The Big Picture in Children's Publishing - Tara Weikum / Saho Fujii

Sharing summaries of two of the panelists this morning, see the Official Conference Blog for other panelists' summaries: 

Tara Weikum,VP and Publisher of Storytide, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, has been at Harper for over 20 years. Her list focuses on middle-grade and teen fiction, and she is particularly drawn to stories with unexpected twists on a familiar premise; high-concept teen fiction; magical realism; and heartfelt middle grade with a unique point of view. Her list features authors such as Tahereh Mafi, Katherine Applegate, Lexi Ryan, Mackenzie Reed, Moira Buffini, and Jake Maia Arlow, among many others. Storytide brings together books that have both public and critical acclaim in the MG and YA categories. Tara's inspiration for her work came after college when she took a course on publishing and has been involved in the industry editing ever since. Book creators coming up with new stories continue to inspire Tara every day as an editor.

Saho Fujii is Executive Art Director at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Saho went to school to be a picturebook illustrator, but ended up getting a design job in publishing right out of college and has been designing for books ever since. She loved picture books as a kid and still does, and says she cannot stop herself from buying more beautiful picture books, Saho considers them as fine as any fine art painting. Growing up in Japan she loved American and European picturebooks and their windows into Western life and culture beyond her own country. Saho has designed for all categories in children's books but now focuses primarily on picturebooks and some of the creators she's worked with include Aaron Becker, Sophie Blackall, Bryan Collier, Christopher Denise, Michaela Goade, Grace Lin, LeUyen Pham, Jerry Pinkney, and Javaka Steptoe, among others.

What makes a great agent to Tara? 

Tara has seen it all and can feel when an agent is 'checked out' or is not being a good advocate for their clients and that impacts if Tara as a publisher wants to continue working with them long term, and publishing is a small town. A great agent can help with issues that arise from either the publisher/editorial side or from the creative side, a good agent helps keep these various working relationships going during tough internal or external times.

How does Saho find new artists?

Saho goes to agency websites first, and does encourage unagented creators to get an agent and we are reminded that most publishing houses are closed to non-agented submissions. But for illustrators, there remains the option to send in postcards and Saho does like to receive postcards. She also looks to Instagram for illustration, as do her colleagues. She used to like to check out Etsy but it's so big now that it's a bit time consuming to be on there. A lot of agent's websites have great search engines and Saho considers that to be a huge help and timesaver. For short term project deadlines Saho turns to agents for their picks on artists who are available immediately or work fast.

Saho, when thinking about receiving very unique art samples in the past, like 3D models or beautifully printed calendars, or even just Express or Urgent mail... That is all unneccessary. One simple printed postcard with one big image on the front and maybe some spots on the back is enough. Saho puts favorite postcards up on her office wall.

Art Directors Panel: Karina Granda

 Topic: The Changing Landscape in Children's Book Publishing for Illustrators

Karina Granda is an Art Director at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. She works mostly with middle grade and young adult books, and is so excited to see illustrators working in that space. Though she still loves a picture book. She has designed and art directed many award-winning and bestselling books including The Proudest Blue, The Magic Misfits series, The Door No Return, Stamped and Stamped (for Kids), The Inheritance Games series, the Folks of the Air series, Internment, and the Love & Gelato series. 

TeMika asks the panelist about finding artists, and they all seem to agree that they found artists everywhere. Karina seconds the use of Instagram, but she also responds well to cold emails when those emails are sent respectfully, only once or twice a year, without expecting a response. 

TeMika: What is something you don't want to see? What are some thing illustrators need to work on before they submit? Karina sees a lot of portfolios that are entirely character studies, and that's not enough. There needs to be a sense of narrative, no matter what age group. That narrative would also give her a sense of the jacket. 

Karina says there's no right or wrong time to submit, but know that even if she sees something she likes, it might not be right for what's she's working on right now. But, if she likes it, she'll archive it for later. 

Tip: Make sure your art work represent the targeted reader. 

TeMika pushes into the territory of uncomfortable conversations. Money.

Picture books are a long game, so Karina encourages illustrators to look at working in middle grade and young adult. The time required is less. 

