Accolades
On November 15, 2009, three New York agents offered their latest workshop for children's and YA writers. Over the course of a full day Andrea Cascardi of Transatlantic Literary Agency, Anna Olswanger of Liza Dawson Associates, and Ann Tobias of Ann Tobias, A Literary Agency for Children's Books discussed why they thought publishers and/or agents rejected manuscripts submitted by workshop participants.
WHY WAS MY MANUSCRIPT REJECTED?: 3 Agents, 3 Opinions was a sell-out.
Here are just a few of the comments from workshop participants:
"It was very refreshing to meet three literary agents and hear them speak. They were not fierce! In fact, they were very nice and helpful. I have so many invaluable notes from the workshop. It was helpful to get three different viewpoints about my work. I loved the workshop and I would do it again."
"The light bulb that went on over my head. Seriously, something was nagging at me about my story, and I couldn't figure out what it was. The most pertinent comments, for me, were the ones having to do with plot. There was imagination, but no motivation for what my character was doing, no desire, no transformation. Kind of like a movie with great special effects but no story line to hang them on. The critique made it much more clear what needs to be done."
"The feedback was eye opening and very helpful. As an aspiring writer I found the experience of having agents, as opposed to many of the editors I've dealt with at other conferences, very important since I soon want to query agents. What I learned that afternoon was valuable and pertinent, and can only help me prepare a more polished manuscript to market in the future."
"Although I'd have loved more time for each of us, having us timed so precisely prevented the critiques from going overtime (always a problem at other workshops) and definitely allowed each person to get a fair share of critiquing time."
I very much enjoyed listening to my feedback and the feedback of others. I have gotten A LOT of feedback from former editors and current children's book authors, but this is all done through letters. The in-person feedback (so that I could ask questions) was absolutely invaluable.
