Why translation isn’t magical: What you MUST know before you translate your book into English…

The US market needs diverse books, and that includes the voices of those who live elsewhere, speaking other languages, and living different lives. It’s also great that authors are willing to invest money, time, and effort. If you believe that strongly in your book, there’s a chance it can succeed.

But not if you rush into submitting it the second it’s translated into English.

Working as a translator for the last four years, unfortunately, I’ve met many writers who believe that all it takes to break into the U.S. market is to translate their book into English and sit back waiting for offers to roll in.

Unfortunately, translation isn’t a magic bullet that’s going to shoot your story straight into the heart of an agent or publisher.  And even if you self-publish, having your story translated into English is not a guarantee of success.  It’s not a magic wand that you wave to let those big US bucks start rolling in.

So I want to ask you to pause, just for a second, and ask yourself: Is my book ready to translate? Am I giving it the best possible chances of success?

Here are three issues you might want to consider first.

1. Physical expectations

Be absolutely certain that you know what publishers in the U.S. market are expecting. The standard for picture books is 32 pages, and word count ranges between 600 and 800 words (plus or minus). However wonderful your book is, if it doesn’t look and feel like what they’re expecting, agents and editors will be far more likely to say no without giving you a fair chance.*

To be submission-ready, your book should also be in “bare naked” format—a plain font like Arial or Times New Roman, 12 points, double-spaced, with no fancy graphics. Understand the basics of English punctuation, which may be different from what you’re used to. Sure, your translator should know this, but

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Be grateful for editors!

Yesterday, I got the phone call I was dreading – a call from my EDITOR.  I spent half an hour on the phone yesterday with the person in charge of editing my next children’s book, and I have to admit, I had been dreading her call for a while.

I got an email from her when the book was first accepted by the publisher (yay – details to come, I promise!) saying, basically, “We love your book, but naturally, we’re going to have to make some changes to the text.”  Which is their prerogative, right?  I can’t force them to publish my book as-is, no matter how much I love the text, so my best bet if I want to be published is to roll with things.

So.  I was prepared to roll with things.  But that doesn’t mean I was looking forward to her call, in which we would “discuss the changes.”

Ugh.  Did she not realize how much I’d sweated over every single word of that story?  Written, revised, erased, gotten it to the point where it was just about perfect?

Let me tell you – I didn’t feel particularly grateful about the spectre of her call.

When you read a commercially-published book, you’ll often see a bit at the beginning or the end where the author thanks her family, her agent, and then her editor (or editors).  I always took that part for granted until I started working as a novice journalist and working with editors who actually hacked and slashed and carved up my writing to find the most important points within it and bring those to the fore. 

And at first, dealing with those editors, what I felt was mostly ingratitude.  How dare they tell me how to write?  Isn’t writing supposed to be an art form?  And if so, would they swipe their red pens across a Degas or Van Gogh if they didn’t like what they saw on the canvas?

I was being – feel free to slap me now – frankly ridiculous.

Oh, I was gracious enough.  I wanted to keep making money and getting published, so I rolled with it, like I said, and even said “thank you.”  But I wasn’t feeling it.  Oh, boy, was I not.

But gradually,

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From Manuscript to Self-Published Book in 10 Simple Steps

What’s next? 

That’s the question I hear most often from writers out there.  Maybe even from you.  It’s what everybody wants to know, so if you’re stuck on that question, you’re not alone.

You already have a great story, one you really believe in, and you’re READY – you just want to get your story out there into the world.

Here’s the great news:  you CAN!

You can self-publish your book, in ten not-so-tough steps I’ll lay out for you here.  You’ll have to put in some time, some energy, and there is absolutely a learning curve.  But I believe this process is so simple that just about anybody can master it with a little experience.

I’m going to illustrate these steps with a book that I actually did self-publish.  It’s called Shabbat Monsters.  It’s a good example because it’s a pretty classic 32-page rhyming picture book. 

Let’s get started… at the very beginning, with

Step 1.  Your MANUSCRIPT.

Looks pretty plain, doesn’t it?  I hope you’ve had it professionally edited.  If not, go do it – NOW.

Okay, you’re back.  Your story’s ready.  Let’s move on to…

Step 2. Your dummy

No, I’m not CALLING you a dummy!  It’s time to make a dummy.  32 pages, 2-page spreads.  Time to start planning what we (the reader) are going to see on every single page.

