|
SCBWI International Conference at The Hughenden 17th-20th February 2006
You can also download this report in Adobe PDF.
Sydney SCBWI Conference report by Susanne Gervay
The conference was a wonderful experience of sharing between authors, illustrators & publishers. Laura Harris publisher for Penguin, Linsay Knight publisher Random House and Lisa Berryman publisher for HarperCollins gave up a Saturday to speak on the publishing panel. Their insights into publishing were revealed in a funny and lively discussion. They answered tricky questions with style and good humour including the valuable advice to discover what a publisher is currently publishing rather than a shot gun approach.
Shona Martyn's (publishing director of HarperCollins) talk was inspirational giving a great deal of hope for kids' books with its 8% increase in sales in the last year. We're all waiting for Wendy Orr's film (she wrote the book and co-wrote the script) coming out in 2 years. 'Nims' Island' is being produced by the same team who made the current huge hit NARNIA. Hazel Edwards is always there with the right advice. Her Antarctica experience on a literary berth was adventurous, but what was very interesting is how she used that experience as an author, translating a story into AUSLAN (film for the hearing impaired) to books, animation and the newly released 'Antarctic Dad' (Lothian). (Books Illustrated will be exhibiting the illustrations all February).
The three book launches were highlights each day. Felicity Pulman's 'Rue for Repentance' (Random House), Meredith Costain's 'Doodledum Dancing' (Penguin) and Krista Bell's 'That's Trick' (Lothian) were moving celebrations of these author's work. Lesley MacKay's Bookshop sold a huge amount of books.
Susan Sherman, Art Director of Charlesbridge Boston, USA, was fantastic as she explained the process of taking an idea right through to a published picture book. She invited several illustrators and authors to submit work to Charlesbridge which is currently looking at expanding their list. She was very impressed with the diversity and energy of the illustrators at the conference. That was very exciting.
However the most exciting part of the conference was the new friendships made between new, emerging and established authors and illustrators. The sharing of ideas. The encouragement to continue to pursue writing and illustration. The connections made between authors/illustrators from all over Australia - WA, Queensland, NSW, SA, ACT, Victoria, the capital cities and the countryside.
Thank you to all those who participated in the Conference.
Susanne Gervay
ARA NSW (Sydney)
Wonderful Book launches at the International SCBWI Conference
The book launches were a great success at the conference because they:
- Celebrate childrens' books
- Support SCBWI authors/illustrators by providing a platform to launch their book
- Ensure an enthusiastic audience at the launch
- Give delegates an opportunity to buy autographed books
- Support our specialist children's bookshops who sell the books at the conference
- Enhance the author/illustrator within a publisher's list
- Establish links with the publicists and publishers facilitating their support of the conference
- Enable the organiser to obtain sponsorship of the conference
- Gain publicist support who provide bookmarks and similar for delegate bags and posters for the conference
- Gain publishing house support for their launched books
- Promote a collegiate relationship between publishing houses and SCBWI
- Attract media for the books
Books Launched
The three book launches were highlights each day of the conference. Books launched were:
- Felicity Pulman's 'Rue for Repentance' - a early young adult book on medieval murder, mystery and romance by Random House Australia.
It's the second book in the JANNA mysteries. Launched by Hazel Edwards.
- Meredith Costain and Pamela Allen's 'Doodledum Dancing' - a gorgeous picture book by Penguin Australia. Launched by Susanne Gervay.
- Krista Bell's 'That's The Trick' - primary age group book with delightful illustrations about word spelling by Lothian Australia just taken over by Hachette publishers. Launched by Christopher Cheng.
Bookseller
Lesley MacKay's Bookshop Queen Street Woollahra is a specialist childrens' bookshop that supplies trade and schools. The bookseller was at the launches and attended throughout the conference, selling the books launches, and books by delegates and presenters including Wendy Orr, Marjory Gardner, Hazel Edwards, Christopher Cheng, Frane Lessac, Moya Simons, Jen Mawter, Susanne Gervay, Jen McVeity, Tina Bourke, Dianne Wolfer, Pamela Rushby, Ilana Kresner, Jennifer Cook, Prue Mason, Patricia Bernard, Jan Latta, Vashti Farrer, Wendy Blaxland.
Hundreds of books were sold and signed and there was a great celebration of the talents of the authors and illustrators at the conference.
Susan Sherman Art Director of Charlesbridge Boston
Keynote Address at SCBWI Sydney Conference, Hughenden Hotel, Woollhara, Saturday 18 February 2006
Reported by Theresa Willsteed.
Susan Sherman is the Art Director, at US children’s publisher, Charlesbridge. She spoke about her career, and the current market for children’s books in the USA.
- Susan began by taking us through her career, from starting out with Little Brown and Co as assistant to the publisher, Robert G. Lowe (where she wrote correspondence, asked a lot of questions and learned her craft); to working at Houghton Mifflin in the mid-1980s, with the editor-in-chief, Walter Lorraine, who taught her about illustration and art direction (Lorraine is still the boss at HM today).
