In addition to giving participants a chance to write, the sold out event also included a packed programme with workshops held by Marcus Sedgewick, L. A. Weatherly, Helen Boyle (commissioning editor from Templar Publishing and in a change to the programme, Kate Harrison stepped in for Bekki Hill who was unable to attend due to illness). L. A. Weatherly and Helen Boyle also did one-to-ones with some of the attendees.
Unfortunately I was late to the retreat on Friday evening, and so missed Kate Harrison's talk on writing (although the feedback from other attendees was very good).
( Saturday - Hot Firemen, Marcus Sedgewick and L. A Weatherly )
( Marcus Sedgewick, One-To-Ones, L. A Weatherly and Helen Boyle from Templar Publishing )
( Monday - L. A. Weatherly and Second Book Syndrome )
By the time we left on Monday, the consensus seemed to be that it had been a great weekend as organised by Sue Hyams and Benjamin Scott. I know that I took away some great tips and managed to tot up quite a few pages of writing (which is a rarity for me). I should also mention that it was a weekend filled with cake, which I ate far too much of (seriously, they had to roll me back onto the train).
So many thanks to all and I'm already looking forward to the 2013 retreat.
In other news, I spent last weekend on retreat with the British chapter of the SCBWI. The guest speakers included L. A. Weatherly and Marcus Sedgewick and I'm preparing a blog post to put up this weekend for anyone interested in reading what happened.
Yet the seconds bled into minutes.
Minutes grew into hours.
Hours into days of complete and total darkness followed by the scorching bright light.
Imagine having more hours in the day …
Think how time rules our lives. But what if our 24-hour day grew longer, first in minutes, then in hours, until day became night and night became day? What effect would this slowing have on the world? On the birds in the sky, the whales in the sea, the astronauts in space, and on a family and a young girl, who is already coping with the normal catastrophes of her everyday life?
But, of course, there was nowhere on earth to go.”
THE AGE OF MIRACLES is released in the UK on 21st June, so the winner will get this a good few weeks before everyone else.
All you have to do to be entered into the give-away draw is leave a comment here telling me what your favourite end of the world/apocalyptic scenario is and why.
To kick the ball off, long term readers of this LJ will know that I'm a zombie girl so I'm all about the zombie apocalypse, people, mainly because I love the idea of creeping dread and the rising odds against you surviving.
RULES:
1. Leave a comment on this LJ telling me what your favourite end of the world/apocalyptic scenario is and why.
2. The winner will be chosen at random using a random generator.
3. You don't have to have an LJ account or be a friend of this LJ to enter this contest but if you don't have an LJ account then please tell me how I can contact you if you win (e.g. leave an email address in your comment).
4. You can comment as many times as you want (e.g. to change your mind about your favourite book), but each individual only gets one contest entry.
5. Comments must be posted before 23:59 (GMT) on Sunday 20th May 2012.
6. The winner will be notified by 23:59 on Sunday 27th May 2012 by LJ message or email and must respond with their mailing address by Sunday 3rd June 2012, or else another winner will be drawn.
7. The giveaway is open to anyone regardless of age or location BUT please note that the prize will be sent by post and I have no responsibility or liability for the vagaries of local mail systems.
8. Prizes are non-transferable and there is no cash alternative.
9. The Judge's (i.e. my) decision is final.
- Bali Rai, a critically acclaimed, multi-award winning YA novelist, whose most recent book KILLING HONOUR was released in the UK in June 2011);
- Miriam Halahmy, whose debut YA novel, HIDDEN was launched in 2011 to critical acclaim, including being featured on the longlist for the CLIP Carnegie Medal. The sequel ILLEGAL was released in the UK on 20th March 2012); and
- Sara Grant, whose debut YA novel, DARK PARTIES was released in the UK in December 2011 to critical acclaim. Sara very graciously stepped in at the last minute when Tabitha Suzuma became indisposed.
All three writers are interested and have track records in writing about gritty issues and the evening started with each author giving a short talk about how they approach difficult subjects and their attitudes towards it.
MIRIAM HALAHMY
Miriam said that when she talks about her books, she gets asked by parents whether subjects such as asylum seekers, immigration and drugs are things that teenagers should be reading. Miriam is non-judgmental both about what people write and what they read. She said that she writes the types of book that deals with subjects that interest her and since an early age she's been interested in social justice. As such, she writes the types of books that she wants to read - it's both an organic and instinctive process that happens because such topics go through her head all the time. With HIDDEN, the inspiration came from a walk that she was taking on Hayling Island when she suddenly wondered what would happen if two teenagers saw a man fall from a boat and that man turned out to be an illegal immigrant.
When she started writing, she was producing fiction for adults and poetry and had never even heard of young adult fiction until people started telling her that HIDDEN was a young adult book. She realised that young adult fiction has a wonderful cross-over element as well because adults read young adult books due to the fact that they're page-turning reads. Young adult fiction is not as slow and reflective as 'adult' fiction can be but this is one of its big appeals.
