Small-Press Panel
A Whale Rock Scholarship Fundraiser:
All profits from this event will go to our scholarship fund. Your participation helps us support under-represented and low-income writers.
Don’t miss this opportunity to meet editors from some of North America’s best and most prestigious small/indie publishers and to get one-on-one professional insight on your WIP.
WHEN: Saturday, March 2, 2024 1:00 - 5:30 PM ET
Panel discussion 1:00 - 2:30 PM ET
One-on-ones 2:45 - 5:30 ET
WHERE: Online
COST: $185 includes panel discussion and one-on-one editorial meeting
Join acquiring editors Alex Aceves from Holiday House, Karen Boss from Charlesbridge, Kandace Coston from Lee and Low, and Katie Scott from Kids Can Press for a discussion on the state of the industry from the perspective of small and indie presses. We have a bunch of questions prepared, but we want to know what YOU want to know from our esteemed panel. When you register you’ll have a chance to submit your questions to our editors. Acquisitions? Advances? Editorial process? Tell us which questions are on your mind.
Following the panel, each participant will have a pre-arranged 20-minute one-on-one meeting with one of our editors to discuss a sample of their work. Participants will submit their samples ahead of time, and each editor will meet between six and eight participants and to discuss their submission (either one picture book manuscript or 15 to 20 pages of a novel).
After your registration, you will receive a confirmation with instructions on how to submit your sample. You must submit your pages within SEVEN days of registration.
As with all Whale Rock Workshops events, we’re keeping the experience small with a maximum of 26 participants.
Meet Our Editors
Alex Aceves (she/her) is a Latine writer and editor originally from Mexico City and currently based in Brooklyn. She works as an editor at Holiday House, where she oversees the expansion of the Holiday House Spanish language publishing program while also acquiring YA and MG fiction and graphic novels for Holiday House's English language list.
Karen Boss is a senior editor at Charlesbridge where she works on fiction and nonfiction picture books and MG and YA novels. She holds an MA in Children's Literature from Simmons College. She published Traci Sorell's award-winning debut, We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga, and has worked with authors such as Jane Yolen, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Tami Charles, and Wendell Minor.
Kandace Coston (she/hers) is a picture book editor at Lee & Low Books. After graduating from Barnard College, Columbia University, she won an internship grant from We Need Diverse Books and joined the Lee & Low team. Kandace edits both fiction and nonfiction and has had the great pleasure of working on The Electric Slide and Kai, Magic Like That, and Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui.
Katie Scott is a children’s book editor at Kids Can Press. Her books have won numerous awards and accolades, including a New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Book Award, Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, and the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction. She has sat on the board of directors for IBBY Canada and on the nomination committee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration.