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INTERVIEW: Worldbuilding and AMI Audio

INTERVIEW: Worldbuilding and AMI Audio

The Culture of Story: Author J.M. Frey on Worldbuilding That Lasts

Impressive worlds like Westeros or the USS Enterprise didn’t just spring from a map—they were shaped by values, power structures, and human history. Author and voice actor J.M. Frey explains why great worldbuilding goes far beyond geography. Frey dives into how she builds worlds readers instinctually believe, and all it takes sometimes is a subtle shift in reality. Plus, she previews her new audiobook Time and Tide, coming out May 2025.

WATCH THE INTERVIEW HERE.

JM FreyINTERVIEW: Worldbuilding and AMI Audio
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INTERVIEW: Write in the Head’s Jon Spurling and I Talk Screenwriting and Fanfiction

INTERVIEW: Write in the Head’s Jon Spurling and I Talk Screenwriting and Fanfiction

I had a marvelous time flexing my acafan muscles and chatting with screenwriting teacher Jon Paul Spurling about how reading and writing fanfiction can give his students a leg up in the industry, while also making them better creators.

 

JM FreyINTERVIEW: Write in the Head’s Jon Spurling and I Talk Screenwriting and Fanfiction
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WORDS FOR WRITERS: Finalizing Your Novel for Query

WORDS FOR WRITERS: Finalizing Your Novel for Query

Originally Published on Storybilder June 24, 2022

If you’re writing and editing your novel and plan to submit it to an agent or a publisher, there are a few more small things you can do to make sure your manuscript is polished and as professional as possible. Before you begin, note that most publishers only accept submissions through an agent, though there are exceptions, so if you’re sending your manuscript directly to a publisher, make sure they accepts non-agented manuscripts before you start.

Whether you’re submitting to an agent or to a publisher, always read their submission guidelines first. If they request specific typeset, formats or list any other requirements, always follow their guidelines first. For everything else, the following formatting practices are common practice:

Consistency

Go through your manuscript and ensure that every small detail, especially the ones pertaining to your characters, are consistent throughout the manuscript.

For example, check that your characters names are always spelled the same way, that their eye colour hasn’t shifted, and that they’re not picking up an object four times in one scene but never putting it down.

Margins and Pages

Generally, the pre-set margins in whatever document editing program you’re working with are just fine, but if you want to play it by the book, industry standard sets them at 1” on all four sides.

Start a new page with each new chapter, and use the “page break/new page” option in your editor to do so. Don’t keep hitting your enter or space keys to push your chapter header to a new page because you don’t know what size of screen someone will be reading on, and extra spacing could make the formatting wacky.

Header

In the header of your manuscript, you should include your surname, the title of the novel, and a page number. Exclude a Header from your Title Page. (I generally write it as: FREY | TITLE OF NOVEL | ##). Most writing software programs provide you with pre-loaded header templates to choose from.

Font

Any easy-on-the-eyes font is usually acceptable. Courier New is traditional but not necessary, unless you prefer it. Times New Roman, Arial and Calibri are all frequently used, and they’re easy to read. Make sure the font is black, and the kerning (the space between the letters) is set to standard. Font sizes should be no smaller than 11pt and no bigger than 13pt.

The idea here is to make reading your manuscript the least fatiguing possible. Don’t try to be tricky or fancy. Basically, whatever your writing software defaults to is usually acceptable.

Line spacing

Some agents or acquisitions editors prefer double spacing (2.0) and some prefer one-and-a-half (1.5). It’s rare to see a request for single spacing (1.0). If the submission guidelines don’t specify, choose 2.0 or 1.5.

Excess Spacing

Don’t add extra spaces between paragraphs. You’ll see extra line spaces in blog posts or emails, but agents and publishers don’t need them. And, though some of us older folks may cringe to hear it, it’s now industry standard to add just one space after a full stop or period. No need for two. Double spacing used to be necessary to make typewritten text easier to read. Now it’s considered messy and old-fashioned.

Paragraphs

Paragraphs should each start with a first line indent of 0.5. Use tabs; do not use the space bar. You can set your tab indents in the paragraph settings on most document editors.

Smart quotes

Do a global find-and-replace to shift smart quotes to straight quotes. Smart quotes angle in toward the text. Straight quotes, as the name suggests, are simple, have no extra decoration, and don’t tilt. This isn’t necessary, but it makes the manuscript clean and easy to read, and avoids the issues of smart quotes accidentally being flipped in the wrong direction.

Front matter

There’s no need to include copyright information, dedications, or any other notes or maps or epithets in the submission draft of a manuscript. Just start with a title page and jump straight into the first chapter.

