This course is now completely sold out!
Please join our mailing list tribe to find out about our next exciting offering!
See Dreams Become Real: The New Updated
Craft and Business of Writing Children's Picture Books
A 5 week highly interactive e-Course/Talent Search with
Golden Ticket opportunities to submit to editors and agents
Dear Friend,
Do you have a great idea for a children's book or are unsure if your idea is any good? Or did you start writing but hit 'the wall' and don't know where to go next? Or maybe you have a finished manuscript you are in love with but just can't seem to find a way to get it in front of the right eyeballs and the only feedback you've been getting are those sweetly worded but still pretty soul crushing rejection letters.
That's why a few years ago I created a very special course that now has a wonderful track record of published and contracted and agented students. I have been reviewing, revising, revamping and retooling this course so that this year it's better than ever. Allow me to introduce...
Do you have a great idea for a children's book or are unsure if your idea is any good? Or did you start writing but hit 'the wall' and don't know where to go next? Or maybe you have a finished manuscript you are in love with but just can't seem to find a way to get it in front of the right eyeballs and the only feedback you've been getting are those sweetly worded but still pretty soul crushing rejection letters.
That's why a few years ago I created a very special course that now has a wonderful track record of published and contracted and agented students. I have been reviewing, revising, revamping and retooling this course so that this year it's better than ever. Allow me to introduce...
The New Updated Craft and Business of Writing Children's Picture Books

Join Random House/Knopf editor Kelly Delaney and Dr. Mira Reisberg - that's me - plus over 25 fabulous guest experts as we explore the wonderful world of children's picture books and create the kind of books that editors want now!! Learn about the changing paradigm in children's book publishing and how you can take advantage of it. This superb course happens once a year in the comfort of your own home, at your own pace (except for live webinars which are also recorded) and with the convenience of easy payment plans that make the whole thing affordable.
The What, When, Where, How, and Why
The Who: The course is co-taught by two industry experts, one of whom is a former children's literary agent with extensive knowledge and connections in the field and the other is an acquiring major house editor along with a fantastic faculty of editors, agents, and rock start authors.
The What: It's a 5 week online interactive e-Course/Training program that teaches students just about everything that they need to know about writing and selling and marketing children's picture books that also comes with an additional 6 months of access. It uses a scaffolding technique of teaching for very beginners to award winning authors
The When: The course starts June 29th with the first live training happening that night. There's a week off July 27th to catch up, so the course ends August 7th. It''s designed to be extremely time flexible so you can access the materials and interact as much or as little as you like. No one is ever in trouble but the more you can put in the more you'll get out of it. The additional 6 months of access makes it very doable no matter how busy you are and the private Facebook group continues on indefinitely.
The Where:The comfort of your own home, a café, the library, anywhere that you can get internet access. You don't need to travel anywhere for this course plus you can still take it even if you are traveling.
The How: Monday through Friday, fresh lessons and exercises from our awesome faculty are released on our password protected website that also includes tons of resources including lists of publishers and agents, worksheets, done-for you templates, and much more. We interact via our private Facebook group where questions are answered and small critique groups are set up for those who want them. We have a special webinar page for each week where students post responses to each webinars topic - e.g., hooks, characters or nonfiction topic, plot or structure etc. Times are scheduled to acommodate folks in different countries as much as possible and we also record the webinars for those who can't make it live.
The Why: This is the most important one. If you want to write and publish a children's picture book this is the best value course that you can find to successfully write and get published. It's the original five week interactive picture book writing course with industry experts and a multi-award-winning best-selling faculty. It's also the only course with a phenomenal proven track-record of published, contracted, and now agented former students. No other course gives this level of focused attention to each student who participates and it's the only one with a money back guarantee for folks who do the work and still don't think that they learned a tremendous amount after a year. The course is also the only one that provides fantastic submission opportunities and empowers students to do all sorts of extraordinary things. The course has been described as the equivalent of 20 conferences and better than graduate level university programs from students with kid lit masters degrees. Plus it's fun and comes with a ton of bonuses including bonus courses in building an author or illustrator platform and building your own website and the new fully illustrated !
The What: It's a 5 week online interactive e-Course/Training program that teaches students just about everything that they need to know about writing and selling and marketing children's picture books that also comes with an additional 6 months of access. It uses a scaffolding technique of teaching for very beginners to award winning authors
The When: The course starts June 29th with the first live training happening that night. There's a week off July 27th to catch up, so the course ends August 7th. It''s designed to be extremely time flexible so you can access the materials and interact as much or as little as you like. No one is ever in trouble but the more you can put in the more you'll get out of it. The additional 6 months of access makes it very doable no matter how busy you are and the private Facebook group continues on indefinitely.
The Where:The comfort of your own home, a café, the library, anywhere that you can get internet access. You don't need to travel anywhere for this course plus you can still take it even if you are traveling.
The How: Monday through Friday, fresh lessons and exercises from our awesome faculty are released on our password protected website that also includes tons of resources including lists of publishers and agents, worksheets, done-for you templates, and much more. We interact via our private Facebook group where questions are answered and small critique groups are set up for those who want them. We have a special webinar page for each week where students post responses to each webinars topic - e.g., hooks, characters or nonfiction topic, plot or structure etc. Times are scheduled to acommodate folks in different countries as much as possible and we also record the webinars for those who can't make it live.
The Why: This is the most important one. If you want to write and publish a children's picture book this is the best value course that you can find to successfully write and get published. It's the original five week interactive picture book writing course with industry experts and a multi-award-winning best-selling faculty. It's also the only course with a phenomenal proven track-record of published, contracted, and now agented former students. No other course gives this level of focused attention to each student who participates and it's the only one with a money back guarantee for folks who do the work and still don't think that they learned a tremendous amount after a year. The course is also the only one that provides fantastic submission opportunities and empowers students to do all sorts of extraordinary things. The course has been described as the equivalent of 20 conferences and better than graduate level university programs from students with kid lit masters degrees. Plus it's fun and comes with a ton of bonuses including bonus courses in building an author or illustrator platform and building your own website and the new fully illustrated !
Meet the Instructors

Kelly Delaney is an Assistant Editor at Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, where she acquires and edits picture books and middle grade and young adult novels. She has a master’s degree in Publishing: Digital and Print Media from NYU and has been at Random House Children's Books for five years. In that time she has been fortunate enough to work with many esteemed authors including R.J. Palacio, Markus Zusak, Anita Lobel, Eileen Spinelli, Kevin Hawkes, and Norton Juster, among many others. She is always on the lookout for quirky humor, bright characters, and writers that don't underestimate their readers. You can follow her on Twitter at @kellyunderwater.

Mira Reisberg has helped MANY authors and illustrators get published. She has worn just about every hat in the industry including art director, editor, illustrator and author, and literary agent. Mira holds a PhD in Education and Cultural Studies with a focus on children's literature. She has taught children's literature courses at Washington State University, Northern Illinois University, San Francisco City College Extension, and US Berkeley Extension. Mira is also an award-winning children's book illustrator and writer. You can follow her on Twitter at @ChildrensBookAc
Just think. Whether you are a complete beginner or an award-winning author or illustrator, would you like to:

Write a fresh children’s picture book story from start to finish

Polish an existing children's book for publication

Revise your work to make it easy for an editor to say yes

Radically improve your chances of publication or getting an agent

Write a story that you can later illustrate to increase your chances for publication

Create a targeted cover letter ready to send to your ideal editor or agent!

Participate in weekly critiques and our super interactive private FB group

Have lots of fun

And have all sorts of opportunities that you wouldn't get anywhere else?
Then this course is for you!!
Join former students who have received over 40 contract offers in just over 2 years and others who have signed with their dream agents. Here's a wee video from former student Yuyi Morales who recently won a Caldecott honor.
Join former students who have received over 40 contract offers in just over 2 years and others who have signed with their dream agents. Here's a wee video from former student Yuyi Morales who recently won a Caldecott honor.
Then there are the Golden Tickets! What's a Golden Ticket?
A Golden Ticket opportunity is when you get to submit directly to an agent or editor and bypass the slush pile or closed house submission policy. In this course we will be teaching you how to write awesome pitches, and then we'll critique your pitches before you submit them before a panel of editors and agents will be reading your pitches and then choosing ones that they would like to see the full manuscripts for. Here's our panel of awesome judges!!
Ready to Take the Leap of Faith?
The Big Bonus is currently only 537.00 and comes with a sweet payment plan and over 750.00 worth of extra bonuses. You can attend tons of conferences, or pay for lots of other courses, but this flagship course is so incredibly helpful with proven results that we are offering it with a 100% money back guarantee that if you take it, do what we recommend, and at the end of a year you don't feel like you learned a tremendous amount of truly helpful information, you'll get your money back, so the risk is all on us.
Here are the links:
Here are the links:
And now for that incredibly rare opportunity for a ONE-HOUR in-person via telephone or Skype or email one-on-one critique with Kelly Delaney for only 637 (with an easy payment plan), click below:
More Bang for your Buck! Just what will you get for your money?
There are two levels of payment available for this 5 plus week course, which in some ways keeps on going indefinitely.
ALL LEVELS INCLUDE THESE BONUSES:
ALL LEVELS INCLUDE THESE BONUSES:

Access to the 25 lessons plus 6 bonus lessons for the 5 week course plus an additional SIX months of access

Lifelong access to our own highly interactive private Facebook group

Access to our live weekly topic-specific conference calls/workshop/webinars where you can get help with everything from pitches, plots, titles, and endings, and ask any questions you like (these interactive videos will also be recorded)

The Exclusive Barbara Bottner Big Bonanza Bonus of FIVE topic specific interviews

Fabulous templates, worksheets, and done-for-you scripts

The Little Big Book of Children's Book Writing Techniques and Terminology!!!

A beautiful CBA badge for your website

Your own optional critique group

Entry into the Golden Ticket skip-the-line pitch fest contest where Random House/Knopf editors will select 6 manuscripts to consider for publication.

Secret half-off link for the awesome on-demand e-course Get Your Grammar Groove with Miranda Paul. Get Your Grammar Groove will teach you everything you need to know about Grammar and Formatting and a whole bunch more about Writing

Secret half-off link for an awesome beginning and advanced on-demand e-course for fearful beginners to long-time Photoshop users on using Photoshop

Plus other opportunities and goodies too numerous to mention!
TOTAL VALUE an additional $750
The Big Bonus Package is only $537 and comes with a sweet payment plan! Ready to go for it and rock your writing world? Click here!
OR

The Early Bird I Am Ready for Success with Kelly Delaney Package includes:
EVERYTHING ABOVE, p lus a possibly life-changing one-on-one ONE HOUR in person via Skype or phone critique with Kelly Delaney (normally unavailable except for short critiques at conferences) is only $637 and comes with a sweet payment plan. There are only a limited number of these left so act fast!
EVERYTHING ABOVE, p lus a possibly life-changing one-on-one ONE HOUR in person via Skype or phone critique with Kelly Delaney (normally unavailable except for short critiques at conferences) is only $637 and comes with a sweet payment plan. There are only a limited number of these left so act fast!
This may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with an awesome editor who is actively building her list.
Click here to register with Kelly

The Ea rly Bird I Am Ready for Success with Mira includes:
EVERYTHING ABOVE, plus a possibly life-changing one-on-one ONE HOUR in person via Skype or phone critique with Mira Reisberg (normally unavailable except for a limited number in interactive courses or short critiques at conferences) is only $637 and comes with a sweet payment plan! There are only a few left, so act fast!
Still a little unsure? Here are a few more testimonials from the amazing students who have taken this transformative journey before you:
![]() From T anja BauerleI– I just completed The Craft and Business of Writing Children’s Picture Books. The wonderful Mira Reisberg is so incredibly generous and knowledgeable that the past five weeks have been filled with resources, information and practical applications that I can’t wait to implement into my own writing. I feel so inspired and feel like my inner writer is blossoming, all that’s to the marvelous Mira. I highly encourage you to take any of Mira’s courses. You will not be disappointed and the tools that she will bestow on you will propel you onwards.
|
![]() From Melanie Moschella–I thoroughly enjoyed the online format of “The Craft and Business of Writing Children’s Picture Books”! Every weekday there was a new lesson posted with lecture notes and informative videos from other children’s book authors [and editors, agents, and book sellers]. I had an idea for a picture book, but as a new writer I did not know how to get started. What I especially liked about this class was our small critique groups and the one-on-one critique with Dr. Reisberg. Dr. Reisberg understands the children’s book industry and her feedback and continued encouragement has been wonderful!
|
![]() From Marcy Pusey - Just completed five weeks with the Children's Book Academy… and I have to say: It was SUPERB. FANTASTIC. The class has so inspired and equipped me, that I’ve been more intentional about submitting, working, pitching, querying… and writing. I have some new, great, practical “tools” in my writer’s toolbox that I didn’t have before. I’ve left with a new fantastic critique group, an e-book with all the information, access to the website for awhile longer, and Mira. Mira is amazing. Since the class ended ( a couple of weeks ago), I've won second place in the Perfect Character Driven Pitch contest. I submitted a book to a publisher I’ve worked with before (SNAP Learning) who loved my work and bought it!"
|
And how about this for an awesome guest faculty? Some of the best of the best in the business - some of whom are also my beloved friends - are ready and waiting to help guide you:
Brilliant mystery editor or agent
|
|
|
|
Is this going to be the year for you?
Our guest contributors will speak to you in custom created videos and written interviews sharing their perspectives on everything from writing tips and secrets on how they structure their books, researching and writing non-fiction, writing biographies, crafting perfect rhymes, creating luscious language, working with plot, getting rejected and keeping on going, what they look for in buying books, what they look for in submissions, creating an authors platform to make you more attractive to publishers and so much more.
Your real world results include:
- Getting a truly powerful education in how to write and submit a children’s picture book story
- Lifetime knowledge of how to write that story and cover letter
- Understanding of how the illustration process works
- Discovering how to find that "perfect for you" publisher or agent and how to submit to them
- And much more
Here's a tiny sneak peek from a much larger video interview with Marsha Diane Arnold where she shares words of wisdom for beginning writers. In the full interview Marsha shares about her writing process, how she embeds or unearths deeper meanings in her stories, and how she crafts character-driven stories. She's pretty fabulous as are our other gifted contributors.