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Author Interviews Coming Soon!

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Introducing a new feature for the Night Beats blog – author interviews! There are tons of fantastic authors in the Night Beats community, and we thought it would be fun to hear directly from them.

We’re looking for authors who have a link to buy their book, or at least have a pre-order link, so that our community can get their hands on the book you promo! If you want to engage with the Night Beats community but don’t have a book for sale, look at some of the other Night Beats activities here. Maybe you want to share a taste of your writing in our newsletter as a beta read, for example?

If you or someone you know would be interested in being interviewed, send us an email at nightbeatseu (at) gmail (dot) com. We’ll be in touch about turning their words into a blog post.

The process: we’ve got a general question for all authors, and then 10 numbered questions. If we decide to run an interview, the author will answer the general question, and then 2-5 of the numbered questions (of their choice). The whole interview should be less than 500 words. We’ll lightly edit it, and send it back for final approval. Once it’s approved by you and us, it will be scheduled for a free slot on the Night Beats blog.

We reserve the right to reject or remove any blog post if we feel it’s not consistent with the values of the Night Beats community. Our values are basically “no hate” and “don’t be a jerk”, but we’ll deal with situations on a case-by-case basis.

Please ensure that your submission is:

  • No more than 500 words
  • Starts with a description of the book
  • Answers some but not all of the questions
  • Ends with a link to the order/pre-order for the book and a link to the author’s socials if they have any

The list of questions are below.

Start by telling us a little about your book. And tell us where the Night Beats community can find you and find your book!

1) What inspired you to write this book?
2) What was your favourite thing to write in the book?
3) We have a lot of writers in our community. What’s your writing process?
4) What advice would you give to someone who’s writing or querying?
5) Can you give our community a writing prompt to inspire their next story?
6) Which character do you relate to the most and why?
7) How did you choose the title?
8) If you could pick any author to read your book, who would you want to read it? Why them?
9) Did anything change from when you started planning your first draft to the published version? What?
10) What do you most want your readers to take away from reading your book?

Mushroom Stew and Rosemary Taters to Pair with The Hobbit

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Fiction To Sink Your Teeth Into, a feature from author and professional chef Rohan O’Duill!

This month I opened up suggestions for recipe pairings to the Twitterverse, and by far the biggest response was for LOTR with mushrooms and taters.

While Tolkien listed off a lot of foods from the Shire, he tended not to get into recipes. I have taken a little liberty with the tomatoes as they were not mentioned, but with land borders to warmer places, I am sure they could have got their hands on them.

Serves 2/3

A photo of the mushroom and rosemary stew
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Book Report Corner

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by Zilla N.

Vita Nostra is by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, translated from the original Russian by Julia Meitov Hersey.

You need to read it.

Immediately.

Stop reading this newsletter, go to your library website, and reserve a copy. Download an app and buy it on your phone. Don’t hesitate. I’m not asking the impossible.

This book is stunning. It defies explanation in its celestial beauty, its cosmic horror, its deep, dark reality. Vita Nostra is the object, and other books are shadows on the cave wall.

I’m not doing a very good job explaining it. How can you explain a new state of being, an alteration of the mind which leaves you forever changed, a word reverberating?

Let me try again. It’s a book about a magical boarding school, but not like that. It’s a book about the corruption of academia, twisted by power without empathy. It’s a book about the joy and isolation of knowledge. It’s a book about the creation of words. It’s a book that knows that it is a book, and that revels in this knowledge, and you will revel too. It’s a book that will haunt your dreams, and you’ll be grateful, because that means another moment exploring its world.

Read Vita Nostra. You don’t have time to wait.

Cover Design Workshop

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Cascade cover

Your book cover is your most powerful marketing tool for your writing.

Discover how to judge a book by its cover! How do great covers get made? Learn which questions to ask, which design pitfalls to avoid, and how your cover can bring your story to life.

This free workshop is aimed at both self-publishing authors and those working with a publisher. Attendees will have the option to submit a cover concept for their manuscript along with a 250-word description of their writing for critique. Facilitated by author and book designer, Rachel Rosen. Register to attend on Aug 12, 7 PM EST.

#FlipPit

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This Thursday May 26th, there will be a pitching event like no other. 

The first of its kind.

It’s time to turn the tables…

#FlipPit is a twitter event where literary agents and presses pitch to authors. 

Graphic annoucing the date for #flippit is May 26

Rules:

  • Agents and presses can make their pitches between 8am and 8pm EST
  • Agents and presses can post up to 3 pitches during this time.
  • Agents and presses write their pitch as a tweet thread with three tweets:
    • First tweet is for your manuscript wish list
    • Second tweet is to tell everyone a bit about yourself
    • Third tweet is to tell authors how they can query you. 
  • We suggest that agents and presses pin their tweet thread so it’s easy for authors to figure out how to get in touch.
  • Agents and presses must be open to queries to participate.
  • Likes are for authors only, but RT and QT are encouraged to support agents and presses in the community. Acquiring is hard and lonely, and agents and presses need love too!
  • We have confirmed that a range of authors will be participating covering a wide variety of genres. These include speculative fiction, science fiction, and epistololoary blingblingroman. Maybe more!

It’s time for agents and presses to find their perfect literary match. The authors are ready to hit like.

Graphic annoucing the rules for #flippit. These are the same as written in text.

AGE CATEGORIES (Let everyone know what age group you work with)

#PB = Picture Book

#C = Children’s

#CB = Chapter Book

#MG = Middle Grade

#YA = Young Adult

#NA = New Adult

#A = Adult

GENRES (Let everyone know what genres you represent)

#AC = Action/Adventure

#CF = Christian Fiction

#CON = Contemporary

#CLIFI = ⌛ Climate fiction

#E = 🍆 Erotica

#F = 🧙‍♀️ Fantasy

#FIC = General Fiction

#FLF = Flash Fiction

#EBR = 💌 Epistololoary Blingblingroman

#GF = Gothic Fiction

#GN = Graphic Novel

#H = 🤡 Horror

#HA = 🤪 Humour

#HF = Historical Fiction

#HR = Historical Romance

#LF = Literary Fiction

#M = 🧐 Mystery

#MAG = Magazine

#MEM = Memoir

#NVA = Novella

#NF = 😴 Non-fiction

#P = Paranormal

#PM = Poetry Collection

#POEM = Poem

#PR = 🧛 Paranormal Romance

#R = 😘 Romance

#RS = Romantic Suspense

#SF = 👾 SciFi

#SHR = Short Story

#SHRT = Short Story Collection

#SPF = 👽 Speculative Fiction

#T = 💣 Thriller

#UF = Urban Fantasy

#UP = Upmarket

#W = Western

#WF = Woman’s Fiction

Additional hashtags (optional):

#BVM = Black Voices Matter

#DIS = Disability subject matter

#FP = Fat Positive

#IMM = Immigrant

#IRMC = Interracial/Multicultural subject matter

#LGBT = LGBTQIA+ subject matter

#MH = Mental Health subject matter

#ND = Neurodiverse subject matter

#OWN = Own Voices

#POC = Author is a Person of Color

#TV = Trans Voices

Graphic annoucing the rules for #flippit. These are the same as written in text.

Our Core Message
The writing community and the publishing industry often seem to be at odds with one another. #FlipPit is a reminder that we are all part of the same team and working towards the same goal. Writing can be a wonderful and enjoyable experience. Let’s focus on all the positive things that brought us together.

But Wait—There’s More!
Announcing the Twitterary Literary Awards

twitterary literary awards logo

To go along with #flippit on the 26th of May, we will hold the first ever Twitterary Literary Awards.
The agent and press who has the most interaction with the #writingcommunity during flippit will be bestowed with this coveted award.

It all started as a joke …

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It all started as a joke. Zilla posted a reverse Manuscript Wishlist tweet, inviting agents to query her instead of the reverse.

The Night Beats community piled in on the joke, and pretty soon we’d invented our own (fictional) Twitter Pitch Party, #FlipPit. We wrote some copy, Madame made a graphic, and Rohan tweeted out the event.

The only problem was…everyone loved the idea. Writers thought it was a great way to find new agents and presses to query. An agent said they’d love an event to get their manuscript wishlist seen by authors. We had somehow accidentally stumbled on a winner.

Back to the drawing board (writing board?) and we turned the rules for #FlipPit into something a bit less absurd. Though hopefully still with a taste of the original fun!

See our next post for the real rules for #FlipPit. We hope that the writing community enjoys this version of #FlipPit as much as we loved making it!