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l to r: Aaron Hartler, Nancy Conescu, Rachel Griffiths, Michelle Poploff

SCBWI's own Aaron Hartzler moderates a panel of editors offering post-critiqe advice. Here are some highlights.

Nancy Consescu (Dial): Revision is a process. Post critique, you have to consider the various comments, decide how to address things, and try different things until you get to what works. She asks her authors to start with making big changes that will resonate through the manuscript. She suggests really looking at your chapter endings and be sure you're giving readers a reason to turn the page. Also really look at the dialogue specific to each character to be sure what they say rings true to each character. She stresses, as you work with an editor, that there's a period of digesting the suggestion that must take place.

Rachel Griffiths (Scholastic): She hopes that a manuscript has been revised maybe ten times by the time it gets to her. She suggest that writers pay attention to what you're feeling as you read it--does your mind wander, is something is confusing? If you're ever stuck on a revision, you just work on it, go over things over and over again, and it eventually it can turn into something magical. She reads through and looks for one flash of greatness in a mediocre manuscript, and suggests her authors revise the rest of the pages to get to that level. She hopes that's authors take about 50% of her revision suggestions and that they don't work with the suggestions that don't feel true to them. She stresses the importance of working on your craft because that's what makes you get better and better and grow as a writer.

Michelle Poploff (Delacorte): (Note: She was the editor for this year's Newbery winner MOON OVER MANIFEST by Clare Vanderpool, the first debut author to win the award in 30 years. Also note: She's found four authors at SCBWI conference over the past few years.) The revision process between writer and editor varies depending on authors preferences and working style. She always tells authors to read out loud and she's a big fan of writers groups, saying that if you belong to a writing group, they can be very helpful advocates. She also suggests writers let things percoloate for a while as you revise. Revision is like redecorating, and sometimes you rearrange all the furniture in the room, and still there's still a lamp that's in the wrong place. She wants authors she works with to take their time to do the very very best they can on revising.

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The editor at my morning table is Michelle Poploff, Vice President, Executive Editor at Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children's Books. She's edited a number of Newbery honor-winning books, including "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson, "You'll Like It Here, Everybody Does" by Ruth White and the just announced winner of this year's Newbery Award, "Moon Over Manifest" by Claire Vanderpool!

Aaron tells us it's 12 minutes for each of us.

Ready? Set? Go!!!

Our Critique Session:

writer #1 at the table shared a YA historical, and when Michelle asked for what her elevator pitch for the story would be, she struggled to come up with the words to describe her book, but ultimately did. We were all rooting for her.

writer #2 hadn't brought her manuscript to share, and wanted to pass, saying she was happy to just be here and learn from everyone else. We urged her to take her turn at the end, and then she could at least talk about her book. She didn't seem sure about that, but we went on.

writer #3 was myself. I shared the first 500 words of my MG, and many of my fellow writers said kind things. There was a discussion about their not being sure where the book was going, and again Michelle asked me to pitch it, thinking that perhaps the manuscript was all about my main character's Bar Mitzvah - which left her wondering what made it special. That was very thought-provoking, and makes me want to look again at my opening paragraph.

writer #4 shared a MG historical, and again had to share with us where the story was going. Michelle shared the tip that if you write a particular genre, check out the other books in that same genre currently being published, and look in the acknowledgements to find out which editors are loving that time period. (She, for instance, is a big fan of historical books encompassing the American South.)

writer #5 shared a YA contemporary. She was also asked to quick pitch it, and what we discovered from her pitch was that the main character (who she said the story was about) wasn't really featured in her opening two pages. That's something she sounded like she wanted to address in a re-write.

writer #6 shared an upper MG contemporary, and got lots of compliments (from Michelle and the table at large) about her very nice opening and writing in general. At this point, we were all eager to hear her pitch because it contextualized the first 500 words and gave us a sense of the whole story and where it was going.

writer #7 shared a picture book manuscript, and discovered that her story started about 300 words in! She was excited to work on it again, revising it to reveal the gem that it can be. Also Michelle shared with us the thought that from a parent's perspective, picture books are an expensive investment, and to buy one it has to be a story they and their kid are going to want to read again and again. She challenged all of us to consider what was the sense of "specialness" about our books.

writer #8 shared an historical MG, and there was a mistake in her printing, so we only had the first page and the third (with a single paragraph on it) so we were missing the second page on all our copies. She bravely apologized and forged on with her reading, and got a lot of praise from Michelle et al., about her very nice beginning and her skill at conveying time and place. And props for handling it so professionally.

We came back to writer #2 and, emboldened to claim her twelve minutes by Michelle's kind encouragement, she gave us her pitch for her MG historical. She made it rich and layered and interesting, and as her book had a regional interest, it lead to Michelle's advice about not discounting regional publishers in the search for publication. We were all delighted she seized the opportunity to get feedback on her pitc

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