New Teaching Authors Blog Features Ann Whitford Paul...


Teaching Authors kicked off in April as a new resource for teachers, librarians, and writers. This blog by is maintained by six children's book authors with a wide range of experience teaching writing--April Halprin Wayland, Esther Hershenhorn, Jeanne Marie Grunwell Ford, JoAnn Early Macken, Mary Ann Rodman, and Carmela Martino--with the intent to "share our unique perspective as writing teachers who are also working writers."

"In addition to discussing what we've learned about writing and the teaching of writing, we also hope to accomplish something on the blog that we can't do on our websites: facilitate conversations between writers, teachers, and librarians about the subjects we love best--writing, teaching writing, and reading," says Carmela Martino.

To encourage that interaction, Teaching Authors is open to topic suggestions from their readers. (See the Ask the Teaching Authors section in the blog sidebar to submit writing or teaching uestions.)

Today Teaching Authors offers their first Guest Teaching Author interview featuring Ann Whitford Paul, who I had the pleasure of working with on her WD title Writing Picture Books. Visit Teaching Authors to read the terrific interview with Ann and you could win an autographed copy of WPB--readers have until 11 pm Friday (central time) to enter. (Contest rules will be posted.)

The SCBWI Summer Conference--I'm Counting Down...

So far my summer is flying by (a bajillion deadlines make the days move quickly). Last week the 2010 CWIM went to the printer (super yay!). Today I sat back, took a deep breath, and realized that I leave for the SCBWI Annual Summer Conference in L.A. in 23 days.

This is going to be a particularly fun event for me because, as I've mentioned before in this space, I'll be leading SCBWI TEAM BLOG ( Jaime, Jolie, Lee, Paula, Suzanne and me--see the blogroll at right) as we bring the conference to you as it's happening. We'll be live blogging from sesssions, posting photos, sharing our experiences.

In addition to blogging, I'll also be offering a breakout session on Sunday on Practical Online Promotion (opposite Linda Sue Park, Betty Birney, Kadir Nelson, Krista Marino, Dan Lazar... hope I get an audience).

Now for some links:

• If you'd still like to register for the SCBWI conference in L.A. August 7-10, click here.
• Click here to visit the Official SCBWI Conference Blog. (Feel free to bookmark it.)

And here's where to find TEAM BLOG on Twitter (cuz when we're not blogging, we'll be tweeting):

• To follow me on Twitter, click here.
• To follow Jaime Temairik on Twitter, click here.
• To follow Jolie Stekly on Twitter, click here.
• To follow Paula Yoo on Twitter, click here.
• To follow Suzanne Young on Twitter, click here.
• You can also follow SCBWI by clicking here, where you'll find tweets linking to all the SCBWI Conference Blog posts.

Writer's Digest Debuts New Blog, Promptly...


Kicking off today, Promptly is a new blog from Writer's Digest magazine hosted by managing editor Zachary Petit. He'll offer prompts three times a week to get your writing wheels turning. Participants are invited and encouraged to post prompt-inspired pieces--and there are prizes.

Here are more details swiped from Zac's debut post:

I’ll post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week, offering flash-fiction prompts, activities, writing-grub-for-thought and maybe even some Q&As—in addition to some positive reinforcement. Prompts can be had Dine In or Carry Out. If you write and post up to 500 words from your responses in the comments section of the blog here—which is the ideal path, so other writers can absorb and play off your inspiration—I (if we haven't met before, I work as the managing editor at Writer’s Digest magazine) and a guest WD judge will pick a favorite post every month for some around-the-office writing swag. Think books, magazines and so on, and expect an array of prompts—from traditional ones to reverse-style prompts and even photo prompts.

Click here to visit Promptly.

Class of 2k9 Promoting Debut Novel by Albert Borris, Their Class Member Who Cannot...

I've been an infrequent blogger as of late (busy busy busy) but had to take the time to mention this story I spotted on GalleyCat. Debut novelist Albert Borris, a member of the Class of 2k9, had a stroke last December prior to the release of his book Crash Into Me. Now he's unable to promote the book on his own, so the Class is pulling together to get the word out about Crash Into Me.

I've always admired the Class collectives--it's a terrific idea that debut mid-grade and YA authors pool their resources and band together to promote their collective works. And how wonderful that they're there to help Borris, who is thus far unable to communicate correctly. (More proof that authors of books for young readers are awesome.)

Check out Crash Into Me.

Call for Queries...

The editorial staff of Writer's Digest Market Books is now open to queries for the 2010 editions of Photographer's Market, Songwriter's Market and Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market (which will be published in October 2009).

These books, similar to CWIM, offer craft- and business-related articles for photographers, songwriters and artists as well as interviews with both newer and more experienced professionals in these areas. (Refer to past editions for examples.)

