Karen Sandler

Category: Conference Wisdom

  • What Should a Writer’s Conference Be?

    NY Street2sHaving just returned from the SCBWI winter conference in NY, I started pondering what the best format for an annual writer’s conference should be. Then it occurred to me that there may not be a “best.” Partly because the attendees are always at different stages in their careers:

    • thinking about becoming an author
    • starting a first book
    • crying out to the gods as they battle with a saggy middle
    • in the middle of revisions with a finished book
    • querying agents/editors with a polished book
    • agents/editors are requesting (yay!)
    • first sale!
    • multi-sales
    • a legend in the business

    There might be some other stages, but this covers a goodly portion. The thing is, each of these authors/writers require something different from a conference. For the first several stages, workshops on craft (plotting, characterization, beginnings, middles, and ends, turning points, dark moments, using compelling language, cutting out the fat, etc) are ideal. The hands-on type are especially useful, where the writers can walk out with something they created during a workshop. They also need inspiration from published authors, whether the old hands or the ones celebrating their first sale.

    As we get into the group with a truly polished manuscript, workshops on query letters would be great, as well as that all important opportunity to meet agents/editors and get an invitation to submit. The chance to find out what editor is looking for what is invaluable for someone with a manuscript ready to go. The craft workshops are probably still valuable for those in this category.

    Those craft workshops might also be useful for those who have made a first sale. From experience, writing one salable book and getting a contract for it does not mean the writer knows everything there is to know about writing. Some tips on how to continually improve are welcome. After all, you have to sell that second and subsequent books.

    For multi-published authors, a view into trends is somewhat useful, although we all know we shouldn’t write to trends. Workshops on the business side of things–contracts, tax issues, avoiding burnout, etc.–are more welcome than how to write a compelling character. It’s not so much that a multi-published author knows everything, but that the most commonly presented material in craft workshops these folks have already heard again and again. In fact, they could present those workshops.

    As to the legends, they would be giving those inspiring keynotes. They might not want to wade into the masses every day of the conference (too exhausting), but sometimes it’s really nice to just be with people who understand you, so I would think that would be a draw for the legendary authors amongst us.

    The organization that I think does the best job of presenting a well-rounded conference, one that covers the most stages of a writer’s career, is Romance Writers of America. They do a real whizbang job of it. It’s fairly expensive, especially if you’re not a member, and some of the workshops will be romance-specific. But there are plenty that are generic enough any genre could get value from them.

    So, what do you think? What would your ideal conference be like?

  • RTW – Writing Books & Writing Advice

    This week,  YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks us to Share your most inspiring and/or motivational video, book, or quote on writing. All those NaNoWriMo participants out there nearing November’s half-way point could probably use an extra push toward the finish line.

    I have not read very many “inspirational” writing books. Back when I was just starting out, I tended to buy the nuts-and-bolts how-to books, read partway through, or just bits and pieces, then set them aside. I did read The Elements of Style (by William Strunk & E.B. White) cover to cover many years ago (it’s a real hoot), and back in 2000, I devoured Stephen King’s On Writing. I highly recommend both of those.

    There are a couple of inspirational/how-to-write books that most people rave about, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and Story by Robert McKee, that I started but couldn’t finish. I’m a severe plotter who does lots of advance prep. Then when I finally start chapter 1, I switch gears and become a very instinctual writer. Lamott’s and McKee’s books just made my eyes glaze over. However, many, many people have recommended these books, so I’m sure they have much of value in them. Just not for me.

    Now on to some writing advice. The first is from romance goddess Nora Roberts, and came to me via a talk given by the incomparable romance author, Anne Stuart. Back when I was writing romance, I belonged to Romance Writers of America, and Anne came to speak to our local chapter. She quoted something Nora Roberts had said: I can fix a written page. I can’t fix a blank page. This one piece of advice has pushed me through book after book, shutting up the little editor in my head with the clear knowledge that I can fix it later. Nothing is set in stone. Nora said so.

    As a companion bit of advice, Anne herself said something that night that has bolstered me many times when I have struggled to write even one page, when the words sit sullenly at the back of my head and refuse to step into the light. Anne said (and I paraphrase here), If you look the pages that were like pulling teeth to write and compare them to the pages that just flowed easily and beautifully, you won’t be able to tell the difference between them. In other words, even though you’re certain that pages you struggle to write are awful crap, they’re not. They’re just as good as those breeze-to-write pages and just as ready to be “fixed” as advised by Nora.

