Christopher Cheng: A Step by Step Guide To Making Your Own Book Trailers

Books trailers. You love 'em. You hate 'em. You watch them. If they're good, they make you wanna read the book.

Christopher Cheng is an accomplished author, co-Regional Advisor for both Australia and New Zealand and was Ambassador for the Australian Government's National Literacy and Numeracy Week Initiative. He even has the #1 app for kids books on the ipad! You can check out these two trailers for Christophers books here. I'm really excited to get to sit in on Christopher's Pro Track session on creating your own book trailer.

He believes we as authors and illustrators have to get off our butts and promote ourselves.

"You gotta tell them how great you are and how great your book is - when kids see the trailers, kids take them out of libraries."

You need to make the trailer, because the publicists and editors don't have time.

He does trailers and merchandise. He advises to get your trailers on youtube (schools block this), teachertube, and Christopher is working on an upcoming kids book trailers portal. Oh, and YOUR website!

"Think outside the box - ways your trailer can get out there. Get your audiences to pick up your books!"

He uses keynote on a mac, and garageband for the audio, then imovie. (On a PC you can use powerpoint and moviemaker.)


He went over a list of do-s and don't-s, simple rules, analyzed what worked and what didn't work about a bunch of trailers, and shared some of his favorite book trailers.

Here's one of Christopher's favorite book trailers:

Haunted by Chris Eboch




Christopher is so good at teaching authors how to make trailers, here's one that an author made during a single session with Christopher (like this one!)

Ned Kelly and the Green Sash, by Mark Greenwood and Frane Lessac



He also showed us a trailer he built this morning in half an hour for his new picturebook, "One Child," and pulled apart elements to show us how it was built. Check the trailer out on his website soon... I bet it will make you want to check out his book!

"Cause that's what a good trailer does.

What an awesome session.

Literary Agents view of the Market Place: Lisa Grubka

Lisa Grubka is an agent at Foundry Literary and Media. When talking about what she was looking for in the current market, I was really interested when Lisa said that she had a strong interest in international stories for teens. She also said she liked grounded contemporary with a character she could identify with. Lisa also mentioned that there is a strong push to find MG books for boys.

Pat Cummings & Cecilia Yung- Illustrator Tips: On Portfolios and Promotion

Cecilia Yung, art director and vice president of G.P. Putnam's Sons and Philomel Books, and Pat Cummings, teacher and creator of over 30 books for children, are imparting some wisdom about illustrators' portfolios and promotion. As art director and artist, they offer differing perspectives on portfolios and promotion.

They point out that many items we'll discuss in the session are subjective, and Cecilia tells the group that our challenge for the weekend is to find out what the "rules" are, and figure out how to break them to our advantage. So, the session is offering some great rules—but if you break the rules, you better do it successfully!

Cecilia and Pat provide a detailed and rather specific checklist for the group, which covers topics that are important for any illustrator, beginner or experienced. The topics listed are:
Portfolio
Promotional Piece
Website
Research
Making Contact
Agents

Among many great pieces of advice given at the session is this one from Cecilia—she advises illustrators not to "throw words" at her, but to give her a paragraph of cohesive images.

Cecilia and Pat show the group a few examples of really successful illustrators' websites, two of which are Dan Yaccarino's and Sophie Blackall's.
danyaccarino.com
sophieblackall.com

At the end of the session we have some Q & A, and one of the questions is:

Should illustrators contact Cecilia with SCBWI in the subject line of their email?

Cecilia's answer: Yes, and having really great art attached will catch her eye, too!

Literary Agents View The Marketplace

The Agents Panel is starting!

From Left To Right: Ginger Clark (Curtis Brown), Ken Wright (Writers House), Josh Adams (Adams Literary), and Lisa Grubka (Foundry).

Team blog is covering each agent individually - look for those posts coming up in the next minutes...

Gordon Korman Hot Tip

Find out what's cool about you want to write.

When Gordon was assigned the story of Mozart for his first book in the 39 Clues series, his challenge was to figure out what was cool about Mozart...

And he did, and that was "One False Note."




How cool is that?

Great Advice!

Loren Long Saturday Breakout: The Illustrator Who Writes

Loren's session was the perfect session for any illustrators who are waylaid with doubt about whether they are cut out to be writers, too. Loren is a charming speaker, kind of like my uncle. I think it's safe to say he is avuncular. Below are some quips and simple tips from Loren.

Loren's evolution as a writer: "I knew I had ideas, but I realize now that I do have a voice, and I am good at writing. It's taken me a while to get that quiet confidence."

He mentioned his first job, illustrating the cover for Gail Carson Levine's book, and how he's still not sure if he could write an entire novel, but he definitely understands the work and crafting it takes to make a story like that. Loren thinks the same qualities of a good novel are found in a good picture book.

Loren spoke briefly of his publishing track record and had great, glowing art slides.

"When nobody knew my work, they teamed me up with the writer Angela Johnson, who already had a name in the field and was successful. It gives all the bookstores, libraries, and schools across the country something to hang their hat on, something they knew they could sell. TOY BOAT was the same way in reverse, a brand new writer with a so-called seasoned illustrator."

"After illustrating nine books that others wrote, I began to WANT to write."

"It is enough for me, by the way, to just illustrate other people's stories. I was put on this planet to illustrate children's books and there are so many great stories in the world. I don't think there's anything wrong with just illustrating other people's stories."

Loren admitted most of his first story ideas were bad. Or nothing more than titles. Or just beginnings without endings and vice versa. He doubted his abilities, but Loren paraphrases Avi by way of Jon Scieszka, "If you want to write children's picture books, you shouldn't take a year off to write, you should take a year off to read."

Gordon Korman's Keynote: Writing for Kids: A Three-Quarter Life's Work

Gordon Korman addresses over 1,100 rapt attendees!

We're starting off Saturday morning with jokes, a door prize drawing, and Gordon Korman!

I'm really excited, Gordon wrote "Schooled" (which was awesome - and juggled so many points of view so deftly)


and 2 of the 10 books in the 39 Clues series, "One False Note" and "The Emperor's Code," and 67 more!)



As Lin Oliver said in her introduction,

Gordon writes books that kids WANT to read!

Gordon started off his speech sharing his appreciation for Paula Danzinger, how he met her when he was 17 (and she was doing a school visit) and how her being there for him, the new guy, made such an impact on his life and career.

He has the room cracking up about all the books kids have to read in school where the dog dies... in fact, it inspired one of his books, "No More Dead Dogs"

He's talking about his career (he wrote his first book at age 12 - his Mom had to drive him to his first school visit at age 14!) He wrote it as a class project, and got a B+. He mailed it to the address on the Scholastic book fair order forms... And the guy in the warehouse at Scholastic Canada took it over to the editors... and ultimately it got him published!

"So my advice is to find a forklift operator with an eye for new talent and get out there and start!"

He is so funny. The room is rolling, wave after wave.

He just told a story about the problem translating the title of his book, "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire." to French, where it might have become... when you translated it back - and because idiomatic expressions don't translate... "Teller of Untruths, Your Trousers Have Combusted." HA!

But through the humor, his main advice shines through:

Write what you think is cool.

What Gordon thinks is cool? Old heist movies like "Oceans 11" (the one with Frank Sinatra.) That was the genesis of his coming up with the idea for "Swindled." (Which now I can't wait to read!)

So many great (and funny) stories!

Nick Eliopulos - Graphic Novels

I caught the last half of Nick Eliopulos's Saturday breakout session on graphic novels. He was giving advice to the illustrators in the room about taking advantage of the Artist Alleys at comics conventions and recommended putting examples of your work (or even story segments) on the web (like Raina Telegmeier's SMILE or Jeff Kinney's DIARY OF A WIMPY KID.)

