NaShanta Fletcher
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SCBWI Conference Prep In 3 Days!

5/25/2019

2 Comments

 
This is the story about how I got ready for my first regional SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) in just 3 Days.

Illustrators usually prepare for SCBWI Conferences months in advance. Creating new illustrations for your portfolio, making new post cards and/or business cards, and polishing up a book dummy all take a LOT of time.
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When the Marvelous Midwest Conference came around in May, I had no plans on going. I didn’t have the fund to attend the conference. I applied for the KidLit Nation Diversity Scholarship for the conference, but I didn’t win.
The week of the conference rolled around, and I was at the dentist when my phone buzzed. I received an email from KidLit Nation stating that a local SCBWI member, Tamara Barker, couldn’t attend the Marvelous Midwest Conference, and she donated her ticket to the Diversity Scholarship! They offered me the scholarship and I was completely thrilled. This all happened on a Tuesday afternoon, and the 3-day conference started that Friday.
After talking to my husband to make sure he would be fine taking care of our son for the whole weekend without me, I started making plans for the conference! They were going to allow me to enter the Art Contest, and get a Portfolio critique. Since this was all last minute there was no way I would be able to attend on Friday because of work, and not having a babysitter for that day. This gave me roughly 3 days to get all my materials together for the conference by Saturday.
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Mild freakout about portfolio prints.
I contacted my illustrator friend Michelle Schneider, who offered to share a hotel room with me back when I had the funds and was planning on going to the conference. To my luck, she still had space in her hotel room! I would be rooming with her and two other talented illustrators, Denise Holmes and Jane Smith! (Bless these women for letting me crash with them!)
After securing a place to sleep at the conference I immediately went to my computer for recent illustrations that I could print to add to my portfolio (and one I could enter in the art contest). I gathered several pieces and uploaded them to the Office Depot website to pick up prints the next day.

This was also going to be the first conference I would be attending since I signed with an agent, so I wanted to get new business cards printed with her contact information. I slapped something together in Photoshop, and uploaded my business card files to Overnight Prints!

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Last minute business cards from Overnight Prints.
I still had a bunch of postcards left over from my last conference. So instead of trying to get all new ones printed, I printed my agent’s information on return address labels that I already had, and stuck them on the back of the postcards.
Since I wasn’t going to be attending the conference on Friday, I needed to give my Art Contest submission to someone who was attending. Luckily, I work near another SCBWI Illustrator Pav Kovacic. On my lunch break Thursday, I drove over to Pav’s job and handed him my artwork in a rainy parking lot. I totally felt like a spy handing him some top secret documents in a neutral location (because of the rain he hide the envelope in his jacket to keep it from getting wet, which only added to the top secret spy vibe!).
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Adding agent info to my postcards.
By Friday, I had all my new portfolio pieces in place, my new business cards arrived, my updated postcards were ready to go, Pav submitted my piece to the illustration contest, and I had a hotel room to save me from driving back and forth. The next day I was driving to Naperville bright and early to attend the final 2 days of the conference.
I wouldn’t have been able to pull this off in 3 days without my husband being completely supportive and amazing, and incredibly generous and helpful fellow illustrators friends I’ve made during this kidlit journey! A huge thank you to KidLit Nation for the scholarship opportunity and Tamara Barker for her generous donation.
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2 Comments
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