So that’s the first stage of planning what the pages are going to look like.  Once I know what illustrations I’m going to need, it’s time for…

Step 3.  Artwork

If you’re not an artist (you’ll know if you are), I strongly recommend you get a professional to do this step, even if you have to pay them.  I loved the artist I worked with for this book.  A little slow, but she was very responsive.  First, she sent me sketches…

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Duckies, dragons, dinos: how old is your reader?

Can you tell the difference between a three-year-old and a ten-year-old?

I’m guessing you answered yes to that question.  But do you ask yourself this question when you sit down to write a picture book?  When you’re writing the thing, of course, it’s most important to follow your inspiration and get the words down on the page (screen!). 

But once you’re ready to think about submitting it or publishing it yourself, it’s a different story.  THEN you have to start thinking about audience.

Somebody got in touch the other day to chat about a kids’ book project and he happened to mention that the book was aimed at “kids ages three to eleven.”

Three to eleven???

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Should you self-publish your children’s book? These 5 questions will help you decide.

You have a wonderful story, and it’s written at last.  What should you do with it now?  You want to get it off your hard drive and out into the world… but how?

Maybe you're thinking you should self-publish... but then, you've heard that it's hard work.  Or maybe you're considering sending it out to a publishing company - but have heard there’s so much frustration if you go that route.

Should you self-publish?  Or traditionally publish?  This may be the hardest question we face as writers today.

Self-publishing has grown tremendously and is starting to find its sea legs in today's stormy publishing world.  31% of Amazon's Kindle sales come from indie books, self-published by their authors or tiny (sometimes single-author) publishing companies.  40% of ebook payouts are going to indie authors.  “Kindle millions” might be a myth, but maybe you should try to cash in on some of those megabucks? [stats from Publishers Weekly]

These five questions will help you make the choice, based on my experience navigating the joys and frustrations of self-publishing nearly 20 books for kids and adults, and helping others get their books out into the world. 

There’s no right or wrong answer to these questions.  But if you find yourself answering NO to most of them, a traditional publisher will probably offer a more comfortable route to a final book.

1.  Do you have a clear idea of where your book’s illustrations will come from?

It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing the illustrations yourself or hiring an illustrator.  The important thing is knowing that if you self-publish, you’ll have to either lay out the book yourself or pay someone with these skills to do it for you.

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The stinky fish guide to choosing and using big words in your children’s story.

What’s your favourite condiment?  What do you love to squirt onto your burgers, your dogs, your sandwiches?

(I’ll tell you what America’s current favourite is in a minute – and why it’s important to you as a writer.)

Know what condiment the ancient Romans loved best?  It’s called garum, a putrid blend made of stinky rotten fish.  The Roman writer Seneca called it an “expensive bloody mass of decayed fish [which] consumes the stomach with its salted putrefaction.”

Yum, right?  (OMG, no.)

Know why the Romans loved the stuff?  Because their food was so, so stinky that they needed a condiment strong enough to cover it up.  Ew.

The perfect condiment for stinky writing

Some people’s writing is like this, too.  Stinky stuff.  Their writing isn’t clear, their ideas are shallow – but they use big, fancy words, splashing them around like garum to cover up the stench.  They hope you won’t notice.

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So you want to write a children’s book…? The ultimate Quick-Start tutorial.

When I started out writing children’s books, I was full of ideas, but I had no idea what to actually DO. 

Should I write the story?  Find an artist?  How was it all supposed to come together into an actual book?  Like I said, I had no idea.

You might be right where I was a few years ago, wondering how to get started.

I’ve put this quick-start guide together to help YOU skip over the mistakes I made.  I hope it’ll help give you a smoother launch into this incredible world of writing for children.

1. How can you write (or finish) your book?

You can’t do much until you have a finished book saved on your hard drive (or, if you’re the old-fashioned type, written down on paper).  Here are the basics, the least you need to know to sit down and get writing.

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Ebook non-fiction: 3 rules to hook readers (and keep them coming back).

Ever felt like you couldn’t compete?

Want to know how your books can rise to the top?

Head over to Amazon and you’ll find a virtual deluge of nonfiction kids’ ebooks, and they’re not going away anytime soon.  Most are awful, a relic of the Kindle “gold rush.”  They repurpose free information, slap on free pictures, and charge anywhere between $.99 and $3.99 to call it a “book.”

