Writing for Children: The Traditional Publishing Path

Children’s books usually fall into one of three basic categories: picture books, middle grade, and young adult. To become published in any of these genres, you need to take the necessary steps to achieve success whether aiming at traditional publishing or self-publishing.

In regard to writing for children and traditional publishing, the first step or the foundation that you’ll need to create is learning to write.

Actually writing, and all that it entails, is the basis of becoming a published author or writer, whether writing books, articles, becoming a ghostwriter, or copywriter. Within this first writing step, there are four subcategories.

Writing for Children: Four Traditional Publishing Steps

1. Writing and Reading

The first step for a successful writing career is to write. But, simply writing isn’t enough. The new writer will need to learn the craft of writing, along with the particular tricks of writing for children. Writing for children is more complicated than other forms of writing. The reason is because you’re dealing with children.

Rules, such as age-appropriate words, age-appropriate topics, age-appropriate comprehension, storylines and formatting are all features that need to be tackled when writing for children.

Within the first step rung, aside from reading books and magazines on the craft of writing, you will need to read, read, and read in the genre you want to write. Pay special attention to recently published books and their publishers. What works in these books? What type of style is the author using? What topics/storylines are publisher’s publishing?

Dissect these books, and you might even write or type them word-for-word to get a feel for writing that works. This is a trick that writers new to copywriting use – you can trick your brain into knowing the right way to write for a particular genre or field. Well, not so much trick your brain as teach it by copying effective writing. Just remember, this is for the learning process only – you cannot use someone else’s work, that’s plagiarism. 

2. Writing for Children and Critiques

The next step, number two, is to become part of a critique group and have your work critiqued.

Critiquing is a two-way street; you will critique the work of other members of the critique group and they will critique yours. But, there are advantages to critiquing other writers’ works – you begin to see errors quickly and notice what’s being done right. This all helps you hone your craft.

3. Writing for Children: Revisions and Edits

Step three on the writing rung is to revise your manuscript based on your own input and that of your critique group. This process should go on until the manuscript is as good as you can get it. It’s recommended to put the story away for a couple of weeks and then revisit it. You’ll see a number of areas that may need tweaking and revising that you hadn’t noticed before.

Then it's on to self-editing and proofreading. The article links below have a number of self-editing steps you can use to help in the process:

4. Writing for Children: Take it to a Professional

It would also be advisable to budget for a professional editing of your manuscript before you begin submissions. No matter how careful you and your critique partners are, a working editor will pick up things you missed. If your budget just doesn’t have enough for a professional edit, read everything you can on self-editing; the article links above have some helpful tips. Then, apply what you learn to your manuscript.

Once you have a polished manuscript, the next three steps in a writing career are: submissions, a contract and sales, and a writing career.

It’s important to mention that the above four steps should be taken whether you are going the traditional publishing route or you’re going to self-publish. Just because you may be by-passing the publisher’s gatekeepers, who protect the integrity and quality of the work they accept, your manuscript should be the best possible, a quality product.

Self-publishing is not an excuse to cut corners, rush a book, or create a substandard product. Remember that your book is a reflection of you and your writing ability.

This is a reprint from June 2011.
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MORE ON WRITING

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P.S. To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars, join us in The Writing World (top right top sidebar).

Karen Cioffi
Award-Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter
Author/Writer Online Platform Instructor

Book Marketing – 3 Reasons Why Editing Should Come Before Self-Publishing

Self-publishing is an amazing beast. It has brought the world of publishing into the hands of you, Joe, Beth, and everyone and anyone who wants to write a book. It has brought writing power and freedom to all.

But, with writing power and freedom comes responsibility.

This means that while it’s true that self-publishing has opened a tremendous amount of doors and anyone can now write and publish a book, it doesn’t mean you can slap anything together and self-publish?  You need to produce quality (edited) content for three reasons.

Reason number one: You have an obligation to your reader.

You want to give the reader her money’s worth. Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, you want to create a book that will engage the reader. You don’t want the reader to stumble over grammatical and content errors while reading.

One of the drawbacks to the ease of self-publishing is those new to the arena don’t realize they should hone their craft before actually publishing a book. This means taking the time to learn about writing and self-editing, and realizing the importance of hiring a professional editor to edit the book before giving it to the world.

Reason number two: You have an obligation to other writers.

Part of the problem today is the 'I want it now' syndrome that self-publishing lends itself to. Authors don't want to take the longer 'proven' road. But, learning the ropes really does matter.

Once your book is ‘out there,’ it becomes another element in the determining factor as to whether self-published books are of the same quality as traditionally published books. This is where your obligation to other writers comes into play. It’s not fair to diminish the value of self-published books.

Reason number three: Self-editing is a good book marketing move.

In book marketing 101, the first step is to create a quality product.

In a webinar, pro marketers Daniel Hall and Jason Fladlien discussed the importance of ‘the offer’ (your product) compared to the sales copy. By far, a quality product is much more important.

If your intent is to only publish one book, then quality may not matter from a marketing perspective. The saying goes, ‘if you fool me once, shame on me.’ If this is the scenario, then you don’t have to worry about readers/purchasers buying more from you. But, you’ll need to be careful here, because word-of-mouth is lightning fast in the internet world. This could easily stop your one-time purchasers also.

On the flip side, let’s assume you love writing and have decided to earn an income from it. Then, self-editing will play a huge part in your book marketing success. If you produce a sub-standard product (book), it will discourage a customer from buying your future books.

Remember, a great product will not only sell itself, it will usually write its own copy. Editing before publishing helps create a quality product.

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MORE ON ONLINE MARKETING

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P.S. To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars, join us in The Writing World (top right top sidebar).

Karen Cioffi
Award-Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter
Author/Writer Online Platform Instructor

Is Your Email Inbox Cluttered? Then Use a Filter

This is a quick tip. If you’re like me, your inbox is a fright. You scan through it to find emails that are important to you or that fit a certain criteria. Then you move ones you want to save for future reference to a specific folder. Maybe you have a ‘marketing’ folder, a ‘writing’ folder, a ‘health’ folder, and so on.

Sorting each email is time consuming.

Well, Gmail and Yahoo both have Filters that sort incoming emails for you automatically.

Maybe I’m a slow learner, but I just caught on to this time-saving tool and I love it.

In Yahoo just look for Mail Options (see Image 1). Click on Filters (on the left, circled in red) and fill in your criteria.

It's pretty self-explanatory. Image 2 gives you an idea of how it looks and what to do.

Gmail is similar. In your Gmail account you have to click on an email though, then go to ‘More.’ Scroll down to Filter messages. See Image 3 below.

It's pretty easy.

I hope this helps you manage your emails and time a little better.

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Creating a Quality Product, Editing, Creating an eBook, Your Own Virtual Book Tour, Writing a Press Release, and More
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P.S. To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars, join us in The Writing World (top right top sidebar).

Karen Cioffi
Award-Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter
Author/Writer Online Platform Instructor

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Writing - Between Writers and Readers

Between writer and reader…

Guest Post by Author Steve Moore

There are many wonderful things about ebook self-publishing that make it attractive to writers.  An obvious one that comes to mind is that the writer can minimize what stands between him and the reader.  I’m talking logistics, of course, as well as time delay. One can consider a situation where event X occurs in the real world and there’s an ebook about it only a few weeks later.  After finishing a manuscript (MS), the delay needed to reach the reading public is minimal.

Legacy or traditional publishing cannot match this kind of turn-around. There are too many steps involved in that process—agents, slushpiles, editors, proofreaders, marketing and PR, and distribution.  I suspect the delay between finished MS and readers is more like a year, not weeks.  One can debate which system delivers the best product for the reader.  Some of that discourse depends on what the reader expects.

