NJ SCBWI Conference retrospective - Part 2

Day two of the NJ SCBWI conference started with a keynote speech by author/illustrator extraordinaire, PeterBrown. Once again, I wished I was an illustrator but having viewed the portfolio presentation tables I know I’m not only not in the ballpark in terms of my artistic ability, I’m not even in the game. I will continue to do all my painting with words!

My first workshop was a First Pages session. Neither editor in my session (Connie Hsu and Steven Meltzer) is open to submissions from the slush pile and this was a good opportunity to have our work read by them. A volunteer read each of ten pages then the editors reacted. It was encouraging to hear that the editors liked the voice and character of my middle grade novel. Then came the editors’ wish lists; one was looking for “YA novels with opportunities for illustration,” the other wanted picture book characters who “let their freak flag fly.” That’s right—neither was looking for middle grade this time around, but perhaps the right project could change their mind . . . .

My signed copy!

Agent Marietta Zacker’s Visual Literacy was my second workshop. She talked poignantly about the importance of visual literacy in her own life, arriving to America as a non-English speaker. Then as a group we discussed why publishing picture houses were requesting shorter word counts in picture books. Marietta urged writers picture books through YA to “just tell the heart of the story.”

Author Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen led the next workshop in Advanced Picture Writing. She bravely posted power point slides with quotes from editors’ letters rejecting her own work or requesting revisions to illustrate possible reasons our work might not make the grade. Amazing. My favorite quote wasn’t from one of the letters, but from Sudipta herself. “Too quiet isn’t a taste issue, this is a market issue you cannot overcome.”

Advanced Nonfiction with editor Carolyn Yoder was my next workshop. She urged everyone to show passion in their cover letters and breadth in their bibliographies. One thing I hadn’t realized was to include sources we consulted but didn’t use in our bibliographies. “Keep the rich details of your research and avoid overgeneralization but make sure details are relevant and necessary.”

And there was still more! My last workshop on day two was an easy reader/chapter book workshop with editor Jenne Abramowitz. Comparing and contrasting these two formats, Jenne emphasized that these genres cannot be “quiet.” Readers spend a short time with these formats and so these titles must be even more attention grabbing than middle grade and young adult offerings.

Then let me use my best infomercial voice. But wait, there’s more!

The day also included lunch at a table with editor Heather Alexander, a one-on-one critique with the talented picture book author Tara Lazar, dinner with fellow writers and then—no rest for the weary—peer critiques into the night. 

Whew! That's a lot of inspiration.

But day three is still to come--