SCBWI TEAM BLOG Pre-Conference Interview: Advice on Critiques From Editors & Agents

Yesterday Alice Pope offered another in our series of SCBWI TEAM BLOG pre-conference interivews with Annual Winter Conference faculty. Alice talked to a handful of editors and agents on receiving and giving manuscript feedback.

Below is a bit from her post. Click here to read the full interview.  

SCBWI's Annual Winter Conference in New York is just eleven days away! If you're attending, you may be planning your outfits and your evening activities in the city (which you certainly should), but you should also be thinking about how to make the most of the event. So I checked in with a few of the editors and agents participating in the conference to ask for some advice to pass on to you.

Today's topic: CRITIQUES

Editors Krista Marino (Delacorte), Franceso Sedita (Penguin) and Jennifer Rees (Scholastic) and agents Kerry Sparks (Levine/Greenberg) and Kary Kole (Andrea Brown) are participating in the Writers' Intensive that kicks off the weekend of conferencing. At this day-long event, writers have the opportunity to get feedback on a manuscript from a several editors and agents, and writers offer feedback to one another.

Intensives have limited space for writers and this year's Writers' Intensive (as usual) sold out super fast. But even if you aren't attending it, you probably have been or will be in a critique situation, whether at a conference with an editor or agent, one-on-one with a critique partner, or in a critique group setting. Here are some things to keep in mind offered by our group of industry insiders.

Although the Writers' Intensive is sold you, you can still register for the Annual Winter Conference and rub elbows with industry insiders like the ones above. Click here for information.

Jennifer Rees on Your Voice Is Your Voice: Keeping It Real

Jennifer sold books at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati before moving to New York to work at Scholastic Press, the literary imprint of Scholastic. She acquires picture books, middle grade fiction, and young adult fiction. She acquires based on personal love, and pushes something she really wants to work on (like, say THE HUNGER GAMES).

Jennifer's session is standing-room only, and for good reason. Scholastic Press has published many literary favorites, including RULES by Cynthia Lord, THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by Brian Selznick. Their authors include M.T. Anderson and Jon Muth. And of course, there is Suzanne Collins's HUNGER GAMES, which Jennifer edited.

She's sharing an early draft of her talk to demonstrate some of the choices we make when we're working on voice. She's getting lots of laughs, but making a really helpful point.

• What story are you going to tell?
• How are you going to tell it?
• What point do you hope to convey?

Your voice is the glue that holds these things together and makes your story powerful and unique. "Voice is the No. 1 thing I respond to in a piece of writing," she said.

She learned in her years as a bookseller people buy a book because of its first page. If they love it, they buy it. There are lots of deciding factors (age range, subject matter). But voice is overarching. "Give me an interesting voice--give me a good voice--and I'll read anything, regardless of subject matter," she said.

Voice is also the connective tissue and authorial stamp--it unites all the books that you write and enables you to publish more than one book.

"Your voice is you," Jennifer said. "Your writing is a reflection of you. No one will ever write the same story as you."

She's reading the first few paragraphs of THE HUNGER GAMES. Everyone is spellbound. (Except for the one person sneezing in the back. Haymitch!)

"When the HUNGER GAMES landed on my desk, we zipped through it--and we couldn't believe this was what she turned in."

She read it all day at work and left at 4:30 to pick up her two boys. She ended up missing two subways and a bus because she was reading the draft and nothing else existed. (Her husband had to drop everything and go pick up the boys.)

Elements of voice:

• What does your character notice?
• What do they say?
• What they leave out is as important as what they notice.

Some additional observations: 

• When you're thinking about characters, as yourself this about your character: What is your character's surprise?
• Voice sets mood and emotional climate of a story. A grim topic can often be treated with humor.
• Voice changes as your audience changes. The way you'd tell your friends you're going to quit your job is not the way you'd tell your boss you're going to quit your job.
  
• Avoid "teenspeak"--going into overdrive with jargon and slang and irritating expressions. It doesn't matter if your character is plugged into the latest lingo. Voice is believable only if it's something your character would say.
  

Editor Panel: Jennifer Rees

From Your House to My House: What Makes Me Choose Your Book
This editor panel is being moderated by Krista Marino.

