This week we feature something for our writers and something for our illustrators - because these articles were so very good.

The first one called '21 dumb mistakes to avoid when writing your first e-book' is a must read. Thankfully the writer has grouped the mistakes under sub headings, and gives both the common mistakes and how to fix or avoid them. http://myexpertdesk.com/21-dumb-mistakes-to-avoid-when-writing-your-first-e-book-2015/?utm_content=buffered7b7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer The tips I like most are a) writing your introduction when you have finished your manuscript, b) copying your draft before you start making any edits (so you can find the bits you cut out and want back in), and c) proofreading your work in a different format, and font and font size to the one you wrote it in.

The second one is this wonderful set of annotated photographs of an illustrator's process in producing a double page spread for a picture book. http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/gallery/2015/mar/24/korky-paul-how-to-illustrate-books?utm_content=bufferedef2&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer It takes you on a journey from the text to go on the spread, to the first A4 rough draft and all the way to the final artwork, with notes on paper selection, graphite pencil selection, on what makes a good eraser and other tips. For an author, reading it will help you understand why the artwork takes so long to prepare and costs so much. For an illustrator, there is always something new that can be learned from another professional in the same field.

Earlier this week, the Children's Book Writers and Illustrators of the Hunter and Central Coast signed up for a Twitter account. Our Twitter handle is @CBHunCC.

The purpose of entering the Twitter-verse is to find the best online content to help our writers and illustrators develop their creative careers, and then to share it with them (through the Monday Gleanings newsletter) and with you (if you Follow us). From all the good stuff we find, the best web-link of the week will be shared on our blog page.

We will be looking to follow those on Twitter who are regularly posting helpful content; blog-posts, PDFs, infographics, tutorials, interviews, success stories etc.

Writing the first draft of your story is actually the easy part. For an infographic flow chart on what comes next, this featured link is excellent: http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/publishing-a-novel-infographic/98591
If you are just starting out, it will save you from some novice mistakes. If you have experienced the querying process, it will assure you that you are not alone, and you might even experience a chuckle. 

James Foley, a Perth based illustrator, http://jamesfoley.com.au/ frequently gets requests from TAFE students. They always ask him what the work of a professional illustrator looks like. So he decided to write a blog-post about it http://jamesfoley.com.au/2015/03/04/how-to-survive-as-an-illustrator-advice-for-a-student/ . For James the thing that really started his career on the right track was joining SCBWI and learning about the industry from others who already had a degree of success. However the bulk of his income comes from doing talks and workshops. It took 6 years of having a day job before he could go full time with illustration. But that is only an appetiser, the blog-post has much more.

Sometimes it is good to get a literary agent's opinion on social media use and what constitutes a good story opener. This transcribed interview with Brooks Sherman gives both. http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/2015-scbwi-europolitan-con-agent-brooks.html He also has a good tip for illustrators in describing how he found the author-illustrator of 'I Am Otter' .

Technology for producing e-book versions of picture books is becoming more user friendly. That is what Laura Backes of Children's Book Insider thinks in this guest post http://janefriedman.com/2015/02/23/picture-ebooks-for-kids/

That is good news for both writers and illustrators. https://kdp.amazon.com/kids is the place to investigate further. The new tool is called Kindle Kid's Book Creator which has both Mac and PC versions, and can import graphics in jpeg, pdf, tiff, png and ppm formats and has an option for text pop-ups.