ACORN
July Edition, 2012
Welcome to the July issue of THE ACORN. Theme: Marketing Gems from the Spring Spirit Conference (part 2).
In this issue:
1. Bonjour! A note from the editorial desk
2. Author/Illustrator LeUyen Pham: Breaking into the Biz, by Marsha Sylvester
3. SCBWI Founder Lin Oliver: Creating a Successful Series, by Marsha Sylvester
4. Author Bitsy Kemper: Marketing Think tank, by Elizabeth Jones
5. Literary Agent Kendra Marcus: Contracts & Negotiations, by Elizabeth Jones
6. Lin Oliver’s Keynote Speech (part 2): Waste Not, by Carol Peterson
7. Lin Oliver’s Series: Journaling the Creative Life, by Carol Peterson
8. Picture First Pages with Literary Agents Kendra Marcus and Minju Chang, by Dawn Lairamore
9. Good News/Announcements
10. New Submission Guidelines
1. Bonjour! A note from the editorial desk
By Beth Hull
Greetings! Beth here, the new co-editor. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be working on the ACORN with Nathalie. As I write this, she and I are brainstorming talking points for a meeting tomorrow to discuss future plans and improvements for the ACORN. We’ve been poring over newsletters from other regions for inspiration and it’s been a blast!
If that isn’t foreshadowing enough for you, let me say it plainly: expect some changes to the ACORN over the next few months. Don’t worry, the basics will remain the same: inspirational and informative articles written by and featuring you, the writers and illustrators of the California North/Central region!
Best wishes,
Beth and Nathalie
2. Author/Illustrator LeUyen Pham: Breaking into the Biz
By Marsha Sylvester
LeUyen Pham is the illustrator and author of “Big Sister, Little Sister” and “All The Things I Love About You.” Ms. Pham has illustrated many books such as, “God’s Dream,” written by Desmond Tutu, “Grace for President” written by Kelly DiPucchio and the soon to be released “Vampirina Ballerina” written by Anne Marie Pace.
Ms. Pham shared many helpful suggestions for illustrators ready to market their work.
Indeed, a successful beginning freelance artist must set funds aside for promotional materials, equipment and living expenses. Paying off debt in a timely manner is an important factor for your fledging business.
Experience working with various employers will give illustrators insight into the craft, even if said employment is not exactly what they are looking for.
In addition, preparation of a business plan should start months in advance. Marketing strategies include the creation of a website to show your work and a logo design for business letterheads and cards. The creation of postcards and tear sheets to display your art is also a good marketing strategy.
Last but not least, sketchbooks are good conversation openers when beginning interviews. A well thought out portfolio is vital for a successful illustrator. It is important an artist design his or her portfolio to reflect the genre it represents. For example, a portfolio in the style of a picture book and bound as such will leave a positive impression with children’s editors. A current list of contacts is vitally important for your business. It is imperative prospective employers remember your work. Small story booklets sent to editors are great memory aids and not easily filed away and forgotten.
Overall, Ms. Pham emphasized the ongoing need to improve skills in draftsmanship, painting and computer graphics. Display a consistent quality of images and atmosphere. Be aware of needed changes in your style to keep up with the times.
3. SCBWI Founder Lin Oliver: Creating a Successful Series
By Marsha Sylvester
Not only is Lin Oliver the current executive director of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, but she also co-founded SCBWI in 1971 along with Stephen Mooser. Lin Oliver is the author of many children’s books, including the popular Daniel Funk series. She also co-authors the hilarious Hank Zipzer series.
A successful series can be both satisfying and challenging. Of utmost importance is the need to do extensive research for a proposed series. Find out what children and young adults really enjoy reading. Watch children and teen TV shows and movies. Read magazines targeted for the age group in which you are interested. Get inside their heads and have fun!
Focus on each character in your story. Give all of your characters a detailed biography and a unique voice. Decide if your series will be a high concept, a medium concept or a low concept, character driven series.