When asked what makes a good graphic novel, Nick said it's the same elements that make a good non-graphic novel: plot, character, and voice.

"Graphic novels are a medium that can accommodate any genre you can imagine. The sky's the limit."

"Lots of book to graphic novel adaptations happening now, some of it's cynical, but some, like CITY OF EMBER, are great choices."

From Cassandra Diaz's website

One title Nick is excited about is PANDEMONIUM a graphic novel by Chris Wooding, an established British SF/YA author with art by a US artist, Cassandra Diaz. Nick says, "It's basically a prince and the pauper type story. Genuinely funny, great love interest, but everyone seems to have horns and bat wings. Hopefully out in Fall '11."

Nick hopes the current practice of how graphic novels are shelved will change, "This isn't a genre, it's a format."

One of Nick's first graphic novel projects was SONS OF LIBERTY, a serialized historical fiction/fantasy that fits Nick's acquisition wish list—high concept guy book. The first is out and the second in the series should be out this fall.

Questions from the audience included:

Examples of young graphic novels? Nick mentioned the ever-awesome BABYMOUSE by Jenni and Matt Holm and Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman's Toon Books series.

What does a graphic novel submission package include and/or look like?
While there's nothing set in stone, Nick said it would be helpful to have: some sample artwork (5 to 20 pages,) the whole manuscript set up as a script (using software that Hollywood screenwriters use (like FinalDraft) or look to Marvel for script samples.) And within your script, you'll want to call out page and panel breaks as well as scenery changes.)

A Look At The LGBTQ Marketplace.. Look Again!

There's been a new addition to the panel for this morning's breakout workshop "A Look At The LGBTQ Marketplace" with Aaron Hartzler (Director of Communications, SCBWI), Arthur A. Levine (Vice President of Scholastic and publisher of his own imprint, Arthur A. Levine Books - as well as an author himself), and Tony Valenzuela (Executive Director of the Lambda Literary Foundation):

ME, Lee Wind (Writer and Blogger of "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read?" where over 200,000 visitors have come to find out about GLBTQ Teen books, culture and politics!

I hope you can join us in the Palisades Room, 11:15am - because this is going to be awesome!

Beyond the Breakout

There are so many great opportunities when you attend a SCBWI conference. One of the most helpful of those being the professional one-on-one critiques. Every year countless stories float around the floor of an author being "discovered" during a critique. Have one coming up? Author Cynthea Liu has a great post on how to make the most of your conference critique HERE.

Suz

Got "Conference Brain?" We have a solution... Yoga with Lori Snyder

It's not Mac & Cheese, it's Mac & Steve! 5 Lessons from Classic Picture Books That Can Help You Launch Your Career

There was a typo in today's conference schedule. I thought, and I believe so did the standing room only crowd, that we were in Room Constellation 1 for Free Mac & Cheese. But it turned out it was only author/raconteur/multiple-pattern-wearing Mac Barnett with his junior agent, the barely memorable Steven Malk.

Mac and Steve didn't have any food to share, but instead some practical lessons on how you can create better picture books by reading classic picture books.

Steve: There's always a place for great picture books. I sent out a book last week that was a real throw back, one editor called it 'the love child of Maurice Sendak and Sandra Boynton.' Editors still love and look to the classics in picture books... I always try to stay away from trends.

Mac: Which brings us to Lesson Number One: Vampire Picture Books.

The slide show starts, all the gorgeous hand-lettering of the rules slides (which you can't see) done by Laura Park.

Lesson #1: Let the Illustrations Do Their Job

 

A masterpiece of storytelling with no words, GOODNIGHT GORILLA 

 

 

A masterpiece of not overwriting the scene, THE STUPIDS STEP OUT

 

 

A masterpiece of leaving the whole joke to the art, THE CARROT SEED

Lesson #2: Understand the Picture Book's Conventions

The Page Turn (Mac thinks this is the most imporant aspect of plotting a picture book and here are some of his favorites)

HENRY'S AWFUL MISTAKE 

 

 

THE MONSTER AT THE END OF THIS BOOK

Page layout formats, when repeated, create a visual rhythm for a book

(As an author, Mac especially enjoys writing wordless, two-page spreads.)

Good visual rhythm and suspenseful page turns in 

 

 

MADELEINE

 

THE HAT (Mac hearts Tomi Ungerer!!!)

 

 

 BILLY TWITTERS AND HIS BLUE WHALE PROBLEM

Lesson #3 The Writing Must Serve the Book

 

Pay a lot of attention to how YOU are going to write your book, not how Dr. Seuss would have written your book. Pick a tone and stick with it—will it be sweet? Or have an edge? If you do want to rhyme, Mac recommends Paul Fussell and Mary Oliver's great books on verse.

 

Some good examples of rhyme from Steve who says there's a logic to why they used rhyme and they read flawlessly:

 

BEAR SNORES ON

 

 

TIME FOR BED

 

 

GUESS AGAIN!

Steve: Read your work out loud to lots of people. People that have never heard it before. Like when the UPS guy comes by, read your story to him.

Mac: Don't read your story to the UPS guy, that's a horrible idea, he'll start losing all your packages if you do that.

Lesson #4, Lesson #5 I will save for conference goers alone to relish. But here's a shot of Steve and Mac being mobbed after their session:

 

And here's illustrator/writer Dan Santat, illustrator of Mac's OH NO!. That is his happy face.

KEYNOTE: Loren Long

More from Loren:

• His  first publishing assignment was the jacket art for DAVE AT NIGHT, by Gail Carson Levine (HarperCollins).
• He didn't do his first picture book until he was in his late 30s.
• He claimes Madonna is one of Jon Scieszka's favorite authors (this is not confirmed), and he says working on her book was a great experience.
• Mood and emotions--and choosing the right one (the highs, the low)--is key in art.
• He wants reader to feel his art, not just look at it.
• Loren sang us a resounding version of "All by Myself" to demonstrate how he feels the emotions of his characters.

The GLBTQ Lunchtime Chat By The Pool

More than 40 of us took over the north row of gazebos by the pool at Friday's lunchtime to mingle and meet and talk Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning and Allied Characters and Themes in Children's and Teen literature. We were joined by Arthur A. Levine and Tony Valenzuela, who were gracious and candid in their answers and comments.

We went around the circle and everyone introduced themselves to the group, sharing what they were working on and mentioning what (if any) GLBTQ content was included in their work.

A few illustrators wondered what opportunities existed for children's book illustrators to include queer content, and we spoke about Marla Frazee's "Everywhere Babies" and a new picture book Arthur A. Levine has coming out (as an author) "Best Best Colors" as examples of the power illustrators have to show diversity in their art and in the books children experience.

Arthur fielded questions on how to include a gay character in a way that wasn't stereotypical (make sure the character is a fully realized character - i.e., if they're muscular - why? how did they get that way?) and about the challenge of including queer content (and diverse content in general) in middle grade books where it's not the main character's focus.

Tony shared that this past year, there were more Childrens/YA submissions than 21 other categories (second most out of 23) for the Lambda Literary Award.

And I brought up, from my perspective blogging at "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read?" that the tide is shifting - we're no longer in a world with only one or two books representing Queer characters - and with more representations, the pressure to make any one GLBTQ character representative, or perfect, lessens. (And who wants to read about perfect characters anyway?)

All in all, everyone's appetites were whetted for tomorrow's 11:15AM Workshop, when we'll be able to dive in even deeper!

A Look At The LGBTQ Marketplace - Palisades room

With Aaron Hartzler,
Arthur A. Levine
Tony Valenzuela
and
yours truly, Lee Wind.

Hope to see you there!

