Our Linda Joy Singleton attended a regional SCBWI (Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators) conference near Monterey recently. Here are some notes from her experience.
Friday night, editor Arianne Lewin from Hyperion spoke. Some of her quotes on marketing and promoting books:
* Publishers tend to do more online advertising than print nowadays.
* Always looking for connections to people who will talk about books.
* Authors should establish themselves online like Facebook and Twitter.
* Authors should think of all their contacts and give the publisher a list.
* Reviews and awards help but don’t guarantee a (library) buy.
More cautionary notes from Ari:
*Don’t ever complain about your house online in a way it can be traced back to you.
*Remember we publicize books not authors.
*As an editor you are both jockey and the person outside betting.
On Saturday morning, Scholastic editor AnnMarie Anderson spoke. She edits the new Poison Pen series, Geronima Stilten and Nate Banks; mostly books for 7-10 age and 8-12. She spoke on giving a pitch for a series and said it needed to include:
* Hook
* Synopsis of first book
* Sample chapters
* Character descriptions
She said that “Editors are looking for fresh new angles.” Also that she likes boy-friendly content, animal characters, girly books and multi-cultural.
Afterwords, I went to SOCIAL MEDIA talk by Greg Pincus which I found very interesting. A math poem he put online went viral and led to 2 book deal with Harry Potter’s editor. Advice he gave about blogging:
*Be visible and efficient-it’s better to do one thing well.
*Prepare: Know audience and books. Ask yourself why you are blogging? Have a plan.
*Commit to spending time.
*He says you probably won’t reach teens; they’re networking with other teens.
*Add value to your blog; create content and opportunities.
*Make people welcome (answer replies!)
Read more of Linda’s conference notes at her livejournal.
Linda Joy Singleton
Thanks so much for sharing this info. I try to get to one conference a year, and I’m thinking SCBWI will be the one for me this year. Timely information from editors, agents and other writers is so important for all of us.