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Steven Malk, who opened the west coast branch of Writer's House in 1998, seems to be not only a great agent, but a person who truly has a passion for illustration. I'd trust his advise simply because SCBWI has him come to the national conferences, but if I needed more reason than that I could glance through the illustrators he reps on the Writers House website and I'd be sold. (Nikki McClure! Kadir Nelson! Adam Rex! Gilbert Ford! Carson Ellis! among many other great artists)
Malk took us through a slide show of his Do's and Don'ts (with beautifully hand-drawn titles) of Building an Illustration Career. The whole list is both realistic and positive at the same time, and truly helpful and well thought out. Here are a few highlights:
DO: your homework—about other illustrators on the market, and about those illustrator greats that came before you.
DON'T: look for a shortcut (it might be a trapdoor). Malk has no magic fairy dust to sprinkle on your career! It takes hard work, and it can take a long time.
DO: attend as many SCBWI conferences as possible. It really puts you at an advantage.
DON'T: give up!
Okay, this session had so much good stuff I have to share one more great tip:
"I always read the book out loud before I turn it in to make sure it sounds right."
Really great advice.
Thanks, M.T.!
One of the Nine Experimental Techniques M.T. shared with his session attendees was the experimental technique of "hypertext." (That's any text you don't demand be read in a particular order) like those "Choose your own adventure" novels, or a narrative with footnotes. It's an experimental method that M.T. thinks will become more popular in the future of Children's Literature. (Think video games with branching narratives...)
He challenged the room of writers to consider hypertext, and the other techniques, as our resources to defamiliarize what we know too well. (Especially in light of how children today - and all of us adults as well - are so accustomed to the fragmentation of our attention.)
The question is: can you use it and still maintain the kind of intensity you can have in a long form narrative?
Fascinating!
Former editor/publisher and now Writers House agent Ken Wright answers any business-related questions from the room. (He notes-he's not a financial advisor.)
Six months before one of his client's book comes out, Ken holds a marketing meeting with his author an their publisher.
There's no rule of thumb on advances. It's market driven. He's not fan of big advances, because of the risk of not earning them out and then not looking like an success to your publisher.
Advances for first time novelists can range from $15,000 to in the hundreds of thousands. He says first-time nonfiction authors would likely get a higher advance than for fiction.
He's a big advocate of promoting your book through school visits, but said that he has a few clients who do a little TOO much of that, which takes away from their writing. Every book and every situation is different, but self-promotion is always important and necessary.
It's OK to take work-for-hire or technical writing or other kinds of gigs if money is an issue. And you don't necessarily need to use a psuedonym--that's on a case-by-case basis.
In addition to the initial negotiation, as an agent, he takes care of sub-rights, flow through (release of money to the author), and contract delays that affect the writer.
Agents definitely increase the response time from publishers. As a rule, he checks in with editors about his submissions every two weeks.
What's a good persentage of your earning to spend on marketing? The rule of thumb is 5%.
I'm so excited about this session on craft -
M.T. Anderson is an incredible author whose work is amazing, remarkably different (in the best possible ways), and successful - both commerically and critically. (Oh yeah, he won that National Book Award!)
The room is PACKED (over 200 excited writers, people sitting on the floor, standing along the walls, in every seat, computers poised and pens in hand...)
M.T. argues that experimental writing for kids is actually easier for an audience of children than it is for adults, if done with a tone of having fun.
Here are some of the points he's making:
"experimental" isn't really experimental - they are techniques long in use
In children's lit, experimental techniques are taken for granted as some of the fun ways we tell stories to kids.
The text teaches readers how to read them as they read.
He reads us a poem (Poem 25) by Kurt Schwitters that does this - it teaches us how to read it as it's read. Wow. It's all numbers. And then he analyses the poem, numbers of form without content. He called it "gorgeously kaleidoscopic," then related it to how we writers use words in a narrative. Really fascinating!
M.T. explains that his point here is to sensitize us to the underlying form and patterns of words that we use to build our narratives.
His next example is Dr. Seuss' "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish," which he analyzes in it's experimental form. Did
you notice the rhythm of definition through repetition and difference?
When he gets to Shaun Tan's "The Arrival," a stunning and wordless graphic novel, M.T. is ebuliant at how even the title page conveys to us that this is an alien world at once familiar and strange. Which is exactly the point M.T. made in his keynote about how all art is about seing the world anew so we can see it fresh!
It's a great session, and everyone's riveted!
Ginger Clark is an agent with Curtis Brown LTD. She reps science fiction, fantasy, paranormal romance, literary horror and young adult and MG fiction. She also reps the British rights for the agency and attends the Bologna and Frankfurt Book fairs.
Ginger Clark said that of the queries she receives; only about 30% are usable for her. In the queries she prefers business format with one paragraph for plot. Mention any publishing credits you may have, address her by name, and include all of your contact information.
Industry recognizes the need to be as visible as possible on the internet. When asked about how many clients an agent takes on in a year, she said that so far this year she’s taken on about 3 clients out of thousands of queries.
Really, if you're an illustrator and you're NOT an SCBWI member or attending the LA or NY conference, you are a monkey's uncle. Here's an amazing new opportunity magicked up by the SCBWI Board Illustrator Committee:
The Mentorship Award is presented to a select group of six illustrators participating in the annual Portfolio Showcase, whose publishable work shows great promise and potential. The purpose goes beyond just the selection, in that the Mentorship Program is an intense advance-level portfolio critique that includes both individual reviews with each Mentor, and a culminating critique peer meeting with all Mentors and Mentees. This all will take place during the conference hours.
Mentors this year include: Cecilia Yung, Art Director and VP at Penguin Young Readers; Pat Cummings, Illustrator, Writer, and Instructor at Parsons; Priscilla Burris, National Illustrator Coordinator; David Diaz, Award Winning Illustrator; Bridget Strevens-Marzo, International Illustrator Liason; and Rubin Pfeffer, Agent at East/West Literary Agency.
This year's Mentees are:
Ashley Mims John Deininger Andrea Offermann Debbie Ridpath Ohi Eliza Wheeler Kimberly Gee Let's call this idea
FANFREAKINGTASTIC!
The
Sid Fleischman Award is an award for exemplary writing in the genre of humor. The 2010 Award goes to
FOOD, GIRLS AND OTHER THINGS I CAN'T HAVE author
Allen Zadoff.
He said, it wasn't so funny being a 275 pound high school student like he was. When he wrote about FOOD, GIRLS he didn't write it to be funny, he wanted it to be the truth. He wanted to share the lessons, as an adult, that he learned from his adolescence. He said his character learned in two weeks what it took him 35 years to figure you.
He advises everyone to keep at it and to come to the SCBWI conference and meet people. And if you win an award, make it the Golden Kite, so he can get the Sid Fleischman again next year. He thanked his editor Elizabeth Law at Egmont (who had invited him to a past conference and introduced him people in the industry).
Look for Allen's next funny book MY LIFE, THE THEATER, AND OTHER TRAGEDIES (Egmont, May 2011).
I recently had a discussion about whether or not artists are responsible for what they put into the world. I was arguing that no, artists are simply responsible for making art, be it music, literature, images, etc, and what the world does with it is out of the artists' hands. But after E.B. Lewis's session today, I've changed my opinion. A main topic of the session was our responsibility as artists to put work into the world that really benefits children, especially considering the way many schools and the whole school system is currently failing to truly engage them.
Among many gems I scribbled down during the session, here are a few quotes from Lewis:
- A kid does not care what you know, until they know that you care.
- Knowledge that doesn't come from the heart is dangerous.
- We have a great priveledge to make a mark, but you have to work to earn the right to leave a mark.
Lewis also showed us a dvd by photographer and public speaker Dewitt Jones called Everyday Creativity. If you can, try to watch it—but a warning if you want to buy it, it's expensive! Jones compares using the right lense in order to get the right photo to finding the right perspective in a situation. He talked about the need to change up our perspective to keep searching for the way to be your most creative and create your best art.
Even if Jones's photography style isn't your fave, the advice about ways in which to view the world to be your most creative makes the dvd worthwhile.
It's refreshing and a great reality check to hear E.B. Lewis talk about the importance of making art and books that give children what they deserve—to be engaged with the world, to explore, to be creative.
Carolyn is reading summer goals she wrote in her journal when she was in her early 20s. Among them:
- look in to psychology as a career
- become an au pair in Italy
- rent a house with a guy
- live in NYC with her mom
- get a dog.
- go to Africa
Instead she wrote her first book, fell in love with her husband, and wrote eight hours a day on THE EARTH, MY BUTT, AND OTHER BIG ROUND THINGS. The following January she won a Printz Honor, and suddenly she began getting big royalty checks and being asked to speak.
And then, she said, her words dried up.
She got to a point where she tought, I can't write a book.
After encouragement from her friend, and the passing of a little time, she got through her hard time and began writing again.
Then THE EARTH got pulled from an entire school district and got TONS of press. It was the 4th most challenged book in America in 2008, and continues to stay on the list. (And it made her father very proud.)
At first, Carolyn was stunted by the censorship, second guessing herself. Then she let herself go with her writing, and came up with her latest novel TANGLED.