I’ve recently converted a couple of the projects I created as a homeschooler into nonfiction ebooks, and discovered along the way that I really love writing kids’ nonfiction.  It’s even a little addictive once you get started.  I love creating books that teach kids about the world – in a fun way, so that ideally, they won’t realize they’re learning a thing.

So how do you do that in a way that doesn’t turn them off?  Or even do it in a way that keeps them coming back for more?  Don’t worry, it’s not as tough as it sounds (unlike getting them to line up for a second helping of green beans).

Staying afloat

Sure, it’s tough to stay above the tide.  It’s easy to despair when you see the numbers:  There is just so much out there, and more every day.

But I do believe that quality will rise to the top… or at least, some elusive mix of quality plus quantity.  If you publish a single Kindle ebook, it may not succeed, no matter how great it is.  But if you publish a whole series of them, and you acquire a loyal audience who enjoys reading them… then, I believe you will.

So how do you pick up that loyal following?

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Are editors and agents sick of YOUR book? 11 things they don’t want to see.

Is your story perfect?

Wait! 

Don’t hit the send button just yet.

Before you email (or snail mail) that manuscript, make sure you aren’t sending an editor (or agent) a book she’s already sick of seeing.

It’s not like it’s tough to read their minds.  Editors, agents and other publishing professionals are out there giving interviews.  They are sitting down with bloggers and newspaper / magazine writers, mostly begging us (as writers) to please not send them certain books.

Which books?

Let’s listen to what they’re saying for a minute.  Can you hear them all?

Straight from the horses’ mouths, here’s what all those editors and agents are utterly, completely, and totally sick of…

Books that rhyme.

1.  Rhyme.  “I am SICK of seeing rhyming picture books with bad meter and rhyme. Ugh. Is there anything worse? No. No, there’s not.” – editor Josh Plattner, via Writers’ Rumpus.

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Seven “story renovations” that will make your book great.

You know what breaks my heart?  When I hand my story to a reader (an honest proofreader, please!)… and they read the story. 

Here I am, and I I love the story, so I’m all, like, “well?  well?” … and they say, “I liked it.”  That “like” breaks my heart.  That is the “like” that is not love… it means my story’s not good enough.

Has that ever happened to you?

Sometimes, little changes aren’t enough to bridge that disconnect between the story unfolding beautifully in my mind and the story on paper that will make readers say “wow.”  That means your book (and mine) needs a big change.

Don’t be afraid to overhaul your book.  If they can pull up scaffolding and repaint the Sistine Chapel, surely you can take a pen – or keyboard – to your story and have it, too, emerge renewed, recharged and more brilliant than ever.

Here are seven big changes that can take almost any story and make it stronger.  Save your first draft so you can come back to it if you need to… and then plunge right in to make your story better and stronger than ever.

1. Who’s the main character?

This one may be the scariest change to make.  At one point, I was working on a story with a child as the main character, except I was stuck with the story… until my teacher suggested making the main character an adult instead. 

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Grab the ladder: climbing your way to a self-published children’s book.

Have you written your story already, but have no idea what comes next?  Everybody says the sky’s the limit, but what if that sky looks impossibly out of reach… and you’re scared of heights?

The first time I published my own kids’ book, I had no idea of what to do when.  What steps came first, and which could wait until later.  And I made a lot of mistakes.  The layout looked funny, I ordered black-and-white instead of colour, forgot to put in the copyright information at the beginning.

I made those mistakes because I couldn’t find a a ladder:  a guide that told me what to do when, or at least, gave me some idea of what needed to be done to reach the top.

That’s why I’m so excited about sharing my process.  This is an evolving process; with every book I do, it generally gets easier, now that the basics are familiar.

That will happen for you, too.  The first time is always an adventure; sometimes a scary one.  And while each book is a new ladder to climb, you’ll be able to climb to the top a little easier each time.

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Twelve steps to writing an awful kids’ book.

Mea culpa.  I have been there and I have done that.  I have written awful children’s books; not just book but books, plural.  And no amount of “Hail Mary”s can fix the bad writing I’ve done (plus, I’m not Catholic).

Phew.  Feels good to get it off my chest.  These days, I sometimes turn up an old file on my hard drive and open it up, only to discover an ugly early attempt at a kids’ story.  I’m nowhere near perfect yet, but it has become easier, at least, to spot where all those early attempts went wrong.

