Ruta Sepetys: The Best Investment: How Do I Spend My Marketing Dollars?

New York Times bestselling author, Ruta Sepetys, discusses a variety of ways to spend your marketing dollars.

Appearances:

• Let the kids run the school visits--for example, the theater groups, history class kids. They're more invested in the books if it's something they're interested in.

• Try creating a profile page on 'Skype in the Classroom'._
• Giveaway incentives for asking questions.
• Book fairs, festival, conferences are great for networking which is often times an incentive.

Promo Materials:

• Bookmarks, bookplates, postcards, and flyers are a great tool for promotion.

Social media:

• Pick the social media outlets you like best and use those to connect with your readers.

Overall an inspiring and informative session from one of Midsouth's greatest success stories.

From Spark to Flame: A Picture Book's Path to Publication

Amanda Driscoll is the author of Duncan the Story Dragon.  She is represented by Rosemary Stimola and Kelly Delaney at Knopf is her editor.

 

Amanda Driscoll gets ideas when she is walking her dogs.  She does thumbnails so she can see when the story is flowing.

When she wrote Duncan, she had been writing for about five years.  She previously been submitting to editors directly, but decided to seek representation from an agent.  She made a short list of dream agents and queried them when she received a request from Rosemary Stimola.

Rosemary loved the book, and she set it on her desk for a few days.  When everyone in the office stopped to ask about it, she knew for sure it was something special.

When Rosemary Stimola sends something out, she always expects there to be revision. 

Kelly Delaney loved the book and was able to get approval and make an offer quickly.  She thought the text was nearly perfect but wanted to push her outside of her comfort zone on the illustrations.  They asked to her experiment with different drawings of Duncan.  They eventually settled on a kid-Duncan.  They want through multiple extensive revisions to get it exactly right.

Rosemary was able to sit back and watch it unfold because of the excellent collaboration between Kelly and Amanda.

Amanda advises that authors and illustrators need to be open-minded and flexible.  Remember that revisions are a normal part of the process.  

If you wanted to hear the whole story...sign up for SCBWI Midsouth next year!

Robert J. Blake: Rough Idea to Credible Sketch

Robert J Blake is an award-winning author illustrator who travels the world to find his stories. He’s authored/illustrated over 30 books and has developed a messy but proven process for organizing and producing ideas.

“I’m a messy guy and I have a messy procedure. I really think that’s the best way to work. That being said, you can be wildly creative but later you have to be able to organize it. And the organizing is an art in itself.”

Robert has kept every one of his sketchbooks since grade school. Everything he's ever worked on, he can find in his "records". He likes to paint on location and talk to locals to get the energy and feel of the setting and the story he wants to tell. 

"When I start I get the worst ideas out of my head so they’re out. It’s just as important to the process. As you work, look for the rhythm and the statement that you want to make, don’t focus so much on the drawing. Keep your mind elastic as the concept takes shape."

Robert gave us a charming account of how he found inspiration for his book LITLE DEVILS on location in Tasmania. For a 40 page book he might have 15 spreads, and he does an action graph to map the emotional energy of the story before he moves to thumbnails and sketches. He'll do fifteen or more sketches for each drawing, considering all angles and perspectives. For this particular book, he did 8 dummies before he turned them into his editor. It might sound like a lot of work, but Robert believes you can't think of it that way. Illustrators have fun problems to solve. In our studios, we're the boss.

"It’s amazing that you can take something from your mind and show it to people -- show them what’s in your head. That’s the power we have as illustrators.”

Conference Happenings!

A VERY special thanks to our amazing photographer, Carla Schooler, for capturing all of these wonderful SCBWI moments!

Kristin Tubb talks Children's Writing and Publishing 101

Daniel Nayeri keeps things interesting!