Aspiring author and non-league enthusiast
Bath, England
Joined July 2025
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Mel Da Silva retweeted
🎉 QUERY LETTER REVIEW GIVEAWAY 🎉
With surgery scheduled for Friday, I need some excitement to distract me.
So I’m giving away one query letter review - to enter, just comment the genre you write, then like and repost this post.
I’ll pick a winner on November 4.
Gearing up to start #amquerying TAKE GIVE TAKE on 20th Nov
Upmarket spec, it combines the Faustian deals of Claudia Lux’s SIGN HERE, the corporate fraud of Francesca Serritella’s FULL BLOOM and the dark transactions of Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi’s THE CENTRE
👹 is in the detail
Mel Da Silva retweeted
Blue says you should familiarize yourself with the AALA’s Canons of Ethics and the Authors Guild’s protections. You never know when you’ll need to defend yourself and your work against a bad actor. 💙
whywemet.substack.com/p/publ…
Interesting substack post on the realities of book deals
Mel Da Silva retweeted
I’ve been off social media so haven’t been promoting…well, anything like I should. 🤦🏻♀️
But I’m going live with the wonderful Saffron in 25 minutes, so…come hang out with us! 🙏🏻
On today's episode of BOOKED I'll be joined by my friend K.T. Carlisle! Carlisle is a multi-genre author and editor, badass and awesome human :D
Join us for a good laugh, writing advice and get to know K.T. a little better xoxo
@KT_carlisle
Mel Da Silva retweeted
FREE QUERY CRITIQUE! AUGUST edition - closes at 6pm on Sept 1st!
I'm giving away a (totally) free query critique on X this month. Instructions to enter below. NOTE: this giveaway is only running on X this time!
There are ZERO strings attached. Just one author supporting another. That's it. 📷#WritingCommunity #amquerying
Mel Da Silva retweeted
Tomorrow’s the day I’ve been waiting for for nearly two years: The Modern Guide to Querying Literary Agents is officially out on the shelves!
To celebrate, my co-author Patrick McDonald (of @QueryTracker) and I are officially declaring this QUERY PREP WEEK.
Every day this week, you’ll get one of our key querying tips, along with a mini assignment to get you query-ready.
By Friday, you’ll be ready to draft a query letter that gets requests.
Here's your first querying lesson ⬇️
Can chill for the night. Drafted book 6 in two weeks.
Dictation, an outline, plus a bullet point zero draft were my allies
The fun happens tomorrow with the start of editing.
Another good draft dictation session
Reached 41k and 24 chapters. Half way point
On recent trends, i'll undershoot the 80k genre min by up to 5k
Not worried, as will easily get near 90k when editing. Plus, i've 2 bonus scenes i can add, which brings tension and word count
Mel Da Silva retweeted
IT’S OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL!!!! 🥳🥳🥳
I can’t believe I get to say this, but I KNOW WHAT I SAW *AND* WITCH AMONG US both have an audiobook deal! 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹
I’ve wanted to offer audiobooks for so long, and to see my very first deal happen for my favorite books I’ve ever written is truly special. For those of you who’ve been holding out for the audiobook version, it’s finally happening!!!! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Huge thank you to my amazing, incredible miracle worker of an agent for making this possible. @vickyweberbooks, you are the absolute best, and I feel so blessed to be on your team.
I can’t wait to see what we do next! 👀
Out and about this afternoon and can't use the dictation tool in the pub
Like going free hand, but much slower than speak to text
Descriptions are richer though
I'll take any mode of drsfting progress
Finally got into the drafting zone today
Went from 1.5k to 12k. With 5 chapters now drafted
I am using the 'Dictate' tool for the 1st time, plus i'm working from a zero draft, bullet point draft and outline
1/2
After a few false starts, I've wrote the 1st chapter of the 5th book i'll query
Was initially stuck in the editing mindset from my last MS that prevented progress
Had a day off to reset with a view that messy and clunky is fine
Get the clay shaped, then come back and refine
This zero draft (20 - 50 bullet poijts per chapter) is taking longer than i would have liked, but def worth
Helping me iron out the arcs and plots, cut out borderline repetition and up the story pace
Another 8 chapters of notes to type up, then I'm ready for draft 1
Haven't worried about #amquerying for a month. Dosn't define me any more
Spent my birthday money on a trip to Wells Bishops' palace, wine and the books I'm naturally drawn to.
Didn't get agented this year, but I found something better that I couldn't previously comprehend
#amquerying
Draft synopsis done on my new book. Got it to 1 page (moderate margins) and approx 500 words
Just need to get the query letter out the way (don't like writing these), then i can crack on with the detailed chapters plans.
On track to start drafting Monday