Title Page

The top left corner of your title page holds your: name, postal address, email address, phone number (and if you have one, your agent’s name, and their email address and phone number). In the top right corner, provide your approximate word count. Round to the closest 100 to keep the word count easy to read.

In the middle of the title page (centered and halfway down the page), place the full title of the novel. Your name goes underneath the title. No need to get fancy with fonts or formatting for the title, though making it stand out with bolding, or full caps, is appreciated. If you publish under a pseudonym or alias, use that name under the title instead of your real name, but be sure to use your real name in the top left corner with your contact information.

US Spelling

American Spelling is industry standard in North America. Sorry, Canada. If you’re sending your story to agent/acquisitions editors in this territory, change your spellings. Bah.

Nothing Extra

Don’t include photos, illustrations, sample covers, or any sort of “extra” bonus content on first submission, unless the guidelines explicitly request it. For now, your prose itself should be in the spotlight. Don’t do or add anything to detract from your awesome words.

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Read more WORDS FOR WRITERS articles or ask me a question about the craft or business of writing.

 

 

JM FreyWORDS FOR WRITERS: Finalizing Your Novel for Query
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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: In Conversation with Kacey Sophia

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: In Conversation with Kacey Sophia

Kacey Sophia ((@authorkaceysophia) and I talk reviews, the inspiration behind “Time and Tide” and “Nine-Tenths”, trying to find an agent in the middle of the post-pandemic chaos that is publishing, figuring out your own marketing, and the benefits of publishing to Wattpad.

CAPTIONS ARE AUTO-GENERATED. MY PROGRAM CRASHED EVERY TIME I TRIED TO FIX A TYPO, SO I GAVE UP. SORRY FOR ANY ERRORS YOU FIND.

I didn’t realize how … CLOSE cropped the image would be. I swear I was perfectly framed in my own window.

Can you see the moments when I …
-Realize you can see my lamp reflected in my glasses?
-When I pour myself more coffee?
-When I notice that my still-drying hair is curling wonkily?

JM FreyAUTHOR INTERVIEW: In Conversation with Kacey Sophia
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WORDS FOR WRITERS: Should You Publish on a Reading App?

WORDS FOR WRITERS: Should You Publish on a Reading App?

Have a finished graphic novel, comic, or manuscript, and wondering if posting it to Wattpad, Radish, Webtoon, or one of the other of the dozens of Reading Apps available out there? That’s great! Hey, I’m on some of them and I find the apps, and the writers communities on them, quite nice. I would never steer any writer away from the apps, but I would encourage any new users to approach them thoughtfully and deliberately.

If you have a project that you want to post to an app, my first instinct would be to ask:

a) what the project is, and
b) what your goal with it is.

Depending on your answer to both of those things, Wattpad (or any of the other serializing platforms like it) may or may not be the right choice for your project.

What is Your Project?

Original Work – make sure that wherever you choose to share the book, there’s a clear ToS that indicates that the copyright of the novel stays with the creators at all times. Also take a look at the recommended chapter/part/episode length on the different platforms–you may find your work better suited to one or the other based on the platform’s word length requirements or best practices notices.

Genre and Medium – different sorts of projects thrive on different platforms. Radish is great for steamy, spicy, dark, sexy romances. Tapas seems to be the shrine of BoysLove/BL graphic novels/thumbscrollers. Wattpad is great for fandom work and YA. Webtoons seems to be a great place for KDrama style comics. Take a good hard look at your work’s genre and where other works like yours thrive, and figure out which platform already comes pre-loaded with your ideal readership–there are loads more than just the four I mentioned. And that’s just from my casual interactions with them — I’m sure there’s lots of other amazing niches that I’m not catching. (Note: some platforms have strict rules about how many other places you can publish the same work, and at what times, especially if you’re monetizing it.)

Fanfic – Like the above, consider the different sites and see which one has the legal protection, curation, and fandom/readership that would best suit your tale. You can’t monetize fanfic, so going where the readers are is the best way to get all those kudos and warm fuzzies.

What is Your Goal?

Just Sharing For the Fun of it / Practice – I’d say dive right in, then! Who knows what will happen! You might get some great feedback, make some awesome friends, garner some great moots and build a wonderful and supportive community, and learn loads. There’s nothing saying you can’t share one for free and then look into monetizing the next project.

To Make Money – people can be stingy and judgey with things that are behind paywalls, so make sure your work is the most polished it can be, and fits the best practices of the site you’ve chosen as well as you’re able. On some sites you’re allowed to control whether you’d like to monetize your work, and some others you have to apply to/ submit to be considered. Take a good look at each of the models on the sites you’re considering and decide which one works best for what you want.

