How is it that a children's book series about a flatulating dog is in every library, every bookstore in the U.S., 
Do we think young kids should be shielded from "uncomfortable" topics? Do we think children under a certain age "can't handle" the subject matter? Do we think it's better to entertain than to educate until children reach school age? Or does crudeness sell more books?
An occasional roundup of Required Reading for kids’-book writers and illustrators:
…it seems you don’t actually have to be accurate in order to get a book published. The recent measles outbreak in the US has led to more people seeking out Melanie’s Marvelous Measles. This is a book that informs children that measles is fine and actually helpful, so it’s nothing to worry about, and vaccines are bad.
Read more in Terrible books for ruining children’s health from The Guardian
I couldn’t help including that, because it’s such a juicy, timely topic… but the rest of these are written more from a children’s-writer’s perspective.
On Kathy Temean’s site, writer Erika Wassall shares her ideas on the sometimes-painful process of revision.
We’re all attached to whatever we’ve written so far. We’re proud, as we should be, and it’s often hard to even imagine the piece any other way. The idea for a revision can sometimes feel like it’s a whole different manuscript.
But maybe that’s the manuscript that I was supposed to write.
Read more in Giving Your Revision Wings
I’ve figured out how to get rich. What’s the secret, you’re wondering?
I’m going to make folks hand over a nickel every time they say:
You get the idea. These are all great concepts, each and every one. But they are also all lousy kids’ stories.
The truth is, they’re not stories at all.
Because a story is not about the great big FOREST that is your concept. A story is about the tiny, individual trees that live in the forest.
Have you made this mistake? I know I have.
Want more reviews? Great reviews?
We all do. But there’s a limit to how we go about getting them.
If you’re doing any of these, you could wind up (quickly) in Amazon’s Naughty Books (and yes, I have seen all of these):
Will your story survive the slushpile… only to end up in an editor’s recycle bin, trash can, or shredder?
A story manuscript that doesn’t look like a manuscript will get you exactly the WRONG kind of attention. The kind that winds your story up in that virtual paper shredder before the editor gets to word one.
True, you’re submitting a children’s book. But the core of all these DON’Ts is one simple fact: your story can’t LOOK like a children’s book when you submit it.
Be very, very careful. Violating any one of these will get your story tossed (or shredded) in disgust:
Want to know what stops all of us in our tracks sometimes when we sit down to write?
Almost by accident, I just caught a great interview with writer Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love, among other things) on a podcast I listen to (not for kids, but you should listen – it’s hilarious; this was really the only serious part).
“What you have to understand always about anything creative and inventive is that creativity and fear are conjoined twins.
Ready to get started?
Great. Let’s roll up our sleeves and dig in.
I hope I’ve convinced you that an author mailing list is a great way to chat directly with people who love your writing.
(If you’re not convinced yet, go back and read Part 1 of this 3-part series to find out why you need an author mailing list. Then read Part 2 about how to convince readers to sign up (hint: just ask them).)
So now the question is, where do you start?
There are a few email list providers. Some let you get started for free. The top two are Mailchimp and Aweber. I use Mailchimp, mainly because it was free to start out, and slightly less expensive on an ongoing basis, but to be honest, I don’t love it. Aweber looks like it starts at around $29 a month, but they let you try it for a month for $1.
Stuck for inspiration? Try writing your story the campfire way.
Have you ever built a campfire?
Maybe you know the trick already: you don’t start by taking huge logs and setting them ablaze. That would never work.
You start with tinder, small fluffy things that are nothing like the fire you want to create. From tinder, you work your way up to kindling - bigger things that also catch fire easily. Once you’ve got some momentum going, THEN (and only then) can you start burning the real stuff: twigs, and eventually, small branches, and only then… are you ready to set fire to some logs.
That’s how stories work, too. Even if you want to write a HUGE story, you have to start small.
There are so many big ideas out there, waiting to be written down, that it can seem overwhelming. So don’t set out to write about the BIG ideas. Small ideas – whether from your own imagination or from story starters like these – are the tinder that will set your story ablaze.
That’s where these 55 story starters listed here come in. These 55 small ideas can help you set fire to millions of stories… if you let them.
Read through the lists. If one or two don’t click, just move on. If you get to the end of the list and you haven’t found one… I’ll give you a list of random generators for millions more ideas that just might inspire you instead.
Deal?
Let’s get sparking those stories!
New session begins February 1st!
Here's what you'll get, in 30 days:
Each day's email is a tasty, bite-sized 100 words long. That’s super-short, because I know you’re super-busy.
Every day, you’ll be challenged, through examples and exercises, to think about successful kids’ books… and about your own. Let’s get YOUR book off your hard drive and into kids’ hands sooner than you could ever have dreamed.
Scared to try doing Kindle books because you’re no techie? Or have you decided that the Kindle Kids’ Book Creator isn’t the software for you (Here are 5 reasons why it isn’t.) but don’t know what to use instead?
Relax.
Seriously, there is an alternative. And it’s easy, free, and doesn’t need much more than a working knowledge of Microsoft Word. It may even be easier than the KDP Kids’ Book Creator software itself. (Besides being waaaay more flexible.)
These days, for many of my ebooks, I’m using two simple tools: Microsoft Word and a free ebook conversion program called Calibre.
I’ve been using Calibre for years and never realized it could not only open and save ebooks but also help create them.
NOTE: I’m talking about picture books here. For longer-format and nonfiction ebooks, you should probably do them entirely in Scrivener ($40, Literature & Latte). (Here’s a post about how I use Scrivener.)
I’m going to walk you through my process, in 5 steps I think you can handle and maybe actually enjoy, with a little practice.
You know you want one. You know you NEED one. But how do you GET one in the first place?
(If you’re not convinced yet, go back and read Part 1 of this 3-part series to find out why you need an author mailing list. And then take a look at Part 3, which takes you through the (super-easy) steps to get started.)
The best way to build your mailing list is… to let readers know it exists.
Sounds simple, right?
But are you doing it? The way to do it right is with a call to action at the back of your book. Calls to action are known as CTA in the marketing business, so that’s what I’m going to call them here.
Notice I said marketing business. Lots of writers feel kind of slimy when they think about marketing. If you do, that’s something you’ll have to get over.
A back-of-book CTA should be super-simple. This is a two-step format that every reader will recognize:
Remember how excited I was when Amazon/Kindle released their Kids’ Book Creator software?
And hey, no wonder! The thing is relatively fast and easy to use, and can turn any book in PDF form into a Kindle ebook with a snap of your fingers. So many of us lack the technical skills to transform our books that this software totally seemed like magic at first.
Unfortunately, the magic died pretty quickly. You can get a sense of that even from the comments on my original post.
I did use the Kids Book Creator to convert a few of my print books to ebook form. But I’m doing things differently now (more on that later), and will be changing over the ones I did using the Kindle Kids Book Creator as I have a chance.
Here are, not one, but FIVE great big ugly reasons why I won’t be using Kindle Kids’ Book Creator anymore. And maybe you shouldn't, either.
Publish your own children's books with this free DIY cover template.
