8 mistakes to avoid while writing for children.

(guest post by Megha Mukherjee)

On my niece's seventh birthday, I wondered what would be an ideal gift for her. I decided to gift her something which would be beneficial for her in future. Seeing her inclination towards story books and comics, I thought it would be much ideal to gift a story book. And what could be a better gift than a book written by me?

With full throttle, I started jotting down a set of stories for her, all well thought on the present situations and issues, stories of high values and morals. Finally, I got the book bind from a local bookbinding shop and gifted it to her.

Three years have passed since then, needless to mention that my book is a history now.All because the next time I visited my sister, I saw my book carelessly turned over the floor by the side of the kennel. Apparently, my niece was using it as a sleeping tent for her doll. My sister told me she had discarded the book, announcing it was boring. That really broke my heart and I wondered what went wrong.

Anyways, that experience was a lesson. I still want to gift a personalized storybook to my daughter and I know exactly how to go about it. Here are eight reasons to why some children's books are so popular while others never get off the rack.

 

1. A book without pictures

The first step to draw a child's attention to a book is to make it look good. Pictures attract all of us; many of us still drift the pages of a magazine without actually paying much attention to the text.

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Writer Dad: mini-interview with Sean Platt

Sometimes, it’s good to be backed into a corner.

Like us, staked out here at the corner of “writing kids’ books” and “self-publishing.” 

I live here, too.  And I love it.  I love sharing tools to create excellent children’s books, whether that’s tips on publishing, marketing, or actually sitting down and writing or editing the thing (and getting it illustrated).

Did I mention I have a guide coming out to self-editing your own children’s book?  I love every aspect of this process, even editing (and with this book, maybe you will, too).

But it does get lonely sometimes.

It’s a fun corner, but there aren’t a lot of us around.  We aren’t very high profile, and there aren’t many folks to keep us inspired.

Then somebody like Sean Platt comes along, a proud indie author who makes his living and supports his family writing his heart out in science fiction, fantasy, nonfiction and more, to the tune of tens of thousands of words a week. 

Plus he does a couple of podcasts. 

Plus… (get ready for it)… he writes kids’ books.  But you’ve never seen his books, and he says you never will.  That’s because he writes under a pseudonym:  Guy Incognito, a name swiped from a Simpson’s episode.

“Most of my published work is for grownups, so it doesn't make sense for me to use the name ‘Sean Platt’ when writing for children.”

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9 ways reviews are sweeter than chocolate – and how you can get more of both.

Everybody knows reviews are a good thing.

But why?

Someone recently asked me that, and it left me thinking.  Why are we so obsessed with reviews?  Good reviews, great reviews, 5-star reviews, hundreds of reviews. 

Why do reviews mean so much?

Here are 9 reasons why they’re a totally sweet addition to any indie publishing career.

1. They feel great.  If you’re at all passionate about what you’ve written, it’s great to know that people are reading your books and talking about them.
2. Social proof.  Buyers who see your books listed on Amazon or wherever can’t tell if they’re good or not.  Other people, preferably >100 other people, who mainly liked it, are good proof that your writing is tolerably decent.
3. Momentum. When people review or star your book, Amazon and other sites will recommend other, similar books - hopefully YOUR other, similar books. 
4. Infectiousness.  The more reviews your book has accumulated, the more likely it is to be suggested to people looking at similar books.
5. Access.  Libraries won’t even consider a book without reviews.  It’s possible that they won’t take your self-published book even with reviews.  But if you have an “in” with a local branch or library system, you do have a chance as a local author – if you have that proof that your stuff is good.
6. More access.  Ditto for schools.
7. Social karma.  Yes, self-pubbed writers write reviews for other self-pubbed writers.  It doesn’t count as buying reviews as long as it’s not a straight “quid pro quo” (“you give me 5 if I give you 5”)  As long as it’s a book you can honestly put your name behind.  As long as you’re not afraid to give fewer than 5 stars or to decline to review a book you don’t like.
8. Easy to understand.  As Amazon and other sites make marketing your book more and more complex, the appeal of a straightforward, no-nonsense review becomes even more clear.
9. Agents like them.  So do editors.  Self-publishing one book doesn’t mean you can never go with the traditional model, and with a following, you’re more likely to get picked up.

But.

The reading world has been burned by review-buying scandals a couple of years ago.

