We are delighted to report that the ebook of Aimee Garcia-Tice's 'Maybe because' picture book (with adorable illustrations from Serena Geddes!) is coming to an ebook store near you very soon! We have had a sneak peek at the book at it looks great! Serena's illustrations look beautiful and Aimee's heartwarming story about the best boy in the whole wide world can now be shared with an even wider audience! We will keep you posted as to the 'Maybe because' ebook launch! 

We are very fortunate to have recently interviewed Katie Robbins, VP Educational Marketing and Partnerships at Figment, the online place for young people to gather and talk about and publish their writing and other projects. When we first heard about Figment we were just so excited! We love finding new ways to inspire creativity! Wish there had been something like this around when we were kids! Read on to hear more about Figment and follow the links to see some amazing examples of writing by young people!

Can you give us a bit of background to how Figment was formed and why?
Figment was inspired by an article that one of our co-founders Dana Goodyear wrote for the New Yorker about the popularity of cell phone novels in Japan. She was astounded by how this community of teens and young adults were connecting by sharing stories through this unconventional form. She and Jacob Lewis, our CEO, wanted to bring a similar spirit to the US, giving young writers the tools to write and share and publish their own works in a vibrant online community.
 

What age young people contribute and approximately how many?
Since launching in December 2010, we've built a community of about 90,000 users, who have created an ever-growing library of more than 200,000 "books" on the site (a book can be anything from a sonnet to an essay to a screenplay). Figment is open to anyone 13 and over, but the vast majority of our users are between 13 and 24.


What are some of the good things that come out of Figment?
The fact that in a year this community has written more than 200,000 books is staggering. And moreover that our users take the time to read and reflect on each others' work with tremendous care and empathy is even more heartening. Figment was founded to help inspire a new generation of readers and writers, and we hear from regularly from our users that the site has made reading and writing addictive. It makes me grin just thinking about it.


What is your goal for Figment for each young person? What do you want it to help them do?
We had one user who told us that he used to be what he called a "closet writer" but that by connecting with his peers on Figment, he was able to open up and to think of himself as a writer. I'd love for each young person to have a similar experience. We're not all going to be professional writers, but each of us is a writer — with stories to tell and ideas to communicate. We also hope that our users will grow as writers, both by being in the habit of regular writing and by taking advantage of some of the opportunities we offer on the site to interact with professional writers through contests, q-and-a's, and other special programming.
 
Could you ultimately put writers in touch with young illustrators/movie makers etc?
We do see some young writers connecting with artists in other disciplines. For example, users design and create their own book covers to pair with each of the books they publish to the site. We see a lot of budding illustrators offering their services to help writers design those book covers.

What is your long term plan for Figment?
We're excited to have more educators working with the site. This fall we added a new function called Figment Groups that allows teachers, librarians, and other educators to create private groups on the site. We think of them as "virtual writing workshops," where classes can work on all of the phases of the writing process in a closed, safe space before publishing them to the entire Figment community. 

And we just want to keep growing the community of young writers and readers. Every day about 1000 new pieces of original writing are added to the site. We want to see that keep going, and even increase!

Is Figment just for users in the USA?
No, though some of the writing contests we run are only open to users in the US. 

Do you know of any similar service for younger kids?
Online communities are difficult for younger students because of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which many social media sites from hosting kids younger than 13. The National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has some great services for younger students through its Young Writers Program. 

Thank you so much, Katie!

Click these links to read some of the writing young people have posted on Figment! 
http://figment.com/books/166064-Big-City-Bright-Lights-Big-City- (poetry)

http://figment.com/books/170224-Bad-Luck-s-in-the-Business (fiction)

'A Bella Street Mystery: Doc Gutson's Revenge', the sequel to 'The Secret Formula' has just come out as an ebook on Amazon and Smashwords! Thanks for the IT support from SH Media! The paperback will be out in a few weeks, hopefully! Very exciting! Please go to the Amazon page and click 'like'! Thank you! :)

We have details for most of the winners of the 'Maybe because' giveaway but we need email addresses for some! Alyssa Haws, Gemmie Alliston and Julianne — if you could email us your details we will get copies out to you! Thanks!

Bug in a Book as done it again! A new, amazing issue of their emag with an interview with Serena Geddes, one of our favorite illustrators ever! Serena illustrated 'Maybe because', Aimee Garcia-Tice's picture book and National Adoption Awareness Week's Recommended Read. Serena was an absolute joy to work with from start to finish and we are looking forward to working with her in 2012! Check out the Bug in a Book mag here! 

'A Bella Street Mystery: The Secret Formula'  is now on sale for 99 cents here!

Many thanks to everyone who entered to win a copy of Aimee Garcia-Tice's wonderful picture book 'Maybe because'! Copies will soon be winging their way to the winners! 

The incredible and prolific writer for adults and children gives his top 5 tips to writing for short story competitions in a clip from the BBC. I think these tips could be applied to all writing! One thing that really comes across clearly in this clip is Mr Horowitz's absolute passion for writing. This clip should inspire everyone to pick up a pen or turn on their computer! Get writing! Anthony Horowitz's website is here.

We have been so impressed with the creativity shown by young people around the 'Over To You' artwork for 'The Secret Formula'! Recently, Poppy, a reader from Sydney, submitted a wonderful sculpture of the Secret Formula! Check it out! So far, we have received a beautiful handwritten letter, drawings, a video book trailer and the sculpture! How creative! :)

It was very exciting on Saturday, to hear that the first Bella Street Mystery 'The Secret Formula' was runner up in the fiction category at the Woollahra lit fest here in Sydney! The winner was an adult novel so I feel Bella held her own! One of the judges said she thought 'The Secret Formula' was so scary it should be rated MA!! I'm glad she found it suspenseful as I think young people like to feel that tingle of fear!