Picture Books, with Bibi Lewis (Cohort 1)

May 1st, 2022 - May 23rd, 2022

with Brooke McIntyre

Group started

In this intimate workshop, you'll receive a written critique of a picture book manuscript from Agent, Bibi Lewis from Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency, plus get the opportunity to speak to Bibi individually in the live group call that follows critiques. You'll also exchange critiques within your group of up to 6 writers. 

How it works

You'll submit your pages at the group start, then spend the next weeks critiquing peer stories. Bibi will submit her notes near the critique deadline. After critiques are complete, we host a 2-hour group debrief, in which each writer gets individual time with Bibi to dig into feedback, brainstorm next steps, and discuss any writing questions. 

Our goal with these events is to help writers become stronger storytellers. That said, each opening pages event we offer also comes with a submission opportunity.

About the group workshop format

Participants should be sure they have at least 1 hour to give for critiquing each person's manuscript (plus reading time). Because this is a group of 6, this means you should have at least 5 hours available for your peers' stories.

This makes for an intense workload for the few weeks of peer critique. However, we've also found that this format accelerates learning because you are able to read a professional's feedback on each story you have read and critiqued, and you will listen to each one-on-one in the debrief. Many writers have told us that listening and learning from the professional's notes to others has been just as beneficial to their learning as the feedback on their own work.

Notes

Who this workshop is for: This workshop is best suited for writers querying, preparing to query, or who have an agent but are looking for a high level educational opportunity.

Focus: Children's - Picture Books - Fiction - Children's - Picture…

Group size: 6 writers

Submissions: Submit one picture book. Fiction submissions should be under 900 words; nonfiction should be under 1500 words.

Fee

Members: $96; Non-members: $115

We are pleased to offer a spot free of charge to a writer from a historically marginalized group. Applications for this scholarship have closed.

About Brooke McIntyre

Bibi Lewis is an agent and rights manager at the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency where she started in 2014. She is currently building her list in PB, MG and YA (both fiction and non fiction) and adult romance and mysteries. A native New Yorker, Bibi can most often be found reading on a train or curled up knitting with her cat.

About Bibi's editing process:
I approach editing the same way I look at solving a puzzle--asking myself how can I turn or shift these pieces to get the project looking polished and complete? I tend to think holistically about a project instead of on a line by line basis. The projects I am most interested in tend to be character forward, so I also always keep an eye out for how consistent the characters are in the project and how they can change over the course of the manuscript (yes even pbs!).

Schedule:

Sun, May 1st: Writers Submit
Sun, May 15th: Critiques Due
Thurs, May 19th: 7-8:30 pm ET - Debrief call
Sun, May 22nd - Group closes.