Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 09/10/2025Laszlo Krasznahorkai has won the 2025 Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel, "Herscht 07769." It's a book about a graffiti cleaner in Germany who writes letters to Chancellor Angela Merkel to alert her to the world’s impending destruction. It features ONE period in 400 pages. 030
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 08/08/2025Just wrote a note for a romance author that the two romantic leads need "to kiss earlier and more often, and probably engage in the horizontal polka." At least no one will ever accuse me of editing with ChatGPT. A.I. *wishes* its sense of humor was as bad as mine. 040
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 17/07/2025The best manuscripts I edit are the ones where the main character has a clear want, strength, and weakness. Then the plot is geared toward exploiting that specific weakness, neutralizing that specific strength, and blocking that specific want with worst-case-scenario antagonistic forces. 060
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 11/07/2025Info-dumps are cheat sheets. They are notes and maps and guidebooks. Don't make it so easy on your reader! Make them LIVE in the world to figure it out! "But they'll be confused!" Yup. And they'll keep reading to get un-confused. Use disorientation and discovery to your advantage! (2/2) 020
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 11/07/2025Tip for world-building to avoid info-dumps: Imagine your reader has been dropped into your world with no warning, no notes, no maps... nothing. How would they learn about this world, its landscapes, its magic, its laws, etc? By observing, living, making mistakes, and learning. (1/2, cont'd) 130
Reposted by Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial)Kimberly Lynn Hanson✨Updates Only✨ @klynnhanson.bsky.social · 28/05/2025Get yourself a copy editor like Joel who fixes ALL your mistakes and makes your sentences flow without changing your voice… and also cheers for zombie rules by chopping heads 😂 (I think there is a Sir Gawain reference somewhere in that 👀) @joelbrigham.bsky.socialmedia.tenor.coma man with a tree face and a beard is holding a large axeAlt: a man with a tree face and a beard is holding a large axe from The Green Knight 021
Reposted by Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial)Jude Atwood @judeatwood.bsky.social · 10/06/2025Also huge thanks to Joel Brigham (@joelbrigham.bsky.social), whose newsletter alerted me to the existence of this contest! Yay, @reviseresub.bsky.social! 011
Reposted by Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial)Cat Burgess @catburgess.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Query re-writes are hard, but I'm thankful for @joelbrigham.bsky.social's keen eye on my query package to identify why it's not working in the trenches! If you're only getting form rejections, consider booking a critique with him. He'll find the problems & give you tools to fix them. #amquerying 142
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 02/05/2025Being a delight is literally my only goal in life. Appreciate the boost! 110
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 02/05/2025I was hoping you'd see the shout-out!!! 160
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 02/05/2025Been a busy, busy month. But the latest newsletter is live: open.substack.com/pub/brighame...open.substack.comMay NewsletterComic-Con, client book deals, hip-hop, and this months' reading list, all inside! 051
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 23/04/2025Clearly @rebeccawilcox.bsky.social is a talent unmatched in our day and time. Look at this adorable artwork! 020
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 19/04/2025And may your pondering be fruitful! 010
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 19/04/2025It would not surprise me in the slightest! 110
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 19/04/2025Here's a little hack for your opening pages: make the first physical description of your main character anything other eye color, hair color, skin tone, height, weight, or clothing. "What's left?" you're asking. That's up to you, but you can bet it'll be unique. 0193
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 18/04/2025Yes! I'm doing that email before the weekend! 010
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 14/04/2025From the logline, I knew this was going to be one I would love. The book lived up to expectations, and plenty of potential yet to tap into. Can't wait to work with Kirra! 2171
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025That's it for this batch, gang. You are all so talented and so creative, and I'm honored to have been chosen to consider your books! If you're looking for my first batch of #10Queries, you can find them here: 0100
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025P10 – This is a romcom, not a contemporary romance. It’s too funny not to be. I do worry that these opening pages are too banter-heavy, as the conversation keeps the characters from actually doing anything. Let’s give the MC a tough choice to make, and then let’s see how she reacts! 160
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025Q10 Adult Romance – We don’t meet the love interest until about 70% of the way through the pitch, which is way too late. Squash the stage-setting and let’s show the agent why these two will make for good romantic reading right out of the gate. 150
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025P9 – The pages are really well done. Playful, tense, engaging prose and immediate clarity that this is an author who knows how to dance with words. This is basically a novella, though, which just isn’t my jam. Objectively very good, but will be tough to sell. 140
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025Q9 Adult Fantasy – There’s no easy way to say this: your word count is going to hold you back with this manuscript. I’m used to seeing fantasy go way, way beyond reasonable debut author word counts, but going way, way under is less common. This is going to need some bulking up! 140
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025P8 – The author is talented, and the pages are clean, though the portion I read felt a little devoid of emotional color and tone. Its sensory descriptions could use some punching up with more carefully-chosen descriptive words aimed at creating the mood/tone the author intends. 140
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025Q8 – Adult Contemporary – Billed as contemporary, the setting of this manuscript is more than old enough to classify as Historical, instead. Also, your word count is way, way too high. Big books are expensive to edit, print, and ship, and publishers tend not to take big financial risks on debuts. 150
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025P7 – Another great opening line! This one has the tension I love, but it also leaves enough unsaid where I feel compelled to keep reading to orient myself. Very thin on setting, though. Despite lots of great stuff, I felt like I was reading in a white cloud, which made it hard to connect. 150
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025Q7 Book Club – The concept is really interesting, but I worry that the author is a little too creative in setting up the query. The first paragraph is logline, and the second paragraph is preamble. I suggest cutting both and digging right into the pitch itself. This gets good from there! 160
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025P6 – Opening line is great, and the first page is full of tension. However, the pages dip into tell-don’t-show interiority. It’s hard to avoid laying it all out for readers because we believe they need context. They don’t! A little disorientation is a good thing, as it’ll make readers keep reading! 130
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025Q6 Adult Fantasy – You forgot to mention the target age audience in the query, and since this word count is so low, it may create confusion. Also, the genre is VERY specific, so I suggest simplifying. Agents want to know what shelf it’ll sit on at Barnes & Noble. They don’t need every micro-genre! 140
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025P5 – The pages are written beautifully. Like, really beautifully. My concern, though, is that the language is too lofty for your target audience. This feels less like something written for kids and more like something written for adults wrapped up in an MG-shaped package. 140
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025Q5 MG Fantasy – I love everything about this. The pitch is so unique, and the comp titles made me really curious to see what you would do with the concept. I honestly don’t think there’s much you could do with the query letter to improve it. You should be raking with this right now. 140
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025P4 – The prologue is interesting, but I don’t think we need it. Afterward, there’s a lot of onomatopoeia (too much of it, probably), and quite a bit of emphasis through bold typeface and ALL CAPS. It’s a little too experimental for my tastes, and I worry agents will feel disoriented while reading. 140
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025Q4 Adult Contemporary – This title might be my favorite in the whole contest this year. Beyond that, though, the query is lacking the specifics one might need to emotionally invest in the story. These characters need a want, an antagonist, and some stakes. Without those, I couldn't vibe with this. 160
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025P3 – These pages do what a lot of opening pages do—info-dump and flashback. Authors write this way because THEY need all that information to write the book, but readers can infer more than we give them credit for. My rule of thumb: no flashbacks or info-dumps at all in Chapter 1. Stick in the now! 170
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025Q3 Adult Historical – While the bio paragraph was actually two paragraphs and more than twice as long as I normally recommend, the rest of the pitch is absolutely stellar. We get a truly unique and gorgeous perspective of an era in history that always sells well in bookstores. 150
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025P2 – The first page felt like a series of cliches, but once I hit page two I was absolutely invested. Strong prose, lots of mystery and tension, but I’d love to see this manuscript start in a more unique way. I wanted to be more surprised than I was. 160
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025Q2 YA Historical – This is a classic example of TELLING instead of SELLING a story. There’s some fantastic stuff in here, but I had to mine for it. If you can condense and focus on pitching instead of summarizing, I think you’ve got a heck of a concept here. 160
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025P1 - The jargon and logistics were very close to authentic, but it was off just enough that I struggled to buy into the author’s credibility to write this story. The opening is a little gimmicky, too. It felt kinda like two prologues smooshed together, which delayed our introduction to the MC. 170
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025Q1 Book Club – The concept is 10,000% up my alley, but the genre struck me as wrong. “Book Club” fiction is usually more literary, and this had more of a contemporary romance voice. Frankly, it’s a great contemporary romance concept with a few tweaks, which is what I’d do with this book. 170
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 10/04/2025Well, since #RevPit winners have to be submitted to the board by tomorrow, I figure now is as good a time as any to run another #10Queries. If you were mentioned in this one OR my first batch a few weeks ago, I'll send an email after the winners are announced! Alright. Let's party, Dear Revelers: 3301
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 08/04/2025Closing in on my #RevPit winner. It's down to two manuscripts but I'm leaning more and more heavily toward one...media.tenor.coma man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a wall that says are we havingALT: a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a wall that says are we having 1451
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 05/04/2025I'm not sure what this means, but if it includes praising me, I'm all for it! 😂 010
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 04/04/2025Hey Revelers! Been a busy week, but here's a #RevPitTeaser for ya: I'm down to four books under consideration. Oddly, two are the exact same age group and genre, and the other two are also the exact same age group and genre. I'll narrow it down further this weekend. I'm closing in!media.tenor.coma man is sitting in a car and the word soon is on the screenALT: a man is sitting in a car and the word soon is on the screen 1512
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 02/04/2025Nah, too late. Expectations already too high! 000
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 02/04/2025Just bought a ticket for Chicago. I've wanted to meet Chris for years. "Lamb" changed my life!!! 360
Reposted by Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial)Miranda Darrow (she/her) @miranda-darrow.bsky.social · 31/03/2025Welcome back, authors, for my third and final #RevPit #10Queries All good things must come to an end. Like my PTO, which ends today, so my holiday of hanging out with my submissions is over. We’re going out with a bang. Other editors have different schedules and may be coming up soon – patience! 2576
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 31/03/2025Well, Revelers, I did a LOT of reading and evaluating over the weekend, which means I've narrowed my list even further. About 12% of my submissions are still under consideration (down from 29% my last go-round), but I'll be down to 5-7% in the next day or two. Exciting! And nerve-wracking!media.tenor.coma cartoon of two women in a car with the words " you 've given me a lot to think about " on the bottomALT: a cartoon of two women in a car with the words " you 've given me a lot to think about " on the bottom 3260
Reposted by Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial)Jeni Chappelle @jenichappelle.bsky.social · 31/03/2025✨ Find your people ✨ 👉 RevPit feed bsky.app/profile/jeni... 👉 2025 RevPit Editors bsky.app/profile/jeni... 👉 2025 participating authors bsky.app/profile/jeni... lmk if you need to be added to the list 194
Reposted by Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial)Jeni Chappelle @jenichappelle.bsky.social · 31/03/2025#RevPit update ✨ Editors - reading submissions! ✨ Editor updates on #10Queries + #RevPitTeaser / #RevPitTeasers ✨ #RevPitWaiting games @reviseresub.bsky.social + @ambucsaru.bsky.social 1165
Joel Brigham (Brigham Editorial) @joelbrigham.bsky.social · 31/03/2025my Pie Chart Colleagues are absolutely killin' it with these visuals! 081