There's a lot in this section for both published and aspiring writers. Read on!
Like
the rest of the world, I am now blogging,
mostly about writing, books, and my life as it relates to these two things.
Often I do it on an AlphaSmart Neo.
This is a lightweight portable word processor with a small but adequate
screen (and no games). Its three AA batteries last up to 700
hours, and I can upload documents into my home computer with a USB cable
and a quick press of the SEND button. Since I spend a lot of time in my
minivan, driving my kids here and there, being able to write on the fly
is wonderful!
Here are my "Eleven Tips for Children's Writers." May they be enormously helpful to you.
I was interviewed for a writers' round table, part of Carol Smalley's on-line course "Writing for Children." Read my answers.
Cynthia Leitich Smith also interviewed
me about the process of writing Close Encounters of a Third-World
Kind on her Cynsations
blog.
There is a wealth of advice about writing
and marketing your books and yourself as a speaker on the web. Here are
some good places to point your mouse:
- Agent Query (searchable database of literary agents)
- Association of Author's Representatives (is an agent for you?)
- Authors Guild (information and counsel, links to authors)
- AuthorTalk.net (post your teacher's guides here)
- Toni Buzzeo (learn how to set up author visits)
- Children's Book Council (interviews with authors; research publishers)
- Dial Books for Young Readers (soon to be my other publisher)
- Editorial Anonymous (children's book editor reveals all except her identity)
- Holiday House (my publisher)
- JacketFlap (read blogs)
- Verla Kay (lots about the business and blue discussion boards)
- Kindling Words (a retreat for writers, artists, and editors)
- Cynthia Leitich-Smith (reviews, intriguing essays, links to other authors)
- LibraryThing (organize your home library and browse your favorite authors' books)
- Modern Postcard (cheap postcards, that don't look cheap, of your book covers)
- Paula Morrow (get your writing critiqued before you send it out)
- Erin Murphy Literary Agency (my fantastic agent; read the SCBWI site chat)
- New York Foundation for the Arts (search for grants)
- Postage Rate Calculator (don't waste stamps)
- Publisher's Weekly (get an email subscription to the Children's Bookshelf)
- The Purple Crayon (Harold D. Underdown's site)
- Scholastic (my paperback publisher)
- Shaw Guides (search for writing conferences and contests)
- Shrinking Violet Promotions (marketing for introverts)
- Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (info, grants, discussion boards)
- Society of Southwestern Authors (Tucson, AZ based; monthly programs and a contest)
- SmartWriters.com (articles, writing contests)
- Write4kids (ask questions on the yellow discussion boards)
- Writers' League of Texas (Austin, TX based; lots of wonderful programs and contests)
- Tracie Vaughn Zimmer (she creates excellent teacher's guides)
If you want even more advice, and less space in your bookcases, check these books out. Note, for your convenience, if you click on the book's title, you'll be taken to Amazon.com where you can purchase it. In the interest of full disclosure, I might get a teensy cut on the purchase if I programmed the HTML code correctly. Books are free at your local public library, of course.
- The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer's Life by Sid Fleischman
- The
Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers
by John Gardner
- Author's Day by Daniel Pinkwater
- Bird by Bird : Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
- Blood
on the Forehead: What I know about Writing
- Book Love: Creating Good Books for Children in an Age that Values Neither edited by Juanita Havill
- Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market, latest edition
- The Elements of Style Illustrated by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
- Formatting
& Submitting Your Manuscript: a Visual Guide
- I am a Pencil by Sam Swope
- It's
a Bunny-Eat-Bunny World: a Writer's Guide to Surviving and Thriving
in Today's Competitive Children's Book Market
- 1001 Ways to Market Your Books: for Authors and Publishers by John Kremer
- On
Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
- A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
- Terrific
Connections with Authors, Illustrators, and Storytellers: Real Space
and Virtual Links
- Talktalk:
a Children's Book Author Speaks to Grown-ups
- The
Way to Write for Children: An Introduction to the Craft of Writing Children's
Literature
- Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer by Bruce Holland Rogers
- Write Away
Finally,
remember Mark Twain's writing advice: "When
you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean that, utterly, but kill
the most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they
are close together, they give strength when they are wide apart. An
adjective-habit, or a wordy, diffuse, or flowery habit, once fastened
upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice."