7. Publishing: What's Up? What's Down? What's Ahead? (PANEL)
Olga Filina joined The Rights Factory in 2013. She has been sales manager and buyer for national and independent book store chains, and literary assistant at The Cooke Agency. She represents authors of historical fiction, romance, mystery, business, lifestyle and memoir, and young adult and middle grade novels.
Carrie Gleason is a seasoned editor of children's and YA books, and currently managing editor at Dundurn Press. She is also a published children's author.
Lynne Missen has been editing books for over 25 years, and is Penguin Canada's Publishing Director, Young Readers Group. She has worked with acclaimed Canadian children’s authors Susan Juby, Eric Walters, Kenneth Oppel, Kit Pearson, Valerie Sherrard and Caroline Pignat, among others.
MODERATOR: David Bennett and his wife, Lynn, founded Transatlantic Agency, developing a client list of talented children’s writers and illustrators whose works he sold into the UK, US, Europe and Canada. Transatlantic is now a full service literary agency covering adult trade, children's and young adult authors, and illustrators.
8. John Martz—Capturing Ideas and Finding Inspiration
How do we get ideas for illustrations and stories? Where do they come from, and what do we do with them when we have them? How do we recognize the good ones from the bad ones? Learn about keeping a virtual shoe box of inspiration and images, and other methods of capturing new ideas and encouraging creativity.
John Martz has illustrated children’s picture books including A Cat Named Tim and Other Stories, Black and Bittern Was Night and Dear Flyary. He also illustrates comic books, web comics and iPad picture books, and was founding editor of the illustration blog Drawn.ca. johnmartz.com
9. Wesley King—Finding Your Story
Been sitting on an idea for years? Are you ready to start your own novel? Participants will learn how to develop their ideas, create an exciting, immersive universe and the characters to go in it, and carve out the necessary time to write their own amazing novels.
Wesley King is the award-winning author of The Vindico series and The Incredible Space Raiders (From Space!). His novels have been optioned for film and television and he has visited hundreds of schools across the country. wesleytking.com
Are you curious about what happens once an editor decides s/he likes a picture book manuscript? Groundwood Books publisher will give insights into what happens in-house. Discussion topics include what editors consider before an offer to publish is made; what happens during the editorial, illustration and design process; and what to expect after publication.
Sheila Barry has been publisher of Groundwood Books since 2012. She speaks and writes frequently on all aspects of children's book publishing, and is currently serving as Vice-President for both the Book and Periodical Council and the Canadian chapter of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY Canada).
11. Hugh Brewster—Keeping it Real: Writing Non-Fiction for Young Readers
There’s a story from history or from real life that has fired your imagination. Or maybe you just like the idea of writing non-fiction and are in search of ideas. This workshop will walk you through the process––from the idea stage right through to the writing, publishing and promoting of real stories for real kids.
Hugh Brewster has over 40 years of experience at writing, editing and publishing non-fiction for young readers. He is the author of 15 books including award winners At Vimy Ridge, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose and On Juno Beach. hughbrewster.com
12. Ishta Mercurio & Sheryl Shapiro—Secrets of Great Submissions
You’ve written your manuscript. You’ve revised it (and revised it, and revised it...). Your portfolio looks great. You’re ready to take the next step! But how? Learn the basics of writing query letters and submissions in this workshop that will give you the tools to identify the difference between a good one and a GREAT one.
Ishta Mercurio has been writing and critiquing queries since 2009. Her first query was awful, but her most recent query was great enough to get her several full requests and an offer of representation. Her first book, Bite into Bloodsuckers, is coming in 2015. She blogs about queries and other writerly things at ishtamercurio.blogspot.com.
Sheryl Shapiro has been creative director / art director / designer at Annick Press for almost 25 years. A few years after completing four years of training in fine arts and teaching, she changed careers, graduating from OCAD in editorial design. Sheryl has also co-authored children’s books and worked in other areas of design.
ONE-TO-ONE EVALUATIONS
4:45 to 7:00 PM
Space runs out quickly for these unique and highly useful sessions pairing individual participants with industry experts. Formerly called Pitch Perfect and focused on evaluations of manuscripts and illustration portfolios, One-to-One has been expanded to include author websites and social media. Plus, by popular demand, these sessions have been lengthened from 10 minutes to 15 minutes.
