Craft Books Kaz Recommends – The Kaz Windness Blog
Essential Resources For Writers, Illustrators, and Creatives
Any books you’d add? Comment! And remember to take classes on writing and illustrating children’s books at CuddlefishAcademy.com
Note: I’ve included Amazon affiliate links for convenience, but please support your local indie bookstores whenever possible. Mine is the Boulder Bookstore HERE.
“Writing Picture Books” Anne Whitford Paul (for writers): This is the number one book you must read if you want to write children’s books. https://amzn.to/3E0lKbz or new edition: https://amzn.to/3DQbPWe.
“Picture This, How Pictures Work” Molly Bang (for artists): This book will revolutionize how you think about composition and narrative visual storytelling. https://amzn.to/4iuBmmp
“Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to edit yourself into print” Renni Brown & Dave King — A spectacular nuts-and-bolts workshop in great writing. This will improve your writing chops, and these tools can be applied to chapter books, middle-grade, and YA manuscripts.
“Wired for Story” Lisa Cron: The best book I’ve read on storytelling and how to hack the human brain when writing your book. Great for screen and novel writers, but applicable to all kinds of storytelling, including children’s. https://amzn.to/42itQoq
“Story Genius” Lisa Cron: An advanced dive into storytelling and brain science to help you hack your plot and create impactful narratives. https://amzn.to/3CcLG3e
“The Anatomy of Story” John Truby: An excellent dissection of character motivation with good (albeit male-centric) examples from film. https://amzn.to/4cK7Fwq
“Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel” Hallie Ephron: This is one of the best plotting and self-editing books I have read, and found it extremely helpful even though I was not writing a mystery. Highly recommend! https://amzn.to/3YXqSF0
“Pixar Storytelling” Dean Movshovitz: For anyone who’s ever wondered how Pixar tells such dynamic and impactful stories, here’s the unofficial yet enlightening rulebook. Quick read. https://amzn.to/423MB0C
“On Writing” Stephen King: A memoir and guide for aspiring writers with excellent tips on workflow, where inspiration comes from, and how several of King’s biggest books came to be. https://amzn.to/4lwHyx4
“The Elements of Style” Strunk and White: An efficient and funny essential guide to effective writing. Truly a classic and must-read, recommended by Stephen King. https://amzn.to/4jiSxrW
“Writing with Pictures” Uri Shulevitz: Out of print and difficult to come by, so watch for used copies or request at your library. This has been the essential primer to picture book illustration and visual storytelling for two decades by the master, Uri Shulevitz. These listings are expensive, but provide more info on the book. https://amzn.to/4jbCmxi https://amzn.to/3Gg6JUp
“Understanding Comics” Scott McCloud: This is the comics bible! You MUST own this book if you want to write or draw comics or graphic novels. https://amzn.to/3GfFMjE
“Drawing Words & Writing Pictures” Jessica Abel and Matt Madden. Recommended by Stan Yan, a “comprehensive book on comic creation in 15/16 week chapter assignments. It sources its references from books like Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud and more, but it’s really designed to be a turnkey college course, which is why I used it.” https://amzn.to/42PiYjv
“Refuse to Choose” Barbara Sher: This book saved my creative life. If you are ADHD or a “multi-potentialite” creative with lots of interests, Sher will make you feel seen and provide ways to identify what kind of creative “scanner” you are and how to know which projects to finish and how to finish them. I can’t recommend this book more. https://amzn.to/409a51D
“Art, Money, Success!” by Maria Brophy: All the art business stuff you should have learned in college but didn’t. Although this is through the fine art and art licensing lens, the information is applicable to all creative businesses, including illustration and children’s picture books. It also takes the cringe out of talking about your art. https://amzn.to/4chvmfu
“Sell Books and Get Paid Doing Author School Visits” Kim Norman: For most authors and illustrators, visiting schools and libraries is a large part of their income. It’s also the most rewarding part of being published: meeting and inspiring your readers. Norman covers all the nuts and bolts of getting gigs, negotiating contracts, what should be in your presentation, plus how to have a great, successful school visit. https://amzn.to/4imBG6K
“The Creative Act: A Way of Being” Rick Rubin: My favorite book on creativity and a wonderful comfort listen on audio book, Rubin explores the creative process, where ideas come from, how to open yourself to greater projects. Beautifully inclusive for all kinds of artists, from musicians to filmmakers to writers and illustrators. (Ignore his advice on not getting your appendix removed if it ruptures, however. Listen to a doctor, not a music producer.) https://amzn.to/3RsyhZ8
“Graphic Artists Guild Handbook” Pricing guide with contracts and advice for artists, illustrators, and graphic designers. https://amzn.to/3EuFgxT
“Art, Inc.: The Essential Guide for Building Your Career as an Artist” Meg Mateo Ilasco & Lisa Congdon https://amzn.to/4jx5miZ
“Draw Stronger: Self-Care for Cartoonists and Other Visual Artists” https://amzn.to/4dXBeve
Other Author Tools:
-This handy writing tool gives you an accurate picture book word count by removing anything that says “Art Note.” It is free, but you need to create an account. https://authortools.hellonathan.ca/
-For authors looking for a way to purchase their books at the publisher discount and still get credit towards earning out their advance, Author Author has you covered: https://www.author-author.net/
Books from Art School :
“Drawing the Head & Figure,” Jack Hamm; https://amzn.to/3YEL52q
“How To Draw Animals,” Jack Hamm: https://amzn.to/3GP1JGA
“Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes,” Jack Hamm: https://amzn.to/4jPglnQ
Here’s a PDF with my top four children’s book writing and illustrating books:
