Recently in Events Category
In San Francisco, of course. Or, ok, maybe not my heart, but certainly a bit of skin off my toe as my sweet little espadrilles rubbed my foot raw as I climbed up and down a few hills today. I'm in town for the San Francisco South chapter of the SCBWI's Agent's Day, and will be speaking tomorrow with a number of my esteemed colleagues. I polished my editing pen with a look at several sample manuscripts, and I'm looking forward to debuting my very first Powerpoint presentation. Wish me luck!
Sorry for the sudden drop off in posting last week, but the official opening of BEA came with a flurry of work, and meetings, and hastily made appointments, and free books, and more. Hectic, even if it seemed more sedate than the most recent New York-based BEA. For me, of course, it was a nice, easy flight from Denver to LA, and only one hour adjustment to make -- easy-peasy. For my New York colleagues -- not so much.
I had a very informative, useful fair, though, and am happy to share some of my impressions.
Clutter - Peter Walsh, the organizational guru from TLC's Clean Sweep, was on hand signing copies of his new book Does this Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? I grabbed a copy and an autograph, and shared my feeling that the fair was all about picking up more clutter -- anathema to his ideals. For my purposes (and to keep to his), I kept my freebies contained in one bag at a time, and only picked up fabric, flat-bottomed totes that could be reused for groceries.
I mostly only picked up YA titles -- although I made exceptions for the sequel to The Eight, a new book called The Gargoyle, and a nifty road atlas of the US -- but there were loads of great ones to grab. I made a beeline to a galley of John Green's Paper Towns and lined up for a signed copies of Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. Most exciting freebie? Neil Gaiman's new title The Graveyard Book. Neil spoke on Friday morning at a children's breakfast also featuring Jon Scieska, Eoin Colfer, Sherman Alexie, and Judy "f**king" Blume, to quote Alexie. The writers amusingly shared their fangeek moments with each other, and cursed a blue streak appropriate to the "@$$-crack of dawn."
Multi-platform was a big theme, and I attended a presentation on Saturday morning on "Maximizing the Multi-Platform Potential in Children's Publishing", with speakers from HarperCollins, Scholastic, and B*tween Productions. All emphasized that the book cannot be the only avenue for readers to connect to the story, touching on blogs, websites, contests, networking sites, and more. Diane Naughton, HC's Marketing VP, mentioned their "Author Assistant" program, which helps new authors build and host websites -- which reminded me of the question I'd answered on my blog some time ago. Revised answer -- Harper doesn't own all their author blogs, but they're happy to do so if an author doesn't have the time, expertise, or wherewithal to build and host a site of their own. Scholastic's forthcoming series The 39 Clues looks to be the future of multi-platform publishing, (they call it "multidimensionality") with an online game component that allows readers to find 29 of the 39 clues themselves -- only 10 will be revealed in the series.
Also a theme for the weekend? Four-quadrant appeal. Fellow Denver agent Kristin Nelson mentioned this in her blog last week, after her first meetings with film people, and I heard it myself any number of times. This is the new holy grail of film producers -- a cinematic experience that will grab the four major audience demographics: women, men, children, and teens. It's a difficult mix of romance, story, action, broad humor, and the more elusive "it" factor.
Other than that, BEA is a great time to wander the halls, catch up with colleagues, and make early guesses as to what we'll be talking about in six months' time. Oh, and to ogle Alec Baldwin.
I'm off on Wednesday to Los Angeles for BEA and the Pitch Slam Session at the Writer's Digest Books Writers Conference. If you won't be in LA to pitch me, or just say hi, here's a few more upcoming events where I'll be speaking or meeting with authors. Hope to see you at one of them! And if you're part of an organization that would like to speak with me about attending a conference or workshop, please email me at events@ktliterary.com.
June 20th - Lighthouse Writers Workshop LitFest
August 16th - SCBWI San Francisco/South Agents' Day
September 12th-14th - Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Writers Conference
September 26th-27th - 2nd Annual Kidlit Bloggers Conference
October 18th - Heart of Denver meeting
Had a really brilliant time at the SCBWI Western Washington annual conference this past weekend. The chapter put together a truly impressive line-up, organized a phenomenal good time, and did it all with a smile on their faces. Huge props to Sara and Jolie and Jaime and Joni and Laurie and everyone else who worked behind the scenes to pull it all together. Some thoughts:
- A killer combination punch in Mo Willems' and Chris Crutcher's keynote speeches on Saturday. Mo had all of the agents and editors in the room gasping as he told prospective writers not to read (more specifically, to "write", since people who read are called "readers," not "writers") and that the way to get published is simple: BE SUPERLATIVE. I was also deeply impressed and repeated this to a number of people I spoke with -- in talking about picture books, Mo said the words and the pictures should neither one of them alone be understandable. Of course, he said it more wittily, but the gist was there.
