Hi! I'm Karyn.
I am a children's book and YA literary agent at BookStop Literary Agency and an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach. Before turning to agenting and coaching, I was a serial publishing intern, a bookseller and book buyer at an indie bookstore, and an agency assistant. I hold an MFA in Creative Writing, and write middle grade and young adult fiction. I started Story & Prose Book Coaching and Editorial Services in 2021 with the goal of helping more writers. By offering 10+ years of industry knowledge, tough love and honesty, and true passion, I help aspiring bestselling fiction writers hone their craft and write better books so they’re more likely to get published. Check out my weekly newsletter for writing motivation, craft tips, and publishing insight.
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Mastering micro-tension: The secret of unputdownable fiction
Hi Reader, Have you ever been watching a movie or reading a book and felt utterly glued to it, breathless because you absolutely cannot look away? Gah! It’s one of the best feelings when we are reading our writing. Usually, this feeling of being-on-the-edge-of-your-seat isn’t about action-packed physical sequences, like car chases or murderous rampages, or high-stakes danger (though those definitely have their place in fiction!). Equally, or more often, it’s all about micro-tension....
READ POST☀️Come write with me this summer
Hi Reader, It's feeling a lot like summer! And summer is my favorite season. In spite of the heat, I adore being outside by water (pool, lake, beach…you name it, I love it), and I constantly feel the siren’s call to come play. And yet...if I’m being honest, part of me is also feeling trepidatious about this summer. Starting Friday afternoon, my kids will be home, and underfoot. Which means I'll be living in the struggles of balancing writing and to-do list items with the constant...
READ POSTBreak through your writer's block ⤵️
Hi Reader, For about six weeks after I started querying, I was in a creative rut. I knew I needed to jump into a new project to keep me whole and feeling sane after sending my first project out into the world, but I was having a hard time finding a project that sunk its claws into me. I wanted to feel the same pull to a story that I felt when writing the book I queried, but nothing was clicking. Can you relate? I dabbled with revising a YA romance I have been struggling with since the dawn of...
READ POSTSneak peek at tomorrow's free workshop
Hi Reader, I hope you’ve been seeing and enjoying some lovely spring weather. Hopefully it’s making you feel inspired to write, to create, to dream up that next big, brilliant project. Or at least I hope you’ve been muddling through allergy season without too much discomfort. For the last few weeks I’ve been talking (and thinking!) a lot about your book’s opening. And for good reason. I know now, more than ever as I’ve been in the query trenches for eight weeks, how vital these opening pages...
READ POSTWriting Deeper Characters Starts with This One Question
Hi Reader, Over the weekend I went on a short girls’ trip getaway to Bodega Bay, home of the Alfred Hitchcock cinema classic, The Birds. We laughed, we ate, we chatted, and we hiked down to the shore. As I was sitting on the sand, watching the waves crash against the rocks, a thought came to me. A reaffirmation, if you will. I started thinking about perspective and character, and how our group of six women were each bringing with us different thoughts and feelings and histories to that...
READ POSTWhy you MUST keep writing
Hi Reader, At the in-person writing conference I attended a couple weeks ago, I had an aha moment. I signed up to pitch my novel to two of the agents present. They were both lovely people, and interested in seeing my book, which was great, but there was one thing that sort of surprised me about these 10-minute meetings. Both agents asked me what else I write. Or what else I’m working on or have worked on. It didn’t surprise me because it’s an unusual question, but because it reminded me the...
READ POSTWhy these agents stopped reading
Hi Reader, Last Friday, I went to a writer’s conference. Outside of participating as an agent and accepting pitches or giving talks, I haven’t had much experience attending as a writer, believe it or not. Overall, it was a good event, centered around the concept of How to Get Published. The most valuable part of the conference was the agents panel, which was an “America’s Got Talent” type event. The agents were given a stack of anonymous first pages with nothing but the genre listed. The...
READ POSTDoes your book's first page hook readers?
Hi Reader, I want you to do a favor for me. Open up the first page of the book you’re writing. Give it a read-through. Then go to one of your favorite books, or one of the most propulsive books you’ve read in awhile. Open it up and take a look at the first page—and I don’t mean the map or the dedication or epigraph, I mean the place where the story first starts. Yes, it can be a prologue, for prologues are beginnings too. Ask yourself what about it makes it interesting? A few weeks ago I...
READ POSTCrafting your killer first line and hooking readers
Hi Reader, Yesterday afternoon an ARC (advance reader copy) dropped into my mailbox. This one is the new T. Kingfisher book, Hemlock & Silver, which appears to be fantasy retelling of Snow White. When I pulled it out of its envelope, I did what I always do when I receive a new book: I read the back jacket copy, flipped it over in my hands a few times, studied the cover, then cracked it open to read the first few lines. Here’s the opening line I found waiting for me: I had just taken poison...
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