    If I may, one bit of my own advice. As I mentioned, neither Bird by Bird nor Story resonated with me. By the time they came along, I already had a methodology that worked. I’ve tweaked my writing method over the years, but the basic system has remained the same.

    If you’re just starting out as a writer and checking out various methods/structures to find what works, that’s great. But every writer is different. Some things you try will not work for you. Other methods that you find are perfect for you won’t work for others. Never judge yourself because you’re, for instance, a pantser, when everyone else in your critique group insists you should always plot first. Don’t freak out when you go to a conference workshop and the speaker tells you about a work style that doesn’t sync with yours. You’re not necessarily doing it wrong just because you’re doing it differently. The only real must is to continually improve the quality of your writing and storytelling.

    So how about you? What books or advice have inspired you?

  • #LA12SCBWI – Day 3

    A day that started great, including a killer chocolate mousse for lunch dessert, then got a little weird on the way home (an accident that trapped me and hundreds of other motorists for an hour on Highway 99). The conference part of things was fab, though. I took notes at the agent panel and the social networking workshop. Because of our 7 hour drive home (which turned into 8 due to the accident), my son and I left during the awards lunch. But here’s what I did see:

    Alongside moderator Lin Oliver (LO), far left, our agent panel included (l to r), Jill Corcoran (JC) from the Herman Agency, Deborah Warren (DW) from East West Literary Agency, Linda Pratt (LP) from Warnick & Pratt, and Josh Adams (JA) from Adams Literary. They all gave out submission information (which can be found on their website), and an overview of what they represent. The intros were followed by a Q&A period where Lin asked the questions. Refer to the agents’ initials to figure out who’s answering.

    • LO – What path would you recommend for unpublished authors?
    • JA – Be passionate, dedicate yourself to your craft, work on your voice, attend conferences, read a lot, know your audience, tell your story
    • LP – Realize your drive to create, then step into the business of publishing, learn how to query, who might be a good match for you, finish the book! If you get stuck on selling one project, move on to the next project
    • JA – Submit when you’re ready. Don’t be in such a hurry. Really do your homework, wait until you’re really ready. It needs to be highly polished. Do have a literary agent. Find a voice in an agent who will be an advocate for you
    • LP – find your own process, trust your voice
    • JC – Advice from when she did product marketing: to sell-through, you need to have a fabulous idea. Some folks don’t even read books. Come up with five concepts that you love and figure out the best one, look at the comp (comparable) books to make sure yours is different so you can say these are the comp books and this is how mine is different
    • LO – Comment on what you consider to be the strengths of the marketplace and where opportunities are for published & unpublished authors
    • JC – Re: dystopian, editors have so many, those books could compete with one another within the same house. But if yours is different, it could be marketed differently. Take your book with an overdone theme and change the setting/trope. (she jokingly said, Add a cyclops!)
    • LO – you can get rejected just because there’s no place for a book in a publisher’s list
    • JA – no call for cyclops books (in response to Jill). They look for timeless stories, want original voices, not derivative. The question isn’t can we sell it, but do we love it. If we love it, we will find a way. PB (picture books) have been a challenge but still there have been a lot coming out. Need character-driven PB. In MG & YA (middle grade and young adult), you need both literary & high concept, something beyond the stock characters.
    • DW – regarding chasing trends, when you sell your novel, you’ll work on it with an editor 6 mos-year, then the publisher needs 14 mos for marketing. Which means the trend will have passed.
    • JA – write the best book you can
    • DW – Be aware of the digital space, creating content for it, publishers are particularly interested in author/illustrators
    • LO – How is what’s expected of a creative person different now than before
    • JA – so many more demands, authors can’t just sit and write, need to be plugged in on social media, promote, go to school visits, esp. for series fiction, some authors are shy, but they have to find a way to promote their books
    • JC – you have to be marketing and writing. Writing comes first. Some authors are writing 2 books a year.
    • LP – Your sales track, Bookscan has only 70-75% of the total sales (some agents felt it was a much smaller percentage), but everybody looks at it, you have to be more pragmatic about that first book
    • JA – Publishing houses aren’t being as patient with a first book. When they speak to an author they love, they want to know what the author is interested in writing next.
    • LP – She has recently been in the position where a client did okay with first two tween books, went to another house for a third (completely different) book
    • JA – It’s sometimes easier to be a debut, tough for an author who has modest sales. You need to have realistic expectations
    • LO – It goes back to being marketers for our book, some mid-list authors being asked to publish a new book under a pseudonym
    • JC – Jill had a problem with the above (publishing under a pseudonym), but the author didn’t have that issue. She just considered it a professional choice.
    • LO – what are common mistakes that you see people doing, pitfalls to be avoided (e.g., writing a book, then sitting back on their laurels)
    • DW – There’s a strategy, an agent can help, placing your second book is just as important as your first book. Illustrators—there’s been a focus on finding any job rather than the one that’s best for your career
    • JC – Illustrators need to make career decisions, even authors will do write-for-hire and not get their own books done
    • JA – you need to be professional, worst thing a client can do is close possibilities by doing things that impact your career
    • JC –  There have been people she didn’t take on as clients, they were not behaving well online, e.g., they were dissing editors. Untag yourself from incriminating photos. Why do we have to say everything we feel online?
    • LO – Is this the highest and best use of your time — we should be earning money
    • JA – historically the advance was living expenses for the year you work. Yes you can expect $ but don’t do it for the money.

    I had to leave the agent panel early, so I’m afraid I might have missed some good stuff on money.

    After the agent panel, in my morning workshop, Greg Fishbone (Galaxy Games), Jay Asher (13 Reasons Why), and Greg Neri (Yummy, Ghetto Cowboy) shared secrets of social networking in The Class of 2K7. “The Class of” was a concept developed for debut authors to team up for promotional purposes. In the case of 2K7, these were authors whose first book came out in 2007. Others have carried on the concept, each group branding themselves uniquely.

    I didn’t always note who said what, but here are some rough notes:

    • Social networking before the book comes out improves pre-sales (Jay)
    • We can’t all be John Green
    • You can’t do every social networking opportunity
    • Branding is important (various messages for the 2k debut authors)
    • Some of the power is not just social networking with the outside world, but with your group such as SCBWI
    • Do group tours
    • After that year experience (with Class of 2K7), how would they grow as individuals
    • Talking about online presence, how do you use your website
    • Greg N’s is a one-stop shop
    • Jay has a blog on Blogger rather than a website, uses tabs to offer additional info
    • Greg Fishbone has multiple sites
    • You need to control the Google search as much as you can so people can get the information about who you are before someone else pigeonholes you
    • When you craft your answer to interviews, craft them carefully
    • In interviews, Jay gives one answer that isn’t really true (e.g., 13 Reasons Why pop-up book)
    • You may need to change your image (from penguins to SF in Greg Fishbone’s case). His Galaxy Games site is space oriented
    • Watch your image, but really be yourself, the Internet is forever
    • Be aware of your online presence, of how people perceive you
    • How you talk about your books online can sound like you’re bragging, or being pushy
    • Publisher wanted Jay to every day do something to promote, but he wasn’t comfortable with what the publisher wanted him to do. So he tweaked it to be more comfortable with the suggestion.
    • Don’t be afraid to try something new
    • Differences between marketing YA and MG: YA you can go directly to the reader, but MG there are usually gatekeepers like teachers and librarians

  • #LA12SCBWI – Day 2

    My impressions of the second day of the annual SCBWI summer conference. Rough notes from five of the keynotes/workshops I attended.

    Karen Cushman talked about how writing rules often contradict one another, so we should either ignore rules or write our own. Let your writing surprise you, “oonch” that extra something to the surface in your manuscript. Be honest with your readers, emotionally as well as factually.

    The editors panel featured (left to right) Jordan Brown (Walden Pond Press and Balzer + Bray), Elise Howard (Algonquin), Neal Porter (Roaring Brook Press), Farrin Jacobs (HarperCollins Children’s), Tamar Brazis (Abrams), and Laura Godwin (Henry Holt), with Lin Oliver moderating. Their presentation covered voice (during which Farrin admonished us not to be “too voicey”), what the most positive attributes the editors found in their most successful authors (a unanimous vote for flexibility and professionalism), the climate for children’s books (generally positive, even regards the printed book), characteristics that make a book or story enduring (core stories/experiences, universal themes), and the one thing each editor would tell the audience they should and should not do (finish the book! and please yourself rather than following trends (but be aware of the market too)).

