Test Readers
I’ve finished rewriting an earlier manuscript that needed work, and it’s now at the stage of being reviewed by test readers. That’s a bit unnerving because you never know how people will view your work, but it’s also really useful and kind of fun to see their take on certain scenes and twists of plot. Test readers have fresh eyes that, let’s face it, authors lack, as they’ve been living with the project forever.
I’ve got a simple method. I ask readers to write along the margins whatever pops into their head. If a section made them smile, I ask them to draw a smiley face. If they didn’t understand, put a question mark or ask a question. If a section’s boring, say so! If the readers are simply gripped by the amazing awesomeness of the story, well, congratulations are in order. Yay, me! 🙂 No matter how the comments go, I need honesty here. I need to know what works. So far, my test readers have been great at telling me like it is, which is exactly what I need!
I found an interesting article about test readers here at the American Book Publishing site. Enjoy, and thanks to all you test readers out there who make good books better!
It just came out Tuesday and, so far, it’s a really fun read. I’m a little more than 100 pages into The Last Olympian, the final book in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, written by 
Another book which I just loved and read, oh, probably six months ago now, was The Graveyard Book by 
She spoke on a slew of issues, including how the economy is affecting acquisitions, which I found particularly interesting. Kendra assures us that publishers are still acquiring books (after all, that is what they do), although they’re being pickier and taking fewer risks. As such, she encourages authors to aim for specificity in their work: in hook, plot, target audience, and, later, the agent or publisher to which you submit.
Okay, I know that I sound like an old fuddie duddie when I say, “Oh my, where did the time go? Another year come and gone!” Well, dangit, that’s exactly how I feel, and I just cannot believe that another year’s rolling ’round. 
But not everyone does it well. There are angry critics who reject everything they see. There are unhelpful critics who expound without explanation. There are sunshiny, happy critics who see toil behind every work and inevitably praise every effort. Finally, there are objective, helpful critics who judge a work systematically and with professionalism.
I’ve been posting for several days now on the speakers at SCBWI-WI’s fall retreat. The two I’ll highlight today were informative and funny, and their ideas were excellent.
Illustrator 
The “economy of language” is how one guest at the retreat summed up children’s picture books. Associate Editor Stacy Cantor of