The Bulletin is Now Online!

The 2020 Summer SCBWI Bulletin is the first all-digital edition of SCBWI's beloved magazine.

There's so much to explore behind Vashti Harrison's beautiful cover image, including:

An introduction to April Powers, SCBWI's new Chief Equity & Inclusion Officer

An article by Lisa Rogers that includes a helpful sidebar, "10 Tips for a Virtual Book Event"

An interview with Vashti Harrison about the cover,

An article by Linda Joy Kattwinkel, "Illustrators: Be Careful What You Post on Social Media"

and so much more!

To view The Bulletin, just log into your profile page at scbwi.orghttps://www.scbwi.org/ and click on PUBLICATIONS, then on The SCBWI Bulletin in the dropdown menu.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

The SCBWI Bulletin

One of the amazing benefits of membership in the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators is the bimonthly publication, The Bulletin.

Here's the cover of the latest issue, November/December 2011, by Dan Santat

SCBWI President and Bulletin Editor Stephen Mooser says of The Bulletin,

"My goal has always been to make it practical.  To let people know how to advance their careers.  We focus in on articles of practical interest for the professional member and we like to mix in, whenever possible, some inspiration and humor."

And it's chock-full of great stuff.  Like what? you'd like to know?  Well, let's take a look at eleven great things about the current issue, Nov/Dec 2011:

1.  The cover by Dan Santat is hysterical, and there's an interview with him inside (A regular feature called "Illustrator Profile: About the Cover") where Dan explains about his creative process - from drawing over 1000 pages for his 200+ page graphic novel "Sidekicks," to the media and supplies he uses, to his inspiration for the cover.

"I remember feeling totally worried during my first art critique that my work wasn't good enough while some art director or editor evaluated what I'd done.  You can see that same nervousness in everyone who goes through the process.  Everyone in the SCBWI can relate to this moment at least once in their life."

2.  "Trailers, For Sale or Rent" - The latest installment of an ongoing series "What the Tech?" by Mark London Williams shares his journey to release his entire "Danger Boy" time travel series - a number of which have been traditionally published - as ebooks.  This article goes into the nitty gritty of how he put together his first book trailer. Where did he get his images?  The free (and license-free) music he used?  Mark shares lots of great tips and links.

3.  Alexis O'Neill also does an ongoing column, "The Truth About School Visits" - it's indispensable, and I've read and re-read her advice many times.  This issue's topic is "Book Festivals: Are They Worth It?" and Alexis goes into depth on how authors are chosen, how you can make the most of festivals, and the pros and cons of both large and small book festivals.  She shares her personal experience and insights, and even gives a roundup of websites where you can find lists of festivals in Australia, Canada and the USA.  Like I said - indispensable!

4.  There's an "Art Tips" series where Alison Davis Lyne edits the advice of different experts and illustrators - this issue the tips (by Tina Nichols Coury and Monica Carnesi) are about blogging, and how for illustrators, they can lead to publishing opportunities. 

5. There a wonderful "Illustrator's Perspective" column by Anne Sibley O'Brien. "The Assembly of Book Projects" focuses on how she manages her life as a self-employed artist.  She asks, "when the only authority demanding results is me - and I'm not getting paid - how is it that I keep things moving forward?  How do I continue developing these ideas until they're fully formed enough to possibly generate a contract?"  And her answers were inspiring.  Anne's columns are always thought-provoking, and I particularly loved her two part column "White Mind" in past Bulletins pointing out and challenging how many of us in our culture - writers and illustrators - make our characters white by default. 

6.  Writer/Illustrator Agy Wilson also challenges us, but this time it's to play with language to keep it lively in her article, "Children's Writers make Bralls and Widges."  Agy writes, "Great stories are meant to be told.  But it's in the telling whether they take flight or exist through time."  How we use language (including nonsense words, playing with structure and even rhyme) become tools to make not just walls or bridges, but Bralls and Widges.

7.  "Speed Dating: How to make up titles for stories" - this exercise by Hazel Edwards was fast and challenging fun, and it did get me to come up with a new title for a work-in-progress that is a vast improvement.

8.  "A Report from KidLitCon 2011: Building community through the kidlitosphere" by the fabulous Alice Pope is a great rundown of the September 16-17 weekend when more than 100 kid lit bloggers came together in Seattle for the 5th annual KidLitCon.  I attended that conference as well, and Alice does a great job of sharing the highlights and passing along some of the wonderful tips from the various presenters.

9.  "Legally Speaking" is a column by SCBWI Chief Operating Officer and lawyer Sara Rutenberg.  Sara goes into depth in her columns, and this issue's focus is "Piracy Protection."  She walks authors through what to do if you discover your copyrighted material has been posted without your authorization.  She explains the "takedown provisions" statue of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and share the five steps you need to take to file a takedown notice. 

10. "Game Your Way To Success" - the "To Market" column by Susan Salzman Raab explores what we can learn about book marketing from entertainment and gaming.  Using examples like Jeopardy and Farmville, Susan shares tips and resources to re-think and calibrate your marketing plan.  There are even a number of links to sites that can help you set up games as part of your author school visits.

