What a great day we had at the SCBWI-SWTX Editor's Day September 18th. I was able to hear two of the speakers, Sarah Shumway, senior editor at Katherine Tegen Books, and Julie Ham, editor at Charlesbridge. Both presented good food for thought. Sarah spoke from the viewpoint of an editor, and what her role is in making a book come to life. Among that is the importance of establishing a good working relationship between author and editor in order to make the manuscript as good as possible. But she reminded us that she also has to satisfy the needs of the company, which is to produce a marketable book. Right now Sarah is looking for YA books.
Julie Ham spoke to the craft of writing and what grabs her attention when first reading a manuscript--voice and character. Is the character unique in some way? Can the reader relate to him or her? And does the voice of the character ring true to the character, i.e., unique in some way? Charlesbridge is accepting unsolicited manuscripts.
Now back to writing, writing, writing with the lessons I have learned.
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