Ask a Picture Book Editor

Our blog this month is all about

So:

• You’ve found your theme, you’ve sculpted your characters and honed your voice. 
• You’ve put pen to paper and structured, and crafted your story into something that you want to share with an agent or a publisher! 

Hooray! 

The next big step is getting it noticed.

One top tip for getting your picture book picked up by an editor is to . . .

 


Most editors will find themselves completing a subconscious mental checklist as they go: 

If the editor loves the text they will be thinking about how they will ‘sell’ your story to 
- their editorial team and publisher 
- their wider publishing team (made up of the Foreign Rights team, the UK sales team, marketing, publicity, the managing director – we’ll deal with these guys in a later post!) 

And this is where the hook comes in. A hook is a one-line sales pitch that encapsulates the essence of your story and ‘hooks’ any potential editors, publishers, managing directors, booksellers, picture book buyers and picture book readers. 

If your story has a strong hook, then the editor will know right away how to pitch the story and won’t be left thinking, “nice story, but so what . . . ?” He or she will immediately know why and how your story is DIFFERENT from everything else that is out there in the marketplace. This is what the publisher and sales people will be asking them in turn. It’s not enough for the editor to love a book – it has to sell! 

If you can pin-point the hook of your text and write it at the top of your covering letter, then you’ve gone part of the way to ‘selling’ your text to your prospective editor.    

Here are some examples of hooks: 

Dragon Stew by Steve Smallman and Lee Wildish

A rollicking rhyming adventure tale starring Vikings, dragons and . . . dragon poo!

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
An innovative lift-the-flap book – perfect for little hands – about finding the perfect pet. 

Pirate House Swap by Abie Longstaff and Mark Chambers
An action-packed twist on a familiar theme, featuring unexpected holiday locations and pirates! 

Knight Time by Jane Clarke and Jane Massey
A reassuring bedtime story – with knights and dragons – about overcoming prejudice and becoming friends.

Grizzly Dad by Joanna Harrison
A warm and original picture book that celebrates dads (especially the grumpy ones!).

The Princess and the Presents by Caryl Hart and Sarah Warburton
A fantastically funny tale about being greedy and understanding the value of things and people. 

Evil Weasel by Hannah Shaw
A wonderfully wicked tale about making friends and learning to say sorry. 

If your cover letter comes with a succinct and strong hook you will: 
a) have ‘hooked’ the editor reading your submission 
b) helped them start their sales pitch to their team! 

OK – so having your hook helps you get noticed, but what else does it do for you? 

If you can pin-point your hook at the point when you’re refining your story, it can be a really helpful tool to make sure that your text has the right sense of focus and clarity, and isn’t becoming woolly or deviating too much from your original goal. The best picture books are sharp and succinct with an economy of words. 

If you start to look at your hook and think ‘oh, well I could add friendship, lost toys, love and bedtime to my hook as these are all themes which I’m now covering in my book . . .’
STOP RIGHT THERE! 

Your one-line hook is becoming too cluttered (and your story premise diluted)! 

It’s likely that you are trying to cram too many themes into your picture book text. Remember, picture books are short and, to create maximum impact, just one or two closely-interwoven themes (see month one’s discussion!) are enough. 

In a picture book there is not enough space to explore and develop too many multi-faceted themes and ideas – the most satisfying text will handle one or two really well, and in depth. So always think ‘less is more’. 

In summary then – what is a hook and why do you need it? 
 • The ‘hook’ is a term that gets used a lot in the industry and is a vitally important element in selling picture books. 
 • It’s a succinct, one-line pitch which encapsulates what your text is all about and how it will stand out from the competition in the crowded marketplace 
 • It’s helpful to identify your hook, because it should be at the heart of your story. 
 • Having a handle on it helps you to keep focus as you rewrite, refine and edit your story prior to sending it out for submission. 

And here’s our question for next month: 

You’ve hooked your editor and they LOVE your text . . . what happens next?

