It was the sixth conference that Michelle and I have attended, and it was, as always, well-planned and well-coordinated. But I couldn’t help comparing it to the NYC conference that Kim S. and I went to in February – that was my first big-time writing conference.
The Mid-Hudson conference definitely feels homey and comfortable now – different from the nearly overwhelming excitement and sensory overload that I felt in NYC. Michelle and I saw many familiar faces – some local authors, several members of the Shop Talk meetings, and even some customers from B & N. The conference has been at the same location for four years now – the former Best Western/newly-named Mercury Grand Hotel in Poughkeepsie, so it was easy to find our way around the lobby, ballrooms, smaller conference rooms – and the bathrooms too!
But the Mid-Hudson conference is just 1 day instead of 2, so it seemed to go by in a flash – the welcome and keynote speeches were followed by 2 breakout lecture sessions; then everybody had lunch in a banquet room and shopped for the presenting authors’ books in the lobby; then after another breakout session, everyone regrouped for a panel discussion and door prizes. There was so much to take in – I took copious notes, as usual, until my left hand and arm were cramped and achy. But it’s so great to be able to hear authors and editors talking about their own experiences in writing and publishing, and giving valuable advice – I didn’t want to miss a word of it.
Regional advisor Barbara Wells welcomed everyone, and thanked the conference committee for their hard work throughout the year – co-chairs Della Ross Ferreri and Karen Kaufman Orloff are already working on next year’s conference.
Linda Sue Park, the author of many books for children and young readers, including the Newbury Award winning A Single Shard, gave the keynote address. Scheduling conflicts had kept her from being able to speak at the Mid-Hudson conference for the past few years, but she was well worth the wait. (www.lindasuepark.com)
Even though she came from a different background, growing up in the only Korean family living in a Chicago suburb, I could relate to how her love of books led her to become a writer. She was first published in a newspaper children’s column when she was in the fourth grade, and she told the paper she wanted to be an author of children’s books when she grew up. She published her first book for young readers, Seesaw Girl, in 1999, and her latest novel, Keeping Score, was published last March. It combines the history of the Korean War with her love for baseball – a fan of the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets, she joked that writers should get attached to a losing sports team because “you’ll learn the cycle of disappointment and hope.”
She said that although every writer has a different “magic formula” for writing, there are “Three Rs” – rules that apply to everyone:
Read. Reading is like Olympic training for writers, a total immersion in the language of stories – you can learn everything from great books by great writers. She said she read about 400 novels before writing her first book, and it sold from the slush pile on her first try – “that wasn’t a coincidence.” We should take half of our “screen time” in front of the TV or computer and devote it to reading. I’ve read 27 books (8 of them teen novels) so far this year – I think that’s pretty good, but I would like to have even more time for reading. And I want to read more teen novels, since that’s what I’m writing right now.
Routine. A writer needs discipline, along with talent and passion. She found time for a writing routine while her two kids were growing up – 2 hours a day, with no distractions. Whatever commitment we can make to our writing, we should stick to it. I still need to find a writing routine – it’s hard to write daily because my work hours change from day to day. I don’t even keep up with daily journal writing. But if I commit to my goal of finishing my book before the end of the year, I should commit to writing at least 3 – 4 days a week.
“Recreation,” also known as Revision. Listen to critiques, even if we don’t agree with them. Then “play with the manuscript,” while keeping the original version, to see if the changes work. She said she was told that a secondary character from Keeping Score was dominating the book. She loved him, but she took him out of 2 chapters, and realized she didn’t need him so much in her story. The only problem I have with revision is that I do too much of it – I’m always reworking what I’ve written, over and over, and sometimes it keeps me from moving forward with a story. So I think I need to keep up with my recreation/revision, but I need to learn when enough is enough!
Linda Sue Park left us with the encouragement that we can use the Three Rs to make our stories magic for young readers everywhere. Afterward, Kim caught a picture of the rearview, and mirror image, of me having my books signed by Linda Sue Park! (credit to Kim)
Michelle and I went our separate ways for the first breakout session. Although the “Seriously Silly” talk by humor writer/ picture book author Alan Katz sounded fun, I thought I could better use the advice of “The Tao of Procrastination,” presented by author Elizabeth Cody Kimmel. (http://www.codykimmel.com/) I have serious issues with procrastination and what I call my writing ADD (constantly starting to write new book ideas instead of focusing on 1 at a time – I have nearly 20 partly-finished manuscripts just waiting to be completed!)
