How to use this Page

With so many new people signing up for our various events, some are getting confused on exactly what each one offers.  So I wrote up the descriptions that people could refer to when they had questions on the NJSCBWI events.  I’m sure I have missed things.  If you have attended one of these events and notice something missing, please let me know.

FIRST PAGE SESSIONS:

Everyone who attends gets to hear their first page read.  These areheld during the week, starting at 4pm, ending a little after 6 PM.  There is an optional dinner is provided withthe editors.  Dinner usually ends by 8 PM.  Costs for members: $30, plus $30 for dinner.

All the first pages are read aloud by volunteer readers and two editors/agents give feedback on what they heard.

Everyone brings three copies of a first page of a single manuscript with them. Do not put your name on the paper, but do include a title and indicate the genre (picture book, chapter book, middle grade, young adult, non-fiction).

Your manuscript must fit on a single sheet of paper. If you submit a second sheet, only the first one will be read.

Use standard manuscript formatting—double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman or Courier font, one-inch margins all around, half-inch indents for each new paragraph, single column of text. Start at the top of the page, though, instead of spacing down like you normally would for a first manuscript page.  (This applies to all submissions, at all events)

A first page has 23 printed lines (not sentences!), including the title, of text from your manuscript.  That means if you have a picture book, you will be able to get a large portion of your manuscript on that first page.  It does not mean only the sentence or two
that would appear on the first physical page of the printed book.

If your text rhymes, put each rhyme on a new line. Do not leave a blank line between stanzas.

MENTORING WORKSHOPS

These workshops are one day workshops, typically held on Sundays.  Breakfast is available at 8:15 AM.  Program starts at 8:45 AM.

Everyone attending receives a 20 minute one-on-one critique.  Novel Attendees submit the first 30 pages of their manuscript along with a synopsis, 35 days prior to the workshop.  Picture book people submit their full picture book 35 days prior.

Everyone is placed into Writing Groups for peer critiques.  These are exchanged with your group a month before via e-mail. Each member of the group will read and critique the other group member’s submission prior, so everyone is ready to discuss their critique for each.

When one person in your group is meeting with their editor, someone else’s manuscript is being discussed by the group.

Lunch is provided in the cost of the workshop and attendees get to sit at lunch with the editor/agents.

Before and after lunch we have a First Page Session (Please see above description).

The day ends with a Q & A with the editors/agents.  End time is no later than 5 PM.

WRITER’S RETREAT

This is a small Weekend Workshop. Two editors spend the weekend no more than 18 attendees.  Start time 3 PM Friday.  End time 3 PM Sunday.  All meals are included in the cost of the weekend.  All meals are with the editors/agents.

Everyone receives a 45 minute one-on-one critique with their mentor.  The first 30 pages, plus synopsis or a full picture book text is submitted 35 day prior to the weekend to give the editors/agents enough time to critique.

At this time everyone will e-mail the other people in their group their manuscript, so they also will have time to critique in advance of the workshop.  Novel groups normally contain 5 per group. Each group critique receives 45 minutes, too.

Other things included during the weekend:

First Page Session (See above).

Various Workshops:

Example:  This year we are having Pitch and Blurb Writing

An Editor Looks at First Pages by Susan Heyboer O’Keefe

As a writer, I know the excruciating pain of having my work read aloud. Body sinking lower and lower, cheeks burning, I’m positive that the judge and jury—meaning the editors and my peers—know exactly who’s to blame for what they just heard.

As an editor, I’m on the other side of the desk for first pages. I’m still nervous (although admittedly not as much as you are). You’ve spent hours carving and sanding and polishing your first page until it shines. My turn: I have a minute to listen and understand, and then critique right on the spot—editorial improv. I pray that in my clumsiness or exhaustion I don’t knock you off your path.

When I’m wearing my writer’s hat, the eccentric one with the silver deely-boppers, I can be paralyzed by a single wrong word, even though it’s given as professional criticism. People cluck their tongues and chant, “You need a thick skin to be a writer!” Yeah, sure. Some days not even a Kevlar bodysuit works. I always have that in mind when I do first pages and critiques. Other editors do too.

Editors usually take turns reacting first to an author’s page, which both delights and terrifies me. I hate being the first to criticize a manuscript. I love being the first to praise it. I hate looking like an idiot who couldn’t recognize a Newbery book even if it was stickered. I love looking like a literary genius who has insight into everything.

Quite honestly, an editor may be completely baffled by some manuscripts. Not at this conference, but at previous ones, I have stared at first pages, listened to first pages, and come up empty. The worst was when I couldn’t say whether the manuscript was animal, vegetable, or mineral. I was so clueless I didn’t even know what was wrong with the piece. And if it was so bad that it was beyond criticism, then it had to be really, really horrible, right? I sputtered, totally helpless and totally useless. All I could think about was the poor author just feet away.

Into the sounds of my choking jumped the other editor. He knew exactly what the author had been aiming for, why I had missed it, and what needed to be done. He got it. I didn’t.

The reverse has happened too, of course. While the page is being read, I’ll hear a quick gulp of “animal, vegetable, or mineral” panic next to me. Meanwhile, I’m eager to point out all the many things the author has done right and the very few things he or she needs to do to make a good opening great. I got this one.

Like writers, we editors bring our own strengths and weaknesses to a first-page session. We bring our personal biases for and personal biases against certain formats, genres, topics, and styles. And we bring a wide range of skills, including varying abilities to verbalize first impressions on the spot—a skill that does not necessarily indicate how good an editor we really are outside the conference room and back in the office.

Editorial improv.
Maybe Kevlar bodysuits are needed for both sides of the desk.

Thank you Susan for writing this article to help us see a First Page Session from a different perspective.  And thank you for sharing your expertise with the writers at the conference.