HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY! Congratulations to Dee Romito with the release of her new middle-grade novel, POSTCARDS FROM VENICE, a companion to THE BFF BUCKET LIST. We are honored that Dee took a break from the book birthday celebrations to talk about writing timelines. Guest blog by Dee Romito One of the questions I’m often asked is how long it takes me to write a book. The thing is, it’s not a simple answer. My first manuscript took a year to write, and I’ve always thought of it like working on a Master’s Project. I was learning how to write a book with that manuscript. My next one took six months. The next, four months. During that time, I was also exchanging with critique partners. Which means those time frames include waiting for feedback. Being able to complete a project in less time was definitely good practice for when I’d have actual deadlines. And while you may or may not write faster as you grow as a writer, remember that becoming a stronger writer is really about practicing and continuing to learn your craft. Most of my books have sold on proposal, which means I wrote sample chapters and a synopsis and was then asked to write the rest. In those cases, I had between 4-7 months to turn in a somewhat polished draft to my editor. And for me, that means leaving time to have my trusted critique partners give me feedback, and then revise based on their notes. However, my new release, POSTCARDS FROM VENICE, took longer. Maybe … eight months for that first draft? And it took much longer in revisions too. This book was different. For one thing, I was still at various stages in the process with two other books, so I was essentially working on three books at the same time. It was like a revolving door of stories that I had to keep track of. I couldn’t devote all my writing time to any one project. Not to mention the time I spent working on promotion for the other books. There was also a lot I needed to learn for this book. It takes place in Venice, where I’ve never been. There’s some Italian in the book, but I took Spanish in school. And there’s an Australian boy, who I wanted to be sure was authentic. And did I mention I’ve never been to Venice? So it took time. It took Google Earth and Pinterest and Tripadvisor.com’s reviews of tourist sites and travel blogs. It took critique partners and reaching out to friends of friends who had been to or lived in Venice. It took lots of questions and lots of videos of Italy. It took listening and reading and researching. And with all of that to think about, sometimes I needed to step away from the project and work on something else. So how long does it take to write a book? The real answer is that it depends. Which means it’s up to you to answer that question on your own, without a preconceived notion of how long it should take. I asked a few published middle grade author friends, and the responses to “How long does it take you to write a book?” ranged from a month to two years. It takes what it takes, and many factors come into play—the category, the genre, the word count, how complex the project is, if you plot extensively or spend more time in revisions, if there are deadlines, if critique partners or agents need time to read, if you have other books to work on or have other life-related things going on, how fast you can write, etc. The time it takes you to write a book could be years or it could be months. And how fast you write does not determine how good the book will be. Having a general idea of ranges when it comes to the publishing world is helpful. But always know that you will have your own challenges and goals, and your own path. Finishing a book is one thing, but starting one … Well, now that’s something you can accomplish right now. 😊 Dee Romito is a former elementary teacher and is the author of THE BFF BUCKET LIST, NO PLACE LIKE HOME and co-authored BEST. NIGHT. EVER. Always a traveler at heart, she's sent postcards of Big Ben from London, of snow-capped mountains from Switzerland, and of majestic castles from Ireland. Although she's only been to Italy once for a quick plate of pasta, sending a post card from Venice just might be on her bucket list. You can visit her website at DeeRomito.com Dee is also the Scrivener Queen. For Scrivener advice, writers can head over to her blog www.writeforapples.com/p/write-book.html
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~ by Amanda Smith Dear First-time Conference Attendee, Phew! What a weekend! Is your head still spinning with all you heard and everyone you met? Are you finding yourself alternating between euphoric highs, having walked the hallways with legends, and gloomy lows with whispers of “but do I belong?” haunting your dreams? Let me assure you, I know the feeling. I attended my first NESCBWI conference seven years ago. I was just returning to writing and not sure of anything yet. The inevitable ice-breaker “What do you write?” stumped me all day long. Because I went to the conference to figure that out! As I shared workshops with seemingly confident people who were much more knowledgeable than I was, I felt my voice getting smaller and smaller. By lunch time I was barely a whisper. Somehow, in my oblivion, I ended up at a table with YA and MG writers who were all either published or on the cusp of getting published. They included me, took interest in my work, encouraged me, gave advice, and showed extreme kindness. I left the conference knowing this:
So, dear First-timer, here are some post-conference tips for you:
Amanda ~ by Amanda Smith This sparkly, brand-spanking-new year is just begging for some bright, shimmery writing goals. With goals we will soar. We will fly! We will publish all our lovely books! We will crash and burn if we neglect to take a moment to root our new goals in our current progress. For success it is paramount to build a bridge between last year’s product and this year’s dream. How do we construct this bridge? St Francis of Assisi said, "Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” Ask yourself, from where you are right now, what is necessary to move forward. Towards the end of December, I pulled out my yearly goals and checked off the tasks accomplished. I reflected on what worked, and what didn’t. I took a moment to acknowledge and celebrate the big-ticket items – a novel revised, a synopsis written, a second draft of a new novel completed. I contemplated the items that didn’t get checked off. What will these projects look like in the new year? Are they still a priority? Asking these questions helped me determine what is necessary for me to move forward. These immediate tasks include final revisions on a YA novel; deep revisions, even possible rewrites on two picture book manuscripts after input from critique groups; and revisions on a middle grade manuscript. Once I have finished these tasks, what will be possible? What is the practical next step? I could submit the picture books and the YA novel. So, another goal is to come up with submission plans for those manuscripts. Then there is the dream, the challenge: What is the one thing you want to accomplish this year, but the sheer thought of it scares you to death? What is the impossible? Make that a goal. Mine is to plot and write the remaining two books in a middle grade trilogy. Yup, my boots are shaking. Now that you have dreamed necessary, practical and are-you-kidding-me?, it’s time to fit those goals into the year. I use a goals calendar.
Don’t forget to reward yourself with proper, meaningful carrots along the way! Yes, we will soar. We will fly! And we will do the impossible.
~by Amanda Smith I have always had a gut feeling that writing poetry is a precursor to writing well. Only recently, while preparing a poetry workshop for middle school students, did I realize how strongly I believe in the poetry connection. During my kids’ baby and toddler years, I didn’t have the strength, time, or mental capacity (Mommy brain, anyone?) to write long pieces. I pushed writing to the very outer circle of my priorities, but somewhere in my youngest’s second year the need to write wiggled its way right into the center of my being. I jotted down ideas, struggles, joys, and observations in free verse. As I played with words, clapped rhythms, and rearranged sentences, within me, something awoke again. And it grew. It grew into picture books, and early readers, and novels. Even all these years and manuscripts later, the poetry that called me from my writer’s slumber is still relevant. Because what we learn in writing and studying poetry, translates to every kind of writing. What do we gain when we write poetry?
I spent a big part of Monday writing limericks. I can’t remember when last I had so much fun. The silliness of it all, within the seriousness of the form. The absolute thrill of finding just the right rhyming words to deliver that guffaw in the last line. Playfulness unlocking imagination and humor. Play, play, play. South African poet Carina Stander challenged herself in high school to write a new poem every second Sunday. She still does that. Ame Dyckman regularly tweets haiku-like observations. Kate DiCamillo often posts lyrical reflections on social media. Jane Yolen starts every work day by writing a poem. Considering their careers, I have to believe they're onto something. We need to shake this pressure that everything we write has to be for the book, or go in the book. Will you explore the poetry connection with me? I’m challenging myself to produce a poem a week. Come join me. Our play has purpose. ~ by Amanda Smith Encore is a yearly event where some speakers from the NESCBWI Spring conference are invited to present their workshops. Two Encore events are offered to provide opportunity for more writers to learn from these excellent teachers. This year’s Encore II was held at Devens on Saturday, October 21. Because of the nature of Encore, the event is not themed, yet, somehow, every year, in the subtext of what the presenters are saying, a theme emerges. This year the common thread was PLAY. Dana Meachan Rau, author of over 300 books, including Robot, Go Bot! and books in the Who Was? series, presented a workshop about injecting emotion in characters to encourage empathy from readers. She led us through writing exercises where we played around with writing a character’s emotion through a setting or an object. When we play to explore emotions, we connect deeper with our character’s emotion. “First we feel, then they [the readers] feel,” she said. Molly Burnham, author of the Teddy Mars series and 2016 Sid Fleishman Humor Award winner, talked to us about humor and writing funny. She implored us to play for a minute, to horse around with ideas, to do seemingly silly three-minute writing exercises, like matching different animals with human actions, and finding the funny in it. Sometimes we get so bogged down in the work of it all. The deadlines, the goals, the next chapter. Playing is freeing for the exact reason that it is not a work in progress. And yet, playing accesses a different part of our brains, which sometimes leads to breakthroughs in our current work. She said, “It’s great just to play, we are artists after all.” Under the direction of sticky-note queen and author AC Gaughen (Scarlet, Lady Thief, and Lion Heart) we played around with character traits. We scribbled pieces of identity on sticky notes. She then urged us to discarding the go-to traits, the comfort zone, and go with the unexpected, which leads to the development of more interesting characters. AC also had us play around with our character’s central traits. Through play we discovered how changing what is central to our character changes the conflict. Chris Tebbetts, whose books include the Middle School series and Public School Superhero with James Patterson, as well as the Stranded series with Jeff Probst, presented on Improv and Play. He reminded us that “purpose should not be more important than play” and encouraged us to sometimes throw out the rules and just write. Write without thinking, don’t get logical, and see where it leads. “Improv helps limber up one’s creativity.” He also challenged us to sometimes “play with a limited set of tools.” Setting our own rules and staying within those rules help us think outside the box. Play off-screen, with visual techniques such as story-boarding and maps. Erin Dionne (Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies, Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking, Ollie and Science of Treasure Hunting and more) rounded the day off with quirky revision techniques. Revision lends itself to play, as not one technique works for every project. The revising writer needs to play around with a variety of hands-on techniques including story-boarding, spiderwebs, grids, calendars and maps, until they find what works for that particular project. “Problem solving is an act of creativity,” she said. The presenters reminded us