If I ever wanted to write an awful kids’ book again, let’s just say I now know all the steps to get me there.  And having been there and done that, I’m happy to share this twelve-step plan to help you, too, create a children’s book that truly stinks. 

What?  You want to write a great kids’ book?

Don’t worry… for each of these twelve steps, I’ve offered a few tips (many from painful personal experience) on how to do it right.  You know… just in case you want to write this book:

Instead of this one:

You decide which you want to write… and then follow these twelve simple tips.

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FREE Kindle “Dinosaurs” e-book – today & tomorrow only!

Want a cool FREE way to check out your book’s competition?  Download it free from Amazon.  And sometimes, even if a book is not at all like yours, you’ll learn a thing or two.

I’m planning a full-fledged review of Emma Child’s high-quality self-published Kindle books (also recently featured in this post about using Internet and stock photos in children’s books)… but in the meantime, I didn’t want you to miss out, because her Dinosaurs book is FREE from Amazon today and tomorrow (June 4 and 5) only.

Click here to “buy” this e-book – absolutely free before June 5th.

Not to spoil the review but – though I have found several typos in her books – Emma’s doing a lot right and we should all take a look at her books if we’re planning to publish Kindle e-books.

In particular, what I enjoy (compared to some other Kindle e-books) is that the captions are part of the photographs, so they never scroll off the page.  Also, the facts are truly interesting, and don’t talk down to kids.

Anyway, it’s free, so get clicking, quick… you’ll never regret putting in work on those “comps”, I promise!

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15 Kindle books under $10 that will help you write a great children’s book… and 3 to skip at any price.

I read a lot of ebooks these days, because we’re about a bazillion miles from the nearest English-language bookstore.  And like always, I love reading… about writing.  But I don’t love spending a ton on writing books.  It makes writing feel like a self-indulgent hobby, an extravagance.  So I’m always on the lookout for cheap, high-quality writing books.
Happily, there are many good books out there for not much money.  But how can you sift through them all and decide which ones are worth even the little that they cost?  Here, I’ve sifted through the cheapest and best I could find to offer you fifteen good ones and three stinkers.

What do I look for in a writing book?

First, here’s what I don’t look for - a few pet peeves I try to avoid, including:

• Generic cover with a typewriter or something writerly that screams, “I’m going to spend all my time turning out a series of a dozen books on writing books… instead of writing books myself.”  Shudder.
• Puns that promise you “the write stuff” or any other pun-ishing approach to writing it “write.”  Groan.
• Books that start by telling you that “some people” think kids’ books are super-easy to write.  We know, we know.  Don’t lead with this – it’s not news.  Blah.
• Out-of-date books that are re-released for Kindle with no new content.  Ugh.

 

Different genres of writing books

Before you buy any book, make sure you know what you’re buying.  The book’s description should tell you clearly what type of book it is:

• Is it a “basics” book that will give prompts and help you actually write the story?
• Is it an “industry overview” book that explains the business of publishing?
• Is it a “nuts and bolts” book that tells you how to get your book ready for a specific format, like Kindle?
• Is it a “promotion” book that shows you how to market a book you’ve already written?

None of these is the WRONG answer, by the way.  You need different books at different points in your life and even different days of the week.  If you’re not sure from the description of the book, be very wary.  Read reviews to try to find out.  Click to see the preview.  If you’re still not clear on what you’re going to get out of the book… give up and try the next one on the list.

The books

So without further ado (dontcha hate when they say “without further adieu…”?), I now present… the books.  I know I promised cheap Kindle books in the headline.  But I’m going to do you an even bigger favour and divide these books up into three price ranges:  super-cheap (under $2), way cheap (under $7) and still pretty cheap (under $10).  Beyond that, the books here appear in no particular order.

Super-cheap (under $2)

#1… $1.99 How To Write a Children's Picture Book by Darcy Pattison (Nov 28, 2013).  A terrific value even at a few bucks more, you cannot go wrong with this detailed book, that gets into the real nitty gritty of the writing and publishing business.  I OWN THIS BOOK.

#2… $0.01 The Business of Writing for Children: An Award-Winning Author's Tips on  Writing Children's Books and Publishing by Aaron Shepard (Mar 25, 2014).  As of this writing, it costs only one cent, way less than what I paid (I think $0.99 or $1.00?).  Buy it!!!  I OWN THIS BOOK.

