Do You Need an Agent or a Publisher for Your Manuscript?
You finished your manuscript. Hooray! Now what? Instructor Susan Ludwig guides us through whether you should look for an agent or a publisher for your work.
The First Steps in Contacting Agents
You’ve written a book and now you want a literary agent. Now, the research begins. Get tips for finding the right agent for your work and avoiding scammers.
4 Book Proposal Pitfalls
Creating a fiction or nonfiction book proposal can seem daunting. Let’s look at what editors and agents want from a proposal and 4 things NOT want to do.
Pitching Your Picture Book
Submissions in today’s market often involve new elements of pitching your picture books from social media to comp titles. Here’s how to make them work for you.
Writing Nonfiction for Very Young Readers
Writing nonfiction for very young children requires specific things but with a narrow focus, few words, and kid-friendly topics, you can break into this market.
The Big 3 of Nonfiction
The three essentials for any publishable children’s nonfiction are accuracy, clarity, and organization. Let’s look at these tips for success in nonfiction.
Sensing It: Bringing Show Don’t Tell to Your Nonfiction
What does show don’t tell mean when it comes to nonfiction? Jan Fields shares examples of using sensory details to bring true stories to life for the readers.
4 Steps to Improve Readability in Children’s Books
Part of writing children’s books that can be used in a school setting lies in meeting the needs of the reader. Here are 4 steps to improve readability.
Back to School: Writing for the Classroom
Schools are crammed full of reading material. Who is doing all that writing for the classroom? What’s different about the educational market? Let’s find out.
Linda Triegel
Linda Triegel IFW Instructor Linda Triegel’s first foray into publishing began with a short story she wrote that appeared in Yankee magazine. At about the same time, however, she discovered her affinity for editing and spent five years as an editor of the New Book of Knowledge. Born in New York City, Miss Triegel lived…
Kris Franklin
Kris Franklin IFW Instructor Kris Franklin is a former English teacher whose students sometimes caught him looking out the window. “That was where the stories were,” he says, “out there in the ether.” And it was the lure of those stories which led him out of public school teaching and into freelance writing: short fiction,…
Back to School Plans for Writers
Are you feeling the back-to-school itch? Make this season work for you as a writer! Jan Fields shares ways to get reinvigorated in your writing this fall.
Evaluating Writing Programs
How do you evaluate a critique program or a writing program and decide if it’s worth your time and your money? The answer is research. Check out these tips!
Show or Tell: Writing Dialogue Tags and Beats
Speech tags and action tags or beats are essential when writing dialogue. These tiny but mighty words are the difference between reader confusion and enjoyment.
Dive into Writing Dialogue
Dialogue is a favorite for writers AND readers. Dialogue makes your character present and real in a scene. Let’s talk tips and techniques for great dialogue.
Your Voice or Theirs?
Voice, whether your natural writing voice or the voice of a character, comes from an emotional place. Jan Fields gives us exercises to develop these voices.
Discovering Your Author Voice
Voice is something publishers want, but it’s an elusive thing to understand. Today, we discover ways to develop our own voice and the voices of our characters.
Inside/Outside: More Tips on Writing Conflict
When writing conflict, inner and outer conflicts are not two separate things. Outer conflicts offer an opportunity to explore inner ones better. Find out how.
Defining Types of Conflict in Children’s Books
Conflict in children’s books isn’t necessarily fights or arguments, it’s about the roadblocks that keep the character from getting what they want in the story.
Conflict and Your Story Machine
Discover how the conflict the main character of your manuscript faces is the little piece of the story machine with the biggest impact on your reader.
