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Thanks for sharing the last three days of conference blogging, tweeting, insights and merriment with us!

Team Blog (minus Suzanne Young this time 'round.) Left to Right: Lee Wind, Martha Brockenbrough, Jaime Temairik and Jolie Stekly

We hope you'll be able to join in all the craft, business, opportunity, inspiration and community of SCBWI's 16th Annual Winter Conference in New York City, January 30 - February 1, 2015.

It will feature:

Full-day Intensives for both Writers and Illustrators

The New York Art Showcase

Networking with top Editors, Agents and Publishers

Workshops, Keynotes and much more (all in the center of the children's publishing industry!)

Online conference registration will be posted in October of 2014 at scbwi.org

Illustrate and Write On,

Martha Brockenbrough

Jolie Stekly

Jaime Temairik

and Lee Wind

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Autograph Party (aka: a bit more time to chat with new and old friends while waiting in line)!

Packed rooms and lines to get books signed.

Maggie Stiefvater

Peter Brown

Bruce Coville

David Meissner & Linda Sue Park

Martha Brockenbrough & Lisa Yee

Judy Schachner

Still chatting as we wait.

Marla Frazee

Bill Konigsberg

Tim Federle & Cynthia Kadohata

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Judy Blume has more than 82 million copies of her books in print. Books like

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

Blubber



and

Just as Long as We're Together.


There's even a new movie out - based on her book - that she wrote the screenplay for: Tiger Eyes.



Judy gets a standing ovation as she takes the stage.

Every eye (and camera) on Judy Blume

Judy is full of joy and emotion and warmth.

She shares with us a few thoughts Tomie dePaola offered that resonated for her, like

Courage

When it came to Judy's writing, she never thought twice about it.

"I was brave in my writing in a way that I wasn't in my life."

Courage to create. Courage to imagine.


Judy speaks about the value of the safe space, the community SCBWI offers us all. She talks about Focus and Determination, and tells us stories...

She offers us some tweets she's designed for us, like this one

"Do not let anyone discourage you. If they try, get angry, not depressed."

Judy Blume has us laughing and thinking and feeling. And she tells us that while she was supposed to inspire us, being at this conference inspired her. She's fired up. And she's going to go home. And she's going to do it.

And we can, too.

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We miss him but Lin's Skype interview with Tomie was fantastic! Hardly any technical difficulties!

Lin starts by telling us Tomie has published 250 or so books over fifty years, she asks him the secret of sustaining a lifelong career.

Tomie: Courage!

Lin: Courage to...

Tomie: Just courage! I get up in the morning and I have to face a blank piece of paper and my brushes all clean and ready to go. I panic, I freeze, I know I'm going to make a mistake... By then it's the afternoon! 

Without scaring anybody, I think it gets worse! The more you know. You know, fools rush in, now it's all of these pressures that come from the outside, it's really hard to put them in their place. I'm so aware of the responsibility I have for creating something for young people.

Lin: When you were starting out were you aware of that responsibility? Or did you just really want to make picture books and felt your art was suitable?

Tomie: It was a bit of both. You know, the 'fame mosquito' buzzes around for a while, and you want that in the early days. 

And eventually you will have a HUGE disappointment in your career, and you ask yourself why you are doing this?

Why are you doing books for children?

And I realized it was because they'd been important to me, in my life as a child, and I wanted to be that for new generations. I was lucky to have this epiphany early on.

Lin: Is there something you hope your books say to kids? Or is it that you want to create an atmosphere of something beautiful for them. 

Tomie: All of that. I want kids to fall in love color and line and character, I want to make people laugh and cry...

Lin: Your books have such a present sense of childhood, what you do you think gives you that fresh sense?

Tomie: I'm blessed to have a very good memory. And the more I remember of my childhood, the more I remember. I really cherished those memories, and I had some help, I have home movies of me as a child and that helps me remember the experiences. What's important is I remember how I felt. It's not important what color the car was or what color the socks were. It's the feeling.

I also come from families of great storytellers.

Lin: Many artists are asked to write an artistic statement, how would you write your statement?

Tomie: My first response is I want to say 'Why do YOU want to know?!?!' I don't think it's a bad idea to write what your purpose is. But write it twice, write the first one very honestly and don't let anybody see it.

I was trained in the middle fifties at Pratt, a very fine art school, by very fine professionals. We were told not to be afraid, to try everything, you're just students—don't take yourself seriously—yet.

I look at curriculums today and I frankly don't recognize them, I remember when I bought a rapid-o-graph pen and everybody said, Oh my god! There is an emphasis on computers/technology today, and if I was in school today I would want to take advantage of all of that, of everything that's on offer. What bothers me most is the lack of history. People forget that Giotto and Fra Angelico were illustrators. They were visual storytellers and that's what illustrators have to be. I worry that young people today aren't given enough time to develop and flower. If they don't come out of the gate winning awards, the industry just says, "Next!"

It's like that Thornton Wilder quote, "Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow..."


Some Tomie laws:

• Don't ever try to illustrate something you don't like.

• You and your art director speak the same foreign language.

• Don't get so busy with your work (Tomie's speaking to artists and art directors here) that you stop looking at others' art and going to shows. Have your household gods, surround yourself with images you love.

• You should be able to tell the story of a picture book just by looking at the pictures.

• Try reading The Courage To Create, modern society almost doesn't understand the creative act. So know you'll probably be misunderstood and try to make something anyway.

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The SCBWI established the On-The-Verge Emerging Voices Award in 2012 with funding from Martin and Sue Schmitt of the 455 Foundation. The grant was created to foster the emergence of diverse voices in children’s books.

Writers and writer/illustrators from an ethnic and/or cultural background that is traditionally under-represented in children’s literature in America are eligible to enter a complete manuscript.

Two winners receive an all-expense trip to next year's summer conference and an intensive, a manuscript consultation with an industry professional, an additional meeting with an industry professional, as well as a press release.

The winners of the 2014 On-The-Verge Emerging Voices Award are Jennifer Baker and Tiemdow Phumiruk.

"We have to change the world, and we have to do it one book at a time," Lin Oliver said. "We are looking forward to seeing your books."

 

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Executive Agent Laura Rennert of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency has clients who write books that are best-sellers, books that win awards.

She represents literary stars like Ellen Hopkins, Jay Asher, Lauren Kate, Maggie Stiefvater, Kathleen Duey and Catherine Ryan Hyde,

And Laura also represents first-time authors.

Laura Rennert conducts her breakout session

With separate handouts for picture book authors and fiction writers, Laura suggests we

"reverse-engineer our approach by thinking like an agent or editor."

Laura walks us through her formula to create a pitch.

Just as we writers need to pitch agents to get them excited to read our book (towards getting representation), agents pitch editors to get them excited to read our book (towards selling it!)

And then, once our book is sold and published, consider that book sellers, publicity people, marketing people and you, the author (once again!) will pitch gatekeepers and readers to get them excited to buy and read your book!

So a pitch for your book is really important.

It should include:

Who 
What - what sets story in motion irrevocably 
Where - the world it's in
and Why Should I Care? - that's the stakes
and the bonus,
What is The Special Ingredient that makes this story stand out from all other works in that category?

And Comps help give a context, saying that your work is in the same space as X...

She shares with us her full pitch (that she used to sell the book to its editor) for her client Maggie Steifvater's "Shiver." It's impressive.

Laura answers attendee questions, giving us loads of additional advice on next-steps-in-our-career strategies, speaks of some of her authors pursuing hybrid careers (pursuing both traditional and self-publishing), and much, much more.

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Lamar Giles writes for adults and teens, and in several genres. His YA debut mystery, FAKE ID, is about a teen in witness protection investigating his best friend's murder. A thriller called ENDANGERED will come out next spring from HarperCollins.

He talked to us about the art of the cliffhangers at the ends of chapters and scenes, and how we can use a television technique to keep readers turning pages.

When he was growing up, he loved television. "I was probably the only fourth grader in Hopewell, Virginia with a subscription to TV guide."

TV when he was a kid wasn't like TV today. There was no on-demand, and you couldn't always record what you wanted to watch. Lamar never wanted to miss a moment of a show, and a few times, he got burned by leaving the TV during commercial breaks. The experience left him with anxiety.

"I realized that anxiety was being manufactured," he said.

Something enticing happened at a commercial break. In a half-hour show, the creators would generate 3 of these (and more for longer shows). He tries to use this sort of manipulation with his stories.

"This is how I try to keep people reading even if they're tired, even if they have something else to do."
Shows take longer to read than a TV show does to watch, so we're asking people for a lot.
He gave us six techniques to use, and showed examples of books and TV shows that them.

Here are three of his techniques:

1) The Ned: Blindside the Audience 
In this technique, you lead the reader in a certain direction. They think they know what's going to happen. In GAME OF THRONES, for example, an unexpected death occurs in the ninth episode. In MOCKINGJAY, Prim dies unexpectedly when a brace of parachutes full of explosives detonate.

"Having that situation go down the way it did, there was no telling what would come next. But there's no way in the world you're not going to hang in there and find out what happens next."

Use The Ned in pivotal scenes. If you want to do this in a three-act structure, use it around inciting incidents or going into Act II.

2) The Winchester: Making a Vow or Accepting a Mission
In Supernatural, Sam and Dean lose their mother. Their father trains them to lose the same. Sam wants a regular life, but Dean becomes a hunter. In the season premier, their father is missing. Sam's girlfriend was killed in the same way his mother was. So they make a vow to hunt the demon down and find their missing father.

A novel called RED RISING by Pierce Brown uses a similar technique. It's set on Mars. The society is broken into classes. The ruling class punishes the hero by killing his wife. He leaves home with terrorists.

When you accept a vow, you're implying or stating there is a difficult, possibly insurmountable goal. If you use this, do it early in the book, because it sets the tone for the entire novel.

3) The Clark - Tell a Secret
This technique delivers information to a pivotal character. The effects of this secret keep people hooked. Laini Taylor's DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE uses this when Akiva kills Karou's family. This relationship and this moment drive two more books. So, it's a technique to use later in the manuscript because it pays off threads you laid earlier.

His approach to story structure and its emotional influence was really smart and helpful. And anything that lets you you justify delicious television viewing as work is OK by me.


Learn more about Lamar Giles
Follow Lamar Giles on Twitter

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Lisa Yee is the the award-winning author of many novels for children, including Millicent Min, Girl Genius, which won the first Sid Fleischman Humor Award in 2004.

You might also know her because of her famous pal, Peepy.

Lee Yee works the room.

The crowd is playing a game with Lisa Yee: Name That Line. After reading through well-known first lines and trying to name the title, the room now goes through, choosing their favorite three, and thinking about why they chose them.

Here's a sampling:

"All children, except one, grow up." ~ Peter Pan

"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." ~ The Graveyard Book

"If your teacher has to die, August isn't a bad time of year for it."~ The Teacher's Funeral

First lines are very personal. They sets the tone for your story. With that line you're giving a clue as to who is telling the story.

There's no formula for the perfect first line. Lisa likes to think of first lines like food. They can be an appetizer (a bit of a taste or a tease), an entree (nice and meaty), or dessert (really lovely and delicious). A first line needs to wet the appetite.

Check out Nancy Pearl's Book Crush to find lists of things in books for kids/teen, like great first lines. You'll find the first line of Millicent Min, Girl Genius included in that list of great first lines.

Here it is:

"I've been accused of being anal retentive, an overachiever and a compulsive perfectionist, like that's a bad thing."

Definitely worth of that list.

What makes a great last line?

If your first line is the promise of the story, your last line is the payoff.

When you write your last line it can be helpful to know what you are writing towards as your draft.

Don't ignore that your you have first and last lines within a book. Pay attention to those too, like the first and last lines of a chapter.

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Here's a fun fact about Linda Sue Park: She once was a contestant on jeopardy. Yes, she is that smart. Which is why this room is packed and ready to soak up her brilliance.

Linda Sue has written novels, picture books, and poetry for younger readers, including A Single Shard, winner of the 2002 Newbery Medal, and the New York Times bestseller A Long Walk to Water. Lin Oliver also introduces her as adorable, fun, and full of energy.

Stealing a note from Tim Gunn (from Project Runway), Linda Sue tells us, "Don't bore the editor."

We need to make every word count. But how do we do it? By using the tools of the writer's craft.

Linda Sue shows us photos of the many illustrators tools: brushes, paints, pencils, etc.

What do writers have?





As writers, we all use the exact same tool. That's all we've got so we have to use those words to the their maximum potential.

Linda Sue speaks to those in the room who believe they have a submission-ready manuscript. When you think your work is submission ready, Linda Sue suggests putting it away. Not for hours, but for a month. Or even two.

When you pull it back out you can make it better still, but how?

Linda Sue shares many practical way to examine the words you're choosing. Here are a few:

• Choose a scene in your manuscript that has a lot of dialogue in it. Rewrite it entirely in dialogue alone. Then go back in and reinsert only the narrative that is completely necessary. 

• Choose a small section of your manuscript and put it all caps. Doing this can make you examine the words differently. 

• Read your manuscript out loud. Linda Sue reads each manuscript (even novels) at least two times before she submits. Have someone read it out loud for you, especially if it's a picture book.

Words are everywhere right now. They have become one of our cheapest currencies, which makes it even more important for the words in our stories to be special.

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Deborah Halverson

Editor and Author Deborah Halverson - who writes both fiction and craft books about writing, is SCBWI's market reporter. As Lin Oliver says in her introduction to this keynote, this promises to be:

"The most practical and useful session you will attend in the next twelve months"

In every attendee's folder, there's a copy of the "2014 SCBWI Market Survey: Publishers of Books for Young Readers"



(The Market Survey is also available for SCBWI members at the scbwi.org website.)

Deborah created this "market snapshot" based on interviews with 17 industry insiders - agents, editors, sales managers and independent market experts.

She starts by explaining to us where the market is today (now we all know that if you take out the "Hunger Games bump," the market has been pretty consistent since 2012.)

Deborah is highlighting the new opportunities for attendees (new publishing houses and imprints) and the submission changes.

Then she shares what the experts are telling her is going on, for picture books, chapter books, nonfiction, middle grade and young adult fiction.

She goes into the impact of the Common Core curriculum, the penetration of ebooks and digital by category, and reports on how the submissions editors are seeing sync with what they want.

A few highlights:

There's an upswing in picture book sales and market demand - Young picture books.

Re: diversity in picture books, editors prefer projects that aren't heavy handed. Books that include cultural elements that aren't about the diversity.

Editors and Agents tell her that they eagerly seek middle grade concepts.

One area of cautious interest is realistic contemporary YA… the challenge is "finding stories about normal kids in normal school environments that stand out from other stories about normal kids in normal school environments."


With all this scoop about trends, Deborah cautions us to not write for the trend!

And the final take-away:

One editor told her "I'm not looking to reject. I'm looking to find."

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About James:

James Burks is the author-illustrator of several children's books, including Beep and Bah, the Bird and Squirrel graphic novel series, and Gabby and Gator, a Junior Library Guild selection. Most recently, he illustrated The Monstore by Tara Lazar. He lives in Valencia, California. You can visit him online at www.jamesburks.com

Author-Illustrator James Burks

A piece of James' finished art - the cover for his "Bird & Squirrel On Ice"

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Jim Averbeck is an author, illustrator and author/illustrator of picture books (including the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book, In a Blue Room) and novels. His first novel is just out, A Hitch at the Fairmont, and it has been positioned for use with Core Curriculum State Standards.

Ed Porter is a former superintendent of schools in Long Island. Currently, he is an educational consultant who, among other things, coaches schools in understanding and implementing the Common Core Standards.

Jim Averbeck (left) and Ed Porter

Ed and Jim start with explaining that The Common Core is evolving. "Call it Common Core 1.0"

You can check the standards out at corestandards.org

The handout packet is hefty, and its cover is a map of which U.S. states have adopted Common Core (most), which have similar standards (a handful), and which have rejected it (four.)

Ed gives us an overview of the evolution of Common Core so far.

Today, we're asking students to have skills and attributes beyond what the old K-12 standards could offer them. Things like self-regulation, critical thinking and problem-solving, effective oral and written communication and resilience.

And Common Core is one of many responses to this. Another response is "The 4 C's in STEM: Collaboration, Creativity, Communication and Critical Thinking."

Jim and Ed also share a metric called "Webb's Depth of Knowledge" that breaks down knowledge about a book into four levels. Here are examples of text questions at each level:

1st level of knowledge: What are the names of the characters?
2nd level of knowledge: What happened?
3rd level of knowledge: Why did something happen?
4th level of knowledge: What would happen if…?

Common Core aims to have students go deeper, into those 3rd and 4th levels.

Jim aims to have his book and Common Core tie-in

"Easy for teachers to choose, easy for teachers to use."

Jim explains how texts are evaluated to be used in classrooms, based on "text complexity." It's a mix of Quantitative (like Lexile scores determined by computer - Jim's Hitch book was a Lexile 770, recommended for grades 3 and 4), Qualitative (like judging the complexity of the story, an evaluation performed by educators, and based on this analysis by teachers, Hitch moved up to 4th through 6th grades) and Reader & Task measures (individual teachers choosing things for individual classes and students.)

So what might we do to help teachers choose our books to use in the classroom?

There are group exercises through, like one that demonstrate to attendees how contemporary and speculative fiction can tie into the common core, and also tap into those 3rd and 4th levels of knowledge.

Jim shares his advice on what to do before the writing, during the writing, and after the book is published.

Here's one example for each:

Before: connect your fiction to research

During: Include appendices and author notes that surfaces research where appropriate

After: Create a "Common Core Selection Guide" that summaries the text complexity

They walk us through a page from the actual "Common Core Activity Guide" Ed created for Hitch! You can see and download the entire guide at Jim's website here.

And they even share a giant list of where to distribute your supplemental materials.

So much great information!

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The magical Maggie Stiefvater

Maggie Stiefvater is nothing short of astonishing. She's the author of many YA novels, including the bestselling Raven Boys series and the Printz Honor Award-winning SCORPIO RACES.

She talked to us about her life as a writer—which has more dimensions than that single word contains.

"I'm not sure if my job description is actually writer," she said. "It should be thief. Or maybe, if I'm being kind, artist."

