First Pages with Martha Mihalick and Joe Monti #scbwiwwa

This was our first conference with a first pages session dedicated to query critiques, and Joe and Martha had similar comments throughout the session. Only a few of the queries elicited enough interested from either of them to say they'd be curious to see a few pages of the manuscript in spite of the faults they found in the query itself. A few of the most common criticisms were:

-Too much information about the author
-Too much story, too convoluted (write a two sentence hook, NOT a synopsis)
-Query is too long (keep it to three short paragraphs!)
-Don't make references to how much friends, family, students like your work
-Don't tell them your book is a good fit (they'll be the judge of that)
-Don't use too many character names

Most of all they emphasized keeping it simple. Strip down your story to an irresistible hook and let it shine.

Martha Mihalick on building characters #scbwiwwa

Reported by Kerri Kokias:

Martha Mihalick, associate editor of Greenwillow Books, spoke on Hidden Spaces: Building Memorable Characters and the Ties Between Them.

She said writers need to develop characters that their readers can identify with, love, sympathize with, or love to hate. It’s important to develop your main character, your secondary characters, and just as importantly, how the characters relate to each other. Characters come alive through their relationships, their objects/possessions, their actions/reactions, and their opinions.

2011 Conference Series- Faculty Q & A with Martha Mihalick

IT'S THURSDAY!! Has everyone packed? Have you brought your notebook to write down all the incredible things that you'll hear? Packed your cash and/or checks for the SCBWI store? Picked out a fun costume for the Dance Party?

Well, if haven't you've got one more day to get it done before our 20th Annual Writing and Illustrating for Children Conference! If you have, then you can slowly sip your coffee & enjoy perusing the answers from the fabulous Martha Mihalick! Martha is part of our Editorial and Art Director Faculty. You can read her conference bio here.

What is the best and worst advice you were given when you started in publishing?

Best advice:

Never be afraid to ask a question.

Trust yourself and your taste.

What were your favorite books as a child? And now?

Too many to name! But particular favorites as a child were Tamora Pierce's SONG OF THE LIONESS QUARTET, MATILDA, BEAUTY, A WRINKLE IN TIME, and the DRINA BALLERINA series. I still love all of those (and many more!), but ones I’ve added more recently are Megan Whalen Turner's ATTOLIA books, CRISS CROSS, GRECELING, ST. LUCY'S HOME FOR GIRLS RAISED BY WOLVES, THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE, and the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels.

If you hadn't gone into publishing, you might have been an....

I don’t know! But likely something that had to do with theatre in a backstage or script development way, or film editings always fascinated me. Not that I have any training in either of these things.

What's your favorite snack?

Do people really have just one favorite snack? Mine’s nearly anything chocolate or any baked good—as long as no cherries or raisins are involved!

What do you like most about your job? What do you like least?

I get paid to read and love and talk about books! I am never more challenged or fulfilled as when I’m elbow-deep in an edit. And I’m never more thrilled as when I get to call and make an offer!

What I like least? Having to say “no” a lot. That’s never fun.

Another great Q & A! Enjoy your last day before our Annual Conference! See you tomorrow at the Pre-Conference Kid Lit Drink Night (you don't have to be registered for the conference to attend!).

2011 Conference Series-Editorial & Art Director Faculty: Martha Mihalick

Happy Monday All! I'm home with the flu today, but thankfully I'm able to spend some time researching and posting about our FANTASTIC 2011 Conference Faculty! I'd like to introduce you to another one of our Editorial and Art Director Faculty; Martha Mihalick. Martha is the Associate Editor with Greenwillow Books at HarperCollins. She edits a wide range of books; from Picture Books to Young Adult.

Martha majored in English, and then attended the Denver Publishing Institute, and as she says "shortly afterwards began her dream job". Martha has a very strong online presence. She has a fantastic website (see this recent post about her life long love of reading). She's on twitter, and manages both Greenwillow's facebook fan page, and Greenwillow's blog.

I found several wonderfully practical interviews with Martha as well.

• YA Highway Publishing Interview Series
• Christy's Creative Space interview on voice
• Market My Words interview on marketing
• Cheryl's Musings has a list of some of the books edited by Martha/Greenwillow Books.

Here's a question/answer from the Market My Words interview

In your opinion , what are the top things every author should do and must do to promote their book?

I think the most vital thing is to have a website—one that you regularly update, so that it never seems stale. Kids, teens, parents, librarians, booksellers, teachers will all google favorite authors to find out more about them!

This is particularly critical for aspiring illustrators, in my opinion. Most of my artist-hunting happens online. And “website,” can also mean blog.

It’s important that an author or artist’s online presence is one that THEY are comfortable with. This may be a regular website that they update once a month or so with news, etc. Or it may be a blog they update every day or once a week, or what-have-you.

After that, reaching out to your community and contacts and being available for appearances is great.

A random fact about Martha (taken from her website).

Before I realized children’s book editor was a job, I wanted to be a ballerina when I grew up. Or a writer (my best friend was going to be an illustrator, conveniently enough). Or a figure skater. Or a pediatrician.

Great technology for word use

Greenwillow editor Martha Mihalick, who may well be a GENIUS, recommended the use of Wordle.net to check the language of your work in progress.

Wordle builds collages out of the words in a document, so you can see which ones you use most of all.

I tried it on a novel and found a flabby word I used way too much. Then I did a find and replace search and saved myself about 200 words.

I tried it on a picture book and sent the image to a friend, who was able to tell me what my story was about simply by the big words that appeared. Here's what this blog post looks like:

An interesting view on creativity

Martha Mihalick, an adorable associated editor at Greenwillow Books, had an interesting blog post. Here's an excerpt:

In one of my (long ago) college critical theory classes, we talked about the idea of all authors having an antenna that is always on, always picking up signals from the wider world. This has always stuck with me. Authors have finely tuned observational powers, which always astonish me, and sometimes they are able to observe more than what they can see/hear/smell/taste/touch. Sometimes their observations stretch into that cloud. That’s how some elements and themes can end up in a work even when the author may not consciously intend it. And how there are certain themes that a number of different authors end up writing about at the same time. The most noticed recent example is probably the Kristin Cashore and Suzanne Collins books. Graceling and The Hunger Games both had characters with similar names (Katsa and Katniss), who had to confront killing other characters in the course of their stories. And now, the companion/sequel to each has the word “fire” in it. It’s odd coincidences like these that make me believe in the cloud.

Read the rest.