RESOURCES FOR WRITERS AND ILLUSTRATORS of CHILDREN'S BOOKS

(This page is 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 begin…

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. SCBWI can also help connect 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.

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 librarian in the Children's Center at the 42nd Street branch of the New York Public Library. Daily posts, with regular book reviews and lots of links and tips about children's literature. For more terrific blogs, go straight to KidLitosphere Central.

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 books. Librarians usually have limited shelf space and deaccession books regularly; try to figure out why they have kept these oldies in their collections. Look at the newest books on display to see what they are buying now. Look at everything in between. Keep reading!

...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, Minders of Make Believe, and others
  • Maurice Sendak, Caldecott and Co: Notes on Books and Pictures
  • Maria Tatar, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, and others