KEYNOTE: Loren Long: The Picture Book--My Two Cents Worth

Loren Long (a fellow Cincinnatian and amazing illustrator) is the #1 NY Times best-selling authors of WATTY PIPER'S THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD and Madonna's MR. PEABODY'S APPLES. Other titles that he's illustrated include Angela's Johnson's I DREAM OF TRAINS,  Randall de Seve's TOY BOAT, and OTIS which he wrote and illustrated. He is also part of the illustration team for Jon Scieszka's TRUCKTOWN series.

What we learned about Loren as he spoke:

• He's won 4 Golden Kite Awards
• He acquired a large contusion on his bottom playing paintball in a TRUCKTWON jumpsuit
• He learned that illlustrators must take text and own it, make it their own
• The get into a project, his goal is one sketch on one day, then onto the next (how do you eat and elephant--one bite at a time)

Some facts about Loren:

• He uses acrylic paint, paiting thin with washes, building it up in layers.
• He used guache for his most recent book OTIS.
• It takes him 2 to 3 months to make th sketches for a book and  to 6 months on the final art.
• He does 2 books a year, but it takes him a year and a half

Priscilla Burris & David Diaz- Illustrator tips: Tools and Techniqes

To begin with, Priscilla Burris gave a shout out to Kelly Light's website, ripplesketches.blogspot.com. Artists donate pieces to the site, and people can buy the art and all of the proceeds go funding for cleaning up the Gulf Coast. Dan Santat donated a piece that will be up for sale tonight, so check it out!

Priscilla mentioned that it's important for us illustrators to attend sessions for writers, too, while we're here at the conference. When she asked the group how many of us consider ourselves writer/illustrators, most of the group raised their hands.

Priscilla gave a bit of her background, which included going to fashion design school, and mentioned that one of her passions is drawing facial expressions. She handed out worksheets which prompted the group to practice drawing facial expressions on faces in different angles, different ages, and even characters showing strong expressions, shown only from the back.

David Diaz talked about his art background, and he's tried many different mediums over the years--everything from pastel, to digital, and at this point he does a lot of painting, typically on masonite.

David did a great demo to show us his current process, which went from a masonite panel with a house paint background, to a face made with charcoal, sprayed with fixative, painted with acrylic paint, covered in clear gesso, dried with a hair dryer, lined with rapidograph ink and a brush, and then back to some drawing with charcoal.

Two very different artists with great tips for the group!

Arthur A. Levine Workshop: Strong Emotions on the Page

Arthur A. Levine is a Vice President at Scholastic Inc. and the Publisher of Arthur A. Levine Books. He is also an author with a picture book coming out coming out next spring (MONDAY IS ONE DAY). What's more, he has a new blog, which can follow here.

Oh, Arthur! Is there anything you can't do?

(Don't be jealous, friends, but Arthur did sing a little David Cassidy for us. He has perfect pitch and a very nice sort of disco-ish "hallelujah" move, which is why I snagged the classic photo of Arthur with his David Cassidy hairdo/optional Marlboro Man 'stache. See below.)

Anyhoo.

The class focuses on how writers can put emotions on the page. Our blog posts and tweets over the next few days will recap class highlights, and will offer up some of the assignments so you can follow along. The David Cassidy soundtrack is recommended, but ultimately optional.

Our first assignment: to think of a place to which we have a strong emotional attachment. It doesn't matter if it's a positive or negative attachment. Now, with this place in mind, write down five snapshots. Images full of sensual detail. Visualize the place. Hear the sounds. Smell the smells.

Got it?

Good. Now we're on Step 2. Each of us reads three favorite snapshots. After this, we write down the three we most remember from the eighty-one read aloud. (What, you think we writers can't do math? Zing!)

For Step 3, we talked a bit about why the memorable ones stuck with us:

• they had emotional associations from childhood; 
• they were vivid; 
• they carried emotional weight (in one example, parents' faces were described as bearing bad news); 
• they were direct; 
• they contained memorable words; 
• they conveyed emotional complexity; and
• they were sensory images.

