What It Is to Create | Manuscript Academy

Welcome back to my web series, “What It Is to Create.” In this second installment, I had the chance to interview the co-founders of Manuscript Academy, Julie Kingsley and Jessica Sinsheimer.

Julie Kingsley has over twenty years of experience in education teaching everything from preschool to grad school. She currently teaches New Media & Writing for Media at a small local college. She is the co- founder and SCBWI’s Writing Retreat on Squam, and a past facilitator of SCBWI’s fabulous Whispering Pines Retreat. Jessica Sinsheimer is a literary agent at Context Literary Agency. She has been reading and campaigning for her favorite queries since 2004 and was also previously working at Sarah Jane Freymann Agency. She also co-founded the website, Manuscript Wishlist, which both literary agents and editors use to describe what they are looking for in books. Together, they both founded The Manuscript Academy, an online space that simulates writing conferences without the hassle of paying travel, food, and arranging childcare, The Manuscript Academy Podcast. 

Just as there are two sides to every story, there are two stories of who’s idea it was to create The Manuscript Academy. As Kingsley tells it, she credits Sinsheimer, but it begins as she was invited to a party at Book Expo of America by Katharine Sands, another agent at Sarah Jane Freymann Agency who worked with Sinsheimer. It was there that Sinsheimer and Kingsley met, but it was at the SCBWI Whispering Pines conference where Kingsley says they “were looking at all the people, at the connections, talking about writing, the excitement of the critiques and learning and everything else. And we were sitting there, and we said, ‘Why does this need to take so long to have this? Why can’t people have this all the time?’” For Kingsley, it was a few weeks later that Sinsheimer came to her with the idea of The Manuscript Academy. Sinsheimer, after saying that she remembers Kingsley coming up with the idea, added that “We started coming up with like ‘Well, we could translate this element of a conference online’... and so we kept it a secret from April [2016] until the Manuscript Wish Lists day in September. It took that amount of time to get the very basic things up and running. So the site, the structure, we were running around filming people. We had a big filming day where we invited a bunch of people to a really cool theater in Manhattan, where they let us just rent out the theater space and film panels and classes” with the help of Kingsley’s film students. While the set-up of the website and editing classes took some time, The Manuscript Academy has succeeded in creating an educational and networking environment where people could talk to other writers and publishing professionals, as Kingsley and Sinsheimer hoped it would.

As part of Manuscript Academy, Sinsheimer and Kingsley also host The Manuscript Academy podcast, which can be found on Spotify, Soundcloud, and iTunes. When I asked why they decided to create the podcast, Kingsley said, “We always knew that we had the power to look at publishing in a different way than other people did, that we could be that link between kind of all sides of the table and pull people together under an umbrella of just happiness,” which led to them using podcasts to advertise their goal of happiness and actively create a brand voice. Their podcast episodes show that, where they vary between letting writers see behind the curtain of publishing by interviewing editors and agents, talk how to pitch and write query letters, as well as give advice on the first three chapters of a manuscript. Sinsheimer jumped in, stating, “It’s one of my favorite things that we do, actually. Because being able to talk with people about all the things in publishing, and the human side of publishing, has been really gratifying for us. And as an agent, I’ve wanted for years to show that people in publishing are human. I mean, of course we are, but there’s just this weird perception that we’re all very formal... And we really are people, and we want to be treated like people, whether it’s in the slush pile, or at a conference, or just if you run into us on the subway.” 

