Cast your vote for the best books of the year by SCBWI members. All current members may vote once in each division per each voting round. (Non-members may vote as well, provided they have a free Sneak Preview account on scbwi.org.) Final Round Voting will be open from June 3 to June 21. The winners will be announced on June 26. Visit the SCBWI Crystal Kite Awards Portal to cast your vote now! Illustrate, Translate, and Write On, Lee ..read more

If you’ve been following along with my guest post, you probably know that I love mysteries, and I love writing for kids. What you might not know is that I didn’t start my writing career in Kidlit. I spent about ten years mostly writing short stories. I still love writing short form—there’s nothing like the satisfaction of writing THE END after just a few writing sessions.             Aside from writing shorts stories for adult readers, I’ve been lucky enough to get my stories for kids in anthologies, most recently in Mystery Writers of Ame ..read more

So while there's a lot of wisdom from the yoga saying "eyes on your own mat," much of that is about not comparing your journey to others', as it's really not helpful.  Having said that, knowing how other creatives are navigating their newsletters can inform and inspire what we do with our own. As a reminder, having a big following on the social media platforms is no guarantee you'll be able to reach that following, as you don't own those connections--the platform does. And platforms can change their algorithm at any time, and then ask you to pay to reach the people who already said they'r ..read more

 Last week, I talked about having a marketing plan and setting goals. This week, I thought I’d talk about social media, since that’s obviously closely linked. I do a talk at writers’ conferences on the subject, and the room is always filled with creatives who are almost afraid of social media. And that can’t be the point.             The best way to look at social media platforms is this: they are a tool to help you reach individual readers. That’s it. You’re talking to one reader at a time. You don’t have to dance on Tiktok if that’s ..read more

  #SCBWIsummer24 is going to be amazing! The 2024 SCBWI Virtual Summer Conference will include: Inspiring keynotes featuring Kate DiCamillo and Felicita Sala Panels of agents, editors, and art directors discussing the current state of children’s publishing⁠ A half-day Intensive just for Illustrators Over 35 breakout sessions with tracks for illustrators, self-publishing authors, traditionally published authors, nonfiction authors⁠, and more An opportunity to pitch to acquiring agents and editors⁠ The career-launching Portfolio Showcase⁠ Online socials and peer critiques⁠ Websi ..read more

Confession time: I love marketing. I know, most authors dread it, but to me it can be as much fun as writing my books. That said, marketing can become a serious black hole where time and space does not exist…*cue Twilight Zone music             I’ve wasted my share of hours on Twitter (actually, that’s X now), Instagram, and whatever platform is the latest buzz. I had to set limits on the time I spend on social media, and how much time I spend on marketing in general. It’s very easy for marketing to take over your life, especially around ..read more

 Hello, I’m Fleur Bradley and I write mysteries for kids.     This is my standard introduction whenever I go to a conference or other event, so it seemed only fitting to start my series of blog posts here this way. I love mysteries. I actually got my start as a writer in the genre, writing short mysteries and getting them published in magazines and anthologies. In fact, there’s an SCBWI anthology out in July, The Haunted States of America, with one of my stories (representing Colorado) in it. More on writing short stories in a future blog post…     I sti ..read more

Hello, SCBWI friends! The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) has a free PDF checklist called The IBPA Industry Standards Checklist for a Professionally Published Book. It's very helpful two page PDF that can help you make sure that when you publish your own work it is professionally put together and presented--both for industry folks (librarians, booksellers, agents, trade outlets, etc...) and the reading public. The good news is the reading public doesn't care who published a book. So if you make sure your book is professionally done, you're giving that book the best chance to s ..read more

Even for the same creator, each book project can have a different path to publication. The nonprofit Independent Book Publishers Association (I work for them as their Chief Content Officer) has put together a FREE overview and resource for the book publishing industry and for authors looking at different pathways to getting their creative works published. It's called the IBPA Publishing MAP (Models and Author Pathways). The IBPA Publishing MAP includes eight different publishing models: Association, Society, & Non-Profit Publishers Author Publishers Corporate Trade Publishers Higher Educ ..read more

Those of us who create picture books are probably just as excited as the lucky kids who get to visit The Rabbit Hole, a new museum in North Kansas City, Missouri that “brings countless works of children’s literature to life.” —That's from their website, which goes on to explain: Visitors become explorers in an immersive, multi-sensory, narrative landscape... you can catch a ride with Nana and CJ on the bus to the Last Stop on Market Street; whisper “Goodnight Moon” in the quiet dark of the great green room; outshine Mr. Sun with Sam and the Tigers; feed jum-jills to The Funny Thing, or find yo ..read more