I was so excited to attend KidLitCon 2012, sponsored by the Society of Bloggers in Children's and Young Adult Literature.
The conference was a two-day whirlwind of introductions, information and inspiration. In this post, I'll outline what happened at the conference. Tell me in comments what interests you, and I'll try to write up a couple of posts about specific topics.
Friday was Pre-Con day and we were invited to attend publisher presentations. Yes, it was more exciting than I can tell you to actually visit a publishing house -- the place where all the magic happens.
I was hosted by Random House in the morning and HarperCollins in the afternoon. Each publisher gave presentations on current and/or upcoming children's titles -- everything from picture books to YA. I was struck by the incredible passion that these editors and publicists and publishing executives have for their work. They all spoke eloquently and enthusiastically about the authors they work with and the stories they help bring into the world.
Saturday was conference day at...
the main branch of the New York Public Library. During registration, we'd all been asked to choose between different conference sessions. It was incredibly hard to decide, but here's what I chose:
Community Building On and Off the Blog: Secrets, Tips and Cautionary Tales -- presented by Sheela Chari, Sayantani Dasgupta, and Michelle Schusterman of From The Mixed Up Files ... of Middle Grade Authors.
Getting Series-Ous: How Blog Series Can Engage, Inspire and Grow Your Audience -- presented by Kelly Jensen and Nova Ren Suma.
How Nice is Too Nice? Critical Book Reviewing in the Age of Twitter -- panel discussion with Maureen Johnson, Betsy Bird, Liz Burns, Monica Edinger, Sheila Barry, Marjorie Ingall. Moderated by Jennifer Hubert-Swan.
The Changing Relationship Between Reader and Writer -- panel discussion with Gayle Forman, Alyssa Sheinmel, Michael Northrup, and Adele Griffin. Moderated by Karen Halpenny of Women in Children's Media.
Huge thanks to Betsy Bird, Monica Edinger and Liz Burns for all their work in making this conference a huge success!
Conference participants came from far and wide, but I also met a lot of great local bloggers. Which is fantastic, since a blogging goal of mine has been to find more book bloggers in my community.
Tell me what you're curious about, and I'll pore over my notes and try to come up with some coherent summaries of what was discussed!
That's so fun to be at! I wished I came! :) I love these types of posts! :) How was Gayle. Forman the panel? I really like her as an author and If I Stay was so good!
ReplyDeleteHappy Reading Jen!
Gayle Forman's books are so serious and intense and she is so funny. She was telling the audience about some of the crazy questions that kids email her for book reports....
DeleteI'm really interested in the Critical Book Reviewing panel-I have definitely written a lot of not favorable reviews although I think I've always managed to keep them focused squarely on the book. But I always want to improve.
ReplyDeleteWell, I think you do a great job! That panel was really interesting and I'll try to write something up soon :)
DeleteWhat a great event! I have to say, I'm kind of jealous. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI am curious about the publishers take on bloggers. Do they take bloggers seriously, or are they just mainly great for free publicity? I'm actually fine either way, just curious.
The publishers who hosted me could not have been nicer!
DeleteThere were some discussions among panelists about the role of bloggers -- I'll add that to one of my posts.
That sounds like it was really awesome! I think that it's really cool that you got to go see where all the3 magic behind the books happen. I think it's amazing what publishers do!!
ReplyDeleteThat part was very exciting!
DeleteThis sounds amazing! I'm kind of totally jealous!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAw, I wish you had been there!
DeleteWow all of that sounds amazing. Especially the conferences. It sounds like they took on the topics that Book Blogger Con wouldn't.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear about all of it.
The panels were fantastic!
DeleteThis sounds like it was an amazing time! I would love to take a look inside a publishing house. The critical book reviewing sounds like it would have been great to hear about. :)
ReplyDeleteThat panel was very interesting to me, mainly because there was a real diversity of opinions.
DeleteSounds like it was a lot of fun! I'm glad you had a good time! I wish there were events like this close to where I live..lol
ReplyDeleteAw, me too. It's so fun to meet other bloggers.
DeleteOh wow, that sounds awesome! I can't believe you've been to a publishing house! Do tell us more about the event! :) Ooh- post pictures! :D
ReplyDeleteThis sounds WAY more fun then the work conferences I have to attend.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to go to one of these. How does that happen? Do you get picked or sign up?
ReplyDeleteOf the ones you mentioned I would be most interested to hear about:
ReplyDeleteHow Nice is Too Nice? and The Changing Relationship Between Reader and Writer.
I'm such a fan of Maureen Johnson and Gayle Forman, but those topics genuinely interest me. Hope you had fun and learned a lot:)
Wow! It sounds like a great time! It's great that you met some local bloggers (but don't forget about your Virginia friends)!
ReplyDelete