Business Side of Writing

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Critiquing Via Zoom Refresher

Posted on June 18, 2026June 18, 2026 by Susan Uhlig

Our long-established critique group has been critiquing via Zoom since the beginning of the pandemic, and created some guidelines along the way. (We meet weekly on Fridays except for holidays or occasional days when too many people need to miss. Since there are eight of us, only three can share each week, so we have a schedule of who is presenting and who is moderating on Google Drive.) Occasionally, we need reminders of our process* and I thought a summary might be helpful for other critique groups as well.

“Supporting each other in creating art takes so much trust.” – Kendra Levin, editor
(Guidelines help us trust each other.)

Before Friday:

Manuscripts are due on Wednesday at the latest. (We email them out.)
Respond to the manuscript sender with a simple “got it” type message when you receive it. Try not to reply all.
Look at the schedule if you can’t remember who is presenting. If you don’t find a manuscript, contact the person whose manuscript is missing.
If one of us can’t send the manuscript, offer up the spot early in the week in our message thread. (Our critique partners are really good at this!)

Zoom morning:

While someone is critiquing, stay silent, especially the one being critiqued. No explanations, no excusing, no arguing.
After everyone has critiqued a piece, the critiquee may ask questions or make comments.
Additional comments or questions are welcome from everyone—other comments often inspire new thoughts. Remember to raise your hand and wait for the moderator to call on you.
Side stories of what this reminded you of should be shared after all critique work is done.

Moderator duties include:

How the meeting is run—I love how some in our group are good at asking how everyone is doing first.
Deciding which manuscript goes first, and the order of critiquers.
Keep us on task.
Remind us that it is not our time to talk when appropriate. One member said in our recent discussion, “I think the hardest part of being the ‘boss’ for me is to cut people off if they are jumping in and not waiting to talk by raising their hand.”
Before concluding meeting, discuss schedule for following week.

Critiquer duties:

Honor others’ turns to talk.
Share specific positives about a piece.
Only make a suggestion once—don’t dwell on the topic—it is not our duty to convince the writer.
Try to only share what you have that hasn’t been said—no need to offer the caveat that you’re doing this. (We know.)
Consider making reaction comments on your copy of the manuscript during critique, such as I agree/disagree with so and so about this/that specific issues.
Let the writer see the minor grammar and mechanical corrections on their copy—no need to share verbally. (We use track changes and Word’s commenting option on manuscripts and send them back once our Zoom meeting is over.)

None of us are perfect, so we still make mistakes, and fortunately are forgiving of each other. But it definitely helps when we remind ourselves of the process.

I couldn’t do without my critique partners. They make my work so much better with their suggestions. Kai Strand said, “I love how a story, or a character expands with the help of critique partners.” That is so true!

*I first wrote about this method here.

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Business Side of Writing, The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing

Making Your School Visit Interactive

Posted on May 20, 2026May 19, 2026 by Susan Uhlig

Want to connect with students? Grab their attention and don’t let go. Here are some possible ways to keep kids involved.

Kids love answering questions and participating.

What questions can you ask related to your book? (With a reminder to the students to raise their hands, touch their noses, their left elbows, etc.)
Examples:
“Raise your hand if you’ve ever…
…had a dog,
…been sad, or
…gone on vacation.”

“Who would like to hear…
…a secret,
…a weird fact,
…a funny story?”

For picture books, is there a hidden activity going on in the art or something that shows up on every page? Pause after reading each spread and ask, “Raise your hand if you spotted the fox?”

Read a section and ask students what they think will happen next. (Be prepared to call on students—this works best with a small group.)

Consider a song or actions, especially for a picture book.

If you sing, take a familiar tune from the public domain and write lyrics to fit your topic or text. If there’s a repeated phrase, you can have the kids practice it first. Then when reading, cue them to sing or shout out the line. (Resource for pubic domain songs.)

Add actions. Are there any places where claps, slaps on the legs, arms in, arms out, etc. would fit your read aloud picture book? “Stand up when you hear the word xxx. Sit down when I say the word yyy.”

Or do the characters in your novel do a clapping game? You could teach it to the students—if they don’t already know it. (Resources: 15 Easy Hand Clapping Games to Teach Your Kids, 11 Classic Hand-Clapping Games to Teach Your Kids.) You demonstrate with volunteers, then have the kids pair up and repeat.

Consider brainstorming and writing sessions.

In a classroom setting, I love talking about specific areas of writing and let the students shout out answers to my questions. Then I demonstrate how those choices could be used—sometimes the sillier, the better. If kids are seated at desks, I use an activity I sent to the teacher/librarian for printing. Once the students have finished the prompts, I call on them to share. I point out positives and areas for improvement. I try to make it fun!

Don’t forget props and visual aids!

