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Wonderful words from Beverley. So wise, so patient, so true. Apt reminder of what its all about. Merry Christmas, Beverley and good luck with your new venture and future books.

Thanks slushpilers. Have a lovely holiday and heres to new horizons in the new year. Good luck and happy writing.

Every time I hear Beverley speak I find I am nodding my head and listening with wide eyes, and every time she finishes I feel like I've been in the warmest group hug. Beverley Birch you are Patron Saint of The Slushpiler. Thanks you - I think your move to Golden Egg is one of the very best things that could happen to children's fiction.

My thanks, too, Beverley. You're an inspiration as always. Very best of luck with all your new projects.

What a wonderful post, and, in the early stages of a new manuscript, this has given me lots of food for thought. Thank you.

Splendid, inspiring article. Thank you Beverley.

Wonderful post, and so true! (I wonder how many of were actually writing when the pics were taken!) Happy Christmas everybody!!

Great post, Beverley - and I love that last picture of Helen Peters sitting and writing beneath the trees - it puts everything into perspective. Merry Christmas everyone.

Helen was REALLY writing. She didn't realize I'd taken that photo!

I was definitely posing Jackie! But I think you can tell. The book I&#39;m holding is one of my favourite Ahlberg books called Tell Us a Story Dad, it&#39;s always on my desk as my reminder to &#39;keep it simple&#39;. <br />Thank you so much Beverley, your post seems to sum up the whole experience of being a children&#39;s writer.

Massive thanks to you, Beverley! How brilliant that you&#39;ll continue to inspire and help the slushpilers.

What a brilliant post, Beverley - as ever, you bring wisdom and insight to the writer&#39;s life! Thank you!

Thanks all for lovely comments. I love those pictures! I am sure 2013 will bring good writing things for you all, and I have my fingers and toes firmly crossed on your behalf. Have a great Christmas, and see you all, somewhere, in the New Year. love from Beverley

Thank you for a great post, lots of food for thought! Merry Christmas Beverley.

What a brilliant post - I love the writer and editor selves getting together at the end!

Great post and great photos of writers at work! I&#39;m not writing much, so no pictures of me at the keyboard - have to change that in 2013! Thanks for a great series of posts! Colleen

Great post, Beverley, and so true. I&#39;m still stuck somewhere on the 6th day! Eek! Wondering if my family will notice if I skip Christmas !<br />X Sarah

I find it extremely amusing that both have overseen two of the biggest series in YA, yet they overlooked two other extremely popular books.

I was really shocked to hear Sarah say she thought The Book Thief was boring ... but it only goes to show that reading is a personal thing.

Brilliant brilliant post - can&#39;t tell you how much this cheered me up x

My takeaway though is that the tough parameters of the children&#39;s book market means authors have to do their growing off-page before going to market.

Interesting post. Off to write a best seller now. Easy!

Interesting post really enjoyed reading this. Thanks

Hi Candy, sounds like a great trip. I saw Sarah Odedina recently at a childrens book circle event and was also very impressed by her and am rather excited about Hot Keys submission policy! Just need the perfect book now....

5,000 is a best seller? Really? Really?<br /><br />I couldn&#39;t read The Book Thief. Have tried and failed several times. Have never got as far as page three. I feel utterly repelled by the concept and execution..err..on the basis of those pages. And have never got further than two words of Wimpy Kid on the basis of the font.

Great post, Candy. Hot Key Books is doing an event in June at the Prof Series. It would be great to listen to them in person.<br /><br />Also 5000 in 6 months - might sound small, guess it is a big number if you don&#39;t have the same number of libraries, bookshops and of course as you said book reviewers talking about the book. <br /><br />I miss Singapore. I haven&#39;t gone back since 2007. I

Fascinating. Almost as good as having been there! Thank you. (I was underwhelmed by &#39;The Book Thief&#39; too. I rather like the Wimpy Kids I&#39;ve read though...and love watching my children devour them, over and over and over again. Hey ho.)

Great feedback from Singapore. Yeah five thousand books in the UK sound right to me and that&#39;s with support from your publisher. It&#39;s a darn tough world out there. PS Always best to start &#39;The Book Thief&#39; with the second chapter I find. Great that you got invited to this event Candy. One question. Did you get to see a Singapore bookshop and do they buy UK YA? Just curious.

Singapore is really amazingly multinational - there are several bookstores, largely English language books and YA is BIG. whether your book gets there depends on whether your publisher distributes to that market I guess. My book is imported into Asian English language markets by Random House. The bookseller at the Festival was Bookaburra and their stall was well stocked with both British and US

I loved the Book Thief - give it a chance. Such an unusual book. I liked the unexpected writing.

Thanks, Chitra - what subject did you write about? Oh! And they&#39;re taking a page from the British Isles - they were holding book launches through the day!

Heh heh - maybe I should ring Oprah and ask her if I can be on her show.

Hot Key really is an exciting new house in the market. But yes, be sure you get the book right. I know people say you can resubmit but I really think you only get one shot with each manuscript.

Very interesting that Alvina was turned off by the fact that Jeff Kinney posted it online. After Wimpy Kid&#39;s success, publishers might not be so quick to dismiss authors who do that.

Absolutely brilliant post, Candy. Have read it through three times to make sure I haven&#39;t missed any points. <br />Thanks for the info on <br />super-leads, especially the book mark hint<br />author-driven books that HAVE to be written<br />and even more confirmation that it really is so subjective.<br />But - what did they mean by embargoes in the HP plan?<br />And - where are you going next

Hi Candy, like you amazed that Sarah O found the book thief boring but very heartened by that. Yet another reminder that just because some people don&#39;t like your stuff, doesn&#39;t mean it&#39;s rubbish.<br />Thank you for this post, feel much better!