Miriam said that she's found that young adult fiction has allowed her to explore things that she's never done and as such, she really has to think about the topics that she wants to address to work out what she wants to say.
She was worried at first when she took HIDDEN into schools but the response has been amazing - particularly with regard to what teenagers and children know and do not know. She's also interested in the way in which words (notably terms that we would normally view as derogatory) can be co-opted by children within those communities. She loves teenage slang and listening to what kids say to each other and tries to play about with it and bring it into her fiction.
Ultimately she writes characters and those characters have to stand up on the page and have an interesting journey because unless this is in place, no one will care about the issue.
BALI RAI
Bali doesn't like the label "issue novel" because it's a term that's often used to beat people with, but issues novels nevertheless provide the diversity that's still lacking in fiction - particularly within the British young adult market. Diversity doesn't have to mean characters from ethnic communities though - even working class white kids don't tend to have books written about them. He points out that there's a white middle class character preference and notes how in Enid Blyton's books it was the rich, posh white kids who were the heroes and the gypsies and foreigners who were the villains.
Bali honestly believes that there's no divide between adult and young adult fiction - it's purely a marketing gimmick. In Britain, we tend to lose a lot of readers as they go through their teenage years (i.e. they simply stop reading for pleasure). We keep those kids as readers by respecting them and not pulling our punches as authors. Teenagers want to read what they want to read. They don't want to be told that something is too mature for them or too disturbing. They want to make their own choices.
Writing about issues exposes them and stops them from being hidden. Bali wrote about so-called honour-based violence in KILLING HONOUR but it's basically domestic violence with an ethnic tag. If you don't write about it then how else do young people get to know about it? He points out that if authors don't tackle difficult subjects, then it allows the media to take over the debate, which can have a seriously distorting effect.
Bali says that you should write about the character and not the issue. For example, KILLING HONOUR is about a young man whose sister goes missing and who feels guilty because he never paid attention to her. The story deals with that issue but it's also a thriller.
He does a lot of school visits and says that many young people will talk about issues because they are interested in them. Their opinions and arguments may not be sophisticated but they want to develop their knowledge and they have ideas about the world, how it works and how it should work. If kids don't like something then they'll put the book down.
Bali said that issues based fiction helps to create a diverse publishing world where kids can choose what they want to read. He concluded by expressing the belief that writers of young adult books are better storytellers than those people who write 'grown up' fiction.
SARA GRANT
Sara said that although DARK PARTIES is ostensibly a young adult dystopian novel, she still looks at diversity and rebellion albeit in a forum that relates to what she wants to talk about rather than a contemporary setting.
She revealed that in the first draft of DARK PARTIES she held when it came to difficult issues but her editor challenged her to take it further and as a result there are things that are uncomfortable for the reader to read. Her writing process begins with her thinking about what interests her in a scenario, in the characters and in the actual issue. She's particularly drawn to issues that are not black and white.
Sara revealed that she thinks that in the USA, the young adult fiction market wants you as an author to push the reader while the UK young adult market would prefer you to pull back - especially with sexual content because the big market in the UK is schools where there are gatekeepers (i.e. teachers, parents, librarians) who have more control on what kids can read. She said that you shouldn't think about these gatekeepers when you are writing your book - you have to write the book that you want to write. You have to be honest and authentic and you have to go where the story takes you.
Sara made the observation that some books seem to try hard to be deliberately controversial, which can make the story feel forced and fake. However kids equally know when the author is deliberately holding back.
Because Sara was raised in the Bible Belt of the USA, she feels the need to speak the truth. She said that she started reading Judy Blume when she was a child and pointed out that kids can really see themselves in the books that they read. By being shown the type of person you are and that you aren't alone in your emotions and thoughts it can be reassuring.
Sara said that you need to know what's at the heart of your story. Why are you writing it? Why is the issue important to you?
DARK PARTIES was about immigration and started with a what if scenario - i.e. what would happen if a country closes its borders completely, what would the implications of such an event be? She said that you need to know what your boundaries are because agents and editors always have different ideas about where you should take your story so you need to make sure that you're clear on your vision and message.
Sara revealed that she works to a bullet point synopsis and decides from the synopsis whether she can write the novel. She said that there are some things that she couldn't write about because they are too hard to deal with and pointed to THE LONG WEEKEND by Savita Kalhan as a great book but one she found difficult to read because of the subject of sexual abuse.
She said that her new novel (entitled HALF LIVES) is about religion and a cult and she admitted to feeling a little nervous about what her family (which includes Methodist ministers) will make of it - although she hastened to add that they had been very supportive of DARK PARTIES.
Sara's concluding advice was to tell the story you want to tell and write a book that will keep readers thinking about it after they're finished.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
There followed a question and answer session with the audience, which included discussions on such topics as:
- whether issues fiction pulls its punches;
- whether authors can find themselves 'stuck' with the 'issues author' brand;
- whether authors worry about children too young for the material will read it; and
- Bali Rai's kill list.
All in all it was a great evening and although the turnout was low, the participation and quality of the questions and speakers more than made up for it.