However wonderful it feels to rack up a stack of reviews… keep it above board.  

Sure, you may be able to buy a few reviews this way in the short term.  But the minute that reviewer crosses Amazon’s Terms of Service (like when they take money for reviews), Amazon has the right to yank their account(s), and any reviews they’ve posted. 

Especially those reviews you’ve just paid for.  Hundreds of writers have been burned as these bad apples have turned up over the last couple of years.  Don’t be part of the next batch of authors left holding a rotten old core.

Oh, and don’t write reviews of your own books under creative pen names, like this author did.

Instead, these pros offer legitimate strategies to help you get legitimate reviews:

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Free-BEE! Free Kindle book on Amazon.com

My favourite price in the world:  free.  And my favourite thing in the world:  a kids’ book.  (Yes, one of mine.)

I don’t usually cross-post, but in this case, I’m making an exception so I can get the word out across all my sites:

Please Like, Share and pass along this deal.  FREE UNTIL AUGUST 14 ONLY!

Learn a little about Israel's modern history and its most beloved songwriter in this short kids' chapter book! This week (Aug 10-14), my book "Naomi Shemer: Teaching Israel to Sing" is FREE for Kindle.

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE KINDLE VERSION FREE UNTIL AUGUST 14.

I started writing this book when my daughter, named after Naomi Shemer, was a baby… but only finished it last year, when she was 8.  A long time in the making, but I think it’s worth every second.  (And I loved reading it to her and telling her about the amazing lady for whom she’s named.

Acclaimed in her lifetime as the "First Lady of Israeli Song" and the author of unforgettable classics like Jerusalem of Gold (Yerushalayim shel Zahav), Naomi Shemer is almost unknown in the English-speaking world. With its engaging, straighforward narrative, this book opens the world of Naomi Shemer for the first time to English-speaking children and their parents. Come find out what made her special.

(I'd also love to get some reviews up, so if you and your kids read/enjoy it, please leave an honest review to help others.)

Here are some shots from the paperback version of the book:

Enjoy!

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE KINDLE VERSION FREE UNTIL AUGUST 14.

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Book Trailers for Dummies: does your children’s book need one?

No, I’m not a dummy. 

And neither are you.

And we’re not suckers, either.

So why does everybody make book trailers seem so complicated?  Why is everybody trying to sell us fancy-pants services that will help us sell our kids’ books with the help of video trailers?

The first and most important thing to know about book trailers is this:  nobody really knows whether a book trailer ever, in the history of the universe, made anybody buy a book.

Still, I’m a sucker for new ideas, and thought it would be cute to try doing a few for my new books. 

And it turns out they’re quick and easy.

Granted, mine don’t look totally professional (bit of an understatement).  But given the fact that each of the three I’ve made so far took under an hour and cost exactly $0 to create, upload and promote, I think this is an effort well-spent.  They’re hopefully not going to hurt sales, right?

Also, the more of them you make, the quicker you’ll probably get at it.

You’ll need a few things before you start.

1. A free video editing program.  I used Windows Live Movie Maker.  The new one won’t run on my cheesy computer, so I downloaded an older version.  I think it’s 2.6-something.  You need something that can add titles; MovieMaker does this, but just barely.  (I’m sure there’s some built-in free equivalent if you’re a Mac.)
2. A piece of music you like and are allowed to use free.  My go-to spot for this is Kevin McLeod’s site, incompetech.com, where you can find any type of music you care to use.  Remember to give him credit in your video!
3. Still images from your book.
4. Video shots (optional), either of you reading the book, kids reading it, etc.  I haven’t done this yet, but you can, and it would probably make the end result more interesting.

Take a look at my own trailers.

So how did my own trailers come out?  I’m going to let you judge. 

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Why hiring a fiverr artist for your kids’ book WON’T destroy the universe.

Since I posted about how to get your children’s book illustrated for $5 at fiverr, many, many people have raised some pretty strong objections.

If you listen to these people, you might justifiably believe the world as we know it would come to an end if we buy illustrations through fiverr and similar sites.

But I’m here to assure you that it won’t.

Here are a few of their objections (some of which I share – read on):

“As a reader, I object”

I agree.

I read books, too. I hate poorly-illustrated books, and refuse to share them with my children. Bad illustrations are offensive.

And so many self-published books look terrible.

