Too Sad for Words

I saw an article in the New York Times today that made me sad, sad, sad.  See "Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children" at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/us/08picture.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1.

This article predicted the death of the picture book, because parents feel that they do not challenge their children enough.  Evidently, five year-olds are being persuaded to read Harry Potter instead of Curious George these days.

I am sort of left speechless.  Of course, I have stakes in this argument, being a picture book writer wanna-be, but as a parent, I'm also confused and astounded that picture books are deemed less appropriate for budding readers than chapter books.

I have three comments:
1)  The article raises the point that picture books can have more complicated vocabulary than a chapter book.  YES!  The pictures can paint a definition of a word easier and perhaps better than a text-filled chapter book can through its context alone.  I just read a book called Violet the Pilot with my daughter this weekend.  It has big words out the wazoo.  My five-year old daughter had to ask for help reading them.  Good for Violet.

2)  The article did not discuss libraries.  Only booksellers.  I can understand why picture books are lanquishing in bookstores.  A $16.00-$18.00 book is a hard sell to parents strapped for cash in this economy.  (And it raised the issue of lowering prices on picture books.  Maybe it's time...)  But what about libraries?  I often use them as my go-to source for picture books when I can't fork out the dough for a picture book to stay in our home collection.  Picture books will always have a home there (of course, there's the funding issue for libraries as well...).

3)  What about the graphic novel?  This type of book has seen a huge jump in sells the past couple of years.  Who are these readers?  Maybe they are the wee ones who are pushed out of picture books when they are three, yet longing to immerse themselves in a visual as well as semantic world?  The industry shows that these are popular books.  Pictures sell.  Maybe the industry should take another look at an almost dead genre: the picture storybook.  Publishers have pared down picture books so much (many won't even look at anything over 500 words), maybe parents are feeling guilty about picking up such an brief story.  Flesh out a few of those books...see if parents return to them.  You don't have to read the whole story in a night.  Break it up, or let the kids soak it up by themselves.  Let it be their guilty pleasure.

4)  Okay, I have four points, and could probably think of more if I sat here long enough.  Stop growing kids up too fast!  If we start chapter books when they are 4, then they move to MG by the time they are 6, then it's on to YA when they are 9 or 10.  Do you know how hard it is to find a YA with suitable content for a 9 year-old?  It's hard.  My 9 year-old son is an amazing reader, but I'm not ready for him to pick up YA yet.  And I will still let him pick up the occassional picture book because he enjoys them, and because many of them are just as challenging to the creative half of his brain as MG fiction.

If you are a writer or a parent who cares about picture books, spread the word about this article.  Let the industry know that the picture book is not dead.  It just needs some believers.

Crawling Up through the Inferno

I told my husband the other day that writing felt like travelling through the levels of Dante's Inferno (okay, minus the eternal and unrelenting punishments).  You start at the bottom, the 9th level, and slowly work your way up to the limbo stage...waiting perpetually for that call into the promised land of publication.  But the weird thing is, you don't see it that way at the beginning...

When I first started submitting, it felt like a golden time.  You send your baby into the void and know that someone, somewhere will think it's the best piece of literature since Shakespeare.  You are blissfully unaware of the purgatory that awaits.  Then, the first rejection comes.  Okay, we still have some pieces out.  We'll get it next time.  Then the next rejection, then the next.

Before you know it, you've racked up quite a collection.  You're thinking you won't need to buy wrapping paper next year.  Then you realize it.  You're at the bottom of the pit.  You've got to scratch your way to the top.  It won't be easy.  Who were we trying to fool?  Why did we think a little revision here, a fixed typo there, could get the job done? 

I don't know what level I'm at now.  I'm not a 9, but I don't think that I've reached Limbo yet.  Maybe I'll give myself a 4.  I've learned a ton, but there's a few pieces of the puzzle still out there.  I hope they're not hard to find...maybe just hiding out under the couch.

Conference...with Benefits

One of the best things I get from going to conferences (besides the information and critique sessions with real live agents, editors and writers) is my growing number of contacts. 

The KS conference was quite a coup in terms of the great friends I made.  In the weeks since the conference, I have joined an online critique group for picture book writers; I have established a relationship with another budding critique group for short story writers, and I talk regularly with new writer friends around the midwest.

I was debating whether to attend the MO conference because of its close proximity to the KS and national conference in NY (which I am going to for the first time...yikes!), but I decided to give it a go again this year primarily because of my wonderful experience at the KS conference.  I'm sure I'll see some of my friends there, and I hope to make new ones.

If you are an aspiring writer and have ever wondered whether it's worth your time to go to a conference, then wonder no longer.  Go!  Go!  Go!

Tomorrow the World! (Today the Toilet Bowl)

If you're like me, you get to a place where only a good toilet-scrubbing can help.  I wish I meant this metaphorically, but I don't.  I literally mean that scrubbing the toilets is the only thing that can make me feel better.

We all have a to-do list a mile long, right?  When my list gets so long my brain starts sizzling, I head for the toilet brush.  It seems that a good 'ole house-cleaning does wonders for my creative, spiritual, emotional (add whatever physio-psych word you want to add here) life.  My mother used to wake up at 5:00 and vacuum the house.  I thought it was crazy and a sure sign that I would have to institutionalize her later in life (or myself due to lack of sleep in my growth years), but now I kind of get it.  She needed to clear those cobwebs first thing in the morning, or she couldn't focus the rest of the day.

