SCBWI Agents Party 2013

When I was invited to speak at the SCBWI Agents Party 2013 I felt a few things, honour, excitement and a sudden rush of realisation that I would be speaking to a whole room of budding authors and illustrators, which swiftly followed with me feeling rather nervous indeed!

SCBWI British Isles are a wonderful organisation who provide exceptional support and guidance to children’s authors and illustrators throughout the UK, especially those who are just starting out on their illustration careers or writing their first book for children, as well as hosting many great events to inspire and guide them. So you can imagine how delighted we were at Plum Pudding to be asked again to be a part of one of their events and can, no doubt, understand why I was nervous about delivering a speech that would live up to the expectations of an audience used to such great experiences through SCBWI!

In hindsight, I had absolutely no need to be nervous – I am exceptionally proud of Plum Pudding, our ethos as an agency, our success as a business and most of all, like SCBWI, the exceptional support and guidance that we too provide our illustrators and author/illustrators with on a daily basis and the careers we have helped to build. So I had plenty to talk about and it was a real joy to receive such enthusiasm back from the audience and have the pleasure of answering some of their very relevant questions.

SCBWI's Michelle and Benjamin, who were managing the event, did an incredible job, the venue was gorgeous, with room for plenty of illustrators and authors, I felt supremely welcome and was supplied with plenty of wine for the evening! Meeting the other agents was a real delight, as was meeting with some of the lovely illustrators and authors from the audience. We are, of course, all passionate about and committed to the same goal – creating wonderful children’s books, and the room was buzzing with this passion and excitement! It was fabulous to hear the same dedication to children’s literature from the literary agents beside me on stage and then to meet so many illustrators and author/illustrators brimming with ideas and displaying their fabulous artwork.

It also gave me the opportunity to discuss their work with some of them and to try and provide them with some of the advice and feedback we devote so much time to giving the illustrators and author/illustrators that we do represent here at PP when helping them to build their careers. I am pleased to say that some of those illustrators already have meetings set up with us to discuss joining us here at PP – so watch this space!

Thanks again to SCBWI for inviting us! We’re already looking forward to the next shindig! 
Han.

Check out more from SCBWI British Isles here and for those of you not in the UK, don't worry, there's a link to the SCBWI international website too!