The “writing business” is a misnomer in many ways.  “Reading lovers’ entertainment” is better.  This parallels “music lovers’ entertainment” and “film lovers’ entertainment.”  “Reading lovers” emphasizes that the products are directed to people who love to read; “…entertainment” emphasizes that the products are meant to entertain.  I’m speaking about fiction, of course, but there is no reason why a lover of reading can’t also be entertained by a good non-fiction book (I am such a reader).

In fact, readers rule in this entertainment industry.  As a consequence, an author has to realize that every reader is different.  Whether a book becomes a bookseller because of some lemming-like mass psychosis (the Fifty Shades trilogy comes to mind), or because it was released at the right place and right time (Harry Potter comes to mind), or is the best literary offering since To Kill a Mockingbird (no recent book comes to mind), the reading public are the consumers who determine the success of a book.  Any author who tries to predict the future and bend with the stormy winds of literary fashion is crazy.  Writers should write the stories that come from the core of their creative being—if they resonate with readers, that only means that other people enjoy his stories.  This is where minimizing steps between writer and reader comes in.

Authors might be obsessive-compulsive nerds like Jack Nicholson in that famous film As Good as It Gets, but they still seek that resonance with readers.  Why write otherwise?  In the old days where readers were few, the storytellers were vocal bards who entertained their listeners, perhaps using a lute as accompaniment.  There was even some of that in the old radio shows.  Orson Welles will probably be remembered for scaring the hell out of people with The War of the Worlds broadcast long after people remember him as an actor (of course, Citizen Kane was not too shabby).  Today, it’s clear that ebooks and the digital revolution in publishing are approaching that vocal tradition by minimizing the steps between writer and reader, inasmuch as the internet permits.

Note that I emphasize storytelling ability.  I don’t care how polished a book is, if there’s no interesting story, I won’t read it.  I assume many readers react the same way.  In fact, as a reviewer, I’m willing to forgive and forget some errors in writing technique, formatting, and cover art, as long as the writer has entertained me with a damn good story.  I’m currently reading yet another Ian Rankin mystery novel.  The ebook formatting is appalling, but the John Remus stories are always damn good (I remember that I originally had to get past the Scottish English—probably a similar learning process to a Scot reading an American novel).  Of course, I doubt that Ian cares whether I forgive his publisher.

So, you, the writer, have a whizbang story to tell in your MS?  There are still steps that must be done before I’ll let you take pride in your accomplishment.  While ebook self-publishing allows a writer to take a first draft of a novel and turn it into an ebook, achieving resonance with readers might be very difficult in that case.  But some writers don’t have first drafts (I don’t—word processing software allows one to continuously write and revise all the way through the MS).  So let’s call it the final draft before ebook formatting.  There’s still polishing to perform—you might still call it writing, but I call it polishing.

You’ve told your story the way you like to tell it, you’ve arrived at a pre-formatted MS, but there are quirks about your writing that you don’t like.  You should know what they are.  C’mon, by the time you finish that MS, you should have a good idea if you’ve been paying attention to writing tips spread all over the internet.  I’m not talking about splitting infinitives or ending a sentence with a preposition—many of those “rules” are pure crap anyway.  (Why grammar checkers in word processing software flag these is beyond me—were they written by programmers who thought their high school English teachers were teaching good writing algorithms?)

I’m talking about things like an overuse of adjectives and adverbs (I like my writing to be lean), bad dialog, orphan clauses, POV lapses (I’m my worst enemy there, because I shift it around a lot), character description errors (Sue is fat and brown-haired in Chapter Three and anorexic and blond in Chapter Forty), and so on.  We all make some of these mistakes some of the time—some of us lots of the time.  No amount of good formatting will fix these lapses.  You have to do it yourself, or, with the help of a professional editor.

I say help, because only some of these individual quirks of an author can be spotted and fixed by a good editing pro, and the author might not like the final result.  Ever have your MS start reading as if it were written by another person?  I’ve always been my worst (or. should I say, best?) critic—I know my quirks, have lists of them, and can search and fix them.  I even use a grammar checker—it tends to help with that “narrative passive” many agents complain about, otherwise known as overuse of the passive voice (I don’t worry what agents complain about anymore—they’re out of my life).

