Kids and YA Festival Top Tips

Posted on 19/07/2022 by Artelle Lenthall

2 rooms, 6 sessions in each, 20+ informed and interesting panelists and real live writers everywhere! The #kya2022 was a fantastic day and here are my top takeaways from the day and terrible picture of me with my much more photogenic friends

Me, Fiona Lloyd, Dannielle Viera at the end of a long, but happy day. Photo credit: Sarah Lenthall

Panel One – Deb Abela and Belinda Murrell

1. Character is KING! Know both why you love this character AND why others should love this character.

2. Chapter One MUST get your readers in, MUST be the best- BE THE BOOK or they may not read on.

3. If/when an editor gives you advice, really think about it, even if it means losing chapters or characters. Trust them… they’re really good! (at what they do)

Amazing Curator and Bestselling Author Belinda Murrell

Panel Two- Katrina McKelvey, Jane Godwin, Matt Cosgrove, Kate Temple, Charmaine Ledden-Lewis

1. Editors are conjurers of illustrator’s storytelling and conjurers of author’s storytelling (and this is why they often keep them apart)

2. PBs are little bits of theatre, perform them, read them aloud.

3. Perfect is the enemy of awesome.

Panel Three- Publisher Panel

1. Can my book be sold by a sales rep to a bookseller in 30 seconds because that’s all they’ve got- that and the book cover.

2. Publishers love same, but different. What is the difference, that should make them spend 10s and 10s of 1000s on your book? More often than not it is your Voice.

3. Absence of information is very powerful- think ‘Who Sank the Boat?’ Leave your audience wanting- arrive late, leave early in your story.

Panel Four- A.L. Tait, Kate Forsyth, Oliver Phommovanh, R.A. Spratt

1. The idea that won’t let go, that seems too hard is likely to be the one that will sustain a story/series

2. If someone tells you the stakes aren’t high enough, believe them.

3. No matter how amazing your world is and how incredibly built, a great character needs to walk through it or it won’t work.

4. Don’t save your best stuff till last, you might get cancelled.

5. If you’re happy to do huge structural edits, then allow your first draft to be a discovery draft, if not- plan!

Just a few of the wonderful new books available through the super friendly staff at Better Read Than Dead, Newtown

2022 and Beyond with Zoe Walton, Clare Hallifax, Pippa Masson and Kristin Darrell

1. Story and books are resilient. They have been through world wars, the self publishing… Sure the Pandemic has slowed things down, but they are still strong and doing well.

2. Agents can expect to see 1000s of submissions at a time and will only take on 1% of these.

3. A first print run will pretty much what they know they’ve sold through preorders or what they anticipate will sell in the first, but they will of course reprint if these sell quickly.

4. Best sellers used to be 10,000 now on average 3000-6000, can be anywhere from 2000-15000

And the biggies- EDITORS FACE REJECTION TOO! 😱 Who knew?! Whether this is at submissions after championing a book, auctions where another publisher wins or even when Big W don’t take on a book they were certain Big W would.

ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR CONTRACT SIT BACK AND ENJOY IT! Don’t micromanage, trust your team, write your next book.

Yet again, I’m battling the flu this time with a delightful ear infection and his friend conjunctivitis along for the ride. Ah the joys of the journey, for the writing journey does of course occur in tandem with the journey of life, so I apologise that this isn’t the prettiest post with as many images as much formatting as planned. Still as always all we can do, dear writing fellows and friends is Savour the Quest,

Farwell until next time,

Journeygirl

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Six Month Review

Posted on 23/06/2022 by Artelle Lenthall

Hello fellow Children’s Writers and Friends,

It’s that time of year again, where everyone from business people to everyday tax payers to school students (not necessarily by choice) to writers review how they’ve done so far this year and plan for the rest of the year. As a writer that means reviewing word(s) of the year, in my case Wait! and Imagine.

So how have those words served me? Are they still valuable to me? Do they still have anything to teach me? Do I need new words? As it turns out, they’ve served me rather well as they’ve allowed, nay forced me to stop and rest, to stop and look more closely at my work and to stop and consider other possibilities- to imagine! Oddly enough or perhaps not so surprising to some, I had forgotten that imagine was my second word as I largely focussed on the much needed discipline and rest which comes from waiting. Regardless, they were a good pairing as one seemed to lead to the other.

I had got a little confused and thought my second word was create for a while and I have indeed been taking some time to create, but in a playful way, seeking only to learn. I will perhaps try to link those two now and I feel I have truly accomplished the Wait! aspect. That’s not to say I’m going to jump in and submit work that’s clearly not ready, but it does mean, I’ve learned to be more disciplined and objective about sharing what I produce creatively. So that word at least has served me very well and I intend to keep remembering to ‘wait’, but feel I’m ready to drop the capitals and exclamation mark from that word. I hope I’ve have learned now to naturally wait so I don’t need to Wait! So not quite a new word, but a new method and a new emotive response.

Just happily waiting

As for imagining and creating, they seem to have entwined themselves, and with the waiting as a backdrop, I feel I am producing fresher, freer, more original and hopefully better work. I have done some thinking about myself as a child and realised that I need to do a lot more to find what was once an excellent imagination and link it to creating the sort of work I have already started taking pleasure in and rather proud to produce. Is imagining still a valuable word for me, does it still have something to teach me? Definitely, I feel the need to go and lie on an old fashioned ‘broadboard swing’ (the forward and backward swinging type where you needed at least one other friend to operate) gaze up and the clouds, take gulps of fresh air and imagine castles and dungeons and magic forest portals through the grove of trees near the creek behind my house. I need to see dragons or sphinxes in the clouds and I need to laugh just for the sake of it. THEN I need to write, or draw, or paint, or….

Closest I could find, could be it, hard to tell with so many children on it. Now imagine it empty and me lying on my back starting at the clouds 😊 bliss

So while, I’m not ready to let go of wait and imagine and still feel they have something to teach me this year, I do intend to add create seeing as it was hovering in the wings anyway.

❓That’s it from me for now, did you have words for the year? I’d love to hear about them, how they are/have serving/served you? Let me know in the comments below or perhaps by can and string telephone.

Fraewell fellow travellers,

Savour the quest,

Journeygirl

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