Chapter One: Pitch Perfect

The pitch to publishers session was an opportunity for 8 delegates to pitch their PB/MG/YA manuscript to a panel of industry experts in just 3 minutes.

An excited audience watched as Tracey Hawkins and Katrina Germein introduced a panel of publishers while 8 very brave delegates waited in the audience for their names to be called out.

The publishers:

Donna Rawlins – Book Designer, Walker Books

Lisa Berryman—Associate Publisher, HarperCollins
Clare Hallifax—Publishing Manager, Scholastic

Maryann Ballantyne—Publisher, Black Dog Books an imprint of Walker Books
Suzanne O'Sullivan—Commissioning Editor, Hachette
Sue Whiting - former editor for Walker and author

The pitchers should consider the following:

1. What makes the publishers want to read on?
2. What makes the publishers want to request a full manuscript?

Previous pitch winner:

Pamela Rushby explained how her successful pitch resulted in publication. Firstly, she was feeling terrified and had a lot of sympathy and empathy for the those pitching today.

When each publisher on the panel showed an interest in her manuscript she was delighted but it soon came back ‘like a homing pigeon.’ After a bit of reworking Clare Hallifax from Omnibus, Scholastic picked Pamela’s manuscript up.

Pamela said you must make it enticing and intriguing so members on the panel will want it. She recommends having a tag line like she did for her own book as follows:

‘Princess Diaries meets Monster High.’

The Pitchers:

Christina Booth with ‘One Careless Night.’ A picture book based on historical events.

• Sue Whiting said the story behind the story gave her chills.
• Maryann Ballantyne said it was the kind of book Black Dog does best.
• Lisa Berryman said it was a very good pitch spoken in a calm voice.
• Jenny Hale with ‘Immortal Me.’ Historical fiction for ages 12+
• Lisa Berryman said she loves historical fiction and that the story was compelling. She loved the sense of jeopardy.
• Suzanne O’Sullivan was holding her breath due to the action and suspense.
• Donna Rawlins said that she loved historical fiction and joked that she would love to do the cover.

Jodie Wells - Slowgrove with ‘Two Islands.’ A picture book for 8+

• Maryann Ballantyne wanted to know more about the characters.
• Clare Hallifax said the story was a universal theme that conveyed an enormous amount in so few words (300.)
• Lisa Berryman’s brain was fizzing with illustration ideas.

Benjamin Johnston with ‘Shoes From Somewhere Else.’ A middle grade novel.

• Suzanne O’Sullivan said it was an intriguing mystery.
• Sue Whiting thought it was suitable for 8-12 year olds, not 10 to 14 as Ben had suggested. She loved the deeper meaning with lots of twists and turns.
• Clare Hallifax thought the fairytale type of story was very evocative.

Karen Collum with ‘Hatch.’ Dystopian, 500 word picture book for 6-10 year olds.

• Suzanne O’Sullivan said it was beautiful and that she had illustrations running through her head.
• Clare said it was very emotive and the themes were love and conquering fear.
• Sue Whiting wanted to know more about the characters fears and the world after the inciting event.

Gina Newton with ‘Tides of Orca.’ YA series and epic maritime adventure.

• Lisa Berryman said strong female characters are popular.
• Suzanne O’Sullivan said it was a complex story with strong characters and that she would be unlikely to sign up 5 books in one go but maybe 2 or 3.
• Maryanne Ballantyne said Gina did well trying to pitch 90,000 words in 3 mintues.

Dee White with ‘Beyond Belief.’ Historical fiction based on a true events for 10-14 year olds.

• Clare Hallifax said it was a beautiful pitch. She thought the story was gripping and timely and that she wanted Dee’s manuscript!!!
• Suzanne O’Sullivan said she loves reading about WW2 as the stakes don’t get any higher than that.

Jenny Blackford with ‘Dead Girl In The Mirror.’ MG for 10 to 12 year olds.

• Clare Hallifax loves a good ghost story.
• Lisa Berryman thought it felt more suitable as YA (Young Adult).
• Maryanne Ballantyne liked the fact it was a historical and ghost story all in one.

Anna Popova with ‘Button City.’