- Around this time, publishers began realising how stable children’s books were – they seemed to make money without publishers even paying them much attention, and they attracted big accounts without the sales people even visiting! Every publisher began to double their children’s list, and then in the mid-1990s there was the inevitable crash: too many books had flooded the market. (In the US market, if a writer can sell 10,000 books, that is considered to be a great result, and this figure doesn’t even tap the enormous libraries and school market.)
- By far the biggest markets for children’s books in the US are the libraries and schools – this is where the backlist goes, year after year (mass market success might bring big sales for only one or two years after publication). Susan later referred to this strong backlist library and school market as the heart of ‘sustainable publishing’. The American Libraries’ Association publishes magazines, lists and reviews of titles, which are very important and influential. Each year, there is a Libraries and Bookselling Convention in the US, where publishers can sell their books directly to bookshops and libraries – word of mouth is very important in the world of children’s books.
- After moving back to Little Brown (at the time of its takeover by Time Warner – Susan worked there during its heady post-takeover days), Susan moved to her current position as art director at Charlesbridge, an independent, family-owned publishing company, with about 30 staff. It’s a dynamic company staffed mainly by women, with a very collegial atmosphere. Susan’s philosophy is that publishing is a service organisation: they are there to help an author make the best book they can.
- She showed us a picture of the ‘slush pile’ – Charlesbridge receives around 200 unsolicited manuscripts a month, along with 100 solicited manuscripts. They read everything, and it takes around three months for them to reply. If a reader likes a manuscript, it is then read by at least two people before a team meeting that may recommend publication or discuss their interpretation/possible rewrites.
- Susan herself receives around 10-15 envelopes/postcards a day with artwork for her consideration. She loves receiving postcards with web addresses on, so she can visit artists’ websites (she will always remember a person’s art, before she remembers even their name or face). She has no time to mail replies, but will send back a reply card if included in the submission.
- When a manuscript is chosen for publication, Susan talks to the editor about the age level of the reader, which artist might be suited to the project, and she suggests artists, saying why they’re interesting and what they can bring to the project. She looks for artists who have really great imaginations – they can read typescript and come up with ideas that she and the author haven’t even thought of yet, and can then take those ideas to make them work completely with the text. For example, on a particular project about a little girl and a whale, quite by chance, the artist had initially included pictures of whales and portraits of little girls in her portfolio (these were some of her favourite subjects).
- Once an artist is chosen, Susan then chooses the font for the text, and starts designing the book – among her current inspirations is the work of Alex Brodovich, a US magazine designer (Harpers, Vogue etc). Susan sketches grids of page layouts, then works them up on the computer. She then sends the artist the laid-out text for the illustration process to continue.
- The artist will send her back rough, thumbnail sketches, which he or she then later develops into more detailed black-and-white sketches, following discussion (face-to-face, or by mail or e-mail – Susan works with both local and international artists). Susan took us through this whole process from thumbnails to final book (including the artist’s revisions) with the whale book. If Susan has to make suggestions to the artist, she will always do a rough sketch, and never do it well – making it clear that she is only making a suggestion, and not intimidating the artist or telling them what to do.
- She then showed us how artists incorporate the text into the illustration, and the magic of how it all then merges into one, interdependent work, with each element ultimately looking bare without the other. She did point out that some artists simply can’t incorporate text on their art – in this case, the text will be featured separately from the illustration.
- Susan discussed jacket art, and how tricky this can be, again taking us through the different processes involved before arriving at the final cover for the whale book; and later showing us two proposed covers for another book, and asking for audience reaction.
- In the print production process, everything is done on disk. This gives the designer much more control over all the elements, and makes the job easily portable. Charlesbridge prints offshore, and artists check colour proofs against the art – it is rare for artists and designers to do press checks now.
- She also showed us a longer chapter book, including the author’s research and Susan’s own imaginative research to find a typeface to match the subject.
Susan closed by emphasising how inspiring and what good fortune it is to be working in this area: an author’s idea is taken up by the publishing team and illustrator to become something that no-one could have originally envisioned. She finished with this quote:
‘The more significant the content of the book, the longer it has to last and the more perfect it must be.’
Susan then took questions from the audience, and her answers follow:
- Illustration time frames can differ. Picture books generally take two years to produce, from the slush pile to end product; one year will be given to editing, and then one year to illustration and production, but it can slide either way.
- Author/illustrator talents are an unusual combination in one person – books are mostly illustrated by someone other than the author. Many illustrators start writing because they can’t find books on subjects they’re interested in. If the author and illustrator are the one person, the whole process is likely to be more organised from the outset; but where the author and illustrator are two individuals, two different visions merge into something new, and it’s a very exciting process.
- Susan reiterated that she always hires illustrators for their imaginations – she wants them to come up with ideas that no-one has thought of before, which will inspire a fresh reading of the text.
BIO: Theresa Willsteed received Sydney University’s Henry Lawson Prize for Prose and Adrian Consett Stephen Memorial Prize, and her novel, Fun Life, was commended in the 1992 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award. She is a freelance editor and copywriter, and is currently working on a novel for young readers.
Photographs
You can view a selection of photographs from the Sydney conference here.
|
