Jill Alexander and Michael Bourret: Your Manuscript is Ready, But are You?

I jumped at the chance to come to this breakout! First, I'm a huge fan of Jill Alexander who I met just this weekend. She is LOVELY.

But she's not a chicken. This is the cover of her fabulous book, The Sweetheart of Prosper County.

Then, to make the workshop even better, her agent, Michael Bourret is speaking too. He's okay, I guess.

Kidding! Michael is fantastic with three exclamation points!!!


Before they started, Aaron Hartzler spoke about how Jill and Michael met each other at a conference. The room was laughing and immediately drawn in to listen to these two charismatic speakers.

Jill's tips to prepare for publication:
*Have a web presence.
*Think about your office hours and how much time to dedicate to writing, whether you have an agent or not.
*Get a calendar system because you might need it for school visits, conferences, etc...

Michael says that writers have a lot of work to do even once the book is sold--and it isn't just to write. For example, think about the types of interview questions people will ask.

Jill shared a great story about a speaking engagement. She felt overwhelmed by the jumbotron, the microphone, and the sheer size of the crowd. Jill is so funny! The crowd is just cracking up!

They spoke about edits and how they'll be more than you might expect. You should prepare by studying up on copyediting symbols and get familiar with the process. Expect to read your manuscript ANOTHER 6 to 10 times.

Jill knew that Michael had repped Sara Zarr, so she knew she'd love to work with him. She says to find an agent whose client list is something you're interested in.

There was a great question from the audience, "What happens when it's time for the second book?"

Jill said that with her background as a creative writing major, she's always writing. Plus if she stopped now, her husband and son would throw pencils at her and make her get back to work. Michael said that it's different for every writer. "And for some, like the person in here blogging this, they already have 800 things ready to go." :-)

This was an amazing workshop!! Perfect mix of information and humor!

-Suzanne

Conference Reviews: Molly Hall and Dawn Simon

First-time confernece attendees, Molly Hall and Dawn Simon, share their conference highlights.

Conference Reviews: Jesse Joshua Watson

Author and illustrator Jesse Joshua Watson shares his conference highlight.

Gail Carson Levine - Infrequently Asked Questions About Writing Fiction

Gail Carson Levine has written 17 books for children. Her first book was "Ella Enchanted," which won a Newbery honor and was made into a movie. She blogs about writing here and wrote the nonfiction book, "Writing Magic" - with dozens of writing exercises for kids and the rest of us. She has a picture book and a mystery coming out, and she's sharing with us responses to questions she's had from writers and others...

WRITING FROM A MALE POV (If You're a Woman)
Try thinking of somebody in particular.

When she wrote a character who was trying to keep it's gender a secret, she had the character bow to a Count and then curtsy.

A bow and curtsy are shortcuts, and we need shortcuts because we don't have an eternity to establish a character - but shortcuts can tend towards stereotypes, so use them with care.

Establish your character's gender early - because it's jolting to be reading it wrong.

And she advises to get a guy to read it to make sure the character didn't act in a way that isn't credible.

NAMING CHARACTERS
Find a name that fits but isn't too obvious.

Think of what your character is like, and go to the thesaurus - look at the synonyms. If your character is Moody - Melancholy. Melody? Petulant. Petchula? What about nicknames? The name could be Michael, but his friends could call him "Mope." (He might not like that, and it would just make him mopier!)

SETTING
Be aware of the dangers of information dumps in the first chapter. (Though it worked in "Tuck Everlasting," she says in general to avoid it.)

Setting can be a tool for character development.

In an action scene, you don't necessarily want to stop to describe what the character is wearing. But if you drop in early that the hero dresses in his usual baggy pants, and then wham! It's a problem when he's riding his bike in that chase scene.

And for what happens:

If a fishtank is going to explode and you need to set up it's there first for the reader when the character enters the living room, think about the character NOT saying "Julia, I see your Dad still has his fishtank."

Consider the character saying "I always think those fish are staring at me."

Or the character thinking, "The room always felt heavy to him, two sofas, fish tank, leaden curtains..." - You drop it in there and when the fish tank explodes, the reader will be surprised but will also accept it.

CHARACTER/PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

She looks at pictures and art as inspiration for the details she uses for her characters.

She's also sharing writing prompts throughout this session. Like the idea of taking one of your characters with you when you go somewhere - what does your character notice? miss? react to emotionally? Write it down when you get back.

Lots of great advice!

