Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell helps us find the magic of picture books as he explores the bridge between text and image by breaking down successful books. Matthew even shares his struggle with finding the bridge in his early work. Join us for this magical ride.

In this episode, Laura Backes and Emma Walton Hamilton team up to give you tips on approaching the first big revision of your first draft. Listen as they dig deep into revision first steps by taking you on a tour of the first act of a fiction picture book and a nonfiction picture book to show what your manuscript needs at the beginning of the story to get started on a firm foundation.

Today's episode includes snippets from literary agent Brenda Bowen's appearance at Picture Book Summit. Brenda represents national and international bestselling authors and illustrators including Newbery and Caldecott award winners. She is also a children's author herself with over 40 books under her belt under the name Margaret MacNamara. In Brenda's presentation, she spoke with her author hat on about how she finds and develops ideas and how sometimes, necessity can be the mother of invention. She also touches on the key components to a query letter. Don't miss getting the inside scoop from this agent.

In today's episode, we'll hear from Kate McMullan, bestselling author of over 100 books for kids, including the I STINK series. In her presentation, Kate talks about inspiration, where you can find it and how to capture it when it strikes.

Through humor and storytelling, veteran nonfiction author Stephen Swinburne takes us into the heart of narrative nonfiction storytelling with solid tips and tricks for writing STEM and STEAM manuscripts, including what editors are looking for in today's market.

How can you actually connect with your readers? Get your books into the hands of more kids? It's a challenge, especially when it seems like thousands of new books are published every day. In this episode, Katie Davis shares how she's used her platform and marketing strategies to sell almost one million copies of her traditionally published books and launch two books at #1 on Amazon. She'll reveal how you can follow the same steps and get your books into the hands of more readers!

How do you tell a story about a specific cultural paradigm and make it universally accessible? Award-winning author Rukhsana Khan shows us how to do just that as she walks us through her Golden Kite award-winning book BIG RED LOLLIPOP. Don't miss the behind-the-scenes stories and intentions of this beloved picture book.

Mac Barnett shares how the layout and format of a picture book informs how the reader will engage with the story on different levels. Even the trim size of a book changes the way it's read.

Mac Barnett's Picture Book Manifesto: http://thepicturebook.co/

In Laura Backes' Picture Book Summit workshop Purpose Without Preaching, she gave some tips for infusing your manuscript with a message without preaching to the reader or sounding didactic. In this episode, we share some highlights from her talk.

Today's episode features LeUyen Pham, an author and/or illustrator of over 100 books for children including THE BOY WHO LOVED MATH, VAMPIRINA BALLERINA, A PIECE OF CAKE, and the Caldecott Honor Book BEAR CAME ALONG. In this excerpt from her Picture Book Summit presentation, she shares some of the behind-the-scenes creation of BEAR CAME ALONG as part of a broader conversation on why authors should trust their illustrator and keep art notes to a minimum.