FREE Expert Advice on Writing, Illustrating, and Selling your Kidlit Creativity

Children's Book Academy is once again bringing some luscious free content your way!  Join us on August 15th for a free Workinar (a cross between a workshop and a webinar) brought to you by the co-teachers of the upcoming and game-changing Craft & Business of Illustrating Children's Books, a highly interactive e-course.  ​

I cannot tell you how excited we are to share this FREE Workinar (a cross between a workshop and a webinar) with our CBA community.  Whether you're a complete newbie or a long-time member, sign up now to join us live (and recorded) as three experts show you how to Write, Illustrate, and Sell your Kidlit Creativity including:

• How to Write a Marketable Picture Book

We’ll look at examples and suggestions for creating majorly marketable kidlit, including researching what else is out there, being original (ways to have a fresh concept, approach, or perspective), and finding fascinating nonfiction topics.  Some other topics we’ll be covering include how to create and develop memorable characters, invent great plots with high stakes for the protagonist, and come up with satisfying endings.  Universal underlying themes always have appeal, so we’ll talk about that a bit as well as how to make sure your writing is  relevant for today's kids.  

• Learn Easy Peasy Fun No-Fail Drawing Techniques to improve your art

Multi-published illustrator and animator, Larissa Marantz, is a master drawer, so she’ll be leading you through some easy-peasy no-fail drawing techniques as well as showing you how to draw with shapes, light & dark shading, and using angles versus organic shapes - all of which can help or hinder your drawing skills.

• How to Develop a Marketable Illustration Style

So who among us has not taken this time to try their hands at a new skill or project? To those of you who manage to redo their backyards or learn Sanskrit, kudos! For the rest of us mere mortals, we've started the creative wheels turning about what makes a great kids picture book, and style is the concept that keeps coming up. Illustration style is the illustrating counterpoint to writer’s voice: it is what makes the work distinctive and marketable. The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Art Director and Graphic Novel designer, Andrea Miller, will be showing you all sorts of tips and tricks.

• How to Sell Your Kidlit Writing & Art

Finally, Mira will give a whole bunch of tips for selling your kidlit writing and art including pointers for thinking long term about a career rather than just selling a project, how to craft great cover letters and bios, markets beyond just books, and how to use websites and social media effectively as potentially explosive marketing opportunities.

This will be an interactive workinar, so please have some paper and pens and pencils and some prepared 70 word pitches ready!

Here’s the lowdown on the amazing, experienced, and talented presenters...

Andrea Miller has designed and/or art-directed many successful children's books and graphic novels for both Sterling Publishing and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt including, "Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast" by Josh Funk, "Mira Forecasts the Future" by Kell Andrews, "Accident!" by Andrea Tsurumi and "Winter Dance" by Marion Diane Baur and co-art directed and designed the #1 national best-selling children's book, John Oliver's "A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo". Andrea is also now art directing and designing graphic novels for Houghton Mifflin's new Graphic Novel imprint, Etch. Andrea is a published illustrator, and is co-creating a series of comics with her wife. She is excited and honored to jump in with the Children's Book Academy for a rewarding experience as part of their esteemed faculty while looking for fresh talent in the course.

​Illustrator Larissa Marantz began working as a Character Designer for Nickelodeon's Rocket Power and Rugrats TV shows. Her picture book illustration career started when she left the animation studio to stay at home with her young children. In between numerous play dates, and hundreds of diaper changes, she illustrated almost a dozen books for Nickelodeon's licensed properties. For 15 years she's taught art classes to thousands of children through her after-school enrichment program, OC Art Studios. After taking the Craft and Business of Illustrating Children’s Books her career took off with the Clyde Lied series that she co-created with her husband Keith. ​

And last but not least, Dr. Mira Reisberg is a multi-published award-winning children's book illustrator and author whose books have sold over 600,000 copies. Besides running the Children's Book Academy, she is also an acquiring Editor and Art Director at Clear Fork Publishing's children's book imprint Spork. Mira is also a former children's literary agent, and a university professor who taught kid lit writing and illustrating courses as well as teacher ed. She has a PhD in Education and Cultural Studies with a focus on children's literature and has helped MANY writers and illustrators get published. Her job at Spork allows her to help even more people.

This amazing and completely FREE international webinar is happening live on August 15th at 4PM Pacific/7PM Eastern. Don't worry, we'll record it in case you can't make it, but live is so much more fun!  Sign up now with this easy peasy form to join us.

Click to Join Us!