Notes from the CWIG AGM and an announcement, by Dawn Finch

On September 20th  2022 we had the Society of Authors' Children's Writers and Illustrators Group (CWIG) AGM, and there was a lot to report! Apologies in advance for this long article but there's a lot to tell you.

Since the main pandemic restrictions eased the committee and the SoA have been working hard to embed lots of things that were previously in the planning stage.

Things that have happened this year in CWIG:

• We released our statement opposing the government’s plans to convert the Oak National Academy into an Arms Length Body, which can be read in the Where We Stand section of the SoA website.

• In March, CWIG released a joint statement with the SoA in support of Simon Green and the LGBTQ+ community, when his school visit was cancelled for being ‘outside the scope of what is permissible in a Catholic school’ by the Southwark Archdiocese. You can read this statement on the SoA website, Click here.

• The committee has been examining issues surrounding DBS documents (Disclosure and Barring Service), with the result being that the SoA is planning to help authors acquire DBS through an umbrella body as a membership benefit in the near future. Further details of this will be announced very soon and we are sure that our members will be hugely relieved to have access to this. 

This was a matter that we had discussed extensively over the past few years and we are fully aware that in theory an author should not require this extra level of safeguarding, but in practice an increasing number of local authorities are demanding it. We were faced with two options; we could continue to argue the case on behalf of our members and risk alienating schools, teachers and local authorities, or we could work towards SoA becoming an umbrella body so that members could get this documentation. We felt that in the long term it would make more sense to help our members get the extra documentation they required in a simple and affordable way. This helps schools fulfill their safeguarding requirements and ultimately protects and supports our members too.

• The Committee has been working with SoA staff on new template contracts for school visits, which is currently under construction and will be available very soon. Two new guides will also be made available to members: one to help authors draft their own terms and conditions for school visits and other events and a separate guide members can send to schools/events organisers. The aim is for these to be regularly updated.

• In our events we hosted a Big Issues in Children’s Literature event with A M Dassu, Darren Chetty, Stuart Lawrence, chaired by Isabel Thomas. The event was a huge success, as you can imagine. We only made this event available for one month on Vimeo at the request of the panel. I have been asked why we might make a panel event available for only one month and there are a number of reasons, the most important being panel member request. It is a good reminder to everyone who has an event recorded that you should consider what will happen with that recording and you have every right to ask for an expiration date for the recording for whatever reason you see fit.

CWIG hosts many online events throughout the year and we decided to continue with this online access as it has the potential to reach many more people than and in-person event. Our most recent event was an Industry Insider event exploring school visits and how to protect yourself with booking forms and clear conditions. This is a perfect example of the kind of events that are there to provide really practical career guidance.

• Our CWIG Reading for Pleasure Award for schools continues to be well received (and much desired by schools) and we are thrilled to announce that author Nicholas Allan has stepped forward to offer financial support in the form of a grant that will benefit the recipient schools in their work to support reading for pleasure. The Reading for Pleasure Award was rather the victim of its own success and therefore we needed to have a bit of a refresh to make sure that it kept its status. Nicholas Allan stepping up to support the award is very exciting and CWIG are looking forward to being able to relaunch the award in the near future. In the meantime you can still nominate as the existing award will run on the current model until the relaunch. If, however, you wish to hold off until the new model is in place that should be later this year.

• SoA group staff coordinators have also been busy on our behalf -  Teddy and Sarah attended Farshore’s Annual Insight Presentation for their review of the children’s book market.  Group coordinator Teddy McDonald represented the committee in attendance at the Carnegie Greenaway Awards at The British Library. 

Coordinator Teddy McDonald joined a sector partners meeting with Great School Libraries and received an update on the next phase of their campaign. Phase two will focus primarily on head teachers, Ofsted, and government. The SoA will be amplifying the findings of their next survey into primary and secondary school library provisions when the results come in – the survey is still open, so please do submit to this. See their website for more information. 

• As well as my work on committee I have been in conversation with the National Literacy Trust about speaker fees. I took part in the All Party Parliamentary Writers Group report giving evidence and examining the negative impact covid has had on the incomes of authors. As well as engaging in all discussions at the Society and beyond about the rights, incomes and careers of creatives. I continue to work with library and literacy groups to support reading for pleasure and have a number of ongoing author rights discussions that I will see through.

After five years as a CWIG committee member, and two and a half further years as Chair, the time has come for me to take a breather. I have been on committee with dozens of members and when I agreed to take on the role of chair back in 2019 I thought that it might me a lovely way to end my time at CWIG. A few award ceremonies and launches, some lovely events with a few chilled glasses and lots of lovely chats with interesting people.

Sadly a pandemic put paid to that and instead of invites my inbox was full of heartbreaking pleas for help and support. I’m so proud that the Society and CWIG stepped up during this time. We suddenly found ourselves immersed in a world where we could only reach out to our members online, and so that is what we did. I never did get to go to those fizzy wine awards, but I did have a much more important time than I expected. 

Now, I’m delighted to hand over to Isabel Thomas and I’m very happy that I’m leaving the committee and the new members in such safe and expert hands. Isabel is already very well known to most children's authors as an award winning author with over 150 books under her belt, but you can find out more about on her website. 

I would like to thank everyone at CWIG for making this possible and for making such a difference during the most challenging of times. Thank you Teddy, and Sarah at Soa and Jo McCrum who guided my hand at the start of my journey. Thank you Nicola Solomon for your guidance and leadership, and special thanks to Joanne Harris who has talked me into calmer waters more than once! Most of all thank you to the many committee members who have been there with me over the last 7 and half years. You know who you are, and I’m honoured to have worked with you.

My own future in writing for children is far from certain, I had not had any contracts since before the pandemic and I may have to make some difficult decisions in the near future. that said I will continue always to make a stand for rights for creatives. Children's books and the people who create them and work with them will always be close to my heart.

Dawn Finch (aka Dawn McLachlan) - is an author, poet, activist, allotmenteer, seed herder, community cook, and former chair of the Children's Writers and Illustrators Group at the Society of Authors

www.dawnmclachlan.com

Twitter @dawnafinch

Instagram @dawnamclachlan

To join the Society of Authors and gain benefit of all this and more, please click here.

 

How to Recession-Proof Your Creative Practice - Heather Dyer

This is an older post from The Creative Independent blog, and I hope they don't mind me posting an excerpt here. It seems relevant for those who might be using this time to think up new income streams – or rethink your entire creative practice.

From the longer article, ‘How to Recession-Proof Your Creative Practice’  is the following section on ‘serious play’. Creativity is about combining previously unconnected elements. If we combine our own previously unconnected interests/activities/habits, maybe we can come up with some new avenues for our creative practice?

Serious Play

"Recessions begin with widespread pessimism and survival, and end with optimism and opportunity. As the recession ends, those who survive make plans to grow again. Apple is famous for developing new products during a recession and launching them just as it ends. The first iPod was launched in October 2001, just as an eight-month recession was coming to an end. To get to your own iPod idea, try this creative practice—Serious Play.

Learning by playing has its roots in the kindergarten, Montessori, and Waldorf children’s school movements of 19th-century Europe. But it was “Homo Ludens,” “Humans the Players,” by Johan Huizinga in 1938 that showed how important play is to generating culture. In play, you can change the rules of the game or even create a whole new game. Plus, you can change the playground, the space where you play.

Play is actually one of the most productive things you can do in a recession. My favorite game is called “match up.” Much, maybe most, innovation involves just two steps: Take an old product or business, and match it to a new technology. Amazon began when Bezos took book selling in stores and stuck it on the internet. Zuckerberg took physical photo sharing and poured it through the internet. Listening to music? Hook it up to the net. Transportation? Zip Car, Uber. Renting? Airbnb.

Of course, you don’t need technology to play. Eddie Huang took the traditional Taiwanese meat-filled gua boa, started filling it with Niman Ranch pork belly and Cherry Coca Cola, and named his restaurant Baohaus. I just had my first iced cardamom coffee float at Hampton Chutney in Amagansett. How did these ideas come about? Play.

Serious play is a method of designing the future. And that is how you should spend your time in recession: designing your future."

Try writing 20 different habits/interests/practices dotted across a large piece of paper. For example: Blogs, writing, children, teaching, libraries, families, storytelling, reading, NHS ... etc. Then randomly connect these words in pairs, and try freewriting for five minutes on the relationship between them. Perhaps it will trigger a new approach, like 'reading stories online' or 'blogs for children' or 'writing about the NHS'.

Heather Dyer teaches Writing for Children for the Open College of the Arts, and provides writing and publishing advice through The Literary Consultancy, The Writers' Advice Centre for Children's Books, and privately. If you’re ready for feedback on your work-in-progress contact Heather at heatherdyerbooks@gmail.com. 

For further information, see Heather's blog at Writing for Children: Creative Inspiration for Children's Authors.

The Children’s Media Conference 2018, by Dan Metcalf

Investing in yourself is the best thing you can do for your career, is the mantra that motivational speakers espouse the world over. With that in mind, I signed up this year to attend the Children’s Media Conference in Sheffield. CMC is a huge event that takes place over three days and attracts around 1500 delegates from the worlds of Children's TV, Internet, Brands, Podcasts and games. 

 

It would be fair to say that I was more than a little daunted. I was just a little writer from the westcountry, arriving at the stupendously hot city with my suitcase in tow, a pocket full of business cards, a hand full of books and a head full of dreams.

After registering, I had booked myself into an optional workshop entitled Building a Bible. It wasn’t in any way affiliated to religion, but instead showed you the tricks and tips of building a great pitch document to support your idea. It turned out that this was a great place to start as we were grouped on tables with fellow writers, artists, animators and producers. We worked together to help one or two of our group to improve their pitch and critique their ‘bible’. The session was really informative and I came away with my first conference buddies, business cards and having popped my CMC cherry.

As a first timer, I was granted access to the official first timer events like the drinks social, held at the historic Crucible Theatre and compeered by the amazingly energetic host Rick Adams. Drinks were drunk in the confined space above the auditorium and a game of business card bingo ensued, all kindly sponsored by Disney (though it was far from a Mickey Mouse Operation…).

The opening keynote was a talk by poet Michael Rosen (how hasn’t he got a knighthood yet?) on the dangers of over-testing in education, and how the government is letting down the future generation. Sure, he was preaching to the converted, and I would have been happy with a reading of 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt', but the whole session was very informative and worthy.

After a meal with some colleagues and a frantic race to see the England match (spoilers: we won, then we lost) I staggered back towards my lovely air-conditioned hotel room.

The next day had a raft of sessions; from Bagging a Book Deal, to Behind the Scene at YouTube Kids, to a live E-Sports event (competitive gaming – new to me), to sessions on funding and tax breaks. No matter what your interest, you are spoiled for choice and the only criticism I could give was that there was too many good sessions to see!

I'll pause here to say that my nerves were unfounded; everyone I met in Sheffield was lovely. Many commented that kids publishing and TV production were the nicest industries to work in, bar none, and I would have to agree. Everyone was welcoming and went out of their way to help, especially first timers like me.

The real business of the conference is not to be found in the sessions though, but in the great social events that the organisers put on, such as a Pizza Party, club night (complete with karaoke – I did not indulge, but it was a close run thing) and the more informal break out areas. Most of the sessions took place either at the Showcase cinema or the Sheffield Hallam Uni’s Student Union Buildings and it is here that complementary beverages and lunches are provided, and you can get chatting to fellow creatives. Believe me, I’m not a chatter, but people were so accommodating and eager to share their wisdom that it became easy for this introvert. If you couldn’t get a hold of the executives then you could wait to grab them in one of the speed meetings (five minutes only, just enough time to pitch and run away) or even in the bars late at night.

Thursday saw one of the highlights of the week for me; a talk on big brand birthdays – did you know that Thomas the Tank Engine is 80 years old and one engine is sold every second? Well now you do. The talk was ended by the appearance of a TV legend, and it was great to watch a room full of hard-nosed execs turn into giggling mass of six-year-olds. I include myself in that too:

All in all, I’d highly recommend going to to anyone wanting to broaden their career into children’s media, BUT: do your homework. Peruse the delegate list and programme beforehand, plan out who you want to meet and what session to go to. Stock up on business cards (yes, we still use them!) and go armed with ideas for projects. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself floundering with overwhelm.

