something different than everything else!
So I just got back from the third annual San Diego Festival of Books. It's a one-day event that our newspaper and local KPBS channel sponsor.
I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, there was a HUGE children's book presence. Half the festival was children's books, and a disproportionate number of the panels focused on writing graphic novels, middle grade graphic novels, and picture books. Albeit they were only 45 minutes long, but I'd never been to anything like this before and I walked out feeling incredibly heartened.
There must have been over 100 different author tables, each with authors signing and selling their work. And they were divided into two giant tents of adult books and children's books. It was so impressive. (I'm sure the regional and national SCBWI conferences are much more impressive, but I've never been to one of those.)
Of course, I may be incredibly easy to impress since this was all new to me, but there was such a diversity of topics and styles and targeted age-ranges from the graphic novelists and visual storytellers that it really made me step back and realize: Wow--there's so much a person can do! There was a panel that discussed how mainstream publishers are now seeking out non-traditional visual presentation and niche-interest topics, and how in the last 15 years an entire genre of illustrated middle-grade graphic novels has sprung into existence that simply wasn't there before. (And you know it has arrived when there's an entire section of shelving in bookstores dedicated to it.)
And honestly, most of the illustrators were over 40. Because of the recent 3-Point Perspective podcast about transitioning careers, I was paying attention to it. I only saw two panelist illustrators whom I would categorize as being in their 20s, and one of them had created her children's book while holding down a full-time job in animation. By far, most of the illustration work of all kinds presented at this festival had been executed by people who looked to be (to my eye) in their 40s and older.
It just gave me a lot of hope that perhaps there's much more room for so many more creative illustrators out there than I thought there was. And I thought I'd share.