But do publishers ever actually sign on an author after meeting her at the seminar?
“Yes!” replies Mrs. Heller, whose company Menucha Publishers is another main sponsor of the event. “I’ve found authors here who we’ve subsequently published. I also found a wonderful illustrator, who came to the seminar with her portfolio.”
She adds that of course that “yes” doesn’t come after a short 15-minute meeting; even a great idea usually needs to be fine-tuned. So giving feedback is another valuable part of the one-on-one sessions.
“At first it hurt,” comments one of the writers, after a representative suggested some changes to her idea for a novel. “But I can already see that she was right. I was struggling with one of the main characters, and she put her finger on the problem and offered advice for how to fix it.”
Meet the “Rock Stars”
While the seminar is geared toward writers who are actively practicing their craft, it also attracts aspiring writers. In fact, according to Mrs. Ansh, one of the biggest satisfactions she receives from organizing the seminar is watching beginning authors develop into outstanding ones.
And then there are the people who just love books.
Chava Pinchuck, for instance, who is a past chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Awards, an award given by the Association of Jewish Libraries, started attending the seminars after she and her family made aliyah a few years ago. “I’m a reader, not a writer,” she comments. “I come because it’s nice to get an inside look into the creative process. It’s also nice to see the ‘rock stars’ of the Orthodox publishing world.”
One of those “rock stars” happens to be sitting beside her, children’s author Yaffa Ganz. A pioneer in the Orthodox publishing world, Mrs. Ganz’s more than 40 books have sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide and been translated into half a dozen languages. While she has often spoken at the seminar in the past, this year she says she was there just to enjoy being part of the community. “It’s very inspiring,” she comments. “The explosion of female talent, the creativity and vitality, is absolutely awesome.”
The Final Word
While Mrs. Ganz’s comment very likely expressed the feeling of just about everyone in the room, another well-known writer, Sarah Shapiro – author of Growing With My Children and Our Lives – reminded the group that a Torah-observant author must also be “awesome” in a deeper way. In her presentation, she touched upon an issue that many Orthodox writers face: the conflict that can arise between art and halacha.
“In the secular world, art comes before life. But we don’t want to speak lashon hara. We don’t want to consider our art more important than the people in our lives,” she reminded the women. “For us, our art will only be as valuable as Hashem thinks it is.”