Make-a-Story Time!
The Electronic Newsletter of the
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators,
MARCH
Quote for the month – “ Creativity is allowing oneself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep” – ?
CONTENTS
- A Note from Your Regional Advisors
- Upcoming Events for the next four months
- Conferences
- Publishers Market News
- Other Market News
- Competitions
- Dates for your Calendar
- Notes
- Interesting Web sites to visit
- More on the IBBY Congress
A Note from Your Regional Advisors
The South African branch is very young - we had our first meeting last October. Together with my colleagues we have decided, rather ambitiously, that the initial emphases of our activities should be:
- To create opportunities for members to learn and become well-informed about the industry we work in, locally and internationally.
- To provide opportunities for members to communicate regularly with peers, to compare notes and not only to work in creative isolation. To share with and to learn from each other. In a sense, to create a community of children’s book writers and illustrators.
- To stress and strategise with members around the importance of managing the workload in order to set aside time and energy specifically to pursue creative stimulation and to develop creativity and personal development.
- To provide opportunities for members to compare notes about career planning and management (also to balance a contribution to educational work with freely creative work (trade books) without losing the creative spark).
- To provide opportunities for members to make contact and to interact with established and successful children’s book writers and illustrators, local and foreign.
We had our first event for 2004 on the 23rd February - St Valentine’s Writers & Illustrators Shoptalk Day. Some of the Local publishing houses sent their editors/representatives for “shoptalk” sessions to tell about what they are publishing and planning to publish in future, what is going on in the local market and to show examples of their latest publications – what is hot and what is not.
Publishers partaking were:-
Human & Rousseau Publishers
Tafelberg Publishers
Nasou Publishers
Maskew Millers Longman Publishers
Heinemann publishers
Random House and Pan Macmillan distributors came to show some of their recently published Children’s Books
It was a huge success (65 poeple attended) and we want to thank the publishers for their contribution.
I would also like to thank Zirkea Ellis in allowing us to use
Hope to see you at future events, from
and Thomas van der Walt, Assistant Regional Advisors of the South African Branch of the SCBWI
UPCOMING EVENTS
For the next Four months
MARCH: This months Bimonthly Open Studio Day will be on the Saturday 13th March – from 10am to 3pm
Marjorie will hold an open day at her house at 153 Beach Road, Gordon’s Bay. Anyone can come to look at books (Marjorie has an extensive children’s book collection) or chat about their work, or just come and have a cup of tea and chat about Children’s books. Please ring 021 856 0432 the day before to say you will be coming.
Because of requests from writers and illustrators and from the pubishers we have decided to have a Publishers show and tell day in April rather than the Writers/illustrators retreat. A day where writers and illustrators can meet with publishers to show their work is at this stage more in demand. So...
APRIL EVENT!!! (Non-SCBWI members are very welcome to attend our events)
Event: Publisher’s show and tell Day
Region: South Africa.
Date: Monday, April 19th from 09.00am to 3.00pm
Where:
Cost: For SCBWI members R10.00 per person (includes tea & coffee and a snack-lunch)
For Non-members R15.00 per person (includes tea & coffee and a snack-lunch)
RSVP: Since we have limited space, kindly RSVP to
As soon as I have confirmed with the publishers I will send you the list of publishers that will be participating, the programme and guidelines for presenting your work to the publishers.
MAY: Bimonthly Open Studio Day will be on the Saturday 15th May – from 10am to 3pm
As before Marjorie will hold an open day at her house at 153 Beach Road, Gordon’s Bay. Anyone can come to look at books (Marjorie has an extensive children’s book collection) or chat about their work, or just come and have a cup of tea and chat about Children’s books. Please ring 021 856 0432 the day before to say you will be coming.
The writer/illustrator’s week-end retreat that were going to have in April has not been cancelled completely... we will plan it for a later date. In the meantime I would appreciate it if you could let me know if you would be interested in such a week-end. We will go to a farm somewhere beautiful for a week-end and have creativity workshops, writer’s and illustrators workshops and critique sessions. It will cost +R500 (The final cost will be worked out later) Once we have a number of people that are interested we will organise such a week-end.