If you have items that can be safely passed around, or are big enough for everyone in the room to see, that can garner interest. Unusual props will be more fascinating. Author Lynn Kelley says, “I don’t have the Gift of Gab, so that makes doing a school visit challenging. I’ve learned to compensate by using visual aids. You can, too. Whether it’s a funny hat, a honking horn, or a small poster-size photo of your kids, grandkids or pets, use something with child appeal to get the kids’ attention.” She also makes shadow boxes for each book. The small items in the boxes are visible, but won’t get lost. Some authors make a giant copy of their picture book that they use to “read” from.

I’ve included storytelling with a string “trick” and one kindergartener said, “magic!” when I pulled the string out of my pocket. I hadn’t even done the trick part yet.

Of course, PowerPoint presentations with simple slides (quality pictures, few words), book trailers, or other videos, can help as well. (Use a remote to change slides so you can move around.) Author Cynthia Lord says, “Be sure that you are the star of your presentation, not your slides. Have at least a few things to show the kids or stories to tell them that they cannot find on your website or read in interviews with you.” One caution: you must be prepared to carry on even if technology fails.

Acting.

Can you act out something from your book? It could be a skill your character has, or how they creep up the stairs to the spooky attic. Author Erin Dealey offers a mini-play with preselected students and sometimes teachers that is performed as part of an assembly. I’ve seen Lisa Yee have people act out the actions and read the dialogue of each character from a page in one of her books.

Be funny.

Especially if your book(s) have humor. But everyone likes to laugh. It may be a simple as the element of surprise, a story about something you did that was silly, something you thought was true when you were a child but is ridiculous, puns, jokes, funny images or videos, odd words, facial expressions, or a misbehaving prop.

In all of these suggestions, use what works for you and your material.

RESOURCES

5 Ways to Make School Visits Interactive by P.J. Hoover – she has some great thoughts

Engaging Students During an Author Visit: Part 1 Interaction by Annette Whipple

Business Side of Writing, Market Prep, Promotion, The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing

YA Fantasy Summaries

Posted on October 23, 2024October 23, 2024 by Susan Uhlig

While judging a YA Fantasy contest (requirements were a 2-3 sentence summary and the first 1000 words), I discovered many writers had no idea what to include in their summaries. Some had no problem, no main character, and/or no hint that the story was a fantasy. I don’t necessarily think a 2-3 sentence summary has to include all of that, but I’d expect two out of three.

Possibly the contest should have labeled these as “book blurbs” or “elevator pitches.” The purpose is multifold:

to hook the reader and make them want to read on
identify the type of book
it may introduce the character
it may establish setting
it may establish tone

Think of it as putting a spotlight on your story. You’re not showing the whole stage or breadth of the story, but just important bits where you want the viewer or reader to focus.

The best way to learn how to write these in my opinion is to look at examples. Since the contest submissions included fae/fairies, witches, magic, boarding schools, other cultures, and romance, I went searching for recent YA fantasy books that had these elements. The first few lines of the summaries or book blurbs are posted below. (These are from goodreads.)

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross (2023)

Summary beginning

“After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.”

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber (2021)

Summary beginning

“For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings… until she learns that the love of her life will marry another. Desperate to stop the wedding and to heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic but wicked Prince of Hearts.”

Lightlark by Alex Aster (2022)

Summary beginning

“Every 100 years, the island of Lightlark appears to host the Centennial, a deadly game that only the rulers of six realms are invited to play. The invitation is a summons—a call to embrace victory and ruin, baubles and blood. The Centennial offers the six rulers one final chance to break the curses that have plagued their realms for centuries. Each ruler has something to hide. Each realm’s curse is uniquely wicked. To destroy the curses, one ruler must die.”

Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli (2024)

Summary beginning

“On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.”

Stealing Time by Tilia Jacobs, Norman Birnbach (2024)

Summary beginning

“When there’s no time left, you have to steal it!
New York, 2020. Tori’s world is falling apart. Between the pandemic and her parents’ divorce, what else could go wrong? Plenty! Like discovering that a jewelry heist forty years ago sent her grandfather to jail and destroyed her family.”

Zodiac Rising by Katie Zhao (2024)

Summary beginning

“At a secret Manhattan boarding school, the Descendants of the Chinese zodiac have hidden away since the source of their magic—the twelve zodiac statues—was vandalized and lost to time. Thus, a curse befell the Descendants, and they’ve lived as creatures of darkness . . . until now.”

Emerald of the Sea by Kimberly Pearl (2023)

Summary beginning

“Seventeen-year-old Emma doesn’t know who she is or where she came from. The not-exactly-legal merchant ship she was raised on is the only home she’s ever known, and she’s had enough of the captain’s lies. Her plans to break free from her three-masted prison are thrown off course by a deadly mutiny, and she finds herself on the run with a target on her back.”

