The Real Deal about Visual Storytelling with Laurent Linn, Part One

MUPPET IN THE HOUSE! You all should know by now that Laurent Linn worked for the Muppets for about eleven years starting when he was seven years old. Even though he's now a seasoned art director for Simon & Schuster, he can still speak Cookie Monster (and yet he doesn't follow Sesame Street tweets!)

Muppet talk aside, Laurent started with a mini-slide show of hypothetical good and bad illustrator postcard art samples using some famous artists.

For example, Renoir is the bomb, but his paintings don't leave you wondering what will happen next,


say like John Tenniel's illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Posted by Jaime

Peter Sis is on stage!

His keynote is called "Making Sense of Life Through Books"

He is happy to be here in our big group because he feels like he belongs -- and is otherwise home alone all day making pictures.

Ben Schrank Hot Tip

A common mistake: writing for the market.

There's a market. You can think about it. But Ben recommends that you not write for it. What he's looking for is the thing he hasn't heard before.

That's how he felt when he read Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why. How he felt when he read that dream story manuscript. And how he felt when he read Suzanne Young's debut "The Naughty List" (yes, Suzanne Young of our very own SCBWI Team Blog), which comes out this week!

--Posted by Lee Wind

The Real Deal About Picture Books with Allyn Johnston

A knockout first session with the VP and Publisher of Simon & Schuster's Beach Lane Books. Allyn spent the session talking only about the words in a picture book with a focus on great opening lines. She handmade a bazillion blank dummies which the audience borrowed. As a group we turned the 'pages' of the books that Allyn read aloud which helped us all experience the rhythm and pacing of each picture book.

Some of the titles Allyn read (she is a SUPERB storyteller!) included:
Mem Fox's HATTIE AND THE FOX, Debra Frasier's ON THE DAY YOU WERE BORN, and Laurie Keller's SCRAMBLED STATES OF AMERICA

Allyn stressed that all of the titles above were gifts to the adult reader, setting them up to be mesmerizing tale tellers for our target audience. She asked that everyone read READING MAGIC by Mem Fox
For Allyn, "Picture books are an extremely emotional art form. When they work – why they work, is because they make you feel something." She then quoted Mem Fox, "You want the audience's emotional temperature to be changed throughout the reading experience."

Allyn mentioned a great new interview with faboo Marla Frazee which you should all read.

--Posted by Jaime

Ben Schrank's Real Deal: When Everything Goes Right

All the factors that went into success of "13 Reasons Why" (Jay Asher's amazing YA debut, which has sold nearly half a million copies!)

Special Voice +

Concept that was strong =

They bought it

"Strong package" good image, nice tape branding of cover, great backcover copy

Jay the author is great, charming, with an enormous ability to promote himself

House - Ben's imprint, recognized word of mouth building and supported that with appropriate marketing.

Book hits the NYTimes list 20 weeks in... and stayed there.

Marketplace where issue of bullying very much in consciousness - this book came at it in a strange way - book and national consciousness hit at same time.

Even after you get everything right - the change of a book hitting at this level, where he feels the book with be the "Go Ask Alice" of it's generation, like "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson will be the book of its generation.

The odds of something like that happening are like 1 in 100,000.


--Posted by Lee Wind

Alvina Ling: Literary Novels (cont.)

Many editors want to hit the sweet spot of a combination of both literary and commercial.

Loves literary fiction with a commercial hook.

HOLES by Louis Sachar is a good example.

Other authors who hit that sweet spot:

Sarah Dessen

John Green

Justina Chen Headley

Sara Zarr

Jerry Spinelli

"Voice is very much a part of what is literary. It's the details, sentence structure, word choice of the prose."

--Posted by Jolie

You can read a pre-conference interview HERE.

Ben Schrank gives us the Real Deal About Writing For Teens

Ben Schrank is the publisher of Razorbill, and he's sharing the true dream story of why he acquired a book...

what grabbed him:

he loved it - original opening, emotionally riviting, keeps him still reading. There's no time for it, but he's still reading.

started sharing with colleagues.

knew it was big. special.

started sharing it with more.

he finished it at home that night.

phone messages from others - we loved it. fantastic.

called agent. He was first, but it wasn't necessarily "his."

Ben offered to pre-empt it (to agree on an amount to keep project to go for auction) And in addition to that, explained his vision for how he wanted to publish the novel.

They negotiated a deal to get it.

And he got it. That all happened Tuesday - Thursday.

The writer wrote it, critiqued it online with other writers, she did all the right things. When she was absolutely ready (and not before), she reached out to 30 agents - signed with one she liked. Did a revision with the agent,

Submitted to him.