A really interesting conversation between the panelist around what artists are paid (worth listening to the full conversation between them). A takeaway from Karina: Always ask for more. She (they) will let you know when they've reached a cap.

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If you want to view this session to hear the full content, along with the rest of the conference, register at https://www.scbwi.org/events/summer-conference-2023. Replays of the conferences will be available until September 10, 2023. 

Alvina Ling: Narrative Fiction

Alvina Ling, talking about narrative fiction.

The lovely Alvina Ling is editorial director at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. She edits everything from picture books to YA, along with some nonfiction, and is no doubt the person who discovered many of your favorite titles.

Did you love YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND by Peter Brown, and SHARK VS. Train by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld? Her books. Same for the transcendent WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON by Grace Lin, the powerful NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL by Justina Chen, and the utterly dazzling DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE by Laini Taylor.

She blogs with a group at Blue Rose Girls and is on Twitter (@planetalvina).

She loves genre fiction of all kinds: open to fantasy, mystery and romance. But she requires a certain literary quality to the work. "Literary fiction is my love."

She talked with us about narrative fiction, focusing on three big elements: the narrative voice, the structure, and the plot, and starting with a great quote from W. Somerset Maugham: "There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."

Narrative voice is intertwined with character, Alvina says. One of the things a writer needs to decide: Who is my narrator going to be? A character? An omniscient observer? A main character? A sideline character? Multiple perspectives? A third-person limited? (Her list was quite thorough.)

"There are a lot of decisions you have to make," she says, and sometimes, the choices can be unexpected. For example: PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ by A.S. King was written from the point of view of a pagoda, Alvina said.

Sometimes, "When you're reading a first-person point of view character, you generally know the character isn't going to die. Unless the book is titled 'BEFORE I DIE.'"

She read from a number of books, showing how a choice like POV can be used to add suspense, relate-ability and other things to our stories--it was a fascinating exercise.

Structure, meanwhile, can sometimes be influenced by voice. It can be influenced by the characters you use and the perspectives your story is told from. It can also be arranged around a series of letters, objects, illustrations, or artifacts (like a Twitter feed).

She asked her authors what they started with when it came to structure. One author started with the last sentence. She also likes the structure of THE BOOK THIEF, which reveals one character would later die. This, for her, increased the tension and obscured the possibility of other deaths, which really worked for her.

Plot: Here, the most important thing is to have a conflict. Only one conflict is not enough--unless you're writing a very simple picture book.

"Don't be afraid to put your characters in peril. You need to fear for those characters and not know if they're going to be OK," Alvina says.

She comes up with a pithy sentence that explains what the book is about. It can sometimes be hard to summarize books this way. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE are two successful books that defy such brief summarization, but in general, it's useful to have that elevator pitch.

SCBWI TEAM BLOG Pre-conference Interview: Jennifer Hunt

The lastest TEAM BLOGger to post a Summer Conference faculty interview is TEAM captain Alice Pope who interviewed Jennifer Hunt of Little, Brown. Below is a bit from the post.

Click here to read the full interview.

The time draws near for the 2010 SCBWI Annual Summer Conference and today I offer yet another TEAM BLOG pre-conference faculty interview. I've talked with the amazing Editorial Director of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Jennifer Hunt.

Jen oversees the acquisition and development of all MG and YA fiction for the Little, Brown. She edits an impressive list of award-winner, bestselling and über-popular authors including Sherman Alexie, Sara Zarr, Cornelia Funke, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Pseudonymous Bosch, Cressida Cowell, Walter Mosley, Paolo Bacigalupi, and Jewell Parker Rhodes. (She is also the proud editor of SCBWI’s very own Aaron Hartzler!)

Jen is offering two breakout sessions--PEAK TO PEAK: HOW TO BUILD A CAREER AFTER YOUR FIRST BOOK and AN INSIDE LOOK AT LITTLE, BROWN BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS--and participating in a panel--A VIEW FROM THE TOP: 4 PUBLISHERS DISCUSS OUR INDUSTRY.

Click here for registration information for the Annual Summer Conference conference where you can meet Jennifer Hunt and a long list of other editors all as generous with their knowledge and advice.