Not-to-Do List

For anyone who is new to children's publishing, here are a few common mistakes that are easily avoided. 

1. Don’t get an illustrator for your picture book manuscript. It’s the publisher’s job to assign an illustrator to the project. So if you are planning to go the traditional publishing route, you don’t need to include illustrations. In fact, unless you are a professional illustrator, sending illustrations in with your manuscript is a sign of an amateur writer. A few sparse illustration notes are acceptable if absolutely necessary, but for the most part, editors and agents will be able to “get” your story without any visuals. They do this every day.
2. Don’t mention anything about how much your child or grandchild loves your book. This is the equivalent of writing “my mother thinks I’m really smart” on your college application. Of course your child loves your story, but it tells the editor or agent absolutely nothing about the quality of your manuscript. It means your child loves you. Which is wonderful, but don’t put it in a query letter.
3.  Don’t rush. It’s not a race. Too many writers are in such a hurry that they send out a manuscript that still needs work. Or they send out a manuscript to any publisher at all without taking the time to find the best fit. That is a formula for automatic rejection. Be deliberate. Be purposeful. Be professional.
4.  Don’t worry about copyrights. There are all kinds of ideas about mailing your manuscript to yourself, or paying fees to register the copyright paperwork. Forget all that. The moment you write anything, your writing belongs to you legally, lawfully, copyrightedly, and every other way. The only way that changes is if you sign a contract that assigns rights to someone else.
5.  Don’t be paranoid about someone stealing your idea. Only you can write your story. Even if someone else were to have the same idea, no two people would write it in the same way. You wouldn’t want to plaster your manuscript all over the internet, but sharing your manuscript discreetly with a writing group or a critique partner is a good idea.
6.  Don’t give up! It’s very rare that a writer’s first written work gets published. Keep moving forward. What will you write next? Develop new projects, try a different kind of writing, practice patience and perseverance. You’ll need it in this business. 

Who Taught You To Read?

by Chris Sorensen

I had a conversation this past week with one of my children that made me stop and think about how they learn to read.  Who teaches my children to read?  I would like to think I have added something positive to their life in this category, but the answer to the question is without a doubt my dear wife, their mother.

Then I thought about my own life growing up.  Who taught me to read?  And I got the same answer, my mother.  I took it one step further and had wonderful conversations with some friends and colleagues at work and almost without exception, everyone I talked to said they had learned to read from their mother.

Reading allows us to learn.  Learning gives us power.  I am so grateful that my mother gave me power.  Power to understand other people’s lives through the written word.  Power to think for myself as I read and ponder life’s questions and my purpose for being on this Earth.  Power to explore other worlds and to have the opportunity to entertain myself at just about any place or any time, as long as I have a book with me.  Thank you mom for giving me that power.

As we approach Mother’s Day this coming Sunday, I hope you take time to appreciate the power that your mother instilled in you.  If your mother is still in your life, you can thank them with a note or a phone call for all the endless hours of lap time and picture books.  If your mother is not with you still, you can show your appreciation by picking up a book and continuing to grow the power she instilled in you so long ago.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful, selfless, and dedicated woman out there who gave us so many powerful things to bless our life - including the power to read.

No kidding: Writing for kids is serious.

“A priest, a rabbi, and a children’s book writer walk into a bar…”

Last Saturday, about a hundred children’s writers and illustrators walked into the Richmond Public Library to hear author Louise Hawes give an inspiring and informative talk about our craft. Leaving her introductory joke open-ended, she went on to thoroughly deconstruct the common belief that writing for kids is insignificant. Too often it’s thought to be “easy, breezy, and—the most insidious and dangerous stereotype of all—less important.” With an engaging mix of poise and irony, she made the whole notion seem absurd. And yes, dangerous.

