At the end of yesterday’s did-we-really-cram-all-that-awesomeness-into-a-single-day Austin SCBWI conference, several of us local folks assembled onstage to offer what were billed as “9 Habits of Highly Successful Authors and Illustrators” (which, in keeping with the day’s unofficial theme, we managed to cram into less than 30 minutes).
Here’s what I had to say on the subject:
I’m not sure if you would call this a habit, or a strategy, or a pathology, but being hardheaded was absolutely essential to my getting published.
When it comes to your creative work, I think you have to have the ability –- the SITUATIONAL ability -– to believe that you’re right and everyone else is wrong — for example, when your picture-book biography of the guys who invented Day-Glo gets rejected by 23 editors but you keep submitting it anyway.
But for that to be an ABILITY and not merely a chronic case of delusional thinking, you have to do more than just believe strongly in your own work.
You also have to know the market. You have to know your audience. You have to know your technique. And you have to take seriously the feedback you receive.
Then, based on knowing all those things, you simply reach a different conclusion about your prospects than all those people who keep telling you “no.”
And notice how I called it a SITUATIONAL ability. If “I’m right, they’re all wrong” is your M.O. -– if it’s your approach to EVERYTHING you create –- then you’re just acting like a jerk.
That tends to work against you.
As folks recover from the conference, I’m sure there will be lots of thorough posts about the goings-on there. I may add links to more as I spot them, but here are the bloggers whose accounts I’ve seen so far:
Don Tate
Shelli Cornelison
Kirby Larson
E. Kristin Anderson
Carmen Oliver
Cristin Terrill
P. J. Hoover
Jessica Lee Anderson, P. J. Hoover, and Jo Whittemore
Vonna Carter
Samantha Clark
Heather Powers
Grey McCallister
Sara Lewis Holmes
Greg Leitich Smith
Though I’ve been busy this past week wrapping the final draft of my YA nonfiction project for Dial and gearing up for next weekend’s (now sold-out) Austin SCBWI conference, I’ve also been paying some attention to the kind things that folks have been saying about The Day-Glo Brothers since last Monday’s Big News from Boston.
A few of my favorites have come from:
BookMoot: Sometimes it is personal
I’m afraid I may now be on the hook to pay more attention to conference-goers’ shoes than comes naturally to me.
Original Content: I Can’t Believe It! I Know Another Award Winner!
Until Gail said so, I hadn’t realized quite how long the whole name of the award is. I think I’ll stick with “Sibert Honor” so I don’t pass out in the middle of trying to get all the words out.
How To Be A Children’s Book Illustrator: ALA honors for Austin authors
You read that right: All three Austin authors with ALA-honored books, plus Caldecott Honoree Marla Frazee, will be on the faculty for next Saturday’s conference.
Unabridged: ALA Midwinter in Boston
Why didn’t I think of Day-Glo cupcakes?
But my absolute favorite thing online this past week is on page 17 of last Monday’s Cognotes, the ALA’s conference newspaper. In the bottom-right photo, check out who that much-lauded lion is checking out…
Today has been one of the best days of my life, and if you’re reading this, you’re one of the reasons.
The American Library Association media awards (Newbery, Caldecott, etc.) were announced today, and The Day-Glo Brothers was honored as a runner-up for the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal.
And that was great, absolutely. But it wasn’t the best part.
The best part has been hearing from so many people — by email, phone, Facebook, Twitter, blog post, and hugs and kisses (thanks, Darlin’) — who are so happy to share in this good news (and to laugh about this). Some are lifelong friends, some I met only in passing last week, and one was someone I had lost track of years ago and never expected to hear from again. Many are themselves writers and artists, and some had great news of their own to be congratulated on today, which I was only too happy to do.
The sense of community that I have cherished ever since I first realized that there was a children’s literature community has been in overdrive today. I haven’t gotten any (OK, much) work done today, but I haven’t minded a bit. Without that community, these past nine-plus years would not have been nearly as fun, and today would not have been one of the best of my life.
Thank you.
When the New York Times reviewed The Day-Glo Brothers last month, my younger son had some questions for my wife — which he asked out of earshot of me.
“It used to be that nobody liked Daddy’s book, right?” asked five-year-old F, knowing all about the 23 rejections the manuscript received before Charlesbridge acquired it.
“That’s right.”
“But now, everybody likes it.” Meaning, even someone in New York.
“It’s gotten good reviews, yes.”
“Isn’t there anybody anymore who doesn’t like it?”
“Well,” my wife said, “there was one reviewer who said the bright colors gave her a headache, so she didn’t really like it.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” F replied. “I thought I was the only one.”
What arrived in the mail yesterday? My very first hardcover copy of Shark Vs. Train!
And what else?
Shark Vs. Train refrigerator magnets.
New Year’s Day brought the announcement of the finalists for the 2009 Cybils (Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards), and I’m beyond honored and delighted that The Day-Glo Brothers has made the shortlist for Non-Fiction Picture/Information Books.
The other finalists in this category are:
14 Cows for America, by Carmen Agra Deedy
Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea, by Steve Jenkins
Faith, by Maya Ajmera, Magde Nakassis, and Cynthia Pon for the Global Fund for Children
Life-Size Zoo: From Tiny Rodents to Gigantic Elephants, An Actual Size Animal Encyclopedia, created by Teruyuki Komiya with photographs by Toyofumi Fukuda
Mermaid Queen: The Spectacular True Story Of Annette Kellerman, Who Swam Her Way To Fame, Fortune & Swimsuit History!, by Shana Corey
Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, by Brian Floca
Check out the Cybils site for more details about each of these nominees, and for the shortlists in these other categories:
Easy Readers & Short Chapter Books
Fantasy & Science Fiction (Middle Grade)
Fantasy & Science Fiction (Young Adult)
Fiction Picture Books
Graphic Novels
Middle Grade Fiction
Non-Fiction Middle Grade/YA
Poetry
Young Adult Fiction
The mail on Christmas Eve included a hard copy of the Spring/Summer 2010 catalog from Little, Brown and Company Books for Young Readers, featuring — to my immense delight — a couple of good friends of mine on both the front and back covers.
That alone would have made for a happy holiday. But better still was the book that my beloved gave me the next day: Daniel Pennac’s delicious The Rights of the Reader. I could quote from it all day long, but will stick to just this one:
Time to read is always time stolen. (Like time to write, for that matter, or time to love.)
Thanks for stealing a little time to read what I’ve had to say this year. And here’s to more stolen time for all of us in 2010, for each of those purposes above.
This weekend, The New York Times has reviewed The Day-Glo Brothers, which all by itself would be just terrific. But better still is this particular piece of the review:
In Barton’s description of the breakthrough moment, which can stand for all such moments, you can almost hear the echo of Moses and the burning bush: “When the billboard came into view that afternoon, what the brothers saw astonished them. From more than a mile away, it looked like the billboard was on fire!”
As someone who spent eight years shepherding this book along, I really thought I had considered every possible angle on the Switzers’ story. Not the Moses one, though.
Less than a week after declaring to a friend (for the final time, as it turned out) that I saw Twitter as one more datastream than I could handle — well, I’m now on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/Bartography
Why? Because of context — or the lack thereof. I’m typically a slow writer and slow blogger, and what slows me down more than anything is my need to put things into context, like I’m doing right now.
But Twitter’s 140-character maximum makes context not just unnecessary but impossible. So as observations and announcements and news and other information come along — such as my agent’s new website — I can get them into circulation much more quickly and frequently, and follow up them here later.
I’d wondered how I would possibly juggle my presence on Twitter, this blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, and my email newsletter without them feeling redundant to others or overwhelming to myself, but it all seems obvious now:
Twitter: For me, this is a forum solely for matters relating to children’s/YA literature. And given how broadly that can be defined, isn’t that plenty?
Facebook: This is a more personal space, though not that much more personal, and with less emphasis on my literary life, though not that much less.
LinkedIn: Here, I’m all business, though much more for connecting with folks than for updating them on my doings.
Bartography Express: This is for anybody who can easily get their fill of me in a bimonthly newsletter. If that’s you, please sign up on my home page.
Bartography: I expect to use this blog for the same sorts of posts and with the same frequency as you’ve seen here recently. Context included.
Those would be The Siren Song by Anne Ursu, Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly, and Mare’s War by Tanita Davis.
And I just got word that my branch library is holding Suzanne Collins‘ The Hunger Games for me. It’s a good time not be on deadline.