"I used to think that my ideal job was to write. To make up stories. To lie for a living." Now that she's a professional writer, knows that she observes, steals, and stylizes for a living.

When she writes, it's not so much that she is creating new things out of nothing, but that she steals from the world and makes it her own. She used to be a professional portrait artist, something she had to practice a lot (much like writing). One challenge of being a portrait artist was that people would move. She learned to look for people being still.

She found one once in a window seat on an airplane—the seat she wanted—and she sketched him with delight. And then she found out he was watching her draw. She teased his life story out of him, or at least part. Specifically the hand part. He had an oddly shaped hand, so he told her the story of how he broke it. On someone's face.

He said he was defending his sister's honor, and she listened to him with her mind on record, as she planned to steal him and his soft southern accent.

Over the years, her thefts have gone from the surface much deeper. Faithful, accurate renderings aren't what she wants. These are mere copies. She wants the essence. The soul. Why that guy threw that punch, or why he never threw one earlier. His broken hand was broken for a reason. He could have been, and probably was, lying.

The truth: A boy had once lost his temper, much to his shame. He had to look at the memory of that moment every single day. Everything else was just details. Just noise. "That was the soul," she said. "And that was what I stole."

He became Adam Parrish in THE RAVEN BOYS.

She talked to us about what the old writing advice "write what you know" really means, charming us with the stories of her childhood horse, a former racehorse that wasn't ready to retire and very well could have killed her. This fed into THE SCORPIO RACES, a book about vicious horses that are very likely to eat anyone who tries to ride them.

The thief then hands the job over to the artist, who understands what details to keep, and what details to cut.  "If I do my thievery well, if I steal the truth and not the details, and then I add the details back in, then I end up with a book that is not just true, but specific, and in only the way I can write it," she said.

She said her most Maggie book of all is THE RAVEN BOYS, one rich with things she's pilfered from her childhood, and literally about someone who can summon things from his dreams, just as she summons from her own.

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Cynthia Kadohata

Cynthia Kadohata won the Newbery Award for Kira-Kira,




She won the Jane Addams Peace Award and Pen USA Award for Weedflower,


and she won the National Book Award for her recent novel, The Thing About Luck.


She knows how to write!

Cynthia starts by telling us that there's a revolving door between her non-writing life and her writing life.

And then she tells us these beautiful, moving stories from her personal life, like about the dog who came into her life and died eight years later. She was distraught at the loss, and her husband suggested she write down notes on everything she was feeling. She thought she had finished the manuscript for Kira-Kira, but after the death of her beloved pet, she went back into the story, inserting ALL that material into the book. It was the book that needed the least amount of revision. And it won the Newbery Award!

She tells us about needing to touch an elephant (an assignment from her editor!), and the adoption of her son from Kazakstan… tying the stories from her life into the creative process of creating her books.

"No matter what problem I'm having with my writing, the answer is always there, somewhere in my life."

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Megan McDonald, author of that beloved Judy Moody series and more, shares with us some stories of her life and career.

Megan tells us about growing up the youngest of five sisters and gives a delightful anecdote concerning one her favorite books growing up, a wrestler and rabies (and for those of you not here you can read the story IF you have a Horn Book subscription and get the awesome issue that's the recent HARRIET THE SPY anniversary/tribute issue! Or borrow it online...)

It's Harriet that started Megan on her path to being a writer and finding her own voice at the ripe old age of eight. But then she lost that voice for a while...

Read the Horn Book link before you look at the image below, which Martha Brockenbrough found and is making me include, the wrestler Bruno Sanmartino.



After some traumatic college writing courses and lots of self doubt, Megan began finding her own voice again, which happened to be that of eight-year-old Megan. Megan shares a Jung quote with us: No matter how isolated you are and how lonely you feel, if you listen to your own voice, unknown friends will come and seek you.

And that's when she started finding those characters like Judy and Stink and Amanda Frankenstien.

What it's like to work with editor Mary Lee Donovan: "With every book she helps me to see the true story in that mess of first drafts... and second...  and third drafts. She helps me see through the fog to the story in my heart.

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Mary Lee Donovan

Mary Lee starts off with this caveat: "We never set out to make Judy Moody a series, which is probably good and bad to hear."

Once it took hold, though, some choices in the writing and pacing of the books were very deliberate, but in the beginning that was not the goal. Megan and Mary Lee tell us about Judy Moody's Origin Story:

Megan McDonald

Megan's early works were not funny, her parents passed away when Megan was 30 and for a long time Megan's voice was fairly quiet and serious because she was in such a dark place. But in an effort to capture family memories, she grew up with four older sisters, Megan had been writing down all of the crazy, outrageous, hilarious things that had happened in her family.

