It’s all go behind the doors of the Greenhouse, and I have to admit Julia and I are pretty excited as the countdown begins to the Bologna Book Fair. I’m getting there a bit early, so I can acclimate to the time zone and also have a couple of days of relaxation in Bologna and nearby Florence, both of which I love but rarely have time to actually enjoy. 

I’m flying Thursday evening, via Frankfurt, and will stagger into our hotel – round the back of the glorious Piazza Maggiore – some time Friday morning.  Thinking of sending me a submission? You might do better to wait till I’m back on the 31st, as I won’t have time to look at email while I’m away.  I’m trying to get really up to date before I leave though, so if you’ve sent me a submission in the last week or two you should be hearing from me.

I talked about territorial rights on my last blog post, and rights are still very much in my head as Julia and I prepare our Bologna documents: our list of ‘backlist’ books (those already with primary deals – ie, either in the US or UK, or both) and also our exciting list of new and upcoming projects that we’ll be pitching. Even if we know we won’t have the final manuscripts for a few months, editors love to hear what we have coming up.  Everyone is looking for the Next Big Thing – or even the next smaller thing, which could nonetheless fill a niche in their forthcoming list.

In return, we want to know how each editor/publisher/scout/film person sees the marketplace and where they feel it’s going.  Several days of those kinds of conversations add up to a lot of invaluable knowledge about the international scene, and provide clues as to where we should particularly invest our time and energies in the coming months.

So, from my last post you already know that the publishing world still divides territorial rights into chunks, even if the electronic era blurs the edges a little at times. But what other rights are covered in a publishing contract?

Everything in the contract to be exercised by the Publisher is called Primary Rights.  But suppose the Publisher can’t exercise those rights for some reason (eg,they’ve been granted audio rights but don’t have their own audio list) or suppose they see opportunities to exploit the potential of your book in more diverse ways?  In that case, they can LICENSE a range of rights to a third party – and that bunch of rights is called Subsidiary Rights.

What is included in Sub Rights? Well, I mentioned Translation Rights (or Foreign Rights) in my last post, and those are probably the biggest clump of rights within this bit of the contract – if the Publisher has been granted World rights. If they haven’t, then those rights remain reserved to the author – either directly or on the author’s behalf by their literary agency.  It’s in the exploitation of these rights that Bologna (Frankfurt / London Book Fairs too) plays such a big part.

But there’s a lot more within Sub Rights.

We’ve already mentioned audio, which is rapidly becoming a dealbreaker for many of the bigger houses due to expanding potential for electronic download etc.

Ebook has been fairly straightforward for a while, but is increasingly coming under complex negotiation due to its potential for ‘enhancement’. Some of the complications lie in specifying clearly what those enhancements may be so there’s no confusion with potential film or TV deals down the line.

Here are some of the other rights can be sold to a third party:

First Serial (publication of an extract BEFORE first book publication – for example, to a newspaper/magazine) and Second Serial (publication in a newspaper/magazine AFTER first book publication).

Textbook rights

Abridgement/condensation

Large Print

Bookclub

Graphic Novel, Comic Book

Theme Park (I always wondered about that, until the Harry Potter world/ride opened at Disney!)

Dramatic – including Motion Picture, TV, Radio; and Non-Dramatic – ie, straight reading of the text as a performance.

Merchandising and Commercial rights – these being particularly significant if Film/TV is sold and the project actually goes into production.

Are you still with me? And you thought publishing was just a matter of your words making it on to the printed page of a book!?

Each of these rights above can be sold – ‘exploited’ – separately, and each has a split of monies set out in your publishing contract – many of them 50/50 (between publisher and author) in US contracts.

As I’ve said before, the story you tell – the manuscript that spews in a clump of messy pages from your printer, or downloads from a file on to your e-reader – is much more complex than you might think. And much more full of diverse potential.

Sure, your novel is an artistic work of entertainment, but it can also be described as CONTENT. Content to be chopped and parceled and sold in myriad ways.

It is, in business terms, a portfolio of rights. And Bologna is the ultimate rights marketplace in our industry of books for young readers.

Ciao! More from me after the fair. Wish us luck!

Pix:1) Brunelleschi contemplates his masterwork - the Duomo in Florence; or maybe he’s pondering foreign rights?  2) The merry-go-round of publishing, also Florence.  3) Ostensibly Florentine pigeons in love - but actually a pic of me pitching a new storyline to an editor at the fair . . .

A good time was had by all at Southern Breeze’s Spring Mingle 2011 last weekend. At least, I’m presuming everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did!

Southern Breeze is the bit of SCBWI that covers Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, so southern accents and warm hospitality aplenty in what I thought was a brilliantly organized conference. Thanks to Heather Kolich and her team – and especially to Sharon, my Guardian Angel (yes, she was literally designated as that!), whose job it was to make my life incredibly simple and pleasant for the weekend. Wow, everyone needs a Guardian Angel Sharon in their life! I just wish I could have packed her in my suitcase and brought her home with me, where she is sorely needed . . .

One of the things I always enjoy about conferences is getting to know the other faculty members, and this faculty was small, so we spent a lot of time together. ‘We’ being Erin Clarke (Knopf), Katie Carella (Grosset/Penguin), E.B. Lewis (award-winning illustrator), and Lindsey Leavitt (Greenhouse author of PRINCESS FOR HIRE/SEAN GRISWOLD’S HEAD).  We rocked that tricky First Pages panel, didn’t we!

Anyway, I digress. Friday night, when we still had a modicum of energy left, everyone piled into the hotel bar – perfect for bookish discussion and bonding. Nursing my glass of wine, I decided to strike out and talk to random people, in the knowledge that writers get very few opportunities to talk to people in the industry, so it was time to make myself available.

I got into a conversation with a lovely group of people, and soon found myself holding forth about various aspects of the Greenhouse and the publishing world, in particular the foreign-rights scene at Bologna.

Suddenly I realized this was a one-sided conversation and that there were some very blank faces looking back at me. I stopped mid-flow, and a nice man piped up: ‘Sorry, but what exactly are rights?’

At which point I was reminded of how easy it is to make assumptions about what people know, and how very opaque this business is.  I set about explaining and, though I’ve covered it before in this blog, I shall do so again now for any of you readers who feel as lost as those new friends in the bar.

So . . .

Pick up a book and look at it. What do you see? Paper and print?

When I look at a book, I see two things.  1) A story that is also a work of art.  2) A bundle of very diverse rights.

A BUNDLE OF RIGHTS? Weird, huh!

Let’s start this week with territorial rights, which form what we might call the ‘primary deal’.  I’ll do my next post on the other rights, since the subject is too big to cover at one go.

Here goes:

The English-speaking world tends to be divided – in publishing terms – into two chunks.

1) US and Canada (ie, North America)
2) UK and Commonwealth. Here is a list of the Commonwealth countries: http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/Aboutus/TheCommonwealth/Commonwealthcountries

In fact, Canada can be sold separately, but is generally grabbed by either the US deal or the UK deal, so it depends who gets there first; I tend to reserve it for the USA.

English-language Europe is highly contentious (you know, there are quite a few English speakers in mainland Europe and there’s a market for those readers) – both the US and UK would love to include it in their rights package! In that instance, Greenhouse tends to reserve it for the UK deal – their market is smaller, and some UK houses actually call it a ‘deal breaker’ if they can’t have it.

There are some smaller countries that float in between these North American or UK/Comm territorial bundles, depending on the deal and the houses involved, and those we call ‘Open Market’. In other words, both the US and UK publishers can sell there, though often there will be contractual restrictions on WHEN each side can sell, so one side doesn’t outstrip the other and grab all the sales.

As you can imagine, there is often some fierce discussion at contract stage about exactly which pieces of the territorial pie belong to whom (and one reason you have an agent is so you can put your feet up and have a cocktail while your agent does the rough stuff).

If you are American, your primary deal is likely to be with a US house. If you are British, your primary deal is likely to be with a UK house.  If you are a Greenhouse client, we could do both deals at the same time (depending on the book, of course). We did that with Sarwat Chadda’s DEVIL’S KISS and Megan Miranda’s FRACTURE, and were virtually simultaneous with Lindsey Leavitt’s PRINCESS FOR HIRE and Jill Hathaway’s SLIDE.

Unlike other US or UK agencies, we will take 15% commission for both deals. (Regular US agencies will take 20% for UK deals. Regular UK agencies will take 20% for US deals.)