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Natascha Biebow is editor, mentor and coach at www.blueelephantstoryshaping.com

 

Ellie Farmer is Commissioning Editor at Little Tiger Presswww.littletigerpress.com

Stories Really Are Everywhere!

Has it ever occurred to you how similar Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is to The Hunger Games?  Two stories each set in a bizarre and brutal gaming arena that follow a group of young people as they're gradually picked off, observed by detached and largely callous adults?

Back in June we celebrated Charlie's 50th birthday (perhaps in 2058 W&P will be doing the same for Katniss). The Guardian, much slower on the uptake, celebrated yesterday with the publication of a missing chapter.

It's reassuring to be reminded that even for the legends, stories do not always spill onto the page fully formed. The trick, I suppose, is making them appear is if they did.

Mo O'Hara's cave-dwelling Hercule Poirot was fabulous this week and Miriam Halahmy's post featured by Nick in the Blog Break was so inspirational. Stories really are everywhere, even in Hayes!

Another inspirational Blog Breaker was Julie Day.  If you're a Tuesday reader,  you might have missed Julie's comment to say that she was paid for her visit to Bexley Library. For a self published author this is a brilliant affirmation. Anyone eschewing the whole getting past the gatekeeper rigmarole (or just keeping their options open) and is equally inspired by Julie's example, should consider upskilling at Jane Clarke's London Masterclass on Saturday 13th September. Check out Alison's pre masterclass interview with Jane and read through to the great recommendations in the comments. This class, obviously will also be very useful to the traditionally published - debuts or experienced authors looking for new ideas.

A last minute switcheroo in the illustrators' camp meant that we can still look forward to Bridget's overview of the French and US magazine market, posting next Friday. So, in the last few days of our 'story' month, we had the first ProCATsination from the wonderful Jion Sheibani! So exciting to have a new comic in W&P!

Congratulations again to Swapna and Clare for their success in the Greenhouse Funny Prize - first and second prize to SCBWI members, how wonderful is that! Congratulations too, to two lovely friends of SCBWI, Amber Caraveo and Joanna Moult, who broke the news of their new agency this week - Skylark Literary. 'Skylark' launches officially in November; Amber and Joanna will be at the conference and perhaps, before long, some SCBWI members may find themselves on board.

Next week, with Bridget, there's Ask a Picture Book Editor with Natascha and Ellie and to launch our Month of Motivation the Marvellous Bekki Hill!

I'm off to root around for a copy of yesterday's Guardian (probably a collectable) and to make sure all my early drafts are easily discoverable in two thousand and something or other (just in case).

Hope it's a fun week,

Jan Carr

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Jan Carr is the editor of Words & Pictures. Her fiction is all over the place, she blogs occasionally and loves to write in magenta. You can contact her at editor@britishscbwi.org.

SCBWIs Scoop Greenhouse's Top Prizes!

  

It's a serious business making readers laugh; Swapna Haddow and Clare Welsh are seriously good at it, officially! Please lob great big guffawing congratulations to Swapna, winner of this year's Greenhouse Funny Prize and to 'close second', W&P's own, Clare. 

Greenhouse Funny Prize winner, Swapna Haddow!

Swapna won with the autobiography of a Pigeon called Dave, Dave Pigeon. Here's what she had to say on winning...

How I got an agent: 
When your four-year-old asks you what two pigeons talk about, the very same two pigeons that target your husband’s car every Sunday morning, you can either distract said son with the task of cleaning the car whilst your husband unfurls the hose or you could steal your son’s idea, claim it as your own, write a book and win the Greenhouse Funny Prize, nabbing yourself an agent, in the process.

I wish it had been that easy to get an agent but there were three years prior of plugging away at this craft called writing. For the last two years, I’ve sat frustrated on a number of shortlists, including the Funny Prize shortlist back in 2012, and collected a landfill-sized pile of rejection letters to boot. 