Jennifer Rees on Your Voice Is Your Voice: Keeping It Real

Jennifer sold books at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati before moving to New York to work at Scholastic Press, the literary imprint of Scholastic. She acquires picture books, middle grade fiction, and young adult fiction. She acquires based on personal love, and pushes something she really wants to work on (like, say THE HUNGER GAMES).

Jennifer's session is standing-room only, and for good reason. Scholastic Press has published many literary favorites, including RULES by Cynthia Lord, THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by Brian Selznick. Their authors include M.T. Anderson and Jon Muth. And of course, there is Suzanne Collins's HUNGER GAMES, which Jennifer edited.

She's sharing an early draft of her talk to demonstrate some of the choices we make when we're working on voice. She's getting lots of laughs, but making a really helpful point.

• What story are you going to tell?
• How are you going to tell it?
• What point do you hope to convey?

Your voice is the glue that holds these things together and makes your story powerful and unique. "Voice is the No. 1 thing I respond to in a piece of writing," she said.

She learned in her years as a bookseller people buy a book because of its first page. If they love it, they buy it. There are lots of deciding factors (age range, subject matter). But voice is overarching. "Give me an interesting voice--give me a good voice--and I'll read anything, regardless of subject matter," she said.

Voice is also the connective tissue and authorial stamp--it unites all the books that you write and enables you to publish more than one book.

"Your voice is you," Jennifer said. "Your writing is a reflection of you. No one will ever write the same story as you."

She's reading the first few paragraphs of THE HUNGER GAMES. Everyone is spellbound. (Except for the one person sneezing in the back. Haymitch!)

"When the HUNGER GAMES landed on my desk, we zipped through it--and we couldn't believe this was what she turned in."

She read it all day at work and left at 4:30 to pick up her two boys. She ended up missing two subways and a bus because she was reading the draft and nothing else existed. (Her husband had to drop everything and go pick up the boys.)

Elements of voice:

• What does your character notice?
• What do they say?
• What they leave out is as important as what they notice.

Some additional observations: 

• When you're thinking about characters, as yourself this about your character: What is your character's surprise?
• Voice sets mood and emotional climate of a story. A grim topic can often be treated with humor.
• Voice changes as your audience changes. The way you'd tell your friends you're going to quit your job is not the way you'd tell your boss you're going to quit your job.
  
• Avoid "teenspeak"--going into overdrive with jargon and slang and irritating expressions. It doesn't matter if your character is plugged into the latest lingo. Voice is believable only if it's something your character would say.
  

Josh Adams: Agent Secrets

 Josh Adams is an agent with boutique agency Adams Literary.

First something that's not a secret: agents take 15% commision (sometimes 20%)

As an agents he's there to provide support for their authors. He's also there to negitiate rights, but that's just one of the many services we provide.

What's their strategy? Do what we know. Do what we love. Do it really well. Do it really really well. "Agenting is not a 9 to 5 job for us. It's out lives."

Agents, he says, don't "sell books" Instead, he sayd, they license an array of rights for clients. 

Josh says it's not always about looking for which publisher offers that highest advance. A publisher offering long-term commitment and support is more valuable. (He gave a great example of a long-term view versus a short-term view.)

Contracts, says Josh, are bot the least interesting and the most important aspect of his job as an agent.

For an agents, it's all about who you know. Josh has (295 editors as contacts in his phone.) Adams Lierary works with a large array of editor on many levels (from associate to VP) to find the right match for their clients.

He reminds writers that agents aren't magicians. Supply and demand affects that they do, and finding a writer-editor match involves a lot of hard work.

TIP: If they get material that is really trendy, they are less likely to consider it. "Timeless will always be timely" when it comes to book. They are not looking for the next TWILIGHT or the next HARRY POTTER. They're looking for the first of something. (They love debuts.)

Last year they got 6,000 submission. It's really important to grab them early with both your pitch letter and your work.

Gennifer Choldenko: Rewrytz: How to be your Own Best Editor

Gennifer Choldenko is an award-winning author of many books for young readers.

(This used to be Gennifer's license plate.)

Gennifer jumps right with tips on revising.

Do get time away from your manuscript. You need to get some distance from it.

Don’t be lazy. This is where time away really helps.
Good work takes time.

Don’t be defensive. Open your mind to what people say without being a doormat and doing everything everyone says.

Every writer needs an editor. Getting feedback doesn't mean you didn't do a good job.

