Q. Where else can I find useful basic info for children's book writers and illustrators?

For the basics, I strongly recommend Harold Underdown's The Purple Crayon. Harold is a children's book editor and his website is an excellent source of basic info for aspiring children's book writers and illustrators, answering frequently asked questions.

There are so many other useful resources online that cover different aspects of writing and illustrating for young people. I'll gradually add more as I find them, but here are a few to start:

SCBWI: The Society Of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. The website has an excellent resource library as well as discussion boards.

KidLitArtists.com: Home of the SCBWI-LA Illustration Mentees (I'm a member). Focus of this blog: to share what we've learned from our mentors about children's illustration portfolios but also about the children's book illustration industry in general. Many of us have gone on to write and illustrate our own books, and we've shared what we've learned about that as well. Includes interviews with children's art directors and editors.

Picture This!: Children's book author Rob Sanders focuses on the craft of writing children's books.

Writing For Children / Writing-World.com: Collection of articles about writing for young people on Writing-World.com.

Last updated on December 17, 2013 by Debbie Ohi