I've put up some new news about editors moving, plus business news
(Bloomsbury buys Walker Publishing) at
http:www.underdown.org/chchange.htm .

And Margot Finke's January "Musings," which discusses critique groups
for children's writers, is now online at
http://www.underdown.org/mf-critique-groups.htm . This is the second
part of a three-part series on mentors for children's writers.

Up next: I will be attending ALA in two weeks' time and will update
the Award-Winning Books page
(http://www.underdown.org/childrens-book-awards.htm) as soon as
possible after I get back, so that it will cover the Newbery,
Caldecott, and other awards from 2002 through 2005. I'll let you know
when it is up.

Happy New Year!
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

I've added another installment to the blog, for a total of three so
far, and created an index page. You'll find it at
http://www.underdown.org/blog.htm

The Newbery, Caldecott, and several other ALA awards will be
announced on Monday. I don't have any predictions, but as I have done
in past years, I'll post the books on my award-winning books page as
fast as I can after the announcement. I will send out an announcement
when I'm done but I'll be putting the page up on the site as I work
on it, so check during the day if you want. The address is:
http://www.underdown.org/childrens-book-awards.htm There is also a
link on the home page under Recommended Books.
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

The 2005 ALA awards have been announced.

Newbery Medal: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

Caldecott Medal: Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes

These and the Honor Books (there were three for each) are
posted now on my Award-Winning Books page:

http://www.underdown.org/childrens-book-awards.htm

You will see blank spaces for several other awards on that page,
if you visit before I finish filling them in. Just come back later. I
will have the Coretta Scott King, Printz, Edwards, and Sibert
awards up later today.

Margot Finke has completed her three-part series on mentoring and
critique groups for writers with a column on Starting a Critique
Group. You can find a link to it from the home page or see the index
of all "Musings" at http://www.underdown.org/finke.htm#index

Also, I've updated the Who's Moving Where page at
http://www.underdown.org/chchange.htm

Thanks,

Harold Underdown

I haven't been able to work on the site for the past few weeks, but
some not-very-happy news from Penguin got me to update the "Who's
Moving Where" page:
http://www.underdown.org/chchange.htm There's other news too, but the
Penguin news is the big thing. If I find out more I'll update the
page later this week.

Also, I have added up the numbers and I'm pleased to report that my
income from the site was well up last year, and in fact is
approaching the point where I will be able to reduce my freelance
work and increase my time on the site. Full details at
http://www.underdown.org/report_2004.htm

I hope to catch up on my Blog and post Margot Finke's latest column
later this week, and to add some contributed articles soon.
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

I've updated my comments on the Penguin layoffs on the Who's Moving
Where page, at http://www.underdown.org/chchange.htm and added some
Simon and Schuster news too.

There's a new installment of the Purple Crayon blog at
http://www.underdown.org/blog.htm

--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Margot Finke's latest column is now available: Layering Powerful
Voice and Creating Powerful Characters.

http://www.underdown.org/mf-powerful-voice.htm

Also, for those of you interested, BookCloseOuts.com is having a sale
on all their children's and YA books through March 31. See my What's
New page for details and a link to their Kids' section:
http://www.underdown.org/newhdu.htm

More Blog and some updates to my Resources list to come soon, I hope.

--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

I've done an update to the Resource List from my Complete Idiot's
Guide, adding a book on contracts and one on writing groups, and
revising a few entries. Look for the red "N" or "R" by an entry:
http://www.underdown.org/ciglinks.htm

I've posted a short article called Keeping Books in Print, which I
originally wrote in response to an email question. I was going to put
it in the blog, but realized that it stood alone:
http://www.underdown.org/books-in-print.htm

There is also a new installment of the blog itself:
http://www.underdown.org/blog.htm

And there are a few bits of news on the Who's Moving Where page:
http://www.underdown.org/chchange.htm

As always, you'll find links to these and previous updates on the
What's New page at http://www.underdown.org/newhdu.htm

Happy Spring!
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

Barbara Cohen's Getting the Word Out: Marketing Children's Books is a
useful guide to the basics in an area I hadn't covered before on The
Purple Crayon, and I'm very glad to have it. You'll find it at
http://www.underdown.org/marketing.htm

I've also put up another new installment of my blog, which gets it
pretty much caught up. http://www.underdown.org/blog.htm

And I've added one piece of significant news from HM on the Who's
Moving Where page. http://www.underdown.org/chchange.htm

As always, links to new and updated articles are on the What's New
page, at http://www.underdown.org/newhdu.htm There's also a link
there to the BookCloseOuts sale, which will be over at the end of the
month.

Coming soon: Margot Finke's next Musings, and some more new articles.

Thanks for visiting,
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I'm excited to be publishing a fascinating case study of a story's
evolution from family story to a published book, in Amy Timberlake's
three-part essay, "Help! The Writing Process of The Dirty Cowboy."
She received a Golden Kite Award for the book, and the essay was
developed from her acceptance speech. She sent me a copy of the
speech because I was one of the people involved in the process she
went through to write and revise the story, and when I read it, I
knew I wanted to post it on The Purple Crayon.

http://www.underdown.org/writing_the_dc.htm

Margot Finke's latest "Musings" column is a personal and inspiring
piece, "Late Blooming Writers Can Succeed!"

http://www.underdown.org/mf-late_blooming.htm

I hope you find them interesting.
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

More to come soon, but for now, lots of bits of news on the Who's
Moving Where page, at http://www.underdown.org/chchange.htm

And a new installment of my blog, at http://www.underdown.org/blog.htm

--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

Margot Finke's May "Musings" is called The Secret to Becoming a
Published Writer and looks at how several published writers got
there: http://www.underdown.org/mf-success-secrets.htm

I've added up the numbers for the first quarter and am pleased to
report that The Purple Crayon is doing well--you can read the details
at http://www.underdown.org/report_2005.htm

However, I've also heard from a Purple Crayon regular that some of
the links to bookstores on pages such as
http://www.underdown.org/bookstores.htm are being blocked by
ad-blocker software such as that made by Norton and other companies.
If you want to support The Purple Crayon and start your shopping at
the Bookstores page or another place around the site where there are
links to bookstores that pay a commission, please turn off such
software first. You won't get any obnoxious flashing ads, or pop-ups,
or anything of that sort from my site, so it's a safe thing to do.

Thanks for your support,

--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

The latest installment of my blog covers a variety of topics:
re-submitting a manuscript, citing sources, Lane Smith's $600,000
book, non-profit and grant-supported publishers, responding to
personal rejections, and picture book length.

Go straight to the Blog index for access to this and other blog installments:

http://www.underdown.org/blog.htm


--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

I have several bits of news:

1) I've updated the Who's Moving Where page with some news about
several editors, including Cecile Goyette, Rachel Nugent, and Tim
Travaglini.
http://www.underdown.org/chchange.htm

2) On the What's New page, at http://www.underdown.org/newhdu.htm, as
well as links to all the recent new or updated pages, I've posted
some coupons for sites with which the Purple Crayon is affiliated.
Most notably there are two different ones for Bookcloseouts/

3) I'll be traveling to LA at the beginning of August for the SCBWI
National conference. I'm helping with some workshops on marketing
organized by Susan Raab, doing manuscript and marketing
consultations, and speaking on a panel looking at "The Current
Climate in Children's Books." You can find details at the SCBWI web
site at http://www.scbwi.org/

4) I'm in the middle of working on a number of things, including
articles with advice from a lawyer, a lengthy interview with James
Deem by Juanita Havill, Margot Finke's latest Musings, and the site
redesign. You may notice I've already done some work on my site
redesign, by cutting out some of the too many links on the home page.
I'm planning to make further changes there, and reorganize the
articles to make it easier for visitors to find what they want.

Enjoy the holiday weekend!

--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

I've been busy but have finally been able to catch up on some
materials for the site.

I'm pleased to have a substantial interview with James Deem about
both his writing and his web sites:
http://www.underdown.org/james_deem.htm

Margot Finke's latest column addresses the art of using writing "time outs":

http://www.underdown.org/mf_time_outs.htm

And of course there are several pieces of news on the Who's Moving Where page:
http://www.underdown.org/chchange.htm

I hope you are enjoying the summer.

More soon, I hope.
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I'm pleased to be able to post the first in what I hope will be a
semi-regular series of columns on legal issues by Kohel Haver,
originally published in the newsletter of SCBW-I Oregon. This article
summarizes the possible problems in writing about family members:

http://www.underdown.org/legal_writes_family.htm

I've learned that the 2006 edition of Children's Writer's and
Illustrator's Market should be available in August and have been able
to get some advance information about it. Preview the table of
contents at:

http://www.underdown.org/childrens_writers_market.htm

If you just want a quick link to Amazon, so you can order it, here it is:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1582974020/ref=nosim/underdown6-20

I've also put up a progress report on funding for the site. The
second quarter was OK, certainly enough to keep the site going. I
probably need to finish the reorganization of the site before I can
make any further progress.

Funding: http://www.underdown.org/report_2005.htm

This will be my last update until some time after the LA SCBW-I
conference in early August....

Enjoy your summer,
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I'm back from the SCBW-I national conference. While I was there I
took part in a  panel discussion called "How's the Weather? The
Current Climate for Children's Books?

I think that my remarks may be of interest to others, so I've posted
them on The Purple Crayon at

http://www.underdown.org/childrens-book-climate.htm

I've also linked to it from my home page, if you lose track of that URL.

