Laura Purdie Salas

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You are here: Home / Writing for Children / Resources Related to Writing for the Educational Market

Resources Related to Writing for the Educational Market

[These are links, books, products, apps, and other tools mentioned in my book Writing for the Educational Market. If you come across a bad link, please let me know. Also, if you know of an awesome resource that relates to a particular lesson that I might want to include, feel free to let me know that. Thanks!]

 

 

Introduction

Mentors for Rent

Indiebound (to buy books from indie booksellers)

Amazon

ABDO

Capstone and its imprints

Enslow

Infobase

McGraw-Hill

SCBWI

Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesson 1: The Trade Market vs. the Educational Market

2nd-grade reading level, but 8th-grade interest level

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About a 4th-grade reading level, but audience was identified as 4th-9th grade

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Example of a high-interest book for reluctant readers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sally Walker

My favorite Sally Walker book! (This is a trade title.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sibert Award

An educational publisher title from Sally Walker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sally Walker’s Amazon Page

Melissa Stewart

Tracy Nelson Maurer

Association of Educational Publishers

National Council for Social Studies Notable Books

National Science Teachers Association Outstanding Books

Fuzzy-Fast Blur: Poems About Pets

 

 

 

 

Utah Readers Choice Awards

The Horn Book

School LIbrary Journal

Library Media Connection

Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database

Booklist

VOYA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesson 2: Finding Publishers and Catalogs

ALA Conferences

ILA Conferences

Writing for the Education Market blog

Listing on Evelyn B. Christensen’s blog

Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children’s Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career

Nancy Sanders website 

Nancy Sanders’ blog

 

Lesson 3: Open Up Those Catalogs

Accelerated Reader Bookfinder

American Rebels

Catalog Analysis Form

Publisher Analysis Form

Jill Kalz

Lesson 4: Topics You Hope to Write About

Lesson 5: Writing for Different Age Ranges

 

Terri DeGezelle

Melissa Stewart

Pat McCarthy

Teaching History database

National science standards

Download Core Knowledge Sequence K-8 (free)

Lesson 6: The Introductory Packet

Lesson 7: The Cover Letter

Business letter format

Lesson 8: The Rest of the Introductory Packet

Resume writing at about.com

Vistaprint

Lesson 9: Writing Clips or Samples

Lesson 10: Writing Samples from Scratch

Lesson 11: Proposals

Amazon

Lesson 12: Get Feedback on Your Cover Letter

MFR

Lesson 13: Analyzing a Series

Why Living Things Need…

All About My World

Careers in Film and Television

Oi—these are old videos from the very first online class I taught, so I share these with trepidation! But I do want you to have an option, so I will leave them live for now.

Series Analysis: Animals All Around

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmtZlCQKA_I

Series Analysis: Write Your Own

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGXRdkv-3NE

Series Analysis: Science Songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0RPftQLZZg

Series Analysis: ABC Books

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HnApQpvOII

Series Analysis Form

Accelerated Reader Bookfinder

Lesson 14: Series Guidelines

Lesson 15: Readability Statistics

Fry

Flesch-Kincaid

Lexile

Lesson 16: Working With an Editor

Lesson 17: Researching Your Book

Why I Use Easybib

LexisNexis

NFforKids list

Library of Congress Ask a Librarian

How Real Online Research Works (The original article is gone. But here’s a useful slide show by the same author!)   (Thanks to Christine Layton for the curation help!)

Conducting Research, from Purdue University

Evaluating Online Resources, from UC-Berkeley

ProfNet

Help a Reporter Out

Lesson 18: Photo Research, Expert Consultants, Indices, and Permissions

Some free photo resources you might find useful

U.S. Copyright Fair Use rules

Lesson 19: Assessment Writing

Writing for the Education Market blog

Monster.com

Writers’ Weekly

Sun Oasis

Freelance Writing (this service takes a cut of paid jobs)

Journalism Jobs

Media Bistro

Lesson 20: Fiction for Hire

stanley shadow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Make a Rainbow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesson 21: Money and Contracts

$3,500

$900

 

 

 

 

 

 

$900

$1,650–and don’t get me started on cover design!

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s Make a Rainbow  – $2,500 – will link once book is published

$2,800 – strictly leveled hi-lo

$2,400 – leveled reader

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playful Art – $1,700 – leveled reader – will link when published

stanley shadow

$2,800 – leveled reader, fiction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SlimTimer is gone, and I now use Toggl.com, which is very similar

A little more about SlimTimer (The general principles are the same with Toggl)

Laura’s annual income reports

Aimée Bissonette at Little Buffalo Law – Aimée is a successful children’s author and is not practicing law at the moment (2022)

Sample contract

Lesson 22: Schedules and Goals

Mentors for Rent – Lisa and I have dissolved Mentors for Rent. Lisa still does individual (fabulous!) critiques, and I still do some individual critiquing, too (only picture books). You can still visit this link to contact Lisa or to read the various blog posts we wrote over the years, though.

Additional Resources

Resources for Nonfiction Writers

Writer in Progress Facebook Group — This is a paid, private Facebook Group I run for my Patreon supporters. My Patreon Group is $5/month, and I talk about writing poetry, picture books, and work-for-hire writing.

Work for Hire Support Group Facebook Group

NFFest Facebook Group

Writing, Illustrating, and Publishing Children’s Books: The Purple Crayon — website maintained by writer/editor Harold Underdown

Writer Evelyn Christensen’s list of educational publishers 

Articles on writing nonfiction – Writer’s Digest articles about nonfiction (not children’s-writing specific)

Your library’s children’s librarian

Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators –  or SCBWI, 8271 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048.  323-782-1010

AR Book Finder – You can put in almost any book title and get the exact word count, the reading level, etc.

Laura’s blog for educators, mostly — My blog, mostly geared toward educators

Vistaprint – Inexpensive business cards, promo postcards, etc.

EasyBib – A wonderful free online bibliography service!

Excellent book for those wanting to build a true career



Affiliate marketing transparency statement: In a continuing effort to cobble together a livable income, I have some affiliate accounts. Every time you see an Amazon link, that’s an affiliate link. That means if you click on the link and shop from there, I earn a tiny percent from Amazon. It does not change your cost at all. If you are able to buy books from indie booksellers (either in your neighborhood or online through indiebound.org), that is the best thing to do, and I encourage that! But if you do shop for books (or anything else, for that matter) on Amazon, I am greatly appreciative if you use one of my links as a starting point.

Thank you so much for your support if you do choose to use my links to start your shopping expeditions at Amazon! 

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MAY NEWS

All 3 of my 2023 books are out now! Thank you to everyone who's celebrated with me, shared the books, or read/reviewed them. <3

Right now, I'm recovering from National Poetry Month! I'm also working on 2 tricky picture book revisions, and I'm preparing for a bunch of speaking events and storytimes! Join Yvonne Pearson and I for two loon-themed outdoor storytimes on June 6 and August 1. And on July 14, I'll be storying up a storm at Robert Trail Library! Hope to see you there!

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