SCBWI Meetings (Multi-Month Edition!)

In light of the craziness of the past few months, it’s time for a multi-month SCBWI meeting summary extravaganza!

AUGUST:

The August SCBWI meeting in Columbus featured MG & YA author Liz Coley.  Liz spoke on the topic of “Hybrid Publishing.”  As an author who has experience with both traditional and self-publishing, Liz had a lot of great advice to share with the group.  She explained that each type of publishing has its pros and cons, including:

Cons

-Traditional publishers are harder to get into (often requiring an agent), and take longer to publish work.  Authors also earn royalties, ultimately sharing the book’s profits with the publishing house, their agent etc.  

-Self-publishing often requires a significant financial investment up front, including design, inventory, and advertising costs.  It can also be hard to find an audience with a lot of competition in the market.

Pros

-Traditional publishers have access to reviewers, book stores, foreign sales, media rights, etc., which often means greater distribution and sales of a book.  So even though the author gets a “piece of the pie,” the pie is usually bigger overall.

-With no middlemen involved, self-published authors get to enjoy their entire pie.  They also get to control all aspects of their project (cover, release date, content, etc.), which is great for people who like that level of control.

SEPTEMBER:

The September SCBWI meeting featured YA author Natalie Richards.  Natalie talked about the art of pacing and why it’s so important in a story.  She described stories as a road trip: the plot is the road, the pacing is the car, and the characters are the people in the car.  Just as a car can go fast or slow, so can the pacing in a book.  It’s good to have a mix of “savoring” (slower parts) and “action” (faster parts), but too much of one or the other can make the plot drag on or zip by much too quickly.  Natalie gave tips on how to speed up and slow down pacing including:

Slow Down

-Add descriptions/atmosphere, character introspections, and quiet moments for the characters (and reader) to “catch their breath”

-Cut back on dialogue

Speed Up

-Shorten sentences/paragraphs, add more dialogue, and choose “power words” (active verbs and strong adjectives)

-Be mindful of the white space on a page.  More white space = quicker reading, which is great for suspenseful, page turning moments in the story.

OCTOBER:

 

The October SCBWI meeting featured illustrator Christina Wald.  Christina has been illustrating for twenty years and discussed the many roads that artists can take throughout their careers.  In addition to children’s book illustrating, Christina’s career has included work for pop-up books, toy concepts and packaging, tabletop gaming cards and books (including Lord of the Rings and Star Wars), and magazines.  She offered great advice to artists looking to break into the business including:

-Have a strong online presence.  You never know who will see your work and what will lead to a new project.

-Show the type of work that you want to do and DON’T post things that you don’t enjoy.  It’s good to be well-rounded, but if you hate drawing bicycles, then it’s better to leave them out of your portfolio.  (Otherwise you might attract a client who wants you to draw fifty of them!) 

-Remember to include keywords on your social media posts so your art will pop up when people search for that subject matter.

-Be open-minded about opportunities that come your way.  You never know what doors might open if you give something a try!

OTHER FUN!

In addition to hosting these three great speakers, Central/Southern Ohio SCBWI also held the 2018 Notecard Contest this fall.  (Which has kept yours truly quite busy!)  This year’s theme was “Classic Children’s Books” and the winners were chosen by a guest judge in the publishing industry.  The five winning pieces (seen below) are available for purchase in a one-of-a-kind notecard set at https://ohiocensouth.scbwi.org/.

All contest participants were also invited to display their illustrations in a gallery at the Upper Arlington Library.  The gallery is currently up and will be available for viewing through the end of November.  If you’re in the Columbus area, be sure to stop by the library and see everyone’s talented work!

I think that’s everything for Central/Southern Ohio SCBWI happenings!  If you want to learn more about SCBWI, please visit the website at https://ohiocensouth.scbwi.org/.  I hope to see you at the end of the year celebration (and last meeting of 2017) on November 29!

Note: For more information about our guest speakers and their books, visit:

Liz Coley- http://www.lizcoley.com/

Natalie Richards- http://nataliedrichards.com/

Christina Wald- http://www.christinawald.com/