The Business of Writing for Children: An Award-Winning Author’s Tips on Writing Children’s Books and Publishing Them, or How to Write, Publish, and Promote a Book for Kids
Writing books for children is both art and business. If you dream of becoming a children’s author — or even if you’re well on your way — this handbook can help you in writing sellable stories, getting them published, and promoting your books.
Topics include common myths about children’s writing, children’s book categories, elements of successful stories, manuscript format, submission strategies, contract negotiation, the publishing process, career building, and children’s writer resources. Also included are specialized subjects such as querying for multiple manuscripts and promoting a first book.
Read “The Business of Writing for Children” to learn the secrets you might spend years discovering for yourself.
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Aaron Shepard is the author of “One-Eye! Two-Eyes! Three-Eyes!”, “The Sea King’s Daughter,” “The Baker’s Dozen,” and fourteen other picture books, along with several fantasy novellas for middle grades, numerous resources for storytelling and reader’s theater, and a graphic novel. His publishers have included Atheneum, Scribners, Clarion, Lothrop, Dial, and HarperCollins, as well as Cricket and Australia’s School Magazine.
Aaron’s work has been honored by the American Library Association, the National Council for the Social Studies, the American Folklore Society, The New York Public Library, and the Bank Street College of Education, and he has been a judge for the Golden Kite Awards of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
List Price: $ 12.50
Price: $ 7.23
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Don’t Write a Book Without It!,
I too write and illustrate children’s books and I am anxious to help anyone asking for information about how to get started as others helped me. I carry a file folder of photocopied materials around with me which I share with unpublished writers and illustrators. This book, The Business of Writing for Children, is so comprehensive I plan to replace my file folder with this book. As many an editor has said at many a conference, “today’s aspiring authors often haven’t done their homework,” this book by Aaron Shepard will satisfy that need. And, published authors may sit up and take notice; waiting for your publisher to prepare promotional materials for you and your books can be frustrating, you may want to do it yourself; the how-to is in these pages. Whether you are a novice or professional, The Business of Writing for Children needs to be in your library – DON’T write a book without it!
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|Not step-by-step, but some great ideas,
After reading other books on writing books for children, I thought I would see more coverage on the writing process. Not counting the appendix, there are only 94 pages in the paperback edition; this doesn’t give a lot of space for the big picture.
The subtitle for the book is “An Award-Winning Author’s Tips on How to Write, Sell, and Promote Your Children’s Books.” The key word here is tips, and it is these tips which make this a helpful book.
One of his tips, writing your story as a script for a children’s play, strikes me as simple, yet rewarding. Many children’s books require more dialogue than narrative, so making a script requires you to view your work from a new perspective. It is such a simple idea, but I had never thought of doing it.
One of his marketing tips is to use the script you wrote and market it with the book. Schools are more likely to use a book for class if there are more things to do with it. Creating study questions is another idea.
Although this was a quick-read, I would recommend reading this…
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|Recommended,
Aaron’s book is worth the price just for the wealth of inside information found in DANGEROUS MYTHS AND TERRIBLE TRUTHS. And that’s just the introduction.
THE BUSINESS OF WRITING FOR CHILDREN is a semester-long crash course on writing books for young readers of all ages–in a mere 115 pages.
For the beginner who wants an in-depth overview of the field, or a pro who needs a shot in the arm to get back to work , this is an excellent choice. Good job, Aaron.
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