The tools built into my word processor tend to become annoying for the reasons mentioned above.  Some author once said that if he wants to break a rule, he is damn well going to do it, come hell or high water (this is not a quote—he probably didn’t use a cliché).  Let’s face it—ordinary speech has split infinitives and prepositions at the end of sentences.  Too many rules like this are arbitrary, made-up handcuffs and straitjackets real writers can thumb their noses at.  A good writer develops his own style.  Part of the sweet mystery of good storytelling is that there are so many different ways to do it.

Editing can be done entirely by the author or with the help of a pro editor.  It depends on how comfortable you are detecting your own quirks.  In any case, it is necessary before formatting your MS as an ebook.  It often helps, if you’re in DIY-mode, to print out the entire MS.  Your prose will look different in hardcopy.  Don’t be fooled into thinking that looking at it on your computer screen is the same as reading the ebook.  A good formatter knows this, but you should make as many corrections as possible before giving the MS to her.  (If you’re the formatter, you can make as many versions as you want, I guess, but that’s a waste of time.)

The other essential element in preparing for your final ebook formatting is the cover.  I don’t know about you, but my writing abilities are infinitely superior to my artistic abilities (that’s an easy estimate, because any number over zero is infinity, and I have zero artistic abilities).  You can still pass on some ideas to your cover artist, but otherwise, stick to writing and let the professional artist design your cover.  I’ve generally been pleased with all my covers (and think the worst ones were those where I had too much input).

That’s all that needs to be done between writer and reader nowadays.  A damn good story, careful and commonsense editing, and a good cover—and you’re ready to go.  Of course, when your ebook is released, you have to hope readers sit up and take notice.  That’s hard to do because how easy it is to release an ebook implies many people are doing it.  It’s a reader’s market, not a writer’s.  Readers will reap the entertainment rewards of discovering a new, bold universe of books—some bad, some OK, and some damn good, but all reasonably priced.      

Steve Moore
http://stevenmmoore.com

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MORE ON WRITING

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Fiction Writing for Children discusses everything related to writing fiction for children – it’s a detailed ‘writing, publishing, and book marketing’ map from Point A to Point Z.

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To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars, join us in The Writing World (top right top sidebar).

Karen Cioffi
Award-Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter
Author-Writer Online Presence Instructor

Create and Build Your Author/Writer/Home Business Online Platform
http://www.karencioffi.com/author-online-presence-ecourse/

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http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/karen-cioffi-writing-services/

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3 Article Marketing Mistakes to Avoid if You Want to Optimize Your Efforts (Fixes Included)

Article marketing is an excellent tool for a number of reasons, but many writers seem to be missing the ‘optimized’ mark.

For those who aren’t sure what article marketing is, it’s using posts, articles, and other content to attract visitors. This includes the posts on your own website.

Here are three mistakes you should avoid to boost your efforts.

1. You don’t take the time to self-edit your content before publishing.

Article marketing encompasses a number of venues. There’s blogging on your own blog, there’s guest blogging, and there’s publishing with article directories and other venues.

Whichever venue you use, self-editing your posts and articles is absolutely needed.

The reason self-editing is a must is because you must be blogging and article marketing with a purpose in mind. That purpose is usually one of all of the following:

• Create visibility
• Lead visitors back to your website
• Increase your authority in your niche
• Increase your mailing list

With these purposes in mind, it’s important for your content to be polished. You want to look the part of a skilled writer. This is why self-editing is an absolute must.

So, before you send off that article, or before you publish it yourself, take the few minutes it takes to READ it first. One trick is to close the article after writing it and go back to it in a day or two. You’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to spot errors when you do this.

2. You don’t include a bio or tag at the end of ‘every’ article.

You write a slam-dunk article, that offers lots of information. You impress the reader. But, you don’t have an effective tag. In fact some blog posts don’t even include the author’s name.

Whether it’s your own blog post, an article for an article directory, or it’s a guest post, you need to include a brief bio.

So, be sure to include your name at the end of every post on your own site. And, it’s advisable to include a call-to-action. You might suggest the reader sign up for your newsletter or you can lead them to an offer.

In regard to article directories, they provide a ‘resource’ or ‘bio’ box that appears at the end of your article. Take advantage of this tool and make your words effective. Be sure to lead the reader back to your website or to your call-to-action.

The same holds true for guest blogging, you want the tag to be short and effective.

3. You don’t include hyperlinks in your posts.

It seems most blogs don’t use hyperlinks. While this is a practice you can’t use on most article directories, you can certainly use it in your own posts and guest posts. Search engines love hyperlinks.

To hyper link, you simple highlight a keyword and link it to another relevant article or site. The idea is to give the reader more bang-for-the-buck. You give your reader a broader reading experience.

There you have it, three article marketing mistakes and three solutions.

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MORE ON ONLINE MARKETING

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P.S. To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars, join us in The Writing World (top right top sidebar).

Karen Cioffi
Award-Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter
Author/Writer Online Platform Instructor

Create and Build Your Author/Writer Online Platform
Karen Cioffi Professional Writing Services

Great Headline and Pitch Formula

Here's a great fill-in-the-blank formula you can use to create a show pitch that is guaranteed to grab a producer's attention virtually every time from "Rick Frishman's Sunday Tips."

* Pitch Formula:  "Is/Are __________ making you ____________?"

And here's a couple of examples of how you might apply it:

Show Pitch:  "Is your house making you sick?"

Show Pitch:  "Are your kids making you fat?"

What you're looking for when you use this formula is a combination of things that are unlikely. The answer may only be yes once in a while, but that's enough to justify posing the question ... and getting people's attention.

How about, "Is Christmas creating a society full of liars?" Whether it is or isn't is immaterial, but it could be argued that by telling our children lies when they are young (flying reindeer, deer with red noses, a sleigh that can hold enough presents for every kid on earth) that we are indeed creating a society of liars.

It doesn't matter if your claim is ultimately true or not ... as long as it's arguable. What really matters is that it gets people's attention and it's a great show.

Please share this with anyone it might help.

To get Alex Carroll's entire database of the Biggest 1,364 radio shows in America (all have at least 100,000 listeners), complete with show descriptions and number of listeners for each show, visit our website: http://www.publicityvault.com.

Reprinted from "Rick Frishman's Sunday Tips"
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MORE ON ONLINE MARKETING

Landing Pages for Better Conversion
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Do You Have an Online Marketing Focus?

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P.S. To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars, join us in The Writing World (top right top sidebar).

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Book Marketing on a Budget with Penny Lockwood

Penny is on a blog tour for her new book Boo's Bad Day and I'm so glad to be a part of it. For her stop here, Penny has some advice on promoting a book without spending lots of money.

Promoting Boo’s Bad Day On a Budget

By Penny Lockwood

One part of the writing process that seems to cause most authors to shudder is marketing.  Granted there are a number of authors who know how to promote their books and are quite successful at doing so.  Many others are more like me, left wondering where do I start…

I live in a small rural community in NW Oregon.  Our county seat, which is one of the two closest towns, had a lovely, small independent bookstore until a few months ago.  Anticipating the release of my picture book Boo’s Bad Day, I hoped to include a book signing as part of my promotion. Unfortunately, due to economic pressures, the owner had to close.  Now, our only bookstores are one used bookstore and used books from thrift shops. I was excited when the owner of the used bookstore told me she’d let me do a book signing there as well as sell the books on consignment. While Portland, the largest city in Oregon, is only about a half hour away, due to family obligations, I am unable to travel far for personal book signings.

My major form for promoting Boo’s Bad Day, therefore, has been to go to the Internet for exposure.  One of the things I did well before the release of my book was start a blog One Writer’s Journey.  At first, I wrote articles offering writing tips.  I soon realized there are already a lot of blogs doing that, and it was difficult to create blog traffic.  I then switched my focus to interviewing other authors.  I now have a couple thousand followers through Google and Networked Blogs.  By offering this free promotion to other authors, I have made connections that allow me to approach other authors who offer their blogs as a venue for marketing. 

