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The Internet is abuzz with rumors about Apple’s impending announcement of a major new product. Most observers expect it to herald the introduction of a new Tablet computing format.
The implications for the publishing world could be significant. Many magazines and newspapers are already looking at the tablet as a possible new medium for reaching readers. Perhaps most fascinating though, for those of us interested in children’s literature, is the potential tablet computing offers for electronic children’s books. Imagine a children’s book fully integrated with audio, video, web access, instant messaging, and connection with other readers in real time. The tablet may offer exactly that.
While we wait for the details, here’s an excellent rundown of all the rumors about Apple’s upcoming announcement: http://gizmodo.com/5434566/the-exhaustive-guide-to-apple-tablet-rumors
And here’s the New York Times take on tablet-mania: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/2010-the-year-of-the-tablet/
Interested in learning how to write a book and send it to children’s book publishers? Come on over to The CBI Clubhouse for audios, videos, insider writing tips and much, much more!
The big screen is filled with great storytelling techniques that you can employ to improve your own writing. Here’s just some of what you can lift from your favorite films….
Problems viewing the video? You can also see it at DailyMotion, Viddler, 5Min, Zoopy, BlipTV and Graspr
Interested in learning how to write a book and send it to children’s book publishers? Come on over to The CBI Clubhouse for audios, videos, insider writing tips and much, much more!
Enjoying our videos about writing children’s books and submitting them to publishers? Here are some more that you may have missed!
Children’s Books: How to Find a Publisher for Your Story
Get an Editor’s Attention: Break Out of Your Writing Rut
Write for Success: 7 Tips For Children’s Book Writers
How to Write a Picture Book That Shines
Writing Tips - 3 Ways to Ramp Up the Tension in Your Story
What It Takes to Make It Writing Children’s Books
And much more children’s writing info here and here!
Interested in learning how to write a book and send it to children’s book publishers? Come on over to The CBI Clubhouse for audios, videos, insider writing tips and much, much more!
I often talk about the “rules” of writing for children and sending manuscripts to children’s book publishers, citing appropriate page lengths and story types for different age groups. A better term would probably be “guidelines”; these rules exist only to tell you what, in general, editors like to see in the manuscripts sent to them. And, of course, for every rule there are numerous exceptions. But while we’d all like to think our book is strong enough to override the guidelines, this is usually not the case. Here are some rules that shouldn’t be ignored until you really know what you’re doing:
Don’t Write Rhyming Picture Books
Yes, you’ve seen them in the stores and kids like them. But children also like non-rhyming picture books. It takes a great deal of skill and hard work to craft an original story, complete with unique characters, in about 1000 words. It takes a different skill entirely to tell that story in rhyme. If you’ve got it, great. But don’t assume that because your story is aimed at young children it has to rhyme. Always try to write it in prose first. After you’ve got the story on paper, decide if the rhyming format will add to the text. If the answer is yes, make sure it’s strong rhyme: it has a consistent meter, uses no clichés or extra words, and has a rhythm that is easy to read aloud.
Don’t Overlook Designated Word Lengths
No editor is going to turn down a great book just because the text length falls outside the average guidelines. If your young adult novel is as good as it can be at 100 pages, there’s no sense padding the manuscript simply because most YAs are longer. But length guidelines are there for a reason - -publishers have determined about how much text kids of different ages can read, and so it behooves you to try to stay as close to those guidelines as possible. And if you’ve ever tried to get a group of 4-year-olds to sit still for a 2000-word picture book, you’ll understand why editors are leaning toward shorter texts in the youngest age brackets. When submitting to magazines, it’s vital that you stick to the requested word limits because articles must fit within a finite amount of space on the page. Too long, or too short, can mean instant rejection.
Don’t Provide Testimonials in Queries
It’s nice to have lots of neighborhood kids read your manuscript and give you a thumbs up, but your potential editor doesn’t need to hear about it. Frankly, editors don’t pay much attention to testimonials from readers who may be family or friends of the author. Also, don’t clutter up the query letter with ideas for why children need your book or what they’ll learn from it. This is up to the editor to decide. (One exception: You’re querying a nonfiction book and can show that there aren’t any other books in print that cover the same subject). Keep your query letter tight, brief, and to the point. Provide an intriguing plot synopsis or nonfiction outline, relevant information about yourself, and include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Sell your book, not your reasons for writing it.
Don’t Write a Series Before Selling the First Book
I’ve critiqued many stories from authors who say, “I’ve got six more books written with these characters. Should I mention that to the editor when I submit my manuscript?” My answer? No.. Unless an editor is specifically looking for new series proposals, and the books were written from the start to form a series, this is a bad idea. Realize that series are created as a group of books that are bound together by some sort of hook; in fiction, it might be a club the main characters form, a neighborhood they all live in, or a cause they champion. In nonfiction, it’s a topic (natural sciences, biographies) and an age group. Rarely do you see picture book fiction series. What does happen is a character may find popularity with readers and the author is asked to write another book featuring the same cast. These fiction “series” actually grow over time, one book at a time.
So, unless you’ve designed your books as a traditional series and are able to creaft a thought-out series proposal to the editor, stick to selling one book. When an editor sees you have many manuscripts featuring the same characters and similar plots, she may feel that you’ve invested too much time writing new material and not enough time revising what you’ve already got. And keep in mind that each book – series or not – must stand on its own. It needs a strong beginning, well-developed middle, and satisfying end. No fair leaving the ending incomplete with the intention of continuing the story in the next book.
I’ve read several picture book manuscripts recently that don’t have plots. They have terrific ideas, charming scenes, even unique characters. But these particular manuscripts were missing that thread of story that starts on page one and tugs at the reader to continue turning the pages until the end. The events weren’t connected–they may have involved the same characters, but there was no cause-and-effect relationship that made one event logically follow another.
When writing children’s book fiction, it’s sometimes difficult to tell the difference between a plot point and an incident. Incidents stand alone; they may lend themselves to vivid scenes, but they have no connection to what came before in the book, and have no effect on what happens on the next page. A plot point, on the other hand, couldn’t exist without everything that preceded it, and if you remove that plot point from the story, everything that happens afterwards wouldn’t make sense. Each point is a link in a chain. Break one, and the whole thing falls apart.
Incident stories also tend to lack conflict and tension. That’s because these books are more about conveying a mood, a place, or a point in time. They show a day in the life of a particular child, what a bunny sees on his first tour of the backyard, the comforting bedtime routine of a toddler. Many picture books of previous generations were actually incident books, and in fact this type of story is still being published today as books for children up to age three. But for the mainstream, hardcover picture book crowd–those kids ages four to eight–incident books won’t cut it anymore.
You can blame television, publishing conglomerates concerned with making money, or large bookstore chains that only want titles that fly off the shelves, but the bottom line is if you’re a first-time author writing a picture book, it needs to have a plot to sell. And let’s face it, plots are a good thing. They allow children to become emotionally invested in the story, wondering what’s going to happen next. They hold kids’ attention (even before television, young children didn’t have the longest of attention spans). They invite rereading, and retelling, over and over.
If you study newer picture books, you’ll see that some of the plots are very subtle. David Shannon’s Duck on a Bike, for example, seems at first glance like an incident story. Duck finds a bike on the farm and slowly rides past all the animals. As he passes each animal, it comments on the sight of a duck on a bike. This pattern is repeated several times until suddenly a bunch of kids come down the road on their bikes, park them by the farm house, and go inside. The next spread is wordless, showing all the animals staring at the bikes. The following illustration depicts all the farm animals careening around the barnyard on bicycles with silly grins plastered to their faces. As the story ends, the animals return the bikes to the house, And no one knew that on that afternoon, there had been a cow, a sheep, a dog, a cat, a horse, a chicken, a goat, two pigs, a mouse, and a duck on a bike.
The repetition of Duck pedaling past each animal on the bike paved the way for the story’s climax. It couldn’t have happened without all the scenes that came before.
Oh sure, you say, but what about a book like Ian Falconer’s Olivia? That’s a series of incidents in the life of a spunky girl pig. Yes, it is, and this popular book proves that for every rule there’s an exception. And though it doesn’t have a conventional plotline, it does have emotion (What child hasn’t seen him or herself in Olivia, and laughed at her approach to life?) and tension (Will Olivia get in trouble for drawing on her bedroom wall? Will she convince her mother to read her four bedtime stories instead of two?). It also has exquisite illustrations by the author (if you can write and illustrate, and do both well, you’re given a bit more room to stretch the rules). But most of all, it has a strong main character. Olivia is real, multilayered, and charming. The author took the time to develop the character first, so the reader will immediately identify with Olivia and be interested in the incidents that make up her day.
If you’re just starting out as a children’s book writer, or are writing your first picture book, do yourself a favor and create a story with a plot. But before you begin, develop your main character. If you have a real character with emotions, strengths and weaknesses, that character will inevitably want something. How that character goes about getting what he or she wants will lead you to your plot. It’s really that simple.
Now all you have to do is write the book.
Interested in learning how to write a book and send it to children’s book publishers? Come on over to The CBI Clubhouse for audios, videos, insider writing tips and much, much more!
