Greg Pincus is a poet, author and social media guru who, through the wonders of social media (and his talent as a writer) got into the New York Times and landed a two book deal with Arthur A. Levine.
Alice Pope is the official blogger for SCBWI, Team Captain for SCBWI's Team Blog, and the former editor of the Children's Writers and Illustrator's Market Guide.
Here's a taste of their words of wisdom:
Greg: There's no one way - each person can follow their own path.
Alice: Just like getting published - it's the same with social networking.
Greg: Recognize that it's not always linear, but a good thing is a good thing. In advertising there's a rule of 7 times of being exposed to something before people buy it. If they see you 6 times via social media, and the 7th time they see your book is in a bookstore... that's good!
the effects are cumulative
You are what you say and do - think of ebay, if someone has a 99% rating, then we trust that seller. Similarly we are all building our reputations online.
Be careful not to hurt yourself - be smart. Greg quoted Jenn Bailey who said that "to get something off the internet is like getting pee out of a swimming pool."
Alice reminded us that in all our interactions we want to ADD VALUE - how can you help? how can you further the conversation?
They've started to share examples of how authors and illustrators have been using social media to further their careers, including:
Readergirlz, five authors who created a safe online community for teenage girls - they're offering virtual author visits and a place for girls to talk books.
Lisa Yee's blog has helped her success and the character of Peepy has become a fun funny extension of her personality.
And me, Lee Wind, with my blog "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read?" - which have given me an expertise in GLBTQ Kid Lit and a platform.
There are so many examples, great points and insights being offered.
Here's an amazing one!
Mitali Perkin's blog, where she talks about multicultural books for kids, even includes a post where she talks about and how through twitter she sold five of her books to India!
They're speaking about blog book tours now... Alice is sharing about author Holly Cupala's book blog tour that she recently hosted one stop for on her SCBWI Blog.
Someone asked how you get Twitter followers, and Alice gave this great advice:
If you participate, people will notice you.
In answering a question about Facebook Fan Pages versus Personal Facebook Pages, Greg says: Everything you say and do online is PUBLIC. And stay active - people want to connect.
Another example of someone doing it right is
Cynthea Liu's recent book launch, where she raised money for a local school and adding that selfless focus was very successful for her.
As Greg says about his own
30 poets 30 days project, which highlighted poems of other people on his own poetry blog, you don't want to just talk about yourself al
I jumped at the chance to come to this breakout! First, I'm a huge fan of Jill Alexander who I met just this weekend. She is LOVELY.
But she's not a chicken. This is the cover of her fabulous book, The Sweetheart of Prosper County.
Then, to make the workshop even better, her agent, Michael Bourret is speaking too. He's okay, I guess.
Kidding! Michael is fantastic with three exclamation points!!!
Before they started, Aaron Hartzler spoke about how Jill and Michael met each other at a conference. The room was laughing and immediately drawn in to listen to these two charismatic speakers.
Jill's tips to prepare for publication:
*Have a web presence.
*Think about your office hours and how much time to dedicate to writing, whether you have an agent or not.
*Get a calendar system because you might need it for school visits, conferences, etc...
Michael says that writers have a lot of work to do even once the book is sold--and it isn't just to write. For example, think about the types of interview questions people will ask.
Jill shared a great story about a speaking engagement. She felt overwhelmed by the jumbotron, the microphone, and the sheer size of the crowd. Jill is so funny! The crowd is just cracking up!
They spoke about edits and how they'll be more than you might expect. You should prepare by studying up on copyediting symbols and get familiar with the process. Expect to read your manuscript ANOTHER 6 to 10 times.
Jill knew that Michael had repped Sara Zarr, so she knew she'd love to work with him. She says to find an agent whose client list is something you're interested in.
There was a great question from the audience, "What happens when it's time for the second book?"
Jill said that with her background as a creative writing major, she's always writing. Plus if she stopped now, her husband and son would throw pencils at her and make her get back to work. Michael said that it's different for every writer. "And for some, like the person in here blogging this, they already have 800 things ready to go." :-)
This was an amazing workshop!! Perfect mix of information and humor!
-Suzanne
Gail Carson Levine has written 17 books for children. Her first book was "Ella Enchanted," which won a Newbery honor and was made into a movie. She blogs about writing here and wrote the nonfiction book, "Writing Magic" - with dozens of writing exercises for kids and the rest of us. She has a picture book and a mystery coming out, and she's sharing with us responses to questions she's had from writers and others...
WRITING FROM A MALE POV (If You're a Woman)
Try thinking of somebody in particular.
When she wrote a character who was trying to keep it's gender a secret, she had the character bow to a Count and then curtsy.
A bow and curtsy are shortcuts, and we need shortcuts because we don't have an eternity to establish a character - but shortcuts can tend towards stereotypes, so use them with care.
Establish your character's gender early - because it's jolting to be reading it wrong.
And she advises to get a guy to read it to make sure the character didn't act in a way that isn't credible.
NAMING CHARACTERS
Find a name that fits but isn't too obvious.
Think of what your character is like, and go to the thesaurus - look at the synonyms. If your character is Moody - Melancholy. Melody? Petulant. Petchula? What about nicknames? The name could be Michael, but his friends could call him "Mope." (He might not like that, and it would just make him mopier!)
SETTING
Be aware of the dangers of information dumps in the first chapter. (Though it worked in "Tuck Everlasting," she says in general to avoid it.)
Setting can be a tool for character development.
In an action scene, you don't necessarily want to stop to describe what the character is wearing. But if you drop in early that the hero dresses in his usual baggy pants, and then wham! It's a problem when he's riding his bike in that chase scene.
And for what happens:
If a fishtank is going to explode and you need to set up it's there first for the reader when the character enters the living room, think about the character NOT saying "Julia, I see your Dad still has his fishtank."
Consider the character saying "I always think those fish are staring at me."
Or the character thinking, "The room always felt heavy to him, two sofas, fish tank, leaden curtains..." - You drop it in there and when the fish tank explodes, the reader will be surprised but will also accept it.
CHARACTER/PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
She looks at pictures and art as inspiration for the details she uses for her characters.
She's also sharing writing prompts throughout this session. Like the idea of taking one of your characters with you when you go somewhere - what does your character notice? miss? react to emotionally? Write it down when you get back.
Lots of great advice!
Francesco Sedita is Publisher of Penguin imprints Grosset & Dunlap and Price Stern Sloan as a writer himself (MISS POPULARITY, SPACEHEADZ with Jon Scieszka).
He went to his first job interview in platform shoes and a ruffled tuxedo shirt. "They took one look at me and said: You should work in publishing."
He thinks we're in a really exciting time in publishing. "Nothing is going to happen to to book. It's not going anywhere."
Grosset & Lunlap was known as a licenced publisher for many years. He's been focusing on a strong middle grade publishing program for age 0-10.
PSS is the original publisher of MAD LIBS. "I think of it as the obnoxious little brother of Grosset." He considers PSS as a laboratory to play with new formats (for example, a $9.99 picture book--they're done four so far and they've gone out well, he says).
Two Grosset series that launched this summer:
FRANKLY FRANNIE by A,J. Stern about a little girl who thinks she should work in an office; and
GEORGE BROWN CLASS CLOWN, by Nancy Krulik.
Fancesco was and is a reluctant reader. He wants to publish titles that will draw in reluctant readers.
He suggest writers don't submit more than on imprint at the same company. It's one big team, and they would share material with other editors at other imprints that if they think there's a fit.
He believes you need to know the rules before you can break the rules, but we're at a time when the rules are bending.
Penguin had become more profitable, he feels, because the president of the company encourages his editorial staff to take risks and innovate, and it pays off. "If you're not making mistakes, you're not taking risks," Francesco says.
The price points are very low at his imprints (usually not over $9.99; FRANKLY FRANNIE is $4.99). He likes to take risks on new voices. He loves the idea of someone starting out at Grosset and creating a great series. He feels there's a negative connotation to the term "mass market," and doesn't like to use that term to describe what he publishes.
Franceso is one of the team members at Penguin who is exploring what material they can produce on new digital platforms. He says that writers should not concern themselves with new platforms or app associated with their text unless it's absolutely essential to the concept of the story.
Parting words of advice: When you go home and write (after the conference), shut the door on what you've learned and write for yourself. Write the story that YOU want to write. If you create the right things, we'll throw all the rules out the window for you.
Stephanie Owens Lurie is Editorial Director of Disney Hyperion.
In an entertaining talk, Stephanie mentioned that she got her start in publishing when she was very young--ten years-old. After the formative years with Harriet the Spy, Stephanie wrote her own book at the age of ten about worms and love. :-)
When she got a bit older, she thought a job helping people with their ideas sounded like a dream. After interning, Stephanie has worked with many fabulous houses, and currently is the Editorial Director of Disney Hyperion.
There are two imprints at Disney--Disney Press: tie ins with Disney movies, TV and characters. And then Disney Hyperion: non-Disney related content from Preschool to YA. At Hyperion they are very author focused. Melissa De la Cruz, Ally Carter, Rick Riordan and Mo Willems are among their writers and illustrators.
Publishing about 100 books a year, at least 75 % are original content and 25% are reprints. 80% is commercial.
What would you say to a martian about the climate of the children book market? Big books are bigger than ever.Harry Potter and Twilight have opened doors. So many levels of books are doing really well, especially in YA. She has theories as to what shrunk the picture book market. But she thinks that the digital book could possibly mean the rebirth of the picture book.
-Suzanne
Writing a book based in San Francisco (which he wasn't in), Paul used Google maps street view to see the street he had his character walk down. Was it hilly? Oh, there's a green awning. A tree...
How cool!
 |
| Justin Chanda chillaxing by the hotel pool |
This is Justin Chanda's first SCBWI conference. I'm not sure why. He's a force to be reckoned with at Simon & Schuster, and he's incredibly enthusiastic about children's books. He starts glowing and levitating when he talks about them. He's our kind of dude.
As the publisher of 3 flagship imprints at Simon & Schuster— Atheneum, BFYR, and McElderry— Justin helps bring about 200+ books into the world every year.
His session was all about mythbusting. Here are a few.
Myth #1: Commercial = Bad
He looks for a balance of of literary and commercial titles on his lists. Commercial doesn't mean non-literary, or not well-written, it means readers are reading.
Myth #4: We are no longer interested in publishing picture books.
Justin says picture books are the backbone of children's publishing. He believes they have a long life ahead of them, he love thems. He does admit they'll be publishing less of them, but that's a good thing. For all kid book genres, he says aspiring writers are competing with the shadow of a publisher's backlist, the long gone authors that still rank in the top 200 for sales numbers. Rather than have a hissy fit, he says there's much to be learned by studying these backlists.
"There is no Fancy Nancy without Eloise. There is no teen literature without The Outsiders."
"In the past, it was a 'cute' side genre for a publisher. Now, children's publishing is a 4 billion dollar a year industry that sometimes carries a publisher through a fiscal year."
It has been tough in the last few years with the economy and the many layoffs in publishing, but for Fall 2010 the industry is gearing up for a very big year, and Justin feels things are turning around.
Justin has a Love-O-Meter! When approached by editors who want to acquire a book he says to them, "If you're face is melting off to buy it, I will let you buy it." He calls these the passion projects. "It's lightning striking somewhere and I want to continue to foster that as a publisher."
He mentions trends and tribulations for middle grade and teen books. And what's working for promoting them and what's not.
"The rise of the internet, it's all about the actual online marketing that the authors are doing. A nut that hasn't been cracked for mg, you can't blog and tweet a middle grader, that's illegal... It might take a few years, but it is so much a part of what's working now, and networking and connecting with teens is how teen books are going like hotcakes."Justin talks about books he likes. Lots of face melting comments.
And here's his stance on e-books:
"E-books are great. They are wonderful. Anyone who tells you different is wrong. It's just a new avenue to get great stories out to kids and adults. It's like the Wild West right now, and we are still trying to figure it out. I do not believe e-books are going to eradicate the hardcover books. I know it will be difficult for booksellers, but I'm embracing it. And the iPad is going to be a great way to develop picture books. Digital publishing in general is not replacing things, its just a way to get more people reading."He mentions the recently launched
LOSER/QUEEN by Jodi Lynn Anderson, a book only available online. A serialized novel! Readers get to choos
Rachel is speaking of how the great thrill of being a writer is the chance to live more than one life. How do we do that? How do we become someone else?
It's not write what you know. (Tolkien didn't know many hobbits.)
It should be START with what you know.
Start with yourself. Your memories can make what you write feel real.
The room is super-focused on what Rachel is saying - bursting out with laughter, choked up with emotion and held-back tears, scribbling furious notes, even tweeting so many wonderful insights!
"Humor and heart, pain and hope - they are so intertwined."
Rachel Vail totally rocked it!
Rachel Vail has written over 30 books for kids through teens. She has one of the best opening 2 lines ever in her book "Gorgeous:"
"I sold my cell phone to the devil. In my own defense, it had been a really crappy day."
She's also the author of "Justin Case: School, Drool and Other Daily Disasters!"
That starts out like this:
September 1, Tuesday
Okay, yes. I'm worried
Already.
I can't help it.
As Lin Oliver is saying in her introduction, Rachel is
"Queen of the novel for kids"
Rachel thinks a good book is more than just a story well told, at it's best, for middle graders, it should be suffused with humor and heart.
If I want a character to feel head exploding jealousy... she remembers how she felt when she was a child. The mix of emotions.
