Congratulations to Richmond Young Writers!

And a big THANK YOU to all who voted for them in the Greater Richmond Chamber ‘s i.e.* inaugural startup competition. Lana wrote about this group and the competition in her May 30 post (see below). In case you missed it, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported in their Tuesday edition (Business section, 6/12/12) that Richmond Young Writers is among the 15 finalists. They are going for a $10,000 prize and six months of free space. A panel of veteran entrepreneurs will hear a presentation from each finalist who will describe their organization and business plan. Each finalist must also demonstrate that their start-up is located or will locate in the Richmond area and has been in business for less than a year. The Richmond Chamber will announce the winner on June 21 at the Richmond Center Stage downtown. Bravo Richmond Young Writers! We’re rootin’ for ya!

Reflections on my first BEA

I had the great fortune to be invited by my publisher, Tiger Tales, to represent them at this year's Book Expo America in New York. The Book Expo or BEA is an annual trade show for publishers. It is where they all gather under one (ginormous) roof to showcase their new and forthcoming titles to potential buyers, reviewers, bloggers and fans. In short it is the annual Super Bowl for book geeks like me. In between row after row after row of publishers' kiosks, I rubbed elbows with publishers, authors, book buyers, and a larger than life Captain Underpants character. As an author, it would have been easy to feel intimidated by the vast number of books that were represented there; but I chose instead to draw on the excitement of so many people who were so passionate about books and consequently, I had an absolutely wonderful time.
The highlights of the event for me were:

•  Meeting the publishing staff at Tiger Tales who made me feel wanted and welcomed.
• Autopraphing WITH ALL MY HEART for well over 100 people.
• Seeing Lana's forthcoming title FREAKLING on display at the Candlewick booth.
• Enjoying a dinner party with the Tiger Tales family at a charming Greek restaurant.
• Watching my daughter, Delaney, get so excited about books.
• Meeting so many wonderful book lovers.
• And of course meeting MO WILLEMS!!!

Even though I was a relatively new and unknown author in a very big pond; for a few hours I got to feel like a rock star! Of course this week I'm back to yard work and taking out the trash, but the memories remain! I will cherish the memories of my first BEA for years to come, and I want to publicly thank my wonderful publishing team at Tiger Tales for making it happen!
To see more pics from BEA, visit my site at Brian Rock Writes For Children

To Make a Long Story Short: Writing a Synopsis That Sells

I recently completed my first middle grade novel and am writing my submission documents (query letter, outline, synopsis). So I was delighted to attend the panel on writing a synopsis presented last Thursday, May 31, at the Children’s Museum by James River Writers, hosted by Bill Blume. Panelists were Michelle Brower, agent with the Folio Agency and Stacy Hawkins Adams, author and columnist. It was well worth my time. My post today summarizes their presentation. Both Brower and Adams agreed that a synopsis is a professional document rather than a creative one and should show the movement of your book without a lot of detail. This means your synopsis should be no more than three pages long, should use a professional font (e.g., Times New Roman, 12 pt.) and should be double-spaced. The synopsis is a longer version of the text you envision on the back cover of your book and should be written in third person, even if you write your book in first person. Use your writer’s voice and proceed as if you are writing a short story, with a beginning, middle and end. Yes, include the ending! An agent reads your synopsis to find out what happens in your book. If your book has humor, suspense or other story-building elements, be sure to include those, too. Focus on your main character, hooking the reader with the first sentence and include how this main character changes from the beginning to the end of your book. Don’t recycle sentences from your book or from your query in your synopsis. Each document should be unique. A particularly useful idea is that the synopsis should be written before you write your first chapter because it then serves as an outline for writing the book. This may not fit with your writing style but if it is, give it a try. I’m going to keep that last point in mind in writing my next novel. I will use the tips and instructions I learned from this presentation in writing the synopsis for my current novel. I am confident their advice will give me a strong, ready-to-go synopsis when I send out my queries. Keep these points in mind and you will have ‘a synopsis that sells,’ too!

Richmond Young Writers need your help!

Friends! Share this with everyone you know and make MAGIC HAPPEN over the next three days!