Thankfully I inherited the family stubborn streak. 

 I’m so chuffed (and quite frankly amazed) to have won this year’s prize, not only because my first piece of advice from an agent was not to write about animals (and there is nothing more animal than pigeon), but also because I now have the lovely Polly Nolan, agent extraordinaire at Greenhouse Literary Agency, championing my book.

Thank you Greenhouse!

Clare with friend Helen on shortlisting day, also celebrating their 30th birthdays.  

Clare's 'close second' features mice with plans to fly to the moon in a biscuit rocket!  Here's Clare on running up...

On a windy and wet campsite in Cornwall, I was delighted to receive an email from Polly Nolan of The Greenhouse Literary Agency saying my picture book 'The Aerodynamics of Biscuits' had made the shortlist for the Greenhouse Funny Prize 2014. I knew the judges' decision had been looming but I didn't believe I had a chance. So you can imagine my elation when she emailed a week later to say I had won Silver Medal.

Now that I am just about over the shock, the smiling has kicked in. Along with the occasional 'eeeek!' It means so much to have been noticed in what sounds like a flood of incredible and funny submissions... Another reminder not to give up on the dream. Congratulations to Swapna Haddow! I can't wait to read 'Dave Pigeon.'

Greenhouse literary agent and Funny Prize judge, Polly Nolan had this to say about Swapna's and Clare's entries…

Reading the dozens and dozens of entries for the Greenhouse Funny Prize each year makes me appreciate just how tricky it is to ‘do’ funny. The writers who manage it have a special talent. We are delighted that Swapna and Clare have done so well. They have written completely different stories, but both made us laugh. A lot. Congratulations to each of them.

Many Congratulations Swapna and Clare! 

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ProCATsination, by Jion Sheibani

A new regular comic strip for Words & Pictures? Why yes, and it starts today! Earlier this year Jion Sheibani was our Featured Illustrator. Now her deft hand has turned to ProCATsination!

click to enlarge

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Jion's Illustrator Showcase Gallery is here, She can be reached at jionsheibani@gmail.com
Click here for her personal website.

Author Masterclass: Successful primary school visits with Jane Clarke

Jane Clarke has been an archaeologist, a teacher, and a library assistant, but is now a full time children’s writer with over seventy published books and hundreds of poems in children's anthologies. Her picture books include the award-winning Gilbert the Great series, Stuck in the Mud, and Knight Time. She writes for reading schemes and ghost writes for several series for the Key Stage 2 age group with Working Partners, Random House and OUP. 

Jane does around 30 author visits to nursery and primary schools a year and counts them as an important part of her income as a writer.

Alison Smith caught up with Jane in advance of her upcoming London Masterclass Workshop on Successful Primary School Visits on 13 September 2014 to find out more.

When did you start doing author visits to primary schools? 

When my first book was published (2001), I was a library assistant at Antwerp International School – so I invited myself into different classes in the Elementary School and tried out talks and writing workshops with different age groups.

How did you go about getting school visits when you returned to the UK? 

By then, I had five books published and felt confident enough to introduce myself to my local primary school as a writer. I went in once a week to listen to children read, and did some unpaid creative writing workshops for them. This gave me UK references and local school contacts. A local independent bookshop was helpful in passing on my details, and I also joined Contact an Author.

What do you like about school visits? 

It's a joy to work with imaginative and creative children, and inspire them to write and/or draw their own stories and poems. My primary purpose for doing the visits is for income rather than to promote my books, but I often use one of my books as the focus of a workshop and promote them in that way. My agent is convinced the visits help book sales – and they keep me in touch with my target audience, too.

So who is your Masterclass aimed at?

Anyone who writes and illustrates for the under 11s and who is making - or thinking of making - visits to schools.

And what will you be covering? 

I’ll be sharing hints and tips about getting, organising and accomplishing fun and inspiring school visits. The practical session in the afternoon will focus on sharing writing workshop/ fun creative activities that can be used to inspire and enthuse specific ages/year/Key Stage groups (from nursery through to Year 6).

