How Do I Break Into Children s Writing

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2 How Do I Break Into Children s Writing by Jane Friedman In his National Book Award speech, Isaac Bashevis Singer gave a number of reasons why he began to write for children, and one of them was Children read books, not reviews. They don t give a hoot about critics. If a book is boring, children won t read it just because an adult says they ought to. If a book is interesting and enjoyable, they can t wait to tell their friends. Beginners who want to write for young readers must know what children are like today, and not write only from their own childhood memories. When you successfully capture their emotions and dreams, you ll find young readers eager for stories, articles, and books. Getting Started I ve written stories for adults for many years and would like to try writing for children. Can you give me some general advice concerning the differences between writing for children and writing for adults? When it comes to the basics of producing a good story, there isn t much difference between writing for children and adults. You must work in the same way to create believable characters with plausible motivations, and strong plot is still important in stories for all age groups. Conflict and emotion must be integrated into the story. The difference is that all of these things must be accomplished with simplicity and with subject matter geared to young readers. Children s books are also more age-specific within the genre. Books popular with seven-year-olds, such as Barbara Park s Junie B. Jones series, will not be very entertaining to twelve-year-olds, who would be more interested in Cecily von Ziegasar s Gossip Girl books. You must be well aware of the problems and attitudes of children, so you can incorporate them realistically into your stories. The complexities of characterization increase with the age of the reader, to the point that stories written for teenagers differ from adult stories only in the age of

3 the characters and the kinds of situations the characters face. Try to put yourself on the level of your readers so you don t inadvertently talk down to or patronize them. The best way to get a feeling for how stories for children are written is to read lots and lots of them. What are the most common age groups for which children s publishers produce books? Generally, children s fiction and nonfiction fall into one of these five categories: board books for pre-readers picture books for preschool to age eight easy readers for emerging readers ages five to eight middle-grade books for ages nine to eleven young adult (YA) books for ages twelve and up What are the differences between a picture book, a picture story book, and a chapter book? A picture book is a book for meant for younger children (pre-readers or beginning readers). It features pictures on every page and tells the story through both the text and the pictures. A picture book can include anywhere from zero words to five hundred or a thousand words, but shorter is generally better. They are almost always thirty-two pages long, including copyright page, title page, etc., which means they include about twenty-eight pages of text and art). A picture book can have many forms. Concept picture books promote an understanding of the children s world; these books include ABC books and books about giving up a blanket or getting a new baby sister. Concept books can also be novelty books; for example, one might be printed in the shape of a truck or duck, or contain some other gimmick, like pop-ups or tabs to pull. A picture book can be fiction or nonfiction. It can be contemporary or historical. It can be sweet or sentimental or educational or funny. It can be written in prose or verse. Almost anything goes. A story book is also for younger children. A story book may be longer than a picture book (perhaps double the word count, forty-eight pages), but doesn t have to be. A story book may be a retelling of a folktale or fairy tale, a fantasy story, or a contemporary story, but it will always be fiction. A story book may not be as dependent on illustrations as a picture book. It has a plot with a main character, and generally that character encounters a problem, works out the complications, and finds a solution. A chapter book is for young readers who have moved up from picture

4 books and easy readers, but are not quite ready for novels. These books may include illustrations, but the story is told solely through the text. Chapter books are generally forty to eighty pages in length, and can run anywhere from 1,500 to 10,000 words, depending on the publisher. They re intended for young readers who can sustain interest through a longer plot, and they may be the first books kids pick out for themselves at the library. I m working on a middle-grade novel and I m worried it s too long. What s the appropriate length for middle-grade and young adult novels? There are no set-in-stone rules when it comes to the length of middlegrade and young adult novels. It varies from publisher to publisher and project to project. Middle-grade novels can range from 10,000 to 30,000 words, and young adult novels can range from 25,000 to 50,000. Recently, though, the Harry Potter series and Christopher Paolini s Inheritance trilogy have offered page counts exceeding what anyone thought middle-grade readers could handle. And YA novels-in-verse, which have grown in popularity in recent years, offer familiar page counts but spare text. The Society of Children s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) does offer length guidelines in terms of the appropriate number of manuscript pages for various genres (meaning the number of pages a writer would submit to a publisher). For fiction, they suggest middle-grade works be anywhere from 40 to 150 manuscript pages and YA from 175 to 200 pages. Consult listings in the current edition of Children s Writer s & Illustrator s Market for information on both fiction and nonfiction word counts for various publishers. Also consult submission guidelines for individual publishers that interest you. Spending some time in a children s bookstore looking at mid-grade and YA titles from a number of publishers is a good exercise as well. It s unlikely your work will be automatically rejected if your submission exceeds a publisher s guidelines by few thousand words. However, if they generally publish mid-grade books that are around 25,000 words and you send them 65,000, you ll likely get a quick rejection. Try your best to stay in the ballpark, but also do what s appropriate for your story. What kinds of subject matter are most popular in novels for young readers? The interest areas of young readers are limitless. They enjoy contempo-

