Writing for Children: For Published Authors Who Want to Take Their Careers to the Next Level
After much planning and coordinating, it’s finally happening. We’ve added a new level of membership here at the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club. Our new Advanced Membership Level is for those published children’s book authors (or magazine writers) who are ready to take their writing careers to the next level.
I’m so happy to announce that children’s author Nancy I. Sanders will be the instructor for the Advanced Membership monthly tele-workshop and she’ll be coordinating the Peer Critique Group that is part of the benefits of Advanced Membership. Just look at Nancy’s impressive publication credits:
Nancy I. Sanders is the bestselling and award-winning author of over 80 books with publishers big and small. Her bestseller with Scholastic Teaching Resources, 25 Read and Write Mini-Books That Teach Word Families, has sold over 234,000 copies. One of her newest books, America’s Black Founders, is the winner of the Best Books 2010 Awards for children’s nonfiction. D is for Drinking Gourd: An African American Alphabet, illustrated by Caldecott Honor Award winner E. B. Lewis, won numerous awards including the 2007 NAPPA Honors award and the 2008 IRA Teachers’ Choice Award. She has written children’s novelty books, concept books, picture books, activity books, craft books, Bible story books, library books, beginning readers, chapter books, nonfiction books, teacher resource books, readers theatre books, and is currently under contract to write six books including a middle grade historical fiction novel series.
Nancy writes feature fiction and nonfiction stories for the children’s magazines for Focus on the Family. Her work has appeared in numerous periodicals over the years including Better Homes and Garden’s former children’s section. She is the author of the ground-breaking and award-winning book, Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children’s Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career. After landing contracts for over 80 books herself, she recently signed with New York agent Ronnie Herman. www.nancyisanders.com
Nancy first tele-workshop for our Advanced Members takes place tomorrow, Thursday, April 14, 2011, at NOON CDT.
Listen to Book Bites for Kids
April 12, 2011 by admin
Filed under Writing for Children
Listen to Book Bites for Kids, LIVE on blogtalkradio every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday afternoon at 2:00 Central time – or check back here to listen to the replays of the live shows.
Writing Samples – What Do Editors Really Want to See?
April 12, 2011 by admin
Filed under Writing for Children
If you’re a freelance writer looking for work, many times you’ll see job ads that ask for a cover letter, resume, and writing samples or clips. You have no trouble writing a cover letter, and you have a resume on hand. But when it comes to writing samples or clips, you’re stumped. What does the editor really want to see?
Well, the answer to that is – the editor wants to see if you can do the type of work he needs. For example, if he’s looking for someone to write press releases, don’t send him a copy of a short story you wrote about Great Aunt Edna – even if it did win 1st place in a writing competition. That’s because a short story won’t let this editor know you can write press releases.
If an editor asks for “clips” he means he wants to see examples of your published work. Sometimes, though, an editor wants to see unedited writing samples – so he gets a feel for how heavily your work will need to be edited. If the ad asks for “unedited samples” then send samples that have not been edited by a professional and/or published.
Although there are no hard and fast rules for sending writing samples, here are a few tips:
1) For clips – send only examples of your published work. At the top of the clip, write the name and date of the publication.
2) For writing samples – these can be either published or unpublished examples of your writing.
3) Whether you’re sending clips or writing samples ALWAYS send a sample of work that is closely related to, or an exact example, of the type of work you are seeking.
Once you’ve been freelancing for a while you’ll develop a “clips file” that contains samples of various types of writing. You’ll usually be able to pull something appropriate from this file to submit with your cover letter and resume. But, if you don’t have anything that is a good example of what a particular editor is looking for, then sit down and write something that IS representative of what this editor needs. You’ll have better luck getting the assignment or freelance work because you’ll be giving the editor just what he wants to see.
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SIMON SAYS – Ideas – Part Ten: Roles of adults in children’s stories
April 6, 2011 by admin
Filed under Simon Says
Despite the need for children to be the chief architects of their own adventures in novels for middle grade readers, there is certainly a place for adults in children’s stories, and not just as villains either. In my first novel, The Alchemist’s Portrait, Tess is a young woman in her early twenties who works in the restoration department at the city museum where the infamous portrait of Nicolaas van der Leyden is being expertly restored. In the course of the story, Matthew, the chief character, does indeed receive a great deal of important information from Tess at various points in the narrative and her help is essential to allow Matthew access to the museum after hours, for example, by the means of her security pass. However, in the end it is always Matthew, rather than Tess, who is responsible for finding all the answers and ultimately winning the day.
In my third novel, The Clone Conspiracy, another adult character, Lisa Mackenzie, is employed at LennoxGen, where secret human cloning procedures have been carried out. Lisa, is like Tess, crucial to the plot, providing a number of compelling details, offering tantalizing clues and so on. In this way, she is able to point Luke and Emma, the main characters, in the right direction to expose a shocking international scheme. However, it is once again the young protagonists who formulate strategies and eventually find solutions as a result of their own efforts.