Anything people need to do in advance? 

Please come prepared to share a workshop or creative activity - and/or a book you'd like to make the focus of a workshop.

For more information about Jane and her work visit www.jane-clarke.co.uk

Masterclass details:

Successful Primary School Visits 
When: Saturday 13 September 2014 – 12 noon – 4pm
Where: The Theodore Bullfrog Pub, First floor meeting room, 26-30 John Adam Street, London, WC2N 6HL
Cost: £30 per class for SCBWI members, £37 for non members. (Prices include a pre-ordered light lunch and a beverage.)
Booking: https://britishisles.scbwi.org/events/
More information: masterclasses@britishscbwi.org 

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Alison Smith works as a freelance PR and communications professional for part of her week. For the rest of it she is to be found clamped to her computer trying to find a home for her middle grade historical novel and getting down the first draft of a new canine caper set in Victorian London. She has just managed to break her publishing duck with the acceptance of a short story by The Caterpillar Magazine and hopes this will help her brave the slings and arrows of future rejections.

Amber Caraveo & Joanna Moult to Set Up New Children's Literary Agency

We're delighted to share this exciting news with Words & Pictures readers. 

Amber Caravéo (currently Editorial Director at Orion Children’s Books and Indigo) is joining forces with Joanna Moult (formerly of Hodder Children’s Books and Simon & Schuster) to set up a bright new literary agency and creative consultancy, Skylark Literary – www.skylark-literary.com

Skylark Literary will specialise in representing the very best children’s and young adult fiction, seeking talented voices in stories for young people and working with publishers to create bespoke children’s books and series.

Amber Caravéo has been passionate about children’s books ever since she learned to read and has spent the last eighteen years in children’s editorial – working closely with her authors to get their books ready for publication and also creating and developing children’s and YA projects. She has worked internationally, with bestselling authors and publishing houses in the UK and the US, and on a wide range of projects from Rainbow Magic to Adventure Island.

Amber says,

‘I have been privileged to work with the wonderful Orion team and fabulous authors. I am very sad to say goodbye, but the time felt right to make the leap and embark on this exciting new adventure – seeking and supporting new talent in children’s publishing.’

Lisa Milton, Managing Director, General Division, Orion, and Fiona Kennedy, MD and Publisher, Orion Children's Books and Indigo, say,

‘Whilst working at Orion Amber has developed, created and commissioned a wide range of excellent books. Her attention to detail, passion and most importantly vision for her books and her authors has delivered a number of significant successes. To be able to find new and fresh ideas for series for middle-grade children is a particularly challenging job. Amber has consistently delivered above our expectations. We'll miss Amber and wish her well in her exciting new adventure.’

Joanna Moult began her career with Hodder Children’s Books, editing a range of talented authors as well as creating content for brands such as Felicity Wishes. She moved in order to cover maternity leave, running the children’s editorial department at Simon & Schuster. More recently she has been working with literary agents, helping them to find new talent and editing manuscripts prior to submission to publishers.

 Joanna says, 

‘Author care is one of the most rewarding and fascinating elements of being an editor for me and this feels like a very natural progression for both of us. With Skylark Literary I'm delighted to begin our search for new and exciting voices, as well as creating some really fresh and fun projects for publishers.’

Skylark Literary launches in November and will welcome submissions from authors. The company also looks forward to working with talented writers to create fun and fabulous children’s projects, specifically tailored to individual publishers.

For further information, please contact Amber Caravéo: amber@skylark-literary.com

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Ten-Minute Blog Break - 26th August

I'd like to start this week's column with a special message for the Space on the Bookshelf team. Stop writing so many interesting posts! It'll be your fault if no-one gets any further than paragraph two on this week's Blog Break.

