These days, instead of digging through the slush pile, many editors are turning to the blogosphere for their next big book. And the newest group to catch the eye of the children's book industry is known as Mom Bloggers. A recent article in Publishers Weekly highlighted how Simon & Schuster hosted 29 of the most popular mom bloggers at a luncheon complete with authors and goodie bags. Why all the fuss? Because moms blog about the books they're reading with their kids, and other moms listen.

But publishers don't rely on mom bloggers to simply spread the word about new books. They also look to them to help create future titles. Editors like Kate Jackson of HarperCollins peruse blogs on a regular basis, looking for writing talent and book ideas. These bloggers are also willing to spread the word on self-published books (sometimes their own), that then catch an editor's eye.

There are two lessons here for both aspiring and published authors: One, don't ignore these mom bloggers when sending out review copies or planning your next blog tour. And two, blogging about children's books, and doing it well, clearly gets you on the publishing radar. This might end up being easier (and more fun) than sending out multiple unsolicited submissions and hoping to get noticed.
 

Last October, an article in The New York Times declared, “Picture Books No Longer A Staple for Children”. This incited a barrage of responses from the children’s book industry, many in defense of the venerable picture book.

Thus, Picture Book Month was born. Founder Dianne de Las Casas decided it was time to celebrate picture books in their traditional printed format so she created an initiative to designate November as “Picture Book Month.” Katie Davis, Elizabeth Dulemba, Tara Lazar, and Wendy Martin came on board to champion the cause and spread the word. A logo was designed by Joyce Wan. A website (www.picturebookmonth.com) was created to feature essays from “Picture Book Champions,” thought leaders in the children’s literature community. Each day in November, a new essay will be posted from such notable contributors as Suzanne Bloom, Denise Fleming, Leslie Helakoski, Eric A. Kimmel, Tammi Sauer, Dan Yaccarino, and Jane Yolen.Better World Books and organizations like Scholastic Book Fairs Philippines are lending their support. The website will also feature links to picture book resources, authors, illustrators, and kidlit book bloggers. In addition, parents, educators, and librarians can download the theme calendar to help them plan their picture book celebrations and access picture book activities.

Visit www.picturebookmonth.com. The website officially opens on November 1, 2011.

Seth Godin, bestselling author of 13 books about the post-industrial revolution, marketing, quitting, leadership and changing the way we share information (if you've never heard of Seth, start here), has partnered with Amazon on The Domino Project, a new way of inexpensively producing intellectual property and spreading it quickly. The Domino Project's newest offering is The One Page Book, a poster by Jess Bachman called "Death and Taxes", which explains with words and pictures how the U.S. government's budget works, using actual numbers for 2012. On one page the viewer gets a clear lesson of where our money goes.

How could you use this one page book idea for children? What about explaining nonfiction concepts in a visually-pleasing way, in a format that teachers can hang on the classroom wall? What possibilities does this open up for your work?

Now that ebooks have finally captured a share of the market, publishers are looking at so-called enhanced ebooks as the next big development. However, for a variety of reasons, the future for enhanced ebooks is murky, at best.

What is an enhanced ebook?

At this point, the best answer is “no one knows for sure.” Clearly an enhanced ebook is an ebook that includes more than just the text and illustrations from the basic print or ebook, but what those added elements might be is uncertain. Some publishers have discussed adding reader’s guides, author interviews and other materials that might assist the reader in reading or analyzing the book. While these additional elements might be of some value to book purchasers, they are hardly revolutionary, in that similar materials have been added to paperbacks for decades (although not in audiovisual or interactive formats). Other materials that have been proposed for enhanced ebooks include puzzles, quizzes and games, for children’s books, and audio and video materials such as radio and newsreel or television recordings, for biographies, books about historic events or time periods, and public affairs books. Depending on the type of book, it is certainly possible to imagine additional elements that could enhance an ebook, but moving from imagination to execution may prove to be a difficult process.

Who will control enhanced ebooks?

Given the current uncertainty surrounding enhanced ebooks, authors (at least those represented by agents) are understandably reluctant to give up enhanced ebook rights. An author might be concerned that the publisher will never produce an enhanced ebook, and thus if the author has granted enhanced ebook rights to the publisher, he or she will lose out on an opportunity to earn royalties from such a project. An author might also be concerned that the publisher will produce an enhanced ebook, but that the elements added to create the enhanced ebook will not be in keeping with the message, style or tone that the author intended for the book, or that each reader will have the ability to modify the book in ways the author never envisioned or intended to create his or her own enhanced ebook. Finally, the financial arrangements for enhanced ebooks are unclear, and an author will not want to commit to a fixed royalty or other terms without having some idea as to what will ultimately evolve in the way of prices, costs and royalty rates for enhanced ebooks.

