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SCBWI Team Blog, left to right: Lee Wind, Jaime Temairik, Jolie Stekly, Don Tate, and Martha Brockenbrough

What a conference!

We hope you'll join us for all the inspiration, craft, business, opportunity and community of the 45th Annual SCBWI Summer Conference in Los Angeles, July 29 - August 1, 2016.

SCBWI Team Blog
Lee, Jaime, Jolie, Martha and Don

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I'm so excited about this session! Rainbow Rowell is the New York Times bestselling author of the Young Adult novels Eleanor & Park and Fangirl and Carry On. She's even received a Printz Honor for Eleanor & Park!*

Martha Brockenbrough is our very own team blogger, author of the YA novels The Game of Love and Death and Devine Intervention.**



They're talking about Creating Teen Characters, and you'd think it would feel like this:


But it really felt like this:


Rainbow and Martha had great, in-depth discussion and we were right there. They spoke about the shift that happens for writing a teen's perspective, and the shift that happens for a teen reader (versus an adult.) Rainbow said,

"I don't think about audience... I can get stalled."

They both worked as journalists, and Rainbow spoke of the good training that was (like how it was great for dialog and made her not so precious about her writing) and the challenges that same background created (her voice got "slammed out.") Rainbow joked about her contemporary realistic novels,

"What I'm doing is journalism, but lying."

Martha played the song "Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod" by The Mountain Goats so we could all hear a bit of it. Rainbow then told us about how the song (and the whole album) inspired her novel Eleanor & Park, and "how it unlocked me." They spoke about different tools they use to get into the writing. Martha used period photos for The Game of Love and Death. Rainbow uses music as a "shortcut to get back to the emotion of that scene," describing a particular scene from Eleanor & Park and how it had a specific song.

They spoke about diversity of characters, aspirational characters versus real characters, and Rainbow's breakthrough in writing fantasy. It was a great story, about research and tropes (and playing with tropes) and how Rainbow ultimately realized that for fantasy, "I've read enough to find my own voice in it."

There was so much more, and Rainbow also answered questions from the rapt audience.

Two final bits of wisdom:

Speaking about today's teens versus the teens of the 1980s, Martha Brockenbrough said,

"We've been this age, we know what we need to know." 

Telling us of a particular character she found challenging to write, (Agatha in Carry On), Rainbow said,

"As an author, you need to find your way in."

And then she explained how she found her way into Agatha... So fascinating!

Useful. Inspiring. Very special.

What a breakout session!




*Check out all of Rainbow's titles here.

**Check out all of Martha's titles here.

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We're so glad you're here -- in person and/or following along on this blog.

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So many books, so little time! Here are some of the books that I really enjoyed in 2015, listed alphabetically by title. Click on the titles to read my reviews:

Alex as Well by Alyssa Brugman
All the Rage by Courtney Summers
Dead Ringers by Christopher Golden
A Deafening Silence in Heaven by Thomas E. Sniegoski
Edgewater by Courtney Sheinmel
The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough
Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
Sounds Like Me: My Life (so far) in Song by Sara Bareilles
Tin Men by Christopher Golden
The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten


Check out my full list: Best Books of 2015 - as posted at my blog, Bildungsroman.


What were some of your favorite books from 2015? Leave the titles in the comments below!

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Kate. Martha.

It's a powerful combination.

Check out this interview, where Kate shares some things she wishes she knew when she was starting out, tells us about bullet journaling, and there's even an under 6 minute animated video of Kate giving a TED Ed talk on "Building Fictional Worlds!"

Kate Messner will be giving a keynote speech at the New York SCBWI conference in February with fellow middle-grade author Linda Urban, "Music, Mountains, and Mocha Lattes: Sustaining a Creative Life" that promises to be amazing! We hope you can join us. Here's where you can get all the info on the conference and registration.

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And the first of our pre-conference faculty interviews is in (and it's awesome!)

Agent Sarah Davies talks with Martha Brockenbrough about middle grade fiction, what makes books "saleable," and when a writer can know their book is ready to submit.

Their interview is packed with great advice and suggestions, like,

"focus on developing the two big ‘C’ words — Concept and Craft." 

and

"Don’t be frightened to be radical — rewriting can be far more powerful than tweaking, as it allows you to pull in fresh thinking in the strongest possible way so the new draft feels fully coherent."

