SCBWI LA - in a day

Book Update: Bright is backin hadns of Awesome Agent. Cross your fingers! I feel its done - I rewrote beginning and ending in addition to edits _ added material resulting in an additional 12,000 words. Now tween book is at 63,000.

Blogger Update: so far have met Christy (Juvenescance), sherry solvang(write it now), suzanne young, shana silverman, lisa schroeder. someone told me Jess jordon was here but we havent seen her yet.

It is 10 pm (LA time) and our day really just ended.

Went for breakfast this morning with Lindsey Leavitt, Katie Anderson, Sarah Francis Hardy, and Kimberly Derting. (SFH had the best egg pizza - yum! and LL had a tower of sticky buns!! Yum yum! Me? the healthy oatmeal boring. Tomorrow I am going all out :)

The morning started off with Sherman Alexie, author of ...Diary of Part Time Indian...

he was so funny. But under all the humor was a guy who turned his painful childhood into a dream existence. A kid with brain damage, bad vision, poor, lived on an Indian reservation. A kid who found a way to escape from his hard childhood with books.

Here are some of my "Ah ha" moments (for more detail you can go to scbwi's blog.)

"when you give a kid a book he naturally identifies with than you expect him to connect with it. But when you give a kid a book that is outside his normal comfort zone, and he finds a way to connect with it - that is when you begin changing the world."

"The power of books is amazing. They find a way yo the people that need them the most. Whether its 1 person or 100,000. Every book has the destiny to change at least one person."

"As a children's author - you must accept responsibility of writing for a young audience; prepare to be lonely because it is hard work, and know when you write it - it will impact people."

Next was David Weisner (Flotsam)

"He talked about the films and books that impacted his illustrations and writing. He showed a journey of how he got to Flotsam. How all of his books led up to that one."

"Writing is a personal journey. We don't write with a certain kid in mind. We write from our kid. From our hearts, experiences, and memory. Kids just happen to be touched by them."

"Think about all the stuff that you thought was cool when you were a kid. There is a story in each thing that stood out to you."

Ingrid Law - Savvy

Write with creativity and courage
Read the book "Spunk and bite"
Push voice further than you thought possible.
exercise: write a crazy sentence - then ask questions. This is how Savvy started - one crazy sentence and a bunch of questions.
Trust your instincts, be wild and playful, have a beginner's mind, be courageous, take risks, and don't be afraid to break the rules - you can always rein them in
pretend you are always a tourist and see things with a new eye.
be sure to look up when you walk around so you can observe the nuances of life

Sarah Davies - Greenhouse Literary (love her!!!)

world rights - all languages in world
world english rights - english language anywhere in world
hard to see Us fiction in UK. less space for YA market

Ways to spread international buzz:
Scouts - represent foreign publishers
Publishers marketplace - sign up and watch foreign right sales
understand foreign market
Pub weekly features on international authors
Bologna Frankfurt conferences/book fairs

Advice for global sales
consider world when you write
have market in mind
middle grade needs strong sales
YA fiction with unique voice and premise

Audio Books
1) primary - when they exploit own rights
2) secondary - sells rights to someone else

what helps international sales
global appeal
unique voice
Non fiction and PB do not sell as well as MG/YA
unusually ideas
awards/sales figures
love young boy fiction
concepts and setting that transcends cultures

see you tomorrow!

I'm here!

Just got into LA!

Whew my plane did not go down so I have to send a shout out to my guardian angel :)

Left this morning about 8am. Got here at noon. Who loves a time change! (I do! At least today I do!)

Luckily it was after my kids left with hubby for camp so the goodbye was not traumatic (for me that is). All the kids care about is if I am bringing them back anything. Daughter's request: ice cream sandwich (uh not going to happen) and son's - same as usual (truck. Oops A big truck!) My hubby always brings back great gifts for kids when he travels so I'll have to upstage him (not that it is a competition :) Since my hubby always seems to bring me either airport chocolate or free shampoo - who knows what he will get. ;)

Now that I am here - i've realized the following: I forgot my sunglasses so I had to buy 15$ pair. (how is that possible when going to LA?), forgot my camera! (again, how is that possible) and forgot my iPod (no music for 5 days?). I guess I was too busy packing 10 pairs of shoes (dont' ask. I will say I blame Katie at Plot this!) and 10 outfits (yes for 5 days. Again Katie's fault). hey if Delta is going to make me pay 15$ for a bag - I might as well take all I can. I think my bag weighed in at 51 lbs (*sigh*) so I had to throw out my contact saline solution to get it under the weight limit. (another sacrifice for fashion) Sad I know but at least I'll have wardrobe choices (I don't know if I said this but it is KATIE's fault! ;) Besides, for those who know me, I am forever spilling stuff on my shirt - coffee, salsa, or ketchub. It's true. So this is safer.

