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Hello, from Lake George in the Adirondacks. There are white caps on the blue lake, nestled amidst fading fall colors. This weekend, 35 children’s picture book writers gathered on the shore to schmooze, learn, talk, gossip, and passionately discuss the art and craft of writing a 32-page children’s picture book. Thanks Nancy Castaldo, Regional Advisor [...]
Writing is rewriting Guest post by Anastasia Suen For years I have been saying that writing is rewriting, and now I have a book that shows it quite clearly, my new picture book, Road Work Ahead (Viking 2011). This picture book is short, like most of my books. It’s only 120 words, but those words [...]
When Stories Start to Go Wrong! Here are some descriptions of manuscripts. Read them and figure out what’s wrong: 6000 word, ABC book 13,000 word middle grade 250,000 YA/teen novel 2000 word YA poetry book 4000 word picture book Match Audience with Length and Format of Your Story In each of these cases, the format, [...]
Brenda Sturgis reports on the top literary agents for selling picture books in this recent post. Let’s talk about this report. Top Literary Agents for Picture Books Self Reported Statistics. The statistics for Sturgis’s report was compiled from reported sales on Publisher’s Marketplace. This is a big caution because
I’m currently revising a picture book and finding it to be a bit tricky because I created animal characters. Of course, in a fiction picture book, animal characters are often just stand-ins for kids. Why Use an Animal Character in a Fictional Picture Book? Get Rid of Adults. I wanted to have two characters playing [...]
Yo-Yos v. Author When I first started doing school visits, I was uncertain, trying to figure out what to do and why. That’s when I had a near encounter with a yo-yo. I went to a rural elementary school a week after a yo-yo company had performed at the school. The yo-yo people had charged [...]
Last weekend, I was in Chandler, Oklahoma, a sleepy little town on the old Route 66. I didn’t get much sleep, though, because I was there to teach a Picture Book Retreat. Here are reports from Sara, Susan Meyers, and Leeth. Also, check out the Okie Book Woman, who added lots of photos of the [...]
Stiff Competition for These Picture Book Topics Dial editor, Liz Waniewski (ONE–es-key) spoke at the Arkansas SCBWI 2007 conference. For a couple months before the conference, she kept track of her slush pile picture book submissions by category. This resulted in my 2007 posting 12 Picture Book Topics to Avoid, one of the more popular [...]
Touchstones: a reader’s way into your story In this guest post by Martha Brockenbrough, grammarian, freelance writer, columnist, and author discusses how to pluck the heartstrings of your reader. When I worked as a freelancer for a company that created really special games—games designed to draw out the best talents of each player—I learned about [...]
Many speakers used quotes in their presentations or made memorable statements. Here’s my collection of quotes from the conference: About True Love: “It’s great when a publisher loves my work, but a contract is better; a contract is True Love.” Jarrett J. Krosocka, picture book and graphic novel author and illustrator. Humorous Take on True [...]
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