5 rary, fantasy, mystery, and historical novels and more trends in subject matter for children s books often reflect trends in adult publishing. Realistic treatment of current themes including conflict with siblings or peers, dating and relationships, and struggles with school or family situations interests both middle-grade and YA readers. Contemporary YA novels often delve into edgier material, including sexual situations and drug use. Books written for middle-grade and YA readers are often geared either for boys or girls, and the protagonist is generally several years older than the reader. It is best to keep adult involvement in children s novels to a minimum, allowing the protagonists to solve their problems without adult intervention. I am interested in writing children s stories for elementary school children. Where can I obtain a suitable word list for these stories? Publishers of trade books for leisure reading by children do not use formal vocabulary lists. Don t hesitate to use a big word in a children s story if you think it s the best word as long as young readers can ascertain the meaning through the context of the story. After all, books are great tools for increasing young readers vocabularies. Publishers of textbooks for the primary grades often have formal restrictions on vocabulary. Consult individual educational publishers for vocabulary requirements. You might also refer to The Children s Writer s Word Book, by Alijandra Mogilner, which includes a dictionary of words and the grade levels for which they are appropriate. I have an idea for a series of children s books. How would I sell this series to a publisher? It can be difficult, particularly for newer authors, to sell a fiction series to a publisher right out of the gate. You might try querying publishers about the first book in your series and mention that you have ideas for subsequent books with the same characters. Once you sell the first book and it shows good sales numbers, publishers will be open to capitalizing on that and may be willing to continue with sequels. You might also consider contacting a book packager. These companies often produce series for trade publishers. Book packagers are marked with a special icon in Children s Writer s & Illustrator s Market. I think my twelve-year-old niece has the potential to become a very good fiction writer. Her imagination seems boundless, and she has a knack for develop-

6 ing good stories. Is there any way she could get some of her stories published? Some children s publications have sections for stories, poems, articles, and drawings by children. There are a number of other magazines, such as Stone Soup, that are written entirely by children. Other magazines, such as Seventeen and Cicada, accept material written by teenagers. Consult the section on markets for young writers and illustrators in Children s Writer s & Illustrator s Market; also take a look at The Young Writer s Guide to Getting Published, by Kathy Henderson, and A Teen s Guide to Getting Published, by Jessica Dunn and Danielle Dunn. Do I need an agent to get my children s book published? No, you don t. There are a number of children s publishers who accept unsolicited manuscripts and query letters from children s writers, so whether to pursue an agent is up to you. Working with an agent, however, can help get your work to editors much more quickly than going through the slush pile. And an agent may get you a better contract than you could get on your own. But if you re a creative type who is also comfortable marketing your work and negotiating contracts, you can pursue publication on your own. For listing of agents who handle children s material, see Children s Writer s & Illustrator s Market and Guide to Literary Agents. There is also a list of agents available to members of the Society of Children s Book Writers & Illustrators ( Where to Find Out More books You Can Write Children s Books and You Can Write Children s Books Workbook, by Tracey Dils, are excellent guides for beginners writing for children. Children s Writer s Word Book, by Alijandra Mogilner, is a comprehensive reference on what words are appropriate throughout the grade levels, and also what topics and issues are taught in each grade. websites The home page of the Children s Book Council is Write4Kids ( offers one of the biggest online col-

7 lections of free how-to information for children s writers. The plentiful resources of the Colossal Directory of Children s Publishers can be found at Kid Magazine Writers maintains an online magazine for children s writers at The Purple Crayon, a resource site run for children s writers by a children s book editor, is at SmartWriters ( is dedicated to providing professional information to children s writers. Buy the book now! Want More? If you are serious about becoming a writer, the Beginning Writers Answer Book is a great addition to your bookshelf! Edited by Jane Friedman, it s filled with helpful advice but most of all it has the answers to the questions you re bound to have. No matter what genre of writing you re interested in, this book has everything you re looking for.