In this talk, editor Meghan McCullough will use query letter and first page samples from attendees’ work to walk through some common missteps authors make on a line level. She’ll discuss how she approaches her work as a copyeditor, what to expect as an author when your work is copyedited and line edited, and why, when it comes to copyediting, the rules are often made to be broken.
Meghan McCullough is a children’s book editor and all-around book lover with 8+ years in traditional book publishing. She’s worked at Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Levine Querido, and Inkyard Press/HarperCollins. She’s been on panels and held craft talks at Kweli Color of Children’s Literature Conference and a variety of SCBWI chapters.
Books she’s edited and acquired have been: a Kids’ Indie Next Pick, a B&N Book Club Pick, a PW Best Book of the Year, a Printz Honor, a Mildred Batchelder Honor, and have received numerous starred reviews in industry trade journals. These days, she’s a full-time freelance editor, specializing in Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction across genres. She works both directly with authors and through publishers on developmental edits, line edits, copy edits, and proofreads. She also provides query letter reviews, drawing on her years of experience and knowledge of the children’s market to help querying authors best position themselves when reaching out to agents. She’s based in Queens, New York, where she was born to a Puerto Rican mother and Irish-American father. For undergrad, she attended Amherst College, and she also holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from The New School. When she’s not reading, she can be found jamming out to the pop-punk hits of her childhood (it was never a phase). Find her on social at @meghanmariamcc.
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About the Instructor
Meghan McCullough
Meghan McCullough is a children’s book editor and all-around book lover with 8+ years in traditional book publishing. She’s worked at Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Levine Querido, and Inkyard Press/HarperCollins. She’s been on panels and held craft talks at Kweli Color of Children’s Literature Conference and a variety of SCBWI chapters.
Books she’s edited and acquired have been: a Kids’ Indie Next Pick, a B&N Book Club Pick, a PW Best Book of the Year, a Printz Honor, a Mildred Batchelder Honor, and have received numerous starred reviews in industry trade journals. These days, she’s a full-time freelance editor, specializing in Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction across genres. She works both directly with authors and through publishers on developmental edits, line edits, copy edits, and proofreads. She also provides query letter reviews, drawing on her years of experience and knowledge of the children’s market to help querying authors best position themselves when reaching out to agents. She’s based in Queens, New York, where she was born to a Puerto Rican mother and Irish-American father. For undergrad, she attended Amherst College, and she also holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from The New School. When she’s not reading, she can be found jamming out to the pop-punk hits of her childhood (it was never a phase). Find her on social at @meghanmariamcc.