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

---

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.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 2nd July

As you know, we try to be as diverse and inclusive as we can on Words & Pictures (and in SCBWI more generally), so I'm pleased to kick off the Blog Break with a couple of great posts dealing with diversity issues.


Candy Gourlay reports back from the Asian Festival of Children's Content in Singapore, highlighting the issue of the disproportionate amount of Western children's literature in Asian markets. The problem, it seems, is partially caused by a lack of confidence amongst Asian authors, one that Candy sums up as follows: "How could I become an author, I used to ask myself, I have never seen myself in the characters and narratives that I have discovered between the pages of a book." Luckily for all of us, Candy gave herself "the permission to write" and the result was Tall Story and the forthcoming Shine.

At the edge, Bryony Pearce has her own take on the thorny issue of racial diversity in fiction. Her new novel The Weight of Souls has an Asian heroine, a choice that Bryony had not considered in the least controversial. Suddenly, people are excited to read the book because of the Asian characters, and Bryony is a little terrified about whether she's done them justice!

Let's move from racial diversity to publishing diversity, because there are several of our bloggers exploring alternatives to traditional publishing at the moment. Lorraine Gregory blogged a two-part summary of a recent Children's Book Circle event on self-publishing here and here. Taking things even further, Larissa Villar Hauser has decided to jump into the world of self-publishing with both feet and document her entire process through a new blog.

Finally, it's time take a closer look at the Fickling family. David Fickling should be very familiar to SCBWI members, having brought his exceptionally loud voice and exceptionally red bow tie to many SCBWI events. But what about his wife Caro and his children Tom, Will and Rosie? Well, they all work together to bring The Phoenix comic to life, and the Guardian conducted a unique interview with them over the weekend, rendered entirely in comic form.

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, in which he explores Creative Frustration. Is frustration always negative, or can it help push us to new creative heights?

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 2nd April

Welcome back to the Ten-Minute Blog Break. I hope you had a good Easter, and the time off has filled you with new ideas, or chocolate, or both!



Talking of ideas, Sara Grant blogged this week at the edge about the value of exploring your "bad" ideas. As she tells it: "I found success as a writer when I stopped worrying about looking stupid." I've taken this advice to heart and am writing this article in a clown suit while painting my head blue. Fame and fortune here I come!

I wanted to throw a spotlight on Amanda Lillywhite this week. As you may know, Amanda will be launching her webcomic Duck and Bear this coming Friday 5th April, exclusively on Words & Pictures. If you can't wait until then, you can find a sneak preview on her Tumblr blog, or follow the misadventures of Duck and Bear on Twitter. But there really is no end to Amanda's talents, because she's also started a new blog called Sequential Art, exploring "graphic novels, comics and online sequential art." The world of comics (especially indie comics) can be a bewildering place for the uninitiated, and Amanda is doing a great job of introducing it. Her posts on Sequential Art are honest, informative and rooted in her own emotional response to the work in question.

There's been a bit of a self-reflective theme this week (which Jan picked up in yesterday's editorial), as writers ponder the nature of the creative urge and what success might look like for them. Candy Gourlay has started a new book (hooray!), Kathy Evans can't stop writing and blames Stephen King (!), Lorraine Gregory wonders whether it's possible to satisfy herself and the market. To these, I'd like to add a story I spotted in The Guardian - what happens if you spend your whole life seeking artistic recognition, but it never comes? Felicia Bromfield tells the bitter-sweet story of My Dad, The Next Big Thing.

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 - The Price is Write - on the subject of investing in your writing.