2010 Publishers Day

I always like to go to Virginia Festival of the Book on Publishers Day, which is held on Saturday of the weeklong festival. The Omni is packed with writers and readers, browsing and attending workshops.

This year, since I have a new book, I spent much of the day sitting in the atrium at the Cedar Creek Publishing table with two other Cedar Creek representatives.

Me, Laura Thompson, and Sally Honenberger. Photo by Linda Layne. 

Since I was promoting Ferradiddledumday, my Appalachian version of Rumpelstiltskin, I decorated my section of the table with my down-home dood-dads—the quilt and assorted critters. The sleeping horse that snores (Thanks, Polly & Robyn!) was a big hit with several children who passed by:

Folks come from all over Virginia to attend the Festival. I saw several old friends, such as Fred First who wrote the wonderful Slow Road Home and blogs at Fragments from Floyd.

I met some new friends, too, such as Michelle Erich from the Slushbusters blog. In fact, she posted my picture on her account of the festival.

I always love to wander among the numerous displays and check out the new books and displays. One table that caught my eye was my first introduction to the steampunk genre—Nick Valentino's  steampunk adventure novel, Thomas Riley. That table attracted lots of visitors.

I slipped away from my table and the exhibits to catch a couple of SCBWI presentations, both of which I enjoyed. "Terrific Kids' Novels Adults Will Love Too," featured Kathy Erskine (Mockingbird), Fran Cannon Slayton (When the Whistle Blows), Sara Lewis Holmes (Operation Yes), Sue Corbett (The Last Newsboy in America), and Irene Latham (Leaving G's Bend).

I was familiar with only two of the authors. I'd attended a workshop that Sara Lewis Holmes had done at the 2008 CNU conference and had read (and loved!) her Letters from Rapunzel. I've crossed paths with Sue Corbett a couple of times; her Twelve, Again was one of the first paranormal middle grade books I read (and loved!) I have a feeling that I'll be ordering and reading all five books featured at the presentation.

The other SCBWI presentation was "Getting Published—Picture Books to Young Adult," with agent/author Laura Rennert and authors Deborah Heiligman, Bonnie Doerr, Emily Ecton, and Ruth Spiro. It was interesting to hear how the authors were published. (And also interesting that several years ago, I'd queried Ferradiddledumday to Laura Rennert, and she'd rejected it very nicely.)

The presentation I attended was the "Agents Roundtable" with Laura Rennert, Jenny Bent (another agent from her agency had rejected my middle grade manuscript not long ago), Erin Cox, and Simon Lipskar. The general theme of their presentation was stated by Lipskar: It's a challenging time for book publishing, but agents are all looking for great books. I didn't learn much new from this panel, but I've heard a lot of agents speak at various conferences through the years. 

The picture I took before the presentation began was interesting—lots of orbs overhead and a strange glowing white thing at the left:

 

I can't explain the weird things in the picture, so I'll leave it to you—were those orbs the ghosts of books that died because agents rejected them?

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