He bought it.

Wow - that's the dream all right!

The dream story continues: Ben sold the book to Razorbill in the U.K., sold in German, France, Spain, and it continues...

He went to ALA midwinter and a scout for a film company approached him. "I know about the book."

The moral:

The writer sat on it in her small town until it was ready. And once it was ready, she put it out there and it's going to be HUGE.

There's gotta be something special in the book. And that book had it.

--Posted by Lee Wind

Alvina Ling: Literary Novels

Alvina Ling, Senior Editor, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers


Alvina's main love is literary fiction.

But what is it?


(A general definition from Alivina) Literary fiction focuses on the character, where commercial fiction generally focuses on the plot.


In the adult world, literary fiction is a genre, but not in the children's book world.


A great example of literary fiction is FIREGIRL by Tony Abbott.

Literary fiction doesn't have anything to do with how well a book is written.





Posted by Jolie

Series Fiction with Francesco Sedita

Francesco Sedita--vice president and publisher, Grosset & Dunlap--is completely charming!! One of the things that he's focusing on right now is boy books for reluctant readers. Something that allows kids to say, "I can do this!" (reading)


He himself was a reluctant reader, which was why he really loves working on these types of books. And he believes that children's books are still selling, and they will continue to sell.


For the attendees, he had some advice: "Forget everything you've heard here--go home and write."

Focus on the story you want to tell. The rest will come later. All and all, he was inspiring and energetic. In fact, he really made me want to write MG!!

-Suzanne Young

Jacqueline Woodson's Keynote: More Amazing Moments

"It makes us better people in this world to do our art... art creates
change."

"When I write it's not physically autobiographical, but it's emotionally
autobiographical... You have to FEEL what's happening."

"Writing across genres helps you see how it happens. ...When I'm writing
picture books, I go back and read poetry again."

and so many more...

Oh, she also recommended John Gardner's "On Becoming A Novelist."

She finishes with reading her amazing picture book "Show Way."

Everyone listens, rapt.

The space and grace and words are poetry and rhythm and voice.

What a voice. What a story.

Silence, as everyone takes it in.

Savors the taste of that story.

There's a road, girl. There's a road.

And Jacqueline, she's showing us the way.




--Posted by Lee Wind

Jacqueline Woodson Hot Tip

So much great stuff - here's one moment:

Jaqueline just shared that when she was in a writing class years ago, she got a piece of advice that has stayed with her. It was something Madeline L'Engle said, about

What we should remember as we write is the children we were, not the
children of today - because the essence of childhood, the emotional stuff -
that doesn't change.

--Posted by Lee Wind

Jacqueline Woodson's Lunchtime Keynote: This is going to be awesome!

Jacqueline Woodson, moments before taking the stage!

Jacqueline Woodson is an amazingly accomplished and celebated author, of picture books, middle grade and Young Adult novels. She's won a ton of awards - and deserves every one of 'em! As Lin said in her introduction, if we read off all her awards there would be no time left for her to speak!

Jacqueline has a way with words that can make you laugh, and cry, and think...

She has a way with words...


The first door we close is to shut out the negative voices of others

And after Jacqueline had a few books out, she had to close the door to the other demands on her time. She had to respect her own time to write, to claim the time, because

"I have a right to tell my story"

And yes, each of us has a right to tell our stories.


--Posted by Lee Wind

Jenn Bailey: Viral Marketing/Promotions

Jenn Bailey - Graphic Designer/Professional Blogger

(Jenn Bailey is coming! Jenn Bailey is coming!)

Lesson #1: you can’t teach viral marketing, but we can get the ground ready for a viral campaign.

Viral Marketing: We want to pass on messages; make sure people are aware of us; increase brand awareness; increase product sales; word-of mouth.

On to a bit of history ala Jenn about...

Paul Revere: He knew how to get any kind of message he needed to out there. He was a virus.

Now a tip: “People will like helping you. You just have to ask them to.”

Who are our Paul Reveres today?
Cynthea Lui - The Auction
Neil Gaiman – The Party
John Green – The Movement
Tammi Sauer & Dan Santat– The Launch

(Check 'em!)

To dos:

1. Build Community

2. Create a call to action

3. Find your community, all the people in your life. Use them.
(We know Jenn means this in the nicest of ways. Reach out and let people know what you do.)

4. The Conversation and the Love: You have to have love and passion. And you must show love and passion back to your community.

