SCBWI Florida's Mid-Year Conference Was Wonderful!

Wow.  What an amazing conference. The SCBWI Florida Mid-Year Conference at the Walt Disney World Yacht Club, Orlando, was an amalgam of fabulous new material, collegiality and interesting people. 

Nancy and Andrea Davis Pinkney

I attended the Picture Book Intensive lead by Andrea Davis Pinkney, a New York Times best-selling and award-winning author and editor at Scholastic, Inc. and by Sylvie Frank, associate editor at Holiday House.  Both women did a marvelous job discussing the intricacies of picture book writing and marketing. 

It was my pleasure to conduct the all-day workshop on non-fiction with Deb Noyes Wayshak, editor-at-large at Candlewick Press. 

Part of our Tampa critique group

I want to thank those who attended our workshop.  It was so lovely to work with you.

 Deb and I wish you well in your pursuit of fair use and thorough research in the writing fun, exciting and worthy non-fiction.

All of my expectations were fulfilled.  New friends were met.  New information and ideas were learned.  What an august group.  Being an author rocks!

Fair Use and Other Potential Pitfalls in Writing Non-Fiction for Children and Adults

On Saturday, June 16, I am conducting a workshop on writing Non-Fiction for Children at the SCBWI Florida Mid-Year Workshop in Orlando.  To that end, I've been posting a series of tips for non-fiction writers to use.

Today, I am discussing Fair Use, an accepted practice for quoting portions of published text  According to The Copyright Permission and Libel Handbook, by Lloyd J. Jassin, fair use allows:

researchers, authors, scholars and educators to borrow small portions of a copyrighted work for socially productive purposes without asking permission or paying a fee.

Unfortunately, there are no firm guidelines for "small portions," as it depends on the type and size of the work.  Two hundred words, however, is a good rule of thumb.

To be completely safe, of course, one should seek written permission from the copyright owner.

Another potential pitfall can be what is termed, Model Releases.  Any one using a photo of a person's face, especially children, a release needs to be obtained by the person or guardian.  As a university professor, I stressed this to my  education students in order to keep them safe from litigation.

I hope these tips help in a small way.  At the very least, it may assist one in thinking about avoiding missteps along the way to completion of a marvelous piece of non-fiction!