CONFERENCES
“CREATING GOOD BOOKS IN TODAY’S WORLD”
A craft-based full-day conference in English sponsored by the SCBWI & the BolognaFiere in Italy.
Bologna Children’s Book Fairgrounds
Program for Tuesday, April 13, 2004
8:00 Registration
8:30 Two Writers’ Workshops with author
12:30 Editor Chat with David Francis/Little Hare and
1:30 Agent Lunch (panel with
2:30 Illustrator Representative Chat
3:30 Portfolio Walkabout & Panel Discussion (publishers, art directors, editors, reps, illustrators)
6:00 Closing Cocktail
Writers’ Workshops:
Author
Award-winning editor/author
Editor Chat: An introduction to a few houses (Little Hare, Hodder Children’s Books. . .) and what the editors might be looking for.
Agent Lunch: Luncheon and panel discussion with participating agents
Illustrator Representative Chat: An introduction to the agency, what s/he might be looking for; tips for aspiring and established illustrators.
Portfolio Walkabout & Panel Discussion: Attendees are invited to display their portfolios for everyone to see; panel will choose top 10 and discuss why each portfolio works. Designed to be a positive-feedback/educational session.
Closing cocktail: Goodbyes and book signings.
Questions? erzsideak@scbwi.org
www.scbwi.org
In September The IBBY World Congress (IBBY - International Board on Books for ***Young People, founded in Zürich, Switzerland in 1953). will be held in Cape Town, South Africa from the Sunday 5th (Evening event) to the 9th September 2004. From the 10th to the 14th there is a post-Congress Tour organised. - more info see http://www.sacbf.org.za/ or tel. (021) 532 0555
Deadline for registration 30th April 2004.
This important international congress takes place in a different country each year and this year South Africa will be the honoured host.
more information at the end of the newsletter.
***SCBWI are organising one-on-one review sessions, with international and local editors & art directors, which will take place from Thursday September 2 to 5, immediately before the IBBY World Congress
The Society will facilitate a number of events including one-on-one review sessions for its members, with editors and art directors of local and international publishing companies. At these sessions each writer or illustrator will have the valuable opportunity to meet individually with experienced editors and art directors, representatives of established publishing houses, who will analyse, discuss and evaluate the artist’s work a one-on-one basis, providing personal professional input and guidance.
The Society has already secured the participation of the leading local publishers, who are very eager to send their specialists to meet with writers and illustrators, and we are now pursuing suitable specialists from Europe and the UK.
The programme and the costs are still being sorted out but you will be informed of the details as soon as possible. In the meantime I would appreciate it if you could let me know if you would be interested so that I can put you on a list
PUBLISHERS MARKET NEWS
Here is some abbreviations used by publishers.
Abbreviations: PB: picture book; CB: chapter book; ER: easyreader; MG: middle-grade; YA: young adult; NF: nonfiction; BFYR: books for young readers; SASE: self-addressed, stamped envelope; ms.: manuscript; CBI: Children’s Book Insider; CW:
Children’s Writer, IRC: international reply coupon.
SCBWI members can receive the earliest word of market changes at the “Publisher’s Corner” section of the SCBWI Listserv. To join, send an e-mail to listadmin@scbwi.org with the words SCBWI E-MAIL LIST INFO in the subject line.
Miemie du Plessie from LAPA PUBLISHERS has the following illustration projects for 2004 If any illustrator is interested to submit some test illustrations contact Miemie for futher information
Miemied@atkv.org.za
LAPA PUBLISHERS Projects for 2004
Sample illustrations will be required.
Guide to caring for your monster: will require numerous detailed illustrations of several monster species.
My sussie se tande: 32 page picture book with full-colour illustrations throughout. Over-the-top and humorous story about a boy whose sister starts to chew everything in sight when she starts getting teeth.
Five easy readers of 48 pages each. Full colour illustrations throughout.
Six traditional princess stories: Cinderella, Princess and the pea etc.
Two animal stories + facts: penguins & elephants.
Sally Howes, the Southern African publisher for Heinemann publishers UK, is currectly working stories with a AIDS theme for their JAWS imprint. If you have written such a story you could send it to her. PO Box 12035, Dorpsruit 3206 or E-mail sallyh@heinemann.co.za
Dusanka from Pan Macmillan Publishers are looking for stories with a South African flavour suitable for a project in which her publishers aim to print picture books in SA eleven languages. Submissions can be e-mailed to her at 'dusanka@panmacmillan.co.za'
Linda de Villiers, Publishing Manager, Struik Books 021 462 4360
is looking for a suitable author for a book on party ideas - someone who has original and innovative ideas for parties for children aged three to 12 years of age. The parties should be themed with ideas and step by step instructions on how to make the invitations, ideas for games and table settings/decorations, and recipes for snacks and birthday cakes for each theme. The book needs to be both practical and inspirational.
OTHER NEWS & INFORMATION
The reinstitution of the Katrine Harries Award and its (first) presentation since 1997 took place last year at the Klein Karoo National Art Festival in Oudtshoorn, on Saturday 5th April.
Jude Daly won the Katrine Harries Award for Children’s Book Illustrations
The Katrine Harries Award for Children’s Book Illustrations relives after dormancy of six years – and as six years ago, the winner is again Jude Daly. This time for her illustrations in the book, The Stone, published by the British publisher, Francis Lincoln.
The Katrine Harries Award, the most prestigious prize in South Africa for children’s book illustrations was instituted by the South African Institute for Library and Information Science (SAILIS) in 1974 and was awarded until the disbanding of SAILIS in 1997. Publishers and illustrators often lamented the “disappearance” of the award – and this motivated the Children’s Literature Research Unit (CLRU) of Unisa to take over the responsibility of the award.
After a laborious search for possible sponsors, the magazine, Baba en Kleuter, agreed to sponsor the prize and the selection could start. Since the prize was last awarded in 1997 it was decided to award it retrospectively in order to give all illustrators that had published during the past six years the opportunity to compete. Accordingly there is a six-year backlog to make up, and the first award the CLRU is now making is for illustrations in books that were published during 1997-1998. For the next few years the prize will therefore be awarded annually until the lag has been recovered, and thereafter the prize will be awarded biennially.
According to Dr Thomas van der Walt of the CLRU, convener of the adjudicating panel, the competition amongst the nominated books was very stiff. The published work of South African artists during 1997-8 was of an exceptionally high standard and it will be difficult to equal this harvest in future. The fact that Jude Daly was selected as the winner amongst this competition is a clear indication of the high quality of her illustrations in The Stone.
The CLRU has decided that all South African illustrators will be considered for the award irrespective of whether their books are published abroad. It is however a pity that the publication of picture books in South Africa is ever decreasing due to the high costs involved in publishing and the small buyers market. Therefore more illustrators are opting for publishing abroad, although in some instances the books are published as co-productions by South African publishers. However in cases, such as with The Stone, many South Africans are not even aware of the high quality of work of local artists published abroad. By accepting nominations for these works, the CLRU feels that it is acknowledging local artists, and is also making the local public aware of books published abroad – and hopefully this will motivate local publishers to make these works available in South Africa.
As mentioned, the competition was exceptionally stiff, and the adjudicators decided, in addition, to list a few “honourably mentioned” books:
Boy on the beach (Niki Daly) Human & Rousseau
Bravo! Zan Angelo (Niki Daly) Farrar Strauss and Giroux
The Red Dress (Annelise Voigt) Garamond
Lulama's magic blanket (Elizabeth Pulles) Tafelberg
Carnaval of the animals (Piet Grobler) Human & Rousseau
Wow! Its great to be a duck (Joan Rankin) Bodley Head (UK); McElderry (USA)
All of the mentioned books are of international quality, and it is no wonder that two of them have been published abroad: Bravo! Zan Angelo (by Niki Daly) and Wow! Its great to be a duck (by Joan Rankin). Carnival of the Animals (illustrated by Piet Grobler) although published in South Africa, has also been published in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the USA. This is indeed a compliment for South African illustrators and a great pity that three of the books have not been published locally.
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BIBLIONEF SA INFORMATION
Biblionef SA was established in 1998 with the aim of developing a love of reading among the children of South Africa. Books (In all eleven languages) are donated, free of charge, to Children’s Organisations throughout South Africa but mainly to farms schools in rural areas. Recipient organisations are requested to complete a Community Upliftment Project to show their appreciation of Biblionef and the opportunities it has brought as well as building a community spirit.
Other aims of Biblionef are to:
Develop good quality children’s books in all our indigenous languages by encouraging new writers and illustrators to create books for publication
Translate good, existing books into the minority languages and commission publishers to publish them
Contact details: Mrs. Jean Williams, Executive Director, Biblionef SA, 4 Central Square, Pinelands 7405
Tel: 021 531 0447. Fax: 021 531 9455. Email: bibsa@iafrica.com
COMPETITIONS
The First Words In Print (FWIP) through the development and promotion of a national literature for young children in their mother tongue.
First Words in Print is pleased to invite local writers and illustrators to submit new books for children between the ages of 0-5. The project requires three new books, two of which should be for children aged 0-5 and one specifically for children aged 0-2. The books must be previously unpublished and can be submitted in any South African language.
Deadline : 30 April 2004
Prizes : R10 000 per book
Categories of Books : Writers and illustrators are invited to make submissions for the following categories of books, which must each be 16 pages in length:
A word-book that focuses on everyday life experiences of very young children
A storybook
A wordless picture book
Any one of the above categories of books for children aged 0-2
Requirements for Books Submitted :
Each book submitted requires: complete text, and complete visual material, and the visual material must all be in full colour.
The books should make use of full colour throughout.They should be text-light .
Writers and illustrators should place emphasis on pictures, rhyme, rhythm and repetition.
The content, language, metaphor and imagery should be appropriate for very young South African children.
Writers and illustrators are welcome to submit in any South African language, but all books should be adaptable into all South Africa’s official languages.
The material submitted must be previously unpublished .
Should anyone wish to submit an alternative entry please contact the Project Administrator
The selection process : Winning books will be selected by a specially constituted committee.
The committee’s selections will be final and no correspondence will be entered into concerning the committee’s choice.
Selection criteria : Quality of illustrations; Effective use of rhyme, rhythm and repetition; Relevance of content for very young South African children; Degree to which books stimulate children’s imagination
Submissions should be hand delivered or sent by courier to:
FIRST WORDS IN PRINT SUBMISSIONS
For Attention: The Project Administrator
Centre for the Book, 62 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town, 8000
Enquiries : Contact The Project Administrator at Tel. (021) 422-2501 or Fax (021) 424-1484 or E-mail: firstwords@nlsa.ac.za.
Some important dates to pencil in on your 2004 calender.
13 March – SCBWI Open Studio Day
15-20 March - SA Library Week
31 March - Deadline for Vivian Wilkes nominations
2 April - International Children’s Book Day
13 April – SCBWI - “CREATING GOOD BOOKS IN TODAY’S WORLD” -A craft-based full-day conference in Bologna - Italy
19 April – SCBWI Publisher’s show and tell Day
14 to 17 April - IBBY EC and Bologna Book Fair
23 April - World Book Day
30 April - Deadline: Registration for 29th IBBY Congress
7 May - Vivian Wilkes shortlist announced
15 May - SCBWI Open Studio Day
21 July - SACBF AGM with announcement of Vivian Wilkes Award in Bloemfontein
2 to 5 September -"Story-telling time in Africa" - SCBWI Review sessions
5 to 9 September - 29th IBBY Congress in Cape Town
The SA SCBWI management team:
(marjorie@grafikon.co.za)
Thomas van der Walt – Assistant Regional Advisor (vdwaltb@unisa.ac.za)
Samantha van Riet – Committee Member (samsart@mweb.co.za)
With the above - the October 2003 Planning committee were Piet Grobler, Niki Daly, Jude Daly, Lesley Beak, and
INTERESTING WEB SITES TO VISIT
Publishers Weekly On-Line
If you like reading Publishers Weekly but don’t like the subscription price, go to www.publishersweekly.com
Here are some South African writer’s and Illustrator’s web sites
Niki Daly’s Web Site:
http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/
Di Hofmeyr’s web site: http://www.btinternet.com/~dihofmeyr/
Samantha van Riet’s web site:
http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/samsart/samswebpage.htm
Unisa’s Children’s Book web site by Thomas van der Walt
http://www.unisa.ac.za/dept/clru/index.html
Another South Africa book web site. http://www.storiewerf.co.za/artikels-dinkskrum/scbwi.htm http://www.storiewerf.co.za/grootmense/dinkskrum.htm
http://www.storiewerf.co.za/grootmense/werfjoernaal.htm
This site carries a list of Children's Bookshops in England with websites & addresses.