By contacting children’s authors who appeared on my blog, I have thirty-four blog stops scheduled for my Boo’s Bad Day blog tour. During the tour, I have bloggers who have volunteered to review Boo, interviews, and guest posts, such as this one.  I will visit each blog on the day I’m scheduled to appear, answer any questions commenters may leave, and keep track of their names to be entered into a drawing for a copy of Boo at the end of the tour.

The other marketing technique I’ve utilized is publicity in local newspapers.  I sent media releases and review copies of Boo to the small newspaper publishers in the closest towns as well as the two large statewide newspapers.  One newspaper has offered me an interview in addition to my press release.  Another statewide newspaper, Statesman Journal already posted information about Boo on their biblio blog.

I will be contacting the two libraries in the closest towns to arrange for a visit during their story times.  My plan is to donate a book to each of the libraries and hand out bookmarks to the kids during my visit.  In addition to the libraries, I will contact the local preschools and kindergartens to arrange for author visits.

I personally contacted people I know who have children or grandchildren aged eighteen months to six years and have sold several copies through this method.  In fact, one contact ordered six books so she could give them as gifts.

I realize there are a lot more things I should do, most of which won’t cost anything.  I already have Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and Jacketflap author pages.  I still need to set up an account with Goodreads.  I’ve also been reading about the advantages of Pinterest, but sometimes I find it’s hard to keep up with all these networking sites. I’ve tried to keep the number down thinking quality might be better than quantity.  I am curious which sites will actually bring more exposure.

I know several authors who have newsletters, and I understand this can be a great way to promote one’s books.  Right now, I don’t have this set up, but it’s something I’m exploring.

There are, of course, a lot of other marketing ideas, many of which cost money.  I’m not in a position to spend a lot of money on promotion, so I look to those things I can do which are low-cost or no-cost.  I’d be interested in hearing what some other folks are doing to promote their books, too.  Please be sure to leave a comment.

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Here's a brief description of Boo's Bad Day:
Boo is a very bored kitten. When Timmy and his mom return home, Boo sneaks out of the house.  Boo is frightened by the noises of the big world outside of the safety of his warm home.  When Timmy coaxes Boo back into the house, Boo realizes some places are safe and some are not.

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Boo's Bad Day is getting great reviews, so be sure to get your own copy today. Here's the information:

Title: BOO’S BAD DAY
By: Penny Lockwood
Picture book for children aged 18 months to 6 years
Published by 4RV Publishing
ISBN# 13: 978-0-9852661-5-8
4RV - http://www.4rvpublishingcatalog.com/penny-lockwood.php
$8.99 includes s/h

Look inside at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Boos-Bad-Day-Penny-Lockwood/dp/0985266155/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
$7.32 prime

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About the Author

Penny Lockwood has published more than 100 articles, 75 stories, a chapbook, and her stories have been included in two anthologies. She writes for both adults and children. Her fiction has appeared in numerous genre and children’s publications, and non fiction work has appeared in a variety of writing, parenting, and young adult print magazines and on line publications.  She edits for MuseItUp Publishing.  Visit her web site at http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.yolasite.com. Her writing blog is located at http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.blogspot.com

She has recently released Boo’s Bad Day with 4RV Publishing and has three other children’s books under contract with them: Ghost for Rent, Ghost for Lunch, and Many Colored Coats. She has three romances published by MuseItUp Publishing: Love Delivery, Lady in Waiting, and Mirror, Mirror.  Her short story collection, A Past and A Future, is available through Sam’s Dot Publishing and Smashwords.

Social links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/penny.ehrenkranz
Twitter: @PennyEhrenkranz
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pennyehrenkranz/

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Be sure to visit Penny tomorrow for her next tour stop at http://barbaraehrentreu.blogspot.com

If you'd like to check out yesterday’s stop, visit: http://1sttimemums.com

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