Do be patient with the process.

Some of us are late bloomers. Some of us need to learn our way to things.

Don't be a good girl. If someone suggests you make a change that you know isn't right for you, then don't make it. In the end, it's not going to work if you just do what somebody says.

The goal is to make your book better, not check off every item of the critique letter.

Do follow your instincts.

Do revise as creatively as you can.
 
Do have courage.
 
Do believe in yourself.

Celebrity Sighting in the Lobby #2

Chris Rylander! Chris is not only the RA for the Dakotas, he's an author, too. And he's so cool, he can only be photographed with hip camera apps.

I first heard about Chris in one of Steve Malk's breakout sessions a few conferences ago. Steve used Chris as an example of why a good query letter actually matters. Steve might not have been swayed by Chris's particular manuscript submission, but Chris's query letter and emails were so funny, Steve told Chris if he wrote something in the voice of those letters that he'd be interested in reading more.

Chris's favorite band is called The Nevernudes. They are from Winnepeg. Which is surprisingly close to North Dakota. He also loves cheese. Learn more about Winnepeg, The Nevernudes, and Chris on his blog (which he should post on more.)

His debut novel, THE FOURTH STALL, comes out in early 2011 and has been described as 'THE GODFATHER meets middle school' or 'DIARY OF A WIMPY KID meets THE SOPRANOS.' I say yes to either and am so in love with this cover. If it doesn't remain my favorite cover of 2011, I will sleep with the fishes.

Arianne Lewin: Take a Tour of a Publishing House from Acquistion to Publication

Arianne Lewin is a Senior Editor at Disney Hyperion. She edits an eclectic list, that emphasizes YA novels and fantasy. She’s currently looking for new voices in all genres.

In acquisitions, she sends the pitch to all the departments. They will rarely take on a book that sales is not behind.

Part of the offer is based on sales projections and possible marketing plans. Sometimes Hyperion will buy books that they feel can win awards because it helps the overall list and also attracts other authors.

Placement is everything in sales. So when a book is to be acquired, they must envision where it will live on the shelf. Arianne also let us in on some secrets about the books that are face-out or on endcaps and tables in the bookstore.

Celebrity Sighting in the Lobby #1

Marla Frazee! Two Caldecott Honors under her fashionable belt and more to come, we know. Marla has been doing consultations/portfolio critiques for the conference.

Her latest book, THE BOSS BABY, comes out August 10th.

I asked Marla what she was working on right now. She's just finished sketches and is starting to paint the illustrations for a text written by poet Mary Lyn Ray. There's no set title yet, but Marla has been calling it "The Star Book." She LOVES it.

If you haven't checked out her site, you are a knucklehead. It's packed with loads of amazing tips under the STUDIO section.

Editor Panel: Jennifer Hunt (Little Brown)

A View From the Top: 4 Publishers Discuss our Industry

Jennifer Hunt oversees the acquisitions and development of all middle grade and young adult fiction for the Little Brown for Young Readers (LBYR) list.

Jennifer started with an internship with Beacon Press. She also worked forTime Magazine and Money magazine. She then went to Random House, from there to Lee and Low, and finally to Little Brown where she's been for 9 years.

Jennifer considers LBYRs a boutique house, and she loves their philosophy: to strive to be the best in class.

At Little Brown for Young Readers there are thee distinct imprints: Poppy, LB Kids, and LBYR. Likes to think LBYR is an imprint that authors can find a career at, and a place where they never give up.

Across the three imprint there are about 12 editors and their offices are all together. They communicate and this should be considered when you are submitting.

Lin: What is the creative climate of children's books?

"In our history great story telling has been around for ages and it will continue to be around for ages."

"Whereever we are going in the future, there is still a place for storytelling, and we should keep our minds focused on that."

As far as marketing and allocation, LBYR likes to think of each book individually.

Lin: How is your company regarding multi-media?

There's a whole team that's dedicated to multi-media at LBYR. One thing that has changed editorially is that they now think about the digital piece before/while acquiring a book.

Lin asks all four editor to provide advice to all of us.

Jennifer recommends you think about your own excellence and write towards that.

An excellent note to end on.

Francesco Sedita: PANEL--A View from the Top: 4 Pulbishers Discuss Our Industry

Francesco Sedita is Publisher of Penguin imprints Grosset & Dunlap and Price Stern Sloan as a writer himself (MISS POPULARITY, SPACEHEADZ with Jon Scieszka).

