The Chopping Blog

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The importance of first sentences
March 30, 2020
Your opening sentence doesn’t need to go down in history for its wit and charm, but it should still welcome readers to your liminal landscape so they may engage with your characters.
- On the craft
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Literary agents on "voice"
March 28, 2020
Voice is certainly difficult to define. It's subjective, too, certainly, but literary agents are fairly unanimous on its importance.
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The First Annual Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award
March 17, 2020
Here's a self-pub contest we came across on Twitter—a great opportunity for indie authors looking to increase their digital footprint. By extension, the book bloggers network is a great resource to check out.
- Contest updates
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Huge congrats, Katie! Darling Axe editor wins Exile Quarterly's short fiction contest
March 16, 2020

Darling Axe editor Katie Zdybel has won Exile Quarterly's Carter V Cooper Short Fiction Competition, as selected by Joyce Carol Oates. Her short story, "The Critics", has been awarded the $10,000 prize for emerging writers.
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Book Broker – An interview with Katie Greenstreet
March 09, 2020
Take the manuscript as far as you yourself can possibly get it. You almost never get a second chance with an agent, so you want to have done everything you possibly can before you submit.
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Success Story with Gail Anderson-Dargatz
March 08, 2020
At a time when we can easily throw our work online, or self-publish, it’s more important than ever to fully develop our stories, our craft.
- Success Stories
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Query letter quandaries: pro tips from the pros
March 01, 2020
"A useful sentence to keep in mind is: When A (inciting incident) happens, B (character) must do C (action) otherwise/before D (catastrophe). You might need to play with that to make it fit your book but that covers the basics of what I need to know… who am I rooting for, what’s their problem, and what’s at stake if they fail?"
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Best-laid plans: outlining seminar now on sale
February 26, 2020
This course will lead you through the steps of drafting a blueprint for your next novel. By the end of the seminar, you will have a solid outline, broken into either chapters or major scenes. (Now 50% off)
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Axe to Grind: flash fiction contest update
February 26, 2020
We've just hit 60 entries! That means the spillover to a second-place prize has completed and a third-place prize is now growing.
- Contest updates
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A good deal? Or a nice deal?
February 25, 2020
So which deal is your super awesome debut novel going to land? Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of manuscripts sell for less than $50,000. Of those, few sell for less than $5,000, and the rest fall somewhere in the middle.
- On querying
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Book Broker: an interview with Karly Caserza
February 24, 2020
"Take your time. Truly. I’d rather wait and receive a manuscript that has been polished than something that’s been hastily submitted in order to get it to me sooner."
- Agent interviews
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Word Count Wars: How Long Should Your Novel Really Be?
February 15, 2020
"The two biggies are word counts wildly out of line with your genre and choosing only iconic, hugely successful books as your comps." Sharon Pelletier
- On querying
- On the craft
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