Big Changes to the Future of KidLitGN

After years of using our time and personal resources to run the event, the KidLitGN team came to a crossroad of either making this year our last, or finding someone with the resources, talent, and passion to carry it forward. 

Fortunately, we’re doing the latter.

Abigale Lin, the youngest member of the KidLitGN team, fortuitously started studying at Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA, pronounced “OH-sha”), a renowned arts-based, college-prep high school . 

Through that connection, we’ve developed a partnership with students from OCSA’s Martin & Cynthia Howard Design & Media and Creative Writing conservatories who will be joining up with KidLitGN to run this year’s pitch event, and hopefully even more. 

Additionally, Robyn Chapman, senior editor at First Second and adjunct professor at the School of Visual Arts, is now our industry advisor.

These partnerships won’t change the mechanics of the pitch event, but it will enable the pitch event to move forward for years to come. It will also increase the options and visibility of the pitch event across the graphic novel industry and community. You’ll be getting to know more about our new partners over the course of the next few months, but for now, we do need to announce some other big changes. 

With guidance from Robyn, we’ve decided to archive the pitches once the event closes behind password protected pages. Agents or editors who request the password can view and request the pitches throughout the year. However, you can request to have your pitch removed at any time during the event or after. Please email kidlitgn at gmail dot com to ask us to remove your pitch(es). All the pitches will be deleted a few days before next year’s event.

The PDF attachment of your script pages will show up in blue under the art file. Your bio should include a note that you’ve attached the script pages, and, if you are open to collaborations, a note to illustrators on where to contact you.

And author-only creators can now upload a PDF of up to 4 script pages to their pitch along with one art image of a brief bio with a note to please check out the attached script pages and/or provide contact info for illustrators who may be interested in a collaboration (see the graphic for details). The script pages have to fit in one file and both the bio and script pages together can’t go over the 5 MB limit.

We’re also hoping that allowing authors to post pages of their scripts will open up the opportunity for collaborations. Authors, if you are open to having an illustrator contact you about a possible collaboration, please list that in your pitch or bio with something like “Open to collaboration.” So illustrators, if you see a project you love, reach out to the author, let them know you’re interested in a possible partnership. Both of you do your homework to make sure it’s the right fit.  

This year will be an exciting one, so we’re looking forward to the amazing pitches we know we’ll see and what might come of it. And agented GN creators, one note especially for you, we are getting a lot of editor attention (this year we’ll have even more), yet the agented sections of our pitch event are always the sparsest. We’re being followed by some prominent editors, so take advantage of this opportunity.

Agents, if you have GN clients, encourage them to pitch their work in the agented sections. Or, if you have illustration clients, they can always use the agented illustrator section to pitch samples from their portfolios if they don’t have projects. 

Our pitch event continues to grow each year, and we were hoping to find a way to keep it going. Nearly every day we get new followers on our social media sites, including an increased following of agents and editors. We frequently get messages telling us that someone got their agent or book deal through the pitch event and asking if the pitch event will be around next year. We’re happy to say that with these new partnerships, we have a better chance than ever of serving the GN community for years to come.