Post-SCBWI Conference: What next?

I usually come back from a conference both jazzed and exhausted. After the flurry of preparing for the conference, and the excitement of the event itself, I'm home. I have all sorts of ideas swirling around, and all these notes and names... what to do next? Here are some things I usually do in the weeks following a conference:

Photo by Andy Musser

Following up: Connect with other Kidlit artists or authors, and maybe some industry folks as well.

• Pull out all the postcards you collected and find folks on social media. Follow them. Do the same with the faculty bio page – but use common sense. People who don't personally know you are more likely to welcome a connection on public forums like Twitter or Instagram, rather than private facebook pages. 

• Update your mailing list with industry folks you may have seen or met at the conference. If you write, and have a story ready for submission, make a special note of anyone who said you could query them in the following weeks, and put the deadline on your calendar (assuming you want to query them).

• Send a postcard mailing to your updated list (if you haven't done one just prior to the conference). 

• Send a thank you note to anyone who critiqued you. In addition to being a nice thing to do, it is another opportunity for that person to see a piece of your art.

Absorbing information: keep the momentum! 

• File/write up/scan your notes. Look them over and refresh your memory of what was most helpful or meaningful to you. 

• I usually come away from a conference with ideas for stories or thoughts about how I can improve my work. I've found it very helpful to set a goal or give myself an assignment. For example, after my first conference, I knew I needed more series of images in my portfolio. I gave myself the assignment of taking one existing piece from my folio and adding two more pieces with the same character, and I gave myself two months to do it. 

Good luck!

 

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Jen Betton writes and illustrates for children. 

You can find her work at www.jenbetton.com

@jenbetton on Twitter

www.facebook.com/jenbettonillustration on Facebook