Here are a few quotes and summations I gleaned from the 2007 SCBWI Summer Conference.Arthur Levine—When talking about receiving professional criticism, he reminded us that editors understand what authors feel when waiting for a reply because they go through a kind of “response anxiety” (my term, not his) when they send out revision letters. He's always a bit eager to hear what an author thinks of his suggestions and how he/she will feel about them.
Walter Dean Meyers—“I give details on the internal landscape of a character.”
Lisa Wheeler—“Rhyme is the vehicle for telling a story... It shouldn’t become a bump in the road.”
Rubin Pfeffer—“A great book is one that sets a child off to read another book.”
John Green—“Great books do not happen by accident.”
Linda Sue Park—Revision is re-seeing the manuscript (macrochanges). Rewriting is re-writing (microchanges) by word choice, details, sentences, etc.
Roxyanne Young--The first step in revving up your PR machine is to define your audience. Who is your audience?
I also made more notes to add to my "conference tips" for next year, but that will come later--much later.
That's it for now, folks.
