I’ve been alerted to the very alarming fact that someone is posting jobs for “Kidlit” as “Mary Kole” on school job boards. These are writing jobs that seem attractive. I’ve heard from several people emailing to confirm whether the job posting they saw was legitimate.
There has been an individual posing as me on university and other online job boards and providing the email address kidlit@job4u.com. It is a classic “we will send you a check, you will deduct a certain amount, and send us back a money order” scam. Their check will bounce after a few days, then your bank will hold you liable for any funds you chose to send out. The FTC explains it here.
Any kind of scam that attempts to take advantage of writers sickens me, and I take it very seriously. There are, unfortunately, many bad actors out there who prey on writers who want the chance to practice their craft and don’t know better.
If you have corresponded with this individual, please forward your interactions to me for my legal team. Do not send your personal information to this person and do not accept any money from them. Certainly don’t send any money to them. Similarly, if you have seen one of these job postings in the wild, please report them as fraudulent to the job board where they appear and alert me at mary@kidlit.com to let me know what institution is running the listing.
Unfortunately, since this is an online impersonator using my name and business name without my permission, I’m not liable for any financial loss that you suffer due to interacting with this individual. My hope in posting this is to prevent anyone from getting scammed.
Our admin support is graduating college and leaving the nest, so I’m looking for a dedicated, hard-working, fun, and energetic executive assistant for me as I manage clients, projects, and launch two new businesses this year. Interested in helping Mary Kole Editorial and Good Story Company thrive, and thriving with us? Read on!
Job Skills
I run a high six-figure editorial business with a team of ten and more than 600 projects annually. I’ve developed a system that helps me give my best to all of the amazing writers who want to work with me—but I need someone to help me keep things moving.
We will train you up in all of the functions required, but it will help if you’re already comfortable with, proficient in, or at least very driven to learn:
Google Suite: Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms
HoneyBook: a mostly automated client management system that we use to move projects through the pipeline, you’ll be monitoring the calendar and inbox here, returning projects on my behalf, as well as sending some manual messages and reminders
Trello: a project management interface where you will set up our editorial team for success
Dropbox: a file management system where you will create client folders
MailChimp: pulling together existing content for email newsletters
YouTube: uploading, describing, and scheduling videos
Zoho: some monthly data entry into a database form
Social Media: Instagram and Pinterest fluency—I’m looking for a design driven person to help with the “visual” social media
Design: Photoshop, InDesign and Canva skills a huge bonus!
Fluent and engaging written communication skills are a must, as you’re representing a company that is for writers, by writers. Excellent accountability is my top priority. You need to be driven enough to motivate yourself and communicate about any potential problems (like missing a deadline) way ahead of time.
I don’t have the bandwidth or energy to chase an assistant around and constantly check in, nor do I want to set up that kind of overbearing dynamic. I want you to be very excited to kick butt independently!
Job Details
This is a remote position. You can work from anywhere, but for tax reasons, you will need to be based in the US and legally eligible to work. This is a contractor position, so tax withholding is not provided. You are responsible for withholding your own income taxes and reporting your earnings to the IRS. You will receive a 1099 instead of a W2 each year.
Since we do not provide benefits like health care or a 401k, I make it a point to provide learning, growth, personal, and professional development opportunities. My marketing person is currently enrolled in about $10,000+ worth of classes. Two weeks ago, I hosted an all expense paid four-day retreat in Arizona for my entire team.
Hourly wages are based on qualifications. I am looking for a firm commitment of 10-15 hours per week. I am also looking for someone who can be dedicated to this job and this company for years. I love my team to bits. I hate making changes to my team or suddenly being left with a position to fill. If you’re committed to us, we will be 100% committed to you.
We welcome the opportunity to hear from diverse applicants!
Company Culture
I’m Mary and I have been in the publishing business for 10+ years. I started Kidlit in 2009, published my book Writing Irresistible Kidlit in 2012, founded Mary Kole Editorial in 2013, and Good Story Company in 2019.
At Mary Kole Editorial and Good Story Company, we believe in helping all writers unlock their potential. We’re also passionate about doing good. This year, I launched the Good Story Grant and gave away an award of $2,000 to one writer to enable them to make an amazing dream come true for her project, and $500 so a runner up could take a very important trip. I can’t wait to see what kind of creativity the Good Story Grant facilitates in the future!
I’m a female founder working my way up in the business world and building a company that makes a difference. My team is a fun and motivated crew of writers, creatives, nerds (said with so much love!) and more. Our work, from the editorial team to the marketing team, is highly creative. But we’re successful, too, and only working to become more so!
More than anything, I want to inspire my future executive assistant and give you the tools and firsthand experience of what it means to run an amazing independent business. My dream for you is that you stay with me for a long time, but then maybe go on to build something yourself, using what you’ve learned!
How to Apply
Thank you so much for your interest, but this opportunity is closed. I’m leaving this page up in case anyone ever wants to learn more about GSC and what we do!
I’d love to have your thoughts on the topics you’re most interested in learning on this blog and in the other content I’m making. (If you haven’t yet, check out my YouTube videos about various topics!)
Please see the poll below to give me your feedback:
It is with great excitement that I’m announcing several new things today for helping writers! This has been in the works for a while, so if I have seemed busy or stressed or looked tired, this is why! Without further ado, I present to you Good Story Company! Please take a second to watch this video and subscribe to my new YouTube channel (yes, I’m that guy now).
My new idea for a company helping writers craft a good story is, for now, threefold. First, we have GSC, the umbrella company that my team and I have put together.
Good Story Company
A content company providing services for helping writers. Most of them are free, for example, a blog, a podcast, workshops, and lots of inspiring and craft-focused content.
Good Story Learning is a membership community that collects all of our “deep dive” educational content, video courses, workshops, and webinars in one place for on demand viewing. Join for a month and binge. Stay longer and really work your way through the many classes we’ve taught over the years about querying, first pages, picture books, novels, self-editing, marketing, and more. You’ll find more than one hundred hours of content and fifty downloadable handouts and resources.
In addition to this wealth of information and curriculum, Good Story Learning provides that community housed on a Discord server (combining the functionalities of a forum and a chat room). Here, we have questions of the day, AMAs (“ask me anything” sessions with the faculty), and separate chat rooms for all of the main writing and publishing categories that our students are involved in. We’ve even had members host writing get-togethers, where they work in solidarity and companionable silence.
The Discord server represents a great opportunity to connect to other writers, get advice and close personal attention from the Good Story Company editors (myself included), and hold yourself accountable to learn and write. Give a little community, get a little community in a safe and supportive place.
Good Story Podcast
Finally, for now, I’d love to introduce you to the Good Story Podcast. People have been bugging me for years to do a podcast. And in the last year, I have done some awesome interviews in webinar format. But one thing I don’t like about the webinar format: only registered students get the content. I want to give this content to EVERYONE because I work hard to interview amazing writers and thought leaders.
So now I’ve launched a podcast called Good Story Podcast. Absolutely free, absolutely interesting, all about writing, revision, the craft, and the business. And to show you that I mean business, I’m kicking it off with my first interview: Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo and writing teacher. Have a listen here:
I’m working on getting the podcast listed everywhere that you get your podcasts. In the meantime, let me know what you think!
I’m so, so, so excited to present all of this to you. I have been talking to writers, teaching writers, and helping writers for over ten years now, and this is absolutely my life’s work and passion.
THANK YOU for all of your support over the years. I would be nowhere without you guys, my Kidlit readers, the original crew. We’ve been through so much over the years together, and I really wouldn’t be the person or the editor I am today without you. Yes, beautiful YOU!
I apologize for the repeat interruption! We will be back to the novel opening workshops on Monday, the 21st. Today, I have another survey. I’m hard at work crunching the data from the Published Author Poll, which I deployed over the summer, and I think you guys are going to love the findings.
Here, I have a slightly more targeted survey, aimed at writers who belong to any kind of writing forum or community online. Is that you? Please take three minutes to share some of your thoughts with me. Any input you have is going to be greatly appreciated.
I interrupt our workshop critique to put a call out: I’m looking for someone who can help me with audio and video. This would mean doing some light video and audio editing (adding some music, graphics, etc.) to standardize files to a house style and optimize them for several purposes.
I’m also looking for someone who rocks at making audio and video sound and look great, who knows how to compress it for online use, and excels all of the other stuff I’m not experienced or talented enough to do.
