Hello Fellow Children’s Writers and Friends,

As many of you know, July has been taken up with the wonderful CYA (pronounced See-Ya) Conference and Bootcamp for me and many other KidLit authors and hopefuls; otherwise known as Aspiring or Emerging Authors.

It was CYA’s 20th Anniversary this year and they certainly pulled out all stops. For any of you who have attended CYA online or in person I hope you’ll join me in congratulating and thanking the dedicated CYA team led by the incomparable duo, Tina Marie, and Shaun Clark. 

Although I could rabbit on about how CYA pulled out all stops, including enlightening publisher, editor and agent talks, an on-site bookshop, delicious and in the case of those of us with specific health requirements personalised catering, I won’t. Instead, I’ll give you some insights and take aways from the first of the Success Panels. There was an awful lot to digest at Conference and I hope to add a few take aways to this blog over the next few months.

Below are some of the insights from authors who’ve recently been published by Affirm Press, Hachette, Berbey Books, Riveted Press and through Danielle Binks’ agency, all as a result of assessments at CYA Conferences over the years.

• Never forget WHY you’re doing this, it keeps you going as do community and persistence which are most important parts of the journey. (published after 50thsubmission!)

• Write from your own identity (and experiences, hers being from mixed heritage)

• Be ready to pivot and try new things and remember to submit; ‘you’ve got to be in it to win it.’

• Following on from that manuscripts have to be so ready to submit, get as much feedback as you can. Not all of it will be for you, do what makes your heart happy.

• Learn how to be present in the moment so you can enjoy it because a contract may never come. (*although I’m not sure I believe that, see first point) Enjoy the process.

And finally, after attending umpteen Conferences, Festivals and courses that final point was both a lightbulb moment for me and the way I entered into the rest of the Conference and will hopefully carry forward from now. Strangely, it was not something I hadn’t heard before, If you’ve been a Duckie you will have heard it many times before, but I guess you have to be ready to hear some things. It resonated with me this time because I had been very excited about attending this year. I’ve attended many times before, but I can’t explain why, something was different this time. 

It reminded me of just before our wedding day, a lady who I didn’t know or know well, perhaps a shop assistant said almost the exact thing, ‘be present in the moment, take note of everything you see and feel, what people say to you, what you eat, everything and remember it.’ (Paraphrased) She went on to say it’s a whirlwind and there’s so much hype but try to be really present and remember especially how you feel and clearly after thirty odd years of marriage, I have, but I digress. It was simply that if you are completely present in the moment you will remember more and so I set about recording and remaining focussed on everything that was said and attempting to make the most of all opportunities presented to me, I even pitched to all those present and spoke to publishers as though they were ‘just like us’, not with the anxiety of trying to get that elevator pitch in— I’d done it already after all.

Now, I have to go to work, but I will attempt to decipher my notes from the Conference before they become indecipherable and get back to you soon.

Farewell for now fellow travellers,

Savour the Quest,

Journeygirl.

P.S. An unexpected opportunity came up for me to attend the Kids & YA Festival in Lilyfield, Sydney. I hadn’t planned on attending as I figured I’d be Conferenced and Festivalled out by this stage, but I went anyway and had a wonderfully social time. I also remembered to remain in the moment and take in as much as I could. So look out for a highly unusual bonus blog post about that one within the week!