Part 2 of a conversation with Jeff Schill
I look back now and think, why did she pick up that book? There was so much work to it.
— Jeff Schill
Jeff Schill, debut author of The Kid (2024, Charlesbridge), landed a publishing deal without an agent. Which makes him almost a unicorn.
I chatted with Jeff about his publishing journey and what it was like to work with an editor. To read about his book and how he wrote it, see “Fun and Tough Creative Choices.”
Met his future editor at an SCBWI event
Jeff first made contact with his future editor at a writing conference put on by the Wisconsin chapter of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) in the fall of 2019.
“They had an agent-editor day,” he said. “I happened to get paired up with Karen Boss, an editor with Charlesbridge. I think she was intrigued by the voice and the western feel to [my story]. She said, ‘Send me what you have.’”
So he did, thinking she probably said that to every writer she had a critique with.
She wrote back that his novel wasn’t for her at the moment. But she added, “I very rarely ever do this, but I’m going to give you feedback on your story. If you’d like to resubmit it, I would take a look at it again.”
She told Jeff, “It’s a funny story. You’ve got some good characters. But you have no plot and no motivation. You really need to clean those things up.”
“It was very direct,” Jeff said. “An editor just gave me feedback. That’s great. But the feedback is ‘you need to rewrite your whole book.’
“I was kind of heartbroken.”
Then Covid hit.
Jeff said, “I had nothing really to do, so why don’t I take her suggestions and see what happens?”
He sent it back to her. She liked it and “was willing to take it on at that point,” Jeff said.
He signed the contract in 2021.
“I had to navigate through all the contract stuff, which I’ll say is not that hard,” he said. “I kind of had to go with what they offered. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t being taken advantage of. I felt comfortable with Charlesbridge. But I had no negotiating power.”
The realities of working with a professional editor
To have somebody working on his story with him, side-by-side, was eye-opening for Jeff.
His publisher planned for The Kid to come out in 2024. “‘That will give us enough time to get this into shape,’” Jeff’s editor told him.
“I remember thinking, I just rewrote the whole thing,” Jeff said. “What are we going to do in three years?”
His editor had him rewrite it again.
“Big changes right off the bat,” Jeff said. “For example, I had one Henry chapter, one Sam chapter, one Herbert chapter. She said, ‘Henry’s too important. He’s your main character. You need to have at least two chapters every time for him.’
Jeff rewrote all the Henry chapters and developed his motivation and character. That’s when Henry’s younger brothers entered the story. They helped Jeff build the family theme, which “was one of the largest things I needed to do with her.”
They also “worked a ton on where to put everything.” The timeline, which chapter should go first, which should go last. (See part 1 for more details on Jeff’s creative choices.)
The other hard thing Jeff needed to address in his revision was to make the voice distinct for each point of view character “so as soon as you start reading that chapter, you know which character it is.
“So she was right. It took three years to rewrite all of that again. And build out the characters. Build out the plot. Build out the voice.
“I thought I had a solid story when I submitted to her at that agent fair. I learned I didn’t.
“I thought I had a solid story when she accepted it. I learned very quickly I didn’t.
“I was surprised how much she helped me take that book to the next level.
“I look back now and think, why did she pick up that book? There was so much work to it.
“She had to have known that as a first-time author she’d have to put in tons of work to help me get there.”
Jeff submitted several other stories to her, but she’s passed on all of them. He thinks she may not have the kind of time to put into an author these days.
Meanwhile Jeff is back in the query trenches, submitting to literary agents with new work.
See Part 1 of this conversation with Jeff: “Fun and Tough Creative Choices”
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