NEW – Advanced Membership Level Available April 1, 2011
No foolin’ – we’re offering an Advanced Membership Level in the CWCC starting April 1, 2011.
Many of our members have been active in the CWCC for several years. Along the way they’ve become published children’s book authors. To keep up with their changing needs, we’ve decided to offer an Advanced Level of club membership.
Nancy I. Sanders will be presenting a tele-workshop each month for members at the advanced level.
Find out all the benefits of Advanced Membership in our club here now!
April 28 – A Survey of Children’s Magazines
Children’s author Renee Gray-Wilburn will present her next teleclass for the CWCC on Thursday, April 28, 2011, at 8:00 p.m. Central time. The topic of this teleclass is A Survey of Children’s Magazines: Looking Beyond Highlights, Cricket, Spider, and Ladybug to Lesser Known Magazine Markets.
SIMON SAYS – Ideas – Part Nine: Maintaining boiling point
March 30, 2011 by admin
Filed under Simon Says
I have featured time travel in three of my books to date and have the children encountering considerable obstacles once they are seemingly trapped in the past. A lot of time travel stories for middle grade readers don’t do this. At the beginning, the character may find an old locket or another piece of jewelry, for example, open it and go back to the past. While there, they perhaps meet one of their heroes from history, act in a play by Shakespeare, witness an event like the signing of the Declaration of Independence, watch a major battle, observe da Vinci paint the Mona Lisa or view a royal coronation, but they are never in jeopardy and come home in time for dinner, miraculously without their parents realizing they have been missing.
I always like to think of time travel tales as where, by accident, someone is sent into the past, where the device or machine is broken, runs out of power or is stolen by the villains, leaving the reader in suspense, wondering if the heroes will get home safely. Although the reader may believe that its likely that the heroes will escape, the implication that they may have to stay in the past, or even be seriously hurt, has to be there. The kids also have to solve the problem, as I mentioned last week. If an adult is with them, you have a person who has more knowledge, can drive a car, have access to money and so on, so they could easily take care of everything. If parents have to be involved at all in the adventure, they should be removed early on, so that the children have to find a solution to the obstacles they face very much on their own.
Top Ten Writing Mistakes Made by New Children’s Writers
March 27, 2011 by admin
Filed under Writing for Children
by Suzanne Lieurance
Okay. So I’m not David Letterman. But I doubt if he’d know much about the top 10 mistakes made by new children’s writers anyway. I, on the other hand, read from 10 to 20 manuscripts for children every week (I’m not bragging – I’m just an instructor with the Institute of Children’s Literature). While many of the stories I read are destined for publication, I find that 10 common mistakes crop up again and again in the other manuscripts I edit each week.
I’ll start with number 10 (just like Letterman) and work my way up to the number one writing mistake made by new children’s writers (and, just so you know – I’ve been guilty of making some of these mistakes myself, so don’t beat yourself up if you realize you’re guilty of some of these, too):
10) No Clear POV Character – Children tend to relate to the POV character in a story. This is the person they will root for. Make it clear right from the start whose story is being told. Even if you have two main characters (twins, for example), you need to pick just one of these kids to be your POV character. And, it should go without saying, when writing for children, make sure your POV character IS a kid – even if Grandma has a big part in your story.
9) Multiple Points of View – Unlike stories for adults, stories for children are generally told from only one POV. It isn’t difficult to maintain a single point of view once you get the hang of it. Just remember – if you are “showing” everything from your main character’s point of view, then he or she has to be present for everything that happens. I see stories all the time where the POV character suddenly leaves the room. Yikes! If your POV character wasn’t there to see or hear what went on, then we can’t see or hear it either.
Telling instead of Showing – Read a good story and chances are there is a lot of action and dialogue (showing) with minimal stretches of straight narrative (telling). Too much narrative and the story sounds like a summary. Readers don’t want a summary. They want scenes with action and dialogue that make them feel they are actually experiencing what is going on. So “show” as much as possible of your story through action and dialogue.
7) Overuse of Adjectives, Adverbs, and Other Unnecessary Words -Do you really need to say someone “whispered quietly” Or “shouted loudly” Or, my favorite – she “nodded her head”? What else could she nod? Or, she “shrugged her shoulders” – she certainly wouldn’t shrug her foot!
6) Dialogue That is Not Punctuated Properly – Get a grammar book to learn how to punctuate dialogue properly. But, most importantly, remember to change paragraphs each time the speaker changes. I read manuscripts all the time where three or four characters are speaking, yet the paragraph never changes. Just imagine how confusing that is to the reader!