A great example of how they both have bridged the gap between the publishing and writing community is their 100th episode, which was both Sinsheimer’s and Kingsley’s favorite episode to record. In explaining their celebration episode, Sinsheimer spoke about how they invited for experts (three agents and one film agent) to choose a writer from the pile, and how “the writer friends nominate their friends... and then they sent in their first page and query and the panelists chose their favorite nominator/nominee pairs to bring up on ‘stage.’ We had a giant Zoom of more than 100 people. And then we go to hear why this writer friend loves their friends so much, we got to hear the query on the first page, and then we saw feedback in the moment from the full panel, basically trying to help them as a full writer. So it wasn’t just their work, it was the questions they had, it was the ‘this thing has happened to me that I can’t Google, what do I do now?’ And it just treated the writer like a whole person.” During the podcast, there was an “energetic love fest,” as Kingsley put it, between one editor, one agent, and one writer where “everyone else was like ‘Oh, that is supposed to be like that. That’s what the conversation is supposed to be like. So that for me, that was like the best part.” From there Kingsley and Sinsheimer started doing a series of live recorded podcasts so their members could join them and ask questions while they also get live, in the moment, reactions.

In talking about their favorite Manuscript Academy moments, Kingsley and Sinsheimer both found their answers relied on a connection with the writer. Kingsley stated “I think the most interesting thing is when a writer finds their voice for me...Once you see somebody click into their voice and it happens like more than you think, but it’s so fascinating. And how their writing ,all of a sudden, blossoms into something totally different.” In speaking about her own favorite moments, Sinsheimer told a recent anecdote: “I love it when I can spend a little bit more time with somebody, like if we can just get on the phone or get on Zoom. So last week, I got to talk with a writer who had so many reasons in each column for why her book should be a chapter book versus middle grade, and being able to go down the list with her of her goals and how she saw it. And we concluded its middle grade because then she has all these wonderful ideas that can add all these layers to it...I went in worried that I wouldn’t know the answer for her and I came out just being so happy for her because she was in a really, really great place of where to go.”

For their thoughts on what writers should know about publishing, Sinsheimer said “If you get anything other than a form rejection, it means that that person really tried. You know, even if you get just like two lines of ‘I like this’ and “I like this.’ Even if it looks like it took 30 seconds, there’s a lot of thought behind that... One of things that’s so hard is just the sheer quantity of queries coming in. What I really want is that connection of like ‘I see you, I see what you’re working on,’ so I do that where I can, but I wish it was something that I could do more.” For their advice on what publishers should know about writers, Sinsheimer added that “people in publishing need to notice that writers are really trying too, and just because you don’t get something perfect on the first try, just because you haven’t done 100% of the research that the publishers wish you had, that doesn’t mean you’re not trying.” Kingsley also added, for publishers, “I think that really trying as hard as they can to have really clear parameters for writers to understand whether their query has been seen, whether there was anything of merit, because I think there’s a lot of ghosting right now. We know why they do that, but I think it’s really, really hard for writers. If I could fix one thing in the industry, it would be that.”

In their final advice for writers who are starting out, Kingsley said her best advice is to “wait, put it aside, find a critique group, review it again, read, read, read, and revise again. It’s really easy to make a draft and think it’s okay. And it’s really difficult to find that revision chops to get that in shape sometimes. But you can do it via the writing and the resting, critiquing, writing, resting, and critiquing. I think too many people send work too early.” Sinsheimer agreed with Kingsley, saying that “I agree that a lot of people send things too soon. I’m a huge proponent of research, you know, find agents on Twitter who you think might be a good fit, find them on our sister site, ManuscriptWishList.com. There are so many agents out there who could be a wonderful fit for your book.” Among her advice, Sinsheimer also suggest personalizing every query and getting as many eyes on the query as possible, as well as the book Making The Perfect Pitch, which was edited by Katharine Sands.

For both Kingsley and Sinsheimer, they describe Manuscript Academy as “the happiest place for writers to meet their people, to launch their writing career, and to really be the best writer they can possibly be in a fun and nurturing environment” where writers don’t have to pay for plane fare or hotels to get access to the best agents and editors in the world who can help them. Manuscript Academy does have a membership fee starting at as little as $49 with various options depending on what you as a member would be looking for.

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I want to extend my thanks to both Julie Kingsly and Jessica Sinsheimer for taking the time out so that I could interview them. I highly suggest following them on Twitter @JSinsheim and @juliekingsley, as well as @MSWLMA.|