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Edelweiss - The Secret Tool to Getting Inside the Industry Mindset Webinar - Susan Chang

Apr 26, 2025

Online event

What’s the first image that comes to mind when someone mentions the word “edelweiss”? If it’s Christopher Plummer strumming his guitar in The Sound of Music or the star-shaped alpine flower, you’re not alone. But what if I were to tell you that Edelweiss is also the name of a free—and shockingly underused—online platform that will give you valuable insight into the mindset of publishing industry insiders? In this webinar, freelance developmental editor Susan Chang (former acquisitions editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books, Disney Publishing Worldwide, and Macmillan/Tor Publishing) will demonstrate how to utilize Edelweiss to reverse engineer your query letter pitch, identify potential comparable titles, stay abreast of market trends, and much more!

Edelweiss - The Secret Tool To Getting Inside the Industry Mindset

What’s the first image that comes to mind when someone mentions the word “edelweiss”? If it’s Christopher Plummer strumming his guitar in The Sound of Music or the star-shaped alpine flower, you’re not alone.

But what if I were to tell you that Edelweiss is also the name of a free — and shockingly underused — online platform that will give you valuable insight into the mindset of publishing industry insiders? In this webinar, freelance developmental editor Susan Chang (former acquisitions editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books, Disney Publishing Worldwide, and Macmillan/Tor Publishing) will demonstrate how to utilize Edelweiss to reverse engineer your query letter pitch, identify potential comparable titles, stay abreast of market trends, and much more!

Cost, Date, and Time

Cost:

Member Cost: $25.00

Non-Member Cost: $45.00

Date:

Saturday, April 26, 2025

Time:

1:00 pm to 2:30 pm (Arizona Time)

Zoom

LOCATION: Online Zoom Platform

If you are unable to attend the program live, a recording will be made available within a week after the event concludes. The recording will be available to registered attendees for 30 days after the recording link has been posted.

Critiques

Susan has agreed to take on 10 query letter critiques from webinar attendees available for purchase at the time of registration. She will accept the following types of critiques:

  • Query Letter Critiques - submit a one-page Word document, double-spaced, with no more than 400 words. Susan will electronically edit the query letter after the webinar so you can implement what you have learned.

Attendees must submit their critique materials to Karen Chow, Arizona SCBWI ARA at [email protected] no later than Monday, May 5, 2025.

Presenter Information

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Susan Chang

Susan Chang is a freelance developmental editor with thirty years of experience acquiring books at Big Five publishers. She began her publishing career at HarperCollins Children’s Books, where she worked for nine years before moving on to shorter stints at Hyperion Books for Children (a former imprint of Disney Publishing Worldwide) and Parachute Publishing, a book packager. She was a senior editor at Tor Books (Macmillan Publishers) for seventeen years before launching Susan Chang Editorial LLC in 2022. She lives in Queens, the most diverse borough of New York City.

Terms, Conditions, and Refunds

By signing up for this event, the registrant acknowledges that audio taping, videotaping and/or transmitting or aiding in any of the foregoing of any part of the conference (including, but not limited to, presentations, individual sessions and networking events) is prohibited. Additionally, the material in all handouts and presentations is copyrighted and may not be reprinted, blogged, written, orally transmitted, and/or reproduced without written permission of the copyright holder.

Refund Policy:

SCBWI is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. SCBWI Regions are managed by unpaid volunteers. Region funds support programs that benefit SCBWI members.

As part of the event planning process, Regional Advisors must sign contracts with venues, speakers, critiquers, vendors, and others who will be providing services during a regional activity. Registration fees collected for an event must cover the cost of these contracts; therefore, refunds are the exception rather than the rule. In the rare case a refund is granted, it will always be less any credit card processing fees and any other processing expenses.

Requests to refund registration fees for in-person activities will be decided on a case-by-case basis. By registering for an event, you acknowledge that you have read and accept the event’s refund policy.