And then there are Translation Rights. In other words, deals done in countries that are not English-speaking. These we also call Foreign Rights. A huge amount of time is invested in seeking such deals, they are frequently fiddly, and they are done for us by our sister company, Rights People. If you saw a printout of exactly where our books/manuscripts are on submission at the moment, you would be amazed.  For example, we’ve recently had one manuscript on submission to 30 publishers (always at their request) in France alone. You can imagine the volume of stuff we have out there at any one time!

Many translation-rights deals are small - $5000 or less. But you can do better financially in some markets – like Germany – than with your primary deal. And those deals can really mount up in value, if you have a sought-after property to sell.

Still with me?

OK, so those are the rights parcels. But suppose you DON’T parcel up the rights. Suppose you sell all territories at one fell swoop?

That is called World Rights.

There are rare occasions when the Greenhouse sells World Rights to publishers (perhaps we’ve been made an offer so good that it’s hard to recommend to our author that they turn it down). But in the main, we parcel up those rights and sell them separately on a territory by territory basis.

Why? Because we can generally make our author more money that way. 

If Greenhouse sells Translation Rights for you, you will keep 75% of the monies.  If your publisher sells those rights for you (under a World Rights model), you will keep 70/75% (depending on the publisher’s customary split) minus your agent’s regular commission of 15%. In other words, you will actually take home 55% or 60% of the deal money.

Hah, you say. So obviously that means I don’t need an agent!!!!!!!

Yeah, well. You have to see this issue in the round. There are many questions to ask yourself. Like . . .

Are you able to get a deal on your own, in a timely way, without an agent’s help - given it’s almost impossible to get your manuscript into the hands of a publisher?

Are you able to negotiate optimum terms for yourself?  In the obvious question of Advance, but also royalties and all the other terms, splits, safeguards, out-of-print/ remainder etc etc etc clauses that will determine your long-term writing destiny.

Are you able to liaise knowledgeably and confidently with your publisher on all issues regarding the process and management of your book(s) and career?

Having been in this industry for 30 years, on both sides of the desk – and having worked with countless authors, both bestselling and debut – I can honestly say that a good agent at your side will be an investment you are very unlikely to regret. And I know quite a few authors who did decide to go it alone, and ended up in a bit of a mess!

Your book is like a pie; a pie of potential slices. And we love to carve up that pie and market those slices.  Give us a great book and the slicing can be really lucrative for you!

But talking of pies, I’m reminded that it’s Sunday night and I deserve a good dinner, a pair of slippers and a little zoning out before the Monday Madness starts.

Ta-ta for now.

Pix:  1) My example of selling rights in parcels! Del Ray Market, Northern Virginia. 2) My example of selling world rights - all territories in one go. Also Del Ray.  3) Spring Mingle: Me, with Greenhouse authors Lindsey Leavitt and Megan Miranda

It has been a silent time in blog-land. Sorry about that, but I’ve always taken the view that blogging/social networking has to take second place to the obligations of client representation. How can one justify musing and pontificating in cyberspace when a client’s waiting for editorial notes or progress on their deal? Doesn’t seem right to me.  But hey, I’ve missed the musing and pontificating,so Sarah the Blogger is back in town!

What have we been up to? 2011 has begun at a cracking pace and Julia and I are really excited about how the agency’s developing as it enters its third year (ONLY THREE YEARS!?  I hear you say. HAVEN’T THOSE PEOPLE BEEN AROUND FOREVER???) Yes, it’s coming up to three years in March that Greenhouse did its very first deal, for Sarwat Chadda’s DEVIL’S KISS, and now the green shoots can be seen all over the place. Not least for Sarwat himself as we’ve just announced the sale to HarperCollins – at auction – of UK/Commonwealth rights in his epic new Indian adventure series, THE ASH MISTRY CHRONICLES, mixing a contemporary Indian setting with the vast mythology of that great country which, as far as we know, has never been done in children’s fiction before.  Think Percy Jackson meets Indiana Jones on the Indian sub-continent! And good news about North American rights is on the horizon . . .

Another storming piece of news is that one of my favourite authors has just joined the Greenhouse and we are very honoured to have her with us.

Scotland-based Julie Bertagna is the author of a number of books for children and Young Adults, in particular her award-winning, critically acclaimed EXODUS trilogy (see the jacket image), published by Macmillan in the UK and Walker in the USA. The third book, AURORA, publishes in the UK this coming June.