He went to his first job interview in platform shoes and a ruffled tuxedo shirt. "They took one look at me and said: You should work in publishing."

He thinks we're in a really exciting time in publishing. "Nothing is going to happen to to book. It's not going anywhere."

Grosset & Lunlap was known as a licenced publisher for many years. He's been focusing on a strong middle grade publishing program for age 0-10.

PSS is the original publisher of MAD LIBS. "I think of it as the obnoxious little brother of Grosset." He considers PSS as a laboratory to play with new formats (for example, a $9.99 picture book--they're done four so far and they've gone out well, he says).

Two Grosset series that launched this summer: FRANKLY FRANNIE by A,J. Stern about a little girl who thinks she should work in an office; and GEORGE BROWN CLASS CLOWN, by Nancy Krulik.

Fancesco was and is a reluctant reader. He wants to publish titles that will draw in reluctant readers.

He suggest writers don't submit more than on imprint at the same company. It's one big team, and they would share material with other editors at other imprints that if they think there's a fit.

He believes you need to know the rules before you can break the rules, but we're at a time when the rules are bending.

Penguin had become more profitable, he feels, because the president of the company encourages his editorial staff to take risks and innovate, and it pays off. "If you're not making mistakes, you're not taking risks," Francesco says.

The price points are very low at his imprints (usually not over $9.99; FRANKLY FRANNIE is $4.99). He likes to take risks on new voices. He loves the idea of someone starting out at Grosset and creating a great series. He feels there's a negative connotation to the term "mass market," and doesn't like to use that term to describe what he publishes.

Franceso is one of the team members at Penguin who is exploring what material they can produce on new digital platforms. He says that writers should not concern themselves with new platforms or app associated with their text unless it's absolutely essential to the concept of the story.

Parting words of advice: When you go home and write (after the conference), shut the door on what you've learned and write for yourself. Write the story that YOU want to write. If you create the right things, we'll throw all the rules out the window for you.

Lauren Rille - How Designers Bring Your Book To Life

Lauren walks us through the making of SOPHIE PETERMAN TELLS THE TRUTH by Sarah Weeks and illustrated by Robert Neubecker. SPTTT was the first book Lauren got to work on from start to finish at Simon & Schuster. I can't recommend this session enough. Totally eye-opening, Lauren's slide show made us feel like we were there with both the editorial team and the illustrator — like we were helping make the book.

Once the manuscript is approved, Lauren usually paginates the text out for the illustrator. As far as artistic direction is concerned, though they might say "keep it young" or mention they prefer one of your styles for the project, Lauren and her editor want illustrators to honor their talent and vision as they make the art and try to give the illustrator room and time to go wild.

Typically, Lauren actively works with an illustrator for about six months. In that time the illustrator will do sketches, revisions, and final art. For SPTTT, Robert Neubecker received the manuscript and did sketches for the book's spreads.

As soon as Lauren received these sketches (via emailed .pdf), she sent a copy to the editor. Both Lauren and the editor go through the pages. Lauren is looking for composition, character consistency, variety of layout, room for type, things falling into the gutter. The editor is looking for big picture issues.

A few slides of Robert's character design sheets are shown. Making sure the characters are consistent (especially if they age a few years within the book like in SSPTTT) is a big issue for any picture book. Lauren and editor will sit on character studies for a few days to a week, and then send back the studies with notes and sometimes photoshopped changes to help explain what they are looking for. If the work is all digital, it is often easier for Lauren to go in and tweak something than to write out the explanation.

Illustrators can ask for a galley, which is the final trim size and text placed by the designer on the page for you to work your art around. Once the characters are nailed down, and text is fairly set, Robert does a full sketch dummy. Lauren and editor go over every page of these dummy sketches with notes for the artist. Sometimes, changes are as simple as moving the eyebrows or moving feet around. The pink note is from Lauren on Robert's initial dummy sketch page.

Does the above feel intrusive? Lauren says, "It's not a gallery show, it's not just you putting your work up, you are working on a team." Plus, Lauren and her editor are RIGHT. All of the changes they requested, when viewing them in the before and after spreads in Lauren's slide show, are changes that helped clarify the tone of the book, or direct the eye, or better express a character's emotion.

Other notes for Robert included "More underwear, more underwear, kids love underwear."

After sketch revisions, the book goes to "first sketch check," the first step to routing (routing the work all the way to the printer in China.) All the pages get printed out and given to a copy editor.

