NJ SCBWI Annual Conference June 28 & 29

People go to SCBWI Conferences for several reasons. The presentations provide lots of useful information and inspire. I find the paid appraisals and ability to exhibit my art portfolio invaluable. The opportunities for networking are superb – both with ‘important industry people’ and with other creators. Some of these conversations can take place in bars (which may be one reason for 18+).

Hopefully a number of readers here will find my blogpost on networking useful – 20 ways to make a favourable impression and get known to be a ‘nice person likely also to be nice to work with’:

http://writing-for-children.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/making-favourable-impression-networking.html

All best wishes for enjoying your writing and it’s great that you have the desire to be professional and join professional organisations. I look forward to reading your published book.

There are a number of authors who have books accepted when they were aged 18 or less …and soon afterwards. A powerful story and a unique and fresh voice is what publishers look for. They may well like a young author because it can be a marketing plus. If an editor really loves the story and your voice, they may work with you until the text is to their liking to publish. Agents are also on the lookout for stories with high potential and authors who are marketable.

You have more chance of publication and a significant deal if you are young, talented and unpublished than an author who has had ten books published that have only just sold enough to earn out the advance and who is known for never writing a blockbuster. There are ways publishers can find out the statistics.

Descriptions of what is said in Conference presentations are often posted on the net, either officially or in attendees blogs. Networking can be achieved elsewhere, too. You can meet editors and publicists at book launches in bookstores, at writers’ festivals, talks at libraries and more. I partnered with my agent after she gave a talk to a local writing group in a café, when she listed all the genres she didn’t represent – picture books, ‘how to’… We talked socially afterwards and she asked me what I wrote – ‘All the things you don’t like,’ I responded. ‘’How to’ calligraphy and papercraft books, picture books, and I have a YA in progress.’ It turned out she adores papercrafts and is pleased to circulate my picture book texts (she just doesn’t want to receive 1000 a month by advertising that she accepts them). I’d never have found out and approached her by reading her website.

When the editor liked my picture book ms that they appraised at the SCBWI Conference, having other creators there to talk to helped, because I was then able to ask an acclaimed illustrator present, Nina Rycroft, if she would consider illustrating it/would have time to illustrate it if it was submitted, accepted and the publisher offered the right price. In an official submission to the publisher, it good for me to be able to put her name forward as a potential illustrator and for them to discover that a well-known illustrator was available – which would save them a lot of search time.

All best wishes

Peter