She challeneged the room to remember a book that really moved you when you read it as a child.
She shared the story of reading "Of Mice and Men," and how deeply it affected her - and how later it became a theme of her own books -
What does love require of us?What an interesting challenge to see if the books of our childhoods that split our heads apart had themes that still resonate for us, through time and into our own narrative flows.
Adolescence is so fraut: We are faced with adult feelings and no adult perspective. As an adult, we see someone hot and go - he's hot. As a 7th grader, we see someone hot and the brand new feeling knocks you down.
Unlike some other luckier species, we have no cocoon to hide in - we're going through these changes of adolescence in what feels like full view of the entire world!
"Life or death moments are a dime a dozen in seventh grade."
"Funny, like the devil, is in the details."
awesome advice.
Paul Fleischman is the Newbery Award-winning author of JOYFUL NOISE: POEMS FOR TWO VOICES, among many other lauded books.
A musician, former bookseller and one-time proofreader, he founded ColonWatch (not for proctologists) and The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to English.
He's also the son of the beloved and much-missed Sid Fleischman. How jealous are we that he got to grow up listening to Sid's books being read aloud as they were written?
To make up for that colossal injustice, Paul is talking today about Surviving the Novel.
He's starting his talk by likening novels to the snow-capped Himalayas (particularly for people who are used to writing in short form). He knows how we feel--he just wrote his first adult novel and hoped he could hit 200 pages. (He did that and more. So much more.)
On organization It's easy to feel overwhelmed with the "big glop" of a thing that is your novel. To combat this feeling, he organizes. He sets up separate documents for all of his material in sections like these:
- The actual manuscript
- A "working out" document--the various mental exercises where he makes his decision on cast, scenes. He states the problems, brainstorms, writes problems to those solutions and solutions to those problems.
- His outline
- Research--keep a running list of research questions
- Unused lines
- Back matter--the guts of the book. This is kind of like the outline, but includes facts about characters. Acknowledgments. Possible titles.
- Keep a list of continuity. If someone is wearing a red dress, is she still wearing it later that night?
Tips for research- You might not need it in a picture book, but you will in a novel. He researched women's clothes for his latest: "That's a 10-book novel in an of itself. Who knew what goes on in your closet!" He also researched pugs and dancing. (I must read this book!)
- He set a book in San Francisco and used Google street view to look at what the streets looked like.
Writing- Every word should be there for a reason, even though the book is longer. As with a picture book, "You weigh every word that comes into your book. It's like a passenger coming on the gang plank."
- Read your work straight through. Highlight it, but don't stop to fix. Ernest Hemingway started every day by reading his current book from the beginning. "No wonder his later years were kind of difficult."
- Don't be surprised if you have to rewrite. That's the writing life. There's no way around but through.
- A hot tip for revision: When you revise, make notes on what you did. You might want to go back to an earlier version
Quotes to rememberPaul's speech was so full of quotes, you could compile them in a book. Here are some favorites:
"This [the outline] is holding back the Barbarian hordes of chaos from overwhelming your book."
"In a picture book, you can afford to rewrite your whole manuscript. You're not going to want to do this with your novel."
"The older I get, the more I write like my father, who was quite the improviser...Now, I trust much more things coming together."
"Back when the pencil ruled the earth, like the dinosaur, you could still read what you crossed out."
"A colon is the perfect piece of punctuation. It's not a period. It's not a comma..."
"Resear
Caldecott-Winning illustrator David Diaz spoke about perfect things that don't change over time. Like the chair. And a fork.
And how in music there have been 10 major format changes in 100 years.
He thinks that in books, we're right around where 8 tracks were.
But he doesn't see problems with this - he sees opportunities. In a world where publishing a picture book costs a publisher $100,000.- they're looking for something to sell enough copies to cover that risk. In a digital world where publishing a digital picture book costs five or ten thousand dollars - that's a much lower risk for the publisher.
"Opportunities will grow exponentially for us!"
And when a book comes out digitally, it already IS international, and the potential audience is enormous.
He cited how TV has changed where we went from 5 stations to hundreds in a few decades - and how each station is now targeted to a niche market.
We may not be sure exactly what the future will look like, but David says we need to
"hold on. Publishing will be HUGE. Bigger than it has ever been before!"
Rubin Pfeffer was an editor - heck he was a Senior Vice President and Publisher for Simon & Schuster Children's Books! Now he's a partner at the East West Literary Agency, and he's taking his 36 years in publishing and using that foundation to divine where our industry of children's literature is heading (and what SCBWI should be called in that future.)
Here's the thing to keep in mind about Rubin's view of the future of changes in children's publishing:
"Not Instead of, But in addition to."
He joked about meeting a fellow faculty member who summarized Rubin's titles as "oddball" and Rubin embraced that.
With SCBWI on the verge of it's 40th year, he imagined how we might be relevant in the digital age, with all the changes happening now:
The publishing industry is being redefined by forces both inside and out. From book returns to new technologies, all pieces of the chain are being affected.
Retailers have become e-retailers (B&N reported last month increase in e-books, Amazon (the number 1 trade customer) reports e-books outsold hardcovers and quickly gaining on softcovers.)
Readers are speaking up regarding pricing, scheduling and formatting.
Technology companies are working on e-readers that are quickly eclipsed by a new one, and then a new one after that.
Some literary agents have even launched e-publishing ventures. (A big battle happening now, as old contracts get reinterpreted for e-publishing rights that weren't anticipated.)
Books as we know and love today will always be here. But that is not the only way...
it is a
"time of revolution - a time to look for opportunities."
And here's the room-shocker:
"Perhaps SCBWI should become an e-publisher."
With books being reinvented, we must be innovative in creating content that that can leverage the multimedia capabilities of technologies like the ipad.
Our challenge will be to remain high above all the poor quality material out there."
He suggests to SCBWI to form a steering committee to look at opportunities for its members as we move into the digital future.
Rubin recommends everyone read this Article:
NY review of books, march 11, 2010
"Publishing, the revolutionary future" by Jason EpsteinHe acknowledges that maybe SCBWI won't become a publisher, but says it's never been needed more keenly to nurture and guide quality, into a future that celebrates great content and promotes childrens literature and literacy.
Rubin gets a standing ovation! Wow!
"Among the opportunities the future offers writers is the marketing opportunities of the internet."
That's things like understanding and harnessing the power of blogging and facebook and twitter - social media.
And you already something about the world of social media because you're reading this on the SCBWI Conference blog!
Great job!
First, TEAM BLOG is thrilled with this year's gift from Lin and Steve. We each received one of these puppies in return for blogging. Thanks, guys!
Gillian Foster of Venice brought Team Blog COOKIES! I hope she wins the Newbery.
My only photo of the Heart & Soul party. That's Illinois's finest Jessica Denhart, Deborah Topolski, and Lisa Bierman.
Now, a shot of the Manuscript Consultation Line. There's something like, 500 consultations that happen at every summer conference. This is just a drop in the bucket. And look! No one is crying or hyperventilating. Consultations are a full half hour and worth every penny.
Left to right is Marc Akins from CA, Lisa Bierman from IL, Cherie Colyer from IL, Katie Sparks from IL (those Illinoisians!), Dale Purvis from GA, Nancy O'Connor from CA, Anitha Weiss from AZ, Fiona Ivey from CA, Keisha Reynolds from MD, Diana Paz from CA, and Karri Thompson.
And behind them are photos of "stars." I'll show you some real stars in another post, but this is the best the Hyatt could do.
Clockwise from top left, Robert Urich, Frankie Avalon, Jack Nicholson, Laverne De Fazio, Martin Sheen, Tommy Hilfiger, Meryl Streep, Lord Voldemort, and Matthew McConaughey. Somebody kissed the glass over Matthew's face. That must have happened before our conference—I know our attendees have better taste.
A few quotes from
John's speech:
Thank you very much, I'm not as well spoken as the wonderful writers here today, that's why I chose art.
GRACIAS-THANKS by Pat Mora is a story about a boy raised in a multicultural family who goes through his day noticing the small (and sometimes not so small) things he is thankful for.
I would also like to say thank you.
Thank you to my parents, who always encouraged and supported me to become an artist.
It was the early memories of my dad drawing for me and my brother that inspired me to also be an artist.
My mom, a school teacher, read to us every day.
Thank you to my wife, Maria, for her love and support... for sharing her amazing insight and ideas as my personal art director and manager.
Thank you to Lee & Low, especially Louise May, my editor.
Thank you to all my art teachers and mentors. They showed me my dreams and provided me with tools on the path to becoming a real artist.
Thank you to my peers and all the great people at SCBWI.
With dreams and ambitions, the path of an artist is rarely easy. I'm infinitely grateful for all that I've received, thank you very much.
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By: Lee Wind,
on 8/2/2010
But she's not a chicken. This is the cover of her fabulous book, The Sweetheart of Prosper County.
Joey. Come to my wedding. Bring a hot date.
-b-
Is your beard available for children's parties? We've got one coming up in November, close to thanksgiving.
-GB
JOEY!!!