By browsing these web sites you can see what books are being published
Children's specialist bookshops http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/
an example...like this bookshop below
Bookchest, THE TRULY SPECIAL CHILDREN'S BOOKSHOP http://bookchest.seekbooks.co.uk/
And here is the Web site of a Children's Bookshop in New York
Books Of Wonder http://www.booksofwonder.net/home.jsp
On these web sites there is a multitude of information about children's books!!!
Booktrust information and advice about books http://www.booktrust.org.uk/
The British Council United Kingdom home page http://www.britishcouncil.org/
This web site has a list of children's magazines and magazine about new children's books publications. They carry reviews of new publications. I suggest you prescript to at least one magazine. Books for Keeps or Carousal are worthwhile magazines to prescript to.
Children's Magazines http://www.wordup.co.uk/magsnewspublishersagents/childrensmagazines.htm
This Magazine is published in America has reviews of all the best of latest Children's Books published in the U.S.A.
The Horn Book, Inc. Publications about books for children and young adults. http://www.hbook.com/
This company publishes a whole range of Children's Magazines for children to read.
Cricket Magazine Group! http://www.cricketmag.com/
When you find children's book you would like to buy, here is a on-line bookshop I can recommend
On-line Bookshop http://www.amazon.co.uk/
South African On-line Bookshop http://www.kalahari.net/bk/
For Illustrators struggling to find certain art Materials, here is a web site that carries quite a lot names of Art suppliers in Britain with links to their web sites, most of whom you will be able to order from and they will post or courier your order to you. There are addresses & tel. numbers, and information how to order art material on the art suppliers web sites.
Art Works, arts Schools, Art Supplies http://www.britishcompanies.co.uk/artworks.htm
an example...like these two Art Suppliers' Web Sites below
Jackson's Art Supplies Ltd http://www.jacksonsart.com/
London Graphic Centre http://www.londongraphics.co.uk/
Another web-site - http://www.getpublished.com/?source=googlenoblind - for professional authors who value helping other authors. We provide dynamic coaching, consulting and editing to aspiring and seasoned writers at every stage. We offer inside information not found elsewhere.
CHILDREN'S BOOK PUBLISHERS Compiled by Kay E. Vandergrift number of sites in the children and young adult publishing world
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/ChildrenLit/publish.html
UK Children’s Books - Your guide to the on-line world of children's books http://www.ukchildrensbooks.co.uk/pubs.html
The International Regional Advisor Chairperson’s,
The last but not the least, the SCBWI web site. Here you can find out about so many things that the SCBWI are doing and things that can help you on the road of becoming a writer or making your life as a writer so much easier. Lots of information!!!!!
The Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators http://www.scbwi.org/
Contact Information,
SCBWI Executive Office
Stephen Mooser, President
Lin Oliver, Executive Director
8271 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Phone: (323)782-1010, Fax: (323)782-1892
scbwi@scbwi.org
www.scbwi.org
IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People)
Biennial Conference -
What you need to know about this conference:
600 Delegates from 65 countries
Includes 200 African delegates
They will be publishers, editors, librarians, teachers, lecturers in children’s literature, researchers, professional storytellers, authors and illustrators.
