Author/Illustrator and Agent Shadra Strickland reveals how to get at the heart of your story by sharing ideas and exercises to get your creativity flowing—in your brain and on the page. This is a fun one. Happy listening!

In this episode, Eric and Terry Fan, also known as writing-illustrating duo The Fan Brothers, are taking us to new worlds in To Imagination and Beyond.

They reveal their unique path into picture books after originally pursuing other careers and talk about some of the unconventional sources for their story ideas. They are proof that stories can hop from one place to another: from a t-shirt design that eventually became The Night Gardener, or a careless doodle from thirty years ago that grew into Lizzy and the Cloud. Eric and Terry reveal how your next story may be waiting in the most unlikely place.

We adore The Fan Brothers and after this episode we think you will too!

Today’s episode features a practically perfect pair of presenters.

You’ve seen presentations about great picture book beginnings. You’ve seen them about effective endings. But a truly great picture book relies on the connection between the two. Today, Emma Walton Hamilton & Julie Hedlund are here to show how to launch topflight stories and navigate them to stellar endings.

One of the best ways to navigate your course as a writer is through critiques.  In this episode of the podcast, we share a snippet of Founder Katie Davis’ presentation Houston, Your Manuscript Has a Problem. Katie discusses why critiques are important and things to consider as you seek feedback from critique groups and freelance editors.

Get ready to take your work to a whole new stratosphere!

A few years ago, we had the privilege of hosting former National Ambassador of Young People's Literature and bestselling author Kate DiCamillo as one of our Superstar Speakers. Her presentation was nothing short of magical. She shares how she went from wanting to write and thinking about writing to actually writing. We hope this snippet of her talk inspires you to get started (or restarted) too. 

Savor this episode.

Be part of the magic of Picture Book Summit LIVE! join us at this year's online event on October 5th - Perfect 10: Going for Picture Book Gold. 

Join us for Perfect 10: Going for Picture Book Gold! Superstar Speakers include: 

• Newbery, Geisel, and Caldecott Honoree Grace Lin
• National Ambassador of Young People's Literature Meg Medina
• New York Times bestselling duo Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett

Early Bird pricing ends this week! Get $100 off when you get your ticket by August 31, 2024. Register here!

Attending a writing conference can be a transformational experience, filled with opportunities to hone your craft, connect with your peers, and move closer to your publishing dreams.

Online writing conferences offer unique opportunities compared to their in-person counterparts. In addition to saving money on travel and accommodations, you can maximize your learning by engaging from the safety, comfort, and familiarity of home. Whether you're attending your first conference or your fiftieth, here are nine tailored tips on how to get the most out of an online writing conference.

We invite YOU to celebrating our 10th year of Picture Book Summit this year on October 5th! Go to picturebooksummit.com/maximize for our free download and learn more about this year’s one-of-a-kind conference for picture book creators.

Join us for Perfect 10: Going for Picture Book Gold! Superstar Speakers include: 

• Newbery, Geisel, and Caldecott Honoree Grace Lin
• National Ambassador of Young People's Literature Meg Medina
• New York Times bestselling duo Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett

Get $100 off with an Early Bird ticket through August 31, 2024. Register here!

You’ve just received another email for an online writers' conference. How do you know if it’s right for you? Will it really advance your writing career? Is there such a thing as a free conference? 

We’re celebrating 10 years of hosting the Picture Book Summit online writing conference. So much has grown and changed in the online conference space in that time. So, today, we pull the curtain back and give you some insight into what goes into putting on a conference so you can pick the best online writing conferences for you and your writing goals.

Listen up! We have 5 questions to ask yourself before choosing your next online writing conference. (Don’t worry! Some of these will apply to in-person conferences too.) 

We invite YOU to celebrating our 10th year of Picture Book Summit this year on October 5th! Go to picturebooksummit.com/conference for our free download and learn more about this year’s one-of-a-kind conference for picture book creators.

Join us for Perfect 10: Going for Picture Book Gold! Superstar Speakers include: 

• Newbery, Geisel, and Caldecott Honoree Grace Lin
• National Ambassador of Young People's Literature Meg Medina
• New York Times bestselling duo Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett

Get $100 off with an Early Bird ticket through August 31, 2024. Register here!

Publishers and agents alike say they want humorous, quirky, or funny books, but it seems more and more difficult to get a response on those humorous, quirky, or funny submissions. We're here to dig into it in today's episode of PBSummit Roundtable.

Julie Hedlund shares her personal experience and overall observations about what is going on in the industry with silly stories and how YOU can break through!

Books talked about in today's episode:

• I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
• Butt or Face by Kari Lavelle
• Simon and the Better Bone by Corey R. Tabor
• Mel Fell by Corey R. Tabor
• How This Book Get Red by Margaret Chiu Greanias and Melissa Iwai
• Poodunit! A Forest Floor Mystery by Katelyn Aronson and Steph Laberis
• Wombats are Pretty Weird by Abi Cushman
• Too Many Pigs and One Big Bad Wolf by Davide Cali and Marianna Balducci

If you enjoy the Picture Book Summit Podcast, you'll LOVE our next live online Picture Book Summit writing conference! Join us October 5, 2024, for Perfect 10: Going for Picture Book Gold! Superstar Speakers include: 

• Newbery, Geisel, and Caldecott Honoree Grace Lin
• National Ambassador of Young People's Literature Meg Medina
• New York Times bestselling duo Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett

Get $100 off with an Early Bird ticket through August 31, 2024. Register here!

Agents and publishers are always saying they're looking for stories that are "fresh and unique", but what does that mean? In this episode, the PBSummit Roundtable takes a look at some stories which perfectly exemplify what fresh takes on classic picture book topics can look like, and the common thread between them. 

Books talked about in today's episode:

• How This Book Got Read written by Margaret Chiu Greanias and illustrated by Melissa Iwai
• The World's Best Class Plant written by Liz Garton Scanlon and Audrey Vernick and illustrated by Lynnor Bontigao 
• Time is a Flower written and illustrated by Julie Morstad

Having a fresh take is a great way to get the attention of an agent or editor! How else can you avoid being rejected? Grab our free download with questions to ask yourself to avoid the 3 Biggest Reasons Manuscripts Get Rejected. Click here.

*Picture Book Summit may receive a small commission at no cost to you when books are purchased through the link above.

You've written and refined your manuscript, you've sent the query to your agent or to a publisher....and now to wait for months and months. During the pandemic, everything slowed to a halt. But now that it's over and the picture book industry is back up and running, what's the hold up? 

The answers are in this episode, and it's actually good news! 

One way to avoid getting rejections (or no responses at all) is to ensure your manuscript and query letter are 100% submission-ready. Grab our free download with the 3 Biggest Reasons Your Manuscripts today! Click here.

It's our final dive (for now!) into Picture Books with Great Voice! If you're just joining us, be sure to catch up with this series at the links below:

• Episode 56 - Julie Hedlund defined the types of voice found in picture books and Katie Davis introduced books with humorous voice.
• Episode 57 - Founder Emeritus Laura Backes shared book examples of using a lyrical voice
• Episode 58 - Emma Walton Hamilton dug into character voice.

Today in part 4, Julie gets chatty while talking about conversational voice in picture books.

Let’s get to it.

Books mentioned in this episode:

• THE IMPORTANT THING ABOUT MARGARET WISE BROWN written by Mac Barnett and illustrated Sarah Jacoby
• A POEM FOR PETER written by Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrated Steve Johnson