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RESOURCES FOR WRITERS AND ILLUSTRATORS of CHILDREN'S BOOKS (This will be updated periodically, so check back!): WEB RESOURCES The Purple Crayon. www.underdown.org. A really terrific website that is full of all kinds of information – basic information about writing children’s books and getting them published; interviews with authors, editors, and agents; book reviews; publishing news, and other topics. A great place to start… SCBWI: Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. www.scbwi.org. An organization of over 19,000 members worldwide, which is open to published and nonpublished writers and illustrators of children’s books. The SCBWI sponsors regular conferences, and publishes a bi-monthly newsletter and other publications on the art and business of children’s writing. The SCBWI website also has discussion boards for its members, and local chapters can help link members to writing groups. They have some general information and helpful links available for nonmembers as well. Children’s Book Council. www.cbcbooks.org. The CBC is a non-profit trade association of U.S. publishers of trade books for children and young adults. They have a list online of current CBC members, which details exactly what each one publishes, and whether or not they are currently accepting unsolicited manuscripts. The CBC website also answers common questions from aspiring authors and illustrators. Children’s Book Insider. write4kids.com. A good website to start out with and worth subscribing to their e-newsletter, if you are serious about improving your writing. Lots of articles about writing children’s books and tips about submissions. And take a look at their blog, the Children's Writing Web Journal. Publishers Weekly. www.publishersweekly.com. A good way to keep up with current trends. You can sign up to receive PW's Children’s Bookshelf, a weekly email newsletter that is free. The Horn Book. www.hbook.com. Since 1924, a bimonthly journal of Children’s Literature. Book reviews, columns, articles, editorials, and a blog by editor Roger Sutton. A selection of articles and other resources are available to read on the web, and you can sign up to receive Notes From the Horn Book, a monthly electronic newsletter that is free. Children's Literature Navigator. www.childlitnavigator.imaginarylands.org. A terrific directory of internet resources for librarians, parents, teachers, caregivers, writers, illustrators and children. A wide range of nearly 1000 well-considered links to websites covering almost any children's literature topic that you can think of. A related site, Picturing Books, www.picturingbooks.imaginarylands.org, focuses on many different aspects of picture books, also with links specifically related to picture books, and their authors and illustrators. A Fuse #8 Production. www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog. The world of children's literature blogs is continually expanding; here is a good place to begin, by a children's librarian at the Donnell Central Children's Room in NYC. Daily posts, with regular book reviews and lots of links and tips about children's literature. MORE LINKS here BOOKS ON WRITING AND PUBLISHING CHILDREN'S BOOKS Joan Aiken, The Way to Write for Children Treld Pelkey Bicknell and Felicity Trotman, ed., How to Write and Illustrate Children’s Books and Get Them Published Olga Litowinsky, It's a Bunny-Eat-Bunny World: A Writer's Guide to Surviving and Thriving in Today's Competitive Children's Book Market Uri Shulevitz, Writing With Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Children’s Books Harold Underdown, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market: The complete guide to the children's publishing world including book and magazine publishers, agents and reps, conferences, contests, and more, updated every year Other books on writing and publishing: Francine Prose, Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them Betsy Lerner, The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers READ READ READ! Learn what makes a good picture book: go to the library and read read read! Start with the oldest, most tattered ones. Librarians usually have limited shelf space and deaccession books regularly; try to figure out why they have kept these old books in their collection. Look at the newest books on display to see what they are buying now. Look at everything in between. Keep reading! American Library Association book lists, www.ala.org Bank Street College: Children's Book Committee Horn Book: Recommended Books The Cybils: Children's and YA Bloggers' Literary Awards New York Public Library: 100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know 100 Best Books for Children, by Anita Silvey And some of my own favorite classic picture books for children ...and a few other books, about children's books: Alison Lurie, Boys and Girls Forever: Children's Classics from Cinderella to Harry Potter ; also, Don't Tell the Grown-Ups: The Subversive Power of Children's Literature Leonard S. Marcus and Maurice Sendak, Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom Leonard S. Marcus, Ways of Telling: Fourteen Interviews With Masters of the Art of the Picture Book Maurice Sendak, Caldecott and Co: Notes on Books and Pictures Maria Tatar, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, and others |
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CONTACT. Deborah Freedman is the author and illustrator of SCRIBBLE, Knopf, May 2007. © 2006 Deborah Freedman |