Abigail Samoun, of Red Fox Literary, will lead the workshop. There will be sessions on both the business and craft of picture books, and opportunities for individual written critiques for pre-submitted manuscripts.  Download the registration form for full details.

Morning session on Craft: Five Lessons From Five Master Storytellers

Learn five tricks literary masters have used to ensnare readers into their stories and keep them turning the pages. We will look at specific examples of working with plot from both contemporary and classic works and try out ways of incorporating these same tools in your own writing. Bring your picture book manuscript or novel outline, and a notepad and pen.

Editors at all the major houses fill out "Tip Sheets" for each book they edit. This is a list of questions about the book that help the marketing team pitch it to sellers and find the right home for it in the marketplace. As an author, getting the inside scoop on Tip Sheets and what's in them is an invaluable tool that will help you write a killer cover letter that will hook an editor and think about your story in the larger context of the children's book marketplace. In this workshop, each participant will get a copy of their own Tip Sheet to fill out for their book. We'll work together to answer questions such as "Which is the primary market for my book?" What is my author platform?" and "How do I write an elevator pitch?" By the end of the workshop, you should be well on your way to creating your own story's "tip sheet" which you can draw from as you take your book out of the writing room and into the wide world of publishing.

During her ten years as a children’s book editor, ABIGAIL SAMOUN has edited board books, picture books, middle-grade novels, and young-adult novels for Tricycle Press, Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Little Brown. Her books have received numerous honors including a CCBC Charlotte Zolotow award, an SCBWI Golden Kite Award, a Pura Belpre Honor, a Smithsonian Notable, and a New York Public Library Ezra Jack Keats Award. Abigail also edited the middle-grade series Edgar & Ellen, which has sold over a half-a-million copies worldwide and has inspired a cartoon series on Nickelodeon. Abigail loves books so much that she organizes her library according to which authors would get along well together (the Brontes next to George Elliot, Lois Lowry next to Margaret Atwood). When she’s not reading, Abigail likes to garden, play the piano, visit her apiary, and eat lots of chocolate