• Suzanne O’Sullivan said there was so much potential for secret hidden worlds and that it was lots of fun.
• Maryanne Ballantyne said she had extensive button tins and that it was an intriguing story.
• Donna Rawlins loves tiny people worlds.

This session was so fascinating. I could not write my notes fast enough to keep up with all the nuggets of great information being shared by the publishing panel. They were generous in their encouragement and constructive feedback. So to wrap this up, if you are considering entering a pitch, think about the following:

1. Give the genre (picture book, middle grade, young adult)
2. Word count
3. Age range
4. Theme (environmental, dystopian, adventure)
5. Tagline/pitch (your story in one sentence)
6. Consider the illustration potential
7. Research two comparables
8. Who is your main character and why should we as the reader be rooting for them.

Donna Rawlins, Maryann Ballantyne, Sue Whiting, Clare Hallifax, Suzanne O'Sullivan & Lisa Berryman - The Publishers Photo attributed to Oliver Phommavanh

The other exciting snippet of information is that the publishers when attending a conference like SCBWI Sydney, do pick up new talent.

Suzanne O’Sullivan signed up an illustrator for KIDLITVIC2016.Clare Hallifax signed up an illustrator from KIDLITVIC2016.

Maryanne Ballantyne discovered 2 authors from CYA and 2 illustrators from SCBWISydney 2016.

They are on the look out for new talent so give them your best effort and goodluck!

Ramona Davy Roving Reporter

#SCBWISyd




 

Chapter One: Branding Brilliance

A highly informative and entertaining expose of how to create your public image and turn yourself into an icon.

Chaired by the wonderful Margaret Hamilton.  Here are her introductory points:

Branding is the deliberate and skillful creation of an  marketable identity

It should:

• Create audience knowledge
• Create a unique identity
• Have passion
• Have consistency
• Be competitive – constantly strive to improve itself, need hard work
• Get exposure, with more tools than ever before available eg social media
• Have good leadership, whether as single individual or company
• How does your brand measure up?

Next speaker was Holly Frendo, Publicity Manager at Harper Collins. She’s only been in this role for 8 months. Not traditional publishing background – BA in Business/Communications and PR, with clients like Cadburys! But was always an avid reader – very excited to be in this new role. Her role: To create awareness and shift perception

She employs different techniques for different genres and author histories. These include:

1. Author tours are incredibly successful – festivals, conferences, schools etc
2. Book sellers, signings, meet and greets. Makes a big difference when sellers meet authors – promotes sales and brand recognition
3. Press releases – features , reviews, interviews. Finding newsworthiness. (Susanne G. one of her faves in this regard. She got Susanne onto Today Extra for the recent Action Day Against Bullying.)
4. Think outside of box – what does the book relate to?
5. Social media - FB, Snapchat, Instagram – inspires brand love – DYI or get help if you find it challenging.

Photo attributed to Oliver Phommavanh

Next came Valerie Khoo, Director of Australian Writers Centre and co-creator of ‘So you want to be a writer?’ podcast. Her points:

Get over your hesitancy and cringe re building brand – the feeling that you ‘have tickets on yourself’. Don’t think of it as promoting yourself – it’s all about making a connection with your readers, or potential readers. Making genuine connections rather than promoting yourself.

You need to go all in, not half arsed! Embrace it all. Very easily done in not a lot of time. Open yourself up to it – reach potentially millions readers for free.  Keep making connections after your initial publicity period. Pick the one or two social media channels you enjoy and can do yourself.

Can seem daunting, but follow a step by step formula.  It actually works. One hour every weekend is enough to set your foundations.

'Show elements of your personality, not your personal life.'

Scheduled presenter Sandy Fussell was ill, so joint co-founder,Jodie Wells-Slowgrove from The Story Crowd kindly filled her place. Her points:

Let people see YOU and what makes you unique. Find your niche, and branding will take care of itself.

Created Writers Unleashed Festival, a space where authors and illustrators can make lasting connections. Book sales, signings and craft activities. Making it easy for new creators, and teachers and teacher librarians. Creators paid fairly but kept busy. Networking opportunities.  They love to help book creators.

Next came Sophie Masson

‘Lots of hats’  ‘Too many balls in the air’ – writing, publishing and doing PHD, plus a lot of chairing! She’s written more than 60 books, including for adults.

She did a lot of reading before she was published, did articles, stories in School Magazine. She also interviewed people whose work she admired. All quite instinctive.

She started her publishing company Christmas Press 3 years ago – all her years’ of writing experience, networks etc came together. They’ve had fantastic support and encouragement. Small, but they do things properly, Can only afford tiny advances. Trust so important in their operations – dealing with authors fairly. Quality paramount. They have big publisher quality. Distinctive niche. All 3 directors interested in fairy tales and legends. They hold their nerve, even if one book doesn’t do well. This applies to both creators and publishers

Then came Belinda Bolliger, Managing editor of Australian Standing Orders

Iconic brand. She reiterated Margaret’s points for branding success.

She makes the selections from publisher submissions every month. Audience is schools – time poor and understaffed. Helps them with expert literature selection. Teacher notes are supplied.

• Consistency – chooses style and quality of book suitable for CBCA awards.
• Uniqueness – 95% of books are Australian. This is their difference to their competitors.
• Small team – very approachable.
• They source books that are difficult to access – their brand is competitive and personable.
• Very good at picking CBCA shortlist
• Passion – Belinda’s worked for 25 yrs in the industry
• Company owned by Scholastic with its over 45 yrs experience

Margaret Hamilton then spoke about Pinerolo Cottage, herchildren’s book cottage in Blackheath where she runs picture book courses among other things; promoting illustrators primarily.

Her father taught her that ‘Everyone is as good as you but nobody is better’

She’s always made her presence felt and has worked extremely hard. (Once had a board meeting in hospital room!) She carried this philosophy through when she started her own company. Went to Bologna every year.

And finally she’s a published author! Never had the guts to send in a manuscript before. Margrete Lamond at Little Hare got back to her with a yes 5 mins later!!

B is For Bedtime has gone ballistic – 60000 copies in US. Second book to be launched in May.

Question time:

• Authors and illustrators should follow the same principles for branding . Great social media platform for illustrators is Instagram. Judith Rossell a great example of this. She never ‘sells’ as such – she simply makes great personality connections.
• Stylefile incredibly helpful to illustrators, and an honour to be selected.
• Lesley Vamos works Facebook really well.
• Character branding vs author branding – which one to pursue? Depends. For example, Liz Pichon presents as character Tom Gates rather than herself. Her character’s brand in other words.
• Sophie Masson did romantic fiction for YA under diff name – all the characters had social media presences – one had blog, one had YouTube etc. Extended the life of the characters. But you have to think about it carefully. Can be quite spooky!
• Belinda was asked whether she thinks about gender diversity, cultural diversity etc. Yes, she likes to support new authors and publishers as well. But limited by what’s being published that month. Books for boys and girls. Relies on publishers to have the right agenda.

Margaret – Kids’ books now 32% of sales as distinct from 25% a few years ago – they should have equal review space.

She mentioned her next course at Pinerolo this coming Saturday on creating kids’ books with Freya Blackwood – see website.

Phew – a very full session!!

Charlotte Calder Roving Reporter

#SCBWISyd

Chapter One: Dynamic Duos: A Case Study

Pairs of publishers and authors (+ one illustrator!) offering insight into the book creating process.

Dynamic Duos, vibrantly hosted by Deb Abela, was a conversational panel about the importance of collaboration in creating a children’s book.

Author Lesley Gibbes and publisher, Ana Vivas (Scholastic) were first-up, chatting about the highly successful picture book, ‘Little Bear’s First Sleep’. This is a gentle bedtime story about a bear cub embarking on his first long winter sleep.

Early on in the acquisition process Lesley and Ana agreed that the warm and soft drawings of illustrator Lisa Stewart would be the perfect complement for Little Bears story.

The collaboration on this book took an interesting turn when Ana recognised that the gloominess of the cave setting left little scope for Lisa’s illustrations.