Flight was uneventful except the normal stuff - screaming baby, man in front leaning too far back threatening to kill my new MAC (yeah you heard me and no I refrained from taking him out), and 3.5 peanuts. No wonder I'm full.

BTW - why is it when you travel you feel hungrier than normal? Is it the altitude?

I think I saw the Grand Canyon from the window but its hard to tell at 30,000 feet up. I know it was a mountain though :)

Got here in the allotted time of 4 hours and 2 minutes (could they not just round up?).

So what have I seen so far? no agents to befriend, no editors clamoring for my book, and certainly no stars. *sigh*. I did see one of my regional advisors!!!! woot woot!! (Hey Donna!)

Now, I am sitting outside in shaded deck, overlooking pool, pretending to work (on free wireless!!!) so I don't look like a loser, and waiting for someone/anyone to recognize me from my blog photo or college mug shot - whichever comes first - beggars can't be choosers right? (Just kidding people! :)

I'm excited to get started and waiting for Kimberly to arrive in a couple hours. Ready to bask in brilliance, Ready to enjoy some time away from hustle and bustle of kids/schedules. Ready to meet new friends.

Blogging in the Dark?

OK so I am off to LA on Thursday!

Do yo know what that means? I will not be blogging until next tues or wed! I will pause to give you all a chance to boo at my extended absence and wonder how in the world you will get along without me and my brilliant rantings for 5 long days.

Are you done?

Seriously, I leave Thursday am and have no idea what to expect when I get there.

I am rooming with Kimberly Derting (other alias: Road to Publication, author of Body Finder) and I have never met her in person. Just on our blogs. A little scary right? I totally think we will have a blast. She is hilarious and I like to laugh.

I just hope she doesn't mind that I sleep in my BIRTHDAY SUIT

(Just kidding Kimberly!!!! ha! I thought that might get your attention!)

Seriously, I'm very excited to go, but petrified at the same time.

I am looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. Can't wait to learn and absorb some more writing energy. Take in some editor and agent brilliance. I think my writing energy gage is just about on Empty as we speak.

Now about the petrified part.

For starters, I have never been away from my kids for more than a day or two. What if something happens to me? What if I miss something? Wht if they can;t go to sleep at night b/c I am not hear to sing their lullabys (you would understand how tramatic this could be if you had heard my hubby sing! IN fact, we have a no singing rule in our house just for him. Sorry honey! :)

Now, for the other petrying part.

How do I feel about meeting my blogger friends - which category do they fit in? Excited or Petrified?

The other night, I watched Dating in the Dark (the degrees of shallowness are amazing to me) and felt like that is what I am heading into with my blogger buddies. Some of us have been conversing for about a year now and I have never met them in person. Unless you count me talking to the 1x1 photo in the upper left hand corner.

I've shared some of my deepest fears and best moments on my blog. I have read some very intimate posts from some of you. I have laughed and cried and screamed with many of my BBF (blogger buddies forever) over the last several months.

But the lights have been off.

But now, they come on. No more mystery, no more hiding. It's all out there. Now these people will meet me and see that yes I am this crazy in person. No it is not an act for my blog. We will graduate from little photo, the daily rantings, and funny comments -to the real world.

Then what?

What if I am not as funny?

What if I am not as cool?

What if they don't like my shoes?

What if I am not what they thought?

What if they don't like me?

What if I don't know what to say?

What if I don't recognize someone from their artsy photo but they recognize me from me boring one?

What if I don't know who they are because they're blog name is not on their name tag?

The horror!

What if at the end of it, I am left standing on the balcony waiting for them to come out and say - "yes we want to keep blogging with you!"

What if I come back to 0 followers, no one to tweet with, 0 comments??

What if I come back and hear nothing but....cricket cricket!

So I am off to LA to flip that switch and see if I pass the blogger-in-person test.

Wish me luck!

So have a great weekend. I'll be taking great notes and will post them next week.

I'm going in! See you on the other side!

Let's just hope I don't come back a dumped and single blogger who only rants about stuff everyone decides they don't want to hear.

Marvelous Marketer: Melissa Sarver (Literary Agent, Elizabeth Kaplan Agency)

Note: Melissa may be stopping by so if you have any questions, now is the time to ask :)

Hi Melissa, thank you so much for visiting us today. Can you tell me a little about yourself?

Hi Shelli. Thanks for having me!

I am a literary agent at the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency in New York, which I joined in 2006. I’m doing a mixture of fiction (adult, YA and middle grade) and nonfiction. The first project I sold was a YA series by Suzanne Young called The Naughty List, which debuts in February 2010.

In fiction, I am looking for literary and commercial projects; I gravitate toward dark, edgy stories with brilliant prose and strong voice as well as quirky stories with a fresh sense of humor. I especially enjoy family sagas, multicultural stories and similarly emotional stories with dystopian themes. (I love Margaret Atwood, Graham Swift, Haruki Murakami, Barbara Kingsolver.)

In nonfiction, I'm looking for voice-driven narrative nonfiction, memoir, lifestyle, travel writing, pop culture, cookbooks and food writing. I graduated from Boston University and moved to New York, where I began working in magazine editorial. I benefit from the experience of working with several literary agencies: Waxman Literary Agency, Brick House Literary Agents, and Imprint Agency (now FinePrint).


Do you/your agency/your house have a website/blog? When did you start it and who manages it?

Not yet, but I'm working on a website and should have it up and running in a few weeks! It will be at www.elizabethkaplanlit.com Then you'll be able to see all the amazing projects we're working on. And yes, I’ll be managing it.


Great we can't wait to learn more about your agencies projects. We hear about Elizabeth Kaplan all the time, but do not know much other than its a great agency. In your opinion as your authors promote their books, what are the top 3 things every author should and must do ?

I think the first thing an author should do is accept the fact that the publisher may not do much to promote his/her book. This varies by project and by house, but it is the cold, hard reality of the times. You’ve really got to take things into your own hands and early. (Apparently getting to know one of the higher-ups at Target helps!

Don’t be upset if your publisher doesn’t want to send you on tour. They rarely do these days and it’s because they don’t generate enough sales, especially with new, unknown authors. I do think YA and MG still benefit from library and school visits or other children’s events.

It really helps for an author to have a great website that they update regularly; and even more importantly is for an author to be blogging regularly. That’s how you build an audience. And I’m not just talking about creating your own blog. Blogging on other related sites is a great way to expand your audience and get your name out there. The blogging and Tweeting really needs to start happening months (if not longer) before your book comes out. One of my YA authors has her own blog that she writes on almost daily; but she also writes for a bunch of other YA blogs. She’s really developed a community of other YA authors and readers – and when her ARCs came in, bloggers were clamoring to get their hands on them for blurbs, to review and blog about. She had created that interest and they were dying to read her book. That’s something I hadn’t quite experienced before. But it’s not the same thing to have your book come out and then start a web site for it and start a blog. There’s no built in audience there for when the book publishes.


Oh good. Now I have an excuse to keep blogging :) In addition to blogging, how important is social networking to an author's presence and promotion?

Well, again, our agency is really noticing that the books that are gaining web traction, are selling. Those are the only ones that are selling. We represent a number of YA authors and in this area it is critical to be on Facebook, Twitter, etc. because that is where the teens are! I think to power of social networking as a way to sell books and create an audience is only going keep increasing.


YAY! Another excuse to stay connected. It's hard to balance but sounds like it's worth it in the long run. When evaluating whether to take on an author or book, do you Google them to see if they have a web presence or current platform?

Yes! This is absolutely vital with all nonfiction proposals. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get a publisher on board when the author doesn't have a strong web presence and/or platform. Things like a great Twitter following are being considered platforms by some publishers, do don’t feel like you absolutely have to have a TV show or column in a national magazine.

I have also been asked whether the debut novelist I’m representing has a platform, which left me aghast. But I fear that’s going to be the case more often going forward. I will absolutely take on fiction that does not have a web presence, but having one does help your case.

With nonfiction, it’s often a deal-breaker.


In your experience, what things do Publishers offer in contracts in terms of Marketing? What does the average author receive or is it different, depending on the book?

Publishing contracts don’t really cover Marketing plans – therefore, they aren’t promising to do anything specifically. There is a somewhat standard marketing plan that includes sending galleys to magazines, bloggers and newspapers; scheduling interviews, readings and appearances at bookstores and libraries. All of this will be scheduled by your assigned publicist, who handles your “national media campaign.” (You’ll see that phrase pop up a few times.) There are newsletters and email flashes sent out to booksellers, librarians, bloggers, et cetera.

Ultimately, publishers want their books to sell, too! But too often certain books take precedent and others don’t get enough attention. That’s why the author has to do everything in his/her power to get the word out and also work with the publicist to capitalize on every opportunity.


Melissa, everyone wants to know. What are you looking for? What are you interested in?

Along with what I mentioned above, right now I’d love to see multicultural YA and middle grade – stories that open young readers’ lives to other cultures, or those in which he/she can relate. I think there are so many cultures underrepresented in children’s literature and it’s an area where there is room for new writers.


Great, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for stopping by!

Thanks Shelli!