Resources

General info/resources

• AR Bookfinder —Published books’ word counts, reading levels, and more.
• Rachelle Burk’s Resources for Children’s Writers —An enormous list of resources.
• Kidlit411 —It’s an everything-about-kidlit kind of website.
• Harold Underdown’s Purple Crayon —A massive amount of craft and industry information from a respected kidlit editor.
• Bookscan —Tracks reported book sales (excluding school & library sales and other markets, so not totally reliable). Publishers Marketplace offers subscriptions to Bookscan for authors.
• Literary Awards —Lists of book awards by country and by genre. Not comprehensive (SCBWI awards, for example, aren’t included), but a good place to start.
• Jane Friedman —Sign up for her newsletter for industry news, tools, and resources for managing your writing career.
• Book marketing and promotion —Thanks to Teresa Robeson for alerting me to this excellent post by Jane Friedman, “Questions to ask your publisher before you sign the contract.”

Writing help

• Enchanted Learning Word Lists (vocab) —K-12 vocabulary word lists by theme.
• Enchanted Learning Word Lists (emotion) —Feelings & emotions vocabulary list.
• First Manuscript —How to format dialogue.
• Tara Lazar —This website is full of great info and book launches, but check the sidebar on the left for two popular blog posts: 100+ Things Kids Don’t Like and 500+ Things That Kids Like.
• Punpedia — A goldmine for writers who write in pun.
• Rhyme Zone —The ultimate what-rhymes-with cheat sheet.
• Words and Pictures (SCBWI British Isles) —Basic picture book construction information.
• Writer Unboxed —Using punctuation to improve voice.
• The Association of Art Editors Style Guide —Based on the Chicago Manual of Style, which most kidlit publishers use when editing manuscripts.
• Microsoft Support—This link shows you how to check the readability of your manuscript.

Researching

• Hans Christian Andersen —A complete list of 168 tales (read them all!).
• Earlyword, the Publisher/Librarian Connection —A list of publishers and their imprints and access to publishers’ catalogs.

Submissions

• Elizabeth Law —Her blog post about following up with non-responsive agents or editors.
• Sub It Club —How to do an agent search.
• Sub It Club —How to track your manuscript submissions.

Finding comps & mentor books

• Edelweiss —Read books online as early as three months before their book birthdays.
• EPIC —A library of 40,000 books to read for free online.
• Susannah Leonard’s Perfect Picture Books —Alphabetical list of picture books sorted by theme and title.
• PB Study Buddy —Sylvia Chen shares what she’s learned about picture books she’s read—from emoji arcs and what stood out to hooks and publication details.
• Publishers Weekly Rights Report —Use the search bar to find agents, editors, authors etc. along with the books they’re associated with by entering their name and “rights report.”
• See “Storytime” in the “For Kids” tab for links to read alouds, where you can hear mentor texts and potential comp books.

Writing communities & challenge/support groups

• Julie Hedlund’s 12×12 Picture Book Challenge —Craft and industry webinars, an info-packed forum, a private Facebook group, and more in support of a community of picture book writers (annual membership is open in January & February only).
• Bethany Hegedus’s Courage To Create —Community and coaching to build your confidence and advance your writing career with opportunities to meet with and submit to agents and editors (six or twelve month enrollments available).
• Inked Voices —Online support and education.
• Storystorm Challenge —Held each January, your challenge is to come up with 30 picture book ideas in 30 days.
• The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) —An international organization of kidlit writers.
• We Need Diverse Books–A 501(c)(3) non-profit and a grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.

Education

• The Complete Picture Book Submission System —Everything you need to know about subbing picture book manuscripts.
• Highlights Foundation —IRL and online workshops and retreats.
• Renee LaTulippe’s Lyrical Language Lab —Renee’s Lyrical Language Lab is highly recommended by poetry writers and includes a self-study version if you can’t wait for the next workshop session to be offered.
• Renee LaTulippe’s Peek and Critique —Short tutorial videos (watch one and you’ll crave more) about poetry writing.
• The Writing Barn —Online and IRL craft courses, coaching, book launches, and support.