First Line Contest

It was a dark and stormy night...

The Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference is sponsoring a First Line Contest. If you are a writer, aspiring writer, or illustrator who wants to start writing their own books, you may want to enter this contest. The competition is open to all genres in the Young Adult market and there will be prizes.  Entrance rules and requirements are posted here. I attended the writing  for picture books workshop a couple of years ago and it was a very valuable experience. This year's picture book writing workshop will be taught by Kristyn Crow- author of Cool Daddy Rat, Skeleton Cat and Bedtime at the Swamp.There is also a week long workshop for picture book illustrators. This year's guest artist is Kevin Hawkes  illustrator of Library Lion and many others.

Picture Book Marathon Update

Cuttlefish For Rent- picture book concept

Last week I mentioned that I was going to join in on the Picture Book Marathon and write 26 picture book manuscripts by the end of the month.. We are now a week in and I am still pretty much on pace with six stories under the belt and several ideas to work on next.. I took it to heart that we artists were to WRITE the stories, so I have been concentrating on that and have not come up with any visuals for my stories before today (I do have other work to get done you know). I took a little time today to do a cover mock up for one of my favorites from the week called Cuttlefish For Rent. I have always thought cuttlefish were fascinating creatures and sort of cute as well. The hero of my story -Chuck- loses his job as the "open" sign at a local restaurant and decides to rent out his services until he finds a job he likes. In the end, he saves the day with his camouflage and other skills. Some of the other artists in the race are posting their covers as well. Check out the great work being done by Jed Henry, Nathan Hale, and Julie Olson.

Picture Book Marathon

Picture Book Marathon logo designed by Nathan Hale

Starting February 1st, I am going to run a marathon. OK, not really one of those huff and puff perspiration soaked masochistic torture sessions where you kill yourself to perambulate 26.2 miles and then collapse in a sweaty heap type races. This one might actually be possible if you work at it every day. I signed on to run the Picture Book Marathon. Jean Reagan and Lara Koehler have set up a handy dandy website with all sorts of tips and hints at www.picturebookmarathon.org with all the info you need to join in. By reason of me telling you all, I am now accountable to try and finish the thing. The goal is to write a rough draft for a picture book 26 times in the month of February (you get a couple days off). I figured since I am always talking about writing and illustrating my own stories, I needed a kick in the pants to actually write some. Well, so far so good. I cheated and jumped the gun by writing my first one already. I have also begun to compile a list of possible story ideas to make the work a little easier. I am hoping that the simple act of deciding to write will help get the creative juices going. Join in- it'll be fun and you might find that you have a real winner on your hands by the end of February.

So You Want To Be An Author

Once again last week I was approached by someone who has written "the best picture book ever". Seems to happen with shocking frequency. This person was sure that they have a Caldecott winner on their hands if not at least an Amazon bestseller. If only they could get me to do some really cool illustrations, we'd be riding the cash wagon all the way to the bank. Even though it's the first book that they have ever attempted to write and that admittedly, the story isn't really finished yet and that they still need to work out the ending and... you get the picture.



The problem with this scenario is that most folks have no idea how the publishing industry works. They have no clue that 99 times out of 100, the publisher buys the manuscript from the author and then contracts with an illustrator. They have no idea that once sold, the author has very little input into what the illustrations end up looking like. They don't understand that a large portion of publishers will not accept non-agented submissions. That even agents accept only a tiny portion of all the manuscripts they see. At this point I usually dash their dreams of stardom and unbelievable wealth by suggesting that they do some homework and maybe join a writers group or go to a writing workshop. In short, Publishing is a tough game to play and the better you know the game, the better your odds of scoring. I am part of a writing group that is populated with many authors who are having great success currently in the YA fiction market and it's a treat to eavesdrop on the conversation threads. Enjoy this little instructive cartoon about the misconceptions of what it takes to be a writer. I laughed so hard I about fell out of my chair!

Thanks to Rock Canyon Writer's own Jennifer Nielsen for the video link