--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I am starting to catch up from a busy summer. There's much more on my
list, but here are some new things at the site. As always, go to the
What's New page at http://www.underdown.org/newhdu.htm for links to
everything that's new or changed.

I have updated the Who's Moving Where page for the first time in a
couple of months: http://www.underdown.org/chchange.htm

I've also caught up on Margot Finke's "Musings." In August she put
together an article that lists web sites, writing classes, and email
groups that children's writer's will find useful, and I was too busy
to put it up. Now Where to Go When You are Desperate for Information
or Help is. up. Her September column explores how to hook an editor
with your writing--also very useful, but more of a how-to.

You can find both of them on the Musings index at
http://www.underdown.org/finke.htm


--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

Margot Finke's October "Musings" is on self-editing, and how to
enlist some special features of MS Word when you self-edit:
http://www.underdown.org/mf-self-editing.htm

I've started to catch up on my Blog backlog--I wasn't able to do any
work on it over the summer. There's a new installment for October up,
and I hope to have some more this month. You may notice that I've
also added links to certain items that I think are of wider interest,
and in some cases I've even added links to a blog entry from the
Articles pages.
http://www.underdown.org/blog.htm

Finally, if you have any problems with links/bookmarks/favorites to
specific pages on the site, that may be because I've made some file
name changes, for technical reasons not worth going into. You may not
be affected by this at all, but if a link or bookmark to a page on
the site isn't working, please just navigate to the page again, and
bookmark it again.

Thanks for visiting.
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Somehow the updated Blog index page, with a link to the October
installment, did not get uploaded last night.

Until it is, here is a link directly to the new page"

http://www.underdown.org/blog_1005.htm

I'm sorry for the confusion.

Harold Underdown

It's taken a while, but my long-planned reorganization is now
completed! The main change is that I've broken up the Articles page
into several sub-categories to make it easier for people to find the
information they want. You'll also see changes on the home page.

Please visit and let me know if you have any suggestions--if you
can't find a favorite resource, for example, or if you think a
particular article should be included on a particular page.

I've also put together an article on writing and publishing board
books, and updated the Who's Moving Where page with some big news
from Scholastic.

As usual, all this is easily found by following the links on the
What's New page.
http://www.underdown.org/newhdu.htm

--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

Here is what's new. As always, you'll find links to all these pages
on the What's New page, which you'll find a link to from the left
column of the Home Page.

A new installment of the Purple Crayon Blog is up, featuring my
comments on submitting illustrations with a manuscript, a definition
of historical fiction, some interesting links, and more.
http://www.underdown.org/blog.htm

A long-lost Crockett Johson book is being published in its original
form: see my Crockett Johnson page for information about "Magic
Beach."
http://www.underdown.org/crayon.htm

BookCloseOuts.com is having a Fall Sale. Click the link to go to the
sale page. The Fall Sale runs through October 31st. You will also
find an Inventory Reduction Sale.
http://www.bookcloseouts.com/default.asp?N=0&merch=promotions&rid=purplec

And for those of you interested in such things, I've posted the third
quarter results for the site: http://www.underdown.org/report_2005.htm

Please remember The Purple Crayon's Bookstores page when you shop
online: http://www.underdown.org/bookstores.htm

Thanks to those of you who commented on the reorganization. I've
already made some adjustments in response to comments I've received.
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I've added two articles by Chris Tugeau, artist's rep., to the
illustrating section.

The first one, The End of the Line: Why Repped Relationships Fail, is
a pretty candid look at why an agent might choose to end a
relationship with a client. The other, Portfolio Portent, is more
pragmatic, explaining what a children's book illustrator's portfolio
needs, particularly a demonstration of visual story-telling abilities.

Both are listed on the new illustration index page:
http://www.underdown.org/illustrating-for-children.htm

I am also still fine-tuning the recent reorganization, mainly by
making sure that visitors have links back to the various sub-index
pages. If you see any problems, please let me know....
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

I've added another installment to my blog, opening with a discussion
of a contract which grants copyright to the publisher, and also
addressing questions about the definition of a picture book, working
in publishing, and ghostwriting:

http://www.underdown.org/blog.htm

And Margot Finke has contributed a recipe for her latest Musings
column: How to Cook up a Great Picture Book. It's a tasty and
nutritious essay:

http://www.underdown.org/mf-cooking-picture-book.htm

As always, links to these and other updates can be found on the
What's New page at:

http://www.underdown.org/newhdu.htm

I'm still making adjustments after the big reorganization, so if you
have any comments, be sure to let me know.
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

I've finally done a review of the 2006 edition of Children's
Writer's and Illustrator's Market:
http://www.underdown.org/childrens-writers-market.htm

I've also put up reviews of both Uri Shulevitz's Writing with
Pictures (a classic):
http://www.underdown.org/writing-with-pictures.htm

   and of Martin Salisbury's recent Illustrating Children's Books.
http://www.underdown.org/salisbury-illustrating.htm

   The books complement each other, so be sure to read both reviews.

