I got there early and wandered around the beautiful grounds of UWA for awhile - I love the sunken garden so much. I actually thought it was called the secret garden and I kind of prefer this name to tell the truth. I made sure I knew where everything was and then of course I noticed all the people sitting around waiting to go in. You know what? They looked pretty normal. There were men and woman, young and old people, well dressed, trendy dressed and normally dressed people. I calmed down after that - I mean I am a woman and I was dressed so really I fitted right in.
After we went inside I watched with amazement as the place filled up - from all reports 200 people were there. So in Perth there were 200 people who went to this seminar - and really there must have been stacks more that couldn't go for whatever reason. That is a whole lot of people out there who are writing. As the seminar kicked off this really became apparent and fast - there are a WHOLE lot of people out there writing. For whatever reason, not all of them can get from the writing stage to being the proud published author stage that so many of us really want to be.
I listened and I listened hard as publishers, an agent, a manuscript assessor, an editor and a publicist gave us a whirlwind tour of the facts, figures and reality of the publishing world. I wrote notes and wondered, and was happy with the fact that there were plenty of audience questions, some of which answered my questions. I hadn't slept well the night before and I'm more used to chasing kids that sitting in the one spot all day but everything was so interesting that I was disappointed when it was time to leave.
The next day I went to a workshop on writing children's books with Ursula Dubosarsky. The session was a whole lot more intimate with about 20 people there and a whole lot more confronting because we had to do some writing exercises which I hadn't been expecting. I was very relieved when Ursula explained that if people wanted to share their writing with the class they were welcome but it wasn't something she could ever do. She also talked about how creative writing classes worked for lots of people but not everyone. I was an instant fan - I love people reading what I have written but when I am ready.
There were lots of questions for Ursula from all of us and some of it was repeating what had been covered the day before but it was incredibly interesting to discuss it with a real life author who was extensively published in the area we were all writing in. Similar to the day before I found the general conversations between audience members really enlightening - so many of them have so much experience in this area and have been hard at it for years. Some of the stories they tell of rejection are heart wrenching but there were stories of people who haven't given up hope and who are battling on, and others who have simply found a different way of going about things with great success.
So what did it all mean to me? I have always loved writing and have long harboured a secret desire to be published but I have never done anything about it until now. I have also developed such a huge love of printmaking and if someone said to me you have to pick between those two things I don't think I could. That is why I was so thrilled to be writing, illustrating and making my own books and absolutely so astonished to find out that self-publishing like what I am doing can actually be detrimental to your chances of getting published. I think at the end of the day if what you have written is good enough and magical enough then someone will want to read it. If enough people will want to read it you'll get published no matter what. So I am going to send Red off soon and we'll see what happens.
That is very cool and exciting my friend!
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