Sunday, March 28, 2010

March Picture Book Madness & Round Up

Okay, so... it's not that I don't have ideas for what to blog about. I have tons. I started six different blog posts yesterday alone. It's just that I don't like the way any of them are coming out! (Yes, one of those weeks again where all posts have been canceled)

So, I am just going to bring you a Picture Book Round Up. Now, I am going to have to cheat a little. I could only find one great post actually written in March. And that was from.... drum roll... Brianna Caplan Sayres at The Paper Wait. And before I include the link, a huge congrats to Brianna on selling her first picture book! WHERE DO DIGGERS SLEEP AT NIGHT is going to be published by Random House. This rhyming story was sold by Brianna's fabulous agent Teresa Kietlinski of Prospect House, the very same Mystery "T" who sold two of my friend Tiffany's manuscripts in one week! (More on that to come!)

Okay, now on to the links.

Rebel Without an Eraser? Brianna discusses some of the rules for writing picture books and which ones she dared to break in her road to publication.

And now for the cheating part... the next two were not written in March. But I found them in March. So, I say... good enough.

The Hard Thing About Writing Picture Books
StoryQueen explains how hard is it to sell text without accompanying illustrations and poetically sums up, "Selling the text of a picture book is like trying to sell a dream."

The Least You Need to Know: How to Write a Picture Book Jacqui's nuts and bolts rules/suggestions/thoughts are a must read for those just starting out in this challenging genre.

If I've missed any great March picture book links, please let me know!

NOTE: I have another GREAT one to add. Thanks to Julie for this excellent post on the perils of writing a picture book in rhyme: Toil and Trouble.

16 comments:

Beth Coulton said...

Hi- I can't get the Rebel w/o an eraser link to work? I really wanted to read that one too!

Corey Schwartz said...

Thanks for letting me know. All fixed.

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Yay!! Picture book links! Thanks, Corey. I think I already read Storyqueen's, but I'm off to read the others. :-)

Julie Hedlund said...

I liked my own on the "toil and trouble" of writing rhyme. Notes from a workshop I took with Linda Ashman ;-)

http://writeupmylife.com/2010/03/24/toil-and-trouble/

storyqueen said...

Aw, thanks for the link, Corey. I totally forgot I wrote that post and it's a good thing you reminded me so I didn't do something similar all over again since I've been having the same thoughts again.....

Shelley

Hardygirl said...

Thanks so much for some great picture book links!

Off to check them out . . .

sf

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the great links Corey!

~Jamie said...

I so admire people who write picture books, you have to say so much in so little--and that's the real writer gift!

Thanks for stopping by Elana's blog today and reading my interview!

Elana Johnson said...

I've always wanted to write a picture book. Maybe I will, after I educate myself for about a year. Thanks for the links!

Julie Hedlund said...

Thanks so much for adding mine, and for dropping by my blog!

Clementine said...

Thank you for the great links! I've been tinkering with this for the past few months and I have a lot to learn!

Mike said...

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Kim said...

YEAH! Thanks for the links. I can't wait to go check them out. I need some inspiration. I haven't been writing lately at all. :(

Kristin said...

Thanks, Corey!

Brianna Caplan Sayres said...

Thank you so much for the congrats on Diggers and for calling my "Rebel Without An Eraser?" blog post a "great post"! I had a lot of fun writing that post, and it's a topic I feel really passionate about!

Thanks for gathering all these fantastic picture book links! It is so wonderful to learn from the kidlit community!

lisa and laura said...

I love how the StoryQueen puts it! I had no idea it was so hard to sell a PB without illustrations. But I guess none of that matters if you've got great ideas and fabulous text, right? You ladies have all proved that.