SCBWI – Is it worth the joining fee?

In a word, Yes.

Becky Earl posted on the SCBWI facebook wall asking this question: Will joining SCBWI help me get published?

Well that I can’t answer but I do know a lot of writers who have been published since joining.  Here are three very different, newly published  SCBWI writers:

If this book isn’t made into a film I’ll eat my hat. It’s classic high-concept with perfect marketing opportunities! I can imagine everyone will want a sympathy LEVO  - well done Teri Terry. ( I  had a sneaky preview copy but you can pre-order on Amazon)

Katie Dale’s novel had me in tears, tenderly written on a difficult subject , it’s a fabulous debut.

I heartily recommend Dave Cousin’s first novel – a  tough story told with humour and pathos – truly terrific – like a toughed up Jaqueline Wilson for boys. And girls. And grown women.

Is it worth joining SCBWI? If you get nothing else out of it you’ll meet some fantastic writers. And hey, Becky Earl, someone already blogged about you and you haven’t even joined yet!

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Bookshops are Dangerous places

Miriam signing my book before nipping off on a whirlwind tour of radio and tv stations.

This is going to have to be the world’s fastest blog post as I am supposed to be painting the bathroom in the harvest manager’s house before he comes back next week.  I sneaked off this morning, to the Hayling Island Bookshop where Miriam Halalmy was signing copies of Hidden. It was a low key event , unlike her fabulous launch in London that I failed to make (frequent readers of this blog will know this is not unusual, me being a hermit and the chain to the farm being about a foot long).

So, all over excited at getting out for an hour, I arrived early.

FATAL MISTAKE.

Me, in a bookshop, with time. Bad. Especially one with such a fantastic teen selection. Luckily I had read an awful lot of the books on display because an awful lot of them were by fellow SCBWI members – including, of course, the book I had gone there to buy: Miriam Halalmy’s HIDDEN. If you haven’t heard of SCBWI and you are a writer or illustrator of children’s fiction you really should check it out – the third, fabulous Undiscovered Voices competition is launched TODAY for unagented , unpublished writers in the UK. It has helped launch the careers of many of my writing buddies:

Candy Gourlay, Jon Mayhew, Sarwat Chadda, Bryony Pearce, Harriet Goodwin, Steve Hartley, Nick Cross, Dave Cousins, Mariam Vossough, Sara Grant and more….

Do it, join to day, submit to the competition – who knows where it could lead!

Oh look at me, sidetracked AGAIN. You see , this is exactly what happened in the book shop and exactly what caused the terrible shopping accident.   To make things worse, Beloved came in before I had a chance to hide  my stash,

‘Got enough books there Kath?’

‘Urm,’  I had to think quickly, ’It was an accident, they fell in my bag.’

Bookshops are Dangerous Places.

See?

Oops.

 

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