5 Take Aways from my Editor/Agent Critique Event

It was dark, cold, and rainy when I walked from my house to my neighbors in the wee morning hours on a Saturday. My neighbor is an author/illustrator and I am a writer. We were both cold, wet, tired, and on a mission to put our work into the hands of nearly 20 individuals and get their feedback. After and hour and a half-ish we arrived at the convention center and joined what looked like 100 or so other creative sorts. Being in the room with so many ideas, stories, and possibilities was invigorating, getting specific feedback from agents and editors was the motivating and terrifying in equal measure. The format for feedback was interesting. I say interesting because I haven’t quite settled on whether or not I preferred set up. We chose mentor leaders prior to the event and sat at tables with them and 7 other authors and illustrators. Each person had 15 minutes to share their manuscript and receive feedback from the mentor and group. This ended up having a mixed bag of results depending on who was at the table. Cons and Pros of the Event Format (cons before pros because like finding on a pro-sative note)

Cons:

• Lack of in depth feedback since everyone had to respond immediately after seeing the manuscript.
• Industry professionals had to censor their feedback in consideration of everyone at the table (ie if half of the stories at the table rhymed, they couldn’t fully express their dislike of rhyming manuscripts)
• We did not have knowledge of industry professionals manuscript wish lists until the panel discussion in the middle of the event. So, could not make most informed choice when signing up for our mentors.

Pros:

• Wide range of feedback from mixed group
• Feedback from industry professional
• Insights from feedback recieved by others on their work.
• Opportunity to network with peers and professionals
• Insights into publishers/agents/editors preferences

After lots of reading, discussing, and listening, I felt like I’d definitely gotten my time and money’s worth out of the event. I took home lots of notes on my work and five insights into the children’s book industry. Wouldn’t it be funny if I ended my post now and didn’t share them? No? Well of course not.

5 Insights from my Agent/Editor Event:

1. Character driven narratives with a clear beginning, middle, and end are preferred to more concept driven stories.
2. Illustrations should only be included in your submission if you are truly an illustrator. Subpar illustrations can be a distraction from an otherwise charming story.
3. Illustration notes should only be included to provide information that is essential to the storytelling and that can not be shown through the story text.
4. Give your words room to breath. Formatting your manuscript in a way that demonstrates your understanding of where page breaks might be can help communicate your story more easily. (Picture books only)
5. Message driven stories are not most industry professionals jam. They’d prefer stories with a message demonstrated by the evolution of a character.
   Solid mental take aways for twelve hours away from my kiddos and husband. The best part of the event, though, was developing a broader professional and deeper personal relationship with my author/illustrator neighbor friend. Preparing for the event together and debriefing the experience on our drive home provided me with much needed support and encouragement as I begin to earn the title Writer.

Solid mental take aways for twelve hours away from my kiddos and husband. The best part of the event, though, was developing a broader professional and deeper personal relationship with my author/illustrator neighbor friend. Preparing for the event together and debriefing the experience on our drive home provided me with much needed support and encouragement as I begin to earn the title Writer.