So far, I’ve only read one of these books. But they all sound fascinating!

Here are some statistics. Of the seven books…

seven hook me
five definitely point toward the fantasy genre
five identify the main character
five introduce a problem or an action
five hint at setting
all have tone—look at these words and phrases (gods warring, wounded heart, curses, witches hunted, stealing time, creatures of darkness, deadly mutiny)
only two identify the main character’s age

Harry Bingham says, “Make it memorable.” And, “An elevator pitch for a novel is a very short summary of what makes the book:

Unique
Striking
Fresh, and
Compelling”

Read more of this article here on Jericho Writers.

Nathan Branford says, “The important thing to remember is that a good pitch is a specific description of what actually happens in your novel.” In his article he’s actually talking about one line pitches or loglines, but there’s still helpful advice. Look at this: “There are four basic elements in a good one sentence pitch:

The opening conflict (or the Inciting Incident)
The obstacle
The quest
The stakes”

(If some of these terms are new to you, there are links in the article.)

Lynne Collier is writing about a logline or elevator pitch, but again helpful info:

“5 key components of writing a fantasy/fiction logline

Main Character – the hero/protagonist
Their Situation – their daily life
Their Objective – what they want that they don’t have
Their Opponent – the person or thing that gets in their way
Disaster – you’ll need an epic battle or devastating event”

To sum up, first we need to know:

who your main character is, and/or what kind of world we’re in
what the problem is (quest or objective, disaster or stakes).

Consider adding a sense of setting or tone.
Make your description compelling to hook a reader.

To make it stronger, run it by other writers who can tell you whether they are hooked or not.

image of the word website in green with each letter in a box

Business Side of Writing, Promotion, The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing

Websites Shouldn’t Be Static

Posted on July 15, 2024January 17, 2026 by Susan Uhlig

If you created your author or illustrator website, and have done nothing to it since, you may have a number of problems.

GENERAL MAINTENANCE

Outdated software, plugins, and widgets. Some of these make your site insecure. Others are tools that make features on your site work. If these updates aren’t done at all, your site may be working incorrectly, broken, or at risk.
Broken links. If you post any links to other sites, publishers, etc., do they still work? Not only are broken links annoying to visitors to your site, but they also negatively impact your website’s ranking with major search engines, such as Google.
Unapproved comments. If you have blog posts set for people to comment, they often need approval. And it’s nice to reply to comments if you don’t have too many.
No recent backups. Is your site being backed up regularly? If not, you could lose what you have.

CONTENT UPDATES

Stale content. No changes to your content means there’s nothing to keep visitors coming back. A dated website isn’t as appealing to new visitors. In addition, new and updated content helps search engines find your site.

WHAT TO DO

Updating plugins, etc.

Major software updates are probably done by your host, but some need approval. Your website dashboard probably alerts you of updates needed. But if you aren’t visiting the behind-the-scenes portions on your website, how will they get done?
Add a plugin for automatic updating of plugins. This will manage a lot of updates for you. This is especially important for security updates. But it won’t catch all updates needed.
Visit your dashboard at least once a month and check for updates.

Fixing broken links

I use a broken link checker plugin, but it doesn’t catch them all. When checking I find some aren’t actually broken and I make the system recheck. Others may go to websites no longer in existence or pages that have moved. I do the research to see which it is. Sometimes I have to remove a dead link as the site or article no longer exists.
I also use a free online checker: https://www.brokenlinkcheck.com/. I have so many years of blog posts, I don’t try to fix all of the broken links at once when I use it. I decide on a number to fix, fix those, and come back another time.
Note: when creating links on your site or in a blog posts, they should always be set to “open in new page.” This means your website will still be open for your visitor to return to.

Approving comments – ignore if you have no blog posts or don’t accept comments

If a visitor has not commented before, you’ll usually need to approve them. I have my widget set to email me when I get a new comment. Someone who gets a lot of comments on each post would probably turn this option off.

Backing up your site

I strongly recommend an automatic backup system. But if you make a lot of changes to your website, it’s good to do an immediate backup as well.

Updating content

Keep your content fresh by update existing pages, and adding new blog posts, articles, or links. For example, I have some resources on my page and recently found several articles and a word count survey to add. Not only did I add them, but I realized the appearance of the page would look better with some separators. Doing that made me aware that some listings under certain headings were alphabetized, while others were not. I reordered so they would be consistent.
Consider adding a new page. Have you always wanted a page about what you’re reading or favorite websites? Now might be the time to add it.
Think about your Books or Published Works page. Is your most recent work listed? Do you have any new awards or reviews you could add as quotes?
If you have an Author Visit or School Visit page, is it up to date? Are rates current? If you have info from past visits, do you have images or quotes you can share? Do you have new topics you would like to talk about?
What about your About You page? Is it current? Have you added a new hobby? Looking at mine I found I needed to update my social media information. When rereading, I also realized I hadn’t mention even the state where I live. I decided to add that and a picture of the view from our house.
If you have a lot of blog posts, consider a page with a topical or alphabetical list. This would be separate from your blogs internal categories or posts by month. I also decided to do a “flashback to the archives” collection post on a specific topic. When I shared it on social media, I got some “thank you”s from others.
Rereading old content in general can prompt ideas for change. Remember, you don’t have to revamp the entire website at once. Change one page now. Next month schedule yourself to look at another page for revisions.

A HELPFUL RESOURCE

Homepage Checklist for Children’s Book Authors in 2026 by Charlotte Glaze

Business Side of Writing, Promotion

Building Your Own WordPress Website

Posted on March 23, 2024March 25, 2024 by Susan Uhlig

If you read this post, you’ll see that WordPress website builder is my first go to, plus it has information on choosing a host.

After you’ve written and prepared content for your website (see this post if you need content ideas and this one for preparation info), then follow the steps below:

Chose a WordPress.org theme

Finding a theme can be difficult. It’s not just a matter of layout or colors (much of that can be changed), but it’s also about what a theme provides: blogging, e-commerce, etc. I like what this article says: “Your goal should be to find a WordPress theme that has a design you like, is fast, and can be easily customized.” Read more of “Selecting the Perfect WordPress Theme – 9 Things to Consider” for more tips.
It can be overwhelming as there are so many choices. Narrow those choices by using the search. Try “author,” or “illustrator” or “writer” or “art” or even a specific color. Remember the images will be yours (although some themes provide banner images that you may keep).
Pick three to four themes that appeal to you, then examine each one closely.

For example, Context Blog is a theme aimed at blogging. There are two links on the page to check out, first a Preview. The Theme Homepage link takes you to a Demo. What do I like about this site? Clean, easy to use, good for multiple authors blogging together. I like that blog posts have a light-colored background. The font is easy to read. There are a variety of ways your home page can be set up.

Kidsi P ro offers a rainbow of colors. Besides checking out the above issues, make sure you read the text and the tags—these will tell you a lot. In the tags on this one, it shows blog, so that means it’s easy to set up a blog page. The Theme Homepage didn’t work. Uh oh! I’d steer away from this one then.

Green Wealth is one I discovered by clicking on Latest Themes. Green is my favorite color so it appeals to me. I like that the image is formatted as a circle and I like the soft green backgrounds. When I click on the Demo I see that it has animation. I like the floating dots, but I don’t like the way the picture moves. Animation can slow down a website too, so something else to keep in mind.

If necessary, choose more until you can narrow it down to one or two.

Get opinions on your choices from others. For example, one writer I know picked a black background. When she showed it to her daughter-in-law, she felt it was too dark. We changed the background to a medium dark gray blue. But that wasn’t something built into the theme. I had to use CSS to customize it. (And unless you have programmer knowledge or help, I can’t recommend this.)

Verify it has what you need as far as what you can build and how much flexibility it has.

Check for tags such as custom colors, custom background, custom menu, sidebar, columns.

I also like looking at the ratings and active installations of a theme. If no one is using it, that would make me nervous.

Once you have your host, and have set up a domain name, add your theme.

Go to your WordPress dashboard. There is usually access directly from your host. Also, you can access it by your url. Example: myauthorwebsite.com/wp-admin. Of course, a password is required.
On the left column, you’ll see Appearance with a subcategory of Themes. This is where you add new themes.
Easiest is click Add New Theme and use the search box by entering the name of the theme.
Once you’ve added a theme, you must click Activate.

Customize your theme. This is where you make it uniquely yours. (Note: not all themes will have each of these options. Some will have more; others less.)

Under Appearance is a subcategory of Customize. Here you can change:

Site Identity. For example, mine is set to Site Title: Susan Uhlig and Tagline: Children’s Author.
Colors. Here’s where you change the Background color and Header Text color.
Header Image. What image do you want to show on every page? These are usually a short and wide picture. Recommended is a 1000 × 250pixel image. Other size images can be cropped to fit.
Background Image. Instead of a solid color background, you can have a background image. Be wary of getting too busy.
You’ll probably ignore the Menu tab.
Widgets. This is where you can add sidebars and footers. Some themes come with them already.
Home page. It can be static or show most recent blog posts. The latter is my preference as there is always changing content on the home page.

All that and we still have not created a page or a blog post.  But the groundwork has been laid. And can be changed. For example, I had a red-toned background for a while, then switched to green.

I’ll do a post on adding pages and blog posts next.