Made It Out of NYC Alive

Back from the SCBWI Conference in one piece!  Just kidding, it wasn't that crazy.  Mostly it was fun and informative.  I was completely nervous the whole ride up, worried about that darn elevator speech I needed to figure out, but Sachin helped me perfect it as we drove (he's quite the actor and did a very convincing portrayal of a publisher and an agent who I had to "converse" with).

Friday night we got there and immediately went to the Wheeltapper Pub on 44th Street to meet up for KidLit night (a.k.a. Children's book professionals getting drunk together and having a jolly, no-pressure time).  It was pretty awesome, although I did find the hardest part was breaking in to conversation with people at some points.  We met Elizabeth Mosier, who happened to be from my region in PA, and her friend from California.  Then we talked to Linda McCarthy, an art director from Penguin.  Both had interesting insights into the industry and were a lot of fun to boot! 

Saturday I listened to great keynote speeches by the likes of Libba Bray (crazy and hilarious) and the most amazing, Jackie Woodson.  She gave me a whole new perspective on writing with the hypnotic readings of her picture book Show Way and a YA novel.  She had this mesmerizing tone that complimented the beautifully thought-out rhythm of her writing in a sort of beat prose way.  She got a standing ovation.

I was somewhat disappointed with the Breakout Sessions.  My favorite was Picture Books with Allyn Johnston of Beach Lane Publishing.  She read some select picture books to compliment her lecture, which included all very thoughtful and moving books (it's rare a picture book brings the reader to tears but these books were truly stunning in their simple messages of love).  I was disappointed to not get to talk to her afterwards, however, as they kicked us out of each session immediately after it was over.

I also attended Visual Storytelling with Laurent Linn.  Linn was a cool and charismatic speaker but he just didn't tell me anything I didn't already know from my first year in art school.  It was very basic-level info he was giving out, and to make it worse the lecture was in this basement sort of room with big wide columns and a long narrow shape, so only about the first 2 rows could actually see the slide examples he was projecting to go with his VISUAL storytelling lecture.

Viral Marketing was the most informative session for me because I learned better strategies for interacting with readers online.  Most valuable lesson: I have to finally break down and get a Twitter account, at least for Lizzie.

Lunch was one of my favorite parts! The food was delicious, banquet-style, and the half of my table I talked to the whole time was populated by 3 funny, creative women including Robin Black Walder, a jeweler and children's novelist.

We also heard a good speech by illustrator Peter Sis, who talked about growing up in Communist Prague and his journey to the top once he reached the USA.

Sunday was fun with a hilarious lecture by Jim Benton of the Happy Bunny character (found in Hot Topic). That was followed by a somewhat dull list of what's selling in the market these days (the hour-long litany of which was made completely pointless by the lecturer then reminding us, "But the market trends are constantly changing so don't try to keep up"), followed by a very disappointing agent panel.  Of the three agents only one was relevant to what I do (Rosemary Stimola), and the format, which had Linn Oliver (SCBWI Founder) read pre-determined questions to the agents, did nothing for me.  The questions were not helpful and the answers even less so.  Typical cliche, ambiguous responses: "Well you have to write from the heart" "Write what is true to you," and my favorite, "We are looking for something that speaks to us--but we don't know what that is until we see it."  Not sure what I'm quite supposed to do with those answers.  I thought an audience Q&A, or a critique of a query letter/MS, would have been more helpful.  I left that panel just feeling frustrated.

Jane Yolen gave the final keynote speech, which was good (her list of 20 things a writer should keep in mind was perceptive and chuckle-worthy)...but I'd already heard the exact same one in October of '08 at the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic conference.

So, all in all I would say the conference was good in that it left me inspired and motivated, but nothing more.  I learned that I've been doing most things right, but that it's a tough market out there and there's not a lot of room unless you're really amazing, or really pushy.

...I'm sure I can do at least one of those things!