At the Arkansas SCBWI conference this weekend, I met Krista Vitola of Delacorte and Ariel Richardson of Chronicle. Here’s the skinny.
Note: Please look for their submission guidelines and follow them carefully.
Meet Krista Vitola, Assistant Editor, Delacorte Press
Official bio: Krista Vitola is assistant editor at Delacorte Press. Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from Villanova University in 2008, Krista began working at Delacorte Press, a division of Random House Children’s Books. A lover of middle-grade and young adult fiction, she’s always in search of a story with a strong protagonist and unique voice. Her list ranges from Victoria Laurie’s middle-grade adventure series, Oracles of Delphi Keep, to Sophie Littlefield’s young adult thrillers.
In previous posts about meeting editors, I’ve described them in terms of super hero(ines), popular characters or folk/fairy tale characters. Read about:
- The Peter Parker of children’s literature
- The M of children’s literature
- The Bill Gates of children’s literature
Following those precedents, Krista is as beautiful as the lovely Snow White, but this Snow White is a 21st Century dynamo, no cowering female here. She’s stuffed her magic mirror into the recesses of her closet, probably only saving it for her wedding day. Instead, as a speaker, she put us dwarves through training exercises. She’s a marathoner–at least 10 full marathons and so many half-marathons she’s lost track–and she uses her intimate knowledge of children’s literature to coach writers with encouragement and a standard of excellence.
For example, one of her pet peeves is what she calls “list actions”. When you try to Show-Don’t-Tell, one misstep is when you rely too heavily on a “subject-strong verb” construction.
“A shaft of sunlight slanted across the tundra and struck the troll. The roar stopped. The tundra paused, silent.”
This is a step above a telling that simple says, “The sun rose and it was quiet.” But the sentence patterns are too static, creating what Krista terms “list actions.” To revise, break it up with dialogue or thoughts, or revise for better sentence variety.
Krista edits MG and YA, preferring stories about guys (must also include a strong female, though, for marketing) and she buys voice.
Ariel Richardson, Editorial Asst, Chronicle Books (on left), and Krista Vitola, Asst. Editor, Delacorte Press
Meet Ariel Richardson, Editorial Assistant, Chronicle Books
Official bio: Ariel Richardson is a children’s editorial assistant at Chronicle Books (read their blog) in San
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