The next event in the London Professional Series will be on May 29th where we'll be learning about THE BOOK COVER and what goes into the book cover process.
Many thanks to the speakers and to Paolo Romeo and Tina Lemon for organising another splendid evening.
- Reading:THE RELUCTANT WIDOW by Georgette Heyer
I'm a big fan of Janet's books and you can read my reviews of MUNCLE TROGG and MUNCLE TROGG AND THE FLYING DONKEY on my review LJ at
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quippe.With apologies for the shameless self-promotion, I'm going to be at Olympus 2012 (aka Eastercon or the British National Science Fiction Convention) between 6th and 9th April at the Radisson Edwardian, Heathrow. I'm on the Story Arcs panel at 10am on Monday and I'm moderating the panel on Dystopian YA at 2pm on Monday. Unfortunately tickets for Olympus 2012 have now sold out, which probably isn't surprising given that the Guests of Honour this year are George R. R. Martin, Cory Doctorow, Paul Cornell and Tricia Sullivan. Anyway if anyone has already booked tickets then I look forward to seeing you there.
The speakers were Julia Churchill from The Greenhouse Literary Agency and in a change to the advertised programme, Ali Dougal, a commissioning editor from Egmont UK stood in for Leah Thaxton, publishing director at Egmont UK who was unfortunately unwell and unable to attend.
The purpose of the evening was to go through the process of finding an agent and being published.
Julia kicked things off by running through the process of finding an agent and describing what an agent does.
THE AGENT:
Julia began with a brief introduction about herself. She started her career with the Darley Anderson Agency in 2002. At that time, Darley Anderson specialised in commercial fiction and non-fiction, with its authors including Lee Child and Martina Cole. In 2004, a submission came into the agency from Cathy Cassidy with the working title Indigo Blue and although at that time Darley Anderson wasn't representing children's titles, Julia was so taken with the book that the agency decided to offer Cathy Cassidy representation. Julia then went out to research children's publishers and proceeded to send it out. From then on, she worked to build up the children's book list at the agency but in 2009 joined Sarah Davies at The Greenhouse Literary Agency. Sarah was a former editor at Macmillan who had gone on to set up her own agency, which was proving to be phenomenally successful. She wanted someone who could focus on the UK side of the business and enable Sarah to concentrate on the US side.
Julia went on to say that an agent's role is:
1. to spot talent;
2. to help develop that talent; and
3. to sell that talent.
Her approach is to try and be the first person to get back to a querying author whose work she is interested in. For example, if an author sends in a good query and opening 5 pages, then Julia will want to go back quickly to ask for a full.
Julia may either sign up an author on the strength of the full or she may offer to work on a manuscript editorially to see if the author can bring it up to a saleable level. She said that the editorial process doesn't always work out. Some manuscripts need to go through 2+ turns before the author is ready to sell, other manuscripts may never hit the right level.
Julia stressed that very few manuscripts come in that are immediately ready to go out on submission to publishers. Most of them need at least some editorial support.
Most agents now work as editorial agents. This is typically because publisher's editors have more and more books to choose from but at the same time they have to be cautious and are looking to cut their lists. Therefore fewer books are being bought, which means that agents have to make sure that the books they are sending out are really good. At the same time, the emphasis within publishing houses means that if an editor wants to make an acquisition then the book they're championing has to be recognised as saleable by the marketing and sales people and marketing sales will not necessarily be looking for the potential of a manuscript - they want it ready to go.
When Julia takes on an author's manuscript, she will look for publishers that are a good match for it. This may be just the one editor or there may be many publishers. These days it's more likely that it will go to several publishers as you don't know what will be loved where.
Agents negotiate:
- contracts;
- discount rates;
- percentage splits on subsidiary rights;
- bigger advances paid sooner;
- free copies; and
- rights reversion.
Agents convert publisher friendly contracts into author friendly contracts.
Agents may hold back foreign rights so that there will be more advances for the author and therefore more revenue streams. Some authors are bigger in Brazil or Germany or the Netherlands than they are in the UK or US.
Agents work to get a career going for a writer and smooth out legitimate concerns that an author may have with their publisher, e.g. lack of marketing, editorial differences etc. An agent will know what a legitimate dispute is and can guide new authors through the process.
Increasingly an agent's stable of authors will work with each other to build a community and maximise marketing opportunities.
Agents are a long term business companion.
As an agent, Julia needs to be aware of prevailing trends and the individual tastes of individual editors together with what particular publishers may actively want for the purposes of their list. She looks for what's fashionable but also wants enduring, classic stories.
Julia said that trends are a red herring because of the way publishing timelines work. It can take anything between 2 and 7 years from an author writing the book to the book being published.
Julia said that at the moment she's particularly looking for younger (i.e. non-YA fiction).
When Julia receives a manuscript she looks for 6 things:
- concept;
- character;
- story;
- setting;
- theme; and
- voice.
Concept: This is the hook, which needs to be focused and clear. If a pitch doesn't work then it's generally because there's too much going on. The concept doesn't need to be a high-concept, but it does need a unique selling point because that's what publishers are looking for.
