Conference Day ONE

Going to a networking event can be daunting. Especially when no one else knows it’s a networking event. Everyone at the SCBWI Winter’s Conference was there to find a publisher or agent to publish their book. OK, so it was networking but not in the same way.  

The main ballroom was full of people who were still registering when the introduction on the first day started. Seating capacity was around 1200 people. And every seat was full. There was even people standing in the back. Seat stealing ran rampant, as I'm sure you understand.

The keynote speakers were very well chosen. Lois Lawdry spoke about what inspired her to write 9 different books and each one skillfully led into the last. No wonder she wrote such memorable books such as “the Giver” and “Number the Stars”. R.L Stein who spoke during lunch was hilariously funny and divulged that he never intended to go into horror stories when he first started out. Back then, he was known as Jovial Bob and to tell you the truth I think I’ll see him that way forever more. When he started writing teen horror, he said he stayed with it because he “liked killing teenagers. Probably because [he] had one.” As for the last speaker of the day, it was Jules Feiffer the illustrator of “The Phantom Tollbooth” one of my all time favorite stories (even though I’ve only seen the movie – I’m a bad fan). 

In between the keynote speakers, were the breakout sessions. Sitting in the breakout sessions were informative but if you were in the back, it was difficult to hear the questions from the front. There was a woman in my first breakout session who felt the need to comment with every question made up front about its low decibel level, making it difficult to hear them even more.  The editor in that breakout session as Lisa Sandell from Scholastic and she had some pretty fantastic advice:

• eBooks provide new opportunities to increase visibility.
• Everyone is looking for fresh material that feels exciting and new with a great story line.
• How to construct a pitch: 30 second pitch to Oprah at a Cocktail party

MINE: "The great war of magic which has spanned generations of time in Eden is coming to the end and the key to winning the final battle has lost her memory and been sent back to Earth.

• Writing is the MOST IMPORTANT job for writers. Marketing is secondary.
• First time authors should have agents.

In the second breakout session the senior editor spoke at length about the market. But when asked a question about the trend of publishers going towards direct marketing, she clearly had no idea what I was talking about; I had to explain the terminology to her and she gave me some condescending answer. On top of that, she degraded her own company stating “No one knows who we are”. Great employee.

The third breakout editor was Alexandra Cooper from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.  I’ll admit I didn’t stay for the entire hour with this one. It was getting pretty late in the day and I thought it’d be rude to involuntarily nap through the rest of it. But the main points I caught were these.  When writing novels (she had picture book advice as well but I don’t write those so whatevs!):

• Voice is important.
• Manuscript must have a new spin on an idea.
• It’s rare that series of works are picked up.
• Do your homework about the publishers and steer your pitches. Don’t send a publisher who doesn’t publish your type of books your query letter. He’s not going to read it.
• Read what you want to write.

Finally, all the editors had advice to give on the query letters:

• Don't compare books to best sellers.
• Don't send publishers things that aren't their taste.
• No gimmicks such as tea bags or flowers.
• High concept stuff but with great writing.
• Write from where your heart is but with the story telling to back it up.
• Try to give a first impression vibe; a peek at the story; the feel of a book.
• Rhetorical questions are a turn off.
• Professional and business like.
• Straightforward pitch. Feel/plot/character.
•  Some to a little personal info; maybe a sentence or two.