One of the best things about our business is getting to know quite a few of the most successful [TAG-tec]children’s authors[/TAG-tec] and illustrators. As a group, these are some of the loveliest people with whom you could ever become acquainted.

While most are very generous about sharing advice with aspiring writers, they do tend to get overwhelmed with e-mail asking the same questions, so it’s not always easy to strike up a personal connection with them.

So here’s a neat way to say “hello” to a writer who inspires you: wish them a happy birthday! The excellent Children’s Literature site — http://www.childrenslit.com/childrenslit/home.html– has a monthly list of children’s author’s birthdays, each linked to the author’s official website. Find an author whose work you admire and send off some personal birthday greetings. You might just find yourself with a new e-mail buddy!?

(Note: please use courtesy and common sense when doing this — keep your e-mail brief and don’t send a bunch of followup e-mails unless the author responds. The goal is to establish a professional connection, not to pour your heart out to someone you don’t know!)

PS: If you’d like to get direct advice from some top authors without having to wait for an e-mail reply, check out our book In Their Own Words (http://write4kids.com/itow.html). Culled from fifteen years worth of Children’s Book Insider interviews, it’s a collection of the best tips and guidance from such authors as Judy Blume, R.L. Stine, Chris Crutcher and many, many others. It’s an astonishing resource for inspiration and hands-on advice.

Some cool links…..

[tag-tec]Big Universe[/tag-tec] – Online children’s bookshop where you can read and purchase electronic picture books, or create your own for online publication.  Their URL is http://www.biguniverse.com   Here’s a recent piece from Publisher’s Weekly about the site. 

[tag-tec]JacketFlap[/tag-tec] – Terrific social networking site for children’s book writers, illustrators, librarians and publishing professionals.  Free and very easy to use.  Highly recommended.  http://jacketflap.com   (And, after you sign up,  visit our JacketFlap page to become added as one of our friends.)

[tag-tec]drop.io[/tag-tec] – Awesome free tool that allows you fax any document from your computer – without fax software.  Lots of other neat ways to share files, too.  http://drop.io/

[tag-tec]Authonomy[/tag-tec] – A new site, now in beta testing, from HarperCollins that has industry folks buzzing.  It will be a social network site that will allow writers to upload manuscripts, which will be read and judged by other members of the network.  The site will use “the public’s recommendations to search out the cream of the crop – and showcase those titles to the book world at large”.   The actual site will be at http://www.authonomy.com/   There’s a company blog up now which addresses common questions.  Here’s some of what the rest of the blogosphere is saying.

[tag-tec]Snopes[/tag-tec] – Every day I get a forwarded message from some well-meaning person.  Bill Gates is giving money away…Barack Obama is this….John McCain is that….a new computer virus will suck your soul out of your body.  It usually takes me all of 3 seconds to determine that it’s a hoax, thanks to the venerable Snopes.com database of urban myths.  If you get a forwarded message, before you drop your entire address book’s contents into the CC: section and hit send, please, please, please check it out on Snopes first.  (Also, for writers, the site is a hoot — filled with all kinds of wildly imaginative stuff that you can you use to spark your own ideas.  Just be sure to put them in your next book rather than your next mass e-mail!)  http://www.snopes.com