Banner art by Michelle Weltz

Please send comments to Co-Assistant Regional Advisor Sue Lawrence at montana-ara2@scbwi.org. Thank you for your input.

News and Announcements

Awards and Grants

Current or upcoming opportunities include:

Karen Cushman Late Bloomer Award: The Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award is for authors over the age of 50 who have not been traditionally published in the children’s literature field. The grant was established by Newbery Award winner and Newbery Honor Book recipient Karen Cushman and her husband, Philip Cushman, in conjunction with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Submissions open through March 31, 2026.

Work-in-Progress Awards: The SCBWI Work-In-Progress (WIP) Award assists children’s book writers and illustrators in the publication of a specific project currently not under contract. One winner per category will be selected. SCBWI reserves the right not to confer this award in any given year. Submissions open through March 31, 2026.

Featured Illustrator: features one illustrator member each month. The Featured Illustrator’s art is highlighted prominently on the homepage and all SCBWI social media.

Draw This!: A monthly art prompt, part of the SCBWI publication Insight. Two winners will be featured in Insight and on SCBWI social media.

Don Freeman Grant: Don Freeman was a renowned illustrator and an early supporter of SCBWI. He established this award to enable picture book illustrators to further their understanding, training, and work in the picture book genre. Two grants of $1,000 each will be awarded annually. One grant to a published illustrator and one to a pre-published illustrator. Submissions open through March 31, 2026.

A. Orr Grant: This award for middle grade and YA fantasy and science fiction authors is sponsored by longtime SCBWI member Michele Orr. It is Michele’s honor and joy to create this award in remembrance of her sister Alice Orr Sprague. The winner of the A. Orr Grant will receive tuition to the SCBWI Summer Conference and $600 cash. Submissions open May 1 through May 31 in the MEMBER HOME Awards portal.

Visit the Awards and Grants page of the SCBWI website to learn more about these awards and others. And remember to check the newsfeed on your member home page for other opportunities.

Author-Illustrator Rosemary Wells is coming to Bozeman! You may know her from her Max or Sophie series though she's published over 150 books for children. Join us for a short presentation about publishing children’s literature in today's market followed by a casual conversation with Rosemary.

WHEN: 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 28



WHERE: Country Bookshelf, 28 West Main Street, Bozeman, Montana

There's no cost to attend but registration is encouraged. Please do so by clicking the button below.

And join us earlier that day for an

In-Person Member Social

Come Join our Monthly Virtual Hobnobs

Montana Sparks Show 2026

by Illustrator Coordinator Jeanne Bowman

Only one prompt left!

We released a new prompt on the 1st day each month for 12 months to encourage members to write or illustrate a piece for their portfolios or to spark new ideas for stories. The prompts were written by the amazing Megan Emmot.

Last year, after 12 months, we compiled our work and sent it to libraries across Montana to be exhibited. Members’ work was shown at the Billings Public Library, North Lake County Public Library in Polson, the Great Falls Public Library, and the Missoula Public Library.

Thank you so much to our wonderful librarians and member volunteers for doing the hard work to showcase great writing and art for children. We need these services now more than ever and hope you will head into your local library to support their efforts!

Don't forget: Sparks sessions are still happening! 

On the first of every month through April 2026, we will email you a shiny new prompt written by Megan Emmot. You can use this prompt to create a new story, poem, or illustration for your portfolio. We will share our work at our monthly co-working sessions, which will take place on the second Saturday of each month at 1 p.m. Mountain Time. (Sharing your work is always optional).

You can work on the prompts even if you don't attend the co-working sessions and you can attend the co-working sessions even if you don't work on the prompts. The sessions are meant as a way to socialize, share your work, get feedback, and to set aside some time to work on your creative project. The sessions are generally divided into two 45-minute blocks: one for working, the other for sharing and chatting. 

All creators are welcome at these sessions. Links to the sessions will be emailed, so keep your eyes peeled for them!

We only have one session left until we go on hiatus, so we hope to see you there!

Email montana-ic@scbwi.org if you have any questions.

Kid-Lit Craft Corner

Want to be a guest contributor?

A note from the editor: We know there are a lot of resident experts out there across our great state of Montana and we'd love to hear from you. Have you discovered some tips that could help your fellow kid-lit creators? Have you read a great craft book or utilized some other resource you want to tell us about? Or would you like to share a behind-the-scenes glimpse about how you created your last book? We would love to include more guest articles from our members in upcoming newsletters.