It’s costly, especially when you add in hotels, meals and transport on the top, but if you plan it right, this could pay off in the long run. Until next year…

*

The lovely CMC organisers have written up their notes in their blog, so if you are interested you can pop along to http://www.thechildrensmediaconference.com/blog/ and find out what went down...

*

Dan Metcalf is the writer of Dino Wars: Rise of the Raptors 

My journey to becoming a published author by Sarah Driver

Hello! This is my first blog piece for ABBA and I’m delighted to be stopping by. I thought I should start by introducing myself, so here goes! I’m Sarah, I come from Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex, and I’m the author of The Huntress Trilogy; a fantasy adventure series for 8-12s published by Egmont. I graduated from the Bath Spa MA in Writing for Young People in 2014. My debut novel, The Huntress: Sea, was published this April. The experience has been magical, and so surreal – made even more so by wonderful happenings such as Sea becoming Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month (a month before official publication!) – that at times I’ve struggled to feel anything but dazed, even numb. There has been a fair bit of pinching myself in disbelief. This is all I’ve ever wanted, but how do you cope with achieving your wildest dream when suffering from intense imposter syndrome? How do you adjust to the sudden externalization of your innermost identity, especially when writing was once an escape?

I’ve loved reading and writing for almost as long as I can remember. I started writing around the age of five, filling notebooks with stories of family holidays and writing nonsense poems to make my family laugh. One of my most treasured possessions was my bright orange typewriter. Aged about nine, I started binding stories into little books and asking friends to illustrate them or write the blurbs. Spoiler: I may have been a bit obsessed. Aged fourteen I started my most serious stab at writing my first word-processed novel. This experience remains, to date, my most successful attempt at writing a synopsis – I wrote it instinctively and easily in about half an hour. If Doc Brown appeared right now and offered me a DeLorean ride back in time, the only thing that might make me consider being a teenager again would be having so much natural confidence at writing. I never finished the novel (note to former self – FINISH SOMETHING!) and not long after that, various unfinished projects began to gather, as life gathered speed. A level English put me off studying English or Creative Writing at university, and besides, no one in my family had been. From a young age I knew very well the importance of ‘learning a trade’ and not risking a repeat of the struggles faced by my parents – job security was worth the world and, after all, no one really becomes an author, do they? I’d never met one, and couldn’t be completely certain they existed. 

After a gap year of traveling, a dropped university course, a clutch of story rejection slips from magazines and competitions and an assortment of jobs, I finally decided to train as a nurse – my mum had once been a nursing assistant and my aunt was a nurse in London. I’d also met some fantastic nurses as a kid when myself, my brother and my dad were all seriously ill at one point or another (sorry, Mum!) Although not the most natural choice for a severely introverted bookworm, this turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. After a humbling, at times terrifying, exhilarating and life altering three years of university and hospital based training, I worked as a staff nurse before training as a midwife on an accelerated degree course. It was as intense as it sounds, and I rarely had the chance to read fiction, let alone write it. But the urge to write, as well as a deep sense of guilt that I wasn’t, itched inside my bones.

As soon as I finished midwifery training and began my first post at a London trust, I started to increase my fiction reading and even to write again on days off, between tough shifts.

There was something about the way that health work had changed me that made me ready to take myself seriously as a writer – I’d seen how high the stakes can be and learned how important it was to live fully and wholeheartedly for the moment. I’d also had a few poems published in an online poetry zine and that was a hugely validating moment for me as a writer. I desperately needed time and space to write and decided to investigate MA courses in creative writing. I found out about the Bath Spa MA in Writing for Young People and knew it was for me – I realized that every project I had ever worked on had been, in essence, aimed at younger readers.

I secured a place on the course as well as a part time midwifery contract (yes, I worked night shifts alongside a full time one year masters course. I seem to have an appetite for intensity.) 

The idea for The Huntress came about just before starting the course, when I was ‘supposed’ to be working on something else. I sat at my kitchen table and scribbled about half a page of a new project, which I called All the Gods’ Little Creatures (definitely a working title!) It was a page of free-writing in the voice of Mouse, my protagonist in The Huntress, telling me about her family and life aboard her home, which I immediately knew was a ship. Lots of things had brewed in the back of my mind and influenced the voice, atmosphere and setting that began to unfold.