The lengths you&#39;ll go to for &#39;Notes&#39;, Candy - thankyou! Great, great post and like Maureen, i&#39;ve reread to be sure of soaking up all the goodness. <br />I love Wimpy Kid and have not finished Book Thief.

I meant - what did you TALK about at the festival (I had such a great time hanging out with Filipinos at the AFCC that my brain recalibrated)

Oh don&#39;t you remember - they had an embargo on the book so people who already had advance copies couldn&#39;t review, blog, write, talk about it until a certain date. And then I seem to remember a warehouse by mistake left some copies in a field or something like that!

I always tell kids at schools that it&#39;s okay not to like one book because reading is so personal you will most likely love something that someone else doesn&#39;t like. I probably say that to make myself feel better about it.

I would go to the ends of the earth for NOtes, Addy. Anyone holding a children&#39;s book conference in the Carribean, just say the word and I&#39;ll be there!

I think the <b>author led concept</b> is very important to anyone aspiring to break into publishing. Ask yourself: what book could you write that ONLY YOU would write?

I was so surprised to hear that the world of Wimpy Kid was a game that was freely available online to millions of kids -- well before it was ever a book. Talk about the freemium model!<br /><br />Thanks for the round up Candy. We&#39;re all so proud of the great reviews Sarah is getting from the conference (and her spot on TV!). <br /><br />Tiny correction: Bonnier is a Swedish company, not

Ooops, sorry Sara - I KNEW that!!! Can I plead that I was writing this at high altitude somewhere over Kazakhstan?

... and then the pilot of the plane will post a comment saying, we never flew over Kazakhstan!

Just found a Singaporean TV interview with Sarah Odedina talking in detail about bestsellers. Excellent stuff so I added it to my blog post. Go look.

OMG indeed, Candy!!! Can&#39;t believe Twilight was perceived to be an award-winner-- the book that set back the women&#39;s movement by about 100 years!!! Congratulations, my friend. I love A Tall Story -- now there&#39;s an award-winner! LTM

Brilliant!<br />Thanks so much, Addy.<br /><br />Lesley M

A great comprehensive list here - thanks so much!

Great post. Very informative.<br />Thanks Addy

Awesome post! Loving it! Sharing it! Tweeting it!<br /><br />Best,<br />Sarah

Thank Addy, that was actually really encouraging in terms of what I&#39;m doing right, as well as the things I could be doing better. And isn&#39;t it strange how a voice has to be built to suit for every different book? I find myself rewriting the start of a book many times to get the voice just right.<br /><br />Nick.

Wow, what a thorough explanation of what a great novel needs. Thank you!

OMG how relevant this very morning, when I&#39;m sitting here dithering over a well-plotted outline, whilst being knowledgeable about the YA characters and wondering whether to go for 1st person or 3rd or a couple of povs, and wondering if I can do the voice I hear in my head with the 3rd instead of the 1st. Or just give up writing...<br />You must have been sitting in on my quandary - great post

what a brilliant and comprehensive set of notes on the amazing Beverley&#39;s masterclass! Thanks so much for doing this, Addy! Now I&#39;m slinking off because the character in my head is yammering at me to get her onto the page.

Sound advice beautifully delivered.

Wow - what a brilliant post - well done, Addy and thank you to Beverley. I loved Rift and I really hope you can find the time in your busy editing life to write another brilliant novel set in Africa.

And what a lovely photo!

I was so sorry to miss this class. Many thanks for bringing us along with you, Addy! So many insights here.

Great level of detail, really explaining and demonstrating. Thank you!

Thanks, guys! Beverley was the brilliant one!<br /><br />So much of what she said chimed with me. I agree with you, Nick about writing your way into a book. You just know when a character stretches their legs and leads you and into that misty valley - very exciting.

Finding my main character&#39;s voice had always been a struggle until I went to a David Almond talk and he mentioned how he listened to his characters. It was almost as if they were standing behind him awaiting their turn. So I went home and listened, and there they were! It worked like magic. <br />Until then I think I had a list of structured events rather than a story based on characters.<br

Amazing, direct and pertinent advice. Thank you

What really resonated with me was this quote &quot;The writer is not writing a book about childhood but a book with the child at its beating heart.&quot;

Great post, Addy, and what a great masterclass! Enjoyed it immensely, and (perhaps unfortunately) it has made me go back and tackle that MS again, with the &#39;I can do better&#39; mindset! Beverley was fantastic, and very clever, and very sneaky... you don&#39;t realise what she&#39;s up to till the very last minute!!<br /><br />Jo

Hi, that sounds like a really inspiring workshop Beverley- and thanks so much for taking the time to report on it Addy. <br /><br />I recently had a really useful set of notes from an agent (who was rejecting me!) with just the same advice about making sure you imagined a camera on the shoulder of your MC to help maintain their PoV and keep in their voice, using appropriate vocabulary etc. It&#39

Thank you so much for taking the time to give those of us who couldn&#39;t be there such a comprehensive post, Addy. I really appreciate this and it&#39;s always great to hear new ways to think about finding the voice of the story.

Addy If I&#39;d realized what terrific notes you were taking, I wouldn&#39;t have bothered! For those of you who weren&#39;t at the workshop, these are almost like being there.

Thanks, Addy! A great post to read before sitting down for my writing time. RIFT is a beautifully written book and Beverley&#39;s attention to voice shows on every page. Your detailed masterclass helps me to think I can do it, too.<br /><br />Best,<br />Tioka

Great blog. Thanks for sharing. I heard Beverley talk several years ago and it&#39;s great to hear her comments (through you) again. Thanks.

Thanks for posting. The thing that stuck in my head after attending this masterclass was Beverley saying the creation of character inside is more important than outside: so true!