But if you read through my original post on hiring an illustrator through fiverr, you’ll see that I’ve given you a built-in way to avoid finding a terrible illustrator – although, of course, there’s always the chance that a good illustrator will draw bad pictures for you.

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How to get your children’s book illustrated for $5 at fiverr.

(I got royally flamed for this post on various children’s book writer and illustrator message boards.  Once you’re finished reading, whether you agree or disagree, read my response, Why hiring a fiverr artist for your kids’ book WON’T destroy the universe.)

UPDATE #2:  A third-world fiverr artist speaks up.  An important post for anyone looking to have their book illustrated, whether through fiverr or not.

Written a book and now you need pictures?

Some of us have the artistic talent to illustrate our own books.

Some don’t have to think about pictures because they’re hoping to snag a traditional publishing contract (don’t even think about submitting a manuscript with pictures unless you’ve drawn them yourself).

For the rest of us… there’s shelling out for illustrations.  And one popular way to do that is through fiverr.

I’ve ordered and received literally hundreds of illustrations through fiverr now – and had mainly good experiences. 

Are you truly going to get away with spending only $5 per picture? Probably not… but that $5 price tag is going to help you out in a few ways, so keep reading.

 

Fiverr illustrations… step by step.

Here’s how I get my pictures done through fiverr:

1) Write a great book. I don’t even think about pictures until the book is just about perfect. Typos, maybe. But the plot and scenes should be finished.

2) Divide your book into pages. Don’t leave this to chance. You wouldn’t walk into a housewares store and say, “I need… some plates.” No, you need 8, or 12, or however many. So don’t wander onto fiverr with the vague idea that you need “some” pictures.

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THIS... this is why I self-publish. And why you should, too.

Proof copies:  Shabbat Monsters and One Chanukah Night.

Let's talk about me.

If all I wrote about was me and my own books and how great I am, I know you probably wouldn't read my posts.  But this blog is totally all about helping YOU write and publish great books.

And sometimes, one of the ways I do that is by sharing my own experiences.  So you'll know that I'm out here, too, struggling with rejection, trying my darndest to write great books and get them out into kids' hands... just like you are.

So I wrote a story, a few months back.  My 6-year-old son was feeling very sad and very excluded in his kindergarten.  He didn't speak the language and the other kids, all growing up in the same neighbourhood, were very cliquey and exclusive.

He came home one day, shortly after the kindergarten's "100th day" celebration and said it would be a hundred years before any of the kids would want to be his friend.

A story for my son.

So I ached for him, and wanted to write a story.

A story... about monsters.  Because he loves monsters.  Who doesn't?

And then, for some reason, the first verse popped into my head, fully-formed:

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The truth about celebrities… and their kids’ books.

Should celebrities write children’s books?

Whether we believe they should or not… that doesn’t seem to be stopping them.

Does the fact that they are rich and famous give them greater insight to children’s literature than the rest of us?

 

The celebrities… and their books

Peeking inside a few recent children’s books by celebrities, you can see that celebrity status doesn’t necessarily make for a talented or insightful writer… but it also doesn’t mean they’re not.

By My Brother’s Side by Ronde and Tiki Barber, illustrated by Barry Root 

This one gets a resounding “Like!”

This middle grade book, along with several others by the football-playing, kids’-book-writing brothers, is a great example of an encouraging children’s story by a celebrity, or in this case two celebrities.

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10 success tips your writing teacher never told you (but Jeff Gunhus will).

Quick:  what’s the opposite of success?

You guess it – f… f… f….

Oh, shoot.  I can’t bring myself to say it.

And neither should you.  We may be lying in the gutter, as they say, but we can still lie back and stare up at the stars.

If you want to get inspired, and actually create books that find readers, your best bet is to listen to people who are already successful.  Especially if they’re Jeff Gunhus, who’s made his own success in self-publishing.

(Here’s my interview with Jeff Gunhus from a little while ago.)

Jeff had the best motivation of all to create his Jack Templar series of kids’ books.  But the truth is, he was already a successfully conventionally-published writer before he set out to publish his own kids’ books.

That makes him twice as much of an authority, as far as I’m concerned.

These Ten Tips from Jeff, he says, “come from many books and seminars, but a great influence has been Stephen King's On Writing, just the best little book about craft and the writer's life out there.”

