Erin Alladin

Thank you!

The cover image of the picture book Wait Like a Seed by Erin Alladin and Tara Anderson shows a blonde little girl blowing milkweed seeds against a yellow autumn sky.

A circular award seal with a grey and green tree at the centre reads The Nature Generation 2026 GEBA Long List

Had the delight and surprise today of learning that Wait Like a Seed is longlisted for the Green Earth Book Award! If I could have picked the most meaningful award list to be on one day, it would have been this one. I'm honoured they found Wait Like a Seed meets their mandate. #cankidlit #author

The thing that will break my sanity as an editor is not my clients' writing. It is not any pet peeves or frequent errors or language faux pas. It is the way Word leaves mere millimeters between the buttons for "Confirm this long, thoughtful comment I've spent 10 min crafting" and "Delete forever" 😫

Testimonial for editorial services and author counselling at erin-alladin.com: "Erin has a great approach—she's gentle but realistic."—Jesse McQuay

"...She helped me with a couple of projects (picture book and middle grade)...Her advice made sure I was on the right track from the beginning. I have solid confidence in her work, and I appreciate her guiding light as it will hopefully bring me towards publication.” erin-alladin.com/editing/test...

YOUTH WRITING CONTEST
What happens when a story is silenced? Who gets to decide what we read? Story Studio invites writers ages 12–18 across Canada to share their voices in defense of intellectual freedom. #writersky #teachersky

www.storystudio.ca/write/#Words...

Master Voice in Your Writing Having a distinct voice gives a book personality, making it stand out in readers’ memories—and in publishers’ inboxes. If you have trouble injecting that personality into your work, read on. We’re …

So publishers love books written with a distinct voice. But from the earliest years we've been trained by school to write objectively and plainly. A lot of writers have to re-learn writing with a memorable voice, and that's okay. I have tips!

erin-alladin.com/2026/02/09/m...

The earworm I woke up with today:
🎵 She's a frothy, little bubbbbble
With a flimsy sort of charmmmm.
And with very little troubbbble
I could break her little armmmmm! 🎶

I try to be a responsible brain owner and give it periods of natural thought without any media playing. I'm not sure how much rest it gets, though, when it simply puts the latest earworm on an eight-second loop 😵‍💫

I couldn't think of the words "Brussels sprouts," so instead my brain came out with "Brassica nuggets."

I mean...I guess that's not wrong? #gardensky 🌱

In this episode, I get a little vulnerable and confess to some past garden fails of my own... #gardensky

We urge Alberta’s school boards to make public all lists of banned titles.

#CAIABB #abbookban #albertabookban #abpoli #abgov #ableg #abed #bookbans #cankidlit #nobansincanada

Building Your Platform Before You Have a Book Deal When you start crafting your platform early, you can develop a public identity that complements your eventual book announcement without being subsumed by it. However, you should take some time to t…

People say to build your author platform before you have a book deal so you'll be more appealing to publishers. *I* say do it because you'll build a better platform. erin-alladin.com/2026/01/12/b... #authorsky #amwriting #canlit #bookpromo #bookpromotion #authorplatform

NU Alumnus Tells Stories That Spark Curiosity For children’s author, editor, and lifelong nature-observer Erin Alladin, every story begins with curiosity about language, landscape, and the overlooked details that make the world feel alive. But b...

What do you do with a BA in English? All sorts of things, every day. Appreciation to Nipissing University for the opportunity to reflect on how my time there has shaped my life as author, editor, communicator, and nature educator. www.nipissingu.ca/news/2026/nu... #authorsky

Petition for all board game rule books to state the goal players are trying to achieve BEFORE describing the gameplay, then restate it. If it's a complex game, this will happen multiple times.

The human brain cannot retain this much information without knowing the point of it!

Stop Guessing Your Readership’s Needs: Build an Ideal Reader Avatar Nothing pleases an acquisitions editor more than a writer who can articulate exactly who their audience is. Borrow a strategy from business courses to pinpoint yours.

Authors who know exactly who they're writing for have more success than those who don't. Try creating an Ideal Reader Avatar, an idea stolen from business' Ideal Customer Avatars. I've created an exercise to help you do just that: erin-alladin.com/2025/12/15/s... #authorsky #amwriting

Don't get me wrong: I'm a fan. But I think this season faced the same struggle that many book sequels do: after #1 is refined for ages and finally published, it becomes a hit and #2 is demanded within a year. There's no time for the same level of revision. #hazbinhotel

I look forward to watching it again and refining my opinions. But imagine, for example, there had been just two beats of silence in Abel's solo before he made his critical choice. It would have been incredible. #hazbinhotel

I'm a musical theatre nerd and a picture book editor and here's my take on Hazbin Hotel Season 2:

It had some great moments, but the pacing struggled. The more compact your medium, the more it matters. Some of the songs needed to move the story more and some turning points needed space to breathe.

Gardening Gifts and Grifts Getting ready for the holidays.

Doing holiday shopping for a gardener? Cynthia Brian has a Gifts and Grifts guide to help you avoid falling for scammy AI plants and products. She also has some books to recommend from real, live garden authors. #gardensky 🌱 #gifts #booklover open.substack.com/pub/cynthiab...

Ep. 39 Plant Evolution: Kid Q&A For this episode, a class of elementary-school students prepared a list of questions about plants for Sean and Erin to answer. How did plants come to be the way they are? Why did they evolve to hav…

Kids ask the darndest things! Actually, they ask the coolest things. For this week's episode we got questions from a class of elementary-school kids who wanted to know the whys and wherefores of why plants are the way they are. It's a delight! plantsalwayswin.com/2025/11/25/e... #gardensky

A free downloadable teaching guide for the picture book If You Go Walking by Erin Alladin and Miki Sato. The guide targets classroom teachers and outdoor educators. Its curriculum connections include STEM investigation skills, needs of living things, seasonal adaptations and seasonal weather changes.

It's If You Go Walking's book birthday! I'm celebrating with a free downloadable teaching guide. erin-alladin.com/books/ If you teach outdoor education or want to bring more outdoor ed into your classroom, this is made for you! #teacher #cankidlit #authorsky

This Picture Book Creates Confident Kids in Nature YouTube video by Erin Alladin

And YouTubers do this FULL TIME? Exhausting! But hey, here's a video about why I wrote If You Go Walking and how it can help you build up confident, curious, nature-connected kids. #outdooreducation #cankidlit #kidlit
youtu.be/ugMdnbOvtpE?...

I'm OBSESSED with these video close-ups of Miki Sato's 3D collage art in If You Go Walking. The fluffy chickadees! The splashing water! The vellum fog! #cankidlit #kidlit #authortok vt.tiktok.com/ZSfr2V1kH/

A graphic promoting If You Go Walking, a hardcover picture book for ages 4–8 by Erin Alladin and Miki Sato. Coming November 25th! Order now! Head outside Get curious. Build confidence. #kidlit #picturebook #authorsky

If You Go Walking was written as an antidote to nature deficit among kids. Kirkus Reviews calls it “A heartfelt paean to proto-scientists and everything left in this world for them to discover.” PW says it's “a thoughtful tribute to the power of observation.” erin-alladin.com/books/ #cankidlit

Author Erin Alladin encourages outdoor curiosity in latest book ‘I really want kids and their families to embrace spending time exploring the outdoors,’ Alladin said

Bay Today on If You Go Walking: "Alladin said, 'There’s so much nature deficit among kids today, and it impacts them in ways that we don’t necessarily see in the short term, but it influences how well they focus in school, how confident they feel about taking risks.'"
www.baytoday.ca/local-news/a...

In the latest of about 100 scam emails I've received as an author this fall, this sender forgot to edit the template:

Your work has deeply resonated with our members. Its [lyrical prose / emotional depth / compelling themes customize as appropriate] offers a perspective that feels... 🙃 #authorsky

What level of plant nerd are my cohost and I? Well, we made a reaction podcast to Little Shop of Horrors based around the accuracy of its representation of carnivorous plants. #plantnerd #gardensky #littleshopofhorrors #halloween

Award Finalists | ECO IMPACT 2026 - Learning Series & Awards Gala ECO IMPACT 2026 is proud to recognize the individuals, teams, and organizations driving meaningful change in Canada’s environmental sector. Our Award Finalists exemplify leadership, innovation, and a ...

ClearWater Farm runs one of the coolest apprenticeship programs I know. Their "agripreneurs" learn skills in regenerative agriculture and experiment in a safe environment, driving innovation. ClearWater has been nominated for an ECO Impact 2026 award. Learn more & vote: ecoimpact.ca/conference/f...

The Authors’ Database of AI Spam Emails In September 2025, many established authors started receiving a deluge of sincere-sounding emails. The writers appeared to have read and loved the authors’ books and were keen to connect about them…

Authors: got an inbox full of suspiciously flattering emails? Wish you could check them against what other writers are receiving to confirm they're spam? This post shares the emails received by me and several other @scbwicanadaeast.bsky.social authors. erin-alladin.com/2025/10/06/t... #authorsky

In-house Editors Benefits - Editors Canada Can in-house editors benefit from joining Editors Canada? Yes, because we represent all editors in Canada! As members, in-house editors benefit from a variety of opportunities such as training,…

Editors Canada isn't just for freelancers. We're a national hub for editors who are salaried, freelance and contract, and for students still learning the craft. Are you an in-house editor? Learn about the benefits of belonging to an editing association: