Articles, interviews, and industry insight for children's book writers.
Getting Published
A practical, step-by-step guide to finding the right literary agent for your children’s book Finding a literary agent is not a lottery, even though it often feels like one. It is a research process followed by a writing process followed by a waiting process, and the writers who approach it systematically do better than those […]
Marketing Your Book
A practical guide to marketing your book without losing your mind or your integrity Nobody tells you about the marketing before you get the book deal. Or rather, people do tell you, but it doesn’t quite land until you’re holding a published book and realising that having written it was, in some ways, the easy […]
Interviews
On doodles, development, and knowing when something is right Ian Smith is a children’s book illustrator and author-illustrator represented by The Plum Agency. His illustrated titles include Wanna See a Penguin?, The King’s Runaway Crown, and The Day the Jungle-Net Broke. He also writes and illustrates his own books, among them The Very Polite Knight […]
Interviews
On historical fiction, reinvention, and the realities of a writing career A.M. Howell is the bestselling author of seven middle grade historical mysteries, including The House of One Hundred Clocks, winner of the East Anglian Book Awards – the first time a children’s book had taken the prize. This autumn she takes a new direction […]
Opinion
On the gap between what children want and what adults choose for them – By Marleen Lammers Children’s literature has a strange disconnect at its centre. There are the children the books are written for, and there are the adults who decide whether children ever get to meet them: writers, agents, publishers, parents, librarians. What […]
Writing Craft
Why most publishers prefer non-rhyming texts, and what Julia Donaldson tells us about when rhyme is worth the risk Ask any literary agent or children’s book editor what they dread seeing in their submissions inbox and rhyming picture books will appear on almost every list. “Please, no rhyme” appears in submission guidelines so frequently it […]
Writing Craft
The craft, the structure, the rules – and the exceptions to the rules Writing a picture book might seem, from the outside, pretty straightforward. You might think that because it’s short, simple, and illustrated, it’s an accessible form of writing – but it’s precisely because of those things that it’s a challenging art form. Every […]
Getting Published
How to write a query letter for a children’s book – and what agents actually want to see A query letter is one page with a simple purpose, but it stops plenty of talented writers from getting published. Not because the writing isn’t good enough, but because writing a winning query letter is a different […]
Getting Published
From literary agents to self-publishing – a guide to every option There is no single route to getting a children’s book published. The agent-to-major-publisher path is the one most writing advice assumes you are on, but it is one of several viable options, each with different trade-offs, different timescales, and different definitions of success. Understanding […]
Getting Published
The conventional wisdom says you need an agent. For the major UK publishing houses, such as Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Macmillan, that’s true. But the children’s publishing landscape is broader than the blockbuster publishers, and there are independent publishers who actively want to hear from unagented writers. It’s good to note that this […]
Interviews
On persistence, a winding road to publication, and the importance of celebrating small wins Claire Lewis is an author-illustrator whose debut picture book, The Go Away Rain Dance – the unlikely friendship between an excitable dog and a straitlaced flea with a fondness for long words – is published by HB Publishing House. We spoke […]
Interviews
On dyslexia, determination, and the debut of Stinky Cyril Jax King is an author whose debut picture book, Stinky Cyril – the chaotic tale of a grizzly bear who will try anything to get clean – was recently published by Tiny Tree Books. We spoke to Jax about turning a difficult childhood into a superpower, […]