11.  And the wonderful "An Open Letter To The Industry," where SCBWI speaks out for writers on the no-response-means-a-rejection controversy, which I reported on earlier this week.


There's still more in this issue - poems and illustrations, an article on "International Bloggers: What they can do for your book," another on "IRS Changes Mileage Deduction Rates for 2011," and still others on opening lines, targeting your publisher, and inspiration - that one's called "Swing! by Nisha Coker.  There's a book review of Scott McCloud's "Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels," news and notes, the People pages packed with members' good publishing news, a master regional events calendar, a notice for SCBWI members who want to present and showcase their work at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, and Publisher's Corner by Connie C. Epstein with Award, Publishing News and Submission Information updates for the kid lit industry!

You can join SCBWI here, and among the many, many great things that gives you (information and support, networking, insider publishing information, access to SCBWI awards and grants, member discounts on conferences and local events, Craft, Business, Inspiration and Community) you'll get your own subscription to the Bulletin.  And it's awesome.

In addition to the physical copy that can arrive in your mailbox, members can also sign in and download the current issue (and past issues all the way back to 2005!) of The Bulletin here.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee 

SCBWI's Open Letter to the Kid Lit Industry About No-Response-Means-A-Rejection Policies

One of the powerful things about SCBWI is that it functions as a collective voice for authors and illustrators.

There's quite a controversy going on since this summer, as the "If you don't hear back from us in x amount of time, it means we're not interested" policy of some publishing houses has been increasingly adopted by agents.

Agent Jill Corcoran of the Herman Agency wrote a post on her blog explaining "Why I don't send rejection letters" that talked about the negative karma of sending out rejections.  (One of the commenters quipped "first time I've heard of an agent's karma running over a writer's dogma.")  Jill was so swamped with negative reaction that she actually changed her query policy. She's still open to unsolicited queries, but says if the no-response-within-a-month-means-no policy doesn't work for an author, they should query a different agent.

Agent Rachel Gardner with Word Serve Literary Group also wrote about her agency's "If you don't hear back within 60 days it's a no" policy, saying "Cutting out the step of responding means I can read and consider twice as many in a given hour." (Rachel is also closed to queries at the current time.)

Agent Janet Reid of Fine Print Literary had a different take, in her post "No, you're wrong, and here's why," where she explained her system for sending rejections, and mused it might even give her a competitive advantage over agents who don't respond.  (Janet's open to queries)

Former agent Nathan Bransford chimed in with his take on responding as well.  He personally did respond, but agreed with Janet that he felt responding gave him an kindness edge.  He also said, "I know it's frustrating as an author to send queries into the ether, but agents have every right to set their own submission policy, and if an authors doesn't agree with it they are more than welcome to query someone whose policy they prefer."

And agent Jennifer Laughran at the Andrea Brown agency explained the reason why they have both a no-response-means-no policy and an auto-responder to let authors know their queries were received.  And yet she admits "But... I really do try to respond to things, at least with a one-line form rejection, despite the fact that our official policy is "No Response Means No." It is just a personal quirk of mine, I truly hate leaving loose ends."

The impassioned comments to these and other posts (hundreds and hundreds of comments) and many different conversation threads on kid lit listserves cried out for a reasoned, collective voice for authors to speak out.

Here's the Open Letter to the Industry SCBWI has published in response to all this:

THERE HAS BEEN much controversy of late about whether or not writers are entitled to expect a response from agents and editors to their unsolicited submissions.  Many publishing houses have adopted the policy that no response constitutes a rejection of the project.  More recently, some agents have begun to adopt this policy.  If there is no response in a given period of time, which ranges from three to six months, it is assumed that the project was rejected and writers are free to submit their work elsewhere.

We at the SCBWI understand and are sympathetic to the rigors involved in responding to each submission.  The last thing we want to espouse is additional unnecessary paperwork for editors and agents, whose time is best spent developing worthy book projects.  However, a writer's time is also valuable, and the no-response system steals months or even years from our marketing efforts.  The fact that a writer will never hear back about the fate of his or her manuscript leaves us hanging in limbo, never being sure that the manuscript arrived, was looked at, or was ever under consideration.

From the writer's point of view, never hearing back encourages us to undertake multiple submissions so as not to waste time waiting for an answer that may never come.  This is clearly bad for the industry; more multiple submissions will further clog an already overcrowded pipeline.  The SCBWI discourages mass submissions.  We teach our members, and provide them with the tools, to target their submissions specifically to agents or publishers who have demonstrated an interest in a particular type of work.  However, if our members never hear back, even in a form rejection or an auto-response email, how can they be expected NOT to mass submit?

There must be some way to accommodate the two sides of this issue by providing writers with the feedback we need without unnecessarily consuming an agent's or editor's valuable time.  As an organization, we encourage both publishers and agents to find a cost-effective and efficient way to let writers know that they are free to submit elsewhere.  Surely in this age of auto-response and other electronically sophisticated means, a quick and easy response click is readily available and would mean a great deal to writers who are trying to conduct their careers in a businesslike way.

Respectfully,
Stephen Mooser, President
Lin Oliver, Executive Director

***

As published in the SCBWI Bulletin, November/December 2011 Edition

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee