I often hear from people who are interested in writing and publishing for children and/or young adults. Sometimes they have one specific question that’s bugging them, or a certain issue they’re confused about, but most of the time the basic gist of the questions is: “I’m totally confused and overwhelmed and have no idea where to start.”
Now, you know I love the Internet, and it is chock full of useful information about publishing. However, it is also chock full of useless, wrong, and incomplete info and it can be a challenge to sort it all out and figure out who and what to listen to. There are three resources I typically recommend:
The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators: Pretty much the only game in town as far as trade organizations specifically for children’s writers. Join up and jump in to the message boards, the regional events, and the national conferences.
Verla Kay’s Website for Children’s Writers & Illustrators: Full disclosure: I’ve never actually participated here, but a nice big chunk of people in the kidlit community do and the message boards seem to be packed with friendly people ready, willing, and able to help out a newbie. Just browsing through the message boards will answer many, if not most, of your basic questions.
Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market: I used to think the Writer’s Market books were only good for finding places to submit your work, until I really looked at one and realized what a gold mine they are of information for people just starting out, as well as inspiration and information for those further along in their careers. Personally, I love having it all right there in an actual, physical book that is literally and mentally easier to grasp and track than the online info.
The 2010 edition just came out and it includes a free online subscription to WritersMarket.com, which is a pretty terrific site I’ve used extensively for attempting to market short pieces back in the day. It has even more content for all kinds of writers (not just those writing for young readers) and the markets are constantly updated. Even if I didn’t have an article in the 2010 edition (“Life in Revision: When the Honeymoon is Over”) I would still recommend it! There are articles by and interviews with Ellen Hopkins, Lisa Yee, Holly Black, Ellen Wittlinger, and more. Basically, it’s everything you could want in one handy-dandy volume.
Am I missing any other obvious and/or great resources?
4 comments for this post
Great post, Sara! Can I just link to it when I do my FAQ???
Sara Reply:
August 19th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
@Joelle, Sure!
Hey Sara, I read your book “Sweethearts” and i’m going to read “Story of a Girl” and “Once was Lost” too, I was intrigued by the first book. But I was wondering if you had any tips for a teen writer, I write a lot and I’ve noticed on many author websites that the tips address things for people who write for children and teens, but not for teen writers. Any tips?
Sara Reply:
September 18th, 2009 at 10:39 am
@Lexi, Hi Lexi – Writing advice is more or less the same whether you’re 14 or 74, but what I try to particularly tell teen writers is to take your time. Enjoy writing, don’t think/worry about getting published, find a couple of friends who are also writing (in real life or online) that you can exchange work with and give each other constructive feedback and encouragement and accountability. Read a lot! Pay attention to the boring “writing rules” stuff at school…not that you can’t break the rules, but words are your tools and it’s good to know how to use them correctly before you start playing around. Hope that helps!