Bad Blogger!

I missed posting yesterday so I admit, I was a bad blogger BUT I was a pretty good writer and marketer.  After an amazing weekend at the always fantastic SCBWI Western Washington Annual Conference, I got home excited and inspired in a million ways--to work on my new manuscript, to submit to agents, and to share with the many authors with whom I work some new ideas about promoting their books.  So, unfortunately, the blog wound up in last on the "To Do" list.

So, a day late, here are some thoughts on the conference.  The first observation I must make is that EVERY KEYNOTE was amazing.  This is quite an achievement and a tribute to the conference planners.  From Laini Taylor's delightful examination of her writing life to Jay Asher's heartwarming, encouraging story of his twelve-year journey to publication, and from Mitali Perkins' impassioned advocacy for having a mission statement to keep your writing life on track to Peter Brown's hilarious yet thoughtful approach to his writing and illustrating career, I felt happy and grateful to have been there to hear each one one of these addresses.

Really enjoyed hearing the passionate, professional Barbara Fisch and Sarah Shealy of Blue Slip Media.  In separate presentations, agents Edward Necarsulmer IV and Paul Rodeen shared their love for literature and their busines savvy.  Wonderful authors, including Lisa Graff, Deborah Hopkinson and Sundee Frazier provided great observations about the craft of writing.  Frankly, the toughest thing about the conference was that I couldn't attend all of the sessions--I missed Sara Crowe, Suzanne Selfors, Jordan Brown...  Too many opportunities, too little time!

On that note, I've received several emails from folks who attended (or missed) my presentation on School & Library Appearances.  As previously mentioned, I'm happy to share my notes.  Just fixing up the grammar a bit and will have them available next week.

Again, a wonderful weekend and a testament to the value of the SCBWI for writers and illustrators at all stages.

It's SCBWI Western Washington Annual Conference Weekend!

Fresh from the ski slopes of beautiful British Columbia (welll, actually I didn't ski because I worked all week but at least I had a spectacular view of snowy mountain peaks from my desk), I am stopping at home for ninety minutes this Friday evening before heading to the conference kickoff KidLit Cocktail event.

I'm looking forward to learning from many wonderful writers, editors and agents; to sharing food and conversation from a lively, accomplished and very warm writing community; and to presenting my insights about School and Library Author/Illustrator Appearances at my session on Sunday. 

Full report next week :)

NAVIGATING THE BLOGOSPHERE PART II: YOU'RE READING PW, SLJ AND PUBLISHERS LUNCH, RIGHT?

Last week, I wrote about finding Kim Norman's blog (her interview should be up next week). Today, I'll share another journey. First, I want to recommend three key sites for those in search of a good weekly short-course on the state of the children's book publishing industry (versus sites about writing, agents, book reviews, submissions, etc.). If you haven't signed up already, take advantage of free online subscriptions to:

Publishers Weekly (esp. for their weekly newsletters and blogs, including Shelf Talker)

Publishers Lunch (there's a fee for premium subscriptions but here's the sign-up page for the free newsletter)

School Library Journal (you can select your "Extra Helping" specialty updates based on your interests)

So what's my web-travel story of the week?

While visiting Peter D. Sieruta's blog, Collecting Children's Books, I found a hilarious August 2008 post, "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS," noting the numerous headless kids featured on recent book covers. While visiting PLA, I mentioned this to a few sales reps who (after rueful laughter) pointed out a problem with the many headless covers: It makes it very hard to tell these books apart--there's a certain sameness to the aesthetic. Then, at Shelf Talker, a PW blog (link, above), I discovered a couple of posts by Elizabeth Bluemle (co-owner of The Flying Pig bookstore, author of three children's books and incoming president of the Association of Booksellers for Children), which pointed out some interesting thoughts booksellers, authors, and publishing folks had about the aesthetic of book SPINES. If your book is in the production at this time and you're involved in the cover conversation, this cyber-journey would certainly be worth taking.

I'll close today by suggesting that you keep a log of interesting website and blog postings (and, by the way, has anybody invented a feature that can record/recount your web travels for you?).  Then, later on, you can connect-the-dots to research topics that may help as you work to publish and promote your own books. And, definitely check out the three sites above for some great starting points.

NAVIGATING THE BLOGOSPHERE: THREE QUESTIONS

Today's post will be brief as I am focusing much energy on preparing for my presentation at the SCBWI Western Washington Chapter's annual conference next weekend. My presentation is entitled "Making School & Library Appearances a Strong Part of Your Promotional Platform." Meanwhile, I have a question for you that came up when I contacted Kim Norman, author-illustrator and founder of the very useful blog Author Visits by State (my interview with Kim will be posted next week). Kim asked me how I'd found her site.

Here was my reply: I came by your site via a typically convoluted blog journey. I follow www.thestorysiren.com, and there I found a post about the Library-Loving-Blog-Challenge, which led me to http://writerjenn.livejournal.com/ for a list of participating authors. There, I spotted Michelle Knudsen and, being a fan of THE LIBRARY LION, I switched on over to her blog where I found you listed in the sidebar.

Trust me, I cannot always be this specific! However, my dialogue with Kim made me wonder about research and exploration via blog links. Which leads me to THREE QUESTIONS for readers here:

1. Can you retrace your steps to a favorite blog or website?

2. Can you describe the most common way(s) people find your blog or website on the Internet?

3. How did you find this blog?

I'd be grateful for your replies!