As well as being far ahead of the pack in writing a dystopian epic - years before anyone else thought it was remotely cool or interesting - in this trilogy Julie has crafted three beautifully written, heart-wrenching stories of courage, adventure and survival, so if you haven’t read them go and do so forthwith! As well as being shortlisted for the prestigious Whitbread Award (now the Costa), EXODUS achieved a slew of shortlistings and some stellar reviews. How’s this one from the Guardian: ‘A miracle of a novel . . . a book you will remember for the rest of your life’. Click through this link to see lots more reviews.  http://www.juliebertagna.com/start.html. We can’t wait to see where Julie goes from here and are thrilled to join her on this new phase of her journey.

We continue to love discovering new debut authors (and are receiving record numbers of submissions), but it’s also very exciting to see existing clients starting to build a track record and achieve new deals for the future.

In the past week Tricia Springstubb (author of multi-star-reviewed WHAT HAPPENED ON FOX STREET) has confirmed a new 2-book deal with Candlewick – publishers of her younger work – for a sweet, funny, wise young chapter-book series provisionally titled CODY.  And Anne-Marie Conway (author of STARMAKERS series about a drama club) has achieved a second deal with Usborne for an intriguing new standalone novel, BUTTERFLY SUMMER.

Outside my window the weather is balmy and we’re temporarily thinking SPRINGTIME! And springtime means one very big event – the Bologna Book Fair, happening in Italy at the end of March. A lot of prep goes into Bologna, and Julia and I have been very busy sorting out our back-to-back schedule of appointments, where for three solid days we network, pitch and tantalize UK, US and European publishers with our feast of wares – both existing clients and, very importantly, new work just coming on to our map. This is the place where scouts, editors, film people – and everyone and anyone with an interest in the children’s/YA books industry around the world – gathers to see what’s coming up that might be hot. Julia and I have a lot of visitors coming to our humble table this year, and that makes us very happy. These people don’t waste their time – we don’t only want Greenhouse to be hot, we want to be the hottest of the hot!

Oh, and did I also mention that Bologna is one of the great gastronomic capitals of Italy (if not the world)?  Did I mention the prosecco? The midnight walks over medieval cobblestones in unsuitable heels?  The heady overload of talking, air-kissing, pasta, ancient beauty, Blackberry-checking? The falling into bed much too late/early only to lie there with head spinning as the sounds and light of Italy filter through the shutters?  Every year the Bologna Book Fair refreshes and reinvigorates our vision of this extraordinary international business.

It also reminds us very forcibly of the value of a great pitch to your work. I wish you could watch as Julia and I start each appointment because you would learn some interesting things about fiction and the marketplace.

An editor – usually very senior, since only senior people get to travel – sits down opposite us. We exchange greetings, catch up on news, and then we dive in. As we pitch a story we watch – close up – as the editor reacts. We see the eyes light up – or close down. We see the surreptitious glance at the watch under the table (time to move on), the distracted flick of the eyes (boring), the barely concealed snort (we’ve been pitched an identical story 10 times today already) – but also the great moment when our visitor laughs and sits up taller or leans across the table and scribbles notes. 

This, my friends, is where the pedal is put to the metal! While stories are obviously so much about the writing, the fact is a unique pitch, a fresh concept, a great title are crucial in grabbing the attention of these inundated industry professionals. The Bologna experience is an intensifying of the process we go through all the time as we select, hone and then present your work to the trade.  It’s got to have a Unique Selling Point, a hook – as well as the quality of writing to support all that.

Three years on, the Greenhouse is blooming – and we’re thrilled to be off to Italy next month for the greatest show in town. And we’ll tell you more about that after the fair.

Meanwhile, take care and enjoy those first buds of spring if they’re springing anywhere near you!

Pix:  1) Macmillan UK’s stunning rejacket of Julie Bertagna’s EXODUS 2) marking the height of flood waters in Florence, Italy (or possibly an apt comment on the level of Greenhouse submissions) 3) The fanciest Easter eggs you ever will see, Florence

Hello from London!

Greenhouse is going interactive this week with a Q & A session. We asked our facebook and twitter friends to pose their burning questions about the business of writing for children.  So here you go!  And if you’ve got any questions, post them in the comments box and we’ll do another session later in the year.

Trends change and I’m always afraid of submitting a genre you were only interested in last month.