Richmond Young Writers is thrilled to be competing in the i.e. Start-Up Competition; getting voted into the finals will give them a shot at the whopping $10,000 prize and the securing of a new permanent home for their creative writing programs, special events and other sparkly wonderment. But they need YOU to get us there!

The details: CLICK HERE TO VOTE

The three-day voting period is from 9am May 30th through 11pm June 1st. You can vote once every 24 hours, so vote THREE TIMES (please and thank you!)

Be sure to check out the sweet promo video here on YouTube - it's set to a beautiful soundtrack by Charlottesville musician Wes Swing.

If you've got a mailing list, work group or list of personal contacts with whom you'd be willing to share this, Richmond Young Writers would be eternally grateful. Forward away! UPDATE: Your support was overwhelming and SO exciting yesterday!  Unfortunately, the volume of voter traffic overwhelmed i.e.'s server, and some contestants weren't able to get votes until the afternoon, so it's been suspended for now. Here's what i.e. sent out: "But rest assured, we are working to correct the issue, suspend voting and re-launch the online voting period. In this way, we’ll level the playing field and give everyone a chance. It’s not ideal, but I think we can all agree that it’s the fairest, most community-minded solution. So, for now, consider the online voting suspended.  We are solving the technical issues and will be up and running again soon!  We will give contestants and the public at large plenty of notice before we relaunch the online voting (in the next few days!) so that everyone will know when to visit our website again to vote for his or her favorite contestant!  And, we’ll be ready to accommodate the amazingly HUGE community response!!" We'll let you know when it's back up.

On Giants in Children's Literature...

We pause to remember Maurice Sendak who passed away on May 8, whose art and stories entertained everyone without soft-pedaling life’s difficulties. His stories hummed with a dark undertone, lit with grotesque figures that dance and frolic across the pages. His ironic message, perfectly understood by children of all ages, echoed throughout: the world is often a sad and lonely place, so let’s kick up our heels and grab all the joy we can. In keeping with celebrating the world of children’s books, I was lucky enough to hear Anita Silvey speak this past Saturday (May 19) at the Richmond Public Library downtown. She was in town to talk about her newest book, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children’s Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life (ISBN: 978-1-59643-395-3). This is also the theme for the current celebration of children’s literature at the library. Ms. Silvey told us about her interviews with more than 100 leaders in the arts, sciences, business and politics who told her about their favorite children’s book and what that book meant in their lives. Each essay includes an excerpt and illustrations from the selected book and a commentary by Ms. Silvey. As I look forward to a summer of reading and writing, I will be sure to include selections from this book to inspire and enlighten me.

How To Get Published Without An Agent

Writer's Digest has an article entitled, "How to Sell Your Manuscript Without an Agent." In the article author Diane Kelly gives her real life strategies for landing a book deal without going through an agent. She outlines four main tactics:
1 Enter writing contests
2 Attend conferences
3 Volunteer at conferences
4 Build your platform.
I recommend reading the whole article for the details on each. However, the common theme for publishing success (with or without an agent) always comes back to building relationships. So in a nutshell: find ways to meet or make contact with editors, treat them respectfully and professionally, find out what they WANT to publsih, give them what they want. And if they give a rejection to your manuscript, thank them for their time and input and start over at step two. And remember, like Lana said in the previous post, "there are no failures, only rehearsals."

The Joy of Making Mistakes

A couple of weeks ago, my agent, Molly Jaffa, and I were asked to present a panel at an SCBWI meeting. We were to discuss the porcess of finding an agent and developing the agent/client relationship. Molly and I sat down at breakfast and revisited the events that brought us together. As we started talking about the process (which, by the way, was a straight-up cold query letter), I saw a lot of things that I did wrong, things that I would not suggest to anyone who is going through the query process. In spite of myself, the result was positive.

The moral of the story is that making mistakes is part of the process. Don't let fear of making mistakes stop you from doing what you need to do. If there is any guarantee in life, it this: You will make mistakes. So expect to mess up royally from time to time and be ready to learn from it, or fix it, or try again, or whatever it takes to turn that mistake into a stepping stone.

Take sky-diving and brain surgery-- those things have to be done perfectly the first time. But writing is not one of those things. One of the characters in my book, FREAKLING, says this: "There are no mistakes, only rehearsals." I truly believe that.