Conference manuscript reviews – meet the gatekeepers!

How often can you look an editor or agent in the eye and talk seriously about how your work can be improved for a whole fifteen minutes?

How often do you get the chance do find out what's really needed to make your story marketable? How often does this happen? Hen's teeth! It's once a year – at SCBWI Winchester!



Here's what some people would probably say if I asked them:

• 'Unmissable chance to meet the people who matter!'
• 'The advice given was personal and precisely what I needed to improve my chances of publication!'
• 'I love one-to-one manuscript reviews!'

Writers, you have until the 30th September to scrub up that manuscript, polish that story and grab your chance to submit direct to a gatekeeper. 

What do you mean, you haven’t registered for the conference, yet? Take that chance!

And if you’re an illustrator, even better! You’ve got AGES to polish your portfolio!

The Portfolio Reviews are a rare and unique opportunity to present your portfolio to an agent or art director without negotiating the dreaded slush pile. You get to talk directly to the professionals who will look at your style, individual pieces and the portfolio as a whole plus feedback with suggestions on what to work on to improve, your presentation and advise you on Marketability. 

Illustrators, you have until November 1st to book your place. 

What’s stopping you? Grab your place at the conference and get your work seen! 

You never know what might happen…

---

Addy                         Sally

Star Volunteers, Addy Farmer and Sally Poyton are organising this year's 121 Portfolio and Manuscript reviews. If you have already booked but would now like to add a 121 to your booking, please email conference@britishscbwi.org

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 27th August

I’m delighted to be given the chance to deputise for Nick Cross on the blog while he does whatever talented and imaginative writers do on their holidays. He’s probably sitting somewhere with a notebook, pen and an ice cream (substitute beer if you’re reading this slightly later in the day) just oozing with ideas for his next book. It’s a hard job to fill his shoes (substitute trainers or flip flops if you really want to get into the spirit of Nick’s holiday), but here goes.

These four blogs caught my eye this week and made me want to read more. As a relatively new individual blogger - having hidden behind the skirts of the Romaniacs’ blog for a couple of years before recently branching out solo –the way these lovely people keeping turning out the ideas is amazing: 

In praise of curiosity... by Keren David is the latest post from the The Edge - Cutting Edge Fiction for Teens.  Keren recently combined her passion for the seaside with her journalistic experience and opened her eyes to new ideas at the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate. Curiosity: Art and the Pleasures of Knowing caught Keren’s imagination and fired up her ever-present search for new quirks and foibles. Her blog gives us an insight into the way that experiences can build up in the novelist’s head to produce something new and inspiring. And the seaside thrown in – can’t be bad... 

I Hear Adventure Calling with Jane Heinrich has a large chilled glass of wine, a paperback that looks well-loved and some sunglasses to keep the holiday theme going, which is good enough for me. Jane gives an update on what she’s currently reading (anything interesting as long as it’s in the shade), working on (something so secret even the blog doesn’t know yet), eating (gooey cookies; am making envious whimpering noises here). Join Jane to read some excellent reviews of children’s literature and to think about wine o’clock, which has to be soon.

Space On The Bookshelf, the creation of Sally Poyton, Jo Wyton and Nicki Thornton, provides great ideas for keeping any bored children in your household busy. Book cover designing or write your own blurb – great ways to amuse the troops. And there are prizes! 

And finally...on Who Ate My Brain Nick Cross leaves us with food for thought. I guess he can’t feature his own blog so I’ll do it for him this week. Read all about his automatic and amazing Rejectomatic. Are you tired of waiting for your submissions to bear fruit. Who needs those tiresome agents and publishers? All those weeks of tension and ambushing the postman are now over. Cut out the middle man and get your rejection form instantly. What a fantastic idea. All the more letters to paper the downstairs toilet walls with. Thanks Nick - I did larf. 

 Celia J Anderson

---

@CeliaAnderson1

When she’s not marking children’s work, or writing stories involving pants, Celia spends far too much time on Facebook (Celia Joy Anderson) and does a lot of walking to counteract the cooking, eating and drinking which form another of her hobbies. She blogs as part of the Romaniacs online writers’ group, and can also be found on Twitter. Her own website is now nearly ready to be launched.

Celia’s first novel, Sweet Proposal, a contemporary romance involving chocolate, a jacuzzi and a bespoke bookshop, was published by Piatkus Entice on August 1^st. Her ultimate dream is to have her children’s books published too.

Usually sea-starved in the depths of the Midlands, she can often be found wandering happily around Brighton visiting her two daughters pretending to collect ideas for her next book.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 21st May

It started as a bit of a slow week in the SCBWI blogosphere, with a lot of people clearly still recovering from the SCBWI retreat! Luckily some great posts have popped up in the last couple of days, so I do have plenty to discuss...


Talking of the retreat, I'm hoping we'll get a report on Words & Pictures about it in due course. But in the meantime, Julie Day blogs about the weekend and on being brave in reading out her work, and showing it to others. Actually, there were a lot of brave people at the Sunday night read-through, and the quality and diversity of the writing was phenomenal. I know my heart was hammering like mad as I tried to calmly read off my laptop screen!

Jo Wyton weighs in on the gay marriage debate with an impassioned post about sexual diversity in YA. She discusses the different approaches in the US and UK book market and highlights a book with the gloriously provocative title Two Boys Kissing. I couldn't even begin to work out how to structure a book about two characters kissing for 32 hours, but I'm really glad someone's tried.

Amanda Lillywhite's daughter was lucky enough to win a trial subscription to The Phoenix comic, and Amanda analyses the first copy to drop through her letterbox. I have to admit to being hopelessly biased here, as my family have been subscribers to The Phoenix from day one and we even keep all our back issues in a special binder (we especially like the very funny Star Cat).

Finally, in what seems to be turning into the "guest post slot", we have a couple of great contributions from Cathy MacPhail and Cliff McNish. Cathy blogged for the edge about handling dark and gritty subjects in teen books, and she's certainly not one to turn away from some incredibly harrowing plotlines. Cliff's piece on deepening characters is structured as an extended conversation between himself and Candy Gourlay, and contains oodles of good stuff. So go read it already!

Nick

---

Nick Cross is a children's writer, blogger and all-round digital guru. In 2010 he was a winner of Undiscovered Voices with his zombie comedy Back from the Dead.
Read Nick's latest blog post, a very serious look at some Common Writing Disorders. And we'll have no sniggering at the back, do you hear?

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 7th May

Tuesday seems to have come around faster than ever this week, thanks to the bank holiday weekend. So pull up a chair, a cup of tea and a biscuit and let's have a look at this week's Blog Break selections.


Fresh from winning the SCBWI Crystal Kite for his debut novel 15 Days Without a Head, Dave Cousins gets a whole week(!) devoted to his new novel Waiting for Gonzo at Space on the Bookshelf. It kicks off with an interview with Dave, who talks about his favourite books and admits to loving the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels (thus winning extra geek points from me). I'm sure that some authors would react to all this attention by growing an enormous ego, but Dave is so self-effacing that he probably wonders what all the fuss is about!

Everyone has their moments of doubt. Let Jane Heinrichs tell you about how "I Almost Gave Up" and why she's glad she persisted. Shana Nieberg-Suschitzky is talking about Undiscovered Voices (as indeed is Words & Pictures) but looking at it specifically from an illustrator's perspective. And I have to give a shout out to Amanda Lillywhite, because I know she gets very excited when she features in the Blog Break! More pertinently, she also wrote a nice post about Free Comic Book Day, which happened last Saturday.

I discovered a wonderful blog this week and then hesitated about whether to include it. On the surface of it, there are lots of reasons why I shouldn't feature Jo Wyton's Let's Get Serious in this Blog Break - she's one of my close friends, she got a mention last week and she blogs for Space on the Bookshelf who got a mention above! But Jo's blog about teen fiction is (much like her) incredibly passionate and enormously likeable. So I'm including it anyway.

Finally, I wanted to take a moment to talk about two SCBWI members called Margaret, who were both remembered in different ways this week. Juliet Clare Bell wrote a beautifully heartfelt post in tribute to her mother Margaret Storr, who died in March this year. And at Sara Grant’s launch for her new YA novel Half Lives, she asked us all to raise a toast to Margaret Carey, to whom the book is dedicated. Both Margarets have a legacy that lives on in their families, their friends and the writing they left behind.

Nick

---

Nick Cross is a children's writer, blogger and all-round digital guru. In 2010 he was a winner of Undiscovered Voices with his zombie comedy Back from the Dead.
Read Nick's latest blog post, a story of grand ambition, serious pressure and major disappointment: How Not to Write the World's Greatest Book.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 30th April

It's been another great week for SCBWI blogging and I've been literally spoilt for choice (What exactly does that phrase mean? Will I start throwing tantrums or smelling like sour milk?). Whatever, there's plenty of good stuff to talk about...


