Guest post by Chuck Sambuchino UPDATED March 16, 2017: please note that the info in this 2015 post is now outdated. Do your research online for updated info. Thanks – Debbie I once joked that debut picture books are the one of the most difficult things to get published—perhaps second only . . .
Every journey to publication is different. Don’t compare yourself to others. Find your OWN path, at your own pace.
There are already a bunch of online thesaurus sites out there, like Thesaurus.com, Merriam-Webster’s Thesaurus, Collins Thesaurus, Visual Thesaurus and others, but Power Thesaurus was the first crowd-sourced online thesaurus I’ve come across. I like the clean interface, without all kinds of ads cluttering the space. Just noticed that my friend Tara Lazar also likes it: Power . . .
Did you know that Madeleine L’Engle almost gave up writing when she turned 40 because of discouragement over rejections? “With all the hours I spent writing, I was still not pulling my own weight financially.” She discovered, however, that her subconscious wouldn’t let her NOT write. “I had to write. . . .
According to a Time interview with Kathryn Stockett, The Help was rejected 60 times by agents before being picked up by Susan Ramer at Don Congdon. The book was Kathryn’s debut as a novelist and took her five years to complete. Since it came out in 2009, The Help has been published in 35 countries . . .
Barney Saltzberg is the author and illustrator of close to 50 books for children, including Beautiful Oops!, Arlo Needs Glasses, Andrew Drew and Drew, and the bestselling Touch and Feel Kisses series with over one million copies in print. Not only that, but he’s also recorded four albums of music for young people (!). See the . . .
I love what Stephen King said about not waiting for one’s Muse to show up. “Don’t wait for the muse. As I’ve said, he’s a hardheaded guy who’s not susceptible to a lot of creative fluttering. This isn’t the Ouija board or the spirit-world we’re talking about here, but just . . .
In addition to being a debut picture book author, Christian Trimmer is an editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. I love his enthusiasm for kidlit/YA on his Twitter feed, plus he’s edited some pretty amazing books. Like THE DEATH AND LIFE OF ZEBULON FINCH by Daniel Kraus (here’s what I posted about . . .
Patricia Newman is the author of fiction and nonfiction titles, and magazine articles for children. She writes what she wants to know and has covered topics as diverse as ocean plastic, trains, fighter pilots, and Ebola. Although many of her books have received critical acclaim, she writes for the kid she . . .