From the publisher’s perspective, the publisher will not want the author to retain the right to produce or license an enhanced ebook separate from the publisher’s print or electronic editions of the same book, as a separate enhanced ebook may compete with or supersede the publisher’s print and ebook editions. While a publisher may be willing to give an author a right of approval over an enhanced ebook, the publisher most likely will not want an author to have absolute veto power over such a project, particularly if the publisher has to incur substantial development costs before getting the enhanced ebook to the point where the author can approve or disapprove. Read more

Know your audience. This sage advice is appropriate for all writers and, in particular, authors of children’s books. “Children” is a broad concept, representing a wide range of readers from birth to young adulthood.

Nancy Kelly Allen writes fiction and nonfiction for young children. Visit her website at www.nancykellyallen.com, and her writing workshop blog at www.nancykellyallen.blogspot.com.

In order to communicate clearly so readers will enjoy and understand the story, we have to recognize the differences in age groups. The writing should be appropriate for the age group of the target audience. Emerging skills and changing interests of children require different writing for different ages.

Before writing the first word, determine the age group of the reader. Understanding the interests and abilities of the audience helps us adjust our message of what we say and how we say it. We should also consider the interests of the age group so we can develop a character with which the reader can identify. Younger children respond to child-centric books and to concepts reflecting their life experiences. Most kids like to read about characters their same age or slightly older. Boys like to read about male main characters and girls will usually read books with either male or female characters. Read more

Editors can say it over and over, writing instructors can give you prompts and exercises to practice it, but sometimes it takes a seasoned writer to really make the point: every work of fiction has to begin with conflict. I don't care if you're writing a picture book, a middle grade novel, or a thriller for adults. Without conflict, you just don't have a story.

Thomas W. Young, who writes military thrillers for adults, articulated this beautifully in a recent post on the Guide to Literary Agents blog. My favorite excerpt:

In any fiction, from a war novel to a romance, you have to begin by asking questions like these:

– In my character’s world, what’s wrong that needs to be put right?
– What does my character want, and what’s keeping him from getting it?
– What has messed up my character’s life and sent him on some kind of journey?

That pretty much sums it up. But if you're still not convinced about the importance of conflict, read the rest of his post. Then think about how you can mess with your character to create a first-rate story.

Many newcomers believe it's simple to write picture books, but it actually 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.

* Get the Right Advice.  We've got a free eBook mini guide that can really help separate fact from fiction. It's called "Getting Started Writing Children's Picture Books" and you can get a copy right now by going to http://cbiclubhouse.com/free-ebook/

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Laura Backes is the Publisher of Children's Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children's Writers.  For much more about writing for children, visit Laura at http://cbiclubhouse.com  To learn more about writing picture books, visit http://cbiclubhouse.com/free-ebook/ to get your free copy of "Getting Started Writing Children's Picture Books".

How does an author stand out from the crowd while he's shopping his YA horror manuscript to agents? Write a song about the book's protagonist, perform it with a famous hard rock band, get the show posted on YouTube, then make a music video. Ken Derby, author of The Top Ten Ways to Ruin the First Day of Fifth Grade (Holiday House), is an American fifth grade teacher living and working in Budapest. He performed Natasha (named after the title character of his manuscript) with the popular band Superbutt at a Hungarian music festival in July. (See the unofficial video at natashathevampire.com/song/. An official video to be released soon.) The site also contains a book trailer, the manuscript's first two chapters, a video of Ken being interviewed by MTV about his song and manuscript, and his insights into vampires and pop culture.

With publishers putting more emphasis on authors' social media platforms and how they'll be able to publicize their books, thinking out of the box like this can only help in getting agents' attention. And every time an author gets innovative, the bar is raised.

So what's your big idea?

At 83, Maurice Sendak is as crusty, cantankerous and blunt as ever. Thank goodness. Take a moment to read this interview with the Caldecott-winning author/illustrator in The Guardian. You'll gain an understanding of why he can't stop acknowledging the dark side of childhood. And you'll collect some great quotes. One of my favorites: "I refuse to lie to children," says Sendak. "I refuse to cater to the bull**** of innocence." (The asterisks, by the way, are mine.)

Acclaimed children's book authors Maurice Sendak, Dr. Seuss, and Shel Silverstein all have new books coming out this month (and yes, Seuss and Silverstein have passed away, making their new offerings even more magical than usual). But these three publishing powerhouses have something else in common; they helped children's books evolve from lesson-driven stories that modeled perfect behavior to tales that entertain and celebrate all messy, wild and self-absorbed aspects of childhood. In short, they were subversive, offering a window into the world that kids knew existed and grown-ups hoped to ignore. The Children's Authors Who Broke the Rules from The New York Times is a great article that celebrates these three game-changers, who thankfully paved the way for the books we have today.