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  Gardner Literary is proud to represent debut author Lyvonne Briggs as she signs her first publishing contract!   Congrats, Lyvonne!

The first step toward getting your poetry published is to get the Poets Market, a print resource also available on Kindle. It includes hundreds of publishing opportunities specifically for poets, including listings for book and chapbook publishers, print and online poetry publications, contests, and more. Before trying to get a whole book of poetry published,…

  We make thousands of decisions, and while most of them are relatively simple, we can get stuck in the larger, life-altering decisions, leading to frustration, anxiety, and confusion. “It would be so much easier if life just came with a road map!” Life is full of twists and turns, the unexpected and the unforeseen.…

  This beautiful book from debut author Kat Armas is out in the world, and I’m excited for you to read it! What if some of our greatest theologians weren’t theologians at all? “Abuelita Faith” tells the story of unnamed and overlooked theologians in society and in the Bible–mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and daughters–whose survival, strength,…

  Is there anything you should avoid in a query that would lead to an automatic rejection? People ask me this question all the time, and I want to start by saying that every agent is different, and we probably have different things that make us immediately decline a query. For many agents, failing to…

  When Christian singer and speaker Staci Frenes learned her teenage daughter was gay, she found her dreams for the future—along with her lifelong faith—collapsing around her. Coming to terms with a new reality was an invitation to make room for new things: uncertainty, hope in the midst of loss, awkward and tough conversations, an…

  Writers are often told, “write what you know.” Is this good advice? Absolutely! It’s great advice… if you understand what it means. You can’t take it literally to mean something like, “Only write about things for which you have specialized knowledge.” Nobody has specialized knowledge of fairies or monsters or vampires, and most people…

Excited to announce this January release!! I feel like I’ve been waiting forever to tell you about this book. Candice Benbow writes about Black spirituality and Black womanhood like no one else. She draws you in from the first page and doesn’t let you go. Her personality shines through and she balances depth and humor…

  When you are looking for an agent, how many queries should you send? The short answer is: as many as it takes! There are several hundred literary agents out there. Once you’ve narrowed it down to agents who rep your genre, you’ll probably still have a pool of 100, 200, or more. You can…

“The Weight of Memory” a novel by Shawn Smucker “A resonant allegory about forgiveness and faith. Fans of James Rubart will want to take a look.” -Publishers Weekly “Smucker crafts beautiful sentences and haunting characters that immerse readers in a world where anything is possible but not everything is real.” -Library journal I was hooked…

First, it’s important to know that a memoir is not your life story (that’s an autobiography). Your memoir is a piece of your story, centered around a particular time or event in your life that sent you on a different trajectory. Make sure you know your theme. Is it a coming of age story? Dealing…

If you’re looking for an objective opinion—one that doesn’t come from your writing partner, critique partner or your best friend—then paying a professional editor may be a good idea. Someone who hasn’t been involved all along in your brainstorming and writing process can look at your book with a fresh mindset and point out things…

Beta readers are a writer’s taste-testers. After your manuscript is complete and you’ve gone through a couple rounds of revisions with your critique partners, and you feel like it’s as “final” as it’s going to get, you give it to 1 or 2 beta readers before submitting to agents and/or publishers. Many contracted authors use…

This is kind of like that old show “The Price is Right.” Do you want the new living room set, or the unknown behind door number two??? It’s a tough decision, not knowing exactly what your choices are. First, ask yourself: In my heart of hearts, do I WANT a large publisher, or will I…