The SCBWI British Isles conference 2023 has come and gone. As with last year’s, I wanted to share my thoughts on the whole experience, hence this post.
Attending this year’s SCBWI British Isles conference wasn’t a difficult decision to make because I had a great time at last year’s. Plus, it was the one major literary event I could pack into my annual calendar where I get to meet new people, learn new things; all while exploring the city of Manchester. Besides, I wanted to build on the relationships I established at last year’s conference. Another motivation was to be able to share the progress I’d made with my book, The Accent, which was reviewed by an agent during a one-to-one session at last year’s SCBWI British Isles conference.
Last year, I’d attended the SCBWI British Isles 2022 conference as a first-timer not knowing what to expect. I had more of my business hat on, hence the Funke and Caroline (main characters from The Accent book) branded shirt I wore on Day 1 hoping to prompt conversations with agents or anyone of interest. Well, it turned out not so businessy; notwithstanding, I wasn’t disappointed.
This year’s however, in a much clearer place with my book, The Accent, given its development progress over 12 months – ready to print book, website and promotional videos – I had a business card with my book’s title and characters on one side hoping to strike up interesting conversations around my book.
I was looking forward to catching up with Saskia Lakia, the agent with whom I’d had a one-to-one session during last year’s SCBWI British Isles conference when The Accent was just a script. I wanted to share the progress I’d made with the script which also included her feedback. I was disappointed she wasn’t able to attend this year’s SCBWI British Isles conference but I managed to reach her via email afterwards.
Jasmine Richards of Storymix Studio was also another highpoint for obvious reasons. Jasmine had been the one who’d introduced me to SCBWI; never heard of them until we met at her book signing session in London mid-2022. At this year’s conference, she co-anchored a breakout session titled “How to Create and Be All Inclusive” which was very insightful. One highlight of that was hearing about expert readers like Eva Wong Nava who have the responsibility of vetting unpublished books that feature certain cultural contexts in which they are knowledgeable about. To put things in context, if an author were to write a book which features mainly on, say Southeast Asian cultures, Eva who hails from a Southeast Asian background would be given the responsibility of reading through the sections on cultural references to corroborate the facts, flag misrepresentations if any, or just about anything that may be deemed useful from a Southeast Asian perspective. It would then be left to the author to decide how to approach Eva’s feedback.
Coming from a business background, it’s no surprise Anna Orenstein’s session titled “Smart Money and Creative Side Hustles” resonated deeply with me. One thing I love about the SCBWI British Isles conference is that much as it promotes the craft of children’s book writers and illustrators, it does a good job of trying to balance that with sustainability-driven breakout sessions, hence features like Anna’s. Another highlight along those lines was Camilla Chester and Snezana Danilovic’s session titled “Take the Time to Market Your Book For Success”. My aspiration as a children’s book author is to build a sustainable business from the value I add to readers via my books. To that end, I’m excitedly drawn to content around audience building, engagement and business models that have worked. Not solely from a traditional publishing path but also from the angle of self-publishers. Camilla and Snezana had lots of practical tips and tools from their journeys that I found useful.
Meeting Lucy Reynolds of Doodles and Scribbles was a pleasure. As with last year’s when I first met Lucy and her business partner, Jenna Herman, I was impressed with another milestone in their self-publishing journey by way of a hardcover for “We are family,” a book they’d introduced at last year’s SCBWI British Isles conference. By the way, her session was the highlight of my attendance last year and it’s spurred me on my self-publishing journey.
The SCBWI British Isles conference 2023 also presented an opportunity to share my visions about Wafunk Publishing with a few folks. With Eva, I discussed the prospect of working with authors and creatives of Southeast Asian backgrounds. Her response was pretty encouraging so I’m looking forward to interesting collaborations unfold in the near future.
In conclusion, the SCBWI British Isles conference 2023 was well worth it as I met my goals of meeting new people, getting more insights and useful information. Now, it’s time to put all of those into practice!