We ask that articles be no more than 800 words and be written with the goal of helping or inspiring our writers and/or illustrators. Guest contributors will receive space for a short bio and a link to their website and social media. If you have something you'd like to share, please email the article (or a proposal) to mtscbwisocial@gmail.com.

Note: Submissions are not guaranteed publication.

A HUGE thank you to author Janet Fox and SCBWI-Montana Illustrator Coordinator Jeanne Bowman for contributing the kid-lit craft articles for this issue.



The Publishing World for Kid-lit Writers in 2026: Traditional or Self-Publish?

by Janet Fox

Whether you’re a writer just starting out, you have publishing credits, or you’re somewhere in between, your options in publishing (and/or bringing back out-of-print work) have changed dramatically in just the past few years.

When I began writing for children almost 30 years ago self-publishing was a gimmick, known in the trade as “vanity publishing." Authors who went that route needed lots of money to throw at dubious outfits that would “publish” their books, only to do nothing more. Self-publishing was scorned as a desperate writer’s last act, with books languishing in boxes in the author’s garage. Most self-published books were poorly edited, with bad cover art, and had no chance of making it big.

Amazon was born in 1999 to sell books in print. Then, about a decade later the world was introduced to the electronic book, or ebook, though their popularity didn’t really take off until Amazon launched the Kindle in 2007. Those two events changed everything.

With the growth in sales of ebooks, a handful of new businesses stepped in to support self-publishing writers. No longer did authors have to produce physical books and worry about shipping and hand selling. The new businesses quickly provided better cover art and instant ebook distribution and certain authors – especially in the romance genres – made a lot of money.

Self-publishing still retained its taint while traditional publishing was still (is still) perceived as the high bar. But in the past five years, even those perceptions have shifted. Self-publishing is no longer a last choice for an author but may be a best choice.

Why?

First, because authors realized that they could make a lot more money self-publishing. Traditionally published authors make pennies on the dollar for every book sold; self-published authors can make substantially more.

Second, the glamor of traditional publishing is wearing thin. Publishers don’t pay editors enough, so turnover is high. It’s difficult for an author to land a deal. It’s almost impossible to make a living as an author. Publishers don’t have marketing budgets. Books go out of print before buyers lose interest in them.



Third, the support systems for self-published authors have become stronger. Ever better cover art, editorial options, easy and attractive layout, and wide distribution of physical books—these avenues now open to authors make for success. And because most of these providers take a small cut of sales, the upfront costs to the author are minimal, and the providers are incentivized to help with marketing.

If you are a new author, I want to be clear. I’m not advocating for the unpublished author to dive right into self-publishing. The caveats are real.



You must still have a great manuscript. You want people to read and love your art, so don’t skimp on doing the work. Find an editor or book coach. Find beta readers you trust. Take courses, read craft books, know how to write and revise a great book.

Understand the marketplace. Understand the support systems that are available and find those that are reliable and trustworthy. Know that some genres and audiences are better suited to traditional than to self-publishing, especially in kid-lit. Picture books, for example, require careful attention when considering self-publishing particularly if the author is not the illustrator. But that’s a topic for a whole different article. Regardless, do the research.

A middle ground can be found in hybrid publishing. This newish option is expensive for the author but provides great support. Do your research there, too.

Traditional publishing is still a best option for some while hybrid is an option for others. But self-publishing, in my view, is right up there now in both return on investment and in quality of creation and is worth a close look. It might be just the right path for you.

I write about my own adventures in self-publishing in my weekly Substack posts with details and step-by-step paths and options, like this one. In the works is a comprehensive craft book on writing and revising books for children and young adults.

Janet Fox is the award-winning author of 13 books for young readers, including three YA novels, four middle grade novels, two picture books, and one middle grade non-fiction, with more books coming. Her most recent middle grade novel, The Mystery of Mystic Mountain (Simon & Schuster 2024), was a finalist in the Juvenile category for the 2025 Edgar Award from Mystery Writers of America, the 2025 youth selection for Library of Congress Great Reads from the State of Montana, and a 2025-26 Montana statewide read from Humanities Montana. Janet is a writing teacher and has an MFA in writing for children from Vermont College of Fine Arts and lives with her husband and their friendly yellow Lab in the Montana mountains. You can find more at www.janetsfox.com and follow her on writing craft here: https://janetfox.substack.com/.



Working with Illustration Clients: Presenting your Work

by Illustrator Coordinator

Jeanne Bowman

For some reason I don’t understand, the part that is most opaque about being an illustrator is the bit where you work with clients on projects. Maybe it’s because the way to do this is up to each individual illustrator. But when I was just beginning my venture into illustration, I felt so much anxiety around this part of the process that it delayed my start for a long time. 

I had so many questions. Do I just attach my work in an email? What if it is too big for the email? How do I explain the things they need to know during the thumbnail stage? It wasn’t until I started to learn about graphic design rather than illustration that I finally understood how I should conduct myself in a professional manner. In this article I am going to walk you through the steps of how I present my work to clients when I am working on a job. 

The process:



The client gives me a brief—usually this is just spelled out in an email.

My steps:

1. Make a dedicated folder on my external hard drive with the name of the client and the name of the project. I also make a folder for them in my Dropbox account. This is my cloud storage account that I will use to share files with them. I create a document that goes in both folders that has everything I need to know about the project: the brief, dimensions, delivery instructions, etc.

2. When working with new clients, I will reply to their brief in one email chain, unless they ask otherwise. I attach a PDF I have made that outlines my process so they know what to expect. I mainly do this so they don’t freak out during the thumbnail stage. This document shows what thumbnails typically look like from me, what line art looks like, and what color and value sketches look like (if I use them). There’s also an example of what a final piece of art looks like.

3. I begin work on their project. When I have their thumbnails ready, I create a document called a slide deck that will present the work in a professional manner. I use Adobe InDesign to do this, but you can also use Canva. In the slide deck, I have a title page that includes the name of the project, who it is for, the date, and my contact information. I title the document so it is easy to find at first glance—something like “Project Name, Rough Dummy Sketches” or “Project Name, Cover Options.” I also include my name and logo so it looks like I am a consistent, branded business (still working on this bit).

In the slide deck I have simple pages with just my logo, a header that reminds them of what the document/project is, and sometimes page numbers. On these pages I have a friendly description of what the image is to help them “read” it and then my sketch next to the description. If I have any reference material that will help set the mood or show what I am thinking, I also include it here.

Then I follow up with a simple "Thank You" that tells them where they can find me.

I use this same slide deck throughout the entire process to show them the work as it progresses, updating the headers and notes as needed. You can look at graphic design slide decks to find fancy templates you can buy if you don’t want to make one of your own. I find simpler is better.

4. I make a PDF of this slide deck and that is what I attach to the email. Or, I will upload the PDF into my Dropbox folder and share the link with the client so they can access and view it easily without dealing with downloading attachments. They will then provide feedback or ask for revisions and this process is repeated until the project is finished!

I hope this is helpful. If you have any questions about my process, please email me at montana-ic@scbwi.org.

Jeanne Bowman is an illustrator who lives in Sidney, Montana. She has illustrated four award winning picture books for South Dakota Historical Society Press. You can learn more about her work from her website: jeannebowmanillustrates.com As the Montana region Illustrator Coordinator, she shares tips and resources for our members. She also writes about her process on Substack at Notes from the Curious Bean and on Instagram @jeanneillustrates.

SCBWI Winter Conference Photos

Courtesy of Illustrator Coordinator Jeanne Bowman

These photos are just a sampling of the ones I took on my first trip to the NY SCBWI Winter Conference. If you are considering attending next year's conference, I highly recommend it. I came away so inspired and invigorated from the keynotes, panels, and individual classes that I feel like a brand new creator! Networking with other regional members expanded my circle tenfold. Getting to shake hands with the creators of my favorite books was a dream come true!

Photo subjects top to bottom, left to right:

PANEL: The State of Children's Publishing in 2026 featuring TeMika Grooms, Mina Chung, Regina Brooks, Alvina Ling, Erica Rand Silverman, and Tyiana Combs

PANEL: Banned But Not Silenced: Authors Tell Their Stories

shown on screen: Tiffany Jackson and A.S King

Sarah Baker, Executive Director of SCBWI gives a welcome message to the conference

PANEL: Banned But Not Silenced: Authors Tell Their Stories featuring Lesa Cline-Ransome, Tiffany Jackson, A.S King, Meg Medina, Jason Reynolds

Jason Reynolds, Keynote speaker

Celebration Corner

—where we share bookish news

of our Montana members