Carolyn Mackler recieved a Printz Award for her novel THE EARTH, MY BUTT, AND OTHER BIG ROUND THINGS. She's currently working on her sixth YA novel. Her lastest book is TANGLED.
Carolyn said she spent her teen years tyring to blend in. ("If I were a J. Crew color, I would be ecru.") And the feeling never subsided that she had to blend in. This year, she decided she wanted to be "hot."
Marital vows, she said, are simialr to making the committment to be a writer. You have to stick with it even through the more difficult times.
As a teen, writing in her jounral and reading helped her from feeling alone or like a misfit.
After college she interned at Ms. Magazine, and did whatever she could to make money writing.
For her first book, she tapped into her own life and finished a draft of her first novel. She got an agent at age 25 and got her first book published.
"Write down where every quote is from when you write it the first time!!!" (source notes)
Good advice!
BIG laugh in the room when Deborah Heiligman agrees with the point of checking back with your interviewees and letting them read your manuscript to check it... for Charles and Emma Darwin!
Ken Wright is asking great substantive questions, and we're all learning a ton.
Here are the website links (and some great quotes from the session) for these amazing, passionate and so articulate nonfiction authors:
Tanya Lee Stone
"Almost Astronauts started out as a picturebook!... Trust yourself and ask yourself "What is the story I need to tell." (Rather than focusing on the kind of book you think it's going to be.)
"If you don't have a point of view, why are you telling the story?"
Elizabeth Partridge
"You want to have multiple layers in your nonfiction" If it's too straightforward, it will be boring.
advice she still sticks by:
"Have emotion in every single paragraph - every paragraph should have emotional
resonance!"
Deborah Heiligman"We're all trying to do something original"
her editor told her
"Let the content dictate the form"
(Moral: stay flexible to what you discover - even if it diverges from your proposal.)
"Everything I put in the book has to be in service to the main story you want to tell" (like for Charles and Emma, even for the details of the ship voyage, the ones she included all resonated to the love story that was the story she wanted to tell!)
Susan Campbell Bartoletti -
Tells the story of how she was contracted to write a book on American involvement in World War II, and how it ended up being a book about Hitler Youth instead! Which was her Newbury Honor nonfiction book "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow."
She also related going down to Arkansas to visit the KKK today as research for her upcoming historical nonfiction on the KKK - and how that helped bring the story to life.
And to finish, Deborah Heligman paraphrased a beautiful quote from Isaac Bashevitz Singer:
Is it a story?
Does is have a beginning, middle and end?
Is it a story that needs to be told?
Is it a story that only I can tell?
Good Morning Conference Goers and blog followers!
Ken Wright moderating, and left to right: Tanya Lee Stone, Elizabeth Partridge, Deborah Heiligman, and Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Early this Sunday Morning we have something worth getting up for... the Narrative Non Fiction is hot Hot HOT panel with multi-award winning author for her nonfiction titles Susan Campbell Bartoletti, National Book Award Finalist for "Charles and Emma: The Darwin's Leap of Faith" Deborah Heiligman, Golden Kite winning author Elizabeth Partridge, multi-award winning author (with an upcoming "The Good, The Bad, and The Barbie: A History of the Doll and her impact on Culture) Tanya Lee Stone and it's moderated by Writers House agent (with a passion for nonfiction) Ken Wright!
As Lin is saying in her introduction, it's a genre that's finally getting it's moment in the spotlight.
Ohh - the panel's about to start!
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| photo from http://patricianewmanbooks.blogspot.com/ |
Sat in on the first session of Diane Muldrow's Premium Workshop yesterday, and I am really excited for those 20+ attendees. They are going to get some ultra-polished picture book manuscripts out of these hours with Diane. And not just traditional, 32-page hardcover trade manuscripts. Diane is teaching the group about board books, Golden Books, novelty books, all sorts of formats.
Diane starts with a history of her career as a children's book editor and an author. She invites the class to reformat their manuscripts the way she lays them out, which is, at times, a radical departure from what most of us have learned is industry standard formatting. The caveat, however, is you do this only on your personal copy of the manuscript to see how it informs your self-editing. And all authors must self-edit, says Diane, so who better to teach us how than an editor! Her ideas are superb, making authors who don't draw think visually, mapping out every single page turn and writing up all possible illustrations ideas.
The class looks at the evolution of Diane's book, WE PLANTED A TREE. A gorgeous hardcover illustrated by Bob Staake. She hands out a copy of her original manuscript. A story she thought about for ten years before actually putting pen to paper. Diane credits the powerful ideas and images in Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai's book about the
Green Belt Movement in Kenya as being the inspiration behind WE PLANTED A TREE.