The major support for IBBY comes from the
IBBY Congress Souvenir Magazine – Books for
The IBBY Congress Souvenir Magazine, called Books for
For a more detailed outline of the conference, or to book your space Contact:
Cell: 082 3922 874
BOOK FLOOD SCHOOLS PROGRAMME
From the very first planning meetings for the IBBY Congress 2004, it was agreed that the children of
The proposed IBBY Congress Souvenir Magazine will carry sponsorship and advertising. Whatever money is realised over the cost of production will be used to give more books to more children, many of whom have never held a new book in their hands in their lives.
DEMOGRAPHICS OF READERSHIP
IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) is the world body on children’s literature and its over 65 member countries submit bids to host the biennial IBBY Congress. In
In addition, the IBBY Congress 2004 has established contacts in 25 African countries (none of which, with the exception of
The major support for IBBY comes from the
A copy of the IBBY Congress Souvenir Magazine will be given to every Congress delegate; a copy will be sent to the headquarters of every IBBY national section around the world; extra copies will be on sale at the Congress bookshop to be handled by Exclusive Books. and from
HOST ORGANISATION
The South African Children’s Book Forum which will host the 29th IBBY Congress is the South African national section of IBBY. The SACBF is an independent, non-profit organisation run by a volunteer Executive Committee of seven based in
SACBF Office:
Postal address: SACBF,
Phone: 021 532 0555 / E-mail: sacbf@worldonline.co.za / Internet: http://www.sacbf.org.za/
SACBF Office: sacbf@worldonline.co.za
TO JOIN SCBWI
The Society of Children’s book writers and Illustrators has been active since 1971. Their Headquarters are in Los Angeles, USA. There are currently more than 18,000 members worldwide, in over 70 regions, making it the largest children's writing organization in the world. For more information, AND TO JOIN visit their web site www.scbwi.org
SCBWI is the only international organization to offer a variety of services to people who write, illustrate, or share a vital interest in children’s literature. It acts as a network for the exchange of knowledge between writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, librarians, educators, booksellers and others involved with literature for young people; sponsors two annual International Conferences on Writing and Illustrating for Children as well as dozens of regional conferences and events throughout the world. It also publishes a bi-monthly newsletter, awards, grants for works in progress, and provides many informational publications on the art and business of writing and selling written, illustrated, and electronic material. The SCBWI also presents the annual Golden Kite Award for the best fiction and non-fiction books. One of the primary ways that SCBWI provides its members with information about the children’s book market is by publishing various newsletters, brochures, articles, and guides on a wide range of topics. These publications are updated on a regular basis.
Full Membership is available to those whose work for children (books, illustrations or photographs, films, electronic media available for purchase, articles, poems or stories) has been published or produced. Dues are US$75 for the first year and US$60 each renewing year.
Associate Membership is available to those with an interest in children's literature or media, whether or not they have been published or produced. Writers or illustrators who have been published in markets other than children's literature (but not in children's literature) would be considered Associate Members. Dues are US$75 for the first year and US$60 each renewing year.
You pay your due and become a member of main organization. You will then receive all their newsletters, brochures, articles, and guides on a wide range of topics regularly and become eligible for the grants and awards the SCBWI give out.
When you become a member of the Main organization, you are automatically a member of the local chapter and will be informed by the Regional adviser of all upcoming events like.
Regular Critique groups – where you could read or show your work and get feed back from other writers and illustrators
Shop Talk Groups – discussions about what is happening in the publishing world
Talk Groups – invited speaker to give a talk.
Workshops – to help writer/illustrator develop in their work
Schoozes/Gatherings are fun meetings where writers and illustrators get together to get to know each other and talk about their work
Mentorship program where a less experienced writer can be helped by a more experienced writer
Retreats when writers illustrators go away together for a weekend to have workshops and critique discussions
Non-SCBWI members can attend the SCBWI events but only SCBWI Members will receive all the information that the SCBWI circulate and only SCBWI Members will be eligible for the SCBWI Awards and Grants. (visit the SCBWI web site for more information about the SCBWI Awards and Grants)
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