1) Write a lot. Every day. Without fail. Even for ten minutes. It's easier to push a car that's already moving instead of one at a full stop. 

2) Read a lot. "I don't have time to read," means you don't care enough to be a good writer. Create a book list for yourself and set goals. 

3) Create fertilizer. The first draft is the pile of manure out of which great things will come. Allow yourself to make a pile of dung. It's going to be fine, just keep going. 

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How are your books selling? A $5 book that can turn sales around.

Do you have a head for business?

You should. 

If you’re a writer, of any kind, your business – like it or not – is writing.

It doesn’t matter if your books are full of butterflies, fairies, nymphs, talking animals and whimsy.  Once you’re done writing them, if you expect them to do anything other than just

And the best guide I’ve seen so far to building a writing business is a hefty tome (479 pages) with the hefty title Write. Publish. Repeat. (The No-Luck-Required Guide to Self-Publishing Success).

With a thousand-dollar title like that, you’d expect to pay maybe $17 for this gem, but I just checked and the current Kindle price is $5.58.

Sometimes, as self-publishing children’s writers, we figure we’re somehow exempt from all the messy business-type stuff that applies to other self-pubbed writers today.

We’re not exempt.

As a self-publishing (or, as they say, indie) writer, you have to keep your head on your shoulders and focus on the 80% of activities that pull in the vast majority of profits.  Don’t worry; writing is one of them.  Stuff like piddling around with facebook and blogs (oops) might not be.

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Time off to (not) write.

Everyone knows writers write.  Right?

But since I became an Orthodox Jew a looooong time ago, writing hasn't been an option at least one day out of every week. From sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, and on holidays, I don’t write, either with a pen or computer.

Please don’t underestimate how hard this is.  It’s CRAZY hard.  And it’s never gotten easier, the longer I’ve done it.

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Need inspiration? 15 wild quotes about children and reading, from Maya Angelou and more.

 

Some of these may make you smile, some of these may make you laugh, or stop and think.  I hope they will all inspire you to keep doing what you’re doing.

(Click the image above for a full-sized version you can save and share.)

1. “Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”  — Maya Angelou

2. "Children are made readers on the laps of their parents." — Emilie Buchwald

3. "Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words!" — Betty Smith in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, 1943

4. "Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift." — Kate DiCamillo

5. "When I say to a parent, ‘read to a child,’ I don't want it to sound like medicine. I want it to sound like chocolate." — Mem Fox

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Basics, Part 3: Are you choosing words that zoom, screech, soar, sing?

You’re a writer, right?

And writing is all about words? 

(Come on, let me hear you nodding.)

So picking the words to go into your kids’ book should be simple… but it’s not.

In the first post in this series, Basics, Part 1: What is a children’s book? I laid out the most simple definition of a children’s book: 

1. Pages between covers
2. Aimed at young readers
3. Usually illustrated
4. All about story

In Basics, Part 2: Does your book measure up?, we looked at the first part of that definition:  pages between covers.  How many pages, exactly?  How many words?  Well, that depends on who you’re writing for.

And so does the language you choose to fill your book.

You want to choose words that zoom; words that soar; words that transport your readers and sing to them – or screech at them.

In Part 2, I actually gave you a chart, and I’m going to do the same thing here. 

Let me be honest:  a lot of people HATED the chart in my last Basics post.  These folks are artists, and I respect that.  And they refuse to be hemmed in by conventions.  Fair enough.

Life as an artist

But if you were an artist artist, I mean the kind that paints pictures, and somebody hired you to paint a family portrait to hang on the wall above their fireplace… would you measure the wall above their fireplace first?

I suspect you would.

And then you’d choose a canvas to fit the space, right?

(Just keep nodding.)

Here’s what you wouldn’t do:  go home, picking up any old size of bedsheet along the way; and proceed to paint the picture on a canvas that was huge… or too tiny to be seen.  If you do, I would hope you’d have the good grace not to get made at your client if he refused to pay for your work.

As most painters through the ages have discovered, working within size (and other) constraints probably won’t kill your artistic spirit.

So please don’t hate me for suggesting them.

Big, beautiful words

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Christian without the Cringe: 5 ways to craft stories with spirit

Are you Christian? 

If so, you’re right up there with 76% of Americans who believe in some form of Christianity

But I’m not.

