Comics

All About the Town

InkyGurl.com is posting Comics for Writers!!!

Another month to write? It’s the WriDaNoJu. This one makes more sense to me than trying to write a novel in November. Aren’t these names getting funny? The NaNoWriMo, the WriDaNoJu, the NaPiBoWriWee and so on.
An interesting list of Picture Book Don’ts.
Victoria Janssen started a [...]

Meet Editors & Agents

The Arkansas SCBWI Conference is this weekend in Conway, AR.
Featured speakers are Anastasia Suen, Greenwillow editor Martha Mahilick, and agent Jennifer (Jaeger) Rofe, from the Andrea Brown Literary Agency.
Earlier, I linked to the websites and blogs of the speakers.
Full registration information is available on the Arkansas SCBWI website.
If you’re anywhere [...]

Upswing

Children’s Books Beating the Recession?
What’s the state of children’s publishing?
Harold Underdown, The Purple Crayon website, has reported on the economic turmoil in publishing of late 2008 and into early 2009.
Publishing, especially books for kids, is on the upswing? So say a couple of postings:

JIll Cocoran, Literary Agent at the Herman Agency pulls out quotes from [...]

Marketing Links

To Market, To Market
Find yourself doing more marketing lately? Me, too. With the publishing layoffs in December and the market skittish, we need to market smarter. Here are some articles I’ve found interesting:

Updates on Who’s Moving Where from Harold Underdown’s Purple Crayon site.
10 Tips to Getting Book Referrals
It’s Not a News Release if There’s [...]

Real Moms

I’ve been catching up reading the blogs of others, mostly those who labor to create novels, picture books and stories for kids. Here are a few interesting posts:

The Crazy Blond writes a poignant post on mothering a foster child.
Is it true? 7% more adults are reading literature? Even young adults are reading [...]

Kindle2

Kindle 2 Great for Novels, But Still Needs Improvement

Have you been keeping up with the reviews of the Kindle 2, Amazon’s ebook reader? Here are a couple of the most interesting comments I’ve seen:

Why Are Publishers Failing?

Here are more conversations taking place around the net. I’ll be mostly offline until January 5.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Laurence Osborne, writing in the Forbes magazine, gives his opinion on why book publishers are currently failing:
A powerful editor at one of the big houses said to me last week, “Very little of the recent [...]

Novel Revision Retreat in IL in February

Even if it is the week before Christmas, there’s lots of interesting discussions going on!

Novel Revision Retreat. I’ll be teaching the Novel Revision Retreat in Illinois on February 27 – March 1 for the IL-SCBWI. Only nine spots remain! Register soon! See comments here from previous participants. Or see comments from Kirby Larson here. [...]

Obama is a Doodler

I am woefully behind in sharing some great posts with you! Here’s a ton of links to articles of interest.

Dori Butler just interviewed me for KidLit Central about my experience of judging the SCBWI Works-In-Progress Grantl
Meanwhile, check out this podcast: Carla McClafferty is featured on Book Bites for Kids, talking about her new book, [...]

High Concepts and Agents

I’ve been doing lots of reading this week and here are some gems.

Ever wonder what high concept means to an agent? Elana Roth of Caren Johnson Literary explains. If you like what she says, she’ll be at the Missouri SCBWI conference on November 9.
Which would you rather do? Sell a novel on a proposal, [...]