More from The Class of 2K8 at NJSCWBI!

Class of 2K8 & 2K9 at NJSCBWI

Marissa Doyle, Daphne Grab, Albert Borris (2k9 Co-Pres), Nancy Viau, Nina Nelson

Editors! Agents! And Authors, Oh My!

New Jersey has one of the largest SCBWI chapters on the East coast, and writers from Maine to Maryland sign-up early to attend the annual conference in lovely Princeton. This year top editors like Cheryl Klein, Robin Tordini, Jessica Dandino Garrison, Samantha McFerrin, Stacy Cantor, Nick Eliopulos, and came ready to dish out advice, provide critiques, and give workshops. Approachable agents were in the mix, as well, and the line-up included Dan Lazar of Writers House, Stephen Barbara of Donald Maass Literary, and Linda Pratt of the Sheldon Fogelman Agency.

Author Daphne Grab and Agent Stephen Barbara

Author Marissa Doyle signs her book Bewitching Season for fellow author Susan Steen

Agent Stephen Barbara, Hallee Adleman, Daphen Grab

Nina Nelson and Bringing Home the Boy

Nancy Viau and conference organizer Kathy Temean

Class of 2K8 at NJSCBWI

The Class of 2K8 panel at NJSCBWI:

Daphne Grab, Nina Nelson, Marissa Doyle, & Nancy Viau

Members from the Class presented an afternoon workshop on guerrilla marketing called 28 Great Marketing Ideas from the Class of 2k8. Nina Nelson, Marissa Doyle, Daphne Grab, and Nancy Viau spoke about marketing their debut novels, individually and as part of a group, to a packed room full of energetic attendees.

They began with the basics—have a signature line for every email that includes your information, create a professional-looking website that reflects not only your book, but you as an author. People nodded and smiled, and scribbled notes in the spaces left on the handout. Press kits were discussed, along with publisher/author communication, tie-ins to national organizations, and what can be done to create consistent buzz. People scribbled harder!

Nancy, Daphne, And Marissa

Half way through the presentation, Nina, Marissa, Daphne, and Nancy addressed the nitty-gritty of marketing and had a little show-and-tell of popular swag like posters, tote bags, pins, candy, and bookmarks. Library visits, school workshops, signings, movie trailers, and blogging were discussed as ways to spread the word about books. A topic that got a lot of interest was that of social networking, and numerous attendees had questions about the usefulness and safety of promotion through MySpace, Facebook, JacketFlap, etc.

Daphne, Nina,Marissa, and Nancy

The panel was a hit! Questions kept coming long after everyone filtered out into the hallway.

Check the Class website for more 2k8 presentations coming to local, regional, and national conferences this year.

Stay tuned: more pics from the NJSCBWI conference coming tomorrow!

BEA with Nancy Viau

Nancy Viau and Jeff Kinney (author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid)

Thanks for the great BEA pic, Nancy! Tell us more:

I attended the ABC "Not a Dinner and (Mostly) Silent Auction" in Hollywood. 2k8 classmates Laurel Snyder and Donna Freitas were there, too, although we didn't get a chance to chat much during all the fun. I got to meet wonderful librarians like Ilene Abramson, Director of Children's Services/L.A. Public Library System and authors/speakers like Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and Rick Riordan (author of the Percy Jackson series of books, including his latest, The Battle of the Labyrinth). Nikki Giovanni's spirited talk brought tears to my eyes, and she received a standing ovation. Jeff and Rick were so funny, my cheeks hurt from ear-to-ear grinning. Here's a bit more about the award-winners that night:

The Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC) announced the recipients of its fifth annual E.B. White Read Aloud Awards.

The winner of the 2008 award for Picture Books is When Dinosaurs Came With Everything, written by Elise Broach, and illustrated by David Small (S&S). In a statement, ABC said of this most-nominated picture book, the selection committee loved "the perfect combination of wonderful writing, whimsical illustration, and imaginative premise."

The winner of the E.B. White Read Aloud Award for Older Readers is The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers). "The committee loved the appeal of [this] story for a wide ranges of ages, and felt it was destined 'to become a classic,'" said the ABC statement.

Stay tuned this week for more summer conference stories--BEA, NJSCBWI, and RWA!