Coleen Paratore--Writing for the Tween Market: Turning Inspiration into Income

To Coleen Paratore, “this is all about inspiration.” Writing is about catching that spark of inspiration, and you never know when it’s going to come. Inspiration is like a firefly in your backyard, and you have a mayonnaise jar to catch it.


Before she began writing she worked in advertising for years, but she never thought she would be a writer. She was first hit with inspiration for a story as she was on a morning jog. She ran home and started typing. Then she began to research, using CWIM and joining SCBWI. She kept sending stories, and she kept getting “royally rejected.” And then rejections began to get better.

But she really wanted to make a living, and was encouraged by an editor to write a novel. At an SCBWI PA conference, her editor through a title out at her: THE WEDDING PLANNER’S DAUGHTER. As she was driving home, she thought: the wedding planner’s daughter…what does she want? She wanted to have a father. When she tapped into that, she pulled over and started writing. WEDDING PLANNER’S DAUGHTER came out in 2003. It sold out in hardcover, was picked up by Scholastic Book Clubs, etc. The book changed things for her and made her realize she could make an income from writing.

The main takeaway from her session: Sieze the opportunity for inspiration when it hits.

Josh Adams: Submission Stategies

Peeking in at Josh Adams who runs Adams Literary--I was lucky enough to hear his descriptions of Preempts and Auctions. It was fascinating to see the differences, when one is the better path. He also told us how anytime he goes on vacation or goes for a drive, the offers seem to come in :-)


Suz

Eddie Gamarra and Michael Reisman: Good Books… but are they good for Hollywood?

Michael Reisman is the author of the middle grade Simon Bloom series. He’s been working for over 11 years as a story analyst for various movie and TV companies.

Eddie Gamarra is a literary manager/producer for The Gotham Group.

I'm so happy that I was able to attend this breakout! It was like my own insider look at the movie industry. And that means I can't really share some of the secrets. But at the next conference, this is a session you don't want to miss!

They provided an awesome handout that described the elusive term "High Concept" as an easily-described an easily-grasped concept. Then the paper went into Suggested fate of a book/script/treatment in coverage, Movie deal scenarios and the definitions of various terms that deal with the industry.

It also had a ranking of book adaptations with their studio and lifetime gross.
And to pull it all together Michael and Eddie were like a comedy duo up there. They had the room in hysterics. Can I go again tomorrow?

Suz

Editor Panel: Brenda Murray

Before joining Scholastic, Brenda was an elementary school teacher. She's edited over 250 nonfiction books so far, titles suitable for Pre-K to 8th grade, in a wide range of nonfiction topics as well as reference books. She is really good at Trivial Pursuit.

Below are Krista Marino's questions to the panel and Brenda's responses.


What two books in the last ten years have inspired you personally or professionally?

Brenda: IN ME OWN WORDS, A Biography of Bigfoot. No, really, it's hilarious. I also loved NBA winner CLAUDETTE COLVIN: TWICE TOWARD JUSTICE, and PHOTO BY BRADY: A PICTURE OF THE CIVIL WAR is a beautiful book of black and white photos of Civil War soldiers all by Matthew Brady.

Do you find inspiration for new works/idea outside of children's books?

Brenda:  Yes, especially for the nonfiction world. Scholastic has some loose tie-ins to Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel, so I look at TV shows and look to see what kids are watching that might make a great picture book.

Final thought from Brenda:

If you have a good idea about something, if it's well-written, don't discredit the book even if the subject matter has been done, like if it's about dinosaurs or sharks, a fun spin on how you present the information is what I want to see.

Editor Panel: Nick Eliopulos (Scholastic)

Before Nick joined Scholastic in April, he worked at Random House for five and a half years. He grew up reading comic books, and today, is a middle grade and YA guy who tends to do “guy” books because he’s a guy editor.

His mission at Scholastic is to do MG novels and graphic novels (but also some YA).

Plot or voice? 

He describes himself as more of a plot guy than a voice guy, but you want both.

"If I’m sitting on 10 submissions, the one I want to read next tends to be the one with the hook," he said. "I don’t think that a great plot is enough if the writing isn’t there. I’m not going to champion publishing a book that’s a great idea that doesn’t fulfill that idea. When I do get to that quiet, voice driven book, sometimes that will really speak to me and it doesn’t matter that it isn’t a high concept plot."

It's easier to envision going in and championing that really cool plot—that high concept idea with the rest of the acquisition team, he said.

What book makes him drool?

One book he wishes he'd been involved with: The Hunger Games. And even though he works at Scholastic, he has to wait with the rest of us poor fools to find out what happens to Katniss (and Peeta and Gale). He also loves John Green and Scott Westerfeld.

Nick is specifically looking for "guy high concept."

"If you can show off the bat that you have an original idea, I'm going to be excited to put your submission at the top of the stack," he said.

What should you avoid doing in a submission?
 
He loves to get a sense of the author--the relationship is such a big part of the job. On the flip side, if something has been blindly sent out and isn't the sort of thing he's doing--say picture books--in that case, he's not inclined to pass it along to a colleague. It's a taboo to make more work for other people. Sometimes people contact him via Facebook, which he finds "kind of awkward." But he responds to it.

If someone read an interview with him on a blog, for example, and is sending him something he is looking for, that's OK.

Not everyone is going to be able to convey their high concept in one sentence (Nick says he has a team of colleagues to rely on, which helps). With something like The Book Thief (a high-concept book narrated by Death), it comes down to writing the inventive query letter.

Editor Panel: Jennifer Rees

From Your House to My House: What Makes Me Choose Your Book
This editor panel is being moderated by Krista Marino.

Where have you been and and what books have you worked on in the past?

Jennifer was a bookseller at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati before she made the move to NY and began working for Scholastic Press. 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.

Some of the authors she works with are: Wendy Mass, Suzanne Collins (she is one of her editors), and Sarah Darer Littman, plus many others.

Voice or Plot? What would you rather get in a submission?

It’s all about voice for Jennifer. She can work with an author to straighten out plot.

Every writer has books that inspire them, can you give me two books that have inspried your career or you wish you were a part of?
 
A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY by Libba Bray
SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson
 
Do any of you find inspiration for your work outside the trade book world?
 
Jennifer tries to have her ear to the pulse of what other people are talking about, reading the newspaper, listening to NPR, and going to movies.
 
What specifically are you looking for for your list right now?
 
Finding a story that has not only fanstastic writing, great characters, great story, and great voice, but also has good commercial potential, menaing a wide audience.
 
Any pet peeves, or things not to do when submitting?
 
A package that's just not quite professional. She's always looking for someone who can promote themselves in a professional way.
 
Do you accept/read slush?
Scholastics policy is not to accept slush. Jennifer doesn't personally read slush but has assistants who do.

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.

Linda Sue Park Premium Workshop: "The Middle Grade Novel: Growing Your Story"

I am so excited to get to sit in on this first of four workshop sessions with the amazing Linda Sue Park.

She has the ability to articulate so thoughfully about writing, in addition to being an amazing writer. (Yes, she's won the Newbury Award - among other laurels.)

Just in the first moments she's dissected what readers are looking for when they read books at the different age levels:

Picture Books - children are looking to find out about their world: colors, animals, ABCs.. They want to see their world reflected in books.

Middle Grade - they are reading to find out about the world - the world outside their circle of familiarity.

Young Adult - they are reading to find out about themselves.

***

She's had the sold-out room do two writing exercises, and now is breaking down how our characters have to be specific (in a time and place) to feel real - and then the emotions can be universal.

She gives as an example a 12 year old girl who likes music. All that gives you in your mind to picture is a face. Not even a hairstyle. Or what she's wearing. You need a time and place to make her real.

When writing, we have to find the mix between the specific and the universal.

***

Linda Sue Park is brilliant, and I'm so glad I got to be here for this.