The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has leapt off the page to become an multi-award-winning play. SCBWI blogger Julie Day provides a uniquely well-informed review of the production on the Disability Now website. Well-informed, because Julie herself has Asperger's Syndrome, a condition she shares with the play's protagonist.

Over at Notes from the Slushpile, Jo Wyton has been compiling a very funny list of writers neuroses. It's not an exhaustive list though, because I definitely have some she's missed. Twitch.

Moving into the world of illustration, there's a new artzine on the block. Yes, you might not have known about artzines in the first place, but get with the plan, because Tiny Pencil has arrived! Edited by Katriona Chapman and Undiscovered Voices winner Amber Hsu, Tiny Pencil will be "publishing twice-yearly anthologies showcasing exciting and extraordinary work by artists working in graphite." For more information, check out Katriona's post on Big Little Tales, or read Amanda Lillywhite's review of the first edition.

Elsewhere, I followed a couple of interesting links from the SCBWI-BI Facebook group. Bridget Strevens-Marzo posted a link to an article asking: Are children's books reinforcing materialism?, which sparked off a spirited discussion. Then Teri Terry posted this link to an article on the necessity of suffering for your art, by musician James Rhodes. A lively and provocative read, it nonetheless reminded me why I never want to be a concert pianist!

Nick

---

Nick Cross is a children's writer, blogger and all-round digital guru. In 2010 he featured in Undiscovered Voices with his zombie comedy Back from the Dead, and you can now read his winning extract on his blog.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 9th April

Heavens, has another week gone past? I'm really glad all of our clever Scoobies have been blogging so hard this week, because it gives me plenty to talk about. So without further ado...



In the world of children's writing, we men often feel like an endangered species, so it's good that Mark Jones is joining me to bring up the testosterone levels (a bit). A self-styled Book Monkey, Mark has fearlessly continued his Amazing Writing Advice column this week, covering the tricky subject of book translations and how to do them on the cheap using Babelfish (I can only hope that his rampant xenophobia is meant to be ironic, or I'll have our illustrious Words & Pictures editor chasing me with a very large red pen). Mark's ramshackle advice is both useless and hilarious, and you can read the entire series by clicking here. Look out for the genius idea that is Game of Phones and find some simple but foolproof tips for increasing your word count (sample advice: "Make one of the characters a teenage girl. They never shut up.")

Not content with hogging the limelight a fortnight ago, Sally Poyton is at it again, starting a brand new group blog called Space on the Bookshelf. Together with fellow SCBWI members Jo Wyton and Nicki Thornton, Sally is looking to create a niche in the crowded world of children's book blogging, by offering in-depth coverage on each book via a range of perspectives. The first selection is My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish by SCBWI-BI's very own Mo O'Hara, and it receives reviews by the site bloggers and also by a real live child (who contributes some fetching drawings). In addition, Space on the Bookshelf offers interviews with Mo and her editor at Macmillan Books, as well as an innovative Spotlight on Writing feature that analyses the book from a children's writer's perspective.

In general, writers have been making a lot of noise this week, none more so than Jane McLoughlin (and if you've met her, you'll know that that's not an insult!). Over a couple of posts, Jane has been telling the alternately sad, bizarre and hilarious story of why she stopped writing for five years and how she started again. But our SCBWI illustrators have also been beavering away quietly in the background - our featured illustrator Bridget Strevens-Marzo gives us a whirlwind round-up of her recent projects, Trish Philips shows us step-by-step how she created a stunning mixed media artwork, and Sam Zuppardi (another man, hooray!) has found something very nasty living in the wallpaper.

Elsewhere, it's been a sombre couple of weeks for the arts, with a raft of much-loved people passing away, including brilliant actor Richard Griffiths and quintessential American film critic Roger Ebert. Like many others, I was greatly shocked by the news that author Iain Banks is "officially Very Poorly" with terminal cancer. Banks is one of our greatest living novelists - let's hope this advance notice will give us the chance to celebrate that fact before it's too late.

Nick.

---

Nick Cross is a children's writer, blogger and all-round digital guru. In 2010 he was a winner of Undiscovered Voices with his zombie comedy Back from the Dead.

Read Nick's latest blog post on The Art of Transgression.