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.

Erica De Chavez (HarperCollins): Art Directors' Panel #SCBWIWinter22

Erica De Chavez is a Filipino-American children's book designer at HarperCollins Publishers during the day. By night, she is a freelance illustrator, designer, and storyteller. Born and raised in Kissimmee, FL she now calls Brooklyn, NY her home. 

Erica participated in the panel, "Recipe For Success in 2022 From An Art Director's Point Of View," which was moderated by Laurent Linn. Be sure to check out the takeaways on the Conference blog of the other art directors, including Maria Elias (Penguin Random House), Kristen Nobles (Charlesbridge), Lesley Worrell (Tor/Forge Books) and Cecilia Yung (Penguin Books For Young Readers).

Some of the books Erica has worked on as a book designer:

Erica is also a children's book illustrator. Her illustrations appear in Mighty May Won't Cry Today, written by Kendra and Claire-Voe Ocampo, illustrated by Erica, published by Bunny Patch Press.

Erica's talk was packed with a ton of practical advice about how book creators, especially illustrators, can pursue success in 2022. Just a few takeaways:

- Figure out your personal book interests as readers and creators, and then research imprints/publishers that publish those books.

- Focus on improving your "soft" and your "hard" skills. Examples of soft skills: communication, organization, setting up creative work routines, being active in your book community. Examples of hard skills: learning new techniques, learning as much as you can about how the publishing industry works.

- Create a reasonable schedule of goals. Be granular and add measurable metrics to your goals. e.g. One new character design every month, etc. Erica showed us samples from her own notebook with 2022 art goals, 2022 art goals broken into monthly To Do lists, then her weekly/hourly breakdown.

Erica also talked about ways that illustrators can show their work, including tips on social media, advice on how to find your people and build your community.

She encouraged creators to set an intention and find meaning. "There isn't enough time in our lives to make art and write stories that do NOT excite us or mean a lot to us personally."

You can find out more about Erica De Chavez here:

Website: PandaErica.com

Twitter: @PandaErica

Sara Sargent: Not Your Grandmother's Poems

Sara Sargent is an executive editor at HarperCollins Children's Books. She publishes fiction and nonfiction in our three main categories, PB, MG, and YA.

She talked to us about publishing poetry for teens today, a subject that doesn't get a lot of coverage at SCBWI conferences.

She started by showing us this wonderful poem by Sarah Kay:

And she recommended the books of Rupi Kaur and Amanda Lovelace.

And we talked about reasons for writing poetry: for its powerful compression, for its shareability, for its suitability to a culture with brief attention, and for the way it makes readers feel seen.

Hip hop music and poetry are similar art forms. Teens sometimes don't think of poetry as music and music as poetry. Sara advised we dip our toes into hiphop, for example the work of Kendrick Lamar.

To get teens excited about poetry, you have to make it about them. This is when they are exploring their identities, present and future, and what their place in the world is.

SUBJECT MATTER IS KEY. 

What are the issues?

• mental health
• queer issues
• politics
• race
• power
• freedom
• the environment
• shame
• violence
• loneliness
• other-ing
• desire
• lust
• envy
• jealousy
• secrets
• bitterness
• guilt

"This is a very, very awake generation," Sara said. "Wherever a teenager sits, a lot of them are very much eyes open."

You want your work to share feelings and connect your readers to the work. Make the specific feel universal, and make the universal feel specific. (Below: Caroline Kaufman's LIGHT FILTERS IN POEMS, which Sara edited).

Some guidelines for writing:

• It doesn't have to rhyme
• Form can be creative
• Brevity is good
• Be honest about how devastating life can me
• Use unique imagery
• Take advantage of power of charged emotions and personal insight to make a reader feel seen

Andrew Harwell: Writing Middle Grade Fiction

Andrew Harwell is a Senior Editor at HarperCollins Children's Books.

What is middle grade?
The fiction that is aimed at readers from 8 to 12 years old, about 2nd to 6th grade.

Key elements of middle grade:

Character, POV, Perspective

Middle grade readers are incredibly sophisticated and you can trust them to read and understand point-of-views that are a bit more sophisticated. You never want to talk down to your reader.

Voice, Style

We want to hit the ground running on page one with your character, seeing what they see, thinking what they think. 

3 things that Andrew often see in middle grade in terms of voice:

1. gross-out humor

2. precious cleverness

3. arch narrators

Plot

Middle graders can handle the sophisticated. 

Hooking your reader on page one doesn't have to be active or big. What makes a moment exciting is that it matters to the character. 

Theme or Concept

Be sure when you're plotting that you are trying to tap into something bigger and more universal. 

Setting

Paying attention to setting and making your setting unique is important to your story. 

Diversity, #OwnVoices, Representation:

More and more editors and writers are using sensitivity readers to get the representation right. There is a lot that writers might not even know they don't know. Editors are also trying to find representations from marginalized voices. 

Jordan Brown: Writing for Boys

Jordan Brown is an editor at two HarperCollins imprints: Walden Books and Balzer + Bray, and he shared the secrets of writing books that boys will like to a packed crowd (which included the illustrator Dan Santat, who drew a robot as Jordan talked).

Definitely not
Jordan Brown

Jordan says there are some misperceptions about writing for boys: that there are certain authors that appeal, or that the content matters (such as far jokes). 

To understand how to write for boys, you have to understand how to find books and how boys choose what to read, Jordan said. 

He shared six observations with us about how boys find books they like. Here are the first four: 

Observation No. 1: Boys won't like reading if they don't like what they're reading. "I know that sounds like Yogi Berra's Guide to Writing for Boys, but I'll explain." 

Almost Jordan Brown

If a boy is told that reading a graphic novel isn't real reading--if reading is seen as work or punishment--who's going to start to think of something as enjoyment. If boys don't develop a love of reading, they're not going to get to any of those other books that people want them to read.

When Jordan was young, "reading really felt like work." He felt ashamed and connected the act of reading to shame. He never would have been turned on by reading until he had a visceral experience reading what he loved. 

Turning kids into readers is the first priority--more important than having them read certain books. 

A Jordan Brown book

Observation No. 2: Boys live in a multimedia world

Demonizing video games and television isn't going to work. Books, TV, games can appear on different platforms. 

Observation No. 3: The Rise of the Do-It-Yourself aesthetic

Diary of a Wimpy kid looks like something a kid could have done. Or a book like the Sid Fleischman winner THE FOURTH STALL have humor, which feels accessible to kids. The voice feels like them. 

Observation No. 4: Develop connections with authors and illustrators

After they finish a book they love, they often ask, "What should I read next?" This is why series are popular. It doesn't mean you have to write a series, but develop a brand for yourself, as Jon Sciezska has done. 

Another Jordan Brown book,
the Sid Fleischman award-
winner about a middle
school godfather type

Other notes: Writing for boys isn't the same as writing for reluctant readers. All boys can become readers. 

What does this mean for writers? Jordan rarely thinks "for" boys. He thinks about boy appeal. Boys don't like to be talked down to, and they're really good at recognizing it. Gross-out humor is an example of this. Boys do like it, but it's not the only thing. 

Also, just because a boy likes to play hockey (or whatever) doesn't mean he wants to read about it. 

Boys are drawn to things that are 100 percent real, or things that feel real. "Tether your fiction to the truth," he said. 

THE FOURTH STALL really seemed like something that reflected authentic middle school currency. Jordan read us a hilarious passage about a bully named Kitten, which conveyed a lot of feeling and emotion through plot description and action (not thoughts and feelings). 

The bottom line: It comes down to theme, a feeling of reality, and characters. 

Claudia Gabel: From House to House--What Makes You Choose a Book

Claudia Gabel is Senior Editor at Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. She's also and author of the YA series IN OR OUT with Scholastic.

She would love to be able to go back in time and publish the Little House on the Prarie books.

She watches a ton of TV and sees lots of movies and reads lots of magazines for inspiration for series ideas. Writers, she says, should do the same things.

For her list, she's looking for writers who can have beautiful prose, but who can also write FAST. In the world of development, she says, they are often riding the coattails of trends, so they have to work quickly.

Her biggest pet peeve--no personality in query letters. She want to see who an author IS in a query. Put some, a lot, ALL of you in your query.

Brenda Bowen: "Agents Panel: The State of the Business" Part 2

More highlights from Brenda Bowen @ Agents Panel:

• On revising a client's work: "I was working with an aurhor on a picture book, and he revised it couple times. I said it was good and he said, 'Let's see what an editor says.' (Much laughter from the audience. Brenda shrugs.) Well, I have a different hat on now."
• As a former editor, Brenda says certain agents who have excellent reputations or cache can influence editors' expectations. When she was an editor, Brenda says, "I was aware that some agents' names in the inbox meant that what was attached, although maybe not perfect for me, was going to be really good for someone in the house, and that it was ready to go. I'd like to be one of those agents, like you folks (she nods to the panel)."
• Brenda believes in a long-term relationship with her clients. "I spent my time nurturing creative careers. It's not good for us to make one sale and never sell your work again. You have to imagine a partnership, to trust that we're going to give our best to each other and that we'll be there for the long haul."
  

Posted by Paula Yoo

BRENDA BOWEN: "Agents Panel: The State of the Business" Part 1

BRENDA BOWEN: "Agents Panel: The State of the Business" Part 1

Highlights from the Agents Panel: The State of the Business featuring Brenda Bowen, Sarah Davies, Stephen Frasier, Dan Lazar, Kelly Sonnack, and Marietta Zacker.

Each SCBWI Team Blogger focusing on one agent. 

Stay tuned for live blogs from Lee Wind's blog on Dan Lazar, Alice's blog on Sarah Davies, Jolie's blog on Stephen Fraser, Suzanne's blog on Kelly Sonnack, and Jaime's blog on Marietta Zacker.

I'm focusing on BRENDA BOWEN: She is a literary agent with Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, a full-service agency founded in 1932, and the home of Dan Brown, Fancy Nancy, and Kafka. A former publisher, Brenda specializes in children's books at SJGA, and is always on the lookout for funny books for middle graders.

Highlights from Brenda Bowen's quotes @ the panel:

-- Her imprint, The Bowen Press at HarperCollins, became "a statistic" because it launched in January 2009 and was "axed" in February 2009. "But when a door closes, another one opens," she said to great applause, referring to her new job as a literary agent with Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

-- What Brenda is looking for: "A strong voice, assured confident writing, and creative use of language."

-- She does like "literary books" but she also has a fondness for funny books and asks that if you plan to submit a funny book, please indicate so! 

-- Find out how to submit via their website: http://www.greenburger.com/

-- For Brenda Bowen, please put "SCBWI-LA" in the subject line of your email query

-- Although Brenda has only been an agent since July, she's already signed some great clients. She says one person had written such a compelling sample via email that she downloaded the entire 15 pages attached and read it immediately and signed the writer right away. "So it does happen," Brenda says, adding that again, the voice was extremely "compelling" which is what sold her on the writer.

Stay tuned for more highlights!

Posted by Paula Yoo