Writing Scary, Querying Smart: Insider Tips with Agent & Author Carey Blankenship-Kramer

Beth and Lisa sit down with Carey Blankenship-Kramer, literary agent and author of Ghost Scout's Honor, to talk all things publishing—from crafting irresistible query letters to the harsh realities of publishing economics. Carey shares heartfelt insights on the future of middle grade, the evolving horror genre, and what truly makes her heart sing when reading submissions.

Guest Bio:
Carey Blankenship-Kramer is a literary agent and author whose debut novel Ghost Scout's Honor (Scholastic, April 2025) is a queer, neurodiverse middle grade horror adventure set in ghost-filled Savannah. Since becoming an agent in 2023, Carey has championed authors across genres, prioritizing marginalized voices. When not agenting or writing, she enjoys tennis, video games, candy, and time with her "small zoo" of pets.

Key Discussion Points:

• About Ghost Scout's Honor: A spooky, empowering middle grade debut featuring determined protagonist Evie and her ghostly adventures. Carey combines horror, Southern charm, and inclusivity.
• Query Letter Insights: Carey emphasizes the importance of a pitch that hooks instantly. Personal stakes, clear comps, and authentic vibes matter most to her.
• The State of Middle Grade Publishing: Attention spans are down, publishers aren't effectively reaching younger audiences, and shorter, snappier stories are performing better.
• Industry Challenges: The impact of tariffs, the collapse of Albert Whitman, and the increasing corporatization of publishing are creating financial and emotional challenges for authors.
• Trends to Watch: Horror and dystopian genres are rising. Carey sees these as reflections of readers processing real-world fears in safe, fictional environments.
• What Makes Carey’s Heart Sing: Emotional depth layered within horror or fantasy. She seeks stories that offer both escapism and human connection.

Conclusion:
This candid conversation offers aspiring authors vital knowledge straight from someone who’s both querying and reading slush piles. Carey’s advice is invaluable for writers like Luna—aspiring novelists navigating today’s unpredictable publishing world. From query do’s and don’ts to genre shifts and emotional resilience, this episode is a must-listen.

Mentioned Links:

• Carey's Debut: Ghost Scout's Honor (Scholastic, April 2025)
• Writers With Wrinkles blog

Submit questions for future episodes via Writers With Wrinkles social media, through the 'send us a text' link above or through the podcast blog.

Transcript

BETH MCMULLEN

Hi friends, I'm Beth McMullen. And I'm Lisa Schmidt. And we're the co -hosts of Writers with Wrinkles. This is season four, episode nine. Today, we're excited to welcome Carrie Blankenship Kramer to the show. After growing up surrounded by books and people who love them, Carrie's debut novel, Ghost Scout's Honor, was published by Scholastic in April of 2025. She became a literary agent in... 2023 and represents both children's and adult fiction authors across a wide range of genres, with her priority being marginalized voices. Outside of work, you can usually find Carrie spending time with her partner and their small zoo, getting way too competitive on the tennis court, playing video games, or eating candy.

BETH MCMULLEN

Welcome, Carrie. Thank you so much for being here. We are excited to have you. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. I like all of your pastimes. Especially the eating candy. I swear to God, my entire diet yesterday was like leftover Easter candy that I found lying around. I don't think I ate like a real piece of food all day. So I'm with you on that.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Yeah, the day after Easter and the day after Valentine's Day are great times to be in a grocery store. They really are.

BETH MCMULLEN

really are. They are like giving away those really good bags of candy. And you're like, well, of course I need to buy that. I'm going to have that in my kitchen. That is awesome.

LISA SCHMID

to have

BETH MCMULLEN

So congrats on the new book. Thank you. We would love for you to give us a little rundown about what's it about and who are you hoping will pick it up and read it. Yeah, just excited for you to hear a little bit about that before we jump into questions.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Yeah, thank you so, so much. So my debut book was published April 1st by Scholastic. It's called Go Scouts Honor. It is a queer, middle grade, neurodiverse horror. So my one sentence pitch is 12 -year -olds getting chased by ghosts. So it follows the Go Scouts, which were an organization created in Savannah, Georgia. In my world, ghosts are very real and they're very annoying and pests. So the Ghost Scouts were created to help look over haunted houses and keep the ghosts in line so people in Savannah can go about their normal lives. And in Ghost Scout's honor, we follow Evie, who's bound and determined to be the best Ghost Scout ever. But of course, things go wrong for her at every turn, especially when she encounters a very angry ghost called Ghost X. That might just be the key to figuring out why ghosts appeared in the first place. So the deeper Evie gets in unraveling that mystery, the more things go wrong. So it's just a really fun adventure that can teach kids, you know, if they have the power to do anything they want to. But yeah, it was so fun to write, so much fun to be a part of. And, you know, I'm a Southerner myself, so I really wanted to talk about. spooky southern ghosts in my book. I love that.

LISA SCHMID

love that. I'm kind of diving into, I'm starting a new spooky story and I usually go on the lighter side more funny and I've decided to go scary. And so I was so excited. I went and picked up your book and I've got it and I'm about to start reading it and I will be dissecting it. I really don't know how to write scary. I'm like, okay, I'm going through all my old books and yours is like at the top of my list. I hope you're not offended, but I will be writing notes in the margins. I will be highlighting. Like where this, you know, I'm just like tracking how you did this because I just am not used to doing that. So you are officially my homework.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Oh, I am so honored. So honored. Someone's annotating my book for that specific reason too. Yeah. My, one of my editors, like biggest first edits when we were starting was make it scarier. So kids can handle a lot more than we think they can on it. So. That was really fun to get to edit and make the ghosts more freaky and decayed and doing weird actions. So you got it.

BETH MCMULLEN

You got it. Everything horror is so huge right now. I mean, your timing is amazing, right? Because we know books are written two years, three years before we ever see them on the shelves. So everything I'm reading about trending genres, horror is always right up at the top. I mean, I'm sure we could dissect the societal reasons for that, but we don't have all day here on the show. But yes, awesome. We are very excited. And Lisa is going to, of course, be talking to me about this book because she will go through it with a fine tooth comb. And I'm excited to hear what she thinks about it. And we wish you amazing success going forward.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Thank you. Thank you. I'm excited to see what you think too. I appreciate all the love and support. And I promise to turn it and lose out if I see it in a bookstore. Okay.

LISA SCHMID

That's what I solemn promise. You know what? Go Scouts honor.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

That's amazing. Thank you. That just made my day. I love it.

LISA SCHMID

Okay. On that note, let's just jump into the first question. So we always like to ask our agents this because this is truly what... our listeners want to know. What is your decision -making process when you decide to take on a new author?

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Yeah, so it's different for every agent, but for me, I always read the pitch first. That's why your query is so, so, so important to be able to summarize your story in an enticing way that just jumps right in. If the pitch has things that I love in it, then I'm obviously going to be intrigued and then I'll jump right into your pages first. I've heard some agents do it, The opposite for me, it's pitch first and then the pages. And if I love what I see, and typically for me, it's a very quick decision, like the first couple of paragraphs I know I'm going to request or not. And then from there, I'll read it and I'll say with all the authors I've signed, I also know pretty fast if I'm going to offer on them, which is. Also, I asked for the synopsis so I can see ahead of time if this plot's doing what I need it to do. So I typically I'm like 40 to 50 percent in what I know I'm going to offer on an author. But I'll read the full book. So obviously I have a good like edit plan in place. And then once I'm on the call, that's kind of a great opportunity for me to make sure that we're going to work together well, not just for myself, but also for what the author needs. Those are kind of questions that can look like, what are you working on next? What are your goals as an author for your entire career? Because that's something I want to do is I want to work with an author their entire career. So if, for example, they wrote a really great horror, but want to write nonfiction next, I might not be the best fit for them because nonfiction is not where I work at all. So those are things that I keep in mind. But yeah, typically I know pretty fast if I want to work with somebody or not.

LISA SCHMID

What's an example, I don't know if you can come up with this off the top of your head, of a great niche, like somebody that you signed in their query letter that you were like, holy smokes, this has got me. This hooked me.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Yeah, so that's such an interesting question because... There's been some people I work with now where their pitch wouldn't be your stereotypical, like this is a really buttoned up pitch. It was just vibes that sold me or like their comp. So the very first client I ever signed, they comped to The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, which is one of my favorite middle grade books of all time. And I've gotten that comp so many times and I can't tell you how many. people miss the mark, but she handled it and that was very, very accurate. So that's kind of one example of something that just grabbed my attention immediately is that comp or I signed with a graphic novelist who in their pitch said, you know, I'm writing this book because I'm a queer person and I wanted to unpack the way small towns and religion made me. question my own identity. And that's something I love too. And something I love to focus on and talk about even with my own friends. So sometimes it's literally just the comp or the vibe or the pitch itself. So I also have one client who wrote an incredible pitch for her YA contemporary that was just very emotional and thoughtful. And she did a great job of doing your stereotypical summary pitch. So it's kind of across the board for me. So hopefully that helps folks who are listening in.

LISA SCHMID

Well, and I love that. I think it's so important that people personalize the pitch, like why, why they're telling this story. And it sounds to me like that's something that really caught your attention.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Yep. Yep, exactly. So I am easy to, if it has elements that I love, then I'm going to fall in love with it. So, you know, I definitely. I love it when people say like, it's comp meets this, meets this, but has the vibes of this. Like if you have a good way to pitch your vibes too, have fun with it. I definitely look at those more closely.

BETH MCMULLEN

closely. So, yeah. That's actually really good advice to think about it in a slightly broader, that the comps can deliver kind of a multi -layered message in your query letter. We do talk a lot about query letters because of course authors get... completely paranoid about them so this is great advice yeah i totally understand that and for me it's not like i need your comp to be published within five years or if you use one book and then one tv show one movie that's not going to be an auto reject for me sometimes i think that works really well but totally understand what you're saying

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

i totally understand that and for me it's not like i need your comp to be published within five years or if you use one book and then one tv show one movie that's not going to be an auto reject for me sometimes i think that works really well but totally understand what you're

BETH MCMULLEN

saying So our next question is about tariffs, which we've been hearing so much about in so many different ways. And of course, we heard books were exempt, but all the things that you need to make a book are not exempt and then blah, blah. I mean, I actually at this point in time have no idea where we're at. So we're going to throw that question at you about how do you think tariffs will affect the publishing industry? Because you are the professional and we are like the deer in the headlights, clueless. Authors. So give it your best shot. Yeah.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Great question. A terrible question also. So I hate that we're having to deal with this right now, but I think that's something I've been talking about with my agency and other writing friends too. Like since everything's been going down since like the election, like how are these big decisions being made in the government going to impact publishing? And unfortunately, we've already seen a lot of these small shifts happening. Sometimes quietly, sometimes not so quietly. I definitely anticipate there being an increase in the price of books across the board for people who are buying them. I see a decrease in advances that are being sent out as well for the investment that we're making in authors. Big corporations are trying to cut costs wherever they can right now. And unfortunately, that leaks down more to the smaller people on the totem pole, which is authors, unfortunately, which I hate. But that's definitely something I could see leaking down. And we're already battling a really tough battle right now with people's attention spans and reading, not being as favorite of a pastime it is now for not only kids, but adults too. There's been recent studies too, seeing how adults are getting impacted by their attention spans. And you meet that with the increase in costs for not only production, but to the product itself. Like I can see this. making small shifts where people are reading less and less, or we're turning towards ebook readers more, which is great. But also I could see that pulling more money into Amazon, which is not what we want either. We want our indie bookstores to stay alive. It's not the best outlook, but it's realistically what's going to happen. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if people are so downtrodden about everything going on and all the increased prices that they turn to your library or things where you're able to get a cheap, easy thing to escape for a little while. I could see fantasy really popping up. Romanticity is also obviously doing huge, and I can see that continuing to be a thing. The short of it is we don't know it until we know. And unfortunately, agents are sometimes one of the last people to find out what's going on. So there's a lot of things I can make an educated guess on, which I just did. But there's so much that could happen that I'd be like, yeah, that makes sense. So hopefully that helps a little bit. But there's things that we can do to make it better. You know, choosing not to shop with Amazon is one small decision you can make. Go through your indie bookstore. A lot of them have opportunities where you can buy e -books through them instead of Amazon. So that's one very small thing we can do to help our community.

LISA SCHMID

Yeah. It's hard times. Yes. That's one of those things I'm seeing. We all just kind of have to take a shift. For authors already, I always feel like we're so low on the totem pole. I feel like we are going to be the ones taking the big hit. at the end of the day, which is really depressing. And we just had some news that happened. We just heard about like right before we started recording that Albert Whitman just filed chapter 11. And so, you know, I'm kind of, this is, I'm like throwing a surprise question at you, but what happens in that type of scenario? Because I got the text from one of my clients or one of my friends that said, you know, this just happened, you know, I'm so sad, you know, she has a couple of books with them. Like, what do you do in that situation for your clients? I mean, that's just, you know, it's so tragic. And one of them was like scrambling, like, how are we going to get the money that's owed us? You know, this is, you know, like, what do you do in those situations? And are there signs of, you know, like publishers that you can see as an agent that you're like, okay, there's some red flags going on there.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Yeah. And that unfortunately happened with Albert Whitman. I'm not surprised at all, which is awful. That news does still suck, even though it doesn't. as much of a surprise to me. So we, the previous agency I was working with, we had issues with Albert Whitman. We had, someone had sold a client book and they had been like a year and they hadn't gotten their advance and it was way overdue and they kept emailing them and not hearing back. So that's kind of a red flag you can look out for where it's very, very obvious. If you're not getting paid, then there's something going on. And Albert Whitman had already been in trouble. I know that the ALA had issued them a warning that they weren't following best practices. And there had been apologies sent out. Of course, they were promising to get back on track, but still promises can only go so far. And it's through your actions that we can tell people still weren't getting paid even after they issued their apology. So from my standpoint, when I was hearing all this trouble happening, which had to have been like a year ago at this point, I marked them off my submission list and I told them we're not sending to them. things aren't doing great. If, and unfortunately too, there was an editor there that had an interest in my client's story and I had to tell them, we're not, we can't do this because what do we do if it sells and then you get nothing, then you're kind of stuck in an even worse position. And that's something that, especially because I work with marginalized voices, that's something that I really have to keep in mind. There's a lot of imprints that, you know, there's a lot of talk about certain imprints doing certain things that feel fishy or don't feel good. And I make that decision with my author, we have conversations about, do you feel good about if this is the people that buy your book, are you okay with them backing it up? So I have those conversations with my authors. I want it to be like a very big, important conversation that we have. But if that happened to one of my clients, if like, if I had a client that had sold a book to Albert Women and I knew that we weren't getting anything, at that point, it becomes more of a like, Less of me being your business partner and more me being your friend and being someone to lean on because I don't think there's a way that we can salvage that. I think the story might be lost. There's things that we could do, of course, depending on how the sub process went. Maybe we can resend it. Maybe we could edit and then send it out again and let editors know exactly what happened. But I think first and foremost, a grieving process needs to happen. To be so close to your dream, to have it yanked away. Honestly, you should go to therapy. That's my number one tip. So there's things I can do as your agent and as your friend. And I joke sometimes with my other agent friends, like sometimes I put on my therapist hat and I'm there to help you. And I love that. I love talking to my authors as humans and commiserating with them in this terrible process. But yeah, that sucks. That sucks a lot for everybody.

LISA SCHMID

I think agents always have on. their therapy hat. I mean, I know my poor agent does. I feel for her all the time.

BETH MCMULLEN

But what a tragedy. What a tragedy to have your, just like you said, I think that most of the people who listen to this show obviously understand how hard it is to even get to that place where you have sold the book to a publisher and then to have the publisher melt down. right before your book sees the light of day. And it really is like the end of that book because now it's gone too far in this process to then be pulled back and redone. And what an awful, awful situation. I really feel for everyone who's sitting in that place right now, that is really difficult.

LISA SCHMID

Well, not even just that sitting in that place, but the people who just maybe recently published with them in the last couple of years or whatever, or even in the last year. And I just think, It reminds me of the situation where, say, a clothing store knows they're going out of business and they keep selling gift cards, knowing that they're going out of business. And I find that really frustrating that they were still, you know, say, I have a friend whose book just came out with them last year and they just went out of business. And now it's like, you know, it's done. And it just, it's heartbreaking. And I'm just, you know, he's texting her and I'm like, now you just need to dig in deep and like, just keep writing because this sucks so bad. But it makes me angry that they continued knowing, you know?