If you have an idea for an article or interview, email your query to alice.pope@fwmedia.com.

NPR Offers Independent Booksellers' Summer Reading Recommendations...

My clock radio (which is always set to NPR) woke me up this morning with Susan Stamberg's story offering summer reading selections from from four independent booksellers. In case you missed this on Morning Edition today, have a read or take a listen. There are some cool book picks on the list. Says NPR:

Whatever your reading pleasure—be [it] fiction, nonfiction, poetry, memoir or graphic novels—you're sure to find page after page of pleasant escape in the recommendations that follow.

(My summer reading listing consists of a small stack of books I grabbed at BEA.)

I'll Be Back Soon--2010 CWIM Is Almost Finished...

Still too busy to keep up my normal blogging schedule--swept up in the excitement of getting books to the printer. A few more to go and I'll be back to my regular every-weekday posting.

The final stages of the 2010 CWIM are coming up next. I'll let you know when it's done! In the near future I'll offer some CWIM teasers and some SCBWI Team Blog coverage.

In the meantime behold the 2010 CWIM cover. It's a lovely shade of blue (although it doesn't quite match my photo over there) and will be available at the end of July:

Writing Picture Books, by Ann Whitford Paul...

Here's a lovely book trailer by Tina Nichols Coury for our new release Writing Picture Books: A Hands-On Guide from Story Creation to Publication, by Ann Whitford Paul.

• Click here to learn more about the book.
• Click here to visit Ann's website.

BEA YA Editors Book Buzz Panel...

I'm back in the office today after spending last week in New York attending BookExpo America. This week I'll be offering some reports on the conventions here on my blog. This is my first.

I was excited when I saw the list of BEA special events a few months ago and learned that this year there would be the first-ever BEA Young Adult Editor's Buzz panel. Past shows have featured Books Buzz panels, but never for YA. Which is crazy. Because there are some amazing YA titles out there that deserve to be buzzed just as much as any novel for grown-ups.

The YA Buzz panel allowed six editors to spend about 10 minutes talking about one title on their upcoming fall lists that they're really jazzed about. Scholastic Press/Push Editorial Director (and an author himself) David Levithan served as the master of ceremonies and introduced the editors on the panel.

Here are the editors, ready to buzz...

Left to right: Host David Levithan;
Mark Siegel, Editorial Director, First Second Books;
Ari Lewin, Senior Editor, Disney/Hyperion;
Tara Weikum, Executive Editor, HarperCollins Children's Books;
Krista Marino, Senior Editor, Delacorte Press;
Liz Szabla, Editor-in-Cheif, Feiwel & Friends;
Arthur Levine, VP & Editorial Director, Arthur A. Levine Books.

Here's a quick rundown of the books they talked about so I can help spread the buzz! (I couldn't Twitter this session because because it took place in one of the many vortexes of no-reception that exist in the Javitz Center.)

• Arthur: Lips Touch, by Laini Taylor, illustrate by Jim Di Bartolo. He said it's a book with emotional impact, suspense, heat, and "a breathtakingly talented author." (Release date: October 1)

• Ari: Devil's Kiss, by by Sarwat Chada. It's an adventure story focusing on Billi, the youngest and only female member of the Knights of the Templar in the present day. (Release date: September 1)
  

• Krista: The Maze Runner, by James Dashner. This a book that the editor says changed the way she sees her world. The opening of this distoptian novel is disorienting, and the book crosses genres, delving into adventure, mystery and sci fi. It was acquired as a stand-alone, but envisioned as a trilogy. (Relase date: October 6)

• Mark: Refresh Refresh, by Danica Novgorodoff. This is graphic novel about high school seniors in a small town coping with the fact that their fathers are off serving in the Iraq war. The editor says it's a story that not calculated but born of need, the type of book that defines the First Second line. Graphic novelists, he says, are "the new literary rock stars." (Release date: September 29)
  

• Liz: The Sweetheart of Prosper County, by Jill Alexander. The editor describes this smalltown Southern comic novel as "a big delicious cassarole, a give-me-goosebumps novel." It was acquired on the first five pages. (Yes, you read that correctly.) (Release date: September 1)
  

• Tara: Viola in Reel Life, by Adriana Trigiani. This book is the story of a girl misplaced--the main character moves from Brooklyn to a boarding school in Indiana while her film maker parents are off working. Two more Viola books are in the pipeline. (Release date: September 1)

The wonderful thing about this Editor Buzz sesssion was that chance to see editors speaking with such passion about these projects. This wasn't marketing copy, it was from the heart. It made me feel just as excited about these books as they were. (I even teared up a little when Liz Szabla talked about Jill Alexander's debut novel.)

