2017 has been a year full of firsts for Picture The Books authors, each of whom had a picture book debut in the past year. Many of us hosted our first book launch events, did our first school visits, and answered questions for our first blog interviews. One launched a youtube channel. Others led their first sessions at regional SCBWI conferences. Everyone was busy.
Getting to know fellow PTB-ers has been fantastic: it’s a great and generous crew. We’ve shared galleys and F&Gs in advance of publication and co-promoted each others’ work. We’ve communicated on a private face book group compiling advice and tips on all kinds of particulars. We’ve celebrated starred reviews and little gold stickers. And, we’ve commiserated.
This writing business is a solitary one, and can be lonely. A taste for the business side doesn’t necessarily come hand in hand with a love of writing, so having a tribe to co-navigate the ups and downs of launching a book into the world with has been a real gift. Thank you, PTB!
The books from the PTB crew run the gamut — check them out.
A final few, released in recent months, make perfect, seasonal gifts too: Patricia Toht’s Pick a Pine Tree — a tightly sequenced (and rhymed and paced) ode to the journey from tree lot to Christmas tree; Jannie Ho’s Bear and Chicken — a funny tale of eat-or-be-eaten hunger, misunderstandings and friendship (recipe for Bear’s Vegetable Soup included); and Annie Silvestro’s gorgeous Mice Skating.
AND, if your umpteenth copy of Goodnight Moon arrives with a gift receipt, exchange it for a pre-order of Kerri Kokias‘s sweet Snow Sisters (releases January 2)!
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I’ll be a sad to see 2017 — and our group — come to an official end — though I’m pretty sure we aren’t all finished with each other.
Meanwhile, 2018 will bring the “Epic Eighteen”. Learn about their 2018 picture book debuts on their site and, as you do, imagine a new tribe of debut writers and illustrators helping each other out and taking care of one another behind the scenes as their books launch into the world too; as individual as this work is, it really does take a village.
Hmmmmm 