Prevailing trends in books don’t just snap in and out – they can run for years. And while one genre can have a popularity surge (say paranormal romance or dark future/dystopian), this is a big industry with a broad spectrum of books being sought, acquired and published.

Also, we tend to look for books that are evergreen rather than ‘on trend’. Genre is just the frame it sits in – it matters, but story/character/voice matter so much more.

What genre are you particularly interested in at the moment and, more to the point, what aren’t you interested in?

We don’t handle poetry. But at the end of last year I took on a verse novel by Sarah Crossan, called THE WEIGHT OF WATER. Why did we take it on? Because we couldn’t have not taken it on – it was just too beautiful/unusual/powerful to turn down. A lot of publishers really wanted this book and I’m delighted to say Sarah is now happily ensconced in the Bloomsbury stable and will publish in Jan 2012.

This job is always a surprise. You never know what’s going to come in and change your mind. So I won’t say what I’m not interested in – because that feels like throwing down the gauntlet to the universe.

But I’d love to see some great thrillers! And I have a sense that we will sell something historical this year – but that is just looking at tea-leaves.

We aren’t looking for non-fiction, short stories, educational or religious/inspirational work, poetry, pre-school/novelty material, screenplays or writing aimed at adults.

Apart from bad spelling and punctuation, what puts you off in a submission letter?

It makes more sense to think in terms of what excites me in a submission letter. And that’s a pitch that has clarity, focus and intent. Here’s part of SD Crockett’s original query to us for AFTER THE SNOW, which will publish in 2012 (Macmillan UK/Feiwell and Friends US).

Set in 2059 in the perpetual winter of a post climate-change Britain; AFTER THE SNOW, is a coming of age story charting the awakenings of humanity in its protagonist, fifteen year old Willo Blake – a wild ‘straggler-kid’ – journeying across the snow covered Welsh hills to the sprawling mega-city of Manchester, in search of his lost father.

Willo’s journey into the dimming world of the dystopian society emerging in the city, and his relationship with Mary, is a journey of awakening empathy and hope for the future. 

I read that query and I knew this was a writer who knew what they were doing. Focus. Clarity. Intent. And take a look at a fragment from my submission pitch below.

2059. The snow begins to fall. Only the few are prepared. A new ice-age has begun.

AFTER THE SNOW is a journey of betrayal and violence. A journey of awakening love and humanity. A journey that changes everything Willo ever thought he knew.

It’s pretty much the same as SD’s original pitch – which says a lot about the quality/clarity of her concept.

A lot is made of starting with a great sentence and in the thick of action. Is this always necessary or can it be overdone?

We love a natty first sentence – because it’s evidence of skill and it does some heavy-lifting. But really the job of a first sentence is to get you to read the second sentence. A razor-sharp proposition in the first line is great – but it needs to be true to the book.

There are so many different ways to be a great writer and some first pages have a slower burn to them. It doesn’t mean that they don’t sing like a prayer bowl.

Agents usually ask for three chapters but Greenhouse only one so does good writing stand out immediately in a few pages?

Yes!

What do editors want to see more of… and less of?

Sarah and I are off to the Bologna Book Fair in March. We will sit at our desk in the Agents’ Centre, with a few tangerines to fight off scurvy, and we’ll have eight hours of back-to-back half-hour meetings for three days. At Bologna we catch up with all the editors, we talk through any issues, we pitch new projects and we find out what everyone is looking for. And we always get the same answer to that question: ‘Something wonderful!’

Sometimes an editor might be getting a bit bald on one area of their list, maybe it’s got too ‘pink’ (pre-teen girls) or too boysy or too heavy on a certain core area. In which case the editor will be actively seeking to correct the balance on their list. And when that happens it’s important we know about it – so we can take advantage of it.

But on the whole, ‘something wonderful’ is as specific as it gets. And it couldn’t really be any other way – otherwise the industry would just chase its tail. What makes this such an exciting business is that we don’t know what’s coming next, what will work, what strange, new chunk of words will get some wind behind it in the marketplace. All we know for sure is that somewhere it is being written. And Sarah and I just hope it comes to us and we’re ready to catch it!

What do you advise writers who want to write for variety of age groups (including, say, young kids + YA as well as kids & adults)?

We say great! It’s rare to be so multi-skilled and a few of our authors write across the age-groups.

Also, sometimes a long-term career isn’t made by doing one thing. It’s made by doing a few things and seeing what works.

In terms of advice for submitting work, focus is important. When I get a submission that has a couple of different projects in it and the author doesn’t seem to know where their age-core is, then I won’t have much patience with it. We need a clear message in a submission.

What do you think about multiple POV? Given that publishers are so keen on ‘voice’, do you think it’s advisable to steer clear from using more than one narrator?

It’s generally easier for a reader to stay with a story/engage with a character if it’s told from one POV, yes. DARK INSIDE by Greenhouse author Jeyn Roberts is told from four points of view – with an occasional fifth. I signed her up at four in the morning after reading her manuscript in one breathless sitting. Talent makes difficult things look easy – and because of that Sarah and I try not to be prescriptive. I would say, though, that if you’re writing for younger children, then think harder about moving POV. And for any age-group, probably don’t head-hop in single scenes.

If you are writing from multiple POV, be aware that you’ve set yourself a difficult task. Often when I read a book with multiple POV’s I come to favour one storyline/character/voice and then I resent the others. If you, as the writer, find yourself favouring one character’s story, then your reader probably will too. And that’s trouble.

How do I know when my book is ready to send out?

Only you can know if you’ve taken your book as far as you can. The first rule of BOOK CLUB – don’t send it out in a hurry. And if you think the middle is soggy, a plot line is forced or the ending is a disappointment, you’re probably right. So set it aside for as long as you can handle and come back to it with a fresh brain. In fact, even if you think it’s spot-on, take a time-out.

If I blog / tweet will it help me get an agent / get published / sell more books?

That’s a good one. Quite a few of our authors were originally connected through writers’ boards, the blogosphere and twitter/facebook.

There’s real benefit in being engaged and part of a community, not least because writing is a solitary business, with plenty of rejection, that family and friends might not understand. The writing community is so supportive, generous and caring of its people – published and unpublished. That has enormous value. You can find a beta reader to critique your work, or some quality advice from someone who’s been through it. So on a personal level that gives an author a lot.

But in terms of getting published, no, I don’t think it helps. What matters is a good book. If I get a submission from a blogger, I don’t read their blog, I read their submission.

Once a book has been published, the internet has huge marketing value for a writer with drive and initiative – and yes, it does help you sell books and connect with readers. But that’s another blog post!

If you’re investing time in a blog solely in order to attract agents, then shut it down. Agents work with manuscripts, looking for glimmers of gold in the pan. They aren’t looking at who’s tied up in the social networks and who hauls the most ‘friends’.

Unpubbed writers posting Work-in-Progress excerpts or summaries on their blogs: yay or nay?

WIP’s are classified in my book – they’re privileged information. In any business it’s better to keep your cards close to your chest until there’s real value in showing them.

If you’ve got any more questions about the business, then let us know in the comments section. We’ll do another Q & A soon.

Bye for now and thanks for dropping by!

EXTRAORDINARY is a big word today. Everyone wants to be it. Whether that means unicycling while doing the splits on America’s Got Talent, or walking alone around the world, or being the very first person to ride a rhinoceros up the DC Beltway – many of us will do what it takes to be different.

EXTRAORDINARY is a tough call. When I was a bit younger than I am now, we didn’t seem to think about being extraordinary – we just aspired to be GOOD at something.  When my mom’s generation was that age they’d settle just for not embarrassing themselves in front of the neighbours. And my grandmother’s generation? Well, the ultimate divide in England was whether or not you cleaned your own front doorstep or had ‘staff’ to do it for you.

EXTRAORDINARY is something I’ve had to think a lot about over the past couple of months as I’ve been preparing my Big Talk for this year – FROM ORDINARY TO EXTRAORDINARY: THE ART OF CREATING A GREAT SALEABLE STORY AND THE CRAFT OF CHISELLING OUT ITS FULL POTENTIAL. What makes a great story? How does it turn from being words on the page into a direct emotional arrow to the heart of the reader? What makes a story an EXPERIENCE rather than just a . . . story?

What I’ll call my EXTRAORDINARY workshop (in content goals rather than presentation!) was trialled last weekend at the SCBWI Florida conference down in Miami. In my first-ever 1.5 hour presentation (look, I never trained as a writing teacher, I’m making this up as I go along and it’s all from experience rather than theory!) I saw what worked and what needed further honing as I took my ‘class’ through ideas of concept, emotion, message, craft tools, tips of the trade, with a small lacing of craziness – like Robert Olen Butler’s suggestion that we write ‘from the white-hot centre of our unconscious’.  I love this stuff – the wild, inspirational, raw approach to writing – which then has to meet the subdued skill of craft. Let’s not lose the madness, the wild ride, as we seek those practical ‘silver bullets’ that we hope will shoot open the query process or ‘how to hook an agent’ . . . 

