WRITER’S TOOLKIT

There’s no scarcity of websites for writers. Here are a few of special interest to our workshop alumni and regular site visitors. We hope our listings will help support these fine authors, educators, products, and services.

Children’s Writing Supersite
CBIClubhouse.com

Named one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers by Writer’s Digest magazine.

Free monthly ezine, downloadable articles, and how-to books on writing for youth. (For example, In Their Own Words offers exclusive insights from acclaimed children’s novelists. Author to Editor shows winning query letters with analysis and easy-to-apply tips.) Many of these books are available only on this site; most are also available in ebook format.

Write4Kids has a message board, of which Agentquery.com says, “We love this forum because it’s frequented by authors-in-the-know who dispense the low-down” on children’s books publishers and submissions. Write4Kids is sponsored by Children’s Book Insider: The Newsletter for Children’s Writers (aka CBI), a monthly professional journal that has helped aspiring authors craft their books/articles and sell them since 1990. To view a sample issue, click here: CBIClubhouse.com/sample.pdf.

Cynthia Leitich Smith, Cynsations
www.cynthialeitichsmith.com
cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com and cynleitichsmith.livejournal.com

Award-winning author Cynthia offers the largest children’s/YA literature resource web site. Her Cynsations blog has been named one of the top-two most read by SCBWI, and cheered by School Library Journal: “If you’re going to read only one blog, this is it!”

Joni Sensel
www.jonisensel.com

Four-time novelist (Holt, Bloomsbury) and Pacific Coast Children’s Writers Workshop alum, Joni provides handy stuff for writers—insightful tips about receiving critiques, information about writerly blogging, and the like. Coming soon: more tools for writers, including well-crafted handouts from workshops Joni has presented in Washington State (e.g., “Perks and Perils of Self-Publishing”). Also forthcoming are links and information about contests available to young writers.

Smartwriters
www.Smartwriters.com

Named one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers by Writer’s Digest magazine (every year since the site was launched in 2003).

Smartwriters.com is designed by writers for writers, by educators for educators. It is dedicated to providing professional children’s writers information about the business of writing, and providing tools that will help them do their jobs better. Includes a directory of children’s book publishers and paying magazine markets.

Smartwriters.com also provides librarians and teachers with a directory of children’s authors and illustrators available for school visits, book signings, and other public appearances that will enhance the curriculm and make a memorable impression on students. SmartWriters.com offers a wealth of tips, lesson plans and freebies for teachers, annual “Write It Now!” competitions, blogs, and more.

Teen Ink
www.teenink.com

Established in 1989, Teen Ink offers a monthly print magazine, website (16,000-plus pages of student writing), and book series written by teens for teens.

Their national print magazine has the largest distribution of any publication of its kind. It is distributed in classrooms by teachers (English, Creative Writing, Journalism, Art). Teen Ink offers exceptionally thoughtful and creative work generated by teens. They have no staff writers or artists, but depend completely on submissions from nationwide teens for their content. Hundreds of thousands of students have submitted their written pieces about everything from love and family to teen smoking and community service. Teen Ink has published pieces by more than 25,000 teens.

The Purple Crayon:   Writing, Illustrating, and Publishing Children’s Books
www.underdown.org

Children’s book editor Harold Underdown created this site to post his articles and other materials about children’s book publishing. Over the years, the site has grown and now includes articles contributed by others—for example, Margot Finke’s “Are You Fishing for an Editor? Bait Your Hook with the First Page” and Laura Belgrave’s “The Seven Deadly Sins of Submissions.” General topics include editing, writing, illustrating, publishing, and marketing children’s books. The site also offers an email newsletter.

Underdown is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books (350+ pages “designed to provide guidance from the time you write your first manuscript... to the time your fiftieth book is published”). Look for the revised and expanded second edition, and for more info on this website.

Verla Kay  
www.verlakay.com

Children’s book author Verla Kay provides an impressive array of useful links, a forum, weekly live chats, and a wealth of material to “excite, inform, and entertain” — such as curriculum tie-ins/teacher guides, and great articles (e.g., “Choosing an Agent”). Here well-read children’s writers and illustrators gather to share information, help each other and have fun while learning about the publishing industry.

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Scout around for more great sites, such as Young Adult Literature Services Association www.ala.org/yalsa, Teen Reads www.teenread.com and Guys Read www.guysread.com (the latter is Jon Scieszka’s literacy initiative to get boys in touch with books they will want to read).

Now, tell us about your favorite site!