Wednesday on Writing: SCBWI Hudson Valley’s First “Shop Talk” of the New Year – Saturday, January 26, 2013

Our Hudson Valley chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) had its first “Shop Talk” meeting of the New Year on Saturday (January 25^th) at Barnes & Noble. We had nearly 25 in attendance – it was great to see a good turnout of fellow writers and illustrators for children and teens.  Thanks to all who came on an icy-cold Saturday morning, and for those who couldn’t make it, here’s a recap:

After we all put on paper-sticker name tags (great new idea from our Shop Talk leader Kimberly Sabatini!) and introduced ourselves, Kim gave a talk about writing conferences and social media networking.

She has a lot of experience with conferences – her first SCBWI Eastern NY conference in 2007, where she met authors Laurie Halse Anderson and KL Going, inspired her to follow her dream of writing her Young Adult novel Touching the Surface, and also started her on the path of learning about writing and publishing that helped her achieve her book’s publication this past October. (Kim’s blog post about how this conference changed her life can be found here: http://kimmiepoppins.livejournal.com/105161.html)

SCBWI offers two national conferences: each winter in New York City and each summer in Los Angeles. Kim will be attending the NYC conference this weekend (February 1 – 3) and I’m sure will have a great report for all of us at next month’s Shop Talk! Here’s the link for more info: http://www.scbwi.org/Conference.aspx?Con=11

The Summer conference in Los Angeles is scheduled for the weekend of August 2 - 5, 2013.  The detailed information hasn't been posted yet, but will be found on the SCBWI website, under Events - International Conferences, as soon as it becomes available. Kim plans to be there too, so we can look forward to hearing about it all at the August Shop Talk. 

Kim’s favorite conference so far was her first one in LA in 2011. There were so many inspiring authors, including Laurie Halse Anderson, Donna Jo Napoli, Libba Bray and Gary Paulson. She said it felt like “here [meaning Shop Talk] on steroids!” Her blog posts about the conference are here: http://kimberlysabatini.com/blog/tag/la11scbwi/.

Kim blogs always have a lot of pictures – she thinks pictures make them more interesting, and I think they are a great window into the conferences for those of us who can’t be there.

Kim has gone to every NYC conference since 2008, and I went to the 2009 and 2010 conferences with her. She said the NYC conference has a more professional feeling, because it’s in the “city of publishing.” It’s a great place for not-yet published authors to network and learn about submissions and acquisitions. The LA conference is a bit longer and doesn’t feel as serious. It has a professional track of speakers and has a larger group of published pros socializing, at events like the costume ball. She described it as being “like a family reunion.” She filled out a feedback form at the last NYC conference, requesting a professional track, and this year there will be one. At the end of each SCBWI conference, feedback forms are passed out to attendees – it’s important to fill them out because the conference planners do listen and tweak their upcoming programs with the comments in mind.

There are also several smaller regional conferences that are near the Hudson Valley area. I referred to the current issue of the SCBWI bi-monthly bulletin (that’s part of the membership benefits – see http://www.scbwi.org/Pages.aspx/Membership-Benefits for details) that lists the regional events for February – May. SCBWI’s Eastern Pennsylvania chapter has their annual Pocono Mountain Retreat on April 12 – 13 (here’s the link for info: http://scbwiepa.org/events.html) and the New England chapter’s annual conference will be the weekend of May 3 – 5 in Springfield, MA (for details, see: http://www.nescbwi.org/news/) Kim has been to the Pocono retreat several times, and said that it’s a special and intimate-feeling weekend – only about 100 people attend, and there’s a great chance to talk, and even eat, with the authors and editors. There are professional critiques, and hands-on workshops on topics like revision, so anyone going should bring along their work-in-progress.

And, of course, there’s the Eastern New York conference, set for September 21 – 22 in Fishkill. It’s still in the works, and information hasn’t been posted on the website yet, but our regional director Nancy Castaldo and the planning committee is lining up a great faculty list, with several renowned authors, as well as editors, agents and art directors. It’s being expanded from what had been an all-day program to one full day and one half-day, with an added social event planned for that Saturday evening. When details become available, they’ll be posted on the website: http://scbwi-easternny.org/conferences.php.

There are also several conferences offered by other organizations, such as the annual Rutgers One-on-One Plus conference in New Brunswick, New Jersey, sponsored by the Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature (RUCCL). This year it will be held on October 19, and anyone interested must apply for it. Kim has attended twice, and she said it’s a very overwhelming all-day event. Each person is paired up with a professional mentor (an author, editor, agent, illustrator or art director) for a critique of a work-in-progress. There’s also a Five-on-Five small group session, with five pairs of mentors/mentees. The ratio is always one to one. Kim said that at her first Rutgers conference, she was paired up with an agent, and even though she was nice, they just couldn’t relate to each other at all. Kim said that sometimes that just happens! But the second year, Kim had a great, helpful mentor. Her reports on these conferences are here: http://kimmiepoppins.livejournal.com/tag/rutgers. All in all, she said that Rutgers is an amazing experience, and she recommended it to us all.

Fees for conferences vary, depending on where the conference is held and how many days it is. This year's Eastern New York conference will cost more than the previous ones, but that's because it will now take place over a day and a half. Kim said that most of us wouldn't have to stay in the hotel, so we could save on that fee. She said that the international conferences are the most expensive, but SCBWI members can save by registering early. For example, the early registration for the NYC conference was $380, compared to (the ballpark figure of) $415 for members and $515 for non-members. The hotel fees are always extra, but some hotels have special pricing for conference attendees. And many conferences, such as the NYC one, offer intensive workshops or professional critiques at an extra charge. 

About half of us have been to at least one writing conference, and Kim encouraged all to attend one if possible. She said that great things can happen at these events, on both professional and personal levels, and I agree. I remember how amazing and overwhelming it was to see the hundreds and hundreds of people at the 2009 NYC conference – it gave me a great perspective of how huge and vital the world of childrens and teens publishing is, and it was a good feeling to be able to be a part of it all. And also at that conference, Kim and I, along with several of Kim’s writing friends, got to meet Jay Asher (author of the amazing YA book Thirteen Reasons Why, who had given an funny and inspiring luncheon talk that day) and even had dinner with him after hours – he proved to be not just a fantastic writer but also a wonderful and down-to-earth person, who related to us all on his level and made me believe that all of us have potential and value as writers. I became a fan of his forever, and I think Kim will agree that she did, too.

And  Kim excitedly told us how she and her online writing friend/critique partner, Jodi Moore, met up at the 2009 Pocono Retreat, and because they hadn’t been able to sign up for a professional critique, they decided to spend the time critiquing each other’s work. All of the comfortable seats in the lobby were taken, so they found a wooden bench and spent a wonderful and productive couple of hours sharing and commenting on each other’s work… until a man came up to them and asked them why they were sitting in the golf bag holder! Kim and Jodi had a good laugh, and it became such a fond memory for them that, in every following year that they’ve gone to the Pocono Retreat, they make sure to take a picture of themselves sitting in the golf bag holder – and also with their books that each of them has had published.

The point of these conference anecdotes is that, as important as it is to attend these conferences for professional critiques and the opportunity to submit as a conference attendee to publishing houses that are otherwise closed to unagented manuscripts, another great thing about a conference is the opportunity to meet like-minded and similarly creative people and make new friends and even find critique partners.

Kim also talked about a great way to keep in touch with these people, and to meet others in the writing community – through social networking. One of the best resources for children’s and teens’ writers is www.verlakay.com. Verla Kay is a successful picture book author who shares her knowledge and resources on this site, and also maintains a chat board for writers, illustrators, editors and agents. It’s a great place to meet other writers; find answers to publishing questions; discuss publishing trends; share successes along the way to publication; and most importantly, to be a part of a huge, supportive, creative and helpful writing community. Kim is an avid “Blue-Boarder” and recommended that we all check it out: http://www.verlakay.com/boards/index.php.

Of course, there’s the ubiquitous Facebook – most of us are on the site and have joined our Hudson Valley Shop Talk Facebook group. We will continue to use our Facebook page to communicate with our Shop Talk members between the monthly meetings, and to share news, thoughts and ideas. Also, many professional authors have Facebook fan pages that can be followed by anyone.

Twitter is also an extremely popular social network site, for sharing thoughts and information in posts that are no more than 140 characters long. Many authors and publishing professionals are on Twitter, and can be added to a user’s list of accounts to follow. For anyone who’s not too familiar with it, I found a brief, useful description of Twitter here on PC Magazine’s website: http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,1237,t=Twitter&i=57880,00.asp. And Shop Talk member Bill Joel, who’s a middle-grade author and poet, mentioned that you can find different writing groups on Twitter, such as KidLitchat, MGLitChat, YALitChat, and AskAgent – these usually have monthly group live chats, and then post the transcripts.

Tumblr is an interesting site – its users can post photos, videos, music and links, and can follow and also share each others’ posts. It’s also a good way to follow authors, and publishing and media topics. Here’s a description of Tumblr from a tech website: http://www.techopedia.com/definition/27517/tumblr.

I learned about Pinterest from Kim – it’s a kind of public visual bulletin board, where images pertaining to different topics and interests can be posted, and also shared among users. Here’s a definition of Pinterest that I found online: http://www.techterms.com/definition/pinterest. Kim has created different Pinterest boards of visual images for Touching the Surface (http://pinterest.com/kimsabatini/touching-the-surface/) and her novel-in-progress, The Opposite of Gravity (http://pinterest.com/kimsabatini/the-opposite-of-gravity/). I think it’s a cool way to brainstorm story ideas and also to share different aspects of a story with people.

Linkedin is a more professional type of social network, most well-known in business circles, but many writers use it, too. I don’t know a lot about it, but found a good definition of it on this site: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/LinkedIn. And I also found a good article, about its usefulness to writers, by Linda Parkinson-Hardman, who wrote LinkedIn Made Easy. Here’s the link: http://womanontheedgeofreality.com/2012/06/12/how-authors-and-writers-can-use-linkedin-effectively-your-profile/.

Many writers also have their own websites, or keep a blog on a blog hosting site, like LiveJournal (www.livejournal.com) or Google’s Blogger (www.blogger.com). The good thing about these blog hosting sites is that they are free – and can be used until you’re ready to maintain the monthly or yearly fees that many website domain hosting services charge.

Many of us (like Kim) use many of these sites; some use one or two sporadically; and some aren’t really into social networking. Of course, it’s best to do what you feel most comfortable doing online, but Kim said that social networking is important to building an author’s platform.

Platform building is basically a way to become visible to the public, and to build an audience for your work. Kim said it’s important to create a platform early, before publication, because it can build a supportive readership. Agents and editors are usually attracted to writers who have developed a platform because those writers can have a built-in audience for their book, and that makes the professionals’ jobs of marketing and promotion easier.

Kim stressed that the main purpose of creating a platform is not to focus on your own agenda, but to make genuine connections and interactions with people in the writing and publishing community.

She started by following her favorite authors, agents and editors – especially those she’d met at conferences and book events – on their blogs, Twitter and Facebook pages. She said that many times you can follow an author you like, or one who you think your work is similar to, and then find their agent and editor, and begin to follow them, too. Or you can meet an agent or editor at a conference, and then find their list of authors on their social network pages. The goal is support the work of other authors – Kim has always promoted other new authors’ books as they’ve come out and then they returned the favor by posting about Touching the Surface as it was being released.

You can also look up different public and school librarians, teachers and parent groups online – a great way for picture book and middle-grade writers to find places for school and book visits.

And Kim also mentioned that some authors do video conferencing, through “vlogs” on video sites like YouTube. It’s like a virtual conference or book event, and can reach audiences that are outside of your immediate community or region.

There wasn’t much time to cover each of these social networking sites in detail, but Kim (who I think is a queen of social networking!) said if anyone has questions or wants to learn more about any specific sites, to just get in touch with her.

Near the end of the meeting, Kim had us all break up into smaller groups for writing critiques. There were groups for picture books, chapter and middle-grade books, and young adult books. I think it worked out well – it gave more Shop Talk members a chance to read and get feedback on their work in smaller, more specific groups than if just one member shared their work with the whole large group.

So going forward, we’ll have these small group sessions during the last hour of our meetings, after the first discussion hour. Kim has posted the information about setting up the groups on our FB page.

Also, there’s a “wish list” post, where you can suggest topics for discussions at upcoming Shop Talks.

All in all, I think it was a great start to the New Year – I hope the information was helpful (and that this blog post isn’t too long or boring!) And I hope that everyone was as inspired as I was! Here’s to a productive and accomplished 2013 for all!