Sue Alexander Grant is Open for Submissions! Here’s Why You Should Apply!

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agents, critiques, critiquing, Julia Edwards, published, publishing, SAG, SCBWI community, SCBWI events

By Julia Edwards 

If you are thinking about applying to SCBWI-LA’s Sue Alexander Grant, JUST DO IT! It was the best thing I could have done for my middle grade manuscript — twice! In 2017, I applied with a very early draft of Anno Catti: In the Year of Our Catand was lucky to be the first runner-up. Then, in 2018, after major rewrites, I applied again and received top honors and a free ride (!) to the coveted Working Writers Retreat weekend.

For those who have never been to WWR, here’s the deal:

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Writers Day 2019: Tenacity, Writing with Respect, and Other Takeaways

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Abigail Samoun, Cornelia Funke, Frances Gilbert, Lee Wind, SCBWI community, SCBWI events, Steve Mooser

By Charlotte Offsay

On March 9, writers swarmed the Skirball Cultural Center for SCBWI’s annual L.A. Writers Day conference. The day was packed with wisdom, tips, and motivation. Here are some of my favorite takeaways from the event.

The publishing industry is subjective, do your research and don’t give up!

Doubleday Books Editor Frances Gilbert cited being bored, an overly complicated plot, or an over-published topic among her reasons for rejecting manuscripts. She shared her own journey as an author and highlighted the subjective nature of this business – one of her manuscripts was called too specific by one publisher and too vague by another. She encouraged authors to do their research before submitting to find the right home and champion for their manuscript.

Achieve Book Nirvana with SCBWI-L.A. at the L.A. Times Festival of Books

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L.A. Times Festival of Books, LATFoB, SCBWI community

by Jerry Mahoney

If you’re like me, your main problem with books is that there are never enough of them. Libraries and bookstores are nice, but can’t there be more books? Lots, lots more? Well, prepare yourself, because there’s a place where squijillions of words will surround you in a warm, wonderful embrace that will satisfy all your literary cravings.

Yes, it’s just about time for every Southern California book lover’s favorite weekend: the L.A. Times Festival of Books! Meet some of your favorite authors, sit in on panels, and network with professionals from all over the publishing industry.

With tons of exhibitors, A-list authors in every genre, and over 150,000 visitors every year, the L.A. Times Festival of Books is the country’s largest literary festival, and it’s free!

As always, SCBWI will be there in force.

Los Angeles SCBWI Writers Day 2019 Manuscript Contest: And The Winners Are…

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middle grade, nonfiction, picture book, SCBWI community, SCBWI events, SCBWI members, young adult

By Karol Ruth Silverstein, Contest Coordinator

It was another year of very strong entries in the SCBWI L.A. Writers Day Contest. As usual, manuscripts were submitted in four categories: Young Adult, Middle Grade, Picture Book, and Other (which includes poetry and non-fiction). First place winners in each category receive free tuition to next year’s Writer’s Day, as well as a manuscript critique from one of this year’s faculty members. If you’d like to contact any of the winners to request their manuscript or discuss publication, please let us know!

Our much-appreciated anonymous judges selected the following 10 honorees:

Toot Your Horn!

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picture book, SCBWI community, SCBWI members

SCBWI members’ publishing news is something to celebrate here at Kite Tales! Check out whose book is coming to a platform near you or around the world. Horn-tooting and digital hi-fives welcome in the comments!

 

 

Butterflies in Room 6, by Caroline Arnold, photographs by Caroline Arnold, Charlesbridge Publishing, ages 5-9, nonfiction, ISBN: 978-1-58089-894-2, released 05/12/2019. 

 

Heads Up Illustrators and Author/Illustrators – the SCBWI-L.A. 2019 Mentorship is for You!

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illustrators, Jennifer Fitzgerald, mentoring, mentorships, Monica Mancillas, SCBWI community, SCBWI members, volunteering, volunteers

By Karol Ruth Silverstein, SCBWI-L.A. Contest Coordinator

SCBWI-L.A. PAL member Bethany Barton is the 2019 Mentor! This year’s mentorship contest is for illustrators and author/illustrators and we’ll be accepting applications from February 15 through March 22.

To encourage applicants, we thought we’d check in with last year’s mentees, Monica Mancillas and Jennifer Fitzgerald, to see how their mentorship experience went.

KAROL RUTH SILVERSTEIN: What did you hope to get out of the mentorship when you first applied?

JENNIFER FITZGERALD: I am just starting out writing for children, so initially I was looking for guidance in getting started. My biggest issue is time management. I’m a business owner and a parent, which means time to sit and think can be at a minimum. I needed someone to be accountable to, someone who I could trust to send me an email out of nowhere saying, “How’s it going? What are you working on right now? Send me something.” It made making time to write more real to me and I really needed that.

Authors Lee Wind and Alexis O’Neill on Meeting Your Readers and Writing the Hard Stuff

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Alexis O'Neill, Lee Wind, Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill, SCBWI community, SCBWI events, SCBWI members, The Recess Queen

Alexis at a school visit.

This year’s SCBWI-L.A. WritersDay boasts some fantastic faculty members, all dedicated to helping attendees get to know the kids, editors, and others who make up their target audience. Two of those faculty members are former SCBWI Regional Advisors and current authors, Alexis O’Neill and Lee Wind. Alexis is a veteran teacher, author, and popular school visit presenter. Her books include The Recess Queen, Loud Emily, The Kite That Bridged Two Nations, and more. Lee is the author of the young adult novel, Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill, named a BookLife Prize Semi-Finalist, one of Publishers Weekly’s Top Five Independently Published Middle Grade and Young Adult Books of 2018, and is the founding blogger and publisher of I’m Here. I’m Queer. What The Hell Do I Read?, an award-winning website about books, culture, and empowerment for Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Questioning and Queer youth, and their Allies. And it’s our lucky day because both of them agreed let us pick their beautiful brains leading up to Writers Day!

SARAH PARKER-LEE: We’re so excited to have you both as faculty this year! Alexis, whose column for the SCBWI Bulletin, “The Truth About School Visits,” has been helping members since 2006,is doing a breakout session about new research on school visits. Interacting with readers is a universal experience for kid lit authors. Can you both tell us about one of your most meaningful ones? Or one of your early blunders, so we can learn from your mistakes? 

Great News!

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SCBWI community, SCBWI members

SCBWI loves celebrating our members’ successes and noteworthy news, and there are many! Read on to find out who’s got something to shout about. Digital high-fives welcome in the comments!

 

 

In 2018, Joan Bransfield Graham had poetry featured in five new poetry anthologies: School, People, World Make Way (Abrams in conjunction with the Metropolitan Museum of Art), Great Morning!, A Bunch of Punctuation, and National Geographic’s The Poetry of US. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Educational purchased rights to use her book The Poem That Will Not End in their Reading Series for 5th Grade.

Happy Holidays from SCBWI-Los Angeles!

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SCBWI community, SCBWI members

Happy Holidays from SCBWI Cen-Cal!

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SCBWI community, SCBWI members