I know the point of this was the second half, and I can tell you the only characters she asked me to cut were because they were in the book for like a chptr. But I can speak a lot on the first half of this. When you're answering this question, think REALLY hard. When she asked/1 https://twitter.com/jenichappelle/status/1252186160186654722

me what I wouldn't be willing to change, I think I said, "As long as you don't want me to cut one of my major characters, I'm pretty open to anything." And she was like, "Oh really? Even changing the whole thing to first persona and aging everyone down to make it YA?" /2

And I think my response was something like this. /3

The thing is, a good editor like @jenichappelle will always give you their reasons. My story does have a very YA feel. I kinda wanted a "ya for adults" and she told me it would be a much easier sell as a YA than as an adult novel. The thing is, she was and is right. /4

I've had similar feedback from agents. But it's okay to have something you don't want to budge on. She's right, but for me this isn't my YA novel and if it doesn't sell I know i'll have another one ready to query (hopefully) beginning of next year. Editors have your best /5

interests in mind and they care about you and your book. They want you to succeed as much as you do. So really think about that question. And if Jeni says, "hold my beer" - brace yourself, and really consider it. Because I also gave into one of my "Won't budges" because/6

again she was totally right, it made the story stronger, & it turned out it wasn't one of the pillars that made the story what it WAS for me. Anyway-good luck to everyone who got requests! They won't bite! (Well, I'm not sure about that @Maria_Tureaud . Have you seen her fangs?)