Space on the Bookshelf, you may remember, have a special series of features running about comics, graphic novels and magazines. Let's start with their top picks for graphic novels for various age ranges, then move on to off-the-shelf and subscription magazines for children and a special spotlight on The Phoenix (as championed extensively by David Fickling the other day). Most recently, the site ran an informative interview with Emily Haworth-Booth, who teaches a course in London on making comics and graphic novels.

One SCBWI blogger who always seems to avoid appearing in the Blog Break is our very own Words & Pictures editor Jan Carr. She generally does this by not blogging very much, but this week I've caught her! Her latest post may be "shameless self-promotion" for her novel You're Magic, Duggie Bones, but it's also a chance to see the very positive kids' feedback that gave her the idea for the Chalkface Challenge.

Moving to illustration, Loretta Schauer contributes a terrific process post to Big Little Tales this week. After admitting her unusual phobia of sketchbooks(!), Loretta talks us through her recent life drawing classes and shares the results at each stage.

What made you the artist you are? Miriam Halahmy and her photographer brother have journeyed back to Hayes in Middlesex, where they grew up. In a reflective post for The Edge Miriam traces how this outwardly uninspiring suburban environment shaped her creative outlook.

Finally, author events can be scary enough for anyone, let alone if you have Asperger's Syndrome. So you have to applaud Julie Day's determination to get out there and meet her audience, as she does in her latest post about a children's workshop at Bexley Community Library.

Nick.

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A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is a former Undiscovered Voices winner who currently writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine.

In Nick's most recent blog post, he enters phase 0.5 of his plan for world domination, sharing A Work in Progress.

“There’s a Story in That” by Mo O’Hara

“There’s a story in that!” How often have you said that phrase? Maybe you were looking at an image, overhearing a bit of conversation (We all do it, it’s ok, we’re writers) or maybe you just spotted something lying on the ground. Whatever it was, your writer brain kicked in and you thought, “There’s a story in that!”

I think we, as humans, are hardwired to try to understand things by giving them a narrative. We want to work out the story behind what we see. It probably helped us in our early survival.

“Hmmmm,” says the cave man, “There’s a dead Mammoth and big Saber-toothed tiger tracks going this way.” (pause for cave brain activity to create narrative of tiger vs mammoth) “I think I’ll head the other way.”
Or, it could play out this way…

(I imagine a little Hercule Poirot caveman in our ancestors’ brains that makes up the stories at the scene of the crime. I have absolutely no scientific basis for this. I just like the image.)

“But you see (said in a Belgian caveman voice) the paw prints going off are uneven indicating that the tiger had a bad limp, probably from the entanglement with the mammoth. And here we see a mammoth print with two saber tooths lying on the ground, indicating that the mammoth kicked the tiger and dislodged his teeth before the mammoth’s passing. Therefore I surmise that if we walk this way we will find a tiger that has died of his injuries and between that and the mammoth we will have BBQ meat for a month.”

Cave man grunts at storytelling Hercule in his brain and follows the tiger tracks.

See, our brain likes stories. We are comfortable with stories. It’s the way we make sense of the world. In a way, storytelling has helped us survive as well as pass on what we learn to those we leave behind.

In present ( not obvious big toothy predator ) times though, I think we often use the little Poirot in our brains to be creative and make up our own stories. But what is ‘story’?

Well, as you would expect, I Googled it and came up with various definitions…

1. A floor or level of building
2. A colloquial American expression meaning ‘soap opera’
3. Place names of several towns and cities in the Midwestern US

Then came the ones I was most interested in…

1. The recounting of a sequence of events (ie around the cave campfire, “Then the Tiger pounced on the Mammoth and it stumbled to the ground.”)
2. An indication of someone’s background (ie “So, what’s your story?”)
3. A lie (ie “So, that’s your story hunh?)
4. A Narrative

That last one is the ‘story’ that we are usually referring to as writer: Narrative.

I think that we actually use all these forms of story. (Unless you don’t watch soap operas, live in a bungalow and have never been to Iowa of course.) But aside from that, all of these definitions are connected to the stories that we tell, the stories that we read and the stories that we write.