I wish I could share all the workshop content with you at this point, but you’re going to have to wait or I’ll have nothing to say at this year’s conferences!  If you want to hear more, come to Atlanta (Feb), Seattle (April) or Gettysburg (November). And at the year’s end I’ll try to blog it, as I did with HOW TO WRITE THE BREAKOUT NOVEL, which was last year’s epic. [Look back in my blog posts and you’ll find several sessions on that theme.] And meanwhile, how about pondering how to get your very own WIP to a new level of EXTRAORDINARY?

EXTRAORDINARY is everywhere in the writing world, and nothing is more extraordinary than the generous, committed people who make up the regional leadership and volunteers of SCBWI. Their passion and kindness is truly something to behold. Miami proved my point – from Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld’s stratospheric organizational skills (echoed by her team), Ty Shiver who rescued me from the airport and got me where I needed to be (complete with little bags of home-made cookies and candy), Mindy Alyse Weiss, Michelle Delisle (just for becoming friends) – and so many more. It’s a very moving thing to experience the bonds we share within the writing world.

There are all kinds of EXTRAORDINARY going on in Greenhouse right now, and 2011 has begun with a bang. Julia’s just done an amazing two-book deal with Bloomsbury UK for Sarah Crossan’s debut THE WEIGHT OF WATER. Searingly beautiful though this novel is, I’d have said that getting multiple interest in the UK for aYA verse novel would have been impossible in this climate. Julia’s proved that magic can be done when a great author/book/agent/publisher find each other.

In the US we’ve had all kinds of EXTRAORDINARY too since the year started. THE REPLACEMENT making it into YALSA’s top YA novels of the year, OF ALL THE STUPID THINGS featuring in ALA’s Rainbow list, and picturebook SOAR, ELINOR leaping into the Amelia Bloomer Feminist Book Top 10.

Over in the UK we’ve seen MORTLOCK shortlisted for the prestigious, national Waterstone’s Award and THE BOY WHO FELL DOWN EXIT hitting its THIRTEENTH award shortlist!  We are thrilled with all this, but never rest on our laurels – I’m currently in the middle of three deals at the moment, with another offer expected imminently.

EXTRAORDINARY is indeed a big word, but it can feel intimidating and often it’s overused. At Greenhouse we strive for extraordinary, but we would be very, very happy just to be GOOD at what we do.  GOOD is achievable. GOOD is solid. GOOD is the foundation of a genuine future.

Is your WIP extraordinary? Maybe not, however hard you work. Maybe the whole idea of EXTRAORDINARY gives you brain-freeze because you know you can never be that person.

But GOOD can be done, and GOOD is what we’re looking for. GOOD is something with which we can work.  Aim for the stars of EXTRAORDINARY, knowing that just a little lower resides the more comfortable plateau of GOOD.

As I set off on my next travels, to London this time, I wish you a very, very GOOD day.

Pix:  An extraordinary crystal at Reston Craft Fair, VA; extraordinarily meaningful and dramatic old columns at the National Arboretum, Washington DC

I love New Year!

It’s a long look from a great height.

A journey up an unknown river.

A flower about to unfurl.

At New Year, anything can happen – it’s all to play for, all to risk!

A large Post-It note has just been stuck on my family bulletin board. I bet you’ve all got lists just like it: eat less cheese, look at Blackberry less, get back on treadmill, drop a jeans size, become a wonderful human being etc etc.

Because January is a time of new beginnings - a time ripe for reinvention, redemption, renewal and a big shot of fresh perspective. How are we going to do what we do differently – and if we can’t do it differently, is there a way to help ourselves by changing our attitude to what we do?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the coming year, taking some deep breaths before Julia and I throw ourselves back into the fray. It’s like standing on the starting line for a race, filled with excitement and anticipation.

But I’ve also thought a lot about YOU! You the writers, you the people who long to be published, you who labour so hard over your laptops, throwing your dreams into the Greenhouse’s inbox. Or indeed you who are already published (or about to be), but know that this year will be full of daunting challenge. The unknown can be scary as well as exciting.