that every activity connected to our characters and story is considered work. So even when you are playing, you are still working. Playing is just more fun! We are writing for children after all. ~ by Julia Anne Young I have always loved The Wizard of Oz. When I was a kid, I wore out our VHS tape. As a grown-up, I work with a shelf of L. Frank Baum’s Oz books directly across from my desk. Naturally, I was beyond excited when Maria Middleton, Art Director for Random House Children's Books, created an Oz-themed assignment for her illustrators’ intensive at the 2017 New Jersey SCBWI Conference. She asked us to put our own spin on any character from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, write an original story brief, and illustrate a story scene. Follow me down the yellow brick road as I share the process of creating a brief and art for my story: The Forgotten Cavern of Oz! Generating Ideas from a Manuscript At this point, my story brief and art were somewhere over the rainbow. I was facing the scary blank page. Time to revisit the classic book! When I illustrate based on someone else's writing, I read the material several times. While images flit through my mind, I jot down notes and make tiny sketches. If I get to choose which scenes to illustrate, I select standout moments in the story—scenes that have a lot of drama, evoke a strong emotion, provide humor, or set a certain tone or mood. Illustrations should complement the writer’s words and also add something special. A strong book illustration will often spark the question of “What's next?" in a reader's mind. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is full of exciting and magical moments. In that spirit, I wanted my brief and illustration to pique a reader's curiosity with their own dramatic and otherworldly qualities. Although I chose Dorothy as my primary character, reading about the flying monkeys (who are not actually evil) inspired me to include them in my project. So, I had at least two characters, and I knew some of the feelings I wanted to inspire with my illustration. Now it was time to stretch my wings and figure out the brief! Process Journaling I continued playing with ideas in my “process journal”—a concept I was introduced to by The Fundamentals of Illustration by Lawrence Zeegan. I create journals for projects in the iPad app Paper by 53, filling pages with notes, sketches, photographs, etc. After rejecting several ideas, I latched onto the concept that my Dorothy would be a camp counselor for The Flying Monkey Scouts! During a canoe expedition on the Emerald River, Dorothy tries to rescue a monkey camper from a magical water cyclone. They end up in an underground cavern, in a village filled with rubbish and creatures that have fallen through the same drain. No one has escaped the cavern for decades, but Dorothy and her camper must find a way home. I started working on character designs. I don't worry about how good things look yet—my journal is for pure idea exploration! Refined Character Sketches Maria Middleton encouraged us to consider our character from every angle. Here are the three tighter character sketches I sent for review. She gave me great advice for the final piece, including a suggestion for a middle grade cover design: Dorothy’s canoe coming straight at us, about to tip into the cyclone. Among other things, she also recommended adding touches of Oz to Dorothy’s style, like a ruby slipper charm. Thumbnail Sketches: Before starting on an illustration, I create several thumbnails (tiny sketches). Thumbnails help illustrators experiment with composition ideas without expending energy on larger sketches. Here are just a few of mine. Collecting Reference Images With Pinterest At this stage, I will gather reference images either by taking them myself (as often as possible) or finding them online. I create secret Pinterest boards for my projects. I never copy a reference image exactly—it's essential to truly make the sketch your own. Gathering multiple photos and studying them before drawing really helps with this! Sketching and Value Studies I enlarged my favorite thumbnail to the correct dimensions and started sketching in Photoshop with my Cintiq drawing tablet. To get Dorothy’s pose right, I photographed myself and used my little artist’s mannequin. Here is my sketch, still at a very rough stage: As is the case with strong writing critique groups, a strong illustrator critique group makes all the difference! I asked for my group’s thoughts on these value studies, which help artists figure out their lights and darks. Inking After refining my sketch, I began inking on a new layer using a favorite Kyle T. Webster Photoshop brush. I smudged some of the lines for the water. From Black and White to Technicolor—Time to Paint! I use “watercolor” and “gouache” digital brushes created by Grutbrushes and Kyle T. Webster to build up my paintings gradually, using many Photoshop layers. I spent a lot of time on the water, making some layers more or less transparent and trying different colors. To add additional texture, I take my own scanned, hand-painted watercolor background, convert it to grayscale, and set it as an “Overlay” layer above the painting. Off to See The Wizard (at New Jersey SCBWI) Here is the final painting I took to the conference: During our critique at the intensive, I found out that although this might work as an interior illustration, I would need to increase the drama to make it a strong cover.
