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30 Days of WIK15 - Formal Manuscript Critiques
People in this industry tend to be very nice, and that can make it difficult
to remember that publishing is a "bunny-eat-bunny" world. As difficult as it might be, however, it is important to learn what we need to know if you really want to get published.
Has your manuscript been critiqued by your critique group, is your prose polished and honed, your plot peeled away and re-layered, is it is as good as it can get? How can you be sure?
When writers submit work to an editor or an agent, their submissions land on an editor or agent's desk, or in their email inbox, and are read in batches. The submission must stand on their own, no author sitting there to add anything or answer any questions. Even worse, in today's publishing world, when a submission is rejected, typically there is no feedback - often not even a polite "Thank you, but we are not interested."
Registering for a written only critique not only guarantees that your work will be critiqued by an acquiring editor or agent, it simulates the real world process but also allows you an opportunity to receive valuable feedback and learn what you might do to make it even stronger before you send it out again. It focuses exclusively on what is on the page, which is what happens in the real world of children's publishing.
Sometimes face-to-face critiques may be a better choice, for example, if you have a specific question to ask about plot and character choices. That is what I did at my last face-to-face critique: how old should my main character be, given the nature of the story and the things she would be doing?
What is really great is that you don't have to choose - you can register for both face-to-face and written only critiques!
Has your manuscript been critiqued by your critique group, is your prose polished and honed, your plot peeled away and re-layered, is it is as good as it can get? How can you be sure?
When writers submit work to an editor or an agent, their submissions land on an editor or agent's desk, or in their email inbox, and are read in batches. The submission must stand on their own, no author sitting there to add anything or answer any questions. Even worse, in today's publishing world, when a submission is rejected, typically there is no feedback - often not even a polite "Thank you, but we are not interested."
Registering for a written only critique not only guarantees that your work will be critiqued by an acquiring editor or agent, it simulates the real world process but also allows you an opportunity to receive valuable feedback and learn what you might do to make it even stronger before you send it out again. It focuses exclusively on what is on the page, which is what happens in the real world of children's publishing.
Sometimes face-to-face critiques may be a better choice, for example, if you have a specific question to ask about plot and character choices. That is what I did at my last face-to-face critique: how old should my main character be, given the nature of the story and the things she would be doing?
What is really great is that you don't have to choose - you can register for both face-to-face and written only critiques!
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