The MA gave me space to read and write. It felt like making a stand against self-doubt. It gave me something I had never experienced before – a writing community who encouraged me to keep going. 

I learned as much from my peers as I did from the course itself.

I completed a first draft of The Huntress: Sea in 2014. Later that year I won the annual United Agents prize for the ‘most promising writer’, which is how I met my agent. By September 2015 she had sent the manuscript off to publishers, and by November we had a three-book deal with Egmont. The whole process probably seems very fast to onlookers (and I know it was fast, in comparison to many experiences) but in some ways, it’s taken a long time. The inward journey has been epic. The fact that it’s been slightly convoluted feels right, like everything was meant to be and contributed to making me the writer I am today. Sometimes, the right path isn’t the clearest or straightest one. I can’t wait to keep learning as much as I can about writing. The learning curve has been steep, but I know it’s only just beginning.

Last month, I found myself celebrating another amazing milestone – publication of my second novel, The Huntress Sky, only five months after the launch of Sea! I grabbed a copy of the book and invited my dad to Herstmonceux Castle, where we spent a fantastic few hours with Sussex Falconry, flying hawks, kites and owls. Here is (the extremely vocal) Halo, a barn owl:

And here’s a slightly wonky photo of Sky against the castle backdrop.

This year, I’ve been slowly calming down and learning to enjoy the experience of being in such a privileged position. I’m gradually learning how to speak in front of audiences at festivals and schools, though my palms still sweat and my throat still tightens. I’m learning how to trust in my creative process, as well as my innate sense of storytelling – a sense I believe is in all of us. I’m learning how to wear my new identity of ‘author’ (such a beautiful word) and not feel so exposed in doing so. It helps that I have the most supportive community of writers, agents and editors to guide me. Big thanks to my lovely friend Jess Butterworth for the chance to write this piece, sorry for the life story and thank you for reading! 

Sarah Driver 

A GLUT OF PLUMS

I had a glut of plums. I loved saying it. They were such plump words, and the scene they conjured so country-gardenish. I loved looking out at the plum tree, so heavy with fruit. I loved having plums with everything – plum crumble is a lovesome thing, God wot. (I was going a bit overboard with the country garden thing.)

a glut of plums 

‘You must be a great gardener,’ people said as they accepted baskets of fat ripe  homegrown Victoria plums. (It had to be a basket, a Tesco’s bag-for-life would have been a much less lovesome thing.)

I was not a great gardener. I had planted the tree and it had grown, acquired twigs and leaves and blossom and what-not; all the plum tree things you’d expect. It had thrived on neglect. It had no choice. I was so busy, trying to get a writing career off the ground while working fulltime, that the whole garden just sort of rampaged outside the kitchen window. The plum tree bloomed and fruited as enthusiastically as my words.

enthusiasm 

Sometimes I didn’t even have time to pick them. The plums, that is. I was very careful picking my words.  I took it for granted the plum tree would always provide, just as I took it for granted the words would always come, and people would always look on those words as enthusiastically as they had accepted the baskets of plums.

And then last spring there was hardly any blossom. And the plums, when they came, were few and feeble, fit only for the birds.

I felt guilty. By now I had taken the rest of the garden in hand, weeded and planted and tidied, and though I am still not a great gardener, I do actually garden these days. But I had never given the tree any attention. 

I do garden these days. 

Clearly the poor plum tree, all sprawl and spot, was sulking. I would prune it. After all, had I not recently cut down the first draft of a novel from 113,000 words to 60,000? And didn’t the rose bush come back fat and strong and groaning with blooms after I had cut it back to a stalk? The plum tree would respond likewise.

Perhaps I went overboard. It was War And Peace and I hacked it down to a haiku. It looked naked and sad and ugly, more cat’s climbing post than living thing. But at least it didn’t rock in the winter storms, and spring would eventually come. I looked forward to the gradual greening, and then the blossom and eventually the plums. Perhaps, for the first time in years, even a glut.

sulking and sad

It is late spring. The may is flowering and the coconut-scented whins glow golden. Even in my hilly garden, always late and windswept, there are flowers. But the plum tree has sulked on. Nothing but bare branches. I have edited it to death, I think. I have been too harsh. It will not forgive me now.

It is hard to look at the bare stumpy thing and remember that blossom once frothed without being asked or helped, that there was once a glut.  It reminds me too much of myself, once carelessly assuming that my writing career would blossom as rampantly as it did at the start. It makes Gerard Manley Hopkins’s words echo too loudly in my head, as, like the plum tree, I seem not to breed one work that wakes. How many seasons should I give the tree to  revive? What do I owe it? Perhaps I should just cut it down, and do something else with the space. Move on.

Last week, though, there was a leaf. Just one. Pathetic to be so pleased, when everyone else’s trees are rampantly in bloom. Still, a leave is a lovesome thing. A hopeful thing.

And now there is a tiny twig. And a little bunch of leaves. And the same on that branch. And that one. Leavèd how thick! Well, not quite yet. 

There won't be a glut this year. But there is a start.

a start 

New writers – a leg up and a helping hand... Lari Don

Earlier this week, I was privileged to attend the Scottish Book Trust’s New Writers Awards Showcase, where the winners of this SBT scheme read extracts from their startlingly good new writing, and where we were all given a lovely little book of their writing.

I can take a tiny bit of credit for how wonderful the evening was, because I was one of the panel who chose the two new Children's and Young Adult Fiction writers. (A process so wrapped in secrecy and cloaked in mystery that I can say NOTHING about it at all...)

But I can say that we chose Claire Squires and Michael Richardson, and I can also say that all the new writers were fantastic and all their new writing was great... it was a really inspiring evening. The awards they received were pretty impressive too – including mentoring, a week long retreat, and a grant to help with the costs of finding time to write. An amazing leg up and helping hand for anyone trying to work out how to be the best writer they can be.

And most people need a leg up of some kind at the start (or even in the middle...) of their writing career. For example, I got my start when I entered the Kelpies Prize with a draft of my first children’s novel, First Aid for Fairies. It didn’t win, but being shortlisted led to all sorts of other opportunities...

So well done to the organisers of initiatives like this, and best of luck to anyone entering competitions or awards to give them a bit of a leg up, a helping hand, and a bouncy friendly start to their writing career.

And especially well done to Claire Squires and Michael Richardson, both of whom I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about in the future, as they move from being new writers to published writers!

Lari Don is surprised to discover that she’s no longer a new writer – she’s now written more than 20 books for all ages, including a teen thriller, fantasy novels for 8 – 12s, picture books, retellings of traditional tales and novellas for reluctant readers.
Lari’s website 
Lari’s own blog 
Lari on Twitter 
Lari on Facebook 

Is it a Job or is it a Career? Megan Rix / Ruth Symes

Have you seen comedian Chris Rock's stand-up routine on You Tube about whether you have a job or a career? The link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG9paM_3QRM  or you can put Chris Rock job or career into Google and it comes up straight away.

I hadn't seen it before until my husband told me about it one evening when he arrived home feeling down about his job. It's very funny (but be warned Chris Rock does love swearing!)

Basically what he says is if you have a career there's never enough time in the day to get all the work that you want to do done. I'm always wanting more hours to write in (especially at the moment - time for another weekend away at a hotel to just write I think!). But if you have a job rather than a career you spend the day looking at the clock/watch and counting down the hours until it's time to go home. In a career you want more time to work and in a job you want less.

It certain rang true with me and a lot of people I know. But not always in as clear-cut way as Chris Rock put it. When I was working I loved my job and knew it was worthwhile - the only problem was that I longed desperately to write and when I wrote I felt like I was complete and when I did anything else I was just killing time or worse wasting it when I could have been writing.

Then I had the BIG talk with myself about what you really want to do with your life, supposing you only had one year left how would you spend it, what would you be truly disappointed never to have done...

I knew that it was wise to stay working until I could support myself and so I went down to part-time and then temporary work. Only the less hours I spent at work the more hours I could write and the more hours I got to write the more I wanted to do more. :)

Now happily I write full-time under the names of Ruth Symes and Megan Rix although I don't think I write as many words a day as I did when I was still working full-time and the words would come bursting out because I'd held them in for so long. I always wish I could write more... no picture books for ages ... and I used to write for TV...

What's it like for you?

Ruth's latest book is published by Piccadilly

Megan Rix' latest book is published by Puffin