by Marcy Collier
Kitty, Andrea and I attended the New Jersey SCBWI conference
this weekend. Kitty taught a workshop on Fairytales, Legends & Tall Tales
(which, BTW was awesome!) We branched out into different workshops, then were
able to share and compare notes on the long journey home to Pittsburgh .
The Saturday keynote speaker, Dan Yaccarino was amazing. He
said, “Challenge yourself. Don’t stand still. Your passion must come through in
your work or kids will see through it.” He said he spent the first two years
after art school dropping off portfolios to magazine publishers in search of
work. The theme of his speech was to say – “YES!” He was presented with
opportunities and new situations and said yes each and every time. As writers
and illustrators we have to work hard and persevere and say yes to new
situations and overcome our fears.
If you find yourself in a challenging situation, don’t back
down and run. Have confidence in yourself to say, “yes I can do this.” You have
to believe in yourself before others will have confidence in your work.
But as the agents stated in their panel, they expect an
author or an illustrator to submit polished work. They have to fall in love with
your manuscript or illustrations to make an offer. Do your research. Know your
market. Don’t submit to an agent blindly. They can fix plot or pacing problems
in a novel but they can’t teach you voice. Hone your craft. On a personal,
observatory note, don’t be a pain in the butt. Don’t corner an agent/editor
during the cocktail hour and demand an explanation on why they’ve rejected your
manuscript six times. Don’t stuff an envelope in their hand and ask them to
critique your manuscript. I almost feel like agents/editors should have an
emergency air horn they can sound if they are stuck in that awkward situation
and then a volunteer will come to their rescue.
As far as market trends, paranormal, vampire, angels, dystopian,
and super powers are all dead. Do not start your story with dreams or car
crashes where the main character wakes up and something terrible has happened.
Make the stakes high. Create believable characters with realistic problems.
Contemporary realism is becoming popular.
We got on the road at lunchtime so we missed both Kate DiCamillo’s
closing remarks and the farewell to Kathy Temean as regional advisor. The bits
I read on Twitter about Kate’s speech (#NJSCBWI) were both inspirational and heartwarming.
And even though we don’t live in the New
Jersey region, we are grateful for all of Kathy's hard work, dedication and making us feel so at home and welcome in her region. We will truly miss her as the NJ regional advisor!
But I had to get home in time to read bedtime stories, which
of course included Ame Dyckman and Dan Yaccarion’s Boy + Bot.
