Out and About: The 13th Annual SCBWI Winter Conference!

SCBWI celebrated its Lucky 13th Annual Winter Conference in New York City this past weekend.

Lucky me! I’ve attended all 13 years!

This time around, I was able to share the experience with fellow TeachingAuthor JoAnn Early Macken who serves as the Wisconsin SCBWI Chapter’s Regional Advisor.

Over 1300 children’s book creators attended, representing 49 states and 19 countries.

Keynote speakers included Chris Crutcher, Kathryn Erskine and Cassandre Clare. Participating editors, publishers, art directors and agents generously shared their smarts, advice and insights.

Were one to use the Word Frequency Counter offered below, it’s likely the word “true” would come up in the Top Three.      

• As in,
  when it comes to marketing, promotion and Social Media, use those tools
  and platforms true to who you are and what you want and need. 
                                                                                                   
 • As in,
   stay true to your story and that’s the one you’ll publish.

Surprise guest speaker Henry Winkler, co-author with SCBWI founder and Executive Director Lin Oliver of the Hank Zipzer and Ghost Buddy series, said it best: “Just put one foot in front of another…”

Friday’s Marketing Intensive for Professional Writers, organized and led by Susan Raab,
brought me up close and personal with today’s cutting-edge marketing and promotional tools, techniques and platforms.

The key words of that Intensive, and of the Day as well, topping true? Discoverability and connectivity.

The funny thing is, though: to my way of thinking, those two words express the essence of both story and the writing process.

And they certainly express the essence of SCBWI and all this professional organization does for its 23,000 members around the world. 

Discoverability and connectivity?

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Good News! You can attend the Conference, too, vicariously, using only your fingers. Check out the information-packed posts of SCBWI’s Conference Bloggers Suzanne Young, Lee Wind, Martha Brockenbrough, Jaime Temairik and Jolie Stekly.

And, afterwards, discover any and all of My Lucky 13th Conference Finds and Treasures and connect away!

• Odyl, which helps authors and publishers connect with readers on Facebook
• Darcy Pattison’s The Book Trailer Manual eBook
• TeachingBooks.net, which helps you maximize (via integrated multimedia) the Author and the Writer in you when visiting schools, libraries and bookstores
• Pitch Engine (Create your own media empire!)
• Wordle, which generates "word clouds" from your text
• Write Words, a word frequency counter
• Pinterest, an online pin board
• Brooklyn Arden, the blog of Arthur A. Levine Editor Cheryl Klein (Check out her January 29 post on her Revision Workshop!)
• The Dropbox app, a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs and videos anywhere and share them easily so you never need to email yourself a file again!

I'm dropping pennies in my Piggy Bank as I type and already looking for a cheap Southwest Airline ticket for the August 3-6 41st SCBWI Annual Summer Conference in Los Angeles.

See you there?

Esther Hershenhorn