What do I wish for all of YOU this New Year? What is the very best advice I can give you as you put your first marks on to the blank page of 2011?

Here is my encouraging arm around your shoulder, and my contribution to your literary Post-It note of 2011 resolutions:

1 Cultivate within yourself a calm, realistic and pragmatic attitude, based on the knowledge that this industry WILL make demands on your courage, emotions, self-belief and stamina. Do not be deterred but do your utmost to remain balanced and able to laugh. This is a business; it is not a personal assessment of YOU as a human being, even though it can feel like that.

2 Put your energies into becoming a really skillful, original and interesting writer – more than into the palaver of seeking a publishing deal. Polish the jewels of language, listen to the cadence of its music, and delight in your craft for its own sake. That way you will always find satisfaction and growth (plus it’s how you’re most likely to bag that deal in the end).

3 Remember that there are many ways to write for an audience, many ways to be heard, many platforms for your writing – the world does not begin and end with publication by a famous and major house. Find what is right for YOU.

4 Seek out and enjoy the support of other writing friends, but devote more time to your craft than to social networking, if you are serious about your writing future. Practice, practice, and practice some more, and take time out from the babble which can feel distracting and even undermining if other people seem to be doing a lot ‘better’ than you are.

5 Think big thoughts, contemplate big subjects, let fascinating questions roll around in your head in a leisurely way, and ask yourself WHAT IF? Your characters can have small lives but very big stories. (And you can also be a regular person, tied to home and family, but still come up with an epic, page-turning storyline!)

6 Experience life, twang and resonate like a guitar string as things happen to you and as you read about and imagine the world. Look unflinchingly into the heart of darkness, wherever that may be. Perhaps that darkness is within you - something you’d prefer to avoid because it’s painful, but which may be the key to unlocking your biggest story.

7 Become a lover of writing craft and make it your goal to do some serious study in 2011. What do the great teachers say about plot structure? Building character? Voice? Writing is not just about inspiration and talent. Roll up your sleeves and prepare for some serious perspiration, learning at the feet of those who have gone down the path before you.

8 Take your time. Do not rush. Care about the detail. Ask yourself very hard questions – like, Does this idea really stand up to close scrutiny? Does that line WORK? Do I use apostrophes correctly (I kid you not)? If this is your vocation, everything matters.  If you were playing a concerto on your violin, would you say a few fluffed notes didn’t concern you?

9 Consider the marvels of metaphor. And other ways of saying things without actually SAYING them.

10 In fact, what ARE you trying to say in your story? What are you trying to SAY? (And that’s a very different question to ‘what HAPPENS in the story?’)

11 Research. Get your facts right, both on the page and off. Don’t send your work to anyone until you’re sure you’ve thoroughly checked that it’s going to an appropriate destination. (As the Greenhouse gets busier and busier, it becomes an increasing time-suck that a huge amount of what we’re sent bears no relation to what we represent.)

12 If you fall off your metaphorical horse, and you’re lying bruised in the metaphorical dust, allow yourself a breather, adjust your britches and clamber back on. Then ask yourself some tough questions: was something wrong with that varmint horse - or does the rider need to trot a bit more before he tries the gallop?

13 Take some risks. Climb to the top of your tall writing tree and experiment with voice. Steer your literary powerboat up an unknown river of genre and plot. Give yourself the time and space to play around with tone and setting. Who knows what might happen?

14 If all else fails, be thankful that writing is not brain surgery. It is unlikely we will kill anyone with our mistakes.  Which suddenly makes everything feel so much better!

And finally –

15 Remember that agents and editors are human beings, not robots. They need to eat and sleep, they have families and lives, they won’t always say just the right thing at just the right time. Try to forgive them when they don’t give you everything you want, when you want it – the reason is invariably that time just doesn’t allow.\

Welcome to your very own 2011! It’s full of promise, full of hope. Let’s get out there and live it to the max.

In your literary year I wish you success – but more than that I wish you passion, determination, humour, optimism, resilience, and a growing sense of satisfaction and assurance in your writing life, whether it’s your hobby or your vocation.

Let’s make this year a great one!

Pix:  Tree feller, Northern Virginia; motoring up Frenchman’s Creek, Cornwall, Englandl; tulip at the National Arboretum, Washington DC