The work would be part time, you will be paid either on a flat fee per video or audio file, or hourly. Please send your compensation requirements. If you or anyone you know has experience with YouTube videos, podcasts, and all of the other things people are doing to create a professional audio and video presence online, send them my way!
I met up with the lovely Weronika Janczuk the other day and we got to talking about data. There isn’t really a lot of data from aspiring writers on how hard they actually work toward getting published. How many manuscripts have they written? How do they receive outside critique and support for their writing?
Since I have the eyeballs of many writers here on Kidlit, I decided to create a survey for published writers of all children’s book categories. Tell me about your journey. The survey is for my personal use only and your identifying information will not be shared. I do ask for words of wisdom and may post those on the blog, but otherwise, I’m just looking for raw data. (For a cool survey that’s a few years old and centers around middle grade, click here.)
That data (numbers only) will be turned into a handy dandy infographic.
Agented and published writers are welcome to take the poll below!
This is a quick reminder that I have two upcoming webinars in the month of December, Writing Irresistible First Pages and Rock Your Writing Goals. In January, I’m launching a Submission Blueprint with Writing Blueprints, so I’ll be doing a webinar to support that. In February, I’m participating in WriteOnCon. So I’m skipping my own webinars those months, until a planned webinar on interiority in March. That means these December webinars are it for the near future. Join me!
Very informative, I learned a LOT about what the first pages should accomplish. – Dena Pawling
Mary is an approachable expert. She turns a daunting task into something I can do with confidence. – Shelley G.
Saturday, December 8th, 11 a.m. CST: Writing Irresistible First Pages WITH CRITIQUE
A paid webinar that includes comprehensive notes on the first two pages of your novel. This webinar is geared to novel writers of all categories, from middle grade to fantasy. Not only will you hear a wealth of information about how to write successful, eye-catching first pages, but your novel opening will be privately critiqued with helpful feedback. The cost of this webinar with the included critique is $99. The webinar will last one hour and thirty minutes.
Mary’s webinar on Writing Irresistible First Pages was incredibly helpful. Mary is very versed in the subject matter and presents lot of terrific useful information at a good pace. Thank you, Mary! – Charlotte Hebert
You have one month to submit your pages after the webinar date. The submission will be up to two double-spaced pages with 12 pt font and standard 1″ margins. Notes will be returned within three weeks of receipt.
I found this webinar extremely helpful and packed with valuable info. Thank you so much! I feel much more confident to proceed with revising my first chapter. – Amy G.
Saturday, December 29th, 11 a.m. CST: Rock Your Writing Goals Webinar
A fun and motivational free webinar just in time for those New Year’s Resolutions. Let’s spend an hour together this last weekend of December and do some creative brainstorming for the year to come. The webinar will last one hour.
This webinar is for all writers, at all skill levels. I’ll discuss creativity, actionable steps for achieving your writing or publishing goals this year, and send you off into 2019 with a bang!
While I’m no longer a literary agent, I still want your query letter submission for an upcoming project! Aspiring writers are desperate for feedback on example query letters, and to see what their peers are working on. Reading real, live queries is one of the best ways to learn about query writing. But a lot of writers don’t have a venue to share their letters or read other people’s work.
I’m looking to change that. But I need your help!
UPDATE: I am still looking for submissions in the nonfiction (not nonfiction picture book), adult memoir, adult literary fiction, adult fiction, and self-published categories. My children’s fiction query needs have been met! I am also looking for a short nonfiction book proposal example if anyone wants to share.
Are you currently working on a query letter? Have you successfully used a query letter to get literary agent representation or a publishing deal?
I am seeking submissions of successful query letters AND query letters in progress to use for a teaching resource. For query letters in progress, I will provide feedback on every letter that I select for inclusion in this resource as my token of gratitude for your participation. Everyone whose query is selected will receive access to the teaching resource.
I’m especially looking for queries in the following categories:
Memoir or creative nonfiction query (for any audience)
Nonfiction query (in any category, eg, business, reference, parenting, etc.)
Short nonfiction book proposal example
Self-published project query
UPDATE: I am still looking for submissions in the nonfiction (not nonfiction picture book), adult memoir, adult literary fiction, adult fiction, and self-published categories. My children’s fiction query needs have been met! I am also looking for a short nonfiction book proposal example if anyone wants to share.
