Carina Licon is an Associate Editor at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers/Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. She is interested in middle-grade and YA with a focus on books featuring underrepresented stories and voices. She’s especially reeled in by character-driven stories with whipsmart protagonists; spooky and atmospheric middle-grade speculative fiction; contemporary YA thrillers in the vein of JANE ANONYMOUS or SADIE; friendship breakup stories; romance with lots! of! angst!; and stories rich with diverse cultural traditions and storytelling. Born and raised in El Paso, TX, Carina enjoys discovering local restaurants, movie podcasts, and spending time with her very intimidating 8-pound guard dog.
Carina Licon is most of all kind. She addressed problems with my query while also highlighting things she thought were the most impactful. She gave tangible suggestions for how to set up the query better. Ms. Licon was organized in her thoughts on my first 10 pages. She used every last second. It was helpful hearing what she found strong and what jumped out to her. She thoughtfully addressed strengths and weaknesses in those pages. I’m really glad I did this and am very grateful I picked her since she worked hard to get me to see things from the editor’s perspective.
Katie Rizzo
Carina was great. She was easy to talk to and I felt comfortable with her. It was clear she had carefully read my materials and was able to offer both positive feedback and helpful suggestions. I felt like she was genuinely interested in helping me improve and, eventually, succeed.
Laurel Hendrix
Carina jumped right in and covered a lot of ground in our meeting. It was clear that she had prepared notes on my pitch letter and pages in advance. She showed me specific lines that she liked as well as ones with room for improvement and commented on the overall voice, pacing, and scene structure. Overall she was knowledgeable and encouraging.
Grace Harrington
Carina was extremely helpful. She went through my query materials step by step, starting with the things she felt I had done right (helpful in putting me at ease), then offering her suggestions for improvement.
It was lovely meeting her, and very worthwhile!
Jeanne Stadel
Provides Confidence to Start Querying
Carina was extremely positive and encouraging. She asked if I had any questions right off the bat, which I
appreciated. She gave me great feedback on what is needed in opening pages, including the main character’s want or need, a hint at the obstacles, the decision or action the main character will take, and a strong voice. She also talked about adding character emotions (beats) and how they should manifest in their relationships. Carina even gave me authors to comp in a query. I was very pleased with my one-on-one with Carina and I highly recommend her for anyone looking for insight into their first page or query.
Laurie Murphy
Carina was incredibly helpful in her feedback on my query letter and first ten pages. She was kind and professional and provided specific suggestions that greatly improved my query submission!
Jessica Pateris
Work with Carina
LIVE Meetings: Meet face-to-face, from home. Choose Zoom, Google Meet, or phone, and speak for the appointed time about your query, first page, and/or first ten pages (for longer meetings). Does not include written notes, but is a chance to have an honest discussion about your work, and to ask follow-up questions. International meetings welcomed.
HYBRID is a live meeting at the appointment time, with written notes.
WRITTEN Critiques: Get detailed, thoughtful notes on your work. Comes with large-scale edits (character, world, plot, tension, concept, conflict, and similar as needed) in an editorial letter and small-scale, line-by-line notes as needed (for longer critiques, an average of three per page). Work arrives in your inbox within 24 hours of thedate on the calendar.