Some things you don't think about when making an illustration: one of Robert's spreads included candy bars. Those candy bar names had to go to the S&S legal department to be vetted. I hope vetting includes sampling said candy bars.

Easter Egg! There's an homage to HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON in SPTTT.

Picking the cover has even more voices involved. Besides designer/editor/illustrator/copy editor, there's also sales teams, marketing teams, Barnes & Noble. Covers Meetings are 50 people in a room. Sometimes you hear weird things in cover meetings like, "Barnes and Noble isn't buying any white jackets."

Once the cover and final artwork are done, Robert sends everything to Lauren. Lauren's InDesign files with this final art and text are sent to China.

Three sets of first proofs of the book come back. The artist gets a copy to look for color, one set goes to author, and the editorial team goes through their set. This is the last chance for any changes to be made. And then it all gets sent to China.

Then F&Gs come back, and from there the book starts getting into the hands of buyers and reviewers and Lauren's work is mostly done. She opened the floor to questions at this point and showed us a few spreads from WHAT IS YOUR DOG DOING (which is ADORABLE, but I can't find any links to it.)

Stephanie Owens Lurie: A View from the Top

Stephanie Owens Lurie is Editorial Director of Disney Hyperion.

In an entertaining talk, Stephanie mentioned that she got her start in publishing when she was very young--ten years-old. After the formative years with Harriet the Spy, Stephanie wrote her own book at the age of ten about worms and love. :-)

When she got a bit older, she thought a job helping people with their ideas sounded like a dream. After interning, Stephanie has worked with many fabulous houses, and currently is the Editorial Director of Disney Hyperion.

There are two imprints at Disney--Disney Press: tie ins with Disney movies, TV and characters. And then Disney Hyperion: non-Disney related content from Preschool to YA. At Hyperion they are very author focused. Melissa De la Cruz, Ally Carter, Rick Riordan and Mo Willems are among their writers and illustrators.

Publishing about 100 books a year, at least 75 % are original content and 25% are reprints. 80% is commercial.

What would you say to a martian about the climate of the children book market? Big books are bigger than ever.Harry Potter and Twilight have opened doors. So many levels of books are doing really well, especially in YA. She has theories as to what shrunk the picture book market. But she thinks that the digital book could possibly mean the rebirth of the picture book.

-Suzanne

Paul Fleischman Hot Tip

Writing a book based in San Francisco (which he wasn't in), Paul used Google maps street view to see the street he had his character walk down. Was it hilly? Oh, there's a green awning. A tree...

How cool!

Editor Panel - Justin Chanda (Simon & Schuster)

It's almost Justin Chanda's first year anniversary of being the publisher of Atheneum and McElderry. According to friends, Justin likes Rod Stewart, hanging wall calendars, and swearing, but he LOVES children's books.

Lin: Tell us about your imprints.

The three imprints Justin is in charge of—Atheneum, Simon &; Schuster Books for Young Readers, and McElderry are all separate but do interact. Justin takes a moment to reiterate what he brought up in his session yesterday, that "commercial" is not a bad word and not always separate from literary.

Books for Young Readers is the "commercial" imprint, and yet they just won a Printz for THE MONSTRUMENTOLOGIST. BFYR publishes lots of series, teen, picture books. It publishes Scieszka and Haddix, too.

Atheneum is the "literary" imprint, the Newbery maker, the home of THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY and KIRA-KIRA. And it's also the home of OLIVIA, which has achieved great commercial success.

McElderry is considered a boutique imprint with a small list. Specializes in poetry and high concept literary fantasy like Cassandra Clare, or YA like Ellen Hopkins.

Lin: Do the imprints interact and share?

The imprints do interact, but as far as submissions are concerned, it's not the best idea to submit the same thing to all, there should be a reason why you submitted to one, like Atheneum, instead of blanketing all the imprints. It shows them you aren't doing your research.

Lin: If Martians landed in Century City, how would you describe the creative climate of children's books?

Justin: Does the Martian speak our language? Or is it clicking?

His answer on the state of the business, e-books, and why his editors' faces melt (from love, not Martian death rays, can be read here.)

Favorite Chanda-isms:

Concerning digital picture books "We don't want to make the Betamax or laser disc, we want to make the VHS and DVD."

"If everyone writes to the trends, the vampires win."

"Eventually trends end, we're interested in what is new."

