Reasons to be Cheerful

For ages we've been hearing that we're in a very tough market, people who might have been snapped up ten years ago, are very much unsnapped in 2014. But this week there were three pieces of news that declared loud and clear that children's books is where it's at.

 1  'Almost All the Books People Say Influenced Them Were Written for Children' 

… says Mother Jones, based on the findings of a recent Facebook status update.  It's a high calling to write for younger readers. To inspire, encourage to aspire,  and potentially to turn non readers into readers all bear the weight of responsibility. Young minds are not referred to as 'formative' for nothing. Harry P. came out as most influential and I'm pleased; JKR turned my children into readers.

2 'Young read more books than older generation, research finds'

…says The Guardian from data compiled by Pew Research Internet Project. The young in question are young Americans but it's fair to assume that we may find the same in the UK. Young people also prefer print books. They've grown up with digital and according to some young people I know, it's boring. If they're on a device it's more likely to be a phone or a tablet rather than a kindle. Only yesterday my youngest daughter (19yrs) was in the garden with two of her friends poring over her new smartphone and an old suitcase…of books.

3 'Children's market 10% up on 2013'

…says The Bookseller about the children's market in the UK, making it the fastest growing book sector.  Charlotte Eyre, children's editor at The Bookseller, says 'if the market stays more than 10% ahead of last year’s figures, it is projected to be worth £337m in 2014—the best year the children’s sector will have had since BookScan records began in 1998.'

I'm all smiles.

It's Saturday morning and in an hour's time I'm heading off to The Primary School Visits MasterClass, launching my efforts to get out there as per last Sunday. So here's a quick run down of last week, all beginning with A for Amazing!

• Amber Caraveo - her and Joanna Moult are launching Skylark Literary in November and you can get a heads up on what rocks Amber's world by listening here.
• Apps are where it's at too; in the month of motivation and challenge Helen Dineen turns the challenge of digital on its head - can apps inspire print picture books?
• And we have a flying pig! I love flying pigs, they're so …. unexpected. However it's no surprise that illustrator Anna Violet's work is well out there; it's so much fun. Take a look at her gallery here and see for yourself.
• Anita Loughrey hits the headlines, today for me, yesterday for you. I love the fact that SCBWI Super Volunteer Anita has outgrown her bookcase. Inspirational, worthy of some great big cheers and perhaps a cocktail or two!

Next week you can look forward to some more of Catriona's proofreading tips, more brilliant blog choices from Nick, revisiting Philippa's inspiration published a week early last Monday (very easy to do believe me) and on Friday, particularly for illustrators, Helz Cuppleditch on branding & licensing.

(Lovely to see everyone at  Jane Clarke's excellent primary school visits masterclass today - thank you Jane. I came away enthused. Great to catch some of Anita's last BookBench hunt; I hope the margaritas were all you wished for!)

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.

Reasons to join SCBWI (part 3)

This week The Bookseller announced a new competition to write a short think piece about what it really means to publish now that anyone can do it. We can all turn into published authors in as much time as it takes to find our IBAN number but the drift and blurring of roles is now working in other directions too.


The next in the SCWBI's London Professional Series: Poacher turned Gamekeeper, is dedicated to those publishing professionals who moonlight as writers. Non Pratt, Robin Stevens and Phil Earle will all talk about their double lives on Tuesday 5th November. If you want to find out more about the panellists Space on the Bookshelf has pre-interviewed all three and Robin has already blogged here.

You might think that publishing pros joining very marketable celebrities in writerdom is just a tad unreasonable. What's the poor pre-published writer without an equity card or a key to the executive washroom at Random House to do? We could feel a little aggrieved but this only goes to justify the existence of organisations like Book Bound, whose launch we celebrated yesterday. If a writer or an illustrator can afford to pay for specific professional guidance, this is a very efficient way to raise the quality of your work above the slush pile and the mass of self-published material.

Of course another way is come to the next, very affordable, SCBWI London Professional Series event, Poacher turned Gamekeeper. And yet two other excellent ways are to join SCBWI and read all the useful posts in Words & Pictures!

This week's useful posts included an Agent Confidential with Bryony Woods, and an illuminating list of easily confused words, false friends, from proofreader Catriona Tippin. Catriona will be with us again in the new year with a series of monthly proofreading posts - they will definitely be worth bookmarking.

Just for you, Layn

On Friday, Mike Brownlow started a very interesting discussion on Anthropomorphism in picture books.
I love these posts that inspire equally interesting comments and ace lines like "I'd hate to think I'll never see another chicken with a handbag." Thank you Layn Marlow!

And if you needed another reminder about the value and usefulness of SCBWI events read David's report on Tips from the Professionals also posted this week.

Next week, Gemma and Molly are back with Ask an Agent, there's inspiration from K.M. Lockwood and coming soon, we hope that a profile of a very special book-loving child, with autism and learning difficulties, will help us creators make reading even more pleasurable for children and young people with complex needs.

And did you see? The Blog Break is 30 weeks young! Congratulations, Nick, on bringing such an indispensable column to maturity. So of course that means Words & Pictures is mature too, hurray!

Happy 31st week everyone,

Jan Carr

P.S. Don't forget your entry for the Slush Pile Challenge. Closing date 31st October.

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