Know your characters and story goals. Ms. Oliver stressed a well-designed, specific proposal to editors and agents. It should be thought-out carefully, implementing several important points. Among them are: a strong story premise with a hook, a well thought out overview of the story, detailed character interaction, a brief summary of the stories in the series and about three sample chapters. Create a marketing pitch to convince an agent or an editor that your series will sell copies to an audience who will love it.
Marsha Sylvester’s love of books and writing grew as she developed a children’s collection while working as a librarian. She promoted early literacy, implementing story time and summer reading programs. Presently, she is working on an early reader series. She also has a middle grade fiction in the works.
4. Author Bitsy Kemper: Marketing Think tank
By Elizabeth Jones
Bitsy Kemper is well known from CNN to Radio to Magazines. She has written 24 books with four published, including the popular “Writing Children’s Books for Dummies.”
She is so alive and energetic that it was easy to see how she does all of the above and more in her workshop. We had no time to be bored as she managed the panel of local experts. The members were Judy Green, Chelsea Couillard, Margaret Andrews, and Peter Morgan.
Branding was discussed. The biggest thought on that was not to brand your book: instead you are your own brand. Come up with a logo, slogan, brand expectations, memories, and stories. A logo identifies a brand. It's a promise to customers of quality and consistency.
One of the places you want your book is the library. Send a copy of your book to librarians. If they like it, they will order more than one, sometimes as many as fifty for a popular book. Volunteer in public libraries as well as school libraries. Also, work to get good reviews by bloggers, interviews, etc... Be sure to do newspaper reviews. When filling out forms, make sure everything is spelled correctly, especially your name.
There was much more information. This was a workshop well worth attending.
5. Literary Agent Kendra Marcus: Contracts & Negotiations
By Elizabeth Jones
Kendra Marcus started BookStop Literary Agency in 1984, and it is now one of the most well known and respected agencies for children’s book authors and illustrators. Her passion shone as she talked about loving what she does and doing it well.
Kendra Marcus discussed Contracts and Negotiations starting with a wake-up sentence, “Publishing (as we’ve known it) is going away,” under the influence of the eBook and the media; authors must use them to promote their books.
Kendra Marcus defined and explained contracts— an agreement between two or more people regarding property and the rights an author wants to hold on to. She said the eBook rights are a deal breaker. She then discussed the pitfalls of a writer trying to negotiate his or her own contracts. Kendra Marcus talked about deadlines, advances, and royalties. With the royalties, you want to make sure you have a detail clause to find out how many are returned for lack of sales, for damage, etc.
Kendra Marcus shared much more. To summarize what I gleaned from her workshop – “Let the professionals handle it!”
6. Lin Oliver’s Keynote Speech (part 2): Waste Not
By Carol Peterson
Lin Oliver’s keynote speech at the Spring SCBWI conference included flashes of insight. Her writing tip from Sid Fleishmann was one of those: In writing, nothing is wasted but the paper.
It’s painful to delete words, scenes, characters, stories. How can we? They’re perfect. Brilliant. Loved.
So maybe they’re not perfect or brilliant. But still we love them and when we hit the delete key, it feels like murder, even though every word or every project may not be the right word or project.
The wonderful thing about writing is that we have an endless supply of words and ideas. Sometimes we have to write the lack-luster words and ideas to release them from our heads. To make room for the brilliant words and ideas.
We must also acknowledge our learning curve. Sometimes the stories we write are brilliant for our skill at the time we write them. They still may be unmarketable, but they are brilliant because of what we learn by writing them. And, if we save those less-than-brilliant stories until our writing is brilliant, maybe we can polish them up until they, too, shine.
Even the stories that will never shine can be kept tucked away in a cozy computer file. We can take them out and whisper softly. “I love you because of what I learned from writing you and because you show me how much I’ve grown as a writer.”
Then—when you’re giving your Newberry acceptance speech—you can drag those stories out as examples of the biggest mistakes you’ve made in writing.
Personally, I have plenty of examples.
7. Lin Oliver’s Series: Journaling the Creative Life
By Carol Peterson
Whenever an artist friend shares her journal with me, I am awed at the slips and slices of creativity captured inside. I routinely force my characters to keep journals so I can spy on them.
But do I keep a bound journal? Nope.
Yet this was one of Lin Oliver’s pieces of advice for writers in her keynote speech at the Spring Spirit conference last month.
For many writers, blogging has become a way to journal their lives as creative people; to engage with the world; to enjoy the process and share that joy with others. The word blog is a shortened version of the original phrase: web log. A blog is a log—or journal—you keep on the web. And share with the world.
In the movie Contagion, Jude Law asserts that he is a writer. Elliott Gould’s character responds, “Blogging is just graffiti with punctuation.”
Ouch. Unfortunately it’s sometimes true. Even for moi.
Then again, not everything you write in a bound journal will be the stuff of great literature either. It’s not meant to be. We journal partly for the purpose of finding ourselves, and partly to explore ways to share our findings with the world.
Do you keep a journal? Do you blog? How do you journal your creative life and share your joy with others?
Carol Peterson’s goal in writing is to “make learning fun” with teacher resource books published through Teacher Ideas Press. She also writes middle grade and YA novels and edits an online magazine for young women. Find her at: FromCarolsQuill.blogspot.com; CarolPetersonAuthor.com.
8. Picture First Pages with Literary Agents Kendra Marcus and Minju Chang
By Dawn Lairamore
Kendra Marcus and Minju Chang from Bookstop Literary Agency presided over Picture Book First Pages. Note: For good measure, there were a few non-fiction and chapter book first pages stirred into the mix.
This year's first pages included stories about sea creatures, spiders, young dancers, and for some reason, an inordinately large number of roosters. Even Kendra commented on how many feathered friends put in an appearance. Kendra and Minju commented about what worked for them and what didn't, always emphasizing that the most successful first pages were the ones that made them want to read on to the second.
An extra big thanks to Kendra and Minju for providing feedback on every single first page submitted. Even though there was a fair number, everyone who submitted received a critique!
Dawn Lairamore is the author of two middle-grade novels, “Ivy's Ever After” (a 2011 Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year), and the sequel, “Ivy and the Meanstalk.” You can read chapters from both books at www.dawnbooks.com.
9. GOOD NEWS/ANNOUNCEMENTS
Congratulations to our fellow writers and illustrators for their accomplishments:
SCBWI North/Central CA
Congratulations to Melissa Abramovitz on the release of the following titles: ABCs of Health and Safety (picture book, Guardian Angel Publishing, June 2012), Stem Cells (Lucent Books, June 2012), Organ Transplants (Lucent Books, June 2012), Bipolar Disorder (Lucent Books, June 2012), and The 100th Day of School (Capstone Press, July 2012).
Part of the Goosebottom Books series, The Thinking Girl's Treasury of Real Princesses, Natasha Yim (Otto's Rainy Day, Charlesbridge Publishing, 2000; Cixi, The Dragon Empress, Goosebottom Books, 2011) new title, Sacajawea of the Shoshone (Goosebottom Books) for kids 9 - 13, will be released in October 2012. Her upcoming picture book Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas was recently sold by Karen Grencik of Red Fox LIterary to Alyssa Pusey at Charlesbridge Publishing and will be released in January, 2014. It will be illustrated by Grace Zong.
Natasha will also be reading/presenting from Sacajawea of the Shoshone on the children's stage at the Sonoma County Book Festival on September 22.
Congratulations, Natasha!
10. New Submission Guidelines
Do you have good news to share? A title being released soon? A book signing this summer? Let us know about it!
Email your articles to Beth Hull and Nathalie Mvondo at acornnewsletter@gmail.com
All newsletter entries must be 300-500 words. Writers are invited to include a brief bio, 2 to 3 sentences long, at the end of their submissions, including recent work and web address. Please, add the title of your article in the Subject Line of your email.
Contributors are automatically entered in a drawing for a chance to win a 50% discount for the 2013 Spring Spirit Conference.
We thank you in advance for sharing your creative journey with your fellow writers and illustrators.
This concludes our newsletter. Wishing July to be our community’s most creative month yet. :)
Cheers,
Beth and Nathalie