Self-Published Books on the Rise...

It's another busy busy week so light on the blogging, but I wanted to get a link up to this GalleyCat post especially for the writers who came to see me speak on Saturday at the Carnegie Center in Lexington.

We talked a lot about self publishing (there were many questions about it), so here's an interesting stat from Bowker via GalleyCat:

According to the bibliographic company Bowker, 285,394 new books were published by print-on-demand companies last year--a 132 percent increase compared to 2007. In contrast, U.S. publishers put out 275,232 new books and editions in 2008--a 3.2 percent drop compared to the year before.

In case you don't have your calculator handy, that's a total of 560,626 books published in 2008.

This was also reported on in Publishers Lunch with the headline "On Demand Books Overtake Traditional Titles for the First Time."

• Click here to read about the Writer's Digest Self-Published Competition--extended deadline is May 20th.

Info Now Posted for Newest Writer's Digest Event: The Business of Getting Published...

A brand new Writer's Digest event, The Business of Getting Published, is designed to guide any author through the new dynamics of today's publishing world. This three-day event takes place Friday, September 18, through Sunday, September 20, 2009, at the New York Marriott Marquis, on Times Square in New York.

With emphasis on platform, networking and social media, The Business of Getting Published is an innovative and ground-breaking conference, featuring the industry's top forward-thinking speakers, leading sessions on topics relevant to the current and future state of the publishing world.

Chris Brogan, social media genius, is the keynote speaker. Other speakers include Kassia Krozser, editor/publisher of BookSquare.com; David Mathison, whose online sales success is the new business model; Mike Shatzkin, the industry's top publishing consultant; Seth Harwood and Scott Sigler, whose own podcasts and videocasts have made them superstars in the business; Christina Katz, author of Get Known Before the Book Deal; and many more, plus WD Publisher & Editorial Director Jane Friedman and Guide to Literary Agents Editor Chuck Sambuchino.

Complete program information, including speaker bios, special events related to the conference and registration, is now available at writersdigestconference.com.

• Click here to follow Jane Friedman on Twitter.
• Click here to visit Chuck Sambuchino's GLA blog.
• Click here to follow Christina Katz on Twitter.
  
• Click here to follow Kassia Krozser on Twitter.
  

Deborah Brodie Headlines First Annual Stanford Publishing Workshop...

Freelance editor Deborah Brodie has helped organize and will instruct at the First Annual Stanford Publishing Courses Writers Workshop, set for July 31 and August 1, at Stanford University in Palo Alto. The workshop will explore both craft and new media tools for marketing fiction and nonfiction for children and young adults, books for adults, magazine journalism, writing for the Web, and creating blog and Web videos.

Deborah's sessions start on Thursday, July 30, before the workshop officially begins, with a relaxed conversation about The Writer’s Juggling Act: Balancing Work, Life, and Play.

Her subsequent sessions include:

• Open with Enticement, Maintain Your Momentum, and End with a Bang
• Honing Your Voice, Developing Plot, Deepening Characterization & More
• Guided Writing Challenges: Tackling Writer’s Block

She’ll also moderate two panels, allowing lots of time for Q & A: Insider Advice from Children’s Book Editors and Wise Words from Children’s Book Agents.

The event is pricey ($650 per day, $990 for both days), but there's a 10% discount for groups and the quality of instruction promises to be high. Deborah spent 22 years at Viking and six years as co-founder of Roaring Brook Press before becoming a freelance editor for publishers and book doctor for literary agents and individuals and she does a great deal of instructing and mentoring. She's worked with Stephen King, David A. Adler, Sarah Dessen, Patricia Reilly Giff, Milton Meltzer, Jean Marzollo, Mary Pope Osborne, Jacqueline Wilson, and Jane Yolen.

• Click here to read my interview with Deborah Brodie.
• Click here to learn about upcoming conferences brought to you by Writer's Digest.

Happy Limerick Day!...

After a week of busy busy followed by another week of busy busy I've almost forgotten about blogging. (And answering emails. And returning phone calls. And using the ladies room...)

Today, however, my dear eldest brother (who keeps up on such things) told me it's Limerick Day and, being quite the fan of Edward Lear, I certainly can't pass up a chance to write and post some sing-songy bad rhyming poetry. Here is a limerick by yours truly about yours truly:

There once was an editor fair
With blue skin and ebony hair
She made lots of books
She was into her looks
And her butt always stayed in the chair.

Limericks really are infectious. Read a few of Lear's and the rhythm will soon be playing in your head like a bad pop song.