Justin Chanda: Simon & Schuster: The Not So Distant Past, and the Really Fast Approaching Future

Justin Chanda chillaxing by the hotel pool

This is Justin Chanda's first SCBWI conference. I'm not sure why. He's a force to be reckoned with at Simon & Schuster, and he's incredibly enthusiastic about children's books. He starts glowing and levitating when he talks about them. He's our kind of dude.

As the publisher of 3 flagship imprints at Simon & Schuster— Atheneum, BFYR, and McElderry— Justin helps bring about 200+ books into the world every year.

His session was all about mythbusting. Here are a few.

Myth #1: Commercial = Bad

He looks for a balance of of literary and commercial titles on his lists. Commercial doesn't mean non-literary, or not well-written, it means readers are reading.

Myth #4: We are no longer interested in publishing picture books.

Justin says picture books are the backbone of children's publishing. He believes they have a long life ahead of them, he love thems. He does admit they'll be publishing less of them, but that's a good thing. For all kid book genres, he says aspiring writers are competing with the shadow of a publisher's backlist, the long gone authors that still rank in the top 200 for sales numbers. Rather than have a hissy fit, he says there's much to be learned by studying these backlists.

"There is no Fancy Nancy without Eloise. There is no teen literature without The Outsiders."

"In the past, it was a 'cute' side genre for a publisher. Now, children's publishing is a 4 billion dollar a year industry that sometimes carries a publisher through a fiscal year."

It has been tough in the last few years with the economy and the many layoffs in publishing, but for Fall 2010 the industry is gearing up for a very big year, and Justin feels things are turning around.

Justin has a Love-O-Meter! When approached by editors who want to acquire a book he says to them, "If you're face is melting off to buy it, I will let you buy it." He calls these the passion projects. "It's lightning striking somewhere and I want to continue to foster that as a publisher."

He mentions trends and tribulations for middle grade and teen books. And what's working for promoting them and what's not.

"The rise of the internet, it's all about the actual online marketing that the authors are doing. A nut that hasn't been cracked for mg, you can't blog and tweet a middle grader, that's illegal... It might take a few years, but it is so much a part of what's working now, and networking and connecting with teens is how teen books are going like hotcakes."

Justin talks about books he likes. Lots of face melting comments.

And here's his stance on e-books:

"E-books are great. They are wonderful. Anyone who tells you different is wrong. It's just a new avenue to get great stories out to kids and adults. It's like the Wild West right now, and we are still trying to figure it out. I do not believe e-books are going to eradicate the hardcover books. I know it will be difficult for booksellers, but I'm embracing it. And the iPad is going to be a great way to develop picture books. Digital publishing in general is not replacing things, its just a way to get more people reading."

He mentions the recently launched LOSER/QUEEN by Jodi Lynn Anderson, a book only available online. A serialized novel! Readers get to choose the next stop in the story, Justin calls it a massive experiment, and at the end, they will publish a hard copy of the book.

Rachel Vail's Keynote: School, Drool, & Other Daily Disasters: Finding the Humor and Heart in Middle Grade Novels, part 2

Rachel is speaking of how the great thrill of being a writer is the chance to live more than one life. How do we do that? How do we become someone else?

It's not write what you know. (Tolkien didn't know many hobbits.)

It should be START with what you know.

Start with yourself. Your memories can make what you write feel real.

The room is super-focused on what Rachel is saying - bursting out with laughter, choked up with emotion and held-back tears, scribbling furious notes, even tweeting so many wonderful insights!

"Humor and heart, pain and hope - they are so intertwined."

Rachel Vail totally rocked it!

John Parra- El Camino de Suenos/The Path of Dreams

John Parra, Golden Kite winner and illustrator of Gracias, Thanks, as well as Gabriella and P is For Pinata, is taking us through his path to becoming an illustrator with a beautiful slide show. Parra starts the slide show with some vivid photos of himself as a child and his family in his hometown of Santa Barbara. He talks about the strong influence of the hispanic side of his family on his use of imagery in his artwork. His early influences include not only his own family and their gatherings, but also the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, the Santa Barbara Mission, and the annual Santa Barbara Fiesta and I Madonnari Festivals.

Although Parra says he knew becoming an artist would probably mean some financial struggle in his life, he knew he couldn't be happy doing anything else. After taking the leap and deciding to attend art school, the Art Center of Pasadena, receiving an award from the Society of Illustrators got Parra the well-deserved attention that helped him get started as a professional artist. Parra shows us some early work, including a piece aptly named "Todo Cambia," which was an turning point in his personal style.

"Todo Cambia"

He explains his process, which includes thumbnails, sketches, color studies, and finally painting. The painting process involves layering paint and sanding the illustration board, to get the aged-looking texture that is a distinctive characteristic of his style.

Parra finds research to be a really fun part of the process, and utilizes a vast array of visual references when creating art. He also uses a lot of symbolism and iconography in his art, which, like the sanded texture, is a characteristic that sets his art apart. There is always a little bee or bird or insect for a child to find in Parra's illustrations.

Parra suggests that illustrators make sure they always have a studio all set up (be it a separate place or a room or an area of your home) not only so that you have a place to work, but also so that your family and loved ones know that making art is an important part of your life.

Parra also makes this great suggestion:
Don't let your happiness depend on your success. Be happy now, and keep working at your art.

Rachel Vail's Keynote: School, Drool, & Other Daily Disasters: Finding the Humor and Heart in Middle Grade Novels, part 1

Rachel Vail has written over 30 books for kids through teens. She has one of the best opening 2 lines ever in her book "Gorgeous:"

"I sold my cell phone to the devil. In my own defense, it had been a really crappy day."


She's also the author of "Justin Case: School, Drool and Other Daily Disasters!"




That starts out like this:

September 1, Tuesday
Okay, yes. I'm worried
Already.
I can't help it.

As Lin Oliver is saying in her introduction, Rachel is

"Queen of the novel for kids"



Rachel thinks a good book is more than just a story well told, at it's best, for middle graders, it should be suffused with humor and heart.

If I want a character to feel head exploding jealousy... she remembers how she felt when she was a child. The mix of emotions.

She challeneged the room to remember a book that really moved you when you read it as a child.

She shared the story of reading "Of Mice and Men," and how deeply it affected her - and how later it became a theme of her own books - What does love require of us?

What an interesting challenge to see if the books of our childhoods that split our heads apart had themes that still resonate for us, through time and into our own narrative flows.


Adolescence is so fraut: We are faced with adult feelings and no adult perspective. As an adult, we see someone hot and go - he's hot. As a 7th grader, we see someone hot and the brand new feeling knocks you down.

Unlike some other luckier species, we have no cocoon to hide in - we're going through these changes of adolescence in what feels like full view of the entire world!

"Life or death moments are a dime a dozen in seventh grade."

Rachel Vail Hot Tip

"Funny, like the devil, is in the details."

awesome advice.

Paul Fleischman Keynote: Surviving the Novel

Paul Fleischman is the Newbery Award-winning author of JOYFUL NOISE: POEMS FOR TWO VOICES, among many other lauded books.

A musician, former bookseller and one-time proofreader, he founded ColonWatch (not for proctologists) and The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to English.

He's also the son of the beloved and much-missed Sid Fleischman. How jealous are we that he got to grow up listening to Sid's books being read aloud as they were written?

To make up for that colossal injustice, Paul is talking today about Surviving the Novel.

He's starting his talk by likening novels to the snow-capped Himalayas (particularly for people who are used to writing in short form). He knows how we feel--he just wrote his first adult novel and hoped he could hit 200 pages. (He did that and more. So much more.)

On organization
It's easy to feel overwhelmed with the "big glop" of a thing that is your novel. To combat this feeling, he organizes. He sets up separate documents for all of his material in sections like these:

• The actual manuscript
• A "working out" document--the various mental exercises where he makes his decision on cast, scenes. He states the problems, brainstorms, writes problems to those solutions and solutions to those problems.
• His outline
• Research--keep a running list of research questions
• Unused lines  
• Back matter--the guts of the book. This is kind of like the outline, but includes facts about characters. Acknowledgments. Possible titles.
• Keep a list of continuity. If someone is wearing a red dress, is she still wearing it later that night? 

Tips for research

• You might not need it in a picture book, but you will in a novel. He researched women's clothes for his latest: "That's a 10-book novel in an of itself. Who knew what goes on in your closet!" He also researched pugs and dancing. (I must read this book!)
• He set a book in San Francisco and used Google street view to look at what the streets looked like.