Our own ‘story’ influences the stories that we are exposed to through others. Our background is hugely influential in the stories that we will eventually tell. We can’t really be isolated from our story, whether that is the ‘lie’, the ‘background’ or the ‘narrative’ of our lives.

While we are trying to let the little Poirot in our brains work out the intricacies of ‘the story’ in whatever eavesdropped conversation or object we’ve spied, we often ignore the influence of how our back story effects our perception of events.

One person might approach a scene where he sees a person sitting on the ground rubbing their head, with a leather wallet lying on the ground near them and come up with a narrative that the person fell and bumped their head and dropped their wallet. Another person with a different ‘story’ might assume that the person was mugged but the robber dropped the wallet in their escape. Our cave Hercule Poirot would assume the person was knocked over by a passing mammoth and ask if he could have a bite of the wallet.

It’s all based on what story we are bringing to the table.

So why attempt to separate your ‘story’ from your story. In the words of the immortal Frozen, “Let it go.”

Why not embrace the Iowa visiting, skyscraper dwelling, soap opera watching, anecdote embellishing, ups and downs of life experiencing story that is you and use it in your writing.

And next time someone asks you, “So, what’s your story?” - You can tell them.

Any way you like.

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@Mo_OHara

Originally from America, Mo moved to London because she wanted to live abroad but spoke no foreign languages. After a brief and unsuccessful stint as a serving wench at the Tower of London, Mo found work as an actress and comedy performer. It was when she toured the UK as a storyteller that she started writing for kids. Mo’s debut novel, “My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish” was published by Macmillan in the UK, the USA and Germany in 2013. Its follow up “My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish the Sea-quel” came out later that year in the UK and in 2014 in the USA. “My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish- Fins of Fury” and “My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish- Any Fin is Possible” both came out in the UK in 2014.

More Unmissableness

I'm at the foot-stomping cider-swigging Internet-lacking Purbeck Folk Festival this weekend, so before I drive off to a windy hillside, plant my festival flagpole and pull on my wellies, here's some more unmissableness....







David Fickling 
How lucky were we to have the man himself! Thank you Catherine for delivering a fabulous Ask a Publisher.

Philppa Francis
The lovely Philippa, inspiring us all!

Nick Cross
Blog Breaking Heroically throughout the summer!

Catriona Tippin
Injecting a good dose of wit into proofreading!

Liz Miller
Intrepid Central North Reporter!

It's Thursday morning for me so at this stage I'm crystal ball gazing. Check these out using the links on the right..

Anne Marie Perks
Picture Book retreat organiser extraordinaire (with the equally extraordinaire Bridget Strevens Marzo) presents Illustrator extraordinaire Alex Deacon!

Sheila Averbuch   
Sheila Averbuch reports on SCBWI's debut event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival!. Congratulations to our RA, Natascha Biebow, Sheila, Louise Kelly and the South East Scotland Team who made this happen!


Again, I'm defiant in the face of exclamation point rationing!

And next week, yet more unmissableness:

• Mo O'Hara on storytelling
• Jane Clarke with a sneak preview on the first masterclass of the new term - school visits anyone?
• Bridget takes a look at French and US magazine opportunities

Happy Bank Holidaying!

Jan Carr

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Jan Carr is the editor of Words & Pictures. Her fiction is all over the place, she blogs occasionally and loves to write in magenta. You can contact her at editor@britishscbwi.org.

SCBWI Reception Rocks Edinburgh International Book Festival!

@edbookfest

This week it's HUGE Congratulations to..... 
SCBWI British Isles! 
Specifically to Natascha and South East Scotland, in the shape of Sheila Averbuch and Louise Kelly, for engineering a great big Sparkly SCBWI arrival at Edinburgh International Book Festival. Sheila has written a spectacular report, here it is....