When Megan and Mary met at a conference, they had an instant connection and Megan asked Mary Lee: "I have all these stories about my family that I don't know what to do with, but I want to do something, do you think you could look at them?"

Mary Lee chimes in, "Let me add, you are so funny, I can't believe you didn't start writing funny. I could see you had this incredible energy and sense of humor... I just knew, how can I work with this person, how can I work with this material. It was already episodic, which was great for chapter books, but we needed it to add up to something more."

From there Megan and Mary Lee worked on adding that something more and eventually Megan had a full novel.

Megan's original Judy Moody book was much, much longer and not illustrated. Mary Lee calls cutting over half of the original book like having a sour dough starter, the cuts could be used—would be used—for a next book. (Actually, those cuts were not used until book 3.)

Megan probably calls cutting over half the book mildly terrifying. But after the designer and then Peter H. Reynolds added in so many superb visual elements, Megan was in love with the book's everything and on board with all of the cutting.

Megan and Mary Lee share a bit more about the journey of Judy Moody and then give the audience some tips on creating a series. Here is one tip below, some questions you should ask yourself after you write that first, great book.


Can things be episodic? Or are you going to wrap things up in the book's entire world within the next one or two books?

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Team Blog's very own Martha Brockenbrough is the author of five books for young readers, including the YA novel Devine Intervention and the picture book, The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy. She has a killer public presence - check out her website at www.marthabrockenbrough.com and on twitter @mbrockenbrough

Martha Brockenbrough just before her session started (before the room filled to overflowing.)

Martha starts out by saying to the beyond standing-room-only crowd that:

It's not about marketing, it's about building relationships, and those relationships sell your book for you.

It's not about the hard sell - it's about this question: Do you enjoy meeting people who love books as much as you do?

YES!

"Connect with the right people and you'll ultimately connect with the right readers."

The breakout session was structured as the five key steps to building those relationships (and that killer public presence.)

I'll divulge one of the steps here::

Define your brand

Here's how that breaks down:

1. Identify who your ideal reader is

Martha's is: A weird independent nerd

2. summarize your book, who it's about, tone, sense of stakes

What is Martha's YA novel, Devine Intervention about?

"It's about the world's worst guardian angel, the girl he accidentally kills and the 24 hours they have to sneak her soul into Heaven before it disappears forever."

3. summarize your writing as a whole

Martha's website header says it all: "Author of Books for Smart Kids and Juvenile Adults"

4. convey it visually - while still being your authentic self

Martha has that cool streak in her hair that makes teen girls say, "I like your hair!"



5. leverage your unique background

Martha leveraged her passion for grammar by founding The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar and creating a holiday for it. This got her a lot of press coverage, and her reviews often speak of her love of language.


Martha is a fountain of information, and her session covers so much more! From how to leverage common core to the significance of pre-orders, we get example after example of how she and other authors did things right.

It's essential, inspiring, and as the person next to me said after the applause tapered down at the session's end:

"That was awesome."

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Bruce Coville is the award-winning and beloved author of over a hundred books for children and young adults.

Bruce says plot and character are inextricably linked. You can't talk about plot without talking about character. You can't talk about character without talking about plot.

Bruce is a plot writer.

The best story telling energy has a bridge between male and female storytelling energy.

A great ending is both a surprise and inevitable. It is not a coincidence.

You can use a coincidence to start a story. The further along the coincidence occurs, the less believable it is.

What is a good story? Three thing Bruce loves to find in a story and also tries to put them in his own work. He likes to call them: Ha, Wah, and Yikes.

• A belly laugh
• A tear
• A gasp of surprise

If all three are in a story, the reader is bound to be satisfied.

Story recipe: Take somebody you like and get them in trouble.

By asking questions and inventing scenes that answer those questions you write a story.

Stories happen when characters have to choose. Make your character make a tough choice. Your character's need will drive the action.

Plot happens when desire meets obstacle.

If you've never heard Bruce Coville speak and you get the opportunity, don't hesitate for a second.

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Author/illustrator Aaron Becker has the whole audience standing up and singing a variety of refrains. They are NOT from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but I AM having an out of body experience. . . .

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OOOOOOH HOLY HELL, we all just sang JOURNEY!

Aaron shares this video of the Journey trailer:

As a kid, Aaron was always drawing, he shows us some of his drawings from 1978 of a few X-Wing fighters. AND he was always making books! He made his own Ed Emberley-ish how-to-draw books complete with bio photos and flap copy, but at the time, he thought this was just fun play and when he became an adult he'd have to give it all up, no more making books with pictures.

