Nikki Katz

During the SCBWI conference, I had the opportunity to attend a panel by Justin Chanda, VP, Publisher of S&S Books for Young Readers. The topic covered the Past, Present and Future of Children’s Books Publishing and I wanted to share with you some of his thoughts, which I found rather insightful!

Past:

• Every publishing house as a past history with authors and their backlist. Although many new authors fear the competition of a house’s backlist, this list is what helps sustain the house and we should learn to embrace it and learn from it!
• The trend within children’s books has changed over the past 10 years from picture books to middle grade books (with the Harry Potter series) to young adult books (with the Twilight series). It follows a significant group of readers as they grew older, with new ones jumping onboard!

Present:

• YA continues to hold strong because of several reasons, most significantly … 1. Adult cross-over. 2. The Internet! Authors can interact with their readers and keep them hooked via their website, promotion of other books, Twitter, etc.

Future:

• There is a change in readership because children are moving to chapter books at a much earlier age. This one struck me immediately because I see it with my own children. My daughter was expected to be reading in Kindergarten and there is a push to be out of any sort of picture book by first grade. Therefore a lot of the longer picture books are going by the wayside and the chapter books are skewing younger. This is important to note for picture book authors - there is a huge push by all the editorial houses to go with much shorter text.
• With the much heated debate on e-books, Justin said it should be embraced as a wonderful new avenue. His feeling on self-publishing is that editorial houses are still necessary for most authors who can’t, or don’t want to, do marketing, sales, scheduling, etc.
• New media is definitely part of the future. There is now a Choose Your Own Adventure iPhone app created from the older books, and Loser/Queen is a serialized novel where the audience helps choose what’s next!

As a social media nut, I love the idea of it tying into my novels. I can’t wait to see what comes next!

The SCBWI LA Summer conference is over and I’m trying to get into the swing of things. It’s odd what 3 days away from home can do to mess with your normal routine!

Anyway, I’m back to writing, processing, and catching up on work. The conference was absolutely amazing and I am so thankful to have networked with talented authors, agents, and editors. You never knew who would sit down next to you in a panel, or wanted their picture taken with you at the Heart & Soul ball :)

Speaking of which … my costume was … The Queen of Hearts!

Andrea, Lisa and I went as the three parts of the Heart & Soul theme. I was the Heart, Andrea was the “&” and Lisa was Soul (an angel, complete with a harp!)

And to give you an idea of the height of my shoes, Andrea is actually several inches taller than I am!

Before I head to SCBWI tomorrow morning (bright and early), I thought I’d leave you with a little contest!

I finished my ARC of Matched (review here at modOration) and want to pass it along to one of my readers!

It should go without saying, but I am very careful with my books - no bending of the spine, no tagged pages, etc. But I do have to get a review up, therefore I have to read it :)

Unfortunately, the ARC copy does NOT have the beautiful cover displayed here … but you can always pick that up in November!

I will also include a booklet of postcards I received (one each for Eclipse, Sisters Red, Guardian of the Gate, Thirteen Days to Midnight, and more!)

To Enter:

• For your first entry - all you have to do leave a comment below. Then include the following if you’d like:
• +3 if you friend/follow this website - you can join in the Google Friend Connect —->
• +1 if you Retweet the contest (you can do this up to 3 times before the contest ends)

The contest will end on midnight August 8th and is only open to United States residents.

Good luck!

I cannot wait to hop in the car bright and early Friday morning and race traffic up to the SCBWI Annual Summer Conference in Los Angeles with Lisa and Andrea.

I posted at YAKnow about what a difference a year makes (from not knowing anyone when I arrived last year and not having an agent - to knowing a ton of people and being an agented author!)

This year I’ll be hitting up a lot of the Editor panels - and I’ve already put together a preliminary schedule (who am I kidding … I put it together weeks ago … but will probably change it up again!) This doesn’t include the keynote speakers and the BALL!

Friday:
11:45 Boy Middle Grade Fiction 101 Courtney Bongiolatti
3:15 Not Sure Yet…

Saturday:
11:15 Can You Help Fill the Gaps in Our List Stephanie Owens Lurie
3:15 An Inside Look at Little Brown Books For Young Readers Jennifer Hunt

Sunday:
10:45 Simon & Schuster: The Not So Distant Past and the Really Fast Approaching Future Justin Chanda

I’m also insanely excited about meeting up with people. There are friends from last year, friends from Twitter and Facebook that I haven’t yet met in person but feel like I know already, a group from YALitChat, and even my agent-mate DM Cunningham!

Can’t wait to see everyone in LA and stay tuned for pictures and shenanigans!