SCBWI New Zealand

Run by the Western Washington SCBWI region, the speaker for this event was Sarah Jane Marsh. I signed up for this for two reasons – I’m interested in branching out into narrative non-fiction writing, and I classify myself as a worrywart. So this was the perfect webinar for me! The first topics covered were fuelling up (‘it’s okay to start badly’) and packing your backpack (finding your big idea, finding shiny objects to share, clarifying your connection to the topic, and bringing a range of lenses to look at an idea). Then we learned about embracing the uncertainties – how to start, how to end, what voice to use, what structure to use, how different narrative arcs work best for different projects. Sarah Jane stressed that we don’t know these things when we start, and that’s okay! Strategies covered included using mentor texts to get started, pulling shiny things from our backpacks (interesting facts and snippets that either embellish or can become the centre of your story), being insp...

  Using Pinterest as a Marketing Tool   This was a fascinating webinar, nearly one and a half hours long! The woman speaking and giving us all the inside info actually runs a business helping writers promote on Pinterest. Now, I thought Pinterest was dying, but apparently in the last four years, it has increased hugely, and nowhere more so than Australia and NZ! I’ve had a Pinterest account for ages but had forgotten about it, so it was interesting to learn how it works, how to build boards and whether it is worth it to change to a business account (it is, and it’s free, but of course then you have to use it). I think illustrators would do really well on Pinterest, as they do on Instagram because of their ability to use graphics and illustrations, but for writers, you can provide all sorts of background research info and links for your books, and also your inspirations. The best thing about the American webinars is that if the time difference is a problem for you, they are usu...

Self-Publishing Picture Books Webinar   This was put on by SCBWI Tasmania branch in Australia, and was a great example of how easy it is for our SCBWI members to make the most of all that is on offer via our organization. The main speaker was Frances Mackay, who told us she started a small publishing company in the UK originally, and then continued with the publishing when she moved to Tassie. Her website is at https://www.francesmackay.com/  You will see that she does very colourful books, quite a few activity books and some picture books. It was really interesting to see her comparison of the costings of two picture books, one where she paid a professional illustrator who was also able to do all the design of her book (that was about $10,000) and the other was a shorter simple counting book where she bought illustrations from an online site and then negotiated with the American illustrator for a few more. She then also had to pay for page design and to create print-ready fil...

Public Lending Rights - Where are we up to? As one of the new NZSA reps on the PLR committee, and having the wonderful experiences of also being the recipient of PLR and ELR in Australia (as a dual citizen), I was keen to see what was happening and what we could change, for the better. The depressing answer is – not much, and especially not for children’s writers and illustrators. The main issue for us in the children’s book world, I think, is that school libraries are not included in the library book surveys carried out. As there is no separate Educational Lending Right scheme, like there is in Australia, it’s not a surprise that many children’s authors and illustrators feel pretty disgruntled about PLR. The biggest problem, I discovered, is that PLR is still operating under the original legislation passed in Parliament in 2008, and this legislation is very limiting in its scope. It applied originally to mainly analogue publishing and is now way out of date, given e-books and audioboo...