SCBWI New Zealand

While this was focused on the American market, there was plenty to think about. She discussed the effect Amazon has had on bookstores and the anti-trust court case. Indie publishers are doing well breaking through, all the same. Cuts to school budgets and book bans are having an effect, as are fewer school librarians. The huge increase in book bans is definitely concerning. There has been significant growth in e-book sales, even more so in borrowing, which is interesting, given how low these have been for a long time, with people preferring print. (I couldn’t help wondering if easy access to e-books that are banned in certain areas has been part of this?) There is also technology on the near horizon that will help book buyers see if a book has been produced in any way by AI. Stay tuned for more on that. Among other things, Deborah Halverson looked in depth at what is being published at the moment – more importantly what is selling well. From that comes that eternal question – what are

  CREATING ENGAGING SCHOOL VISITS BY TEACHING STEAM THROUGH FICTION (Speaker: Jo Watson Hackl, hosted by SCBWI Maryland/Delaware/West Virginia) I do a lot of school visits and am always keen to learn new ideas for making mine even better for students. Jo was a huge encouragement to mine my stories for aspects I can use to demonstrate STEAM principles (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics). This can be done pre-publication (writing purposefully, placing STEAM elements in your story) or after a book is already out (conduct an inventory of your story, and search for ways to talk about its STEAM elements.) I was surprised to find that I already do this at my school visits! I just hadn’t thought about it being officially STEAM teaching. For example, with my first picturebook,  Granny McFlitter the Champion Knitter , I talk to students about some of the adaptations penguins use to survive in the extreme cold. We look at the two layers of feathers they have – one to keep them

  WRITING IN DIFFERENT CATEGORIES: BOARD BOOKS TO CHAPTER BOOKS  (Speaker: Vicky Fang, hosted by SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Region) I have been experimenting with writing in different genres recently, so when I saw this webinar, I knew it was one I wanted to join in on. Vicky shared a wealth of information on the requirements for picture books, board books, early readers, graphic novels, chapter books and novels. She talked about her own journey trying to write for different forms of story. As I have found with some of my ideas for stories, some ideas just don’t fit in the genre you think they will, and it’s well worth not throwing the baby out with the bathwater – rather, play around with writing the idea down in a different way. There are advantages to this – different genres use different parts of the brain, and it also means you can have multiple stories out on submission at once. Vicky encouraged us to read a lot of mentor texts, and to purposefully study their structure, themes, characte

Cover Stories review by Sh erryl Clark (Speaker: Illustrator, Lisa Allen, hosted by SCBWI New Zealand) I was looking forward to this session – the one thing I know about cover design as an author is that I really have no idea. Not just about design elements, but also about trends and what attracts readers to pick up a book. Lisa’s session was so informative and clear! Lots of great information about the foundations of design – how we read, how our eyes track across a cover (or a page), what different colours signify, and all the parts of a cover. Spines are so important. I have seen several self-published books with the title and author going the wrong way. The full cover needs to include the blurb and barcode on the back. One of my favourite things in the session was seeing how some children’s book designers have made the barcode into something with fun. I enjoyed all the cover samples, and seeing how design has changed over the years. There were so many useful bits of advice that I a

 Storylines Invercargill/Southland Story Tour 2024 Storyline Tour team left to right:  Alan Dingley (Te Awhi Rito Reading Ambassador), Katie Furze (author), Kieran Rynhart (illustrator), Des Hunt (author) How did you feel when you were invited to take part in the Storylines Invercargill/Southland Story Tour? This was my first Story Tour and I was very nervous, but there was no need to be – it was a fantastic experience! In five days, I visited fourteen schools and spoke to more than nine hundred tamariki. I learned a lot and arrived home feeling energised and much more confident about school visits.   For those who haven’t experienced a Storylines Story Tour, can you share what a typical day on tour looks like? Generally, each tour member has three presentations per day: two in the morning, one after lunch. Some are solo, others involve two presenters, some three or more presenters. Storylines prepare a detailed schedule which means all you need to do is concentrate on your presentatio