Write a Children's Book

Archive for the ‘writing a children's book’ Category

“The Do’s” for writing a children’s book:

• Think about what genre of book you want to write and then read as many books in that genre as possible.
• Look locally to your library and bookstores, and get to know the staff. Become familiar with them and friendly.
• Think about joining a writing group, as every bit of critique can provide valuable insight into the realm of children’s books.
• Conferences and workshops can be great, not only for knowledge but for networking. Local colleges sometimes have evening classes that could be attended.
• A lot of up and coming authors find that such books as the Children’s Writer’s & Illustrators Market can provide useful contacts to get you started, when thinking about publishers and editors.
• You can submit your manuscripts to places for valuable feedback from an expert, but beware – this can cost money!

“The Don’ts” for writing a children’s book:

• The key is never give up – especially when it is something that you love doing so much!
• If you submit your manuscript on fancy coloured paper, it totally yells amateur, so steer well clear of that.
• Editors won’t be impressed by beginners assumptions such as “My daughter’s class all loved it and I think your readers will too”. It’s unnecessary remarks like this that could put editors and publishers off.
• Submit your manuscript to one publishing house at a time. It’s a big no no to send for example 30 of the same manuscript to loads of publishers. This is because you may end up with more than one acceptance, which can cause a lot of problems. Wait for rejection and then resubmit to a different publishing house.