Melva Gifford

These are notes from Get Published Summit by Brooke Van sickle

Q: What is the first thing they should do when they write a children’s book?

• Attend conferences such as these.
• Learn what is going on in the industry.
• Read current books in recent years. 5 years ago is old.
• Make sure you understand the business of what is selling and what is not.

Q:  When can authors do to make sure their books are impactful?

• You need to please two humans. The grown-up who buys the book and the child. So you want to read best sellers and award books and books that are similar to our idea.
• Study story structure of a successful book.

Q: What three things in your book do you need to have for readers to connect with?

1. Know who you are trying to write to. Writing to a 5 yr old is different from a 12 yr old. Our books are products and we have to see a publisher.
2. Give that audience what they are looking for. Make sure it fits the category its been put in on amazon.
3. Incorporate your voice to be authentic to you. This is where your passion and storytelling come from.

Q: How to share vulnerabilities in your writing?

• Emotion has to be in your story. That is the biggest key to making readers connect.
• You need to put yourself into your protagonist’s mindset.
• The reader is on a journey with the character to share those emotions.

Q: How does someone know if they have a good story idea?

• You need to be reading what is published now. Do your research. Then you can see what themes you can write that others have.
• You want to make your idea unique not a repeat of others.

Q: how to engage the reader to keep their attention?

• Picture book: 32 pages. And be 500 words.
• Need actins to let illustrations do all the showing and telling.
• Have little text on the page.

Q: what are your thoughts on adding a message added to your story?

• The theme will not be the main part of the story. You need to have action. You need a character arch and a character arch. You need to have a completely developed story.
• Work on not having your story to be too much talking. You need to have the external first.
• How to address self-publishing?
• The problem with publishing and self-publishing is that people rush the process and lower the quality.
• You need to have something to hold the reader.
• It’s faster than traditional publishing.

Q: What advice to give your audience?

• Be patient and enjoy the process. Avoid rushing and trying to reach your goal too soon.
• For five-year-olds you can put on the fun hat.
• Enjoy the process and trust the process.

I believe this is a presentation offered at the 2023 LDSPMA writers’ conference. Any misinformation is the fault of the note-taker.

They meet

• How they meet. May have known each other before but this is when they are both on the same page together
• Attractions with resistance sparks fly
• They are forced together

They fall in love (long lots of chapters

• They are stuck together and kind of like each other. Forced interactions or outings. Something happens to increases interactions.
• One step forward, two steps back. The middle of the end: everything falls apart
• They can’t fight this feeling any longer

They live happily ever after

• Big declaration of love.
• Everything falls apart
• Grand gesture) everything comes together

Turning up the heat: when is sex too much?

• The attitude of the characters is not clean romance when they just want a romp. A forced marriage plot is when they slowly fall in love
• In religious romance, they make decision-based on their religious beliefs.
• If you have a cover with a man with a shirt off, the reader expects sex.

In conclusion:

• Romance is different than written other kinds of fiction
• The protagonist is the romance
• Outlines work (you must be smarter than a fifth grader.
• Outlining plotting, and story structure are not the same thing but must be used together.
• Romancing outlining 101: they meet, they fall In love, and they live happily ever after.

Q&A:

• Some books have chapters that alternate characters.
• If you are trying to determine what point of view to use in a chapter, use the character who feels they feel the relationship is in danger.
• Let body language show the reaction of the other person.
• The book: Romancing the Beat and Save the Cat Writes a novel, both help in plot contribution.
• The change of dating must be accurate in the time period of the book. Such as same-sex relationships.

If you have subplots where characters do different things, make sure the couple are not away from each other too long and the characters think how their current diversion is influencing their relationships with the other character. They think of the other person.  If you have subplots where a character with a personal journey it can influence their response to the main romance. If there is a misunderstanding, that may not be as interesting as a subplot where there is a more legit conflict.

• A lot of publishers require certain events to occur at a certain point such as the first kiss by a certain page. You follow the path of who you publish with.
• This author used various editors previously but found an editor that works well and stays with her.
• For pennames, can be used as you like. Amazon keeps track of what you’ve published. Amazon lets you only have three author profiles. You should use a different pen name if you write different genres.