But in high school, though he never took an art class, he got an internship with a local commercial illustrator and realized you could get paid to make art. In college Aaron finally got into some art classes and Post-College Aaron started working in the fields of graphic design, and though he was getting paid to draw, it wasn't quite what he thought it would be. At an elderly 23,  he felt like his days were slipping away, being filled with unfulfilling work and that maybe he did not need the security of his day job if it meant his life wasn't really worth living.

And so he did a web search and found:

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About Ruth:

Author and illustrator Ruth McNally Barshaw worked in advertising and won big bucks creating grand prize winning entries for national essay contests (Kudos, Suave, American Library Association, Stouffers, Robitussin...) before getting into kids' books. Sketch-journaling the 2005 SCBWI Winter Conference directly led to her getting published. Her sixth Ellie McDoodle book comes out this September with Bloomsbury, and she's illustrating a picturebook for Sleeping Bear Press for 2015. See her work at http://ruthexpress.com

Author and Illustrator Ruth McNally Barshaw

An example of Ruth's illustrations, the cover for her "The Ellie McDoodle Diaries: The Show Must Go On"

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Caldecott Honor winner Aaron Becker's keynote was entirely wordless!

Here are a few choice images from his talk and how we interpreted them:

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Lin asks the panel what hooks them:

A hole is to dig, and Mac and Jon are digging a hole— I think that title font is even an homage to the Krauss/Sendak book, so nice.

Steve: "I love finding something that references a classic but layers their own point of view on top. With Jon Klassen I thought I could see immediately all of his influences but... he put a fresh point of view on top of that... took it in a completely new direction."

Linda: "I'm looking to meet somebody on a page that intrigues me from the very beginning. Something that I haven't seen before that makes me wonder why I haven't seen it before because it's so obviously interesting."

"And cover letter first, I want to meet that character on the page, but I also want to get a sense of the person I'm going to be working with. I want to know you're going to go out in the world as a professional."

Lin wants to know more about Linda's wishes for a cover letter:

Linda: "I want to know you've done your research, a brief summary of what your work is about, why you're submitting to me, and any credentials you have." (Like that you are an SCBWI member, not that you read your book to a bunch of third graders and they say they liked it and/or didn't fling boogers at you.)

Steve: Cover letters are really important, it's your opportunity to establish yourself as a professional. This is your career, so you should be taking it very seriously. If the letter has misspellings, reads like you just dashed it off, you're kind of selling yourself short.

Did you know Marla's BOSS BABY is going to be a movie soon?????

Lin asks, "When you're taking on a new client, do you need to see a brand or be able to see the potential of one?"

Steve: The word brand can be tricky, it can scare certain authors, what if you don't have a narrow focus or niche? Your brand is who you are as a writer, it may be that your brand is that you write cross genres. Don't feel boxed in by the word "brand." For illustrators you don't need to feel like you can only work in one style or one character. Let your brand be that you do amazing work, like Marla Frazee. Everything she does is amazing, but her work is not confined to one character.

Linda: Sure, Hunger Games, Twilight, and Mo Willems are a brand of one type, but LeUyen Pham is an amazing talent and has a range of styles, she adapts her style to the book or project.

Did you know LeUyen is illustrating something for SHANNON HALE?!?

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Alexandra Penfold is an agent at Upstart Crow Literary and has been working in publishing for over a decade. She is also an author of picture books and cookbooks. She represent everything from young picture books to young adults.

WHAT HOOKS ME

Alexandra likes books that show her something about the world or about life, books that take her to a place away from where she lives. She's drawn to books that recognize that kids are smart.

On cover letters: There's nothing more disappointing than a cover letter that gets you so excited to read the manuscript only to open it up and be disappointed. Be sure your work is delivering on the promise you make in your cover letter.

As an agent (and an editor) you want a writer's second book to be even more successful than their first. As an agent Alexandra wants to help her clients hone their focus moving forward into a career.

If you think about brand as your reputaiton it makes you think about what you do, including on social media.

Lin flips the panel topic around to: What doesn't hook you?

Alexandra gets a lot of picture book submissions. Awful rhyme makes Alexandra cringe. She loves poetry when it's joyful and done well. But it doesn't work when the story bends to fit the rhyme. Books can also be lyrical without rhyming.

Lin: How do you see the children's publishing landscape today?

It's been a fantastic year for picture books. There's been a resurgence. "Yay, picture books."

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Sarah Davies

Sarah Davies is the founding agent at The Greenhouse Literary Agency, which has bases in the USA and the UK. She worked as a publisher for many years before founding Greenhouse. Meg Cabot, Karen Cushman, and Judy Blume are among the authors she published. Her agency clients include Lindsey Leavitt, Kat Yeh, and Sarwat Chadda.