(I’m showing my love by sharing with you right now! *smile!*)

5. Rewards: reward people who are participating (sometimes it’s just a thank you or photo)

6. The Sequel: follow up with something else

You have to have the right mind set to get there.
-Be patient.
-Be a friend to get a friend.
-Know your audience.
-Be yourself – everyone else is taken.
-Have fun. It’s called social for a reason.

(Now, spread the word!)


--Posted By Jolie

Amazon's Jon Fine Announces $25,000 grant to SCBWI to support work in progress grants!

Wow!

He also mentioned Amazon's breakthrough novel contest, which for the first time this year has a YA category... entries accepted until Feb 7 (or the 5,000th entry!) Prize - publication with Penguin and a $25k contract, with Amazon readers to vote on finalists based on excerpts!

Cool stuff!

--Posted by Lee Wind

Edward Necarsulmer-The Exciting World of Contracts!

I walked into a packed room to observe McIntosh and Otis agent, Edward Necarsulmer's speech on contracts. And Jane Yolen was in the crowd too!

First Edward gave us a handout with contract lingo to help us stay on top of the conversation. Some of the finer points he made were to demistify and run us through the process. He talked about foreign rights, and that he thinks that they are an import part of your book contract. He likes to hold on to them because he said, "Other than you and your editor, who better to pitch your book than your agent? And I don't have thousands of other books to push like a publishing house does."

He said having a savvy, business minded agent is crucial. They should know about print runs and price points before going into negotiations.

To be honest, I was impressed with his knowledge of contracts!! I'd never really thought out all the small print before.

My favorite line was when he said that he felt that "matchmaking" in finding a publisher was a lost art. It just showed me how passionate and respectful his was of the industry.

-Suzanne Young

Ari Lewin On Fantasy...

Two more great moments from Ari's session:

She spoke about how starting your fantasy story at the pivotal moment can feel abrupt.

To give a good example of how to start out your story and world build deftly, she read the opening of "Singing My Sister Down," one of the short stories from "Black Juice" the Printz Honor book by Margo Lanagan.

After she read it, she closed the book, nodded, and said:

"Find any way around exposition - just let it happen."

Ari also recommended amazing fantasy author Holly Black's website as an excellent resource for writers.

It was a great session!

--Posted by Lee Wind

BRENDA MURRAY: The Real Deal on Nonfiction

Brenda's fun show and tell is over. Now down to the business.

A few hot/popular topics in nonfiction:

• animals
• sharks
• dogs
• snakes
• ocean life
• mammals
• reptiles
• dinosaurs
• the weather
• space/solar system
• war (WWII, Civil War--for older readers)

Brenda acquired projects through several avenues:

• agents
• published authors and illustrators
• packagers
• ideas generated in-house farmed out as work-for-hire

Important considerations when thinking of proposing a non-fiction project:

• are there other things like it out there?
  
• how could you book be different from the competition?
  
• can it be tied to the cirriculum?
• is the author an expert, or what credentials/ties do you bring to the table?
• is it relevants or topical?
• what's your age range?
• how will the book be organized?
• what special featurescould be included?
• where could your book be marketed?
  

--POSTED BY ALICE

BRENDA MURRAY: The Real Deal on Nonfiction

Scholastic editor Brenda Murray edits a range of nonfiction material for young readers for a range of ages.

I wish you all were here--she's showing and passing around tons of books that she's worked on--a cookbook, a big beautiful book about spiders with amazing photos, an illustrated book about the states, a children's almanac, books of facts, 3-D series, licensed projects, biographies (like a book on President Obama), books on Greek gods and goddeses...Scholastic, it seems, has covered EVERYTHING in all sorts of formats.

Brenda can't say enough that kids love to be grossed out--so think icky, nonfiction writers (if that's your thing)! She says that they are always looking at things in the media and considering how that can be translated into a book. And kids can't get enough of books about dogs.

--POSTED BY ALICE

Arianne Lewin's Hot Tip!

A problem that happens with new fantasy writers is that they get so caught up in
the world that they've created that they forget it has to be a story that's
personal to your main character - after all, it's their world, they
won't gaze about in wonder at it.

--Posted by Lee Wind

The Real Deal About Writing Fantasy With Arianne Lewin

Ari Lewin is an Editor at Disney/Hyperion


She's edited a lot of fantasy books, picture books, chapter books, and the bulk of what she does is fantasy - which is in it's "Golden Age." In fact, 4 out of 5 of the books on her fall list are fantasy. So, she knows of what she speaks!