To Get Traditionally Published – the path from selfpublished on a serialization site to traditionally published is a very thin, not particularly well-worn one. Besides the books specifically hand picked by the Wattpad Books and W by Wattpad publishing teams (usually through the Watty Awards), or their graphic novel/comic side Webtoon who publish the Webtoon Unscrolled books, I can think of vanishingly few novels that have been selfpubbed first and then picked up for traditional publication. If you want your project to be tradpubbed, maybe try querying agents and indie publishers first.

That said, having a project on a site like Wattpad will give you a lot of experience and metrics that you can brag about if you elect to query around a second or different project. I cite my serialization site readership numbers in my tradpub marketing documents all the time.

Have a Movie Made – Maybe take a screenwriting class instead? If the ultimate goal is to get a movie made of your story, why not just write a movie? It is a lot rarer than it seems from the outside for a novel to be adapted, and if that’s the only reason you’re doing it, consider that maybe you’re writing for the wrong medium. For more info on that, read my article about How Books Become Movies.

Become Internet Famous – You do you, I guess. I have no idea how it would work, and no advice for that because I am deffo not Internet Famous, and have no desire to be. Looks exhausting. But don’t let me stop you!

Already Available

No matter what serialization site you choose to publish on, be aware that this means the manuscript will forevermore be what is considered “Already Published” by the whole traditional publishing business machine. It’s out there for free already–so why should any agent or publisher pick it up when they won’t be able to get readers to pay for it?

There are very, very few agents and publishers willing to look at Already Available projects , and generally only those with massive pre-existing readerships and fanbases.

If you’re okay with that, then by all means, selfpub on these sites. But go into it knowing that the tradpub world considers posting to serialization apps to be basically equivalent to selfpubbing (and that’s neither good, nor bad. No value judgement here. It just means that they’d have to approach the marketing and business side of things in a certain kind of way. For all that they deal in stories and sell beautiful pieces of writer’s souls and imagination, never forget that tradpub is An Industry ™, and many, many of the decisions are made because Capitalism.)

Do your Research

Talk to other writers on the site if it seems scammy, or the offers are Too Good to Be True. Be careful where you share your original work and what you agree to. Read all the contracts and Terms of Service thoroughly.

Be Honest About Your Pace

Writers find success on these sorts of apps by being consistent with thier posting, and delivering quality stories. Each app will have Best Practices articles that will tell you more about how best to succeed with thier serialization algorithms, but they all basically boil down to: post on a schedule, don’t miss a day, and always deliver the goods.  If you (like me) know that you cannot write in order, hate sharing works in progress, and worry that your enthusiasm for the project will fizzle before you reach “the end”, then maybe considering not uploading and releasing parts of the book until it’s totally complete. However, if you thrive under a deadline and pressure, then maybe releasing as you write/create will be a boon! You do you, but make sure you are making the choice deliberately. Readers are less likely to subscribe to a creator who starts and then abandons projects.

Be Prepared to Hustle

That’s not to say that there’s no hustle involved with getting your work out there, particularly on social media, if you are a traditionally published author. There’s loads, especially post-publication as most marketing efforts and budgets are spent on the pre-release leadup.

But if you’re selfpubbing on a serialization site, you’re going to have to do all of your own marketing and talking yourself up. That includes joining and participating on forums, discords, chat groups, writer’s groups; creating and sharing graphics and book trailers on social media; BookTokking (if you like that sort of thing); volunteering at conventions or meetups; hosting workshops or free writer’s lessons, and answering Qs like these (* winky face *); submit it for on-site promotions and contests; etc.

You’ll have to review recent trends in book covers for your age market, genre, and platform and create a cover that will attract the right readers. You’ll need to craft pitch copy for your book using the same research and meticulous editing. And you’ll need to look into metrics to figure out what time of day/day of the week it’s best to drop new parts/episodes/chapters.

And of course, what took you months, perhaps years to write and perfect, it takes readers a mere matter of hours to consume. So you’ll always need to be thinking of the next project if you’re looking to build a sustained career and readership out of the posting.

Or you know, maybe you don’t have to do any of that. Maybe you can just share exactly how you want to, when you want to, why you want to, and enjoy that too! Again it all depends on what your goals are.

What you choose to put into it, you will probably mostly get back out of it. Sweat equity Return on Investment is always a crapshoot.

(But hey, I keep doing it because I enjoy it. I love sharing stories and reading people’s comments and enthusiasms for my tales.)

In the End, There are No Guarantees

So wherever you decide to post, however you decide to post, make sure that you keep your expectations realistic and your heart open. Everything you hope may come to pass, or your story could sink and get no views. Make sure you’re okay with either happening, and remember to celebrate all the little wins, and have fun!

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Read more WORDS FOR WRITERS articles.

Ask me a question about the craft or business of writing.

JM FreyWORDS FOR WRITERS: Should You Publish on a Reading App?
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