Who attends the Edinburgh International Book Festival, come August time? Only everybody! That’s why we were triple-thrilled this year to host a SCBWI reception that gave rise to a lively industry discussion, involving a knowledgeable audience of seasoned literary professionals from around the UK.

 Jonathan Meres of The World of Norm
Photograph courtesy Candy Gourlay

Janey Louise Jones of the PRINCESS POPPY series, Jonathan Meres of WORLD OF NORM fame, Keith Gray of OSTRICH BOYS, Moira Young of BLOOD RED ROAD… all were guests at a glittering SCBWI British Isles reception hosted by the Southeast Scotland network on the evening of 13th August. The aim was to have a relaxed industry question-and-answer, "Festivals Uncovered," helping writers and illustrators understand what's expected of them when they're tipped to speak at a festival like Edinburgh, at a library or a school.

Janey Louise Jones of the PRINCESS POPPY series

Photograph courtesy Candy Gourlay

We were joined by a fantastic panel that included author Nicola Morgan (TEENAGE GUIDE TO STRESS), agents Lindsey Fraser and Lucy Jukes (Lucy also co-coordinates the Picture Hooks mentoring scheme for picture book illustrators in Scotland), Falkirk Librarian Yvonne Manning, Sales and Marketing Manager of Floris Books Chani McBain, and the Children & Education Program Director at Edinburgh International Book Festival, Janet Smyth.

Children & Education Program Director at Edinburgh International Book Festival, Janet Smyth Photograph courtesy Candy Gourlay 

In addition to the panel, we reached a great selection of librarians, booksellers and other industry guests who were invited to participate, thanks to Janet's assistance and the wonderful Scottish literary contacts of Louise Kelly and Nicola Morgan. The venue was the stylish multi-hexagon Party Pavilion inside Charlotte Square, made even more beautiful by the travelling SCBWI Illustrators Showcase, a curated annual exhibition of member images. And of course the whole event was made possible through the kind sponsorship of SCBWI British Isles and support of our Regional Advisor (Chair) Natascha Biebow, who is a passionate advocate of professional development events like these, which are dedicated to supporting published authors and illustrators in furthering their careers. Questions, answers and yurts.

L to R: Lucy Juckes of Jenny Brown Associates and Picture Hooks,

Lindsey Fraser of Fraser Ross Associates

Chani McBain of Floris Books

Photograph courtesy Candy Gourlay

Following a wine reception we kicked off the Q&A with questions for the panel about how the role of festivals has changed over the years, as well as how authors and illustrators can attend the events they want to without spreading themselves too thinly.

L to R: Susan Bain, Christina Banach and Maureen Lynas
Photograph courtesy Candy Gourlay

There was a real feeling of focus and intense interest in the topic among the audience, which included SCBWI authors Candy Gourlay (SHINE - shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2014), Christina Banach (debuting this year with MINTY) and Maureen and Katherine Lynas (CUPCAKE CATASTROPHE! ). We were also delighted to welcome Frané Lessac, Regional Advisor for SCBWI Australia West, an experienced illustrator who teams up with her husband Mark Greenwood on a number of collaborations.

And did someone say YURT? The evening finished off with a number of us decamping to the hallowed ground of the EIBF yurt, where the conversation about all things literary carried on 'til late in the glow of the wood-burning stove.

SCBWI reception highlights

For you SCBWI members who didn't get a chance to come to Edinburgh, more school-visit events are planned in London, York and at our annual conference in Winchester  later this year, but here's a selection of what you missed in Edinburgh:

Published authors need to protect their writing time.Beware the exhausting schedule that can spread you thin and make your creative time disappear. Be clear with your agent about what kind of events you'd like to do and how many, and they will help remind you to make time for writing.

