Breakout Session Four

Turning a Cloud into a Raindrop: The Art of Picture Book Revision with Antwan Eady

In this conversational workshop, facilitated by Theo Baker, Antwan guides us through his process for condensing loose, early drafts into tight and specific prose you can feel. Everything revision-related will be covered, and attendees can expect to emerge from this workshop with practical tips they can apply to their own manuscripts, and greater awareness of what can be achieved in the revision process.  

Marketing as an Illustrator with Angela Dominguez

Illustrating is not just about making pictures. It’s also a business. Marketing is how you get publishers and agents interested in you and your unique voice. In this breakout session, you will learn tips on how to create a unique portfolio, develop promotional materials, and utilize ways to use them that can help get you noticed.

Making an Emotional Impact: Historical Fiction in a Graphic Novel with Maria Van Lieshout

Maria will talk about how finding her grandparents' writings about life under Nazi occupation led to her discover that a group of artists had pulled off the greatest bank heist in European history, and how this inspired her graphic novel, Song of a Blackbird. She will also share how she created emotional impact in the panels of the graphic novel using facial expressions, posture, color, framing, "camera angle", lettering, and speech balloons. 

Demystifying Metadata: Real-World Strategies for Book Discoverability with Sarah Pierre

Digital Strategy Associate Sarah Pierre of Penguin Random House will show you how strong metadata can help your book reach the right readers. This session breaks down the basics of metadata including keywords, BISAC categories, titles, subtitles, and book descriptions, and offers practical strategies to help creators improve discoverability online.

The Hero’s Journey: Retooling Mythic Structure in Fantasy and Science Fiction with Eliot Schrefer

Whether we intend to be or not, we are steeped in the hero’s journey, whose stages are the foundations of the most popular works in our culture today (and all those story beat sheets that everyone keeps talking about). In this workshop, we’ll break down the hero’s journey, looking at why its various stages can make for great storytelling—and give an eye to where we can shake things up in order to write a story that will feel fresh and stand out in the marketplace.