About 15 SCBWI-BI members and non-members gathered on 7 April 2006 to hear two professionals from the publishing world speak and offer advice.
Natascha Biebow is Senior Commissioning Editor at Random House. She read out one or two of her favourite and most recent picture book stories—and gave her view about what makes a picture book story submission stand out. The most important element is the quality of the story itself. She looks for an original, amusing and child-centred story, often with good pace and rhythm which works well when read aloud. She emphasised the importance of repetition, almost a chorus, which children can anticipate and enjoy. A good beginning—and a twist at the end—definitely help! She went on to say that a ‘hook' for the adult purchaser can mean the difference beween a book being bought or left on the shelves. As an example of this she showed us the latest in the series of Daisy adventures, 006 and a Bit, written by Kes Gray, illustrated by Nick Sharratt. The adults will automatically be aware of the James Bond allusion, whereas the child may not. This title is coming out in July 2006. I notice it is featured on the Tesco website.
Natascha gave us a workshop task: think of an object that meant a great deal to you as a child and write about it. While we set to work on this, Natascha began seeing us individually to give a critique on stories she had been sent earlier. My own story met with a rather luke-warm reception—ah well, back to the drawing board!
After lunch Louise Vance gave an extremely interesting view of the publishing business from her own perspective, running an independent bookshop in Sandwich. She explained how her choices of books to stock were made from one wholesaler brochure, which only featured a fraction of the number of newly published books. She also shed light on the fact that many schools and book outlets were offered books from various clubs or remainder outfits that were cheap but also of very poor quality. Thus there is a danger of poorer books making up a large proportion of school library shelves. No wonder children were not reading!
She explained how display boards and publicity hand-outs supplied by major bookshops were provided and paid for by the publishers, not the booksellers—so unknown or previously published authors stand little chance of being included. She emphasised that it can be worthwhile for authors to visit local bookshops to promote their book. Many booksellers would look on this type of self-promotion favourably, and would probably not have come across the book otherwise. She also told us how difficult it was to make a living as an independent bookseller; most books are supplied to her at only 35% discount. She stocks classics and ‘good' books rather than fashionable toy and TV spin-offs, taking books on their merits—whereas the one and only concern for a big outlet like Tesco's is how much money they can generate.
It was a fun and stimulating day and many thanks to Jane Clarke who organised it all. Report by Diana Turner
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