by kmessner

KidLit Cares: 20-page novel & synopsis critique & skip-the-slush-pile pass from editor Mary Kate Castellani

Welcome to KidLit Cares, an online talent auction to benefit the Red Cross relief effort to help communities recover from Hurricane Harvey and related flooding. Agents, editors, authors, and illustrators have donated various services to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, with donations being made directly to the Red Cross disaster relief fund. You can read more about KidLit Cares here. Now, on to the auction!

Executive Editor Mary Kate Castellani of Bloomsbury Children’s Books has donated a “skip-the slush-pile” pass and manuscript critique of a middle-grade or young adult novel for an aspiring children’s author. Please submit the first 20 pages and synopsis for review and critique in the form of a short editorial letter.
Mary Kate is an Executive Editor at Bloomsbury Children’s Books where she publishes titles for all age levels, including the Zombelina picture book series by Kristyn Crow and illustrated by Caldecott-honor winning illustrator Molly Idle; middle-grade novels by critically acclaimed authors Kate Messner and Megan Frazer Blakemore; and YA novels by award-winning authors Emery Lord, Tonya Bolden, and Leah Thomas.

Opening bid: $50

Auction ends: Wednesday, September 6, 2017 at 10pm EST.

Any bids submitted in comments after that time will be void. (Please note: bidding at the last second isn’t a good idea. Websites get overloaded & there’s always a chance that your bid might not post on time. So please bid your best offer with plenty of time to spare.)

If you’d like to bid on this auction, check the current high bid and place a higher bid by leaving your name and bid amount in the comments, along with some way to contact you (email, FB or Twitter…I’m not fussy.) Winners will be notified when the auction ends and should be prepared to make an online donation to the Red Cross Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief fund in the amount of the high bid at that time.  After you’ve made your donation, you’ll forward your receipt to me, and I’ll put you in touch with the person who donated the service you won so that the two of you can work out the details about how and when.   All services will be provided at the convenience of both the person making the donation and the auction winner, but this should happen within three months of the auction’s end unless something else is agreed upon by both parties.

Good luck, and thanks for bidding!

29 Replies on “KidLit Cares: 20-page novel & synopsis critique & skip-the-slush-pile pass from editor Mary Kate Castellani”

  10. the description of this auction is inconsistent to the description of the main page description which is a critique for a picture book . Am I correct? If it is for the picture book critique then, yes, I bid $300 on it. Can someone clesr this up?

    1. Hi Rita, Looks like the links to the pages are mixed up, but the picture book option is available if you click on the gray-colored live link just above the comments section.
      Thanks for your interest and generosity!
      Mary Kate

  11. Apologies, everyone – I posted over 100 auctions yesterday & must have run out of brain power at the end. THIS is the 20-page novel manuscript critique. Here is a link to the picture book critique: https://katemessner.com/kidlit-cares-picture-book-critique-skip-the-slush-pile-pass-from-editor-mary-kate-castellani/ It was linked incorrectly on the master list, which is why some picture book folks ended up here. That’s fixed now as well. Again, sorry! Rita, your bid is cancelled. Thanks.

    The current high bid on this auction (20-page critique) is $275 from Rachel Martin.

  27. This auction closed at 10pm EST. The winner is the highest bid with a 9:59 or earlier time stamp on the comment:

    Congratulations, Sandy Grubb!

    At this time, you should make a donation in the amount of your high bid to either the Red Cross or Global Giving Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts. Here are the two links:

    Red Cross: https://www.redcross.org/donate/hurricane-harvey?campname=Harvey&campmedium=aspot

    Global Giving: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/hurricane-harvey-relief-fund/

    All donations should be made within 24 hours of the auction’s close. After you have made your donation, you will receive an email from that organization with your official receipt. To have your donation recorded, you must forward this email to the following address: kidlitcaresdonations@gmail.com. Please be sure to forward the receipt email from the organization – screen shots of landing pages and Paypal receipts will not be accepted. In the subject line or body of your email, please let us know which auction you won – that makes the paperwork easier. Thanks!

    After you’ve forwarded your email, your donation will be recorded, and within a day or two, you’ll receive an email from me connecting you with the donor of your item so that you can share necessary information and work out the details. (Donors, please sit tight until you get that email from me!) Thanks for your patience – we’re processing all the paperwork from 200+ auctions in three days, so we’ll do our best to be quick, but it won’t be immediate. And thanks so much for supporting Hurricane Harvey relief efforts!