Each One-to-One participant communicates directly with an expert about writing, illustrating or (NEW!) website/social-media development. Manuscripts, illustrations and websites are submitted to the experts for evaluation a few weeks ahead of the conference, in preparation for the One-to-One meetings with the creators.
Registration for the Packaging Your Registration conference is required for One-to-One sessions (you can’t register for One-to-One only).
ONE-TO-ONE EXPERTS
David Bennett is the founder of Transatlantic Agency, a full service literary agency covering adult trade, children's and young adult authors, and illustrators.
Olga Filina is an agent at The Rights Factory. She represents authors of young adult and middle grade novels.
Carrie Gleason is the Editorial Director at Dundurn Press. She previously worked as a children’s books editor at Crabtree Books, Scholastic Canada, Maple Tree/Owlkids Books, and James Lorimer & Company. She is also the author of twelve non-fiction books for children.
Sheryl Shapiro is the creative director / art director / designer at Annick Press.
Joyce Grant held high-level marketing positions with multi-national corporations and co-owned a small ad agency where she created award-winning marketing campaigns. She has three picture books in her Gabby series (illustrated by Jan Dolby), and is writing an middle-grade baseball novel to be published in 2016. joycegrantauthor.com
Angela Misri spent 14 years at the CBC Radio making websites and leading its digital strategy. She writes a YA detective series called A Portia Adams Adventure and co-owns The Plot Goes Viral with Joyce Grant. She is also the host of the video blog for Books Go Social on YouTube. aportiaadamsadventure.com
Lynne Missen has been editing books for over 25 years, and is Penguin Canada's Publishing Director, Young Readers Group.
Peter Carver has worked in publishing for almost 40 years, concentrating on books for children and teenagers. Since 1996, he has been editor of children’s and young adult literature for Red Deer Press. He taught writing for children courses at George Brown College from 1986 to 2011, and has given many other writers’ workshops, from St. John’s to Nanaimo.
ONE-TO-ONE FOR WRITERS
Receive a 15-minute, One-to-One critique session with an agent or editor on a 1,000-word excerpt/chapter from your manuscript (one work). We suggest the excerpt/chapter be an opening scene or a scene that does not require set up. (If the submission is for a picture book, 1,000 words may be the entire text.)
One-to-One participants will be requested to submit their excerpt/chapter a few weeks ahead, for the agent or editor to evaluate in preparation for the 15-minute session with you. (Unlike previous years, we are not asking writers to submit a “pitch paragraph” to introduce the work.)
CANSCAIP will select the publisher or agent for your One-to-One session. Complete information and schedules will be emailed to registered One-to-One participants prior to the conference.
ONE-TO-ONE FOR ILLUSTRATORS
Receive a 15-minute, One-to-One portfolio critique with an art director. Artwork is not previously submitted. Illustrators bring 10 completed illustrations for critique plus relevant thumbnails and sketches. Illustrators may bring more work, but it may or may not be critiqued as time allows.
CANSCAIP will select the art director for your One-to-One session. Complete information and schedules will be emailed to registered One-to-One participants prior to the conference.
ONE-TO-ONE FOR WEBSITES AND SOCIAL MEDIA (NEW)
Published authors and illustrators (and unpublished too) will benefit from a 15-minute One-to-One review of their author website, Facebook author page or Goodreads author page. You'll get expert advice on practical, simple changes you can implement right away to upgrade your brand, help build your reader community, and better market and sell your books. One-to-One participants will be requested to submit links to their website, Facebook and/or Goodreads author pages a few weeks ahead, for our experts to evaluate in preparation for the 15-minute session with you.
CANSCAIP will select the marketing expert for your One-to-One session. Complete information and schedules will be emailed to registered One-to-One participants prior to the conference.
CANSCAIP ART SHOW AND SALE
at Humber College Lakeshore Campus
Artwork by CANSCAIP Members and Friends will be on exhibit at our Paging Imagination Art Show at Humber College Lakeshore Campus (venue of our PYI conference) in the L Space Gallery from November 10 to 20, Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 5:00. The show will be open to the public and the Humber community.
The L Space Gallery will be open on Saturday, November 14 so PYI attendees can enjoy the art.
Art is a meaningful, lasting, one-of-a-kind gift, for yourself, or for your family and friends. Some of the illustrations at the show will be for sale – you might just see a work of art that you can’t live without – so remember to bring your cheque book to PYI!
