Having a book published is a dream come true for many writers and illustrators. While writing and publishing a book is still a dream for many well-accomplished adults, one woman has made it incredibly easy even for children to put their imagination out into the world. Scribblitt.com provides writing and illustration tools to facilitate the creation of a story, and the print-on-demand technology to publish a beautiful hard-cover book!
The best thing about Scribblitt is this – Joining Scribblitt, creating content, and entering contests are absolutely FREE.
Hi Andrea. It’s so wonderful to have you on Kidskintha. Tell us how you came up with the wonderful idea of Scribblitt.
After over a decade working in marketing on kids brands, I started Scribblitt when I saw my older daughter constantly writing stories and then asking for help getting them published. My younger daughter drew picture after picture and I had so much paper all over my house. It struck me that kids everywhere would love the idea of being able to write, illustrate and publish their own high quality, professionally printed books. After all, everyone has a story to tell!
How does Scribblitt help cognitive development in kids?
Statistics show that reading helps children develop writing skills which subsequently helps develop and stimulate cognitive growth, organizational abilities, and persuasiveness. In other words, writing powers the brain and this is particularly important during childhood when the mind is growing rapidly. So a website like Scribblitt is extremely helpful in getting kids interested in reading and writing!
Tell us about some of the special tools that Scribblitt has developed to help bring children’s ideas to life.
Scribblitt was designed as a child-friendly and comprehensive website that makes the process of creating a story easy. For example, “Story Starters” helps kids generate ideas to get started. The “Planning Tool” focuses on tips to develop the story by thinking about the setting, the characters and the plot. Kids type directly into a template in order to create their book’s cover, content, and an “About The Author” biography on the back.
“Illustrate Itt” is Scribblitt’s ‘pick and click’ illustration tool where professional images can be created for use in a book, or you can upload scanned drawings or photos. Stationery, such as notepads and note cards, can also be created using this feature.
Stories can be shared on the “Scribblitt Library”, entered to be a “Featured Scribbler” or entered to our monthly “Scribblitt Writing Contests” which offer great prizes such as autographed books, or free publishing.
Best of all, the stories can be printed in high-quality, 20 page, 8×8, professionally bound, hard-cover books for $24.99. Books arrive in about 2 weeks and can be shipped worldwide. Plus, for every book that Scribblitt publishes, we donate a book to a child in need!
Scribblitt makes a great gift for young authors. Simply choose from a variety of images, type a message and send an E-Gift Card.
Are there any new trends among young kids and teens in the world of writing or books?
The popularity of graphic novels keeps on growing, particularly among kids and teens, and graphic novels are being used increasingly in the classroom. This past year, we launched a new book format, a Scribblitt comic/graphic novel, that kids can have fun creating by layering background photos, characters, speech bubbles, and more. A 24 page, photo quality, softcover comic costs $16.99. It was important to us to provide kids and teachers with the tools to help them create and publish their own graphic novels to encourage this new multimodal form of writing.
Scribblitt is certainly an innovative new idea and its uniqueness and creativity has attracted attention even in celebrity circles. Can you tell us more about that?
We interview “Celebrity Authors” in an effort to share their backgrounds and have them give advice to young writers. Famous authors like Gordon Korman, Megan McDonald, Elise Broach, and Grace Lin have spoken with Scribblitt. Kate Klise has posted advice about “How to Write a Story” and Dan Gutman’s “6 Step Guide” is also on view.
Scribblitt is also known to partner with causes around the world. What are some of the causes that Scribblitt has been a part of?
Scribblitt partners with many worthy causes such as helping to raise awareness for International Week of the Deaf. In fact, since Scribblitt’s launch in 2011, Scribblitt has partnered with several organizations that support the same ideals and philosophies about education, creativity and giving back. Yoobi school supplies, Lonely Planet Kids, Junior Explorers The Gluten Intolerance Group are just a few of the companies that Scribblitt has teamed up with. We plan to continue this strategy since it is a great way to raise awareness for a worthy cause, provide our scribblers with exciting opportunities, and create a mutually beneficial way to reach new consumers. Finding partners who share our beliefs steers us towards organizations that support the education of kids, especially when it comes to reading and writing.
Scribblitt sounds like a dream for teachers or homeschooling parents to use with students. Is Scribblitt in the classroom?
We work with a lot of educators on class publishing programs helping them tie to their curriculum with Scribblitt, providing the tools to help teachers share access to the students books for editing and ordering. Registered educators receive a 10% discount on publishing. Interested teachers or homeschooling parents can get more information at www.scribblitt.com/teacherprojects or email us at contact@scribblitt.com.
How do you envision the future for Scribblitt?
We will continue to develop new tools, new technologies, and new products to help kids express their creativity in the world of writing, bringing their stories to life. Scribblitt is already being used around the world, but ideally, we will continue to expand internationally as well.
Rachel published a book with Scribblitt about Celiac Disease.
How do you manage your time between your family and your growing enterprise?
Luckily, I work from a home office, allowing me to balance my business with my family. Scribblitt was my passion so every free minute was spent on developing the business. My kids are in high school now and don’t need me so much anymore. Now, they are happy to help ME with ideas for Scribblitt!
Finally, what do you like about Kidskintha?
The articles and interviews are informative and relevant and written in a fun way. And, at the end of the day, it’s all about what we can do to help our kids!
We would like to offer Kidskintha-users an exclusive 15% off on publishing at Scribblitt to encourage everyone to become a published author! Simply register for a free account at www.scribblitt.com/login, create a book in write itt and use discount code KIDS15 at checkout. Happy Scribbling!
To learn more, visit the official Scribblitt website, Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn page.
Disclaimer: Kidskintha has no monetary gain from this association. We simply think it is a great idea and lots of parents and kids will love it!