The National Book Awards have been announced. The children's book
winner is a debut novel published by Knopf.
http://www.underdown.org/childrens-book-awards.htm#nba

You can find links to all these pages on the What's New page.

http://www.underdown.org/newhdu.htm

Enjoy the reviews. And please let me know if you have any comments.

--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I have big news from Scholastic on the Who's Moving Where page:

http://www.underdown.org/chchange.htm

I heard from Brent Hartinger about a personal experience with book
banning. See the update on his No Free Rewrites article, and link to
an opinion piece he wrote:

http://www.underdown.org/no_freerewrites.htm

It's holiday shopping time and I've created a page with some gift
ideas--which you can use to find ideas or to send someone to so they
can get ideas. There are a number of books, mostly at Amazon but with
a couple of bargains at BookCloseOuts, and some other places to look.

http://www.underdown.org/gifts.htm

As I always ask at this time of year, please start your shopping from
this site. I hope that page makes that easier. More suggestions for
it would be welcome, too.

All these links, and links for other recent updates, are on the
What's New page:

http://www.underdown.org/newhdu.htm

What's Next:

After Thanksgiving, there's a new Musings coming from Margot Finke,
and a blog installment, if I can. Otherwise I expect December to be
quiet but I have a lot I'm working on for the new year--an article on
the acquisition process, some contributed articles, a reorganization
of the section on children's book awards, in time for the Newbery and
Caldecott announcements, I hope.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving,

I realized that in my hurry to get new pages up and announce them
last week, I described the new gift ideas page poorly.

This is a page with suggestions of new books (and a few older ones)
for writers, illustrators, and others involved in children's books.
It is not a generalized list.  Here is a better description:

The new Gift Ideas page includes about a dozen books that will
interest writers, illustrators, librarians, teachers, and others
working in children's books. They are mostly new this year, with a
few older books mixed in. Examples: The new Norton Anthology of
Children's Literature, which looks fascinating and makes a
substantial gift; Daniel Pinkwater's comic Author's Day, which is
out of print but worth finding for anyone who does school visits.

There are also links at the bottom of the page to more general lists
if nothing on the page catches your fancy.

http://www.underdown.org/gifts.htm

Please take a look yourselves, send me any suggestions you may have,
and if you like the list, forward the description and the URL to
anyone you think would be interested.

Thanks!

Harold Underdown

I have a new installment of my blog up for December:

http://www.underdown.org/blog_1205.htm

I've said my piece about holiday shopping, but I have to pass on news
from BookCloseOuts, where they are having an end-of-year Clearance
Sale.

http://www.bookcloseouts.com/default.asp?dir=ASC&promo=Countdown+To+Christmas+Sa\
le&sort=p_TitleSort&N=0+3348+606&org=cat&rid=purplec

All of their children's paperbacks, sticker books, activity books,
and board books are an additional 50% off. This means there are many
items for under $1, suitable for student gifts or programs like RIF,
and also quality titles in paperback to help you build up your own
library or use as gifts.

Margot Finke muses about how to write a rhyming picture book
successfully in her December column, How to Write a Picture Book with
Fabulous R & M.

http://www.underdown.org/mf-rhyme-and-meter.htm

As usual, you will find links to all these pages on the What's New
Page, along with less recent news you may have missed.

http://www.underdown.org/newhdu.htm

Thanks for your support. Enjoy your holidays, and I'll be back next
year. (And just for Charles: Merry Christmas!)
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

I thought I was done for a few weeks, but some news came in about the
Cricket Magazine Group, and I had to post it.

See http://www.underdown.org/chchange.htm
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm

I had planned to wait to do an announcement until I had some new
articles done, but some big news has come along, so I'm not going to
wait any longer.

For those of you who were wondering what Jean Feiwel would do after
leaving Scholastic--she's going to be at Holtzbrinck. See my Who's
Moving Where page at http://www.underdown.org/chchange.htm for
details and some other bits of news.

I have also posted Margot Finke's January Musings, on Self-Editing a
Middle Grade Novel. Go to the Musings index at
http://www.underdown.org/finke.htm for links to the January Musings
and previous ones.

And a reminder: The Newbery, Caldecott, and a number of other
ALA-sponsored awards will be announced on January 23. I hope to post
the winners as soon as possible after they are announced on my
"Award-winning Children's Books" page, at
http://www.underdown.org/childrens-book-awards.htm I will announce it
when I'm done, but you can also just bookmark that page and check it
during the day. Last year, it was impossible to access the ALA
announcement page for some time, so check my page as an alternative.

Thanks!
--

Harold Underdown

The Purple Crayon web site: http://www.underdown.org/

The C.I.G. to Children's Book Publishing: http://www.underdown.org/cig.htm