Features
Creative Motivation: For yourself and your clients!
by Christina A. Tugeau: Artist Agent LLC, 1994–present, SCBWI member and speaker. It is difficult to produce, create, and invent when paying assignments are often far between, underpaid, overly demanding, and have short deadlines. Everyone deals with this in his or her own way, but I want to suggest jumping right in with both feet [...]
Query Writing – A Guide for the Anxious
by Sarah Davies, Literary Agent I toyed with much fancier titles for this post, but then decided to say it straight. What you want to know is how to write a great query and the whole process worries you sick, right? Everyone else in the industry has blogged on this topic, so there’s no shortage [...]
Creating Picture Books in a Challenging and Changing Market
by Melanie Hope Greenberg Clarion Editor Lynne Polvino, opened her talk for the November Tuesday Night Professional Series by asking the audience to think about their formative memories of the classic books they loved. She suggested that we approach our careers as “a noble endeavor, an important and worthwhile undertaking, but one that is not [...]
On the Frontiers of Book Talk
by Emily Goodman Brian Kenney, editorial director for Library Journal, School Library Journal, and The Horn Book, and Luann Toth, managing editor of book reviews for School Library Journal, described how the digital revolution has transformed professional coverage of books and publishing in general at the October 11, 2011 lecture in the Tuesday Professional Series. [...]
Make Editors Go Ga-Ga: Martha Mihalick on Voice
by Emily Goodman Martha Mihalick, editor at Greenwillow, opened the Metro NY Tuesday Professional Lecture Series on September 13 with a sold-out talk entitled, “Voice: What is it, and why does it make editors go ga-ga?” “Your voice is your instrument,” said Mihalick, noting that dictionary definitions of ‘voice’ also call it “a wish, choice, right of [...]
Stop Fiddling, Start Finishing: Julie Berry on getting through your first draft
by Emily Goodman Author Julie Berry told a fascinated Tuesday Professional Lecture Series audience at the June 14 lecture how she once wrote seven books in a single year—while also working part-time, being married, and raising four children. “I didn’t plan for seven books to come at once,” Berry said. She had just sold her first [...]
Metro Mixer NYC Style!
By Bridget Casey On June 28, 2011, SCBWI NY-Metro kicked off the summer with the chapter’s first Metro Mixer at The Galway Hooker, an Irish pub in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan. While darts, ring toss, and a pool table were tempting, schmoozing about books was the main event for the fifty or so [...]
Evolution of a Cover
by Bridget Casey On May 10th, attendees of the SCBWI Metro New York Tuesday Professional Series were fortunate to hear Chad Beckerman, Creative Director of Abrams Books for Young Readers, offer his presentation, “The Evolution of a Book Cover.” Using images of book covers at different stages and vivid accounts of how these cover [...]
The Same But Different: Writing For Children’s Series
by Vicki Oransky Wittenstein Random House editor Diane Landolf and Julie Tibbott, editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, spoke about the unique challenges of writing for children’s series at the SCBWI Metro New York Professional Series on April12th. “All you know about writing craft applies to writing a series,” Landolf said. “You still need an engaging character, [...]
School Visits: Getting Gigs and Delivering the Goods
by Melanie Hope Greenberg In February, the Tuesday Night Professional Series was privileged to have school visit expert and author Alexis O’Neill. She offered advice on how to land school visits and deliver quality programs once you are there. O’Neill is a popular presenter who also writes the SCBWI Bulletin column “The Truth About School [...]