Notable Books for Children 2009

Smithsonian magazine's list of the most fascinating cihldren's books of 2009
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Smithsonian-Notable-Books-for-Children-2009.html

New Agency

Liza Pulitzer Voges has opened the literary agency Eden Street, representing children's authors and illustrators.
http://www.edenstreetlit.com/

Children's Writer eNews

Free newsletter about writing for children from the Institute for Children's Literature.
http://www.institutechildrenslit.com/rx/email_updates.shtml

Children's Book Biz News

Author Anastasia Suen blogs about the business side of writing books for children.
http://asuen.wordpress.com/

Top 10 Children's Books - 2009

Time Magazine picks their top ten.
http://ow.ly/KBpz

Children's Writing Links

Author Rachelle Burk has a list of must-visit sites for children's writers.
http://www.resourcesforchildrenswriters.blogspot.com/

Book Readings

Tips for a successful author reading.
http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2009/11/19/9-tips-for-successful-author-readings/

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

This year's contest includes a young adult category. Submissions window: January 25, 2010 through February 7, 2010.
http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011

Fellowships and Prizes

From The Horn Book, fellowships and prizes available to children's book writers.
http://www.hbook.com/resources/authorsartists/fellowships.asp

Holiday Book Reviews

ParentNJ reviews Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa children's books.
http://www.parenthoodnj.com/winter-holiday-books.html

Multicultural Books

The Papertigers website includes interviews, reviews, resources, and more about English-language multicultural books, especially those about/from the Pacific Rim.
http://www.papertigers.org/

Historical Words

Want to know whether the word you're thinking of was in use at the time of your historical novel/book?
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php

Selling Books to Bookstores

How to bookstores decide how many copies of a book to order?
http://pimpmynovel.blogspot.com/2009/12/novel-pimpin-aint-easy-part-1-of-2.html
http://pimpmynovel.blogspot.com/2009/12/novel-pimpin-aint-easy-part-2-of-2.html

More Twitter Tips

A compilation of tips from students in Alice Pope and Jane Friedman's online class on social networking.
http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2009/12/03/TwitterTipsForWriters.aspx

Responding to Critiques

Agent Nathan Bransford gives suggestions for handling critiques and editorial letters.
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/11/how-to-respond-to-manuscript.html

Writing Dialogue

A detailed look at making your dialogue interesting and realistic by Donna Ippolito.
http://www.expert-editor.com/id11.html

Blogging Tips

Suggestions for creating the best possible blog.
http://pimpmynovel.blogspot.com/2009/09/ten-commandments-of-blogging.html

What Does an Agent Do?

What should you expect from your agent?
http://editorialass.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-can-i-expect-of-my-agent.html

Publishing Costs

Agent Rachelle Gardner explains the finances of publishing a book.
http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/11/is-your-book-worth-it.html

Writers Digest Subscription Discount

SCBWI members can get a 10% discount until 12/31/09.
http://www.scbwi.org/Pages.aspx/Current-News?Writer-s-Digest-Discount-for-SCBWI-Members

Agency Closing

The Rappaport Agency is closing at the end of the year, due to economic reasons.
http://litsoup.blogspot.com/2009/12/closing-agency.html

Boys' Books

Blog highlighting books of especial interest to boys.
http://guyslitwire.blogspot.com/

Writing Stories in Rhythm and Rhyme

Instructions and tips from Dori Chaconas.
http://www.dorichaconas.com/Icing%20the%20Cake%20page.htm

Starting a Blog

How to make a blog, from choosing a domain to building your platform.
http://editorunleashed.com/2009/05/28/the-editor-unleashed-guide-to-good-blogging/

Picture Book Challenges

Agent Michael Stearns discusses the challenges of writing and selling picture books.
http://upstartcrowliterary.com/blog/?p=921

Nonfiction Book Proposals

From Bookends, LLC, a description of what to include in a book proposal.
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-is-book-proposal-for-nonfiction.html

Tiny URLs

Make your url small enough to tweet and to not break over two lines in an email.
http://www.tinyurl.com/

Attributes of a Good Children's Book

List from Little, Brown of what makes a good children's book.
http://upstartcrowliterary.com/blog/?p=811

Novel Beginnings

Author Anita Nolan series of blog posts about how to start out a novel.
http://anitanolan.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/beginnings-roundup/

Character Stereotypes

List of stock character types to avoid.
http://risusiverse.wetpaint.com/page/Stock+Character+Cliches

New MG/YA Agent

Susan Hawk has joined the Jenny Bent agency and will represent middle grade and young adult authors.
http://jennybent.blogspot.com/2009/12/announcement-for-ya-and-middle-grade.html