I find the same is true for me now.  Maybe it's sign that I'm older.  I can't concentrate on too many things at once.  Then again, maybe cleanliness does lead to godliness, or at least a decent approximation of maturity.  Whatever the reason, I gladly pick up that toilet brush and scrub away.

The Top 100

Okay, I admit it.  I've gotten bogged down in my quest to read every picture book from A to Z at my local library.  It's a worthwhile pursuit, and if I had no children, husband, dog or guinea pig, I would be all over it like butter on a pancake.

But I do have a life, so I've switched gears.  At my recent conference, Bruce Hale suggested I read instead the School Library Journal's list of the 100 most popular children's picture books.  For those of you who might want to do this as well, you can find the list here:  http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2009/05/16/top-100-picture-books-poll-results-1-101/.

It's a much tamer goal, and one that's definitely doable before my children graduate from high school.  I've also read many of the books on the list already, so it's been easy to shoot through the list.  I'm reticent to admit that I read for the first time some classics of the trade, including Owl Moon by Jane Yolen (wow, what use of language to create a mood), and Blueberries for Sal. 

I'll discuss some of my favorites as I move along, but if you have any from your childhood that you would like to share here, please feel free.

A Follow-Up

I feel that I should follow up on a comment I made in my previous blog entry about Tammi Sauer's picture book approach.  Tammi was gracious enough to comment on my post, for which I am flattered and thankful!

When you are training a bunch of newbie writers, such as myself, you of course need to give them a framework.  Dian C. Regan repeated much of the same advice when she critiqued my story.  I think now that I have attended several conferences, the information is starting to be repeated.  Maybe that's what I was picking up on during Tammi's presentation, and I didn't even realize it until later.  It's actually a good think that I'm hearing the same advice.  I can tell that some of it is starting to sink in (which for me, can honestly take a while, sometimes). 

The main issue from my comment, however, is having an agent.  Evidently, having an agent can limit the number of houses that see your work.  This is new to my ears.  I was under the assumption that having an agent actually opens up new doors to you.  They have relationships with many publishers and know who wants what, right? 

Well, yes.  A good one does.  In a follow-up with Tammi, a good agent has many relationships, but may choose to limit your houses while your list grows and as you develop as a writer.  They may approach other houses if your style changes, or after you have a solid relationship built with your current publishers/editors.

So Tammi, thanks for the clarification.  I'm beginning to feel that writing is 2% talent, 98% hard work, persistence and luck.

KS-SCBWI Conference

I told my critique partner as we left the KS conference of SCBWI that I always leave these meetings both supremely pumped up and drastically depressed.  This conference was about the same, although I have to say I left with the hope that some of some of this writing advice is finally starting to gel in my mind.

Bruce Hale was a great speaker.  I especially loved his enthusiasm and his encouragement.  I also had a great personal conversation with him the night before the main conference.  I commented to him that his bio made me feel better about having so many careers throughout my life.  He said writers need it that way...we need to experience all of life, so that we can sit down and put it on paper.  I'd never thought about it before, but I'll use it as my excuse for never deciding what I want to be when I grow up.

My critique was awesome.  Dian Curtis Regan blessed me with a typed-out summary of her advice.  I think she saw potential in what I had brought in with a few tweaks.  Whew!  At first, I was disappointed that I did not get an editor or agent, but the benefit of having a picture book author became apparent as soon as I sat down.  You can't beat the experience of 50 plus picture books.

Here's a recap of information that was new to me:

• Editors are constantly comparing your work to what is out there, so it's good to know (and mention in your cover letter) what book your story is like but also what makes it unique (Andrew Harwell and Maria Gonzales mentioned this);
• Editors are at the mercy of big booksellers when designing covers (who knew Barnes &Noble held the pursestrings or the publishing world?);
• When sitting down to do a picture book, make a brainstorm list of everything that might possibly relate to the subject (Tammi Sauer's idea).

Speaking of Tammi Sauer, I think she gave some great advice on PB writing.  What did strike me, however, is how formulaic her approach is.  She complained about being boxed in by four publishers, and I wonder if it has something to do with her method of developing a PB.  Who knows?  It's a useful framework, one that I've heard several times now.  (I'm not published, so what am I doing questioning it, huh?).

The first pages portion of the conference was helpful, too.  I brought a story about a girl who has to move to the city because her father lost his job (for those of you who remember hearing it, please forgive me!).  I brought it because it has never felt right to me.  I loved the language and cadence of the story, but something was amiss, and I think the panel put the finger on it.  It has an adult narrator.  Ouch.  I guess I had never thought about it before, but a third person narrator must also be child-like and not speak in adultese.  (Now panicked me is looking at all my stuff with fresh eyes, thinking,,,omg, all these kids sound old!  Hence why I come away from conference feeling depressed!)

Overall, the conference was a great experience, and one that I don't mind repeating.  Here's a nod of good luck to all of us in the coming year!  Remember the p's: passion, practice, persistence!