SCBWI LA Conference 2013

A quick guide to a brilliant few days

RA Susanne Gervay and I have just returned from the SCBWI conference in LA. If I had my Santa wish now, I would ask that every SCWBI Australia East/NZ and West member get a free ticket to LA and admission to this festival of kids' books and creators. We  saw nothing of LA but had a rollercoaster insight into the minds and thoughts of some of the giants of the kids' book industry today.  

When you have time, please look at the conference program to see who was there. You may not have heard of some of them but they are huge! And they have a lot to say about kids books. SCBWI Conference  

There is also an extensive blog that was created by a team of writers who did a brilliant of job of trying to capture the excitement and words of wisdom as they fell from presenters' lips. And there were many! 

There were 1200 members there over fours days listening to keynotes, sitting in on breakout sessions and signing up for intensives with top editors, agents, writers, illustrators and publishing professionals from the US.   

Here are some of my highlights.  

Keynotes from Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett, who write for kids eye-to-eye, making them laugh with their brilliantly wild imaginations and subversive humour.   

Andrea Davis Pinkney, New York Times best-selling and award-winning author of more than thirty books for children and young adults and vice president, executive editor at Scholastic, NY. 

Steve Sheinkin

historical non-fiction writer gave a great guide to how he researches historical fiction and non-fiction kids want to read. Brilliantly entertaining and page turning books that draw kids from the present into a fascinating past. 

Writer and freelance editor, Deborah Haverson  

spoke about the importance of setting as something that isn't just in the background but very much part of the action.

Matt De Le Pena, Mexican American writer spoke about being a Mexican boy in a white world and how he writes for teens with tenderness and pain.  

David Wiesner, if you don't know his work please look him up!! He spoke about the years it takes to draw, discard, go back to, create, scrub out and finally arrive somewhere you never thought you would go. And with him it is always a good trip and a great arrival. 

I will be giving a more complete description of these and other sessions I visited soon. 

Enjoy reading and looking!  

Deb  

Room to Read event at The Children's Bookshop, 6 Hannah St Beecroft

Monday July 29th, 7-8:30pm

Free and you get a free glass of champagne!

Every child deserves to know the joy of reading. The Children's Bookshop, Beecroft are partnering with the brilliant, Room To Read, for a special information night about how one organisation has built      15 082 libraries, distributed 12.8 million books and benefitted over 7.8 millions kids. Come and join us for an information night and a glass of champagne to see how we can change the world one book and one child at a time. Hear from ambassadors Deborah Abela, Susanne Gervay, Gus Gordon and the Founder of Room to Read's Australian Operation, Jennie Orchard, to learn how Room to Read has achieved these extraordinary successes. As a journalist wrote recently, ‘The more money we spend on schools today, the less we’ll have to spend on missiles tomorrow.’ 

Free but bookings are essential!

(02) 9481 8811 or staff@thechildrensbookshop.com.au

SCBWI night with special guest, Margaret Hamilton, AM

Hughenden Hotel, Woollahra

6-7pm Monday June 24, 2013

Publisher, editor, bookseller and writer, Margaret Hamilton is acclaimed in Australia and internationally for high-quality children's books. She is today a publishing consultant, picture book consultant, editor and the founder of Pinerolo: the Children’s Book Cottage, Blackheath. At Pinerolo, Margaret runs the Illustrator in Residence Mentorship program funded by CAL, arranges exhibitions, picture book workshops and the sale of original illustrations. She brings people, authors and illustrators together in an inspiring environment. http://www.pinerolo.com.au

Margaret wasn’t a reader as a kid but she did have a rich uncle who supplied her with comics. That was about it. In high school, she read the books she was supposed to, which she didn’t enjoy.

Her first job was at Parramatta City Library, where she stayed for eleven years and studied for six years to be a qualified children’s librarian. It was there that Margaret began to love books and interacting with kids. A huge influence on her was the very wonderful, Maurice Saxby, one of Australia’s foremost experts on children’s literature and the first national president of the CBCA. After a short break at home (where she taught herself to play the piano, no less), she was placed in charge of the kids’ section of a bookstore and got a glimpse at the commercial side of publishing, as well as having the chance to meet loads of authors and illustrators. Shortly after, she was offered a job in a publishing house where she eventually became Publishing Director of Hodder & Stoughton Australia for a wide range of books.  

In 1987, she and her husband Max, established their own publishing company, Margaret Hamilton Books, where their motto was, ‘Children deserve the best of everything, especially books.’ For 10 years they produced high quality, much-loved and awarded books before becoming a division of Scholastic Australia.

Some of her beautiful publications are, Where Does Thursday Go? By Janeen Brian and Stephen Michael King, My Dog by John Heffernan and Andrew McLean and she is proud to have discovered the lyrical genius of Glenda Millard in her first book, Unplugged, illustrated by Dee Huxley. She is also applauded both here and overseas for dealing with more serious subjects, like death in The Very Best of Friends by Margaret Wild and Julie Vivas.

In 2001, Margaret ‘retired’ and moved to Blackheath on a property with a vacant cottage where she began Pinerolo, continued to consult and now is dabbling in picture books of her own.

For more information go to www.pinerolo.com.au or contact them on 024787 8492 or hamiltonbooks@iprimus.com.au

A brief summary of questions Margaret answered:

What do you need to create a good picture book?

An original idea or slant, with a strong beginning, a middle that leads to a ‘crisis’ and a cosy, satisfying end. Write in your best language. Don’t divide your text into pages and leave your name and title at the top. 

What is your advice for submitting a PB?

Don’t give directions for illustrations. You want the illustrator’s first artistic and gut reaction to a text. Do not send text with illustrations. The publisher will choose.

What is the role of an editor of a PB?

Generally, texts will be shortened. The drawings often will reduce the need for some of the text.

Why does it take so long to get a response to PB submission?

There is so much to think about before a publisher can offer a contract…such as matching the text to the perfect illustrator (then hoping they’ll be free), thinking of design, lay out etc….there is so much more than just the text for a PB. 

What advice does she have for illustrators who are designers? Sometimes illustrators do design their own books, eg Stephen Michael King.

Is it okay to submit a rhyming text?

Yes, but read it aloud and make sure it flows effortlessly and doesn’t feel forced.

What is your opinion on submitting via an agent or as an unsolicited submission?

Margaret has always dealt directly with the author. 

Can we submit to more than one publisher at a time?

Margaret believes it is simple etiquette to submit to only one publisher at a time. She did not consider a work she was sent if it was also being considered by other publishers.  

It was a true delight to have such a wonderfully experienced and passionate publisher of some of Australia’s favourite kids’ books at our meeting. Thank you, Margaret!