In this rebroadcast, we talk with Hannah Holt, a children’s author with an engineering degree. Her books, The Diamond & The Boy (Balzer+Bray) and A Father’s Love (Philomel) weave together her love of language and science. We talk about: - Biggest misconception writers have about getting an agent and/or a book deal - Advice for prepublished writers - How she created and researched a picture book about her grandfather - Questions about “bare bones” publishing, indie, and traditional...

Many writers view nonfiction as less: less creative than fiction, less fun than fiction, less interesting to kids than fiction, and definitely something they want to do less often.   But nonfiction is important. Especially now. Kids love nonfiction, and it's an important teaching tool in support of school curriculum, which is why we're bringing you this rebroadcast today.

Chances are you fall into one of two camps when it comes to titles: You either love creating them or you dread it. Thanks to Jan Fields, today we’re going to have some fun creating titles. So much fun your new titles just might launch a new story. This is Katie's last episode of the podcast, but not the last episode of the podcast. We're working to bring you new episodes in the coming months with the same high standards of teaching we strive for with our courses.

Nonfiction is basically broken into two broad types. Expository nonfiction describes, explains, and informs. Narrative nonfiction uses story elements to convey a factual experience. Narrative nonfiction tells a story through carefully researched, factual recounting. Not all nonfiction books are strictly expository or strictly narrative. Some in fact contain both, but for now, Jan Fields has given us a lead on common missteps when writing narrative nonfiction.

In this rebroadcast, we interview frequent ICL contest judge and longtime instructor Nancy Coffelt. As well as being a multi-published picture book author and illustrator, Nancy is a fine artist and has been showing in galleries across the country since 1984. Her work is included in personal, public and corporate collections around the world.  Nancy also writes and illustrates books for children. Her books include Catch That Baby, Fred Stays with Me, and The Big Eclipse. 

Every author needs a website—yes, even if you're not published yet. In the Internet age, your website acts as your online business card for readers and even prospective agents and editors. In this rebroadcast, we discuss tips for keeping your website user friendly and keeping them coming back for more.

A while back I sent out a one-question survey. Writers could submit any one question about author platform and marketing. I learned a ton from reading all the questions that were submitted, but there were definitely some common themes. Today, we’re diving into the five most common questions writers have as they start building their platform.

Victoria Bond is a writer and professor. Her novel, ZORA AND ME, co-written with T.R. Simon, won the John Steptoe/Coretta Scott King Award for New Talent and was nominated for an Edgar Award in the category of Juvenile Fiction. WE TALK ABOUT: - How Victoria and her co-writer work together - What’s based on reality and what did the authors invent? - How much reality should one use when writing historical fiction - How far can you go when creating new information based on someone’s actual life.

Voice is the number one thing that can make or break your children’s story. Readers love dialogue. It lightens the page, making the whole story feel easier to read. It allows us to hear the characters directly, helping us to know them. And it is often the best place to sprinkle in some tasty humor. Unfortunately, it's also one of the quickest ways to lose the reader. In this rebroadcast, we're discussing three ways to find your character's childlike voice.

A while ago on the Institute's Facebook page, someone was asking about dialogue, which made me think again about this important writing tool. Readers love dialogue because it makes a scene and a character come to life. Dialogue puts us into a specific moment within a story and that's a powerful thing for readers. But many writers struggle with dialogue and with making it feel lively, purposeful, and real. So what should you do first in the pursuit of good dialogue?

Katie interviews award-winning author Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Candlewick Senior Publicist Jamie Tan about Maggie's latest book THE MERMAID, THE WITCH, AND THE SEA. We talk about: - Gender fluidity in characters - Shondaland interest - Maggie’s lyrical writing - How Jamie did the publicity for this particular book - How Maggie is brutal to her characters! - Not shying away from being mean to your characters

Voice can be a tough thing to define and a tougher thing to master, but when I ran across this article about active voice and passive voice from my old friend Mary Rosenblum I knew I had to share it with my listeners. See how you can improve your active voice with these tips and take your work to the next level and beyond.