The next few sessions, attendees will be doing in-class exercises using existing picture book texts as well as their own manuscripts to learn about format, pagination, and art notes. Diane says all stories start out as lumps of clay and she's going to provide tools (like how to have good flow, suspense and mood in your story) to help attendees edit themselves and build stronger books.
This is going to rock! It sold out on the first day of conference registration, so here's hoping they do this again.
One attendee I recognized from my local SCBWI WWA was
John Deininger. Check out his artwork in the portfolio show tonight, or on his site.
Lisa Grubka is an agent at Foundry Literary and Media. When talking about what she was looking for in the current market, I was really interested when Lisa said that she had a strong interest in international stories for teens. She also said she liked grounded contemporary with a character she could identify with. Lisa also mentioned that there is a strong push to find MG books for boys.
The Agents Panel is starting!
From Left To Right: Ginger Clark (Curtis Brown), Ken Wright (Writers House), Josh Adams (Adams Literary), and Lisa Grubka (Foundry).
Team blog is covering each agent individually - look for those posts coming up in the next minutes...
Find out what's cool about you want to write.
When Gordon was assigned the story of Mozart for his first book in the 39 Clues series, his challenge was to figure out what was cool about Mozart...
And he did, and that was "One False Note."
How cool is that?
Great Advice!
Gordon Korman addresses over 1,100 rapt attendees!
We're starting off Saturday morning with jokes, a door prize drawing, and
Gordon Korman!
I'm really excited, Gordon wrote "Schooled" (which was awesome - and juggled so many points of view so deftly)
and 2 of the 10 books in the 39 Clues series, "One False Note" and "The Emperor's Code," and
67 more!)
As Lin Oliver said in her introduction,
Gordon writes books that kids WANT to read!
Gordon started off his speech sharing his appreciation for Paula Danzinger, how he met her when he was 17 (and she was doing a school visit) and how her being there for him, the new guy, made such an impact on his life and career.
He has the room cracking up about all the books kids have to read in school where the dog dies... in fact, it inspired one of his books, "No More Dead Dogs"
He's talking about his career (he wrote his first book at age 12 - his Mom had to drive him to his first school visit at age 14!) He wrote it as a class project, and got a B+. He mailed it to the address on the Scholastic book fair order forms... And the guy in the warehouse at Scholastic Canada took it over to the editors... and ultimately it got him published!
"So my advice is to find a forklift operator with an eye for new talent and get out there and start!"
He is so funny. The room is rolling, wave after wave.
He just told a story about the problem translating the title of his book, "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire." to French, where it might have become... when you translated it back - and because idiomatic expressions don't translate... "Teller of Untruths, Your Trousers Have Combusted." HA!
But through the humor, his main advice shines through:
Write what you think is cool.
What Gordon thinks is cool? Old heist movies like "Oceans 11" (the one with Frank Sinatra.) That was the genesis of his coming up with the idea for "Swindled." (Which now I can't wait to read!)
So many great (and funny) stories!
There's been a new addition to the panel for this morning's breakout workshop "A Look At The LGBTQ Marketplace" with Aaron Hartzler (Director of Communications, SCBWI), Arthur A. Levine (Vice President of Scholastic and publisher of his own imprint, Arthur A. Levine Books - as well as an author himself), and Tony Valenzuela (Executive Director of the Lambda Literary Foundation):
ME, Lee Wind (Writer and Blogger of "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read?" where over 200,000 visitors have come to find out about GLBTQ Teen books, culture and politics!
I hope you can join us in the Palisades Room, 11:15am - because this is going to be awesome!
There are so many great opportunities when you attend a SCBWI conference. One of the most helpful of those being the professional one-on-one critiques. Every year countless stories float around the floor of an author being "discovered" during a critique. Have one coming up? Author Cynthea Liu has a great post on how to make the most of your conference critique HERE.
Suz
More from Loren:
- His first publishing assignment was the jacket art for DAVE AT NIGHT, by Gail Carson Levine (HarperCollins).
- He didn't do his first picture book until he was in his late 30s.
- He claimes Madonna is one of Jon Scieszka's favorite authors (this is not confirmed), and he says working on her book was a great experience.
- Mood and emotions--and choosing the right one (the highs, the low)--is key in art.
- He wants reader to feel his art, not just look at it.
- Loren sang us a resounding version of "All by Myself" to demonstrate how he feels the emotions of his characters.
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Has anyone ever noticed that MT looks like a cross between Kevin Kline and Michael Caine?
My pen was running mighty fast. I could not believe that someone was so eloquently analysing the significance a series of numbers right before my eyes. You're right, absolutely fascinating.