She's starting out defining the different kinds of fantasy:

there's high fantasy: swords, magic, dragons, midaevil, low technology

like Tamora Pierce's books

steampunk: alternate histories (often victorian england) often perfected technologies that we've abandoned

i.e., Levianthan by Scott Westerfield


Urban Fantasy (set in city) like Holly Black's modern fairy tales


Paranormal Romance:

lots of bestsellers

Blue Bloods by Melissa DeLaCruz and that book, you know... Twilight

Distopian Fantasy:

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Feed by M.T. Anderson

Then some that are hard to classify:

Percy Jackson?

everyone's reading fantasy that was meant for all age levels.

Now she's going into tips about writing fantasy and world building... oooh, some of these are great. Like this:

1. You make up your own rules
2. Have them make sense
3. Follow them consistently
4. You can never change the rules

--Posted by Lee Wind

EDDIE GAMARRA: The Real Deal About Television & New Media

Hollywood is derivative; Hollywood is redundant; Hollywood is driven by brands, Eddie says. It can still be hard to predict what will work--Alvin & the Chipmunks was a big hit; Nancy Drew was a flop. There are 20 people in Hollywood who are meaningful--20 actors, 20 writers, 20 directors--and they're very busy, Eddie says.

For TV, he says, it's a little different. TV is a character-driven and relationship-driven. When considering whether your books might work for TV, think about whether you can imagine your characters surviving for episode after episode with anything thrown at them and still remaining your characters. (At the end of every episode, Homer Simpson is always Homer Simpson, for example.)

There are three ways book writers can make money in Hollywood:

• Options: A studio has exclusive rights to make your book into a film for a specified period of time (which may or may not happen).
• Purchases: The studio owns all the rights. Writers will very rarely get any involvement in a project involving their books/characters.
• Back-end: Bonuses on box-office milestones, for example.
  

--POSTED BY ALICE

EDDIE GAMARRA: The Real Deal About Television & New Media

Gotham likes to think this way: If you have an idea and you think it works as a books, sell it as a book first. In Hollywood when a project is acquired, movie companies generally want all rights to everything. You can end up having a movie made from your book and books based on the movie made of your book with your characters. These deals can be really complicated.

Let's say you've sold millions of copies of a book, Eddie says, that pretty much mean nothing to Hollywood. For them, it's all about sales figures. They don't care about reviews and awards, just numbers. Foreign sales are also important--Hollywood is a worldwide business.

For film executives, what really matters is the concept. They think in terms of what will be on the poster, what's the big idea, what's the hook. These execs don't have time to read books. They read blurbs or jacket copy. So when you're thinking about whether your book has movie potential, think about whether it would translate into a movie trailer.

--POSTED BY ALICE

EDDIE GAMARRA: The Real Deal About Television & New Media

Gotham Group's Eddie Gamarra has worked with Libba Bray, Holly Black, Mo Willems and other great authors.

This conference, he says, is so astounding to him--he cannot fathom a gathering in Los Angeles where producers and others in the industry get up on a panel and tell writers how to break in. "It just wouldn't happen."

Eddie works as a manager. Managers, he says, think in terms of ideas and what they can do with them. They can sell both film and TV rights. They are a creator-driven company and like to work with creative people who are multi-hyphenates: writer-llustrators, actor-writer, etc.

Gotham works with screenwriters, directors, animators, publishers, comic book publishers, and they co-agent with book agents.

--POSTED BY ALICE

Opening Keynote: LIBBA BRAY (Part 2)

"Trying to please other people with your story is madness."

"There is no sure thing except the magic of writing what matters to you and you alone."

"What's hot and selling today may not be tomorrow. The only thing you can do is listen to your pages and see what they want to tell you."

Four pieces of brilliant advice from Libba:

1. Be a giraffe.

2. Find the cracks that let in the light.

3. Just say no to the hot pterodactyl boyfriend.

4. "First you jump off the cliff, then you build the wings." (Ray Bradbury quote)

"There is nothing without the leap of faith."

"Honor your work with your honesty."

"I challenge you all to join me in the year of writing dangerously."

--Posted by Jolie

Opening Keynote: LIBBA BRAY

Libba Bray (Super Vixen and Super Author) takes the stage. Within 5 seconds, NO joke, has people cracking up.

Oh, yes...there's the Super Vixen. She strikes poses for the BIG screen.

Libba: "So, know anyone who's won an award lately?"

Yes, Libba--just days ago--won the Printz Award for GOING BOVINE, and yes, she has that Printz glow.

Libba told Lin Oliver she wanted to talk about punctuation.

"I love the smell of semicolons in the morning."

On writing: "There are few other jobs in which you are so exposed..."

--POSTED BY JOLIE STEKLY