Write From the Soul

Good news for all of us children's book writers! 

According to Publishers Weekly, the number of children's books produced in 2009 in the U.S. increased 8% after a 4% decrease in 2008! Woo hoo, go writers!!! Yeah, I hear you saying, "fool, that's only a 4% increase because you have to consider the 4% it had to replace from the previous year's loss!" Well, you can view the glass half empty, I choose the view it as half full. Not only did the children's book market regain it's loss, it increased it 4% more. Like I said, cheers for kid lit writers.  :-D

Unpublished writers need encouragement and inspiration and hope because we can't run around with our fingers crossed all the time....it's too hard to write checks that way and did you ever try typing on a computer like that?? I don't think so!

So keep writing and we'll be seeing the 2010 stats showing another increase! [If I had been a cheerleader in high school, this is where I would be doing jumps and cartwheels and shaking the pom-poms. Stop laughing and just pretend, ok?]

Speaking of inspiring....

I found a new blog I'm enjoying. It's written by Michael Larsen who has been in publishing for several decades. He and his wife started a literary agency in 1972 called  Larsen-Pomada Literary in Northern California. 

His post intrigued me because it acknowledged that getting a book published (not just children's books) is challenging if you only consider traditional publishing houses. Your chances are better if you become a wribrid. Here's a taste of the post, but I encourage you to go read it all for yourself.

Wribrid rhymes with hybrid and sounds like it should be sliced and wrapped in cellophane. But it’s really the new model for writers.......  to succeed, you have to be a wribrid. You have to strike the right balance between:
* Being online and off
* Writing for free and fees
* Writing short work and books