Children’s Writing Web Journal

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Young adult fiction is hot right now, especially for older readers ages 14 and up. New publishers and imprints are popping up all the time. Be sure to check out our exclusive interview with Evelyn Fazio, publisher of WestSide Books, in the November issue of Children’s Book Insider. WestSide will debut its list of contemporary, realistic teen fiction in Spring 09.

When I teach writing workshops around the country, I meet aspiring authors who want to try their hand at YA, but sometimes feel a disconnect with the grittier, more realistic fiction being published today. They want to study the market, they want to understand the genre and try to write it, but it’s so different from the novels they read as teens that it feels alien to them. Of course, I’m speaking to those of you over 40 right now. You youngsters can just skip to the next post.

Check out Monica Edinger’s Educating Alice blog post about putting aside her personal prejudices and tastes while serving on the Newbery and NCTE Notable Books committees. Judges have to read outside their comfort zones all the time, and they learn to appreciate literature that they don’t think they’re going to like. If the new crop of YA books makes you squirm, but you’re open to learning what they’re all about, Edinger’s advice may be just the ticket.

So, upcoming movies get their own coming attraction trailers, why shouldn’t upcoming children’s books?

I’ll admit, it never occurred to me before, but having seen this video by author Laurel Snyder promoting her book Up and Down the Scratchy Mountain I’m amazed there aren’t such trailers all over the web.

Get a camcorder, some images from your book and some music and you’ve got yourself a potentially viral video that can help sell your book. Smart, smart, smart.

[Update: I've been taken to task by another blogger for being "behind the times" in the crafting of this post. Yes, book trailers have been around for a while, but I was speaking in the context of children's books, where it's a technique that hasn't really taken off. So when I say "it never occurred to me before", what I meant to say -- I sound like a politician now! -- is that it hadn't occurred to me to use these for a children's book. Laurel's trailer opened my eyes to the possibility, although I'm still not fully sold that a book trailer will be as effective in selling a kids book to a parent as a trailer for, say, a mystery would be in selling it to an adult end-user, but it's worth a shot.

In general, please remember that this is a blog about children's lit, and my observations are crafted through that prism, not through the prism of the adult lit market, which is a very different beast.]

http://laurelsnyder.com/

For many writers, description is a real stumbling block.  Either they offer too little, and fail to create an interesting world for their characters, or they offer too much, and swamp the plot with meaningless detail.

If you’re struggling, I suggest you think about each element of description you provide, and decide whether it adds depth to your story.   Here’s one way:

I happened to overhear my son’s social studies teacher giving advice about a paper his students are currently working on.  The kids are learning about the African slave trade and are assigned to write a few paragraphs from the perspective of a captured man or woman awaiting placement on a slave ship. (more…)

One of my great realizations from last weekend’s Kidlitosphere 2008 conference was that the future belongs to those who band together.  There’s simply too much clutter and background noise for individual authors to make a big splash on their own.  We need to collaborate.

Enter the group blog.

Writers, illustrators, agents, booksellers, librarians, readers — anyone with an interest in children’s literature — are working together to present multi-author blogs that are gathering plenty of attention.  These blogs work because they multiply the promotional power of having multiple authors, reduce the workload for each author and do better at attracting readers who are seeking a “big picture” approach about a particular topic.

You can group together with other bloggers to develop a group blog based around genre of books you write, where you live, where you went to school, common subject matter - or just about anything else.

Here are a few of the top group blogs in kidslit to get your creative juices flowing:

The Longstockings

Readergirlz

Class of 2k8

Disco Mermaids

Edge of the Forest

Guys LitWire

PS:  Wanna collaborate on a group blog?  We’re all ears.  Drop us an e-mail at mail@write4kids.com

Nancy Werlin’s new YA novel Impossible is already creating lots of positive buzz.  To learn a bit more about this talented author, have a look at this excellent interview by Carlie Webber of the Librarilly Blonde blog:

http://blogs.bccls.org/carlie/index.php?/archives/157-Interview-Nancy-Werlin-and-her-Impossible-talent.html

To read Carlie’s review of the book, visit:

http://blogs.bccls.org/carlie/index.php?/archives/77-Its-Impossible-not-to-love-this-book..html

From “Weekend Edition”, author Lauren Child talks about her latest book, Clarice Bean, Don’t Look Now, her “Charlie and Lola” books and their television spinoff.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93906369&ft=1&f=1038

As we celebrated the recent 18th Anniversary of the Children’s Book Insider newsletter, we took the opportunity to look back at some of the many author interviews we’ve presented.  What caught our eye was some of the priceless advice these authors shared with our readers.

Here are two quick — but powerful — lessons from our archives:

Judy Blume on writing from the heart (August 1990):

What happened when I first started–as in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, which is the first book that was really mine–is I was just telling the stories that I knew. I knew what it was like to be in sixth grade, and to be in Margaret’s body, because that was my body. Slow growing, slow to develop….So that’s what I wrote about, because it wasn’t there for me when I was young. I didn’t know if anyone would publish it, but it was from the heart. The only thing that works with writing is that you care so passionately about it yourself, that you make someone else care passionately about it. Books that are written to order are awful. It can’t work. Children will see through that and they won’t read it. (more…)

The Just One More Book site has a new podcast up, featuring an interview with author Henrik Drescher. Drescher’s credits include Turbulence: A Log Book, Simon’s Book, Hubert the Pudge: A Vegetarian Tale and McFig and McFly: A Tale of Jealousy, Revenge and Death (with a Happy Ending).

Drescher is a skilled and compelling artist, and I suggest a visit to his site — http://www.hdrescher.com/ — as a complement to the interview.  You can find the podcast at http://www.justonemorebook.com/2008/06/16/interview-with-henrik-drescher/

J.K. Rowling was the commencement speaker at Harvard, and she gave a lovely speech. To view it in its entirely, or to read the transcript, visit http://harvardmagazine.com/go/jkrowling.html

Canadian YA (young adult) Sci-Fi/Fantasy Author Simon Rose is profiled in this excellent interview on Carma’s Window (a very useful blog, BTW).

Have a look at:

http://carmaswindow.blogspot.com/2008/05/author-interview-simon-rose.html