Talia Benamy is an associate editor at Philomel Books (an imprint of Penguin Young Readers), where she focuses on everything from picture books to middle grade and young adult novels. She has worked on books by Chelsea Clinton, Sonia Sotomayor, Temple Grandin, Jane Yolen, Abigail Harrison, Lisa Graff, Ruta Sepetys, Dev Petty, Sarah Brannen, and Terry Border. She sees books as having the amazing power to shape kids’ worldviews, and looks for manuscripts that have the potential to do just that.

Nobody wants to make an editor (or anyone) cringe when they read your manuscript. Inspired by a post from Jamie K. Schmidt, we’re covering 10 things that make editors cringe with tips to avoid them. Everybody knows to use spellcheck or Grammarly when going over their writing. However, the following mistakes aren’t generally caught by these two programs. And if you want to stop an editor’s eyes from rolling to the back of her head, you should check your writing for the errors we're talking...

Adria Goetz is a Literary Manager with Martin Literary & Media Management. She represents picture books, middle grade, young adult, Lifestyle books, quirky gift books, as well as everything under the Christian umbrella. WE TALK ABOUT: What’s the secret to getting an agent? What is a nightmare client and what is a perfect client? How should a writer “shop” for an agent to impress? What is the most common mistake new writers make in a query letter?

It’s the beginning of a new year. A time that we as writers like to set goals for our writing success and dream about what our writing career will look like next year at this time. Maybe one of your goals this year is to submit your work to agents or editors. In this episode, we’re going to talk about what you should worry about most in your submissions and when it’s okay to press the send button.

We're wrapping up our five part series on NaNoWriMo with special guest Jamie K. Schmidt. Even if you're not writing a novel this month, we think you'll learn some tips and techniques to help you finish your novel on your timeline. We're so close to the finish line. Let's make these final days a success! We talk about: - How to handle writing and the holidays - Saving a chunk of time to devote to catching up - Secrets to writing a lot - What to do when you have unplanned time

We are continuing our November National Novel Writing Month celebration with tips for writing a novel in one month. This is Part 4 in our 5-part series to help our listeners get through NaNoWriMo with support and encouragement from Jamie K. Schmidt. Today's tips include: • The sagging middle • How to go forward • Should you throw in a dragon? • Raising the stakes • Putting your characters in danger • Getting off your butt and doing something • Jamie's new book Necessary Evil

We are continuing our November National Novel Writing Month celebration with tips for writing 50,000 words in one month, which is 1,667 words per day. This is Part 3 in our 5-part series to help our listeners get through NaNoWriMo with support and encouragement from Jamie K. Schmidt. Today's tips include: - What to do when you’re not having fun - Motivation and why you started this in the first place -What happens if you quit now - Your WHYs - Simon Sinek video - Bribing yourself

Welcome to part 2 in our 5-part series to help our listeners get through NaNoWriMo with support, encouragement, and some great tips and ideas from Jamie K. Schmidt. Jamie is a bestselling author and a NaNoWriMo enthusiast. We talk about: - How to stay on task - Series bibles - How to watch out for black hole time suck - Letting go of the need to write in order - How to not let deleted scenes go to waste - Sprints and the Pomodoro Method

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is about to start! Every November, writers from around the world set out with the goal of writing a novel, about 50,000 words, in one month. We thought, how cool it would be to help our listeners get through NaNoWriMo with support, encouragement, and some great tips and ideas from someone who has successfully completed it. Join Jamie K. Schmidt and me for a little inspiration and a lot of motivation in this 5-part series.

The first page of your mystery needs to intrigue your reader. It has to pull them in and make them wonder what’s going on or who did it. Today we bring you tips for your first pages from author Chaunie Bruise.

You’re in a race with your readers. The readers are trying to guess what will happen. You’re trying to spring that ‘whodunnit’ on the readers before they guess. Who will win? Join us as we talk about how to outfox your readers.

INTERVIEW WITH KATE MILFORD Kate Milford is the New York Times bestselling author of The Thief Knot, as well as Greenglass House (winner of the Edgar award for juvenile literature, long-listed for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, and a nominee for the Andre Norton Award and the Agatha Award for Children’s/YA). We talk about: • What makes a good mystery? • Do you write a mystery differently than any other kind of novel? • What are 3 things every mystery should have? ...