dean became a film director and fashion photographer, and travels the world shooting the likes of Bradley Cooper, David Beckham, Katie Perry… and so on

By Katrin Schumann

There’s so much helpful information out there about getting an agent. Spend a few hours trawling sites and you’ll have a good sense of the do’s and don’ts. But there’s enough conflicting advice that at some point you're likely to start fretting or freaking out about your approach. So I thought I’d make it easier for everyone by explaining it the other way round: How to fail.

By Katrin Schumann

When your manuscript lands on the desk of a publisher, literary agent or developmental editor, it’s instantly sized up. Before delving in, they assess the work by glancing at:

1)    the book's premise 

2)    who you are

3)    what the writing is like

4)    the total word count