If you're doing author/illustrator events, the standard rate is £150. Many schools and libraries know the rate, and if they don't, let them know and don't feel guilty about it. This prompted a robust discussion about fees. Many people feel willing and keen to do free events for the experience, and to spread the love of literature among kids, but Nicola Morgan advised you make it clear you're doing it free/cheap because you’re new to this and are looking for feedback. I guess the lesson is if you're doing it free or cheap, be very clear about your reasons why, rather than having "free" as the default because you feel you can't ask the standard rate. Candy, for example, has done free events in the run-up to a bookstore-based book launch to help ensure attendance (several people mentioned that bookstore events can often be badly attended); that strategy worked well, helping numbers for the bookstore event and leading to a number of paid school visits. (Bookstore events, incidentally, are unpaid and typically part of a promotional tour at launch).

More thoughts from Nicola on events, including why charging a real rate should be your default mode, is here in her excellent blog post: Getting and giving great author events.

Have a pitch ready if someone asks, "Do you do events?" Put your events info on your website, and make sure you're listed everywhere you should be (including in the SCBWI Speakers Bureau; the Scottish Book Trust  also lists authors).
Don't hesitate to say how long your events last. Janet Smyth mentioned that 30 min. to 45 min. is plenty for very young kids.

It's not only "big names" that get invited to festivals. For example EIBF in particular feels it has a role to promote new writers, including our Southeast Scotland member Emily Dodd, who's speaking at this year's EIBF following publication of her picture book with Floris, CAN'T DANCE CAMERON.
It's okay to approach festival organisers and librarians and let them know what you do; we were all stunned to hear that festival organisers who approach publishers seeking a specific writer don't always get them! The hard truth is that not all speaking invitations that go via the publisher are passed on to the writer, so make sure you clearly communicate your availability and preferences for events.

Panicked about the idea of doing a school or festival event? Ask your peers! The SCBWI community was terribly helpful to me when I did the mother of all school visits earlier this year, and many authors and illustrators will agree to allow you to tag along to see how they do events.

Make connections with storytellers where possible and take them along advised Janey Louise Jones, author and storyteller Janis Mackay (2014 winner of the Scottish Book Trust’s Children’s Book Award for THE ACCIDENTAL TIME TRAVELLER) and Chani McBain. See how they present stories, helping you to become more comfortable with the "performance" aspect of an event.

(Seated) Carnegie and Greenaway judge Joy Court, who's also behind
the free-to-attend Literally Coventry book festival, relates her Terry Pratchett anecdote
Photograph courtesy Candy Gourlay

Carnegie and Greenaway judge Joy Court, who's also behind the free-to-attend Literally Coventry book festival, related a fabulous anecdote about KM Peyton. Peyton willingly admits that in the days when authors were offered nothing more than a geranium as payment for an event, she would go along and "give them a geranium's worth." But one day, giving an event alongside a dynamic and fabulously entertaining young writer, Peyton realised how thrilling events can be – that young man was Terry Pratchett.

(Ed: BIG Note here)

'Live literature is where it’s at.'

As Janet Smyth noted, even with the distractions offered by so many other media and online, live literary events – like live music – are enjoying a resurgence. People long to connect in a face-to-face way with the artists who are the source of so much inspiration. You, authors and illustrators, are that source of inspiration – so embrace the chance to get out there!

A big team of people came together to make the SCBWI reception at Edinburgh International Book Festival so successful. Louise Kelly and I, who coordinate the Southeast Scotland network of SCBWI BI, would like to thank our RA Natascha for her support, Vento Ludens for donating display boards, and all the SCBWI members who gave their time to help bring the gorgeous SCBWI illustrators showcase to Edinburgh, especially Jeanne Dron, Sarah Broadley, Stephanie McGregor, Candy Gourlay, Anne-Marie Perks and Bridget Strevens-Marzo.

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L to R: Sheila and Louise

Sheila Averbuch is the co-coordinator of SCBWI British Isles Southeast Scotland network and is currently mudwrestling a draft of a reality-slip story for 9 to 11s, set in Massachusetts. She blogs at www.spacekidsbooks.com.