Publishing can be a dog-eat-dog world (or, as one editor once said, bunny-eat-bunny). It's not a place for the fainthearted–if you want a spot on a publisher's list, you have to be willing to stand up and fight.

I'm exaggerating, of course (just a bit, anyway). But young adult writer Frankie Diane Mallis took this attitude to heart when she went after landing her dream agent. She outlines her attack in four stages (Training, Weapons, Battle Plan, Winning the War) in her article on the Guide to Literary Agents blog. No, she's not dangerous, just very determined. And her plan worked, so maybe it will work for you too.

Effective introductions in writing function very much like marketing a package. They need to inspire the reader's interest and confidence in the writing that will follow. They need to grab the reader's attention. And they need to deliver what they promise. You are unlikely to buy cookies if the packaging is plain. However, if the wrapping shows the product inside as tempting and delicious, you will be attracted to it. The same goes for a piece of writing. Agents and publishers demand to see a synopsis and the first few chapters of a work, and this is where you can either intrigue or turn them off. Remember that your opening is your ‘packaging’. So here are some tips to keep in mind as you write.

Good openings don’t always begin at the beginning. Instead they take the reader right into the action. Good openings are immediate, emotionally involving and make the reader want to read on. Start at some interesting point in your story. The same tip goes if you are using your story as a trigger for fiction, nonfiction or faction.

Establish your major character, the problem or conflict facing that character and clue the reader into the time and setting of your story. Avoid using a minor character in your opening paragraphs, as that can be confusing. Use description subtly and try to avoid clichés and too many adverbs and adjectives. Use dialogue as often as you can and establish your tense (past or present) at the beginning. Depending on the age of the audience, make sure your vocabulary and sentence length is appropriate.

Establish in your mind and on paper very early on why you are writing this piece so you and your reader will be on the same track. One of my favorite exercises with my creative writing students is to request a short synopsis right from the start so they will know exactly what their story is to be about.

Some writers prefer to write their openings last. These are the most difficult pieces to write and demand much editing and re-writing. Remember that your opening will either capture your reader’s attention or turn him/her away.

You can either intrigue or lose your reader with your first sentence. The opening words can immediately create dramatic situations. Words such as ‘unfortunately, fortunately, luckily, unluckily and unlike’ can suggest something different which will intrigue the reader.

Avoid beginning with a date unless it is absolutely integral to the rest of your story.

Keep it simple. It is very important to avoid flooding your reader with too many names and characters. Do your best not to confuse.

When you are writing for a young audience, avoid lengthy paragraphs of prose which might turn a more reluctant reader away. Break up your story with dialogue. The most important hint is always SHOW DON’T TELL.

Highlight a unique characteristic of your protagonist. Is your character ‘different’ from his/her family or peer group? In what way? Does s/he have some interesting and ‘different’ characteristic?

Start with tension. Can you establish your character’s major conflict right from the start?

Remember that your opening is the most important part of your story. This is where you keep or lose your reader. Here are two of my own openings:

Children’s novel, Bridging the Snowy:

Roan stood quite still. Straight ahead was a bridge. But this bridge was only a few handheld ropes and footholds. The bridge connected one side of a deep gully in the Snowy Mountains to the other. Twenty meters under the footholds, frothy water gushed over jagged rocks.

Roan turned slightly. He saw his cousin Zach smile, heard him yell, “Bet you’re too sissy.”

“Who says?”

“Yah… Cos you’re woos…”

Roan cried “Sez you…” but his voice came out as a squeak, Not that it mattered. Hands clinging onto the side ropes, Zach was already halfway across.

YA novel, Mavis Road Medley:

When the Falconers moved to fifty-four Mavis Road, all the family, apart from Didi, was pleased.

One Saturday Tom appeared in the kitchen doorway to announce, “Remember that old metal trunk in the cellar? You'll never guess what's inside.”

“It's about time you cleared up the mess down there,” Jane said without looking up. “Wait till I've balanced these figures.”

Kate kept on reading. Only Didi was curious enough to ask. “What are you talking about, Dad?”

“The old trunk. I prised off the lid. It's filled with blankets and clothes. I thought you might find them interesting.”

Goldie Alexander is a children's author who writes from Australia. Visit her website and blog.