Our family is Jewish, and I’ve written about writing Jewish children’s books a few times before.  I thought it would be both fun and fair to my non-Jewish readers to offer a bit of breadth and invite a friend to talk about her approach to writing Christian children’s literature.

Polls show that more than 90% of Americans believe in God. 

They may not all be deeply devout, but many are, and that means hundreds of thousands of parents looking for books that reflect their own family’s values.

This is a major market.

I’m not deeply sad that I don’t get a slice of this pie, but I’m happy to be able to share her tips to help you reach these families, if that’s part of your writing goal.  With these 5 tips, I hoped to help you turn out books that are Christian without the “cringe” factor. 

You know what I’m talking about, right?

But then I read her post, and realized it wasn’t just for Christian writers. The rest of us need to read this, too.

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5 People You Need on Your Team When You’re Self-publishing a Kids’ Book. (guest post)

Greetings from a harmless ghost,
And please don’t miss today’s great post
It isn't here, but over there,
A guest-post I just had to share.

It's all about the team it takes
To make your book amazing shakes.
So click right through and check it out,
And leave your comments thereabout.

I’ve loved Joel Friedlander’s Book Designer blog and have wanted to guest-post there for a while… so I did, with this post, 5 People You Need on Your Team When You’re Self-publishing a Kids’ Book.

Hope you’ll stop by over there to check it out.

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Idea theft: how safe is your story?

“That’s MINE!”

You can hear the cry in probably every kindergarten in the world… and perhaps every gathering of writers, as well.

Oh, we don’t shout it out loud.  But we THINK it, huddling protectively over our story ideas as though someone was going to steal them if we let them out of our sight for a second.

Well, I hate to break it to you:  you can’t copyright an idea.  You also can’t copyright your book’s title.  The only thing that’s protected by copyright is the story you write – the whole exact story.  (Here’s more on copyright and book titles, if you’re interested.)

But the happy flipside of that is that theft is really rare in the world of children’s writers.  So you can comfortably chat about your story ideas, your titles, or anything else.  Your ideas won’t be stolen, for instance, if you …

• workshop them in a class or course
• submit them to a mainstream publishing company
• talk about them at a party
• work on them on a laptop over a public network, like a coffee shop

Most writers actually have one of two main concerns when it comes to story theft: 

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Busting out of your niche: mini-interview with writer Eric A. Kimmel

Creepy.

Sorry, but that’s what comes to my mind when I think of Eric Kimmel. 

Creepy, as in the very best kind of creepy Jewish books:  ghosts, ghouls, goblins and all things paranormal. 

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins kind of creepy.

Gershon’s Monster kind of creepy. 

Jack and the Giant Barbecue kind of creepy.

Huh?  Jack and the… giant… barbecue?

Check it out:

Sure, Eric is the undisputed champion of creepy Jewish kidlit, but if that sounds like he’s stuck in a niche, think again.  He’s not just about creepy… or just about Jewish books, as you’ll see. 

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Stuck in the middle? 6 cheats to get you out of your bind.

We’ve all been there.

You start a story, typing furiously in an attempt to get the words down as quickly as they are flashing through your mind. Then your fingers come to a screeching halt. Staring at the screen, you are stuck in the middle of the story wondering what happened to that inspiration. Get it back.

Here are 6 “cheats” that can pull you out of the glue when all you see is stuck.

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Who’s Jeff Gunhus and what makes him a self-publishing success story? (a mini-interview)

How did I find out about Jeff?

Well, his self-publishing success story was featured a couple of weeks ago on Amazon’s home page.  And when a self-publishing kids’-book author is highlighted right up there in lights, I sit up and pay attention.

You’ll be happy I did.

It turns out that his Jack Templar Monster Hunter series of kids’ books aren’t the only self-publishing Jeff has done. 

In fact, two of his novels have brought his AuthorRank up to #52 in Kindle eBooks for Horror, a very crowded genre (to give you some idea of who he’s up against, Stephen King is at #1). 

Look, the numbers in self-publishing are scary.  So, although it might not seem like an accomplishment that his adult book Night Chill is currently Amazon-ranked #25291, it’s a lot more impressive when you realize he’s up against basically every book in the world.

That’s why we need to pay attention to what Jeff’s doing right.  Jeff’s done two things (at least) to set himself apart from the crowd:

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