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Yeah. And there's a lot I could say about that. I could go on a whole rant about capitalism right now, but I won't. But that's just like one of those like evil indicators, you know, like I think. I struggle with this too, and it's not only an agent, but an author, like these decisions publishing imprints are making are all backed on what's going to make them the most money, not on what's going to be good for our people. And I find that super frustrating, which I think is what you're saying, Lisa, too. It's a terrible place to be and to see, to watch happen time and time again. And I know our industry is having a bit of an issue with... There's a lot of agents in the game and not as many editors and imprints. And unfortunately, I've seen there's a lot of agents that don't have the correct mentorship and don't have the correct partnership with their agencies. So unfortunately, maybe people were pitching to Albert Whitman still, but they didn't know all the things that I knew. And that can lead to a funnel issue there. And I think that's an issue that we need to. figure out and try to fix is these agencies that aren't supporting their newer agents or like these agencies are popping out of nowhere that don't have the correct industry knowledge or connections could end up harming our industry even further. And that's a whole other tangent I could go on. Yeah,

BETH MCMULLEN

that's actually a really good idea for a whole show to look at how you vet an agent in this current climate to find somebody who's not going to put you in a situation. that these authors who recently sold or have been published with Whitman are now in because, I mean, there's no certification. There's no degree that you need to pursue in order to hang out your shingle as an agent. So yeah, it's certainly important to think about. And we've talked with at least 10 or 12 agents on this show in the last year or so. I think listening to what you guys are saying is super important to keep in your head when you're talking to agents about potentially having this working relationship.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Yep. Yeah, I think that's a very good point. And I hope that we'll be able to decide together some more industry standards that are accessible for folks. Like the first one that popped out in my head is A -L -A, A -A -L -A, excuse me, the membership there, which I'm lucky enough to be accepted into, but it's like a pretty steep membership fee. there. And if you aren't getting supported by your agency, if you have to pay that out of pocket, then some people just aren't able to do that. But they're still great people. It's just one of those things that it's, yeah, we could do a whole different show about this. I am making a note of that.

BETH MCMULLEN

this. I am making a note of that. That's going to be a topic upcoming. Maybe we get a couple of agents on. Oh, that'd be so cool. I think that would be fun as an idea.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

be so cool.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Yeah, please. I would love that. And I'm so willing to be a participant. I would love to yap all about this. All right,

BETH MCMULLEN

good. I'm putting you on the list. All right. Our next question. So what are your thoughts on the state of contemporary middle grade? Are publishers buying it? Are they still kind of holding back? We know that middle grade has gone through a bit of an upheaval over the last year or two. And we do have quite a number of middle grade writers on this show and also in our private Facebook group who are interested in this sort of like the landscape right now.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Yeah, I love this question too, but also again, hate the answer because I love middle grade. It is one of my favorite places in the world to read and write. And I think it's so important, but we are facing an issue with middle grade, like you mentioned. Going way back to what I said earlier, attention spans are very much down with that community of readers. But also, I've noticed as a middle grade author myself, publishing houses are having a very hard time reaching those audiences because, in my opinion, they're not doing the legwork to reach them. If you post on Instagram about a book, I don't know how many middle schoolers are going to see that. I don't know. Yeah, like zero. A zero to one, maybe. So I think that publishers really need to step up when it comes to their marketing and publicity. But unfortunately, they're not doing that because that costs money. And that costs a lot more resources besides money that they just are not willing to give up. And so that is a part of the answer where we're seeing middle grade sales declining, not only across like actually buying a physical book, but in the ones that are sold like in publishing marketplace. which I hate. I think it's a really important part of life that kids need to be reached and kids need to see themselves on the page so that they can learn more about themselves and the human experience. I love contemporary. I do think fantasy is oversaturated, but also it's still selling pretty well, especially if you've got a unique twist to it or a unique world, or if it's like a marginalized folklore story or perspective from that that's not seen yet, I think. That's where editors are really hungry. We talked about horror. Horror is having her moment. We love that for her. That's still really popular. Contemporary, I do see some sales still too. And that's still something I consider as I'm looking through my query inbox, especially if it's got like a very good emotional, sweet story or it's through a marginalized community's perspective. I think that can still sell. I don't think it's as popular as the other genres I just mentioned, which is unfortunate. I think like shorter middle grade though, and I think that's where contemporary can really shine. Shorter middle grade is doing really well. Simpler language is doing really well too. So like your lyrical middle grade, which is my favorite, sadly, isn't selling as well. So, you know, quicker, funnier stories are doing better too. So it's just trying to meet the kids where they are is important when you're considering your story.

LISA SCHMID

Oh my God, that's the best advice ever. When it comes to middle grade. And I know that, you know, there's, I think the trends of the past are gone right now. Like for right now, maybe that'll shift back. But I feel like kids just, they want it short and sweet. Lots of white space. Lots of just make it quick and snappy. And that's what's going to get their attention. And I think one of the reasons why we've lost that readership is because I feel like it just, it was, you know, those books weren't doing it. You know, they were just too heavy,

BETH MCMULLEN

they were

LISA SCHMID

too thick. You know, I look at a book and I'm like, oh my God. And that's all I read. You know, and so I'm currently reading a book and I like the first three chapters. I'm like, this was unnecessary. You know, we need to like, I think to the action as soon as possible. So that's, that's a really interesting take from, from your point of view.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

For sure, what you said about middle grade needs to have a quick opening. Like, you've got to grab them. Like, the inciting incident needs to happen. And if not on the first page, like, definitely the first chapter, which sometimes doesn't work with contemporary, but, you know, I think the shorter you can make it happen,

BETH MCMULLEN

the quicker their attention span. I wrote a whole sub stack about the fact that you are competing with social media and video games and shows and what a TikTok. in your first chapter. So like, if you don't have sort of TikTok vibes, as you were talking about an energy to open that story, they're going to just abandon you. Yeah. Which is like totally depressing, but that's where we're at. So I think you really, hopefully listeners heed that advice and make that opening chapter snap and, you know, sparkle and grab that reader because you have like maybe a minute. Two minutes. People can't think beyond two minutes anymore. So if you don't grab them, you're done. And I think, unfortunately, that is translating into adult, too. I feel like we are in the same boat with adult fiction. I just read an article in Jane Friedman's amazing newsletter about how card decks, not just tarot card decks, but card decks in general are becoming so popular because. You can deliver a tiny little bit of information on a card and then the person's like, okay, I read that. You know, I'm done with that. I can move on to the next card or I can go back to, you know, doom scrolling or whatever. But yeah, I think we are battling very short attention spans across the board in publishing.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Yes, absolutely. And this is the forefront of my mind too, because I've been reading a book called How to Break Up With Your Phone by Katherine Price. Which has really just opened my eyes to my own attention span. As somebody who works in publishing and I feel has a pretty high reading comprehension ability, I've noticed my own attention span really being drained. And that's kind of the difference between middle grade and adult. Middle schoolers don't have that capability yet to realize this is a problem. Adults are slowly starting to realize, and I am hoping this becomes more of a trend. Like making the connection between your phone and all of these quick pieces of information and how that's really hurting your ability to comprehend and intake and information. I'm hoping people are going to start to realize that a little more. I'm seeing these conversations happen quicker and faster. And I'm hoping once we as adults learn this, that's going to trickle down to our kids too and help with their attention span there. But yeah, no, it's hitting everybody. Everybody has a phone. So everyone has literally everything they could ever need at their fingertips. So why would you pick up a book if you didn't already have that habit ingrained or didn't need to for some reason? So my hope is that we all realize how evil our phones could be and throw them all away and start over. But I don't know if that's what's going to happen. So, but maybe one day.

LISA SCHMID

one day. So I think the moral of the story right now is I know as writers, we all want to be. We have like a certain spin of how we want to start a story and what we want to do with it. The reality is, you know, everything's shifting. And so you have to, and we talk about this consistently, is thinking about publishing as a business. And it's not just a creative avenue or venue for you. It is still a business. And when an agent or an editor looks at your work, they're immediately thinking at it, thinking about it from a business perspective. That's the thing that writers need to think about every time they sit down to write a book is from a business perspective, which I know it takes away some of that creative joy. But, you know, part of the creative joy is having the possibility of it getting published. Yes. So that's what I always, you know, that's what I think about. Like when I sit down to write something is I want to get this published. And so I think about I listen to what editors are saying. I listen to what publishers are saying. I listen to what agents are saying. then I take that to heart and I hope that other people do the same.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Yeah, I love that advice. It's not only a business, it's a major corporation for all of them, which is different line of thinking too. We talked a little bit about their, every decision they're making is how much money is that going to make me? And like you said, that can really sap the creative joy out of a project really fast. So when I'm talking with my authors about their next projects, I give them the industry knowledge that I know and that I have. And I want them to meet me in the middle with a creative idea that they really want or a moral or a lesson that they really want to explore. And then maybe, you know, picking a genre that they still love. Because to me,

LISA SCHMID

know,

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

writers really struggle with burnout more if they're, you know, mending every single thing they do to the publishing industry. Because like you said, publishing moves really slow. And by the time we know there's a trend, it's kind of too late for anyone who wants to write in that trend. You know, you can write the trends or you can write something that is still meaningful and connected to you, but you still have a chance to to write it like dystopian. A couple of years ago, I said, don't touch it. But she's kind of coming back a little bit, which we love. So there's always room for everybody. It's just where do you want to be? Do you want to be in a major publishing company? Are you OK with a smaller indie imprint? You know, those are some things to think through, too,

BETH MCMULLEN

there. I feel like this point in time, dystopian, yeah, just bring it, baby. Like, we are living in it. So, like, I have said this to multiple people over the past however many months. I have said all of those YA dystopian writers from a decade ago who we were all like, oh, you know, this is like. silly and these dark worlds they're creating and why don't they go have some fun? Well, we're all eating those words now, right? Because they were all predicting the future. So mass apology to all those very amazing and talented YA writers with the dystopian foresight because wow.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Yeah. Yeah. And Hunger Games is back. So I think that's going to impact our trends too. And romanticism, some of these romanticism I'm seeing are flirting with the edge of dystopian and like powerless is a really great example loved that book but it is very much like hunger games sort of a world post where this big event happens and like you said i can 100 see dystopian having a moment because we're living in the dark times so let's see other characters explore that and end up okay at the end that's why people are flocking towards that and the reason why a lot people read horror too we're living in a terrifying time but when you read horror These kids or these adults go through it and they end up being okay most of the time. Sometimes not so much, but yeah.

LISA SCHMID

I think we've decided that dystopian is the new contemporary.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Quote me on that. I'm sure that's not going to cause anyone to be angry at all.

LISA SCHMID

So let's go ahead and find out. This is the big question that we ask our agents. What makes your heart sing? right now more than anything else when you open up your in -month?

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Oh, I love this question so much. For me, it's horror and probably will be for a long time. That's what I, that's my favorite genre. That's what I grew up on. That's my favorite thing to write. But also if you look at my clients, I only have like two out of 10 that write horror. So. It really just depends on my day and on my mood, but it's just my favorite place to be right now is something a little spooky, something that takes me away from this world that we have found ourselves in and into a new place, whether that is fantasy or maybe I'm being chased by ghosts or something like that. Just remind me. It doesn't always have to be this bad or teach me a lesson. That's one of my favorite things I love to read and pick up a new book is to learn something or to connect me again to the human experience. So if you've got like an emotional story on top of like horror and fantasy or your character is really going through it, but at the end of the day, like they're reminded what the point is of this world, then I'm definitely going to be really, really excited for that.

BETH MCMULLEN

That sounds good. I hope everybody out there listening to this episode is making lots of notes today because, yeah, I totally agree with you. I think that's why horror is trending and romantisy and all of those things. And I'm sure, I'm sure, hopefully sure that all the writers are sending that to you into your inbox. So that wraps up our time, Keri. Thank you so much for being here and sharing your experience and wisdom with us. We are so grateful that this worked out.

CAREY BLANKENSHIP-KRAMER

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. This is really great. I had a lot of fun talking about myself. Thank you for your questions.

BETH MCMULLEN

And listeners, remember you can find out more about Keri by visiting our podcast notes and the blog at writerswithwrinkles .net. And Lisa and I are back on May 12th with an Ask Beth and Lisa episode. Please see the podcast notes for how to send us a question for that or use any of our social channels to submit a question. So until then, happy reading, writing, and listening.