Maria Middleton and the other participants gave me specific and valuable feedback. For example, they suggested I zoom in, add more whites to the water in the whirlpool, and darken the surrounding water. They also suggested incorporating more magical and Oz-themed elements, and they advised me to revisit the drawing of Dorothy and the canoe. I completely agreed that the changes would make the painting stronger. So, where does this leave me? There’s No Place Like Home — for Revisions! I’m sorry to end on a cliffhanger, but as is the case in the children’s book world, final art will sometimes require final revisions. This assignment was a great challenge, leading me to try new things and learn along the way. Soon, I’ll be taking this painting to the next level and posting a new version to my website. In closing, I hope this journey through my Oz adventure gave you insights about some common steps in the illustration process. I love reading a manuscript and taking inspiration from it—using my imagination and old-fashioned elbow grease to create a unique illustration that suits the narrative. When a writer’s manuscript is paired with an illustrator’s interpretation of their text, I truly believe the final collaboration can yield some of the most great and powerful magic! Julia Anne Young is a Boston-based freelance illustrator and member of SCBWI. To learn more about Julia, visit her website at juliaanneyoung.com, or visit her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/juliaanneyoungillustration. You can also connect with her on Twitter or Instagram at @juliaanneyoung. ~ By Amanda Smith We are excited to visit with author and illustrator Matthew Cordell at 24 Carrot Writing. Matthew has illustrated poetry, novels, and picture books for children including Special Delivery by Philip Stead and the Justin Case series by Rachel Vail. He has also written and illustrated several picture books himself, including Another Brother, Hello! Hello!, Wish, and Dream. Matthew’s books have been recognized as Best of the Year selections by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, and his first wordless picture book, Wolf in the Snow, was awarded a 2017 Boston Globe-Horn Book honor award. Thank you, Matthew, for answering all our questions about the making of a picture book from an illustrator's point of view. We are honored to learn from you. Tell us a little about your journey to becoming an illustrator. As long as I can remember, I’ve always been drawing and making art in some capacity. I was never particularly into sports or some of the things other kids grow up interested in. Art and drawing was always my thing. As a boy, I was really excited by comics and comic art like Spiderman and X-men. But by the time I got into high school, my eyes were opened to fine art and I learned about all different kinds of art-making—painting, sculpture, printmaking, etc. By the time I needed to choose a college major, I knew it would have to be art or something art-related. Trying to be sensible about it, I put my name down for graphic design. (I wasn’t entirely sure what “graphic design” was, but I knew it was a career where I could be creative.) Throughout college, I learned more about graphic design and came to love it. I also continued taking classes in drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. I loved it all, really. And by the time I graduated, I wanted it all. I wanted a career in graphic design and I wanted to draw, and paint, and show my work in galleries and ultimately museums. And with lots of work and persistence, I was on my way to success in both. I got my dream design job at one of Chicago’s top design firms. And my drawings and paintings were being represented by an excellent gallery in the city. However… Once I got a taste of what both were really like… I realized neither were for me. The design world was too buttoned-down for me. The art world was too pretentious. I was at a loss. What I’d always wanted, I’d gotten. And I didn’t like it much at all. Around that same time, I started dating a young woman named Julie Halpern who was a writer and an elementary school librarian. She had an idea that we should collaborate on something. She thought we should do a picture book together. But I thought that sounded like the most uncool thing ever! To be fair, I’d been out of the picture book game since I was… I guess 6, 7, 8 years old. I had no real idea what picture books were, but in my mind they were wholesome and moral-driven, and not terribly interesting or inventive or inspiring. And, of course, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Julie started feeding me classic and contemporary picture books from her library. I was blown away by the quality of illustration in these books. I was particularly drawn to the more expressive and loosely drawn illustrations of those like William Steig, Bernard Waber, and Jules Feiffer. And I became excited about the idea of a completely different audience: kids, parents, and educators. So, Julie wrote a manuscript and I put together some drawings, and we submitted our book idea to 20 publishers at the same time. One by one, we were told “no”, until we had a stack of 19 rejections. The 20th and last letter came from Houghton Mifflin. Theirs was a “maybe” that turned into a “yes.” And eventually, our book, Toby and the Snowflakes was published in 2004. Once I began working as an illustrator with the folks at Houghton, and later, at one or two other publishers, I was hooked. I was hooked on the kindness and warmth of everyone in the business. I was hooked on the idea of making art that could be appreciated in an intimate setting and acquired at an affordable price. I was hooked on the idea of making art that would be in the hands of and before the eyes of children—a funny, fun, fresh (and not horribly jaded like us grown-ups) audience for me. I was hooked, and from that point on, I did all that I could to eventually make children’s book illustration my full-time job. When you first receive a manuscript to illustrate, what is your process? In the very beginning, it’s just some vague planning. And it’s not intense work right away, which makes for a good ice breaker. I’ll work out the trim size and number of pages and page breaks. I print out the manuscript and I read it through several times. Then vague images tend to materialize in my mind and I’ll jot down some notes in the margins. Before I draw anything in detail, I begin with character sketches and share them with my editor and art director. Nothing can or should take place in terms of work, until we’re all in agreement about the look of the main characters. (Which is, by the way, maybe my favorite part of the process—designing the characters for my books. It’s