Sarah Davies will be on faculty at the #NY16SCBWI conference, giving a breakout workshop Saturday morning and afternoon, "Saleable and Memorable Middle Grade Fiction," and participating in the Sunday main stage panel, "Acquisitions Today: Opportunities and Challenges."

You can see Sarah in person and learn from all the amazing faculty (and fellow writer and illustrator attendees) by joining us at the 17th Annual SCBWI Winter Conference in New York. Registration and details here.

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From left to right: Lee Wind, Martha Brockenbrough, Jolie Stekly, Jaime Temairik and Don Tate

From all of us at SCBWI Team Blog, thanks for following along!

We hope you'll join us for the 17th Annual SCBWI Winter Conference in New York City, February 12-14, 2016.

Featuring:

Full-day intensives for both writers and illustrators,
The juried portfolio showcase with Grand Prize,
The opportunity to network with top editors, agents and publishers
Workshops,
Keynotes
and much more!

Craft. Business. Inspiration. Opportunity. Community.
We're your SCBWI.

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@mbrockenbrough is Martha's Twitter handle. Magnum Blackbeard is her CB radio handle.

Author Martha Brockenbrough shares some fantastic and salient social media marketing gems. Spoiler alert: It's all about relationships!

Your strategy for social media, says Martha, is not to be on there to sell books, it's to build relationships. It is not about the technology/particular media platform, either, that is totally secondary to the connections you make on whatever platform you are comfortable being in or on.

You wouldn't start an in-real-life friendship by telling someone to buy your book, that's not how you should approach social media either. It's fine to make people aware that you write or illustrate, but Martha's hope is that you instead focus your efforts on being friendly, interacting online, and adding something to the conversations.

Give them reasons to interact with you: you can show snippets of your life, your family, vacations, things that inspire you.

Who are you building these social media relationships with? Five-year-olds don't tweet, but booksellers, librarians, teachers and parents do! All of these people are potential gatekeepers to your intended audience of your published book.

If you aren't published? Well, your fellow industry professionals, fellow authors and illustrators and agents and editors are on social media, and you can start building these relationships now and support authors and illustrators you are fans of and herald their work.

Martha's Core Principles for Online Social Media (and Martha can do an 8-minute plank, so she knows about core strength)

1. Be Positive
2. Focus on the long term
3. Build an authentic community (Martha admits it is difficult to be careful and professional while also being authentic, but hold both of these things in mind when you do broadcast yourself/opinions online)

Martha provides some platform-tailored tips and hints for how to interact on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and more, for both your personal and professional pages.

One Facebook hint: Images are often more popular than text-only posts for views and shares, consider making a quote from your book or a new, glowing review you want to share as word art or an image. Or consider using pictures to promote your event, like one of Martha's most popular booktour event info posts was this one:

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Martha Brockenbrough is the author of YA novels THE GAME OF LOVE AND DEATH and DEVINE INTERVENTION, and THE DINOSAUR TOOTH FAIRY,  a picture book with much more to come.


Martha wanted to write books her whole life. She had a couple transformative moments: 1) The decision to attend this conference in 2008. 2) A class she took with Linda Sue Park that turned on a lightbulb for her (on revising scenes).

The "if I could just" thought can be dangerous (If I could just get an agent... If I could just get published...). "What's really satisfying is building meaningful relationships."

Martha thinks resistance makes you strong. It means it takes effort. We all have to get stronger in order to progress.

Martha reminds us the first draft of a novel is not going to great. There can be great moments in it, but you can't let those moments become your enemy. As Martha struggled with her only draft, Anne Ursu advised: Just finish the draft. Martha, tell us, don't stop as you go.

Martha reminds us all: The work is the reward. The work is the joy.


Stacey Lee is the author of UNDER A PAINTED SKY, her debut young adult novel.



For Stacey it was writing for many years and then taking a risk. Stacey attended a local SCBWI conference that she nearly talked herself out of attending because of fear. There, her work was recognized as the most promising manuscript and things started rolling from there for her.


Stacey wrote 5 books before breaking in with UNDER A PAINTED SKY. You have to cut your teeth working on other projects to grow as a writer.

Stacey remind us that conflict makes us keep turning pages. We need to give our characters pain to make the payoff better.

Stacey shares, success is not what defines you.

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As writers and illustrators of children’s books, we have the cutest fantasies. Who else dreams that their work will someday be decorated by a sticker?