- In Sunday's closing keynote, Arthur Levine of Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic, spoke about the cornerstones of good fiction: plot, theme, character, and voice. Any one of them alone might work, but won't be as memorable as all together working in concert. He compared the book and film versions of the first Harry Potter -- the book had plot AND theme AND character AND especially voice, whereas the film manged to tell the story (plot), but without the voice and overarching theme, felt flat.
- I had the pleasure of participating with Arthur on a "First Pages" panel, where we took turns reading the first pages of attendees' manuscripts, then commenting on whether we'd read more, why, or why not. What a fantastic way to cover a lot of material very quickly, and give a lot of attendees a chance to have a professional eye look at their work!
- I also did 12 more detailed manuscript critiques, of 5 pages or less, in ten minute blocks throughout the weekend. Some real possibilities there, as well as a few others I could see working with other people after some editing.
- Speaking of other people, it was such a pleasure to see friends, colleagues, and people I'd like to get to know better, to call both. Betsy Bird, NYPL Librarian Extraordinaire and blogger, spoke a number of times over the weekend, and it's my goal to get mentioned in one of her "best of" website reviews. I got a master class in illustration from the vibrant and lovely Laini Taylor, graphic genius Jim Di Bartolo, and S&S Art Director Laurent Linn. I also was able to better get to know my agent colleagues Marcia Wernick, Rosemary Stimola, and Stephen Barbara. I think it's important for writers to know that we do try to be civil, that it's not about stealing clients from other agents, and that we're all aware we have a lot to learn from each other.
- Regional Writing Groups Rock! I knew this from the Eden Writers Workshop I went to last fall in Utah, but I was reminded this weekend how very strong the regional groups can be -- whether that's because they're far outside the "traditional" New York publishing community, or just because like finds like, but I was way impressed by the number of published authors, award winners, and aspiring writers in just this one local area.
Off to Seattle for the SCBWI conference, with Kindle in hand. Lots of lovely delicious time to read on the way out, and lots, I'm sure, to report when I get back! Until then -- be good. Or rather -- Write well!
I'm delighted to announce I'll be taking part in the "largest gathering of agents and editors who want to hear your story ideas and give you immediate feedback!" at the Writer's Digest Books Writers Conference Pitch Slam session at BEA. The Pitch Slam session is at 3pm on Wednesday, May 28th, and is only part of a full day schedule of events. If you're in the Los Angeles area, and are serious about your writing, you should come! Registration is open now.
Borrowed Rexroth's car last night to drive on up to Boulder to meet with the writers of Murphy's Fiction Collective, a group of creative souls who gather with some regularity, as is appropriate, in a local Boulder bar. They were the hosts, along with other local writers and creative types, of a fun networking party for the local writing/publishing community.
I had a great time meeting and chatting with teachers at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop, the founder of Sub-Scribe magazine, and the books editor for NewWest, among others. I was reminded once again that just because people in New York consider themselves the epicenter of the publishing community, that doesn't mean that the rest of the world is empty! In just a short time out here, I've already come in contact with representatives of multiple writers groups, heard of at least three or four local conferences, and met a ton of writers. Maybe it's that -- outside the bustle of NYC -- people with an interest in writing and publishing become more vocal about their interests, more keen to gravitate to each other. Whyever it might be, it's great fun to be a part of.
I'm grateful to the writers of Murphy's Fiction Collective for the invite!
Had a fun brilliant time at the SCBWI Annual Winter Conference this weekend. I was asked to be a part of the Writers Intensive on Friday, and though I spent most of the day sniffling and sneezing, I also had the opportunity to help 15 writers polish their manuscripts, proposals and synopses. The most common note the writers received? (Not just from me, mind you, but also from the other writers at the table.) Be aware of where you start your story. A number of the samples I saw featured prologues or long introductions, and almost every reader wanted to get to the story more quickly. I'm not saying that you shouldn't have any prologue, ever, but consider if you couldn't give that information to the reader in some other format.
Friday night was also the SCBWI VIP cocktail party, where I had an opportunity to mix and mingle with my colleagues in children's publishing, pitch some upcoming projects, and meet some new contacts -- as well as toasting to our future success.
Saturday, after gaining some additional insight into the interests of several top editors, I sat in the audience of a panel featuring some of the top literary agents in our industry, hearing what they think are the emerging trends in the market. Good news for writers? No one wants you to follow a trend. Every agent up there said a version of the same thing -- write the story you have to write, and if it's strong and well-written, it will find readers. It's not about finding the next Big New Thing -- the next vampire, or faery, or princess novel -- it's about the Next Great New Book. And yes, there IS a difference.
We'll be at the SCBWI Western Washington 17th Annual Writing & Illustrating for Children Conference in Seattle, WA on April 26th and 27th, 2008. For more information, please visit their website.
We will attend the SCBWI 9th Annual Winter Conference on Writing and Illustrating for Children in New York, NY on February 8-10, 2008. For more information, please click here.
