In Search of Wonder...

SCBWI British Isles Conference; my POV

One of my major 2023 goals was to get out and do things in-person. Being a pandemic baby illustrator - I joined this wonderful community in the summer of 2020 when we were barely allowed to leave the house, let alone meet in-person to celebrate a book launch - remember that?! So when the world opened up again, I had this wonderful realisation that my new friends and clients could actually meet each other, face to face! And as someone who is lucky enough to live in a part of the world where lots of cool stuff happens, and also with the means to travel if needed, I knew I needed to put more effort into my in-person social life. Earlier this year I went to Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and London Book Fair as well as a a few other booky events like book launches and agent fun days and publishing picnics.

Here we are being cute at the summer Kids Publishing Picnic in London

My latest in-person adventure took me to Manchester, UK for the SCBWI British Isles Annual Conference.

This is my second year attending the conference, so I had a bit of a clue what to expect this time. Most importantly, I had learned how ESSENTIAL it is to dress up for the Saturday Night Mass Book Launch and Party. But more on that later.

The event starts on the Friday afternoon with a Sketch&Scrawl Crawl and then evening drinks. Due to the childcare situation I arrived around 8pm, had met my Kid Book Besties Will and Tammy for a quick drink (and some rainy, soggy pizza) before a reasonably early night ready for some Kid’s Book fun bright and early in the morning.

It really is a truly wonderful feeling to gather lots of people together, who all have a shared passion. Knowing we’re all there for the love of kid’s books, for growing children and opening their worlds and their imaginations. And this year’s theme really played into that feeling. In Search of Wonder….

It’s such a privilege and a responsibility to help encourage these sparks of wonder inside children’s minds to grow and become something really powerful. And it’s so inspiring to be in a place like the SCBWI conference to see how seriously children’s book makers take this responsibility. This year the Author Keynote speaker was Robin Stevens and it was so great to hear her talk about ways we can communicate with children during times of war and struggle. She made many brilliant points, including reminding us that children are often aware of what is going on in the world and they are able to understand a lot more than we give them credit for. So talking to them in a way that is age appropriate about things they might see and hear on the news is really important. I loved hearing how well children respond to her murder mystery stories, aimed at children 7+. I often worry that story ideas I come up with might be too ‘old’ for kids, but actually there are many children that can deal with these subjects very well, and seek out these kinds of books. This was really reassuring to me.

There were many more highlights from the first day, including a great talk about the state of the industry, and how we should tailor our portfolios, from Art Director Tiffany Leeson (Farshore), Ness Wood (DfB) and Emma Layfield (Hachette); A brilliant Illustrator keynote speech from Ed Vere and we talked graphic novels with Neill Cameron and editor Anthony Hinton (DfB). In the communal area there were signed books for sale, snacks and refreshments (important) and a beautiful illustrator’s wall for showcasing all the amazing work SCBWI illustrators create.

After the talks there was an opportunity to have a 1-1 review, which I would highly recommend, I felt so energised after my chat with Tiffany Leeson. The Hook Pitch off was a really interesting event; like Blind Date but authors sell us their stories by answering weird and wonderful questions from a panel of industry professionals.

After a short break, it was time for the Saturday evening entertainment. As I mentioned, there is the option to dress up for this bit. The theme was ‘wonderful characters’, and we could choose to dress up as characters from children’s books. Will, Tammy and I spent a LONG time thinking about what to be, and in the end we decided to dress up as Max and two of the monsters from Where The Wild Things Are. Here you can see a little mash up video of the process:

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And the final result:

The evening consisted of a Mass Book Launch, where we celebrate all the books by SCBWI members that have been published since the last fair - the books are available to buy at the fair and there’s even a cake with the book covers on it!

It was also great to see Stuart White, the author of Ghosts of Mars, so we could celebrate the publication in person. After this, there’s a fancy meal and a chance to network/pretend you really are king of the Wild Things. This bit is optional but why would you miss out on the chance to chat with some lovely authors, illustrators and publishing folk, or potentially discuss your book idea with an agent or editor?

The Sunday is always a little bit blurry after a very fun night, but I attended a really interesting workshop on world building with James Nicol and a character workshop with Ed Vere. Thanks so much to Tita Berredo, the SCBWI Illustrator Coordinator, for putting this video together:

This is such a brief overview of a really fun, energising yet exhausting, jam-packed weekend that will inspire you to make new friends, try new things and open your mind in search of wonder!

Do I recommend going? I definitely do, as long as you’re prepared to be open to meeting new people and new experiences, in order to get as much as you can from the experience. It, of course, can be really exhausting to ‘network’ for a whole weekend, but as everyone is so friendly, hopefully it won’t feel like work for too long, and will become one of the highlights of your social calendar.

Thanks so much for reading, hopefully see you next year! My next book event is the Authorfy Christmas party in London! Are you going? Let me know if you are or if you have any fun in-person or online events coming up.