Where have you been and and what books have you worked on in the past?

Jennifer was a bookseller at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati before she made the move to NY and began working for Scholastic Press. She acquires picture books, middle grade fiction, and young adult fiction. She acquires based on personal love, and pushes something she really wants to work on.

Some of the authors she works with are: Wendy Mass, Suzanne Collins (she is one of her editors), and Sarah Darer Littman, plus many others.

Voice or Plot? What would you rather get in a submission?

It’s all about voice for Jennifer. She can work with an author to straighten out plot.

Every writer has books that inspire them, can you give me two books that have inspried your career or you wish you were a part of?
 
A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY by Libba Bray
SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson
 
Do any of you find inspiration for your work outside the trade book world?
 
Jennifer tries to have her ear to the pulse of what other people are talking about, reading the newspaper, listening to NPR, and going to movies.
 
What specifically are you looking for for your list right now?
 
Finding a story that has not only fanstastic writing, great characters, great story, and great voice, but also has good commercial potential, menaing a wide audience.
 
Any pet peeves, or things not to do when submitting?
 
A package that's just not quite professional. She's always looking for someone who can promote themselves in a professional way.
 
Do you accept/read slush?
Scholastics policy is not to accept slush. Jennifer doesn't personally read slush but has assistants who do.

More Q&A With Jennifer Rees

Q: Is she competitive with other editors? Do they pass manuscripts to other editors.

A: She's says there are a reason that there are different at publishers--they have their own flavors. Considering other editors' workloads, she would actually pass a manuscript along to someone else, but she's mention to the writer that they should consider subbing to someone else at Scholastic who may be more appropriate.

Q: Can I submit more than one picture book manuscript at a time.

A: no.

Q: Will she accept electronic submissions?

A: She will not. It's a lot more work for her and she's got limited time to devote to submissions, so having a printed manuscript is more efficient.

Q: What percentage of submissions does she contract?

A: She edits 10-15 a year out of--a lot--that comes in.

Q: Does she prefer working with agents?

A: She says working with an agents allows her to get you response faster.

Q: Why does she do conference?

A: She loves to connect with writers. It inspires her to do a better job and reminds her how important SCBWI is. A lot of newer agents and editors do a higher volume.

Q: Can you submit the same manuscript to two imprints at the same house at the same time?

A: No.

Jennifer Rees Q&A

Q: What's the market for picture books?

A: Like Kathy Dawson, Jennifer said picture books are tough to get published in today's climate.

Q: Do you like rhyme?

A: She says don't be sing-songy and don't force rhyme. If it's done well, she's for it.

Q: What if what you're doing is too similar to what an editor has already worked on. Where's that line?

A: If it's a very similar plot, she would not look at it. If it's similar generally (like distopian, for example) but a different twist on that than what the are doing, that would be considered.

Note: Jennifer doesn't take unsolicited manuscripts. She time frame on submissions is at least 8 months.

Some Books Edited by Jennifer Rees

11 Birthdays, by Wendy Mass (a mid-grade)
Chicken and Cat, by Sara Varon (which is a wordless picture book)
The Wedding Planner's Daughter series, by Colleen Murtagh Paratore
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

While the above authors Jennifer mentioned were published prior to working with her, she has found a few choice manuscripts through her slush pile and had worked on uncontracted revisions.

The Inside Scoop: Jennifer Rees, Scholastic

Says Jennifer Rees, Scholastic Press editor, her press loves the irreverent and the humorous as well as the commercial successes. As an editor, she loves variety—fiction, nonfiction, his, romance, teen fiction, history, humor, almost anything.

She loves genre and genre blending. After grad school she worked at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati (yay!) and took great joy in recommending books that her customers loved.

Here are a few things she wished she would find in every manuscript:

• A distinctive, fresh voice. Don’t hold back on your voice and writing style.
• Great characters. Let them speak to you as you’re writing.
• Something that aims to set his own trend. She wants something new, not knock-offs.
• A story that keeps me guessing. She doesn’t want predictable.
• A story that is out of the box.Write the story that keeps you awake at night. Your writing should be set to the music of its own song.
• A professional package. She wants a manuscript that is readable. She needs SASE.
• A writer who knows about the market.