The queries will be used for a paywall-protected teaching resource only,they will not be published or distributed widely on the blog. Since this is a project in progress, I will provide more concrete information only to people who are selected. You will need to provide written/signed permission for me to reproduce your query letter and provide annotations. (If you don’t want to give permission, that’s not a problem, this post simply isn’t for you.) If your query is in a category that I have already filled, or it does not fit the needs of the project, it will not be selected and I will, unfortunately, not be able to provide the complimentary critique.
If you are submitting a successful query letter that has earned literary representation or a publishing deal, please mention that. You are welcome to crow about your agent’s name, book title, etc. I can include your name and project title in the resource, or omit identifying information. The teaching resource will be released in early 2019.
Query Letter Submission Instructions
Please send your query letter as a Word doc or docx attachment (not a PDF, because I will annotate in Word) or share via Google Docs to:
The updated submission deadline is December 14th, 2018. I will respond to every submission. I will ask until late January to turn around on query annotations, so, unfortunately, the query critique opportunity is not for queries you’re planning to go on submission with, like, tomorrow
As my editorial business has grown (and grown, and grown), I have slipped behind in my social media and web marketing engagement. It’s time to fly the surrender flag: I can’t do it all by myself! You may have noticed that I’m also hiring an editorial and research assistant. Five years into my business, I can admit it freely and happily… There are only three things I like to do at Mary Kole Editorial: Edit, edit, and edit. There’s not a lot of room for anything else! So I’m looking to hire a part-time social media and web marketing associate to help support my business.
About You
Top priority is given to candidates who have professional SEO and social media marketing experience, whether self-taught or, ideally, corporate. Be prepared to discuss your success metrics. My ideal fit is someone who already works in the startup or marketing space, or manages a portfolio of small business clients and does social media support as their primary gig. Any existing access to SEO tools like Moz, etc., is a big plus. Of course, publishing and/or writing experience counts here, but it isn’t the first thing I’ll look at, as this is a specialized position.
You must be comfortable with updating and maintaining profiles/pages on all of the major platforms. You will be creating content once or several times a week (negotiable) and stay on top of engagement. You’ll also be checking in with each platform regularly, managing responses, and identifying opportunities to grow profile presence.
About The Job
This blog has ten years of evergreen content that can be mined and packaged into “From the Archives” material. I’m interested in freshening up the SEO optimization for my most popular posts, as well as keyword research to make sure I’m not missing any opportunities. This is Phase I.
Once you perform an overhaul, the job becomes a maintenance gig: checking in with existing platforms, engaging with users, generating new social media posts and content (except new Kidlit blog posts, those are always going to be my territory), and otherwise keeping things fresh. This is Phase II.
I have several big projects coming up that will need an extra marketing boost, so support around these will be crucial. Long-term, I’m interested in maintaining, engaging, and growing my social media audience, and making sure the blog functions well to a) serve new and existing Kidlit readers, and b) dovetail with my editorial website. You’ll be working primarily with my Kidlit family of profiles, though this online presence is tied to my freelance editing business, Mary Kole Editorial, which is my primary revenue generator.
I’m hoping to monitor your concrete progress and strategize together using tools like Google Analytics. Marketing can be an art, rather than a science, but accountability and results are important here.
Logistics
Initially, our “warm up” period may involve more work, as you spruce up and fine-tune what already exists. Then, I hope to establish a maintenance relationship of several hours a week. That’s why I’m looking for candidates who already work in the space or manage a portfolio of other clients, ideally, because this isn’t going to be an especially meaty part-time position on its own.
Pay is negotiable, whether monthly flat rate or hourly. I have some numbers in mind but I’m very open to hearing your pitch. You can break your pricing out into separate fees for Phase I and Phase II, if that helps. This is a 1099 contract job. It can be performed remotely, but candidates must be legally eligible to work in the US. I’m looking for someone who can start immediately.
I’m specifically not looking for spam from dodgy overseas SEO companies. I get enough of that, as is. Since my primary audience is smart and literary, and I’m asking for new content, I’d prefer someone with impeccable English skills. Please be sure to demonstrate that you’re a real US-based professional who’s interested in this job in particular.
Please submit your social media and marketing resume, a cover letter with your proposal for my specific situation, and your pay requirements. Thank you very much for your interest!