    Illustrator Bryan Collier gave a moving inspirational keynote about dreams being seeds for our aspirations. He described how he saw things no one else saw, how words sounded different to him. His dream took 7 years of pavement pounding to come to fruition, but his persistence paid off. He also told us about how the book Dave the Potter, a gorgeous picture book about a slave potter who made 40,000 pots in his life, came to be.

    Ruben Pfeffer’s talk, Digital You, gave us a overview of where digital is today and where it might be going. It’s certainly a trend (e-books, enhanced e-books and apps) that will continue to evolve. He presented 7 macro trends, including the explosion of the children’s/YA e-book market (an increase of 475% from Jan 2011 to Jan 2012) and the exciting (frightening to some?) reality that new technology will create new content.

    Finally, Christina Diaz Gonzalez presented her talk on writing multi-culturally. Every culture/ethnicity has insiders and outsiders. While one doesn’t have to be an insider to write a multi-cultural story, outsiders must research to be accurate. More publishers are showing interest in multi-cultural books, in large part because we are at a tipping point where more than 50% of those born in the U.S. are non-white (they’re Hispanic, Black, Asian, and other non-white ethnicities). That multi-cultural market is growing.

  • #LA12SCBWI – Day 1

    Here are my impressions of the first day of the SCBWI annual summer conference. Kind of quick and dirty.

    First, the Arthur Levine keynote in which he discussed timelessness this way: When a story captures a moment of intimacy between characters. He then related a history of books he’s published over the years, demonstrating along the way how various authors have created those timeless stories.

    A couple great quotes: “Great writers use anticipation rather than surprise.” “Think only of the wire and crossing to the end.” His description of how Philip Pullman achieved timelessness with The Golden Compass: he created his marvelous world, then put it in danger. Also, Pullman created connections between characters, between the reader and the characters, between the author and the reader.

    Next, Tony Diterlizzi’s keynote, in which he admonished us to never abandon imagination. He asked, What do you wish existed in the world? Can you create it?

    Notes from Jordan Brown from Walden Pond Press

    • Publishes strictly middle grade
    • Editorial process:
      • Likes to have two drafts to completion
      • Tells the author, Here’s what I think the book is about.
      • Figures out the most important parts of the book
      • Makes sure the book is telling that story
      • Sometimes tough to figure out when the book is done
      • Once it’s finished, time to package (marketing, design (int. & ext.))
      • Text/content, author has final say
      • But cover, paper, etc, editor/house has to have that decision
      • Marketing—people have to be aware of the book (worst thing if people don’t know about it)
      • Main focus for marketing efforts goes into social media, the most immediate way to make a connection between author and reader
      • If you don’t like social media networking, you’re not going to be good at it.
      • But it is an advantage if a writer can do it. That’s where the readers and gatekeepers (librarians & teachers) are.
      • Have almost completely stopped author websites in-house. Much more effective to work in places where readers already are.
      • What he’d like to see:
        • History that isn’t trying to teach me anything (i.e., a story set in a historical setting that doesn’t seem historical
        • Dystopia for MG
        • Sports story (or rather a book that uses sports)
        • SF for non-SF fans
        • Alternate history
        • Darkly comic contemporary religious
        • Stories that present something new to an 8-10 yo probably would self-censor.
        • It sometimes makes a book more attractive if there’s not anything else out there like it.

         

        Finally, Ruben Pfeffer on the Symbiotic Relationship of Agent and Client

        •  If an agent submits a book, you can assume it’s well-written, but it’s often still rejected
        • Sometimes with the rejection the author will get nice comments such as “didn’t connect” or “similar to something else on our list”
        • Sometimes it will connect with someone, but it will also be rejected by someone else
        • Helps if the agent has a handle on what particular pubs/editors look for
        • It’s a matchmaking process
        • It all depends on story, no matter the age level
        • Any missing elements, such as lack of knowledge of the audience, lack of creativity can kill the deal
        • He also detailed the submission process:
          • Editor
          • editors/designer/art
          • director
          • publisher
          • Acquisition Team
          • Sales
          • Marketing
          • Design
          • Rights
          • Production
          • Finance