Revising, Editing, Publishing

How does publishing work in Deep’s Young Author Project?
After week 7, we transition into revision. This is when your young writers are in revision mode, you’re in editing mode, and the Deep staff is in publishing mode. Before week 8’s workshop, you should type up your authors’ best work with specific, measurable feedback and bring it to the workshop for them to begin heavy revision. During week 9, you’ll bring back typed work round two, and they’ll continue revising. During week 10, they’ll make final edits, and you will be responsible for typing up those edited copies and submitting their work for publication after your Week 10 workshop. See our publishing guidelines for more details.

How many words/pages/pieces can each author publish?
Each author gets space for up to 1000 words, which translates to about 3 full pages in the book.  Excerpts of longer works are fine.

An author wants to include illustrations they created. Can we do that?
Yes! Let the author know it will be printed in black and white, so colors will not translate into print. Please scan it at as high resolution as you can (300 dpi or higher is great.) and attach it to your submission as a separate PDF named after the author. Do not drag the artwork into the Word file, as it’s hard for our designer to pull it out. Please also indicate in the author’s written document where they’d like art to be placed.

How do writers choose which pieces to publish?
This should be a collaborative effort between you and your writers, though it is ultimately the author’s decision. During week 7, ask writers to star their top three favorite pieces they might want to revise for the book. If they’ve missed an incredible piece, sometimes it’s because they don’t realize its potential. We encourage you to guide them to choosing their strongest work. Be sure to gush over their best work—load it up with comments, give verbal praise, brag on it, maybe read parts of your favorite pieces aloud to the group. Tell them someone else might really need to hear this particular piece to feel less alone. Bargaining can be a great tool, too, e.g. “If you revise this poem about your dad, then you can also revise this one you love about the ninja-princess. Deal?” Remember, you are acting as their editor, and it’s your job to shine the light on their greatness. Type up their best work with specific, measurable revision feedback and bring it to your week 8 workshop. Rinse and repeat for weeks 9 and 10!
Also, check out our blog post on the subject of publishing sensitive work, Published = Public.