Brooke Vitale: Children's Books Editorial Services

I am a children’s book editor with nearly twenty years’ experience at some of the world’s top publishing companies, including Penguin Random House and Disney. Over the course of my career, I have edited thousands of traditional and independently published children’s books, spanning all categories including picture books, middle grade, activity books, and nonfiction. Among my favorites (and my most successful) were Hide and Hug Olaf, by Kevin Lewis, which sold over 400,000 copies, and Olaf's Night Before Christmas, which sold over 250,000 copies. But I’m more than just an editor. I’m also a published author in my own right, with more than 100 books published through traditional publishing houses including Scholastic, Disney Press, Random House, Penguin, and Insight Editions. Among my favorites that I’ve written are The Magic is in You, published by Disney Press, The Muppet's Christmas Carol and The Goonies published by Insight Editions, and the Timmi Tobbson Young Explorers chapter book series. Having been on both sides of the table means I truly understand the whole writing process. I know how to edit a book to make it sing, but I also understand as an author what it means to have parts of your book that you love too much to cut—even when they don’t really fit. As an editor, there is nothing I love more than diving into a manuscript and helping to pull out all its potential. I believe in collaboration, but also brutal honesty. Too often as an author it is difficult to see where a story is not being true to itself. That’s where I come in. It's my job to tease out the scenes that are good and help you to make them great. To find the moments that aren't quite working and figure out how to turn them into the strongest scenes in the story.