Elizabeth Cody Kimmel humorously acted out her typical writing day: staring at the computer screen; making several runs to the kitchen for coffee; getting tempted away from the blank page and onto Wikipedia and I-Tunes; and letting random thoughts distract her from her story. Everyone laughed – I felt like it could be me up there, doing the same things (but replacing snacking for coffee drinking) and it was great to see a prolific and successful writer with nearly the same writing process as mine.
Even her writing background and school study habits were similar to mine – she’s been a writer all her life, and still has the first picture book she wrote and illustrated when she was in the second grade. A lot of my school writing projects have been lost or discarded during the many times I’ve moved, but I still have a folder of some illustrated stories from elementary school, and I have the first novel I wrote, in a marbled notebook, when I was in fifth grade.
But Elizabeth Cody Kimmel saw the difference between “fun” and “school” writing, and so did I. She said she was an “all-nighter champion” in college, waiting until the night before a big paper or project was due. But then a “just do it” determination would kick in, to write it and write it well, and she always did. Yes, I remember too many similar all-nighters as well, throughout all of my school years.
While working for a literary agent, she wrote her first young readers’ novel, but even with her agency’s representation, it got 14 rejections. So she wrote another novel, In The Stone Circle, that was published by Scholastic. She gave herself a year to write her next book, but she didn’t spend 40 hours a week (the hours of a typical job) writing it. She spent some time researching, web-surfing, hiking, doing errands and raising her daughter. She said she felt like she was “faking it” and not working enough at writing.
But she’s published 28 books in 13 years (wow, that’s prolific!) and she realized that she was doing something right – that even her “off-time” fed her writing, and some of her ideas and activities have worked their way into her stories. She gave up her need to control her writing time and the sense of guilt about how much writing she was doing or not doing, because that was a detriment. And for every time she procrastinates, there’s a time when her “just do it” voice kicks in, and she starts writing and is very productive.
She cited playwright Edward Albee as having a similar approach – he walks around for months “with play,” letting it incubate like a baby, and then finally sits down and writes the play out. Writers need to indulge in silence, daydreaming, hiking – whatever down-time works. It’s like a solar panel – we need to charge our power before we can use that energy to write. But we should always think about the end result, so it doesn’t become a “slippery slope” of inactivity.
She said it’s different for everyone – some writers need to stick to a fixed writing schedule, and some need more latitude. We need to learn what’s right for us.
And that was advice I really needed to hear! Afterwards, when I asked Elizabeth Cody Kimmel to sign her book, Lily B. on the Brink of Love, for me, I told her I really saw myself in her writing approach, and she said that whenever she gives this talk, many others tell her the same thing. I’m so glad I’m not alone in my procrastination-then-writing process!
Holiday House editor Eleni Beja gave the next talk, “Throw Your Voice, Catch a Reader.” She said voice is the most important thing in writing, and often decides if a work will get published or not.
A great voice draws the reader in, induces trust, creates atmosphere, and conveys the mood of a story. It gives a sense of the characters, and shows what’s important to them and how they change throughout the book. Voice can allow readers to enter another time and place and get a sense of what it’s like there. It is your unique product that carries your manuscript and gives your story power. I think my voice is pretty well developed, after so many years of writing, but I’m always striving to improve it.
She said to find and develop your voice, listen to what speaks to you, and pay attention to the vision in your mind. To define your character’s voice, allow yourself to define yours. Do research, not just for facts, but to shape your voice. Write like you talk – record it, then transcribe it – the results can be surprising. I like this idea – I’m going to try it and see how it helps improve my writing.
Try writing your story in the first person, and then in the third person, to see which point of view fits best – I’ve done that with a few of my stories. Read books set in your story’s time period, to get a feel for the language of that time. Copy authors you love and pay attention to what works for them – you can learn from imitation. If your writing is timid or stiff, work on your boldness. When you think you’ve found your voice, test-drive it to see if it goes the distance. Read your work aloud, and look for traps in voice. I sometimes find that when I read my writing aloud, it sounds different from how it sounds in my head, and I am aware of passages that sound rough or wrong – the traps.
