Membership walkthrough week 5: Expert Member Advice
In the final blog of this series, we’re looking at how our brilliant Writer Support team is here to support members of Jericho Writers. This is one of the most overlooked elements of the membership, but one of the most useful for anyone needing a bit of advice and feedback (which we all do, sometimes!)
As with the others in this series, the links here will only work if you’re a logged in member of Jericho Writers. Remember you can also catch up on the other posts in the series on Video Courses, Writing and Publishing Resources, Online Events and AgentMatch.
This week’s post has been written by Writer Support Team Assistant, Kaile Kilner. Take it away, Kaile!
Expert Member Advice walkthrough, By Kaile Kilner
Have you ever had a specific question about writing or publishing your novel but you weren’t sure who to ask? Ever needed guidance on what direction to take your novel or how to write a pitch for an agent query letter? Expert Member Advice is your go-to service for tailored advice about all your burning writing or publishing questions and we’re here just to answer these for you.
How to find Expert Member Advice
Members can access this section of the website via their dashboard, or by clicking on ‘My Jericho’ and selecting ‘Expert Member Advice.’
We have two services here for members:
Find out more about what these involve below!
Member Advisory Service
This service is designed to answer your questions as specifically as possible and you’re encouraged to attach any documents that might help explain your problem or question. Members have used this service for questions like:
• Selecting a genre for their novel and positioning it within the market
• Advice on how to write an attention grabbing query letter
• General questions regarding what to include in a synopsis
• Advice and information about different publishers or agents
• General questions about agent or publisher contracts
• And much more!
The Writer Support team will look at your query and attached material and respond to you with thoughtful, expert advice. We have spent lots of time researching publishing issues and questions for many authors, so we’re well equipped to assist you with any questions you might have. We understand that sometimes it’s difficult to find advice about writing or publishing, so the next time you have a question, be sure to head to the Member Advisory Service and submit us a question – don’t worry about being too specific either, we’re happy to take a look at and learn more about your writing!
Query Letter Review
Expert Member Advice also includes our query letter review service that’s available on a yearly basis for members. Members are invited to submit drafts of their agent query letters for review by members of the Writer Support team. We’ll give your letter a look, paying close attention to your book pitch and summary, and return a marked up copy of your letter with an email detailing what you did well and what you can change.
The service is free for members and is designed to ensure that you send out the best query letter possible – after all, the query letter is your first impression to agents, so it’s important that you nail it!
Before you do send in your letter, we recommend that you have a look at our article on writing queries. That way. we’ll be able to give you more specific advice that’s unique to your novel, rather than pointing out common query letter mistakes.
So next time you do have a specific writing or publishing question, you now know where to turn! The Writer Support team has a great deal of experience, we’re writers ourselves and many of us have even studied publishing. As active members of the industry who are passionate about supporting authors we look forward to hearing your questions and getting them answered in order to move you along in your writing journey.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this series and found it a useful way to explore all the things you get in your membership. Remember, if you ever need help, you can contact us at any time. We’re here to help!
Hi Sarah,
I am loving all the resources that Jericho provides for its writers and I would like to be able to enjoy some of the many services on offer (mentoring, developing editors, query letter review, etc, etc.). I am writing my novel in Spanish, though.
I haven´t been able to find a similar service in Spanish, believe it or not. In the past, I worked with a developmental editor in the US: I translated the description of what was into each chapter into English and together we produced a structure for my book, which then I carried on writing in Spanish.
I wonder, would something like that work with Jericho? Maybe a translation, even an automatic one, would work in order for the editor to have a look at my work? In fact, I am a translator (scientific, English into Spanish) but it would be very tedious to translate the whole manuscript for editing. So, to work on structure, themes, pitch, I think that a mere semiautomatic translation would be enough. What do you think?
By the way, I am part of an editorial course by Planeta’s (one of the 2 main editorials in Spain) chief editor. In this course, I have met hundreds of writers who are also interested in finding the services I am looking for. In fact, they asked me to let them know if I find such services in Spanish. Who knows, could Jericho offer them?
I think it could work, as it worked with the US editor. I would love to know your thoughts on all this…
All the best,
Liliana