How so? Emotions and the constant flow of facts run high from childhood to adolescence. As children’s book authors, we’re making impressions on the most impressionable, most thoughtful people on the planet. Our work involves creating characters who can extend their hands (“gently,” encouraged Louise) to our readers and show them the way, show them how to help themselves—out of torment, through struggles, confusion, the issues that can damage for life. Our work can give them a shortcut to compassion, to wisdom, to seeing what’s essential in being human. 

If we miss that, they lose, we lose.

She cautioned us, however, that young readers want to read, not for lessons, but for joy. Tell your story—don’t teach it.

Then, under her direction, we took a closer, personal look: “If your adult self could go back in time to speak to your child self, what age would you choose? Six … twelve … seventeen? The age that comes to mind is likely the age you should be writing for.” We each wrote a letter from our adult self to the age that we had chosen. It was a heart-opening exercise for some—revisiting our vulnerability in youth—and a few tears fell. It was further proof how critical it is to reach out to those who are at a critical time in their lives.

As to the delusion it’s easy and breezy, she explained how a picture book packs a punch in a very short amount of space. How that, like poetry, every word counts. It may take seven minutes to write, or it it may take seven years.

Included in the event were breakout groups for the categories of PB, MG, YA, and NF, with Virginia authors Ellen Braaf, Ginjer Clarke, Troy Howell, Erica Kirov, Lana Krumwiede, Meg Medina, Anne Marie Pace, Brian Rock, and A. B. Westrick. Gigi Amateau, also scheduled to be a facilitator, was not able to come.

…so, taking one look at the priest, the rabbi, and the children’s book writer, the bartender says, “Is this some kind of a joke?” Look again. We know at least one of them who isn’t joking.

Cheers.

___________________

If you’re serious about writing or illustrating for children, consider becoming a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), who sponsored this event. The benefits are many.

Louise Hawes is a founding faculty member of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA Program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and an author of over fifteen books for children, teens, and adults. (I’m currently reading her adult short story collection, Anteaters Don’t Dream, and you know you’re in for an amazing read when the first line begins, “I was on fire when I met Harry Too Tall…”)

—Troy Howell

Supporting Fellow Writers

by Deb Dudley

Over the past twelve months, I have attended SEVERAL book events.  When a local children's writer is launching their latest and greatest – I try to be there. When an award-winning author visits my favorite local bookstore (BBGB) - I mark it with Sharpie on my calendar. I am honored to attend these events and celebrate in a fellow writer's success. I'm not into movie premieres or music concerts. I am a book lover and a writer.

If you are a kid lit writer in the Richmond area, I hope to meet you at one of your events or bump into you as we celebrate another writer's success. If you are an aspiring writer and you’ve never attended a book launch or author visit, you really owe it to yourself and your fellow writers to go. Enjoy the positive energy in the air. Meet other writers and readers. Take note of the details and learn. I promise you’ll be inspired. And maybe one step closer to hosting your own event someday.

Here are just a few fun photos from my recent travels:

BG Nennessy and bbgb owner Jenesse Evertson (r)

 

Mac Barnett signs Oh No! & two copies of his Caldecott Honor Book, Extra Yarn on 4/3/13 at bbgb

 

Brian Rock launches The Deductive Detective, March 16, 2013, at the Children's Museum.

Lana Krumwiede launches Freakling at bbgb, October 2012.

Originally published on Deb Dudley’s blog at www.debdudley.com

 

Sylvan Dell is hosting a give-away of Brian's book, THE DEDUCTIVE DETECTIVE, on Goodreads, April 12 - April 26, 2013. Follow this link to request a free copy of Brian's book!

http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/47738-the-deductive-detective

To edit a line.

Warning to non-writers: If you get bored with nuts-and-bolts stuff, this one’s not for you.

My method of writing is not the usual draft-it-all-first approach. I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work for me. If I don’t get it the way I want it, early on, there’s no sense in continuing. Because what comes first influences what follows. I take my idea and start expanding it. While mentally (and sometimes on paper) exploring its potential, I begin to perfect it.

I do this with every line. One line builds from another, until there’s unity within the whole.

Here’s an example of the progression of a sentence in a work in progress, my middle grade* novel, Hans Andersen’s Ghost. The scene: Skim, a boy of twelve, is left standing in the dark on a hilltop far from home. One of the motifs in the story is shoes (he keeps a key in his left shoe).

I'll start with the first version of the sentence. I would include the sentence before it, but this is the beginning of a new paragraph.

» There’s a rumble again; he feels it through the soles of his shoes. (I’m thinking: Hmm … “the soles of his shoes” —echoes of Paul Simon … a distraction, too sing-song for this moment.)


» There’s a rumble again; he feels it through his shoes. (Better, but it does not convey the immediacy of the feeling, because it’s telling us what he feels rather than sending us the feeling.)

» There’s a rumble again, rumbling right through his shoes. (Now we can feel what he feels. But I'll try an even closer description.)

» There’s a rumble again, rumbling up through his shoes. (There. It gives a sense of the vibration and its direction, from the ground up. I considered reinserting “the soles of”—it sounds good, but that added detail might compete with the rumble.)

Now for the next line, to see how it fits.

There’s a rumble again, rumbling up through his shoes. Louder it grows, and stronger, like a mammoth mole tunneling under his feet.

I like the alliteration of the uh sound (rumble, rumbling, up, tunneling, under ... there are actually nine uh sounds in these two lines)—it enhances the uh-oh—something’s-about-to-happen sense I want to convey. But I have a problem with the prosody the word tunneling creates. It has too many syllables that make the sentence drag at the end. So I consider some synonyms and come up with a few possibilities: burrow, grub, and bore. Bore is a little odd and calls attention to itself (besides lacking the uh sound), and burrow/ing is no better than tunneling. So, grub it is. Grubbing—two syllables. And I like the scariness of it.

There’s a rumble again, rumbling up through his shoes. Louder it grows, and stronger, like a mammoth mole grubbing under his feet.

But, being a finicky writer, I think it still drags. So, I do as they say: I’m killing that darling grub.

There’s a rumble again, rumbling up through his shoes. Louder it grows, and stronger, like a mammoth mole under his feet.

I think that says it. It might be even scarier.

—Troy Howell

*middle grade defines fiction specifically suited for readers ages 8-12

Writing for Young Readers

"I have a great idea for a book." 

Great ideas are wonderfully exciting! The hard part is knowing what to do with it. How does one become a writer? There are many answers to that question, and one of them is to get involved in the writing opportunities in your community. There are writers who live right here in Richmond who have had great ideas for books and figured out how to get them published. 

On April 27th, the Mid-Atlantic Region of the Society of Children’s Book
Writers and Illustrators is hosting their Spring Mingle and New Member Welcome. This local event is perfect for anyone interested in learning to write for young readers. Best of all: It's free! 

WRITING FOR YOUNG READERS:

Changing the World One Reader at a Time

Featured Speaker: Louise Hawes

Author of Black Pearls, Rosey in the Present Tense, Anteaters Don’t Dream, and other books for young readers. Co-author of the graphic novel, A Flight of Angel. Co-founder of the MFA program in writing for children and young
adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Meet and greet

Break-out groups for writing exercises

Book sales and signing

Refreshments

Saturday, April 27, 2013

1:00 - 4:30 p.m.

Richmond Public Library

101 East Franklin Street

FREE

Please pre-register by April 25, and bring pen & paper for writing exercises. To pre-register, email your name and break-out group preference to
SCBWISpringMingle@gmail.com

Break-out groups:

picture book (PB)

middle grade (MG)

young adult (YA) 

illustrators (IL)

nonfiction (NF)

Facilitators for break-out groups: Gigi Amateau, Ellen Braaf, Ginjer Clarke, Troy Howell, Erica Kirov, Lana Krumwiede, Meg Medina, Anne Marie Pace, Brian Rock, and A. B. Westrick.

Many of us from Richmond Children's Writers will be there, and we would love to meet you!