And then there’s the conference fantasy, where the agent or editor of your dreams holds your manuscript overhead and says, “This is brilliant!” and she just happens to have a contract in her pocket, which you sign on the spot. It’s almost better than the sticker.

But here’s the thing. People are sometimes asked to send off stories or art, and there are similarly wonderful career-transforming moments. Usually, though, nothing quite so dramatic happens.

And yet… conferences are magic. Truly. Every picture book I’ve ever sold has come directly from my time at an SCBWI conference, specifically the one in Los Angeles. I’ve sold four picture books and have interest in a fifth; each one sprang from an idea or conversation I had at that summer conference, starting with my first one in 2008.

My future editor, Arthur A. Levine, had been in Seattle that spring for a conference, and through a happy accident of seating, we’d chatted through the evening, and he invited me to submit something to him someday. At the time, I was writing an epic novel about a pirate in part because I’d given up on picture books, and in part because, well, I can’t really remember why, which was ultimately the problem with that novel.

At our local spring conference, Arthur had offered sage advice from his then four-year-old son. “When in doubt, write about dinosaurs.” At the time, this didn’t strike me as anything other than adorable. (Who was I to write about dinosaurs, anyway? At the time, I was merely thirty-seven.)

When registration opened for the summer conference in Los Angeles, I really wanted to go. But I couldn’t. We had a family reunion that weekend. And what kind of jerk puts anything in front of family? As it turns out, I am that kind of jerk.

In Los Angeles, Arthur reassured us about the picture book market, which at the time was feeling kind of battered. On the flight home, I resolved to send him a thank-you note for being so encouraging. I looked out the window, and I thought about dinosaurs, and specifically their teeth, and even more fantastically, about who might love their teeth most of all.

Arthur ended up publishing the answer to that question—The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy—five years later. A year or two after I sold The DTF, I mentioned to Arthur at another Los Angeles conference a letter I’d written to my daughter when she asked for the truth about Santa. He said he thought it sounded like a picture book as well. A dear friend I’d met at the Los Angeles conference, Samantha Berger, gave me an idea for how it might be done. I wrote it. Arthur bought it.

Last summer, Samantha and I came up with an idea at the conference while we were eating pizza poolside. So far that has turned into a two picture book deal with Arthur.

These aren’t the sort of things you can predict when you’re thinking about going to a conference. The standard fantasy—that someone might love your work and buy it on the spot—pales in comparison to what really can happen. You go to these conferences and meet people who inspire you. You make friends. You hear words you didn’t know you needed to hear, things that make you laugh and cry, things that feed your mind in ways your everyday routine might not. All of this becomes the fuel of story.

I’d never thought to dream about what comes from inspiration and connection and friendship. And yet this combination is so much better than any contract, and why I’ll go to every SCBWI conference I can.

Fantasies are great and all. But real life? It’s better.

 

Martha Brockenbrough is the author of the YA novels The Game of Love and Death and Devine Intervention, and The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy, a picture book. Both are with Arthur A. Levine at Scholastic, as is her forthcoming picture book, Love, Santa, as well as two Bigfoot picture books written jointly with Samantha Berger. Martha also wrote the nonfiction middle grade Finding Bigfoot for Feiwel & Friends. In addition to her work on SCBWI's Team Blog, she is the founder of National Grammar Day and author of Things That Make Us [Sic]. Visit www.marthabrockenbrough.squarespace.com and on Twitter @mbrockenbrough.

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Click on over to read this chat between SCBWI Team Blog's Martha Brockenbrough and debut author/illustrator Mike Curato.

They talk day jobs and publishing dreams, polka dot elephants and shows at cupcake stores. Martha even gets Mike's time-traveling advice to himself years ago, which includes this gem:

"Make things that make you smile inside."

Mike's publishing journey is one of our "SCBWI Success Stories" featured at the upcoming 2015 SCBWI Summer Conference on a Friday afternoon panel (that I'll be moderating, and that will also feature Martha herself!)

Mike will also be co-leading a Saturday Breakout session with agent Brenda Bowen on "The Artist Agent Relationship!"

We hope you can join us for #LA15SCBWI – and perhaps it will be the path to your own SCBWI Success Story! Detailed conference information and registration here.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

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Check out this great discussion between SCBWI Team Blog's Martha Brockenbrough and best-selling and award-winning author Shannon Hale.