Writing Picture Books:  Rewarding, But Challenging

Many newcomers believe writing picture books are a breeze, but it requires a lot of skill to pack a story into a few words. If your dreams include writing a picture book, here are some tips to consider before you begin:

• Keep it simple. You should be able to sum up the plot of your picture book in three sentences. Not every detail, of course, but the broad strokes. Create one sentences to capture the beginning (naming your main character and the problem or conflict he’ll face in the story), one for the middle (describing the gist of the efforts your character makes to solve his problem), and one for the end (how he finally resolves the conflict and reaches his goal). If three sentences doesn’t capture the essence of your plot, then it’s probably too complex for a picture book.

Note: You’re concerned here on plot (the action of the story), rather than theme (the underlying message). Don’t get into describing theme while you’re summarizing your plot. The theme shouldn’t even be an issue at this point. You want to construct the story so the character’s actions, and how he transforms because of those actions, presents a lesson to your readers.

• Think in pictures. The term “picture books” says it all: the illustrations are equally as important as the words. The average picture book is 32 pages long, with about four pages of front matter (title page, copyright page, etc.) So you have 28 pages of text and illustration. If you aim for 1000 words to tell your story (the average length of picture book text), that gives you about 36 words per page (some pages will have more words, some less, depending on the pacing of your story). While you don’t want to obsess over precise word counts when you’re writing early drafts of your manuscript, do keep in mind that every page of your book needs to inspire a different illustration. So count out 36 words from your manuscript and note how large a chunk of text that is on the page. That’s about how many words you can devote to each illustration. After that, your characters have to do something— move around, change locations— so the illustrator will have a new picture to draw.

One way to think visually is to convey the character’s problem, and her efforts to solve that problem, in concrete, visual terms. If your character is having trouble memorizing facts for school, that all takes place inside her head. But if she’s embarrassed because she can’t swim, then her attempts to learn are easily illustrated.

Note: Some illustrations will span two facing pages, called a two-page spread. In this case, you’ll have about 70 words for that one illustration. But picture books are a mix of single page illustrations and two-page spreads, so keep the action moving at a good pace.

• Maintain a childlike outlook. Picture book characters can be children, adults, animals or fantasy characters. But all main characters must embody the sensibilities of a child between the ages of 4-8. As a result, the problem your characters faces needs to be relevant and important to your target audience. The way your character tackles that problem must fit with the way a child would tackle it. Don’t create an adult main character just so you can impose some adult wisdom on your readers. Grown-up characters using the emotional, illogical and sometimes messy coping strategies of children can be a very effective, and funny, storytelling technique. Above all, the character must be the one to solve the problem, using methods that are accessible to children. If readers see themselves in your main character, then they’ll understand the underlying message of your story.

Cloud Computing + Books = ?

Sometimes change happens so quickly and so naturally that we miss something profound.  Something obvious.

If you have Netflix and a device to stream it through your TV, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  For 8 bucks a month, Netflix gives us thousands of movies and TV shows on demand, often in high-def.  In a matter of months, Netflix has all but made video stores and those movie rental boxes obsolete. It's also made buying individual DVDs seem old-fashioned and pointless.

Now think about books.   We know eBooks will be the dominant platform moving forward, and we know that eReaders (or, more likely, tablet computers that read eBooks) will be as common as cell phones in a few years.

Now put these facts together.

Is it possible that, in the near future, selling individual books to individual consumers will be the exception, not the rule?  Is it possible that readers will join a Netflix-like  "all you can eat" cloud-based service and have unlimited access to thousands of books at any given time?

For authors, revenue can be earned in a number of ways:  one time rights acquisition by the service; a per-use payment; shared advertising revenue…or something entirely new.   Freed from the task of launching and marketing their books, authors can focus on writing and building their tribes of readers.

Amazon has invested heavily in cloud computing and seems the perfect candidate to launch such a service.  Or perhaps there's a new visionary out there ready to make it happen.  Either way, keep your eyes peeled.

And look to the clouds.

Excellent piece by music industry analyst Bob Lefsetz on why the future of media is cloud-based. 

I've been harping on the notion that the book industry is going through exactly what the music industry did 10 years ago. The good news there is that we can avoid their mistakes.

The even better news is that we can borrow some ideas from music's more inventive artists about how to deal with the new digital reality.

Here's one I really like:

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2011/06/03/from-ricky-wilson-of-the-kaiser-chiefs/

Basically, the band recorded 20 tracks and lets fans create their own CD — and their own unique artwork — by picking their favorite 10 songs. Neat idea, and
something that can be copied by authors with either short story anthologies or "create your own adventure" stories.

Read the piece — it's well worth your time.  And then, visit the band's website to fiddle around with the technology — it's really, really cool and would fit wonderfully on an author's site.