Craft and Business Workshops Session Two

Description: Creating books for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers requires a special kind of simplicity, but simple doesn’t mean easy. Drawing on her experience creating more than 40 children’s books with millions of copies in print, author-illustrator Joyce Wan will share how she develops board books and picture books from initial idea to finished book. Joyce will cover age-appropriate concepts, page turns, visual storytelling, character appeal, novelty formats, and the relationship between words and pictures. Participants will work through exercises to strengthen an idea of their own.

Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate

This workshop is best for participants… who are writers, illustrators, or author-illustrators interested in creating books for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.

Prerequisites and Advanced Preparation: Bring a notebook or sketchbook and something to write or draw with. If you have an idea or work in progress for young children, bring a brief description, manuscript, or preliminary sketches to use during the exercises. No completed manuscript or dummy is required.

Description: Revision can admittedly be one of the most daunting parts of the writing process, but it is also one of the most important in getting your work ready for its eventual readers. Taking tips from best-selling and award-winning authors, we'll explore the earliest parts of the revision process, the work you do on your own before anyone else has read the work, and the stages where you begin to receive feedback from others, be it a writing group, an agent, and hopefully, eventually, an editor. Attendees will constructively provide feedback on each other's work with an eye toward learning how to use that feedback to strengthen their work in the way that helps them improve upon, but also stay true to, their work. 

Skill level: Beginner to Advanced

This workshop is best for participants who... are picture book writers or novelists with a completed work they are actively revising. 

Materials: Please bring 3 copies of a completed work that you're willing to share and receive feedback on, be it a full picture book manuscript or a reasonably short chapter (3-4 pages) of a completed longer work as well as a pen and notebook for note taking and any additional exercises. 

Description: In this hands-on class, we’ll explore how visual pacing, page turns, composition, and rhythm shape the storytelling of a picture book. Author/illustrator Selina Alko will share her process for developing a story long before the final artwork begins, including how she uses sketchbooks to discover the characters, settings, mood, and visual language of a book. Selina will demonstrate her unique, tactile approach to creating a handmade book dummy: cutting, pasting, rearranging, and collaging sketches by hand to build the flow of a 32–48-page picture book. Participants will explore how the placement of images, quiet and active moments, changes in scale and perspective, and the rhythm of page turns can create surprise, tension, and momentum. The goal is to learn how stepping back and seeing the entire book as a sequence can help you make stronger storytelling decisions—and to embrace the messy, playful process of physically building a book from the ground up.

Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate

This workshop is beneficial for... writer-illustrators or just Illustrators whether they’re unpublished or published.

Prerequisites and Advanced Preparation: A blank 32-page dummy would be helpful if you want to leave with something tangible. Otherwise, a sketchbook and drawing/collaging materials to play with. And, if you have a manuscript-in-progress, please bring as well.

Description: In this hands-on workshop for illustrators, award winning author/illustrator John Parra invites you to explore what makes your artistic voice uniquely your own. Through examples from his work, John will share how he draws on personal experiences, cultural influences, research, and visual storytelling to create artwork that feels authentic and distinctive. John will discuss his research process and share practical approaches for discovering, developing, and incorporating meaningful personal and cultural elements into your own illustrations. You’ll also get an inside look at his painting process through a live demonstration, followed by an opportunity to try the techniques yourself. Bring your illustration tools, come ready to experiment, and get ready to put your own artistic voice on the page!

Skill Level: All levels

This workshop is best for participants… who are illustrators or author/illustrators looking to create beautiful and meaningful picture books.

Materials List:

• Illustration board (min 10”x13”) (double ply) (pre-gessoed/primed)
• White gesso (Only needed if illustration board is not pre-gessoed/primed)
• Acrylic paints
• Paint brushes
• Artist tape (1”)
• Masking tape (3”)
• X-ACTO knife (#11)
• Hair dryer (small)
• Extension cord
• Sandpaper (60 grit)
• A Xerox copy of your art sketch
• Charcoal pencil & stick
• Water jar
• Paper towels/cleaning rag

(See Description of part one. Participants who register for PART TWO must also register for PART ONE)

Description: The Educational Market is evolving, creating exciting new opportunities for fiction writers! From hi-lo adventures (which pair high-interest stories with accessible text) and novels in verse to illustrated chapter book series and other high-interest fiction, educational publishers are increasingly looking for skilled storytellers who can engage today’s young readers. But where are these opportunities, and how can fiction writers break into the market or expand their reach within it? In this hands-on session, Sandra K. Athans and Mike Downs will explore what editors are looking for now and help participants identify fiction opportunities, develop marketable story concepts, shape characters and voice for specific audiences, and position their work for submission. Using authentic submission examples and successful project proposals, participants will explore how storytelling craft intersects with publisher needs and will begin shaping their own fiction ideas for the market. Along the way, we’ll also take a brief look at traditional nonfiction and other opportunities available to educational writers. Participants will leave with practical resources, an individualized Action Plan, and concrete next steps for building or expanding publishing success in the Educational Market.

Skill Level: All levels, from Pre-published to PAL

This workshop is best for participants…interested in writing original fiction, from early reader and chapter book series to middle grade and young adult novels in verse, hi-lo adventures, and other engaging fiction as well as nonfiction books for the Educational Market. It is also designed for writers seeking their first publishing credits, as well as published writers looking to expand their opportunities and diversify their writing successes.

Prerequisites and Advanced Preparation: None. Participants are encouraged, but not required, to bring a fiction idea they would like to explore during the hands-on activities.

Description: Every book marketing/PR plan should have three major phases: prepublication, launch time, and post publication. In this session, author Eric Rosswood (winner of the 2023 SCBWI Piranha Pit Marketing Competition) will cover the must haves for each phase and discuss creative ways to get people talking about your books throughout the entire process. He’ll cover everything from websites, social media platforms, newsletters, networking, awards, book festivals, school and library opportunities, how to build relationships with indie bookstores, and so much more! Eric will also cover how to identify what works best for your own book, how to come up with creative/unique promotional ideas, and probably the most important, how to avoid burnout. 

Attendees will leave with a better understanding of:

• How to sell the value of their books and themselves
•  How to identify the most effective promotional channels for their book
• How to build author/illustrator visibility
• How to identify collaboration and partnership opportunities 
• How to create their own actionable marketing plan 
• How to avoid common marketing mistakes that waste time and money

This workshop is beneficial for: Published or soon to be published authors and/or illustrators wanting to have a better understanding of marketing and PR in the publishing industry.    

Skill Level: All levels

Prerequisites and Advanced Preparation: No prep needed, but please bring a pen and paper.