Two heads are better than one

In January, two class members presented a fantastic workshop on group marketing and blogging at the SCBWI Florida Conference in sunny Miami: Debbie Reed Fischer and Jody Feldman.

Today, we find out what Jody, co-pres of 2k8 and author of The Gollywhopper Games, has to say about the workshop opportunity. (We'll hear from Deb tomorrow.)

I wouldn't have even been at the SCBWI Florida Conference if I hadn't been a part of the Class of 2k8! Well, it happens that when I know it's coming time for me to speak in public, just the thought will send up a small surge of adrenaline. I don't know what it was about this speaking opportunity. Maybe it was that we'd prepared such a quantity of subject matter. Maybe it was that I had a partner who would pick up any pieces I dropped. Maybe someone slipped something into every sip of water I drank for the two months previous. Never once did that adrenaline surge. Which didn't make sense. Debbie Reed Fischer and I hadn't met in person before that weekend. We had only a basic idea of how we would split it up our presentation. But we talked for about an hour beforehand, and somewhere in the middle of it, I realized we were working it as if we'd been teamed at birth.

Looking back, however, I owe much of the smoothness and the ease to fact that in the Class, we're working on this every day. Every day, some question or situation arises and must be addressed. Every day we need to make decisions or work on a facet of our promotion. So maybe it was the repetition. Or maybe just being in this Class with so many talented people has given me a big boost of confidence that surged in place of the adrenaline. Even as we faced mulit-multi-multi-published authors who should know the "ins and outs" of promotion better than the newbies standing in front of the room, I must have felt, deep down, we had something valuable to offer.

So, Jody, our tag line above should be 27 heads are better than one, right?

Yes! Are there many other businesses where you can team up with 27 of your rivals, and where each of you can come out stronger than if you had acted alone? Children's writers, in general, are an amazingly supportive group of professionals. We share ideas. We root for one another. And the Class of 2k8, specifically, has allowed me to work closely with some incredible minds and has pushed me to promote more than I might have done alone.