a fun problem to solve. Are they children? Animals? Something else? What are they wearing? Are they wearing clothes at all? What are the colors? The proportions? What else?) Once the characters are hammered out, I’ll go through and sketch out all the pages in the book. The first dummy is sent to the publisher and there will be several rounds of notes, and changes, and back and forth until we’ve got an approved sketch dummy that’s ready for final art. You have written and illustrated your own books as well as illustrated books authored by other writers. Can you speak a little to the pros and cons of illustrating someone else’s story, versus a story you’ve written yourself? I consider myself an illustrator first, who’s occasionally given permission to write my own stories. Writing has never been super easy for me, I guess mostly because I haven’t spent the better part of my life trying to uncomplicate it (unlike drawing). So, writing my own books is often a struggle, in one way or another. But it is extremely validating when it works (when something I write gets published). I do love having 100% ownership of a book. In terms of the finished piece and the assemblage of the thing. As I’m writing, I’m also aware, in some respect, of what the pictures are ultimately going to look like. The two different parts of assembling this puzzle are coming together organically and somewhat simultaneously. And having control over both the words and pictures is a rather satisfying thing to have. Working on someone else’s manuscript is also validating and challenging in its own ways. I like to collaborate with like-minded individuals to put some squished-together piece of art into the world. There is not a lot of direct contact between author and illustrator in most cases, but the collaboration is still intact. Two names are on the book and two different skill sets have been combined to bring this new book into the world. There are some worries. Like, “is the author going to like how I bring her/his story to life visually?” What if someone really didn’t like what I did with her/his words? That would be pretty unfortunate. It’s always a possibility. But, like it or not, the magic of combining two things by two people is a pretty cool thing to be a part of. It’s also nice when it comes to marketing and promotion. Promoting my own books can feel a little lonely and egocentric. When there’s an author friend involved in this part of the process, it can make it more bearable and more fun. How much interaction, if any, do you have with the author of a manuscript you are illustrating? If you do work with the author, what make those collaborations successful? It’s pretty rare, in my experience, for an author and illustrator to have direct communication regarding the writing and/or the illustrating of their book. A book’s editor, or art director, or both are usually the connective tissue between the author and illustrator as the book is coming together. This has always made sense to me, mostly because the book is ultimately being produced by the publisher that has invested in it. So, the folks who work at the publisher and are involved in the project generally have final say in many aspects. It’s also helpful to have a person in the middle who can filter any communication between the author to the illustrator, so that no feelings get hurt, and to be a sounding board for any ideas that may not even be worthy of making the jump from the author to the illustrator or vice versa. The sole instance in my career where I’ve collaborated directly with an author, has been on my books, Special Delivery and The Only Fish in the Sea, by author Philip Stead. Phil and I are friends and were so before we came to work on these books together. We’re both authors and both illustrators too, and we have strong feelings on both matters. Knowing all of this, it would’ve been incredibly weird not to speak to each other about what was going on in the making of these books as they were coming together. So, lines of communication were wide open with Phil and me and our editor Neal Porter, throughout the production of both of the books. I think it really needs to be a special circumstance for this to happen. Not only do the author and illustrator have to be close in some way, but the editor of the project must also be close and willing to open the doors to free and complete collaboration. But when it works, it works. I had so much fun making these books! You illustrated Lost. Found. (Roaring Brook Press, 2015) a picture book, written by Marsha Diane Arnold, which consists of two words only, repeated throughout. Picture book writers are often intrigued, and a little intimidated, by the process of writing a wordless book, or book with minimal text. What does such a manuscript look like when you get it? Lost. Found. (by author Marsha Diane Arnold) is a very different manuscript from any other I’ve ever been offered. There are only two words in the entire story, which are (you guessed it) “lost” and “found”. In a nutshell, it’s a story about a bear who owns a big red scarf that one day gets taken away by a gust of wind on a snowy day. The scarf is then found by a couple of quarreling raccoons who ultimately lose it themselves. The scarf is repeatedly lost and found by all different types of animals until it’s found by every one of them and battled over until it’s ripped to shreds. There’s more to it, obviously, but I won’t spoil the ending. So, there’s no narration or dialogue to tell the story. Just “lost” and “found.” In principle, it’s pretty close to being a wordless picture book. When my editor, Neal, sent me Marsha’s manuscript, there was some general description of the actual story. Some explanation of how the scarf is lost, what animal finds it, and what happens next. (Otherwise, no one but Marsha herself would’ve known what in the world was happening among all of those losts and founds!) I followed much of her outline, but did end up changing a thing or two once I started with the visuals. Even with proper planning, one never really knows how a thing will play out until the actual visuals are put in place. It’s a really clever and heartfelt book and I’m super proud of that one. Do you collaborate more with the writer in the making of such a book? Despite the unconventional nature of this book, I still had no actual discussions with Marsha about the text or the pictures as I was illustrating. Any questions I had were put to Neal and if he couldn’t answer, it would be asked of Marsha. Then I’d get answers back through Neal. That’s really just how it goes. What advice do you have for writers who are walking around with a wordless book in their hearts? I imagine it must be an unusual undertaking to be a writer and envision, write, and even pitch a story like this. Much less one with no words at all. But I know it can be done, obviously, and done well. One of my favorite recently published picture books is a wordless book, Sidewalk Flowers written by JonArno Lawson and illustrated by Sydney Smith. If any author is ever on the fence about doing a wordless picture book, I say get off the fence and go for it. Some picture books simply function better with no words at all, and there’s really no better way to do it. Yes, the dreaded illustration note question: We’ve read agents’ opinions on illustration notes. As an illustrator, what is your take? When a manuscript is on submission, I think illustration notes are quite helpful. A picture book text, in the end, should not spell out every single twist and turn that is meant to be seen in the book. If it did, it would be working overtime and be terribly redundant as the pictures are already doing some of this work and filling in gaps. As an illustrator, I don’t mind the occasional illustration note, especially if there is no text to describe a critical element to the story. But if a manuscript is riddled with notes, I think it can be a bit overwhelming and stifling to my own interpretation and decision-making I’ve been hired to deliver. But most editors I’ve worked with strip the manuscript of most, if not all, notes to see how I might interpret the story. Unless, again, there is some critical description that must be seen by the illustrator. When you are not working on an assignment, what do you do to grow your craft/art? If I’m not on deadline, I like to use any free time to develop any story ideas that have been sitting around, or simply just to draw for fun. I think it’s important to continue to draw when there’s no pressure of contracts and timelines and expectations for specific books or jobs. Whenever I work on a book, there is a lot of extended planning involved: Image research, sketches, sketch revisions, pencil drawing, and then by the end, I break out my pen and bottle of ink. When I’m drawing for my own pleasure, a lot of the pressure and expectations are stripped away and I can sometimes stumble upon new ways to solve problems and use the pen and line to do what I never knew it could do. I like to skip any time and labor involved with sketches and the pencil and just attack the paper straight away with the pen, which can be a little intimidating, considering ink is incredibly unforgiving. But often times the best drawing is the very first one that’s been put to paper. Sometimes the very first sketch has so much more energy than a final drawing—one that’s been drawn 3, 4 or more times. So it’s fun to just go at an ink drawing with no planning at all. It’s fun to just draw without limits or expectations. At 24 Carrot Writing, we pay a lot of attention to goal setting and planning. Do you set illustrating/ art goals? If so, what do they look like? This is a great point, one I probably haven’t thought much about in a while. There definitely have been many times in my career where I’ve stopped and set goals for myself. For instance, to get my first book published as an author and illustrator. Or to do everything I could to become a full-time illustrator. Or to stick my neck out and do more public speaking and appearances. I’ve been really fortunate, in that many of the goals I’ve set for myself have been met over the years. And in recent years, I think I’ve gotten a little slack about this sort of thinking. I think goal setting is a great way to make sure we’re all moving forward in some way and not getting too comfortable or sedentary. So, now that you mention it, I think my new goal is to think on this and set some more goals! What does your typical work day look like? Julie and I have two young children (4 and 8) and we evenly split up responsibilities and child care duty. On top of kidcare, we both work from home, so no two days tend to be the same. But our typical setup is that Julie takes the AM shift of the day for her work (she’s a Young Adult author) and I stay on top of the kids’ needs during that time. Then around lunch, we do a sort of virtual high five, and I start work and she takes over with the kids. So I work from mid-day through 5 on most days. And if I need to get caught up, I have to stay up late, when everyone else is off to sleep, and work into the wee hours of night. Someday, when both kids are in school full time, there will probably be a bit more normalcy to the work day, but it’s hard to imagine it that way right now. What has been your greatest joy in your career as an illustrator so far? I love connecting with kids who have read and appreciated my books. It’s incredibly satisfying and inspiring to meet and hear from these kids and to hear that I’ve even maybe had something to do with them wanting to draw and learn more about drawing. The most satisfying instance of all, is to see my own daughter taking a big interest in art. I might be biased, but she’s a terrific artist and she loves to draw. To be perfectly fair, I don’t know how much credit I can take for her talent and interest, because she is very much an individual and her own person. But I’d like to think I had a LITTLE bit of something to do with it. What has been the biggest surprise? I used to be terribly afraid of public speaking. I think many of us who make books are probably just more at home by ourselves and just being with the ones we love. I used to think that, no matter what, I would never be comfortable talking to large groups of people—kids or adults. I thought I would never agree to doing it, no matter how often I might be asked or by whomever was asking. But I realized, at some point, that I would only get so far in my career if I was holed up at my desk. And I would only be so content with myself if I never faced my fears. So I started seeking out and accepting appearances at schools, book festivals, book stores, etc. And now, it’s, like, no big deal at all. I’m pretty much completely comfortable with talking to groups. I mean, there’s still some small bit of uneasiness about it, that I’m sure will never go away. But I never thought I’d be able to perform, speak, or draw in front of big crowds of people, and now I do it all the time. I’m happy that it’s something I overcame. And I’m glad I did too. The rewards of connecting with people face-to-face are endless. To learn more about Matthew visit him online at matthewcordell.com. ~ By Josh Funk Marketing. What are my thoughts on marketing a picture book? Where do I start? What would I tell an author who has a debut book coming out? That’s a loaded question, so I apologize in advance for the long post! #1: Start Early We all know it takes about two years (give or take) for a debut picture book to be released once it’s acquired. Those two years are precious - use them wisely! Spend that time growing your network. One way is to go to as many author events at bookstores as you can. And here are four whys:
Another thing to do is to get on social media - and grow your virtual network. There are pros and cons to all of the different social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, tumblr, etc), but my preferred platform is Twitter. As a picture book writer, my direct audience (children 0-10) is not on social media. (This is different if you write YA - I can’t speak about interacting directly with your readers.) I love Twitter because it’s a great place to connect with educators, bloggers, booksellers, parents, and other writers and illustrators. How do you grow your network when your book is still two years away? Follow people in the industry and see what they tweet and what they talk about. Twitter is like a worldwide cocktail party where everyone’s invited - and anyone can join in on any conversation at any time. Follow educators like Pernille Ripp, Margie Myers-Culver, & Melissa Guerrette. Follow bloggers like Jen Robinson, All the Wonders, & Mr. Schu. Follow bookstores like Porter Square Books, Vromans, & Octavia Books. Follow writers like Tara Lazar, Phil Bildner, & Linda Sue Park. Follow illustrators like Girllustrators, Don Tate, & Debbie Ohi. Follow organizations like IndieBound, American Library Association, & SCBWI. But what do you tweet and share? If you have a blog (which you don’t NEED to have), tweet out those links. Read blog posts and articles that the above people write and tweet - and share the links that resonate with you. If someone you know sold a book or has a book birthday, congratulate them! And tag people. Positive vibes and good will go a long way. And just maybe, when you start connecting with people on Twitter, they might click on your name and website (more on that below) and they’ll see you have a book coming out yourself. Your book is now on their radar. You’ve planted the seed. #2: Prep for Launch Make sure you have a solid and easily navigable website. There are lots of resources out there regarding what your website should have. Look at other writers’ websites and see what you think will work for you. I use Wix to design mine, but there are lots of options. My chosen website categories are as follows: ●Home - the landing page. ●Books - a list of all of my books (each with a sub-page dedicated to that specific book). ●Stuff for Kids - a kid-safe page with fun stuff. ●Schedule & Appearances - a list of everywhere I’m going (and a map of everywhere I’ve been). Make sure to keep this up to date so your fans can follow you. ●Author Visits - a place where teachers can connect with you to bring you to their schools (remember, teachers call them Author Visits even if writers call them School Visits - so make sure to speak their language, since they’re the ones who will be looking at your site). ●Resources for Writers - my 12-Step Guide to Writing Picture Books - AKA the link I send to people when a Facebook friend tells me their cousin wrote a picture book and do I have any advice for them? ●About - a page with my bio, headshots, how to contact me, an interview archive (which will soon include this link), and social media links. ●Blog: I do have a blog to which I try to post at least once a month. Other things I’ve done pre-launch include: ●Newsletter: I have a newsletter (sign up here!). Some people say they’re critical. For a picture book author, I’m not sure. But it doesn’t hurt to have one and post to it a few times a year, especially when you have big news. ●Book Trailers: I've created all of my own book trailers, often along with songs I've written and recorded (on my phone, nothing super fancy - but technology today is awesome). ●Activity Kits and Coloring Pages: I've been fortunate that Sterling Publishing has made Activity Kits to go along with the Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast books. Michael Slack and Rodolfo Montalvo each made coloring pages for Pirasaurs! and Dear Dragon, respectively. If your book’s illustrator or designer is willing to strip the color out of some of the images, it’s an easy, free, printable bonus to offer your readers (and to bring to events). ●Online Quiz: I created a Which Pirasaur Are You?! online quiz. I’m not sure how much payoff this had. #3: The Book Launch If you’ve been patronizing and networking with your local booksellers, hopefully you’ll have an opportunity to schedule your book launch at one of them. Invite everyone you know. Jarrett J. Krosoczka once described his debut book launch as similar to a wake, but where no one died. More people will show up out of the woodwork than to a wedding. Some people create Facebook events for book events (I sometimes do), but for a book launch, especially your debut, it might be worth sending out an actual (online) invitation to your email contacts in addition to friends in your online social networks. Regarding swag, I’ve had fun making some. If you’re lucky, your publisher may make some of their own and share with you. It also doesn’t hurt to ask if they’ll reimburse you for making your own.
Definitely offer food. Bring all the swag you have. Make it a party! And congratulations! #4: My Book Is Out. Now What? The best advice I received (from author Jen Malone and probably others) is: Do what you like. How do you know what you like? My answer to that is: Try everything. Store events, library events, conferences, group events, solo events, school visits, school book fairs, nErDcamps, farmers markets, karate studios (if your book is about ninjas), etc. - do them all. Determine what you like and what you don’t - and then continue doing the ones that appeal to you. If you’re fortunate (or there is a conference in your area), your publisher may invite you to do a signing (ALA, ILA, NCTE, ABA, BEA - if you don’t know what these are, look them up and learn them). Keep sharing on social media. If you’ve developed relationships with bloggers, see if they’re interested in interviews (or even giveaways). You can also set up Goodreads giveaways (these are often done pre-launch). There’s no magic bullet to a book’s success. My trailers on YouTube have a few (under 5) thousand views - nowhere near viral. I’ve still got a few boxes of Pirasaurs! collector’s cards in my basement. Who knows if my Twitter network has affected sales (it’s impossible to really tell)? I’ve been to events where nobody showed up. But when you add it all up, the more times my book covers are on a poster at a library or in a tweet or a newsletter or a guest blog post (see what I did there?), the better the chances that the next time someone sees one of my books at a