Writing

• Every word should be there for a reason, even though the book is longer. As with a picture book, "You weigh every word that comes into your book. It's like a passenger coming on the gang plank."  
• Read your work straight through. Highlight it, but don't stop to fix. Ernest Hemingway started every day by reading his current book from the beginning. "No wonder his later years were kind of difficult." 
• Don't be surprised if you have to rewrite. That's the writing life. There's no way around but through. 
• A hot tip for revision: When you revise, make notes on what you did. You might want to go back to an earlier version

Quotes to remember

Paul's speech was so full of quotes, you could compile them in a book. Here are some favorites:
 
"This [the outline] is holding back the Barbarian hordes of chaos from overwhelming your book."

"In a picture book, you can afford to rewrite your whole manuscript. You're not going to want to do this with your novel."

"The older I get, the more I write like my father, who was quite the improviser...Now, I trust much more things coming together."

"Back when the pencil ruled the earth, like the dinosaur, you could still read what you crossed out."

"A colon is the perfect piece of punctuation. It's not a period. It's not a comma..."

"Research should be like a slip. It should be there, but it should never show."

"If you have the same spouse you had at the beginning of your novel, that person might be a little tired of your travails by the end."
 
"When you are writing a novel, you are part of a community that stretches beyond your family, beyond your critique group. You're part of a community that stretches across the world and across time. With luck, you come out of it stronger and wiser and you might even want to do it again."

David Diaz Shared the Podium with Rubin Pfeffer about the future of publishing

Caldecott-Winning illustrator David Diaz spoke about perfect things that don't change over time. Like the chair. And a fork.

And how in music there have been 10 major format changes in 100 years.

He thinks that in books, we're right around where 8 tracks were.

But he doesn't see problems with this - he sees opportunities. In a world where publishing a picture book costs a publisher $100,000.- they're looking for something to sell enough copies to cover that risk. In a digital world where publishing a digital picture book costs five or ten thousand dollars - that's a much lower risk for the publisher.

"Opportunities will grow exponentially for us!"

And when a book comes out digitally, it already IS international, and the potential audience is enormous.

He cited how TV has changed where we went from 5 stations to hundreds in a few decades - and how each station is now targeted to a niche market.

We may not be sure exactly what the future will look like, but David says we need to

"hold on. Publishing will be HUGE. Bigger than it has ever been before!"

Jim Averbeck Gives us the scoop on the Peer Critiques

You can still join in - tonight, 7:30pm, Constellation 1

Rubin Pfeffer's Keynote: SCCC Formerly Known as SCBWI? Once a Society of Writers and Illustrators, Now a Society of Children's Content Creators?

Rubin Pfeffer was an editor - heck he was a Senior Vice President and Publisher for Simon & Schuster Children's Books! Now he's a partner at the East West Literary Agency, and he's taking his 36 years in publishing and using that foundation to divine where our industry of children's literature is heading (and what SCBWI should be called in that future.)

Here's the thing to keep in mind about Rubin's view of the future of changes in children's publishing:

"Not Instead of, But in addition to."

He joked about meeting a fellow faculty member who summarized Rubin's titles as "oddball" and Rubin embraced that.

With SCBWI on the verge of it's 40th year, he imagined how we might be relevant in the digital age, with all the changes happening now:

The publishing industry is being redefined by forces both inside and out. From book returns to new technologies, all pieces of the chain are being affected.

Retailers have become e-retailers (B&N reported last month increase in e-books, Amazon (the number 1 trade customer) reports e-books outsold hardcovers and quickly gaining on softcovers.)

Readers are speaking up regarding pricing, scheduling and formatting.

Technology companies are working on e-readers that are quickly eclipsed by a new one, and then a new one after that.

Some literary agents have even launched e-publishing ventures. (A big battle happening now, as old contracts get reinterpreted for e-publishing rights that weren't anticipated.)

Books as we know and love today will always be here. But that is not the only way...

it is a

"time of revolution - a time to look for opportunities."

And here's the room-shocker:

"Perhaps SCBWI should become an e-publisher."

With books being reinvented, we must be innovative in creating content that that can leverage the multimedia capabilities of technologies like the ipad.

Our challenge will be to remain high above all the poor quality material out there."

He suggests to SCBWI to form a steering committee to look at opportunities for its members as we move into the digital future.


Rubin recommends everyone read this Article:
NY review of books, march 11, 2010 "Publishing, the revolutionary future" by Jason Epstein

He acknowledges that maybe SCBWI won't become a publisher, but says it's never been needed more keenly to nurture and guide quality, into a future that celebrates great content and promotes childrens literature and literacy.

Rubin gets a standing ovation! Wow!