Character: Characters need to leap from the page. Know their backstory and get to know them well. They need to be tied into the plot. They need to change and learn so that the reader cares about them. They need to be fresh and there needs to be something clever about them.
Story: What do your characters stand to win and lose? The dilemma should include real anguish, courage, high stakes and action. Make the stakes escalate. Julia believes that outlining can be a very useful tool even if you don't stick to them because they give you clarity about the story and force you to think it through. In addition, if you give an outline to an editor or agent then they can pick up on potential problems or issues from the outset, which makes editing easier. The stakes can be interior, e.g. about feelings, emotional survival, personal growth, and personal relationships.
Setting: How strongly does your setting enhance the plot and story? Can you only imagine your story taking place in that setting?
Theme: The story should leave readers with a residual feeling. There has to be something deeply felt that stays with the reader afterwards.
Voice: Every agent looks for voice but no one can really explain it. Julia thinks that it should plug into the target age group and be completely individual. She wants something different and special and she knows good voice when she sees it.
Julia says that you should know your market and be aware of who you are writing for. Don't use the term "crossover" in your query. Think about your core reader. Read your key market and read widely.
Find out what children are buying and enjoying but don't try to copy it.
Julia says that you should distance yourself from your first draft. Get some perspective on it and some objective criticism. She offered up the following things to think about:
- does your story take off early enough? Start with a mini-drama to hook your reader and get it going in the first chapter. List what you find out in the opening chapter.
- are there too many characters who are too similar?
- do the scenes need to be there?
- read your dialogue out loud. Give it to someone else to read.
- do you enter your scenes at the right moment and leave at the right point?
- don't start a book with an alarm clock.
- don't write books that are lessons. The morals and condescension stand out.
- show don't tell.
- have you squeezed all the emotion and action you can out of a scene?
- always back everything up.
THE PUBLISHER
Ali also began with a brief introduction about herself. She works as a commissioning editor for fiction from ages 5+ to Young Adult and crossover fiction. She started at Puffin as an editorial assistant and was there for 5 years before moving to Egmont where she's been for the last 3 years.
Egmont UK is one of the top 5 publishers each year. They're the largest publisher in the UK, covering magazines, licensed character and tie-in fiction and 'normal' fiction. Egmont is an ethical publisher. Their fiction list is split between the front list and the back list.
The front list is new fiction and involves big advances, big origination costs and marketing. Egmont has a very strong back list, which gives the company its bread and butter revenue. Their big fiction brands include Mr Gum by Andy Stanton, Michael Grant, Michael Morpurgo (with Ali noting that War Horse didn't sell well until the National Theatre production and subsequent Steven Spielburg movie) and Enid Blyton.
Egmont used to focus on fiction for younger children, but they recently launched a new YA imprint called Electric Monkey, which is doing really well. Egmont do both low brow and high brow fiction. Their lists are growing but every book has an impact on and affects the tone and perception of those lists.
Egmont has a team of 4 editors and one publishing director.
All publishers are looking for the next big thing. Ali wants writing that really stands out, including whether it's eccentric or really 'out there'.
Hook is probably the most important thing as it helps an editor to sell the book to their sales team and acquisition committee. You do need a good 30 second elevator pitch.
Editors never know where the next big manuscript is going to come from, but most manuscripts come from agents.
Publishing is partly to do with individual taste. Ali likes Young Adult and fiction that's edgy and different - she pointed to AU REVOIR, CRAZY EUROPEAN CHICK as being an example of what she likes.
Publishers are looking for quality Middle Grade fiction at the moment to plug the gaps in their list and the market. Lists need to be balanced so that there's fiction for everyone.
Most manuscripts need work from the editorial team. The hook can help get the publisher to want to invest in doing that work.
Ali likes to try and meet or talk to an author before buying their manuscript. You need to know if the editor shares your vision and wants to genuinely work with you. You don't need total agreement but the connection is particularly important with things like humour because if the editor doesn't get it then they can't really work with you. You need to trust and have confidence in your editor so that your talent can be nurtured. You need an agent who can be honest with you and deliver difficult messages to help you to develop your career.
After you sign your book deal, you usually meet your editor again to discussion the vision for the book. At Egmont, the author usually meets the publicity and marketing team so that there will be a tailored publicity and marketing strategy, e.g. a high concept campaign, lots of author blurbs and reviews, posters etc. At Egmont the editor is involved in each stage of the publishing process and usually is the author's first point of contact.
The editorial process should be collaborative. There are different styles of editing so it may be a detailed letter or a telephone conversation to discuss general points or it may be a combination of different techniques.
When editing a book Ali looks for character consistency to see if they go through a journey. The voice needs to be as compelling as it can be. Pace is crucial. Also the book needs to be appropriate to the target reader.
There will be a cover discussion and Egmont will try to fit the illustrator to the author. The author will always be involved in the process of developing the cover.
A bound proof will then be put together to help generate buzz, which will be aimed at reviewers and retailers. Proofs tend to only be produced for new books and will include review quotes.
Ali shared some stats from 2010/2011:
- 36% of the UK population didn't buy a book.
- book sales dropped by 8% due mainly to a drop in the popularity of paranormal romance.
- Egmont's sales grew by 15%.
Egmont sees the market as growing for everything except paranormal romance.
Fiction is mainly about event publishing now and especially is interested in books that are made into films.
There's less of a chance to build a series now as publishers need to know when to publish. For example Christmas promotion is very expensive and so favours established books and tie ins.
Ali believes that it's more important to earn royalties than to get a big advance.
The cost for book promotional slots are going up and marketing costs are also going up.
Editors have to be 100% behind a book to help champion it.
Ali believes that the ideal author should be prepared to market and sell with the publisher's support. Book festivals are important and so is author brand and author communication. Authors must be happy to work with their editors on the manuscript, know who the target readers are and be in contact with them.
Authors should play to their strengths and write what comes naturally to them. Know why readers like your book and know what your weaknesses are in your writing so that you can hone your craft.
Read within your market so that you see what's out there and what's being talked about.
Finally, Ali said that you know when you've hit the big time when:
- children start writing to you;
- retailers don't need to be convinced to stock your book;
- the cover price of your book goes up;
- you're being offered a hard back release;
- there's lots of international interest;
- rival publishers are taking you out to lunch;
- you're asked to sit on awards panels and attend book and arts festivals (which are a great way of reaching target audiences); and
- your editor will stop feeling the need to edit you.
There then followed questions from the audience.
The next event in the London Professional Series is on April 24th 2012 at the Theodore Bullfrog pub, when Tabitha Suzuma, Miriam Halahmy and Bali Rai will be talking about how they tackle difficult issues in their writing.
The event was a chance to meet 4 of Simon & Schuster's authors who all have books that have either been released recently or are due to be released very shortly. In attendance were:
BENJAMIN WOOD is a graduate of the MFA Creative Writing Programme at the University of British Colombia, where he was the fiction editor of the Canadian literary journal, PRISM International. He is currently a lecturer in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London and was there to talk about his debut novel, THE BELLWETHER REVIVALS.
REBECCA CHANCE lived in Tuscany and Manhattan before returning to her native London with a handsome American husband in tow. Rebecca's interests include gymnastics, trapeze and pole-dancing, watching America's Next Top Model and cocktail-drinking. She was there to talk about her third novel, BAD SISTERS.
LLOYD SHEPHERD is a former journalist and digital producer who has worked for the Guardian, Channel 4, the BBC and Yahoo. He lives in South London with his family and was there to talk about his debut novel, THE ENGLISH MONSTER.
PENNY HANCOCK lives in Cambridge with her husband and three children. She is a part-time primary school teacher at a speech and language school and has travelled extensively as a language teacher. She was also there to talk about her debut novel, TIDELINE.
Most of the questions had been submitted in advance and were posed to he panel by Alice Murphy, Simon & Schuster's Digital Marketing Executive, but there was also a brief Q&E session at the end. I've set out the questions asked below in bold italics with each panelist's answer underneath.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE BEST ABOUT THE GENRE THAT YOU WRITE IN?
PENNY hadn't read much crime fiction or many thrillers before writing TIDELINE, but she liked the idea of looking beneath the surface of ordinary people and especially when the psychology of a person goes awry.
LLOYD said that he wrote a historical novel by accidence because he'd read and really enjoyed Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, which are a series of science fiction novels set in the 17th century. What he liked was the idea of what people thought at the time and he said that he was more interested in those attitudes than going into a lot of historical detail about the colour of sails etc. In his spare time he reads horror, fantasy, weird stuff and classics.
REBECCA said that she loved fashion and what people wear but she's been around the houses in terms of what she writes and has also written and published crime fiction, literary fiction, short stories, erotica and she writes young adult fiction for the American market. She said that she loves all of these genres equally but does have an awful lot of fun writing bonkbusters like BAD SISTERS. Her advice to new writers was that you probably shouldn't read too much in your chosen genre as you'll become blind to the tropes and cliches but at the same time you should love what you do.
BEN said that he enjoys getting under the skin of characters, which literary fiction allows you to do. He quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson who said that, "Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures". In literary fiction, characters are slightly larger than they are in real life in order to allow you to explore ideas and psychological ideas.
WHAT AUTHORS HAVE INFLUENCED YOUR WRITING STYLE?
BEN said that he reads many US authors such as V. S. Pritchett, Truman Capote and Shirley Jackson - real prose stylists. When it was pointed out that THE BELLWETHER REVIVALS had been compared to THE SECRET HISTORY by Donna Tartt, he said that he thought that they explored similar territory. He added that he had recently read BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh and said that he'd enjoyed it and could see why it was such an enduring novel although it he did not think that it is a perfect book. He thinks that both BRIDESHEAD REVISITED and THE SECRET HISTORY have strong central characters who you can follow anywhere.
REBECCA said that when she'd started writing it was because she'd wanted strong female protagonists in crime fiction, so her first books (which were written under the pseudonym Sam Jones) were aimed at giving her what she wanted. She said that she'd been heavily influenced by Peter O'Donnell's MODESTY BLAISE books but she also loved Victoria Holt, Barbara Pym and Judith Krantz and pretty much reads anything and everything.
LLOYD said that Neal Stephenson was a big influence on his work but he also read and re-read Stephen King and Henry James. He said that Stephen King is a master storyteller while PORTRAIT OF A LADY was his favourite book and one that he constantly re-read. He's also a fan of graphic novels, with Alan Moore being a big influence.
PENNY said that she was attracted to women's fiction and spoke of Rose Tremain, Julie Myerson and Beryl Bainbridge, with Beryl Bainbridge being a writer who she'd like to write like. ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy was her all-time favourite novel.
DO YOU PREFER TO READ PAPER OR DIGITAL BOOKS?
REBECCA said that she is a complete Luddite and will probably be the last person to buy an electronic book reader, although she said that it was attractive because you can download books so quickly.
LLOYD said that he didn't understand why people got so exercised about the format of a book when they don't when it comes to music. It's a way of accessing books conveniently and the idea of having dozens of books on one Kindle rather than having to carry dozens of physical books is very appealing. He also said that he likes looking on-line for books because people share recommendations a lot.
REBECCA added that she'd spoken to an author friend who had used footnotes in her latest book but they hadn't come out well in the electronic format, which led to all kinds of reader complaints.
BEN thought that electronic technology would allow writers of, for example graphic novels, to take stories in new directions, which he found very exciting. Personally, he tends to read paper rather than electronic books and is a stickler for formatting, which in some electronic books can be quite poor.
PENNY said that she doesn't have a Kindle but isn't against them. She did say that she thinks that books are beautiful things when they're on shelves.
LLOYD added the point that you can't pass on Kindle books when you die, which he found worrying because he'd inherited his father's books after his death and still treasures them.
IS THERE A BOOK IN YOUR BOTTOM DRAWER THAT ISN'T PUBLISHED?
BEN said that he'd written a novella during his MFA, which had been good enough to get him an agent but which didn't get bought. He said that it had been aimed at a younger audience and was about music so it was different to THE BELLWETHER REVIVALS but at the same time it helped Ben to write and shape THE BELLWETHER REVIVALS. Ben said that he might go back to that novella at some future point.
REBECCA said that she didn't believe she still had her first novel because it had been written on an Amstrad computer and she wasn't sure she'd changed it to subsequent computers. However she said that she can still remember the first 2 pages of it because she'd written and re-written it so many times. She said that if she still had that first novel then she'd love to revisit it but she wasn't sure about how she'd feel about re-reading it because it was very much informed by Rebecca's own wild child experiences in London.
LLOYD said that he'd written a book when he was 30, which was about a series of murders on a film being shot on location in Wales. He revealed that Ian Banks's agent had been interested and asked him to do a rewrite but Lloyd didn't have the energy and never got around to it.
PENNY said that she had lots of previous books, a couple of which are finished. One was a coming-of-age novel that was a seed for TIDELINE because it was about first love, so it wasn't a wasted novel. She didn't think that she had the energy to pull it out and revisit it. She added that she'd tried to write chick lit but it's hard to do and ended up stopping even though she'd enjoyed it.
HAVE YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AFFECTED YOUR WRITING?
PENNY said that TIDELINE came about because she'd been thinking about first love and about how a person could never get back those feelings of first love although she hastily pointed out that she had never held captive a young boy. She added that she'd grown up near a river and so it was an excuse to try and re-experience that life and get it back.
BEN said that there were two main threads in THE BELLWETHER REVIVALS that came from his personal experiences. Firstly, he explained that he had grown up in a nursing home and it was an oddly pleasurable experience - a bit like Disney for the elderly - and being close to the elderly fed into the relationships in THE BELLWETHER REVIVALS. Secondly he said that music was important to him as he is a songwriter and musician and he had a visceral relationship with music, which he wanted to feed into some of the scenes. In particular he wanted music to come across in a way that readers could feel and understand rather than in an academic, slightly cold way.
REBECCA said that she hadn't had all the sex that's depicted in her bonkbusters, but she said that she found the scenes fun to write. Plus because she's travelled a lot she knew the locations that she uses and she also has a vivid imagination ...
LLOYD said that there wasn't a lot of him in the Regency murders but he did love the river Thames around Tower Bridge. He made the point that it used to be the case that London had to look into the river all the time but now it looks back from it so he had to try and imagine the Thames as being filled with activity. THE ENGLISH MONSTER took a lot of imagination.
WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART OF THE BOOK TO WRITE?
LLOYD said that there are several scenes in THE ENGLISH MONSTER which involve real people from the period. He found them hard to write because he didn't want to be unfair about it or injure their memory as he's writing about things that actually happened to those people and little enough is known or written about ordinary people in Regency London because the focus is very much on the aristocracy, and politicians etc rather than scullery maids and servants.
PENNY said that the character of Jez was hard to write because he's a different age and generation to her and he doesn't really have a voice within the book so it was hard for Penny to put herself in his shoes. She said that she had tried to write some scenes from his point of view but she's worried that she hadn't given him justice. She added that she was thinking of potentially doing a sequel to TIDELINE from his point of view.
BEN said that he recently went back to early drafts of THE BELLWETHER REVIVALS because he still finds the writing process hard. He found it most difficult to decide where to start the story, what the inciting incident is and how to develop the framework for the plot.
REBECCA said that she found second drafts really hard. She also finds it difficult to get people into and out of rooms and generally moving people around. She says that she also gets frustrated that she can't get all of the stuff in her head down onto the page to enable the reader to immerse themselves completely in the book.
BEN agreed that giving people a reason to be in the same room at the same time can be tricky.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR YOU?
PENNY said that she's working on a novel about a successful career woman and an immigrant domestic worker that looks to explore what happens when their power relationship begins to change. It's a psychological thriller set in Deptford.
LLOYD had just handed in his second novel that day, which is a sequel to THE ENGLISH MONSTER where his characters have to investigate murders that occur after a strange tree from Tahiti is planted in Kew Gardens. The title may change but it's currently under the working title THE POISONED ISLAND.
REBECCA said that her next book KILLER HEELS is coming out in August, but she's also working on a Christmas novel that will come out in October. KILLER HEELS is set in the fashion world and is about the awful things that women do to women. The heroine is a woman who worries about her weight and who gets thinner. BAD ANGELS is set in a luxury penthouse building in Limehouse which is owned by a Russian oligarch with a plastic surgery next door. It involves a young actress, a gay footballer and a former assassin.
BEN is writing a literary novel about art, identity and avalanches and it's due to be delivered at the end of 2013.
WHEN YOU'RE WRITING DO YOU DO IT TO A SEQUENCE?
REBECCA goes from start to finish but knows people who leave things out and then go back to it. You need to do the thing that works for you. She tends to write quite fast and in concentrated bursts.
LLOYD goes from the start of the story and sometimes doesn't know what the ending will be. He does the first draft quite quickly and then does the research and worries about pacing etc. He doesn't outline.
REBECCA uses 11 page outlines.
BEN sort of outlines in that he uses a three-act structure chart. He also said that you need to find the way that's most comfortable for you. He needs to get words on a page that he can then go back over and think about until it sits right.
REBECCA says that the process does get faster the more books you write. She said that she's written 21 books now and they get easier each time.
PENNY writes the end first so she knows where she's going and has something that she can work towards.
LLOYD said that he had the opening section to THE ENGLISH MONSTER clearly in his head when he started.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT ABRIDGED AUDIO BOOKS?
LLOYD said that THE ENGLISH MONSTER wasn't abridged for the audio book. However he said that he's recently won a literary death match where he had to abridge some of his own pages to fit the 7 minute time limit. He found it easier to do when he read it aloud and heard what could be taken out.
REBECCA said that abridgements happen less now because they don't have to produce cassettes or CDs and the market is big for complete books. But she said that audio book rights are like television and film rights in that you need to let go of control because whatever the audio/television/film result people will always still buy the books.
The Event ended with a chance to mingle with and talk to the authors and pick up copies of some of Simon & Schuster's current and forthcoming releases.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster for the invitation as I had a great time.
Again, in line with SCBWI blogging policy I'm going to restrict my conference report to general comments about the flavour of the comments coming from panellists and speakers. #ny12scbwi is still active on Twitter, where a lot of other attendees have Tweeted about sessions and linked to their own reports.
- Chris Crutcher is fricking hilarious. He was one of the Conference's key note speakers and read excerpts from his autobiography (the words "Want to see something neat?" have seldom been deployed to such devastating comic effect). I'd never come across Chris Crutcher before (mainly because I think I'm right in saying that his books aren't published in the UK), but I picked up a copy of Deadline, which I'm currently reading and thoroughly enjoying. He's apparently one of the most frequently challenged authors in American libraries and I'm not surprised - he writes about difficult subjects well and in a way that can make you laugh and small-minded people are never going to be able to cope with it. One of the pieces of advice he gave to the Conference was to tell stories that resonate and to tell the best truth you can tell.
- During a state-of-the union panel on the children's book industry today, the point was made that the current retail landscape (notably the closure of Borders a couple of years ago) remains a huge issue and publishers are still waiting to see how it plays out. Most authors now tour through independent stores in the USA, but it was interesting to hear that Amazon is seen as both an opportunity and a potential threat.
- Contrary to what the doomsayers would have you believe, 2011 was a good year for children's publishing and publishers are actively engaging with new media and trying to work out how to maximise its potential as they see digital publishing as having a vibrant future. A lot depends on the fact that currently devices are quite expensive and the formats don't suit some types of children's book (notably picture books) while discoverability for electronic books remains a problem (including on sites like Amazon). One statistic given by a publisher was that ebooks account for between 10% and 60% of YA book sales depending on the publisher/imprint (although sales remain higher in adult fiction).
- Publishers do expect authors nowadays to engage in marketing their book. You need to make it easier for potential readers (both children and adults) to find you. School visits remain important but state awards can also help to keep a book in print.
- There was a debate amongst panellists on whether children's/YA books have to be commercial or not. What emerged was that books do need to make money and the reality of our post-Harry Potter world is that publishers do want potential bestsellers. But the feeling was also there that publishers should balance their lists with more niche books (e.g. literary children's books) and it was generally agreed that timing is everything when it comes to finding the best editor for your book.
- Many publishers do seem to want world rights to manuscripts, which means that they looking for books with a potentially broad global appeal.
- Henry Winkler stopped by to give a surprise speech to the conference. Yes. That Henry Winkler. Articulate, warm, funny and enthusiastic about books and reading, I was genuinely impressed by his speech and he really did deserve the honorary OBE he received for services to children's literature.
- Looking forward at potential future trends, one publishing editor suggested that full on space opera could be the next trend for YA after apocalyptic/dystopian fiction starts to die down.
- Cassandra Clare gave a key note speech on forbidden love and love triangles and how they can each be used to maintain romantic fiction in YA literature. It was another humorous, informative speech and I was impressed by the way she handled her material. The main points to take away is that if you're going to write about forbidden love, there should be high stakes and big obstacles, while if you're going to write about love triangles, make sure they're a proper triangle and not a 'love V'.
- One acquiring editor for a publishing house said that authors shouldn't worry too much about novel length. There are no hard and fast rules and much of the length will be affected by the genre you're writing in.
So there you have it.
If either of my posts on the SCBWI Winter Conference 2012 have whetted your appetite, then the good news is that there's a summer conference in Los Angeles between 3rd August and 6th August. Details are still being finalised, but it is well worth the time and money. In the meantime, you should check out your local SCBWI chapter to see what they're up to. Many of them are very active and hold regular events, so it's well worth considering taking out a subscription or see if they host events open to non-members to get a feel for the group.
- Reading:DEADLINE by Chris Crutcher
Usually I'd do a full report of who said what and when, but SCBWI's blogging policy asks that conference reports be kept to impressions and general comments (a policy that I can completely respect as it does mean the SCBWI gets speakers who will be honest in their comments).
As such, I'm going to restrict my conference report to general comments about the flavour of the comments coming from panellists and speakers. Anyone who wants to find out more about the conference should check out #ny12scbwi on Twitter, where a lot of other attendees have Tweeted about sessions and linked to their own reports.
I'm also going to break my report into 2 posts, with today's post focusing on the Marketing Intensive for Professional Writers that I took on the Friday 27th January. I'll do a second post on the main conference itself tomorrow.
A list of the Conference faculty can be found here.
This was a day long event with a variety of talks on everything from using social media to creating book trailers, school visits, working with publishers and emerging trends in publishing technology. To be honest, there was so much talked about here that I don't really know where to begin, but I've set out below the main bullet points that I took away from it:
- A presence on social media - especially an established platform on social media - can be helpful in getting a manuscript past an acquisitions committee because it helps them to know what the author can do to help them to sell the book and potential markets to target.
- You should only do the social media you're comfortable doing. If you're insincere or uncomfortable then it shows through quickly.
- Think about how much spare time you've got, what different social media platforms there are (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, blog sites, YouTube, message boards etc) and work out which ones best suit your personality and the time you've got available.
- Consider which age groups are most likely to use which social media sites and which sector you're trying to target - e.g. teens, parents, teachers or other educational professionals, librarians etc.
- Start to see yourself as a brand and develop a cohesive web presence.
- It's not as difficult or expensive to create your own book trailer as you may think. There is a lot of material available through Creative Commons licences and there's stock photograph and music sites that you can use for minimal fees. The best place to start if you're interested is to check out Darcy Pattison's website, which is a fantastic resource and can run through this more coherently and simply than I ever could:
Book Trailer Manual
I would definitely recommend checking out her examples on that page - the trailer for 14 Cows For America was spectacular - the more so given that it was done on a low budget.
- Nick Glass and Deborah Hockman Turvey talked about doing US school visits. Again, there was a wealth of information, including the particular nature of the US education system (which as a Brit I'm not too au fait with) so I'd point you to their websites:
teachingbooks.net is run by Nick Glass that helps schools, libraries, illustrators and authors to come together.
visitingauthors.com is run by Deborah Hockman Turvey and helps libraries, schools and conferences to work with authors and illustrators.
- Websites are less effective for author promotion than social media because you need to find a way of driving traffic to your website. If you are going to have a website then make sure it's properly designed and keep it up to date. Also make sure that your website is put on the cover of your book.
- You can pay someone to design your website for you (in which case, check out their work, try and speak to existing customers and get a price for design up front) or you can check out free web hosting sites that'll let you do it yourself.
- SCBWI is developing a new initiative for its members in 2012 - SCBWI LAUNCH PARTIES, where authors can take out a page for their book launch where the member can control the content, put up reviews etc. More information will be released on the SCBWI website during the year.
- Reading:DEADLINE by Chris Crutcher