One trap is the use of clichés, especially similes and metaphors. Don’t settle for them – always try to use fresh metaphors. Another trap is when the story stalls at the beginning – you should dive right in ASAP. You can slow-build your story, as long as you keep it moving. Also, don’t reveal everything right at the beginning; a tip-of-the-iceberg approach is best. You can reveal information through your characters and voice. Beware of predictability – you don’t want your reader to be ahead of you. Lack of rhythm is another trap – the arrangement of words matters. She suggested Line By Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing by Claire Kehrwald Cook, as a helpful book to use when re-writing, so your book can be its best. I’ll have to order that book from work, to add to my collection of helpful writing books.
As an editor, she reads the slush pile (unsolicited manuscripts) at the end of the day when she’s “tired and cranky,” and 97% of slush manuscripts are not excellent, so submit only your excellent work that you can be proud of. Check out Holiday House’s guidelines, and their line of books. You should “type” your book into a genre, because publishers do that with their line. She makes sure a book is right for their market, and that the staff agrees. It can take 3 – 6 months for a response. If you get an encouraging rejection, think about the criticisms and how you can improve your manuscript – your voice can indicate what problems there are in a story.
It takes an average of 1 ½ - 2 years from a novel’s acceptance to publication, so look 2 years ahead – don’t write a story that fits today’s trends, because in 2 years the market will have moved on. The bottom line is an editor only has so much time and money to spend for the next 2 years. A great voice gives you leverage, and can help your book stand out. These stats are somewhat overwhelming, but they do give a realistic perspective of children’s publishing today.
We took a break for lunch, and Michelle and I joined Kim and her friend Janine; fellow Shop Talkers Roxanne and Angela; Justin and Jeff, who were also at the NYC conference; and some other writers at a large round table. It was great to catch up with everyone and talk about the sessions and our projects. But the time went by so fast; I wish there could be more social/networking time. It’s just as important to meet and connect with our peers as it is to learn from the professionals.
The last breakout session, “The Slush Hour,” featured Lisa Graff (http://www.lisagraff.com/), author of 3 novels for young readers (published by Harper Collins), and an associate editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux. She used her experience as both writer and editor to give us tips on what to do and what not to do when submitting a manuscript.
She said that FSG publishes about 80 books a year, in all genres, but they receive from 20 – 100 submissions a day. Wow, that’s a lot of reading, and a lot of work for the editorial team! All manuscripts are sorted in piles. Agented material goes in one pile, manuscripts from conference attendees goes into another pile. She described slush as any unfamiliar manuscript, by an unknown author or without a publisher. The slush pile is on the back burner and the last to be read – but it does get read. Typically, editorial assistants and interns are the first readers, and if a manuscript looks promising, they’ll pass it on to the editors. She reads about 25 submissions or queries a day.
Sometimes real gems are found in the slush pile, such as the young reader book At the Sign of the Star by Katherine Sturtevant, and the teen novel Keesha’s House by Helen Frost.
She gave great advice on how to make a manuscript stand out in the slush pile. Research the publishing house – don’t submit if it doesn’t accept unsolicited manuscripts. If it does, read some books in the backlist, to make sure your book is of a similar tone or genre. Request a publisher’s writers’ guidelines, and stick to the rules. Find editors in the acknowledgment pages of books that are similar to yours, and research to find out facts like the exact spelling of an editor’s name, and their title. It’s best to submit to someone lower on the “totem pole” – an assistant or associate editor, who can give more time to a manuscript.
Submit your best possible work – editors want to see manuscripts that are publishable, even if they will still edit a lot and ask for a lot of revisions after acceptance! Send in a professional package – typed in black ink on white paper, with no typos, and a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply. She wants to see the first 3 chapters – they’ll show if the beginning is strong and what the writing style is like – and a 1-page synopsis that describes the arc of the story. The cover letter should be concise, and state why you’re submitting to the publisher; a brief and intriguing description of your story; and your publishing history or some information about you that’s relevant to the book.
Your work should speak for itself, so don’t add any “bells and whistles” to your submission – it’s really unprofessional. She said she once received a package that had a lot of confetti in it, that went all over the floor, and took a long time to vacuum out of the carpet! And don’t send gifts – that’s just weird. Someone sent her a pair of blackened goggles along with a historical adventure story once, but it didn’t make sense to her! Things like that don’t make the editors want to publish a book. I’m sure many editors have strange submission stories!
Like Eleni Beja, Lisa Graff said it takes about three months for a response, but it varies among houses. Editors have to read manuscripts on their own time, because there’s too much to do in the office. Then, if a manuscript is strong, they write a report on the book’s strengths and weaknesses, and will check out the market to see if it fits in. She said to be patient – after 3 months it’s OK to send a polite e-mail to check on the status of your manuscript. And multiple submissions (sending the same book to several publishers simultaneously) are OK, as long as you state it in your cover letter.
Editors send out several kinds of responses, depending on the manuscript. The “dreaded form letter” says the book is not right for the house, or it’s too similar to one of their already-published books. Lisa said she’s received dozens, and has kept them in a file. A “not-very-personal letter” shows that your manuscript was noticed because they took the time to mention your book title and address the letter to you personally. It’s a more positive kind of rejection. A “more personal letter” gives some guidance – it’s explains why the manuscript isn’t right, and you can use the advice to make changes, if you agree. Sometimes an editor will say that they’d be interested in your revised submission, or would like to see some other work – this is encouraging.
If an editor wants to publish your book, you’ll get a phone call or e-mail. But don’t just wait around for a reply – work on your next book instead. It might not be so hard to get rejections if you’re focused on another book. I haven’t gotten to the submissions level yet, but I know I won’t have a problem with starting on a new book while waiting for replies. I have several stories on the back burner, waiting for me to finish them!
Lisa Graff did say that she had sent her manuscript to slush piles at publishers, while she was getting her degree in Children’s Writing at the New School, but met her agent, who sold her first book to Harper Collins. Although FSG has published many unagented authors, she thinks agents are the best thing for writers – they handle business matters and any uncomfortable situations, so the writer can just focus on writing. I’ve done a lot of research on various publishers, but I need to do more on agents. At Saturday’s Shop Talk, Kim showed me a big binder she’d put together with information on several agents and their agencies – she’s really done her homework and her book is in the submitting stage – I hope she has great success with it!
The conference ended with a faculty discussion panel. Michelle and I sat in the back, because she was tired and needed to be able to get up and walk around to relieve some of her pain. So it was hard to see all the writers and editors as they spoke. I did take some general notes on the questions and answers, though.
The editors said they see too much of work that isn’t excellent – authors need to pay full attention to their books. Writers should read widely in their genre, to see what type of work is being published now, and if their book will fit in. They shouldn’t try to imitate successful books, but should write original stories that speak to them. Also, beware of heavy-handed lessons in books – it’s better to have more subtle stories.
It’s helpful to have an agent who can look at a contract and can negotiate for things like the delivery schedule; number of free copies; and foreign and film rights. If you don’t have an agent, it’s OK to get a literary lawyer to look at the contract, but it’s worth it to have a good agent.
Door prizes were given out at the end of the day – a copy of each of SCBWI’s Master Class DVDs. Michelle and I had filled out entry forms for both Richard Peck’s Master Class on novel writing, and Tomie DePaola’s Master Class on the picture book. I figured I might as well enter both, even though I don’t write picture books – chances were slim that I’d win anyway. So I was very surprised when my name was called as the winner of Tomie DePaola’s Master Class! I was happy to give it to Michelle – she loves drawing and has done some imaginative illustrations as a hobby. She’s thought about writing and illustrating a picture book – now she’ll have a DVD of instruction and information, from one of the very best illustrators in the field, to encourage her!
Afterwards, some of the authors stayed to sign their books. Lisa Graff autographed my copy of her first book, The Thing About Georgie, and I thanked her for her motivating talk.
And Della Ferreri was excited that her new picture book, Star of the Show, was just released, and she signed my copy for me.
Della with Michelle
Kim and Janine were meeting Kim’s family in the hotel lobby, so we took some pictures while we waited for them.
Janine and Michelle (photo credit to Kim)
Janine and Michelle (photo credit to Kim)
Kim, Michelle and me
Then Kim’s family arrived – it was great to meet her husband, her mom, her in-laws, and her boys – who are her biggest fans!
Adorable Aidan and Kim – he’s the inspiration for the character of sweet little Oliver in her book. The picture’s a little blurry but it was so cute I had to include it!
The conference was just what I needed to reinvigorate my writing – I’m more than halfway through What Luck, and since Kim helped me figure out how to write the end (during the NYC conference) I can see it in sight. It’s right about time to keep working on the story – now that I’m finally done with this blog post!!
