The American Library Association Conference 2008: Simon & Schuster Authors Talk It Up

Wonder why you haven’t heard me do any more V-Blogs from the last ALA Conference lately?  I kid you not when I say that I’ve been slaving over this puppy here for more than a week and a half.  It’s still jerkier than I’d like, but at least I’ve managed to beat it into some kind of submission.  Fun Fact: Extracting audio for hours at a time = no fun.

I was invited to a bunch of different cocktail hours, lunches, and dinners at ALA, but this one hosted be Simon and Schuster was one of the best.  Everyone was seated at a table with an author or illustrator and one by one they would go up and speak to us about the process that led to their books.  I wasn’t sure how to sell the event, so unfortunately the first few blokes who spoke (that would be Mr. Floca and Mr. Faulkner) got minimal video time (sorry, Brian!).  I’ve given over the most space to David Small, because he really hit on a topic I was interested in: Book Jackets.  Or, to be more specific, how much he hates to make them.  If nothing else in this video (and I concede that it leaps from one person to another without much rhyme or reason) watch the David Small portion.  A fascinating look at how awful covers can be for some people.