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.
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!
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