Inspired by Broadway personality Seth Rudetsky's extraordinary "Seth Rudetsky Reveals the 5 WORST Audition Mistakes," I humbly offer my own List of Dreaded Errors you should try to avoid in your children's or YA manuscript.

#1. NOTHING AT STAKE FOR THE READER This is a BIGGIE, because readers, and maybe even your editor, will forgive a multitude of sins if you’ve got this one working. Is there something in your story we’re rooting for? A character we care about whose situation we can relate to? Don’t give us a kid who has a lot of things to say about his life, his parents, his school, his crush, but doesn’t have any problem that pulls us through your book.