bookstore, they might just give it a second look before walking by. #5: Beyond Keep in mind that much of the sales success of your book is almost entirely out of your control. The reality is that for a book to do really well, the publisher has to seriously get behind it. The publisher’s marketing and publicity teams need to be excited about it to feature it at the bookseller expos which will in turn get their salespeople excited about it so it gets into bookstores and get their school & library teams excited about it to share it at education conferences and so on. I don’t write that to discourage you from doing marketing. If the publisher only has moderate expectations, YOUR marketing push could help exceed them! If you market your behind off, there’s a good chance your publisher will notice. It might make it easier to get your next book through acquisitions (remember, sales and marketing teams are at those meetings). It might mean they’ll give you a bigger marketing and publicity budget on your next book - and maybe your second book will get a bigger push at all of those expos and conferences. And with that network you built, those connections and friendships you made, and all those lessons you learned along the way - you’ll be that much more prepared for your sophomore effort. And don’t forget the most important thing is still: write a good book. Josh Funk writes silly stories and somehow tricks people into publishing them as picture books - such as Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast and its sequel The Case of the Stinky Stench along with Pirasaurs!, Dear Dragon, It's Not Jack and the Beanstalk, Albie Newton, Lost in the Library, and more coming soon! Josh is a board member of The Writers' Loft in Sherborn, MA and was the co-coordinator of the 2016 and 2017 New England Regional SCBWI Conferences. He’s written a 12-Step Guide to Writing Picture Books, which is free and accessible on his website. Josh grew up in New England and studied Computer Science in school. Today, he still lives in New England and when not writing Java code or Python scripts, he drinks Java coffee and writes picture book manuscripts. Josh is terrible at writing bios, so please help fill in the blanks. Josh enjoys _______ during ________ and has always loved __________. He has played ____________ since age __ and his biggest fear in life is being eaten by a __________. Find more information about Josh at www.joshfunkbooks.com and on twitter @joshfunkbooks. By Amanda Smith So, you have been writing and revising and polishing and editing. You also attended an SCBWI conference or two, and printed out the highly coveted faculty submission guidelines. You poured over editor and agent names, highlighted deadlines, and bookmarked MSWL. And then you stuffed the guidelines in the bottom drawer along with your manuscripts, and climbed under the covers with a flashlight and a book. Because putting your precious story OUT THERE is just too much. Or life got too busy. It was spring, and then the school year ended, and then it was summer, and then the school year started, and phew! And now you’ve missed all the deadlines. Oh, well, next year after the conference you will do better. NO! Make a plan. Today. Because your beautiful story, your heart spilled onto the page, will never ever see the light of day if you don’t send out those submissions. Lots and lots of submissions. And if you don’t cowboy up and deal with those rejections. Lots and lots of rejections. And keep on sending out submissions until you get the call or the email. And then there’ll be dancing. But first. Submissions. So, here’s my plan: (Because yeah, this is totally me.)
No more excuses. This year, grasp the wonderful opportunities provided by SCBWI. Put the flashlight down, creep out from under the covers, and send your stories out into the big wide world of publishing. We promise, we will hold your hand when the rejections come in. But one day you’ll get the call. And then there’ll be dancing! Lots and lots of dancing. Downloadable pdf files: UPDATED!
~By Amanda Smith When I spend a day in a classroom as a substitute teacher, I always feel as if I’m the one learning something new. A couple of weeks ago, when I was elementary art teacher for the day, I was reminded of some very important writing truths. The art teacher had left instructions for the Kindergarten class to add a few finishing touches to their art projects. When they were done, I dismissed them to “free draw.” All of them huddled around the big, round open studio table, grabbing scissors, glue, string, construction paper and markers. All except one boy. He clenched the Sharpie he had used for his art project tightly in his fist and asked if he could write a story instead. “Go for it.” I said. “The Troll Sbardee,” he wrote. “The Troll Story,” I read. “Oh, I got that right? I wasn’t sure,” he said. “Well, actually, that’s not quite how you spell it, but when we write for fun, that doesn’t matter so much,” I said. He beamed. Ah, a kindred spirit. He went to work writing his sbardee, and I roamed the room, admiring art work, untangling balls of yarn, and reminding kids not to run with scissors. Towards the end of the period my little writer came up to me, proudly waving a paper. Happy clusters of black Sharpie letters danced on both sides of the page. “I finished!” he said. “I finished my story.” “That’s wonderful. Will you read it to me?” He held the paper in both his little hands and in a ceremonial voice, read his story of the princess troll. It was funny. It was action packed. And someone got eaten. It was perfect. “That is a great story,” I said. “You have some interesting characters. I would love to see what they look like. Do you think you can draw a picture of them?” He scrutinized me, with a most serious little face. And then he said, “This is a word story. This is not a story for pictures. I don’t have time for that.” Lessons learned, dear fellow writers: 1. Write for fun! Get the story on the page in happy word clusters. You’ll have plenty of time during the revision stage to worry about spelling, sentence structure, arc, pacing, and all those other academic things. But first, just enjoy the act of creating. 2. Know what you’re writing. You might not know what you are creating when you start, but sometime during the process, ask the important questions.
3. Stick to your guns. Critique partners are gifts from heaven. Great feedback can place you squarely on the right track. But ultimately, you know what you want to accomplish, and where you want your story to go. Suggestions are just that. Make sure to stay true to your vision. 4. Manage your time wisely. But mostly. Have fun writing those sbardees! |
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