Hope you all have some Edward Lear volumes on your shelves--grab them, read some limericks aloud and have a cupcake. Or write a limerick about cupcakes:

On Mondays we all eat cupcakes
That our co-worker lovingly bakes
They don't cost us a penny
So we scarf down too many
Then all suffer bad tummy aches

I expect you all to comment in Limerick form.

My Quiet Blog...

The 2010 Writer's Market is going out the door tomorrow, so I haven't had time to post this week (which, hopefully, you have noticed).

I hope you've all checked out the new (and much improved) SCBWI website and registered for the August conference.

I'll be back next week.

Blogger of the Week:
Mark Garvey, Text Arts...

As an English Major, I have a special place in my heart for William Strunk and E.B. White's The Elements of Style. (I have a copy--the one illustrated by Maira Kalman--on my nightstand and often peruse it pre-slumber.) Author Mark Garvey is also a fan of the well-regarded classic guide to usage and offers the ultimate tribute to Elements in his upcoming title Stylized: A Slightly Obsessive History of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style (pubbing in October).

Mark recently began his blog Text Arts, devoted to other beloved books, where he shares excerpts, info and insights on an interesting mix of literature--recent posts discussed work by David Foster Wallace, Marcus Aurelius and Jack Handey.

You began Text Arts in February. What motivated you to start blogging? What did you hope to accomplish?

I started the blog after finishing my latest book, Stylized, which is a history of and an homage to Strunk & White's The Elements of Style. After working on that book, I was in the mood to write about more of my favorite books and writers, and the Text Arts blog seemed the perfect venue for sharing my enthusiasm for the kinds of writing I enjoy. And I thought it might have the added benefit of helping fans of Strunk and White find out about my book.

Your posts feature commentary on and excerpts from a variety of books. How do you decide what to feature? What can readers expect from a Text Arts post?

The books and excerpts I feature in my Text Arts posts are drawn from my favorite writers, it's as simple as that. My tastes, like anyone else's, are my own, but my hope is that readers coming to the site will be excited by some of the excerpts and be intrigued enough to go seek out the books and, I hope, enjoy them. I try to feature interesting and entertaining excerpts that are indicative of the works as a whole. I'm not terribly up-to-the-minute in my reading, but I've been at it a long time, and I have collected a long list of favorites. Many are old books, but their age or their currency doesn't really matter so much to me. I just love to read and talk about good writing--no matter what era it's from.

Tell us more about your upcoming book Stylized. What prompted you to work on this project?

I've had a soft spot in my heart for The Elements of Style since high school. It has always seemed to me that Elements draws together, in concentrated form, the most fundamental and helpful attitudes about writing, and it is one of the books that made me want to be a writer (and editor) in the first place. A few years ago, I noticed that 2009 would mark the book's 50th anniversary, and the time seemed right for a book that considered the history and influence of Strunk and White's little book. I was lucky enough to work with the cooperation and generous help of both the Strunk and White families, and I had the pleasure of interviewing many of my favorite writers for the project.

Stylized includes more biographical detail about William Strunk than has ever been published before, including some wonderful photographs. I was also able to include some of the correspondence between E. B. White and his editors at Macmillan (the original publishers of The Elements of Style), as well as a number of notes from White to readers of Elements. E. B. White may have been the best letter writer of the twentieth century, and I'm thrilled to be able to reproduce some of his letters and notes in my book. In all, I'm excited and honored to able to pay homage in this way to a book that's been such a big influence in my life.

Can you offer some advice to writers new to the blogosphere?

I'm a newbie in the blogging world myself, so consider the source. But I have learned a few things so far:

1. Set up a schedule that you can live with. Don't promise your readers new daily posts if you don't have the time, energy, and ideas to deliver on that promise.
2. Find an easy way to keep track of ideas for blog posts--they'll hit you when you least expect it. For this purpose, and for my other writing projects, I carry a small digital voice recorder; it's about the size of a disposable lighter. Have idea > click button > record idea. It's even easier than carrying a notebook and pen.
3. Build up a "bank" of ideas--at least titles--so you've got some choices when it comes time to write and post.
4. Keep the posts professional, sharp, and well-edited. Before you make them public, ask a trusted friend to look them over for clarity and correctness. (
5. Enjoy yourself. If you're having fun, chances are your readers will, too.
   

Tell us about your most recent post.

Visitors to Text Arts this week will find a somewhat atypical post--longer than usual, and more polemical. I'm usually not quite so worked up. I wrote it in response to some articles and blogs I've read in recent weeks that were using the occasion of the 50th anniversary of The Elements of Style to take potshots at the little book. That kind of foolishness doesn't sit well with me, so I used my platform to do a little venting. It's all in good fun, though. Mostly. And I think blogs can benefit from a little dustup now and again.