#3… $0.91 Formatting of Children's Books and Comics for the Kindle, by Charles Spender (November 13, 2012).  The Amazon page for this book now directs you to this site (5th book down in the list) to download a free (& totally legit) copy.  What a nice surprise!  With 35 mostly-positive reviews, and a price tag like this, what are you waiting for?  I OWN THIS BOOK (now).

Way cheap (under $7)

#4… $2.83 The Easy Way to Write Picture Books That Sell by Robyn Opie Parnell (Oct 20, 2013).  Not my favourite, because I didn’t really click with her writing style and the book was a little basic for me.  She’s very enthusiastic, though – if slightly redundant in her advice.  This one is high on confidence but low on technical details.  A great suggestion if you’re just starting out.  I OWN THIS BOOK.

#5… $4.99 The Children's Writer's Guide by Simon Rose (Sep 22, 2013).  This one also falls into the category of good books for beginners, dealing with issues like naming your characters, turning ideas into stories, making time to write, dealing with rejection (important!) and more.  For under $5, it’s like a writing course in easy portable ebook form.

#6… $4.59 A Self-Publisher's Companion: Expert Advice for Authors Who Want to Publish by Joel Friedlander (Mar 24, 2011).  The only non-kids’-book specific book you’ll find on this list (and similarly, the only non-kids’-book-related blog on my blogroll, for the same reason).  If you ever hope to self-publish, Friedlander won’t steer you wrong.  You’ll get an overview of the publishing industry and what has changed with the advent of ebooks, as well as crucial lists of what self-publishers do wrong and how to fix them.  True, a lot of the pieces are available free on his blog, but come on - $5?  And most have been expertly revised to suit the book form and flow from chapter to chapter.  I OWN THIS BOOK.

#7… $2.87 Picture Books: The Write Way by Laura Salas and Lisa Bullard (November 13, 2013).  Recommended despite the “write” pun in the title.  This book deals with ten BIG problems that writers encounter when their stories meet up with editors for the first time.  It assumes you have a story that is already written and goes through this list of ten biggies step by step.  I love a book this focused and on-task, and as a result, this book is now ON MY WISH LIST.

#8… $6.28 Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly by Gail Carson Levine (August 27, 2013).  You don’t get much more cred than Levine, creator of such books as Ella Enchanted.  Mainly geared towards teaching middle-schoolers how to write, this book has clearly struck a chord with adult writers as well, judging from its positive reviews.  If you consider yourself an expert or advanced writer, this may not be the book for you given its young adult focus.

#9… $3.67 The Busy Writer's Tips on Writing for Children by Marg McAlister (November 22, 2012).  Another one I’d never heard of.  Amazon says the writer, Marg McAlister, has written more than 60 books for children – which may be, but not a single one is listed on Amazon; all they have is her books on writing for writers.  But she’s in Australia, which may explain this, and her own website, writing course, etc., look legit.

Still pretty cheap (under $10)

#10… $7.62 How to Write a Children's Picture Book and Get it Published by Andrea Shavick (July 29, 2011).  I admit, I hadn’t heard of Shavick or her book, but it looks well written enough, and her personal website is professionally done, which tells me that some effort has probably gone into the book as well.  If that sounds like it’s setting the bar pretty low, you should see some of the so-called writing books out there.

#11… $9.38 Writing Irresistible Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers by Mary Kole (Nov 6, 2012).  I love it when bloggers write books!  You can check out their writing and the quality of their advice for free ahead of time.  Mary Kole is a pro in both areas, and this book is ON MY WISHLIST.

#12… $9.17 You Can Write Children's Books by Tracey E. Dils (Sep 10, 2009).  Another one that was new to me, but what an encouraging title.  Lots of great reviews, too, showing that this is a beginner’s guide that may be worth the (under $10) investment just to have on the (virtual) bookshelf.  While I haven’t read this book specifically, the Kindle edition is an update of an earlier book published by Writer’s Digest, so I expect that it is well-produced, slick and upbeat, like most of their other books… a format that was very, very encouraging to me when I was just starting out.

#13… $9.18 The Everything Guide To Writing Children's Books by Lesley Bolton (Dec 1, 2002).  Looks like a solid overview from this company, that publishes “For Dummies” style intro books, and offers a glimpse of the process of creating kids’ books.  Most of the focus is on traditional publishing, with only a brief, discouraging (and perhaps slightly outdated) nod towards self-publishing.

