I first heard Elizabeth Law speak at a SCBWI National Conference where the title of her talk was, “Ask Me Anything—The Unvarnished Truth About Publishing.” Right then and there, I knew she was my kind of person. Then, during the course of the conference when she told attendees, “Just write your heart out. I promise you that’s what matters. I would much, much rather find a great, unusual, distinctive book by a phobic writer covered in oozing sores who lives in a closet than a decent but not amazingly original book by the world’s best promoter. I could sell the former a lot better, too,” I fell a little bit in love with her.  Although she is an avowed extrovert, ever since then, we at Shrinking Violets have declared her the Patron Saint of Introverted Writers.

I was lucky enough to get a chance to meet Elizabeth face-to-face at ALA in Anaheim a couple of weeks ago, and once again she was more than happy to do some truth-talking about writing, promoting, and selling books. So grab a cup of coffee, pull up a seat, and join us!

A Conversation with Elizabeth Law, Vice President and Publisher of Egmont USA

RL: There is so much talk now about how traditional publishing is dead. Yet for those of us working in children’s and YA genres, this same sky-is-falling mentality does not seem to have caught hold yet. Do you think that same panic will filter to our markets? Or is it here already and I just don’t know it? [Read more…]