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If you’ve been following along at home, you know that ManuscriptWIshist.com version 4.0 just launched. And while it’s new, and shiny, and lovely, it’s ten years in the making.
This is the miraculous-feeling story about how we got from Tumblr to WordPress blog to site where agents and editors can login and make their own updates—the only way we’d still exist, because doing everything manually quickly became impossible.
We’ll hear from Mike Chen and Sierra Godfrey, now multi-published authors, who (we know! We can’t believe it either) saw Jessica’s sad “Does anyone know how to fix websites?” tweet, and generously offered to help. They made the site beautiful, sustainable, scalable, and—frankly—possible, going forward.
We also hear from Caitlin O’Connell, now an editor at Marvel, about her days running the backend of the site when it was still run almost entirely by humans. You may have thought it was tech, but it was Caitlin—with her delightful kindness and willingness to help writers, agents, and editors alike—who made all version 2.0 possible.
Plus, we talk about the MSWL party with 90 agents and editors, and how it felt to be in that room with the people dreaming loudly on the internet.
Mike Chen is the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Brotherhood, Here and Now and Then, Light Years From Home, and other novels. He has covered geek culture for sites such as Nerdist, Tor.com, and StarTrek.com, and in a different life, covered the NHL. A member of SFWA, Mike lives in the Bay Area with his wife, daughter, and many rescue animals. Follow him on Twitter to see pictures of his corgi: @mikechenwriter
Sierra Godfrey is the author of A Very Typical Family and The Second Chance Hotel (Sourcebooks). She was born in Santa Cruz, California and has lived many places, including Santorini, Greece. She loves hiking, watching soothing British farmland shows, and thinking of stories about messy families. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family, which includes a dog, two cats, and a turtle, all of which seemed like a good idea at the time. Find her at sierragodfrey.com or @sierragodfrey on Twitter and Instagram.
Caitlin O’Connell is an Associate Editor at Marvel and writer from northern New Jersey. She specializes in YA and children’s literature, but has a great love of all stories that are well told and inviting. When not writing or reading, Caitlin can usually be found drinking tea under a pile of cats or hand-sewing historical costumes for fun. You can follow her on Twitter @Caitlin_Renata or, to learn more about her writing and editing, visit caitlinroconnell.com.