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laramie at 10:56am on 22/04/2007
laramie at 10:56am on 22/04/2007Well, I made it to the Festival yesterday. I was walking, unassisted, if slowly, and managed to carry my heavy bag (full of mini-portfolios for give-away to publishers) and my heavy portfolio for the Illustrator's session in the afternoon. I gave up on the plan of lugging along some grids and framed pieces for display. (And in the end I might have saved myself the trouble of carrying the mini-portfolios, because none of the publishers was a match for the kind of work I do.)
I managed to sit through all the morning's sessions and to stand for nearly an hour, in line, waiting to show my portfolio to the representatives from four publishers - not one of whom had any use for fantasy/science fiction art for picture books - though all admired my ability.
That part was disappointing, but the editor from CarolRhoda told me that they are doing a graphic novel series on mythology, and gave me a contact person to whom to send any samples I have along those lines. And the editor from Houghton-Mifflin told me that while she doesn't do any fantasy/sf picture books the publishing house does handle some, and she gave me a name to contact. I got to talking with the ladies next to me in the audience, and one of them has a friend who's a publisher in Colorado; she liked my portfolio, so I gave her my card to show her friend the online version.
A couple of the publishers also appreciated my general drawing abilities enough to suggest that I send samples of more conventional subjects (animals, people). I could do that, but given how short is life, and how limited the time I have for drawing, I wonder about the wisdom of it.
I was also lucky enough to win a door prize (a set of six soft-bound picture books on various animals, which I expect I'll enjoy looking through before passing on to nieces and nephews.) And I forgot to bring my larger portfolio when I set out in the morning, so I made a trip home over the lunch break to get it, and was lucky enough to find my parking space still free (and paid through the day) when I got back to it.
The other sessions I attended were all interesting and informative. Lucia Monfried of Dutton was a major speaker and told us a lot about her editorial process, and what she looks for in manuscripts, and artwork (not fantasy/sf, but she did admire my skill in that area). She even read through a set of 'first pages' submitted by other Festival attendees, and gave critiques to demonstrate the kinds of things she looks for. This in itself was invaluable: confusing beginnings don't get read past the first page. She looks for active, immediate situations that convey a sense of the characters and feelings involved. She cited E.B. White's Charlotte's Web as her ideal of a Perfect Book - in which she'd change not one word.
In the Children's Book Publishing Today session there was a panel of editors from four different publishers (Milkweed Editions, Dutton, CarolRhoda and Houghton-Mifflin) who answered a lot of questions on publishing in general and their own processes. They discussed ways in which publishing has been changing with the advent of E-publishing, and licensed characters from media.
One of the most interesting panels was composed of four middle-school aged kids who are all readers, who answered questions about what they are reading, what they like and don't like in books. (One of the young ladies had just been reading all of Jane Austen and liked Persuasion best. They all liked Harry Potter, and were all working on some writing or comics project of their own.
I managed to sit through all the morning's sessions and to stand for nearly an hour, in line, waiting to show my portfolio to the representatives from four publishers - not one of whom had any use for fantasy/science fiction art for picture books - though all admired my ability.
That part was disappointing, but the editor from CarolRhoda told me that they are doing a graphic novel series on mythology, and gave me a contact person to whom to send any samples I have along those lines. And the editor from Houghton-Mifflin told me that while she doesn't do any fantasy/sf picture books the publishing house does handle some, and she gave me a name to contact. I got to talking with the ladies next to me in the audience, and one of them has a friend who's a publisher in Colorado; she liked my portfolio, so I gave her my card to show her friend the online version.
A couple of the publishers also appreciated my general drawing abilities enough to suggest that I send samples of more conventional subjects (animals, people). I could do that, but given how short is life, and how limited the time I have for drawing, I wonder about the wisdom of it.
I was also lucky enough to win a door prize (a set of six soft-bound picture books on various animals, which I expect I'll enjoy looking through before passing on to nieces and nephews.) And I forgot to bring my larger portfolio when I set out in the morning, so I made a trip home over the lunch break to get it, and was lucky enough to find my parking space still free (and paid through the day) when I got back to it.
The other sessions I attended were all interesting and informative. Lucia Monfried of Dutton was a major speaker and told us a lot about her editorial process, and what she looks for in manuscripts, and artwork (not fantasy/sf, but she did admire my skill in that area). She even read through a set of 'first pages' submitted by other Festival attendees, and gave critiques to demonstrate the kinds of things she looks for. This in itself was invaluable: confusing beginnings don't get read past the first page. She looks for active, immediate situations that convey a sense of the characters and feelings involved. She cited E.B. White's Charlotte's Web as her ideal of a Perfect Book - in which she'd change not one word.
In the Children's Book Publishing Today session there was a panel of editors from four different publishers (Milkweed Editions, Dutton, CarolRhoda and Houghton-Mifflin) who answered a lot of questions on publishing in general and their own processes. They discussed ways in which publishing has been changing with the advent of E-publishing, and licensed characters from media.
One of the most interesting panels was composed of four middle-school aged kids who are all readers, who answered questions about what they are reading, what they like and don't like in books. (One of the young ladies had just been reading all of Jane Austen and liked Persuasion best. They all liked Harry Potter, and were all working on some writing or comics project of their own.
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