In response to Ana’s concerns Lesley rewrote the text to include moonlight and snow allowing Lisa to use more white in her illustrations. The designer also worked to maximise the contrast of lighter areas while still keeping the soft feel of the book by setting light vignettes against dark pages.

 From bedtime to wartime New Zealand author, Maria Gill and Clare Hallifax (Scholastic) had a very different book project with, ‘Anzac Heroes’. This is a highly awarded non-fiction text covering 30 Anzac heroes from WW1 and WW11.

Maria’s book tells the stories of individual soldiers, sailors, airmen, spies and medics. She was keen to highlight not only well-known servicemen but some of the lesser recognised figures of the world wars including women and indigenous peoples. She talked with admiration about the subjects of her book in particular the daring Nancy Wake (the white mouse) who worked as a spy and guerrilla fighter behind enemy lines in WW11.

Clare of Scholastic was on board with Maria’s concept from the start. She could see its value in tying in with WW1 100 year commemorations and as a needed educational resource.

‘Anzac heroes’ required painstaking and far-reaching research of primary and secondary sources. Maria spent many hours in the war memorial viewing military records, talked to RSL representatives and to the families of the heroes.

What is striking about this book is the mastery of design. The main body of text is complemented by fascinating facts and snippets in coloured boxes. Each double page hero spread is decorated with illustrations, beautiful digitally enhanced photos, icons, pictures of military awards, documents, letters and timelines.  Although there were no designers on the panel. It was acknowledged that the designer had a vital role in bringing all the elements together.

Dianne Wolfer was next up discussing her latest book ‘Shark Caller’. Unfortunately, her publisher Zoe Walton (Penguin Random House) could not attend. 

Dianne had an interesting story to tell about this book’s road to publication.

Dianne had long held a fascination with the underwater world and the culture of the peoples of Papua New Guinea due to her holidays spent diving and snorkelling in that region. She began to write a YA novel about shark calling, a ritual imbued with spirituality practiced by the indigenous people of the New Ireland Province of PNG. However, Dianne’s writing stalled, finding the blend of fact and fantasy required for the story difficult to negotiate and outside her usual genre.

Some years later, while studying for her PhD on the topic of anthropomorphism Dianne decided to take up the story again, completing the novel to form part of her thesis. Dianne still had relatives who lived in New Guinea who she could contact to ask for advice on aspects of the indigenous language and culture.

During this time Dianne attended a writers retreat on Rottnest island. Zoe Walton from Penguin Random House was in attendance. ‘Shark Caller’ seemed like a good fit for Zoe’s stated interests so after the retreat Dianne sent her manuscript to Zoe who quickly championed it. Dianne said that the editorial process at Penguin Random House was quite painless as advice was always given in a considered and gentle manner. Within a year of the Rottnest retreat ‘The Shark Caller’ was on the shelves.

 The final panel members were Sharon Evans (Big Sky Publishing), Aleesah Darlison and Shane McGrath - not a dynamic duo, but a terrific trio. They collaborated to create the poignant picture book about the last wild thylacine titled, ‘Stripes in the Forest’.

Aleesah’s childhood growing up on a remote bush property inspired her love of native animals and wild landscapes. ‘Stripes in the Forest’ is written from the first person POV of a thylacine mother lending intimacy and emotional impact to the text. Although the story has an ecological message and deals with the likely extinction of a species.  Aleesah said she was careful to write a hopeful ending. Is the thylacine still out there somewhere?

It was evident that Sharon, the publisher was as passionate about this project as Aleesah. She was excited to acquire the book and procure Shane McGrath to do the illustrations.

Shane McGrath didn’t just rely on Aleesah’s text to create the illustrations he was meticulous in his research of the thylacine’s appearance and behaviours. He was also careful to ensure the man-made structures such as buildings and ships were accurate for the time periods spanned in Aleesah’s story.

Shane used a combination of manual pencil drawings and digital photoshop to create the pictures

‘Stripes in the Forest’ was clearly a project of passion for author, publisher and illustrator.

 This panel gave us an insight into the passion, dedication and meticulous care that goes into making a beautiful book. From the author to the publisher and illustrator to the designer – all are invested in making the book the best it can be.

Leigh Roswen Roving Reporter

#SCBWISyd