Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 140

What You Need to Know about #PublishingPaidMe

It all started when several publishers posted in support of Black Lives Matter.   Young adult author Tochi Onyebuchi challenged them to do more than create encouraging Tweets. “Publishing houses, y’all BLM statements are cute but I’ma need that SAME energy when we start talking Black writers and book advances…” That’s a portion of the Tweet […]

3 Things to Know about Subtext

I’ve always loved writers who use subtext in their work.  Sometimes it is a picture book author/illustrator who says one thing in the text and another in the illustration.  Other times a novelist makes sures that the character’s dialogue is contracted by their words. What is subtext? Subtext is anything that is revealed without being […]

3 Ways to Help People Find Your Work

Whether you are a self-published picture book author or a nonfiction author who writes about racial justic, your work will reach young readers only if people can find you.  And that takes us to the first thing that you can do to help people find your work.  Have a web presence.  Whether your presence is […]

Talking about Race

I have written five books about race: Black Lives Matter, The Murders of Tupac and Biggie, Hidden Human Computers, What Are Race and Racism?, and The Dakota Access Pipeline.  So many people hear these titles and look puzzled.  “I thought you wrote for kids?”  These books are for tweens and teens, but even that makes many […]

Voices for the Navajo Nation

When I was researching COVID-19, it quickly became clear that indigenous, Latinx, and black communities have been hit especially hard by the virus.  There are several reasons for this: Pre-existing conditions.  Diabetes, high-blood pressure, and heart disease make infection more dangerous.  These conditions can be found among these populations. Access to medical care.  Sick days, […]

#KIDLIT Community Rally for Black Lives

Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd. The list of black Americans killed by their fellow citizens is far too long.  Taylor and Floyd were killed by police. Arbery was jogging when he was gunned down by a father and son pair of concerned citizens. Is it any wonder that people are scared? Kwame Alexander, Jason […]

Emphasizing What Makes You Unique

Yesterday, I read a post by Danielle Burby of Nelson Literary on “The Thing That Makes You Special.”  She wrote about writing what you know and writing what brings you joy.  I’ve been thinking about this post all day and how, at least in my mind, it relates to how we market our work. Most […]

Reading about Race and Racism

Not everyone who sees this post will have experienced racism. Not directly. But you’ve probably seen it. When book covers depict characters as white or lighter than in the book itself. When white actors are cast in non-white roles. When oil pipelines pass through reservations instead of nearby cities that are largely white.  When city […]

5 Things To Work on When Writing Isn’t in the Cards

I intended to get a chapter outlined yesterday.  My editor asked me to get this done but we’ve had rain for four days straight and the mold is up.  Let’s just call what I woke up with a pounding headache and get one to discussing writing. Or not writing.  Because even when the headache backed […]

3 Ways to Promote Your Work Online

You may have already seen something about this, but J. K. Rowling is serializing a children’s book online.  Each weekday from May 26 to July 10, she will be posting one or more chapters of The Ickabog.  She wrote this story for her own children while she was working on the Harry Potter books.  She had never […]