Collaboration Station

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of participating on a panel with other KidLit folks at the Pacific NW Bookseller Association's Trade Show and Convention. The other participants included authors Jane Kurtz and Chris Kurtz, A Children's Place bookseller Billie Bloebaum, and Andrea Milano, youth services manager at the Lake Oswego Library.

The main topic of discussion was collaboration amongst authors/illustrators, booksellers, librarians (both public and school), and educators. We talked about a myriad of different types of collaborations such as:

and collaborations with organizations such as SCBWI

 We also talked about the issue of funding. Here were some funding ideas that were shared:

The panelists and participants were engaged and engaging. Many folks wanted to continue the conversation beyond the scheduled time. I offered to create a blog post about the topic, so that the conversation could continue, virtually. 

Please use the comment section below if you want to converse about this topic (and/or "meet" others who are interested in this topic). I should also mention a longstanding (but not yet very active) Facebook group about this topic, created a few years ago by fellow author, Deb Lund. It can be found at this link. 

What collaborations have you tried? What collaborations would you like to try? What are your questions or concerns relating to reaching out to various stakeholders? 

I am hopeful this conversation will "take off," but even if it doesn't, hopefully some of the ideas summarized in the slides above will generate inspiration for some authors/illustrators, book sellers, teachers and librarians. And if that's the case, I hope you will share YOUR inspiration and ideas below!