SmartWriters.com is designed by writers for writers, by educators for educators.

SmartWriters.com is dedicated to providing professional children's writers information about the business of writing, and providing tools that will help you do your jobs better, including a directory of children's book publishers and paying magazine markets.

It is our goal as well to give librarians and teachers a great directory of children's authors and illustrators who are available for school visits, book signings, and other public appearances that will enhance these educators' curriculum and make a memorable impression on their students.

I hope you enjoy our Web site.

Roxyanne Young
Editorial Director

WHY A TURTLE LOGO?

Because of the place turtles play in world mythology, oftentimes acting as the foundation of the world, just as a love of reading sets a strong foundation for a child's future success. And besides, a turtle only makes progress when she sticks her neck out, and if that's not a great analogy for writing, I don't know what is.

Editorial Director Roxyanne Young

Editorial Director Roxyanne Young is a freelance writer, novelist, photographer, graphics designer, and co-founder of 2-Tier Software, Inc., where she helped design the Site Builder 2.0 Professional Writers Package, a template Web site builder designed just for writers and illustrators.

SmartWriters.com is a great marriage of her two loves: building Web sites and writing for kids. She holds a Masters degree in English Education from the University of Central Florida, and is a former Reading and Writing Workshop teacher.

Kelly Milner Halls

Kelly Milner Halls, Contributing Editor of the Smart Writers Journal, brings to us her vast experience and incredible wealth of knowledge of the children's publishing industry. Kelly has numerous awards and honors to her name, over a dozen books in print or under contract, and nearly 1,400 publishing credits to her name in magazines and newspapers like Writer's Digest, Booklist, Book Magazine, Book Links, BookPage, VOYA, Teen PEOPLE, Family Fun, Parenting Teens, New Jersey Monthly, Wyoming Magazine, Highlights for Children, Boy's Life, Fox Kids, Dig, ASK, Hullabaloo, Guidepost for Kids, Guidepost for Teens, US Kids, Dinosaurus, Kid City, Child Life, Children's Digest, Humpty Dumpty, Curiocity, the Denver Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Spokesman Review and many others, and on Web sites including Salon.com, BookReporter.com, KidsHealth.org, Freezone.com, iUniverse.com, CyberTeens.com, MommyTips.com, About.com, TeenReads.com, KidsReads.com, and others.  

She's not only incredibly talented. She's a good friend, too, and we're very lucky to have her with us here at SmartWriters.com.

Educator Nancy Bleich

Nancy Bleich has been selected Teacher of the Year three times and recently received the Golden Apple Teaching Award. She has taught elementary school for 21 years in three different states in the Southeast. Presently, she teaches fifth grade in Headland, Alabama. Her teaching situations have included self-contained classrooms, departmentalization, homogenous as well as heterogenous groupings, pod units, and open classroom situations. She has taught in an inclusive classroom situation and looped with a third/fourth combination. Nancy has seen lots of trends come full circle during her teaching experienece. The bottom line is that her students are kids first with multiple learning styles. Nancy feels passionately that given the opportunity with modeling and guidance, all students can incorporate writing into all subject areas. All students are capable of written expression. Giving students the power of words and allowing them to take ownership of their finished products is meaningful and rewarding. When students publish their written work with wall displays or bound personal books, pride and confidence shows.

	Roxyanne Young showing authors and illustrators how to promote their books online in a December workshop in Riverside, CA.

AUTHORS AND ILLUSTRATORS MOVING ONLINE

SmartWriters.com Editorial Director Roxyanne Young delivered a technology workshop for children's authors and illustrators in early December. Hosted by SCBWI Orange County Regional Advisor Fran Rusackas and set at the festive and beautiful Mission Inn in downtown Riverside, the workshop covered how to create an online portfolio for written and illustrative works using 2-Tier Software's Site Builder software, how to optimize images for online use, how to protect illustrations used online, and how to promote professional Web sites once they're up and running. Those who are have published books in the group were shown how to scan and edit their book covers for use online, as well as how to lighten too-dark areas of photos, crop out blemishes, and other methods for optimizing photographs for use on Web sites.

If you'd like to have Roxyanne Young come and deliver a workshop for your writing group, please contact her at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .