Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “An Exclusive Interview with Andrew the Alligator Boy” by Lauren Oliver and H.C. Chester

Esteemed Reader, we have a first ever today. I got to interview my first ever fictional character. Those of you Esteemed Readers who’ve read to the end of Banneker Bones and the Giant Robot Bees know how much I love alligator people.  I jumped at this chance to chat with Andrew the Alligator Boy, a character in […]

Middle Grade Ninja: Guest Post: “Chronology V. Plot: Dawn of New Years” by D. A. Winsor

The Calendar Is Ending! We Are All Doomed! My middle-grade fantasy, Finders Keepers, turns partly on the struggle to avert a disaster that will occur when the calendar changes to the year 4000. As the story approaches New Year’s Eve, 3999, a plague kills many people, earthquakes swallow buildings, and floods threaten to drown the […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Building a Writing Career with Freelancing” by Danica Davidson

My first official writing job was working for the local paper when I was in twelfth grade. For years I’d tried submitting my novels for publication, but the powers that be weren’t interested in young, unknown writers. Knowing I needed to make some money and hoping I could build a platform, I started sending short […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Breaking into Fiction with Nonfiction” by Shelley Tougas

When I was an aspiring novelist, I took freelance writing gigs to pay the bills. I wrote about community festivals, fire department budgets, and careers in construction. I even wrote inspirational essays. Bills got paid, but I was no closer to being an author. Then a friend connected me with an education publisher that sells […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “The Book Lady” by Judy Newman

I go by three different names. I am Judy Newman, President and Reader in Chief of Scholastic Book Clubs.I am also Pepper Springfield, author of the Bobs and Tweets rhyming chapter-book series, illustrated by Kristy Caldwell. And if you come to my town, Montclair, New Jersey—especially this time of year—you will hear people call me […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “The Big Five No-nos to Querying a Literary Agent” by Mark Gottlieb

As a literary agent in major trade publishing at the Trident Media Group literary agency, I receive hundreds of query letters a week. I find that there are so many things an author can do wrong in querying an agent with a submission letter, while there are very few things an author can do right […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Beyond the Doors: Find Your Avocados!” by David Neilsen

The journey I underwent to get my upcoming novel published is not one I would recommend for other writers. While I am quite pleased and proud of the final result, a deliciously-creepy, humorous Middle Grade adventure called Beyond the Doors, getting to this point was difficult, stressful, and difficult. Did I mention stressful? The story […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Be Like Michelangelo” by Darby Karchut

As part of the Mentor Program of the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrations ( https://rmc.scbwi.org/mentor-program/ ), I’ve had the straight up delight of working one-on-one with aspiring writers on their manuscripts. The six-month long program is a flurry of reading and talking and emailing and editing and revising […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “The Art of the Middle School Presentation” by Laura Martin

You wrote a middle grade novel. Good for you! You found an agent (lucky dog) and got published (yippee!) Now you have this bright shiny book in your hands…and it needs to sell. Insert an ominous cricket soundtrack here… Problem: your target audience isn’t old enough to drive themselves to the bookstore yet. And even […]