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I'd recommend these middle grade novels to kids who enjoy ... [a] strong voice and humor and who might like a peek into someone else's world.

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Sharon Flake

Sharon Flake has written award-winning books that have been published in several languages: THE SKIN I'M IN, MONEY HUNGRY, BEGGING FOR CHANGE, WHO AM I WITHOUT HIM, and more. This fall, she releases her first murder mystery, UNSTOPPABLE OCTOBIA MAY.

She talked to us about coping strategies to use when we hit the wall creatively. When her career started, with THE SKIN I'M IN, she'd only racked up three rejection slips, and the first editor who saw the book bought it. She called it a "magical" entry into the marketplace. (The book sold 1.5 million copies.)

The Disney imprint Jump at the Sun was being launched in New York with champagne, a performance of the Lion King cast, and a talk from then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner.

"These were really good times."  

For the next six books, she had open contracts with Disney, which meant they didn't need to know what she was working on. She just got to write what she wanted. 

The headiness of the experience gave her a false sense of confidence that it would always be this way, and that she'd always have ideas and the support of editors and publishers.

"One day your cozy life as a writer or an author just may shift, and you most likely will not like it one little bit," she said. She hit this point with her sixth book. There was a lot of turnover with her publisher.

The foundation beneath her feet started to shift. Relationships with a couple of editors didn't work out. A third editor sent her feedback—and Sharon felt the tremors.

"For the first time, I felt like an editor did not like my work." Her heart sank. She went back to work rewriting. She worried that she'd lost her gift. She felt that she'd lost touch with that feeling in her gut that had guided her through her novels.

She heard loud rumbles of self doubt. Having a big advance put a lot of pressure on her. She'd spent her advance, but she didn't yet have a book to hand in. She had to work through it. (And her ego was wrapped up in it.)

Her editor liked a revision, but she kept on working on it and doubled the size of the book, and she thought it was the best thing she'd ever written.

"I waited and I waited and I waited for them to marvel in my brilliance."

The letter from the editor let her know she'd taken a really good manuscript and crucified it. It was a wreck of a novel. She'd been overly ambitious with it. And then there were more editor departures. She wasn't sure she could face another novel, so she set out to write a collection of short stories.

"One story at a time," she said. "I could do one story at a time."

She kept at it, as painful as it was, learning some valuable things.  "Your creativity isn't a genie in a bottle you can pull up anytime you want to," she said. "Remember sometimes that blood is required. Sometimes everything you are and everything you have is being called on the line."

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Sharon Flake is the multi-award-winning author including The Skin I'm In, Money Hungry, Begging for Change, and many others.

Sharon went to the library and read a lot as a kid, but she says, "My first books were my parents. My parents told me stories about family and situations and they showed me that I was okay."

Disliked stereotype: That black fathers are absent.

Sharon believes that hopefully with all this discussion about diversity, people will start to come up with different models and ways of doing things.

Sharon has been telling diverse students that they have a seat at the table (in writing, marketing, publishing). She hopes we all help to make sure that comes true.




Adriana Dominguez is an agent with Full Circle Literary agency with a commitment to getting diverse books published.

Adriana hears from readers (at conferences) that they have not read a book with someone like them in it until college. This is the reason Adriana does what she does and is so passionate about it.

There's been a profound change in submissions, though there still are those that approach culture as food, etc. Now, Adriana sees books that approach the culture at a much greater depth in ways they haven't in the past.

Disliked stereotype: That all Latinas move the same.

Adriana likes to tell editors and agents to advertise their interest in diversity in books. She gets a lot of diverse submissions because she advertises her interest in getting them.

Lee & Low Books sponsors the New Voices Award which is given to an author of color with a promising manuscript which has launched many careers and books which have gone on to win awards.

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The Diversity Panel, from Right to Left: Moderator Suzanne Morgan Williams, Linda Sue Park,  Meg Medina, Lamar Giles, Sharon Flake and Adriana Dominguez

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I connected with panel moderator Suzanne Morgan Williams to get the scoop:



Whether or not you're able to attend the sold-out SCBWI Summer Conference that starts this Friday, you can be part of the online river of information and inspiration by visiting The Official SCBWI Conference Blog and following our conference hashtag, #la14scbwi, on twitter. Oh, and by watching videos like the one above!

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

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Jessica Lee is a teacher librarian at Willard Middle School in Berkeley, California. She has also been an English teacher, a public librarian, and a waitress, but her favorite terrible-teen job was selling snacks at Six Flags Magic Mountain. She is the mom of two boys who are also students at her school, fully integrating the work-life experience.

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