Today we’ll work to nail down just who our audience really is.

Too often, when we think of “writing for children”, we imagine we’re doing exactly that: writing for all children. Or perhaps we’ve narrowed it down to an age group. But, if you say you’re writing for middle schoolers, are you really writing for all middle schoolers? Pretty unlikely.

Consider this: The best advice for creating a character for your book is to have a full dossier on that character crafted in your head, or perhaps even on paper. How old is she? What kind of clothes does she wear? Does she live in a particular part of the world? What does she like? Dislike? What’s her favorite school subject? What does she like on her pizza? and so on.

Now the character is more than an abstraction, she starts to become real flesh and blood.

So here’s the trick to finding your target reader:

DO THE EXACT SAME THING.

Before you start your manuscript, create two “characters” to represent your potential readership. One boy, one girl. Give each one a name. Imagine their age, their physical appearance, the way they speak and how they dress. Think about what they do with themselves in the hours not spent reading your book. Who are their friends? Who are their antagonists? What else do they read? In what kind of house or apartment do they live? And, most importantly, what are they looking for when they pick up your book? To be entertained? Enlightened? Scared? Tickled pink with laughter?

Don’t start writing your book until these two youngsters truly become real to you. Now, start writing your book for them. Forget the publisher, forget the editor, forget the (hopefully) millions of other kids that will ultimately read your book. Write this book for those two kids.

Not only will the task ahead seem less daunting, you’ll start feeling — almost immediately — a new connection with your readership. And that translates into something every good editor will pick up on immediately: a writer who can reach across space and time and connect with young readers on a one to one basis.

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.

1.?? Economic meltdown

2.?? Global warming

3.?? Lack of podcasts that teach you how to write children’s books.

We can’t do anything about the first two problems, but we’ve got the third one licked.?? Introducing the Write4Kids Podcast!???? Now you can take our advice with you on your mp3 player, or just listen here at the blog.???? It’s free and you get to hear my dulcet tones as an awesome bonus.

Here’s the first installment:?? 5 Reasons Why You Can’t Become a Writer….and Why None of Them are True

Give a listen, and let us know what you think!

*(margin of error = 99.9%)

Download the podcast by right-clicking this link and selecting “Save as”

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/

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.

The teacher said:?? “These people are locked up right by the sea.?? What would they hear??? The ocean — they’d hear the ocean while they were chained together, sweaty, dirty and hot.?? To hear the ocean and not be able to jump into it to get clean and cool off must have been awful.?? What else would they have heard??? Seagulls.?? Seagulls flying free while they were locked in chains.”

Now, not only does the description of the sounds these captured men and women hear give the reader a real “being there” sense, it dramatically increases the reader’s connection with the plight of the captives.

It was really beautiful advice about how to make description mean something, rather than simply add atmospherics.

It’s simple — pick your favorite classic fairy tale and rewrite it from the perspective of a minor or secondary?? character.?? How about the chariot’s driver in Cinderella?

Or try rewriting it from an off-the-wall perspective.?? A medieval sheriff out investigating the disappearance of two area children.?? One’s named Hansel.?? The other’s Gretel.

Have some fun with this — and notice how it gets you thinking about things like perspective, point of view and voice.

If you like, post some of what you came up with in the comments.

(Hat tip to our pal Anastasia Suen for finding this one.)

This year, awards will be given in nine categories (Easy Readers, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Novels, Non-Fiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Books, Non-Fiction Picture Books, Poetry, Young Adult Novels). Anyone can nominate books in these categories (one nomination per person per category). Nominated titles must be published between January 1st and October 15th of this year, and the books must be in English (or bilingual, where one of the languages is English). To nominate titles, visit the Cybils blog (http://www.cybils.com/) between October 1st and 15th.

Between October 16th and January 1st, Cybils panelists (children’s and young adult bloggers) will winnow the nominations down to a 5-7 book short list for each category. A second set of panelists will then select the winning titles for the different categories. The winners will be announced on February 14th, 2009.

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