Curious City threw out the Wizard of Oz references with tacky abandon at the Spring New England Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
We liken the pursuit of publication to the trip down the yellow brick road meeting cowards, heroes, witches (good and bad), and a few flying monkeys or two. We likened NYC publishing to the Emerald one–for both its glitter and glam and for our ability to place more hope into our success there then the wizards of publishing could ever deliver on.
We collectively cringed at the figures–the numbers of books published and the percentages of marketing money spent on the “big” books verses the not so. Did we place blame? Oh, no. Although, this business feels taxed and beset on all fronts–writers, illustrators, and publishers are after the same thing–children reading and growing.
We rallied our spirits with the knowledge that we possess the darn ruby slippers–the thing that we have brought with us through this whole strange journey–our stories and our creativity.
What Curious City does COULD be called marketing and COULD be called publicity, but what we do is closer to discovery. Helping creators discover a thread of their story and then helping them discover an audience who will be intrigued by that story and who will share it with their peers. Working hand-in-hand with those grand Wizards of Oz in publishing, we hope to help creators get discovered and read.
Pictured is the patient (and brilliant) audience of creators declaring that sometimes you have to take off the tinted green glasses to see the realities (and possibilities) of Oz.
