Join us for a CA North-Central PAL Pro Event
Agents: The Good, The Bad, and The Lovely
Saturday, November 4, 2023 12:00 - 3:00 pm
Arden-Dimick Library, 891 Watt Ave, Sacramento, CA 95864
Registration required beginning Saturday, October 7th. Price: Free
Do you think about getting an agent? Do you wonder what an agent can and cannot do for you or how to work with one at all? Or maybe you already have an agent, but you are interested to find out how other agents work?
Come spend the afternoon with four traditionally published authors to discuss finding, getting, keeping, and working with agents. We’ll explore ideas about how to look for, query, and vet agents, and discuss red flags and other issues to avoid. We will also spend plenty of time answering your burning questions related to agents with the hopes that you’ll leave our session with a better idea of what a successful, nurturing agent-author relationship can look like, as well as some concrete ideas of what your next steps can be on your own journey. Space is limited to 50 attendees so register early!
Please bring: Your own drinks and snacks A laptop Your books or publicity materials for the brag table
Raffle: A variety of prizes, including critiques, consultations, and a coupon for free admission to a future SCBWI North-Central event, will be raffled off. Tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20.
Notes about the venue: Parking is available on-site, but you may have to use side-street parking. Please consider carpooling.
Faculty:
JaNay Brown-Wood, PhD, is an award-winning children’s author, poet, educator, and scholar. Her first children’s book Imani’s Moon won the NAESP Children’s Book of the Year Award and was featured on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show and Storytime with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and her second book Grandma’s Tiny House: A Counting Story! received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and won the CELI Read Aloud Book Award. JaNay is also the author of the popular picture book series Where in the Garden (Peachtree Publishing), four Chicken Soup for the Soul Babies/Kids books, Crayola’s Follow That Line! Magic at Your Fingertips (Running Press Kids, 2022), the Harriet Tubman Little Golden Book Biography, the Simone Biles Little Golden Book Biography, and the New York Times Bestselling book Why Not You? (Penguin/Random House) which she collaborated with Ciara and Russell Wilson. She has many more books both published and forthcoming including more titles in her chapter book series Love Puppies (Scholastic, 2023-2024), Jam, Too (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Random House, 2024), and Mahogany (Charlesbridge, 2024). You can learn more about her at www.janaybrownwood.com.
Connie Goldsmith has been the first reader for a well-known children's agent for more than five years, reading MG and YA fiction and nonfiction. Connie is finishing her 28th nonfiction book for Lerner Publishing’s imprint for teens, Twenty-First Century Books. Her books have won an SCBWI Crystal Kite award and an SCBWI work in progress grant. They’ve been a Junior Literary Guild selection, and a Bank Street College Best Book. Her 2024 spring book, “Pigeons at War: How Avian Heroes Changed History,” tells the stories of homing pigeons whose messages saved thousands of Allied lives in WWI and WWII. Find out more at www.conniegoldsmith.com.
Linda Joy Singleton is a mystery-book trifecta. She reads, writes, and collects mystery novels—having over 5,000 adults and juvenile mystery books in her home library. At age 13, a fan letter to her favorite author led to a life-long friendship and a co-written mystery novel. Since then, she’s published over 55 books, including MG and YA series: THE SEER, DEAD GIRL WALKING, and THE CURIOUS CAT SPY CLUB. A long-time member of Sisters in Crime and the SCBWI, she’s a frequent speaker at schools, libraries, and writing conferences. She and her husband David live in Northern CA with a menagerie of animals; peacocks, pigs, horses, cows, ducks, chickens, dogs, and cats. For writing news, free stories, a spy kit, downloadable activities, and more check out her website: www.LindaJoySingleton.com
Sibert Honor author Patricia Newman and her agent have been charting a course together for 18 years. Patricia uses social and environmental injustice to empower her readers to seek connections to the real world and to use their imaginations to act on behalf of their communities. Patricia’s books have received multiple starred reviews, two Orbis Pictus Recommended Awards (NCTE), two Green Earth Book Awards, and several Eureka! Awards (CRA). Many of her titles t have been included in the Bank Street College’s Best Books of the Year lists. Her newest title, A River’s Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn, is a Kirkus Best Picture Book of 2022 and an ALA Notable Book. To learn more, visit her website at patriciamnewman.com or connect with her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.