#14… $9.17 The Nuts and Bolts Guide to Writing Picture Books by Linda Ashman (September 25, 2013).  With a ton of published kids’ books under her belt, Linda Ashman feels like a writer you can trust.  Plus, blogger Julie Hedlund says it’s full of “juicy goodness”… how can we resist?

#15… Okay, at $10.15, How to Promote Your Children's Book: Tips, Tricks, and Secrets to Create a Bestseller, by Katie Davis (March 22, 2014), is slightly over the promised price point (but then I gave you one free, so go easy on me).  This is one I haven’t read, but it’s on my wish list now for sure.  With 151 positive reviews (in just over a month?!), this book about a much-overlooked area is what I’d call an Important Read.  How about this positive review from Laura Purdie Salas, co-author of Picture Books: The Write Way (see above):  “I blog, Facebook, and do a lot of promotional stuff, including an online book launch, online teacher extension materials, etc. But Katie's book still offered me tons more ideas for things I want to check out”?  Come on… it’s only $0.15 over!  ON MY WISH LIST.

…And 3 to skip unless they’re free

(and even then, probably skip them)

Why avoid these books?  Even a cheap book isn’t free if you think about the time you have to put in reading it.  Why throw your money away on a book that offers you cheap information that you can find either on the writer’s blog or, worse, on someone else’s – because they’ve just ripped it off and/or spun it to create their book.

#1… $4.71 Publish Children's Books - How to Self Publish and Market Your Kids Books by Caterina Christakos (Sep 1, 2013).  See that image of money bags on the cover???  Yeah, that’s you, raking in the dough over your little rhyming nursery story – NOT.  What a weird cover.  At only 18 pages, this is way too short to call a book.  A pamphlet, maybe?  Just from the preview, I can tell that the writer has no clue how to use a comma, and she uses every opportunity to hype her own book, How to Write a Children’s Book in 30 Days or Less! – which, by the way, has many bad reviews and is apparently full of typos.  Her only children’s book visible on Amazon begins with the sentence, “In every baby’s life, their comes the time when they get to meet their very own guardian Angel.”  Groan…

#2…$1.00 Writing Guide: RIGHT FOR KIDS: 333 One Sentence Tips and Tricks on the Art and Business of Writing Picture Books for Children by Tom Skinner (June 29, 2012).  This book is chock full of three hundred and thirty-three one-liners like, “The industry is very competitive and full of talented professionals,” “You can do it!  (With a few tips + bit of study + practice),” and “A picture book is simple.  And simply irresistible.”  Guess whose book I’m resisting very easily right now?  Pretty easy to avoid given that he has a chapter called “COZ HE WOZ.”

#3… $2.88 Writing Books for Children and Youth (Boot Camp for Christian Writers) by Carolyn Tomlin (Dec 19, 2013).  It’s not the religious aspect of this book that turned me off.  It’s the near-illiteracy of its sweeping generalizations (“There are some writers who look at trends – including what topics are being discussed in the media?” “Writers for children’s books would be wise to know the breakdown of the publisher you wish to submit your work”), and the lack of writing cred of the author.  Despite this lack, she offers copious examples – including a full-text excerpt – from her own single children’s book (“Matthew smiled when he thought about all of his different friends.  They all looked different from him.  Some had dark skin, others light.” Can you tell yet that the book is about multiculturalism??  In case you missed it, how about, “On the next block lived Matthew’s African American friend, Lakesia.”?).  And in case you’re looking for a Christian perspective, I couldn’t find any in this book except in the aforementioned excerpt.

*All prices are as of this writing.  Amazon pricing can fluctuate randomly from day to day and even from minute to minute.

Did I forget to include your favourite book?  Let me know in the comments!

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Having trouble choosing a children’s-book writing course? I don’t blame you!

When I decided to take an online children’s picture book writing course, I had no idea where to start (I’ll tell you where I ended up later on, and offer a few more good suggestions as well.).

Googling “children’s picture-book writing course” turns up a dizzying range of courses, from universities (expensive!) to individual authors’ homemade courses (sketchy?).  Some claim to have been around for 30-some-odd years, while many others have popped up overnight.

All these courses claim to be the BEST.  How can you tell them apart? 

The good news is that you can find decent courses at a few different price levels.  As for which ones will actually help you get ahead… I’m convinced that has more to do with your attitude than with the teacher (as long as he/she is reasonably competent).

I’ve taken a bunch of creative writing classes, both online and in person.  Some were good, a couple were great… one (in-person at a major university) was pretty bad:  we spent much of the time looking at the professor’s own (mediocre) writing.

Here are three questions to help you narrow down what you’re looking for:

1.  What is my goal for the course?

Do you want to get your story down on paper?  Are you struggling with stilted language?  Or are you at the stage of figuring out how to get it in front of as many publishers as possible? 

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Photo picture books: good, bad, UGLY.

I’ve taken some heat over the last couple days for this post, which suggests that writers can choose free photos from Wikimedia and other websites and use them in their books as an alternative to hiring an illustrator. 

(Photo credit:  Albert Kok, Wikimedia)

Yet photo-based picture books are a long tradition, going almost back to the beginning of both.  And we cannot all dive to the bottom of the seas to take our own pictures of sharks… nor is there any need to, with good-quality stock photos and (high-quality!  read my post!) internet photos.

So I decided to search through Amazon to find out exactly what’s out there these days:  the good, bad, and ugly in kids’ picture books that are based around photos.  But not in that order!

Books illustrated with photos tend to come from the non-fiction end of the spectrum… but not entirely, as we’ll see in a couple of the examples below.  They can be found both in slick professionally-published versions and some good, bad and loathsome self-pubbed editions.

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WriteKidsBooks.org Writers’ Workshop: Judo Juan

  Every once in a while, people email asking if I’ll take a look at their story.  I thought it might be fun to run this as an occasional blog feature, so I asked one writer’s permission to have his story and my suggestions appear here on this site.

Rick was gracious enough to allow me to share his work, and I’d be thrilled if any of you would like to offer your comments as well in the Comments section below.

It’s an interesting concept, of a boy who starts taking martial arts, but the true potential of this story doesn’t shine through.

Martial arts is a creative, fun way to channel aggressive impulses.  Lots of parents, teachers and principals know that.  It would be a fun idea to create a kids’ book that would share this idea with children on their own level and perhaps make them eager to try martial arts for themselves.

I identified four factors that could really help this story succeed.

• Punching up the language – careful line editing
• The dojo as a whole new world – making the main character’s entrance into the new world of martial arts more dramatic
• Adding a longer middle – the story needs to be longer, with more action
• Finding the story / character arc – more emphasis on the takeaway

Punching up the language

Unfortunately, in his first draft, the writer does a lot of telling, not showing, and the language not only

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Most children’s book writers fail… here’s why you don’t have to.

It’s easy to see why so many authors fail:  the market is flooded like no time before in history.  What will keep you afloat above the deluge? 

It’s not enough to just write something that’s never been written before… you have to make your book extraordinary.  But even that’s not enough. 

The secret?  Quit showing your book to family and friends.

Ditch the cheering squad and your odds of success will shoot through the roof.

That’s it. 

That is the difference between you and 90% of the failed kids’-book writers out there.

Are you fooling yourself into failure? 

You are if you’re…

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Writing Style with Strunk & White: #1 and #2

Flipping through my vintage Strunk & White, rediscovered why I liked the book so much in the first place.  It’s as jarring and fun as anything written about writing today, especially the unassuming Approach to Style section near the back.

(This vintage edition is actually new to me – it arrived a few weeks ago after I ordered a newer edition from Better World Books; they refunded my money very quickly when I reported the mistake.)

So – I thought – why not bring it up-to-date, sharing these fabulous insights in a way that applies to children’s books?  Brilliant.  And then kick it up just a bit (unless you’re Emeril, don’t call it a notch) with a “Lazy-Day Takeaway” – an easy tip you can incorporate into your own writing, like, immediately, today.  Or whenever.

Why not, indeed???

So I did.  I am.  I will.  I must!

There are 21 points in the Approach to Style, and I’m going to take them on two at a time. 

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Three Strikes, You’re Out: The “Three Deadlies”

What are the worst sins a children’s book writer can commit??? 

In some forms of Christianity, there are Seven Deadly Sins, for which one presumably can’t be forgiven.  If you take children’s books seriously, like “on the level of religion” seriously, then it stands to reason there will be Deadly Sins here, too.

I know I sound like a hopeless snob, but I believe there are three sins that you, as a self-published writer, must NEVER commit if you want me to take your book seriously.  These are errors that scream out, “I’m putting out my own book – on the cheap!”

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