How to Write and Publish Children's Books
Want to learn to write children’s books? Picture book ideas aren’t always the best fit for the picture book format. Sound confusing? Read on! “This isn’t a picture book, it’s a short story.” Ah, the picture book or short story debate! This is a comment I make to writers often, and it’s a heartbreaking one, …
A reader wrote in last week with a question regarding writing about family in middle grade literature. Mary said: Can a manuscript be sold if the main character lives in a traditional nuclear family? Everything I’ve read has either a parent who left or disappeared, went to jail, or died–even in so-called humor novels. Being …
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Many writers wonder how to write fiction well. There are all sorts of messages floating around. And I’m here to tell you something scandalous about the biggest of them all: Sometimes it’s better to tell instead of show. Yes, yes, I know. Everyone has heard of, “Show, don’t tell.” The Truth About “Show, Don’t Tell” …
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I’ve been thinking about successful action writing. When I’m editing manuscripts, I often notice that I fall into trends and phases. There are things I pick up on more than others these days, and those things haven’t always been the same. The more I read, the more I notice, and the deeper I get into …
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If you’re like many people writing pictures books, you might wonder, “how to find an illustrator for my children’s book?” Does it behoove you to work as an author and illustrator team before submission, or can you submit your text only? I’ll discuss all of these issues here. This post was inspired by reader, Robert. …
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“How do I copyright my writing? Should I copyright my book before sending it to a publisher?” This is a very common question. Neveah asked another version of it in the comments: What happens if you submit the first couple of chapters to an agent, and that agent copies it? How Do I Copyright My …
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BEA (Book Expo America) ended yesterday and, as of this morning, I’m finally feeling a bit more human. Expo week is always huge, busy, and full of friends, colleagues, parties and, of course, ARCs. Some of the highlights of the week for me were: the Teen Author Carnival, running into Marla Frazee and her editor …
This post is all about how to identify genre and determine which book genre or publishing category you’re writing in. I’d like to preface this post by emphasizing that I’m not trying to stifle your creative genius. I’m really not. But, as I’ve said before, you should probably learn the rules before you break them. …
A commenter on my post about premise vs plot got me to thinking about the issue book. In my post, I used some examples of life issues, one of which was a kid with a parent addicted to meth. In response, a reader named Alan wrote this: Other than the gay issue, plot or not, it’s …
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Judging by the response to my last post about swear words in young adult fiction, and thanks to all of the wonderful issues and perspectives that my readers brought up, I wanted to tackle profanity in books again. I’m serious when I say that posts about controversial issues always force me to delve deeper into …