Shannon shares from the heart why she's taken a stand against gender bias in our culture and especially our books. Here's just a taste:

"If I make one change in the world, I hope it's getting more people to question why boys are shamed for/kept away from reading books about girls. The more we question the idea that it's normal and natural and fine, the more we'll realize it's not and things will slowly start to change."
–Shannon Hale

Shannon will be giving a Sunday keynote address "Opening Up The Clubhouse: Boys, Girls, and Genderless Books." She will also be leading a Sunday afternoon workshop, "Writing With Kids: The Marvelous High Wire Act of Writer Parents" and a half-day intensive workshop on Monday, "Building Worlds From The Dust."

Here's the description of that intensive:

E. Shannon Hale – Building Worlds from the Dust

There's nothing like creating a whole new world inside your fantasy or science fiction novel. We'll examine other fictional worlds and discuss tricks and tips to building your own. Assignment: Come with a page or two describing the fictional world of your work-in-progress and be prepared to discuss some of your favorite world-built novels.

Many of the intensives have already sold out, but there's still space as of this writing in others, including Shannon's.

You can find out all the conference details and register here.

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readergirlz! This is our own Diva Martha Brockenbrough's next EPIC work. The stars are zooming in from the critics for this masterpiece. Rights are selling around the world. We are cheering and can't wait for you to read THE GAME OF LOVE AND DEATH!

Here's the overview for you:

Not since THE BOOK THIEF has the character of Death played such an original and affecting part in a book for young people.

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And as we say in Los Angeles, "That's a wrap!"

Thank you for joining us here on the Official SCBWI Conference blog!

Lee Wind (top), and left to right: Jolie Stekly, Jaime Temairik, Martha Brockenbrough and Don Tate!

We hope you'll join Team Blog from July 31-Aug 3, 2015 in Los Angeles for all the craft, business, inspiration, opportunity and community the SCBWI Summer Conference offers!

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Check out this very informative post, The Benefits of A Writers' Roundtable, by author and team blog member Martha Brockenbrough. In it, Martha tells us about the Writers Roundtable Intensive at the upcoming 2015 SCBWI Winter Conference in New York City, February 6-8.

In addition to sharing what happened to her four years ago at the roundtable, Martha is now the intensive's moderator, and shares her thoughts on how to maximize this remarkable opportunity.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

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Team Blog's very own Martha Brockenbrough is the author of five books for young readers, including the YA novel Devine Intervention and the picture book, The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy. She has a killer public presence - check out her website at www.marthabrockenbrough.com and on twitter @mbrockenbrough

Martha Brockenbrough just before her session started (before the room filled to overflowing.)

Martha starts out by saying to the beyond standing-room-only crowd that:

It's not about marketing, it's about building relationships, and those relationships sell your book for you.

It's not about the hard sell - it's about this question: Do you enjoy meeting people who love books as much as you do?

YES!

"Connect with the right people and you'll ultimately connect with the right readers."

The breakout session was structured as the five key steps to building those relationships (and that killer public presence.)

I'll divulge one of the steps here::

Define your brand

Here's how that breaks down:

1. Identify who your ideal reader is

Martha's is: A weird independent nerd

2. summarize your book, who it's about, tone, sense of stakes

What is Martha's YA novel, Devine Intervention about?

"It's about the world's worst guardian angel, the girl he accidentally kills and the 24 hours they have to sneak her soul into Heaven before it disappears forever."

3. summarize your writing as a whole

Martha's website header says it all: "Author of Books for Smart Kids and Juvenile Adults"

4. convey it visually - while still being your authentic self

Martha has that cool streak in her hair that makes teen girls say, "I like your hair!"



5. leverage your unique background

Martha leveraged her passion for grammar by founding The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar and creating a holiday for it. This got her a lot of press coverage, and her reviews often speak of her love of language.


Martha is a fountain of information, and her session covers so much more! From how to leverage common core to the significance of pre-orders, we get example after example of how she and other authors did things right.

It's essential, inspiring, and as the person next to me said after the applause tapered down at the session's end:

"That was awesome."

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The registration lines are buzzing, people are struggling to pull themselves away from the conference bookstore, chairs are being filled…


We're moments from the start of #LA14SCBCWI, and before we "GO!" you should know two things:

1. You're in good hands…

Your SCBWI Team Blog: Left to Right: Lee Wind, Jolie Stekly, Jaime Temairik and Martha Brockenbrough

and,

2. We're so glad you're here. (Even if you're just joining us virtually…)

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Here's the interview, where you can read Judy's advice on getting past the moments when she wanted to quit writing, and hear the best writing advice she ever got!

Thanks Judy, and thanks Martha!

While the 2014 SCBWI Summer Conference is sold out, make sure to check out this conference blog and our conference twitter feed (at #LA14SCBWI) for highlights and a tapas-like taste of all the inspiration, craft, business, opportunity and community!

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

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Check out Newbery Award-Winning and Best-Selling Author Linda Sue Park's interview with Team Blog's Martha Brockenbrough.

Linda Sue shares how research revs up her engine and tells us about the best piece of writing advice she's ever gotten - and how that's the secret to her process!

The SCBWI Summer Conference is almost sold-out, but you can still register and be there for all the inspiration, opportunity, business, craft and community it offers! You can find out all the details here.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

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Check out this great discussion between Team Blog's Martha Brockenbrough and National Book Award winner and Newbery Medalist Cynthia Kadohata, where they talk diversity in Children's literature, capturing emotion, great writing advice, and… tacos.

Thanks Cynthia and Martha!

If you'd like to hear and learn from -- and be inspired by -- Cynthia in person, join us at the 2014 SCBWI Summer Conference in Los Angeles, August 1-4. Click here for more information and to register.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

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Team Blog, hard at work.

From left to right:  Martha Brockenbrough, Jolie Stekly, Lee Wind, Jaime Temairik and Suzanne Young.  Err...   Suzanne (not pictured) is doing research on her new book dealing with invisibility, and although she's not visible in the photo, she's blogging away!

Suzanne, visible

We had a great time blogging the 14th Annual SCBWI Winter Conference!  We invite you to read the posts from the sessions you were fortunate enough to attend, get a glimpse of the ones you missed, and think about the moments and insights that are still resonating for you.  Share your take in comments.

And we hope to see YOU in Los Angeles for the 42nd Annual SCBWI Summer Conference, August 2nd-August 5th, 2013.

Illustrate and Write On,

Lee, Jaime, Jolie, Martha and Suzanne
SCBWI Team Blog


ps - thanks to Emily Jiang for the top photo!

pps - illustrator students - there's a scholarship you can apply for to attend the summer conference.  Find out more here.

ppps - for published authors and/or illustrators who are interested in switching children's book genres, you can apply for a Martha Weston Grant to receive an all-expenses paid trip to the Summer Conference.

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Robert Brown is National Sales and Program Manager at Scholastic Book Fairs. In 1987 Bob founded Cornerstone Books, Incorporated (d/b/a Books, Bytes & Beyond), located in Bergen County, New Jersey. He joined Scholastic Book Fairs in August 2012. A graduate of the University of Virginia and Dartmouth’s Tuck Business School, Bob has a strong commitment to education, and a desire to help children become lifelong readers.

Bob will be on the Saturday morning (February 2, 2013) Bookseller's panel with Mary Brown, owner, Books, Bytes and Beyond; Jon Fine, Amazon.com, and Peter Glassman, owner, Books of Wonder.  They'll be talking about "What's Selling?"

In this interview, Martha Brockenbrough finds out more about Bob, what sells best at the book fairs, and how Scholastic Book Fairs manage to reach 35 million kids and their families a year!

While the Friday Intensives are sold out, there are a limited number of spaces still available for the Saturday and Sunday of the 2013 SCBWI Winter Conference.  You can find out more details and register here. 

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

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Molly O'Neill is an editor at HarperCollins' Katherine Tegen Books imprint. She publishes literary and commercial fiction in the picture book, middle grade, and YA categories, and will be giving two breakout workshops on the Saturday of the upcoming 14th Annual SCBWI Winter Conference in New York City, February 1st-3rd, 2013, WHAT HOOKS ME.  She'll be talking about her list, and sharing

"...some of what drew me to each of those books, as well as some of the questions I ask myself when I’m thinking about acquiring a project."

On her blog, Martha Brockenbrough interviews Molly and finds out about the market, the types of manuscripts and the quality of writers Molly's looking for...and more!



Thanks Martha and Molly!

Registration for #NY13SCBWI is open (early registration ends January 4, 2013), and space is still available.  Keep in mind, the Winter conference sold out last year.  And the year before... 

Find out more details about the 2013 SCBWI Winter Conference schedule, faculty and registration here.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

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Did you know that our very own Martha Brockenbrough has a new book out? That's right -- Devine Intervention released on June 1st, and Seattle HOST Stephanie Guerra is here with the full report.

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