Writers attending conferences - like last week's The Muse & The Marketplace 2021 - tend to react to the experience in one of two ways: despair or elation.

Camp #1 is overwhelmed with information. Too much of the advice they absorbed seemed contradictory or overly complicated. They’re not sure they even like agents and editors anymore. And dammit, if all those other attendees are trying to get published, how do they stand a chance? 

Author and GrubStreet instructor Katrin Schumann shares some tips and practical insight into how to present your work in the most compelling way possible for agents. You can learn more about this subject in Katrin's upcoming class "Time to Find an Agent: Perfecting Your Pitch" starting March 11th.

Author and GrubStreet instructor Katrin Schumann shares some tips and practical insight into how to present your work in the most compelling way possible for agents. You can learn more about this subject in Katrin's upcoming class "Time to Find an Agent: Perfecting Your Pitch" starting March 11th.

By Katrin Schumann

Editors often see projects at radially different stages of development. Truthfully, we sometimes see writing that is really, well, bad.

But does this mean it’s hopeless? When do you know if something is too "bad" to be worth fixing?

Of course, "bad" is a highly subjective term. Writing might seem "bad" to one reader, while another reader loves it

By Katrin Schumann

I'm deep in the throes of writing a new book. My first novel The Forgotten Hours came out in 2019, and my second one, This Terrible Beauty (which I actually wrote first) was published a year later. I also have a novel-in-a-drawer... and a bunch of nonfiction books and collaborations.