We started off the morning with Susan Raab and WHAT’S SELLING, WHAT’S NOT? Let me give you a run down…

*Middle readers are very popular right now.

*Vampires (although the duration of this trend is in question).

*Mystery and Ghost Stories are growing. Shout out to my very own GHOST GIRL.

*Dystopian…kicked off by the HUNGER GAMES.

*Picture Books are sticking close to the classics or to books that feel classic like LIBRARY LION.

*Books with staying power.

*Girl books, particularly series that have a quick turn over rate ex.-GOSSIP GIRLS.

*Inspirational/Spiritual/Hopeful…but not religious. (Very encouraging news for TOUCHING THE SURFACE and THE OPPOSITE OF GRAVITY) :o)

*Interesting nonfiction (not institutional) story based.

Things you can do…

*School visits

*1 to 1 relationships are critical

*Know Booksellers

*Network and build attachments

*Social Media

*Web Site

*Help generate traffic at store visits

*Be a strong community member-be actively involved.

*Try to look strategically and at the whole picture.

*Use your strengths

*Focus on a particular aspect of the market and make it work for you.

*Give people an idea of what your voice is in the industry.

*It may take time for things to grow and establish.

And some final tidbits…

*Publishers are streamlining the number of books published and the number of books printed.

*Cost IS a factor.

*Multimedia approaches to books plays a roll.

*Things are changing so quickly. Don’t freeze and get stuck. Push forward knowing that the answers are unclear for everyone.

*Write from the heart

*Be persistent.

Next up is Sheldon Fogelman…talking about SHAPING A CAREER IN CHILDREN’S BOOKS.

First off, I wanted to hug Sheldon Fogelman of of the Sheldon Fogelman Agency. He’s that adorable. Then you realize how savvy he is and you want him for an agent. He represents children’s authors and illustrators, not books. See, you’re falling in love already. His mantra is to support authors and illustrators for as long as he can, in good times and bad. Where do I sign up?

So let me give you a few of the nuggets that he shared…

*If you are going to be an author-keep writing.

*You have to be professional and remember your job-your job is to write.

*Once you submit your work, you are in the "business" of writing.

*The best way to get published is to have a good agent.

*You can’t really work effectively if you are burdened with unreasonable financial pressure.

*Understand the pulse of the market.

*Be willing to expand to new areas.

*Work with at critique group.

*In order to proceed you will have to have a plan.

*Read as many books as you possibly can.

*Be open to editorial input.

*Self promotion depends on how much time you have.

Sheldon spoke highly of Jerry Pinkney. He told the story of how Jerry’s ability (with the guidance of Sheldon) to rethink his plan and branch out in other directions, led him to multiple awards and recognitions with the most recent being the 2010 Caldecott Award for THE LION AND THE MOUSE.

Sheldon left us with a few key ideas…

*Learn as much about the business as you can.

*Be open to criticism-LOOK FOR IT!

*Don’t be distracted, this is hard work in a hard business. It is a serious business even though it is a fun one.

*When submitting, the work speaks for itself. Don’t tell me how to use it. Don’t tell me what your kids think.

Now, fasten your seatbelt….things are about to get seriously funny. There is the possibility of an injury from laughing. Our next speaker is funny man, Jim Benton, THE COMPULSIVE CREATOR.

Jim was kind enough to agree to let me post some of the work he shared with us, so don’t forget to stop by and give him a big thank you on Facebook.

Jim started off by admitting that he had a "problem"…he’s a compulsive creator. By the end of his talk the whole audience wanted to snag a just a small piece of his creativity. He’s that good folks. He started taking us through his process…

His specialty is licensing and he loves it because he can draw something once and sell it over and over again. He also wanted us to know that he’s never done just one thing. He’s always got a pan on the fire somewhere. In fact he even spent 12 years illustrating articles for Writer’s Digest. Because he had to read all the articles in order to illustrate them, he’s quite the expert on everything you need to know to be a successful writer.

Jim encouraged everyone to follow the creative impulse even if it doesn’t take you anywhere in the end…some times you just have to go down that road LOL!

Jim openly admits that he has boxes of orphan art all over the place, but sometimes there is that one piece that nobody wants but just keeps hanging around.

Although no bunny loved happy bunny in the beginning, he’s was eventually picked up by Hot Topic and became go-to wardrobe item for teens who wanted to tick off their parents, (but not get their shirt taken away.)

By the way…if you are interested in licensing, remember the community is small, so keep your nose clean and don’t tick anyone off…

Jim also passed along a couple other nuggets from working on his books DEAR DUMB DIARY and FRANNY K STEIN…

*Your editor will make you better if you listen to them. They are rooting for you!

*If you are a writer you should write everyday for fun.

*As tough as this business is, it beats the hell out of REAL WORK! In fact his message to kids is that when the lawyers and the scientists go home at night, they put on music, look at art, read books…It is the artists who feed the workers.

Before he let us go we had a little creative fun. Throwing out random ideas so we could see how the creative process worked…

A platypus and a blender. Who knew you could do that? LOL!

I’m going to leave you with one more Jim Benton masterpiece…this is for all the dad’s (spouses) who stayed home with the kids for "DADDY PARTY WEEKEND" so that we could attend the SCBWI Conference…

The final blog installment coming soon…