The agency represents the range from picture books through YA, and Sarah has a special focus on MG and YA. Her agency philosophy is summed up in the name: It's a place where writers grow.

Erin Murphy

Erin Murphy is the founder of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency, which is based in Arizona but also has offices in Seattle. After working at Northland Publishing/Rising Moon Books for Young Readers, Erin founded her agency in 1999. The bestseller Robin LaFevers is among her clients.

The agency covers everything from PBs through YA, and tends to prefer lasting classics over trendier works. EMLA is legendary in the business for the close relationships clients enjoy, with an annual retreat that generates potentially dangerous levels of fun.

What do you look for? 

Erin Murphy: I look for authenticity, both in the author and the work. She likes characters that feel true. "You can't feel the hand of the author pushing them around on the page."

Sarah Davies:  She's hooked by ambitious writers. "And I'm not talking her about money and deals, much as we love them." She wants writers to crave mastering the craft, who have a big idea even if it might not pay off. She likes experimentation with structure. She's also an editorial agent who works with writers to get their work ready.

"I just love people who work hard," she said.

 What would you like to see or not see in a cover letter? 
 
Erin Murphy: She wants to see where you are in your career. She wants to get the sense that you've been at this for awhile, and how you're evolving.

Sarah Davies: The sole purpose of the query letter is to point the way to the writing. Keep it below a page, and keep your pitch below three paragraphs. Two is better. Make it intriguing, and make the reader want to go on and read the story. "But it's all about the writing that follows."

How do you see your role when you take on a client? 

Erin Murphy: Revision is as important a skill as writing. She often asks people to revise before she'll take them on as a client. If she doesn't know they can revise, she can't talk them up to editors.

Sarah Davies: She does a lot of work with her clients on their manuscripts. "If the bar can be raised, then I will do whatever I can do help that author get there."

Is it better to work with one publisher? 

Erin Murphy: If you're doing a book every few years, it makes sense to stick with one house and build that relationship. If you're a picture book author, you might publish with more houses, especially if you are prolific (which many picture book authors are).

Sarah Davies: Publishing contracts sometimes have limitations that determine this. Publishers want to make sure authors aren't overexposed, and they want to make sure authors aren't selling similar books to different houses. She likes knowing what clients are working on to make sure they're not hamstrung by contracts.

What doesn't hook you? What makes you cringe? 

Erin Murphy: If you're in prison, don't submit to her. Also, if a project is presented with outsize ambitions and celebrity dreams, that's a flag. "Your ambition should be about you growing as a writer or an illustrator."

Sarah Davies: She doesn't like cut and paste queries. She also sees the same beginnings again and again. Particularly prologues—prologues with car crashes. Then Chapter 1 is different in tone, and it starts with the character getting out of bed. In any given day, a third of her submissions start that way. She likes to be surprised. She likes fresh language and different ways to get into stories.

What's the children's publishing landscape look like today? 

Erin Murphy: Children's books are a bit insulated from some of the changes in publishing, because it's still about getting books into kids' hands. Everyone in the business cares most about story.

Sarah Davies: Her agency is having great year. The last two or three years, she's been a lot about YA. This year, she's done really well with middle grade. The international marketplace is improving slightly as some countries come out of recession.

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Rubin Pfeffer was a publisher of Children's books (at both Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and Simon and Schuster) and then became an agent. He launched his own agency in January of 2014, Rubin Pfeffer Content, LLC.

Rubin Pfeffer

Laura Rennert has a PHD in English literature, is an author of both a picture book (Buying, Training and Caring for your Dinosaur, and the chapter book Royal Princess Academy: Dragon Dreams.) She has been a senior agent with Andrea Brown Literary Agency since 1998.

Laura Rennert

The panel's focus is "What Hooks Me" and it covered topics including cover and query letters, how each agents sees their role (editorial or not?) and clients building a brand.

Here are some highlights of what Rubin and Laura shared:

Rubin: 

I love to open a package or click on a file and feel the potential…

Looking for an author and/or illustrator who is able to "tell a story and bring me into their world."

"I don't get attracted to a one book relationship… I want a relationship to grow." It's very satisfying to watch something start small and see it go big.

It starts with one book… and that's the foundation upon which more will grow.


Laura:

She referred to herself as a "literary omnivore."

Looking for works that "explore universals in incredibly idiosyncratic ways."

Think about the voice of your cover letter.

"When you are ready to go out with your project [to submit to an agent], you should feel like you've done everything you can" to get it as far as you can.

The client should be the CEO of their own business. She considers her role more that of COO.

She asks herself: "What makes this author stand out in this crowded category?"

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