5) Long Timeframes – I know Harry Potter takes place over several years. But, the story also takes place through several books. Most children’s writers start out writing stories for children’s magazines or they want to write picture books for very young children. Either way, the timeframe in these stories should be rather short – a couple of hours or a day or two. If your story takes place over a couple of weeks or (gulp!) a couple of years, then you need to shorten the timeframe.
4) No Narrative “Hook” for the Reader – I know what you’re asking -”What is a narrative hook?” Well, that’s simple. It’s just an opening sentence or two that “hooks” the reader and makes him or her want to continue reading to find out what happens.
3) Dialogue That Doesn’t Sound Real – Listen to any child or teenager and you’ll find out that much of what kids and teens say (at least to each other) tends to sound like a series of grunts. So don’t have the child or teen in your story use words like “shall,” or never use contractions. If you do, the dialogue will sound too formal and your work will not have a child’s or teen’s voice.
2) Adults Who Step In to Save the Day for the Child – I know what you’re thinking. Parents and other well-meaning adults DO step in all the time to save the day for kids. So why can’t they do it in stories for children? The answer to that is – because children don’t want to read stories like that. Stories for children have strong children (or children who eventually become strong throughout the course of the story) as characters. This empowers the children who read these stories. They figure, if the POV character can solve his own problems then maybe they can too.
Now. Drum roll here.
The number one mistake new writers make in their stories for children is
1) No real conflict – There’s no story problem. Your POV character needs to face some big problem right at the start of the story. Then, he or she needs to struggle and struggle with this problem as he/she tries to solve it. That is, things need to keep getting worse and worse until finally the POV character is able to solve the problem (or at least resolve it) and change or grow somehow in the process. Without a story problem you have what editors like to call “an incident,” and editors don’t publish incidents. They publish stories.
So that’s my list of top 10 mistakes new children’s writers make. Use this article as a checklist when you’re writing for children. Avoid these mistakes and you’ll be well on your way to publication.
See you in print!
Six Tips to Help You Break into the Children’s Magazine Markets with Your Nonfiction
March 27, 2011 by admin
Filed under Writing for Children
It’s no secret that one of the best ways to break into the children’s magazine markets is with nonfiction. So follow these 6 tips to have the best chance of acceptance with your short articles for children:
1. Study the markets – Each children’s magazine is different, with a different style, voice, and variety of subject matter. Take time to study the markets you wish to submit to and you’ll know which ones are the most appropriate for the articles that you wish to write.
2. Study Past Issues – Besides studying current issues of each publication you wish to write for, look at several past issues of each publication. Make a list of the various nonfiction article titles in each issue to get a “feel” for the way various authors narrowed their focus for each topic they wrote about. One of the big mistakes most beginning children’s writers make with their nonfiction articles is that they don’t narrow the focus of the article enough. If you want to write about camels, for example, don’t propose an article that tells anything and everything about camels. Instead, focus on just ONE aspect about camels and develop your article around that.
3. Include subtopic headings when writing your article – These will break up your article into “chunks” which are easier for young readers to read. These subtopic headings will also “lead” the reader through your article. They will also make your article “look” more like nonfiction instead of fiction.
4. Give your topic an unusual slant that will appeal to kids and editors alike – When you do this, your article won’t sound so much like a textbook. And articles that sound too much like textbook material are NOT in big demand with magazine editors.
5. Consider topics that will relate to themed publications – Many children’s magazines have themes for each issue. And, even for publications that do not have themed issues, editors still look for topics that can be used for holiday issues as well as other seasonal issues. For example, most publications feature some sort of back-to-school articles in their August or September issues. In the summer months, these same publications tend to feature articles that give vacation tips or crafts ideas and games to keep kids occupied during the summer. So, be sure to include some of these types of article ideas in your queries.
6. Look for lesser known publications – Competition is fierce for Highlights, Spider, Cricket, and most of the very popular publications for children. You’ll automatically increase your chances for acceptance if you query publications that don’t receive so many queries.
Try these 6 tips and it shouldn’t take you long to start receiving acceptances from the children’s magazines that you query.
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Member Spotlight
March 27, 2011 by admin
Filed under Member Spotlight
Sharon Blumberg, long time member of the CWCC, recently had another story published online for Handprints on My Heart. The eventual e-book of featured stories will eventually go into a series, similar to the Chicken Soup series. Sharon’s story is about an incident that occured many years ago when she was a young, beginning teacher. It is on the site, www.handprintsonmyheart.com Sharon’s story is entitled, “God’s Eyes-(This is No Yarn!)
Marge Gower has had two articles titled ‘St. Margaret and the Dragon’ and ‘The Parable of the Sower’ accepted by My Light an online Catholic children’s magazine for the July/August issue. The Fellowship of Christian Writer’s has also accepted Marge’s essay titled ‘God Plans My Future’ for their September newsletter.
CWCC member Nicole Weaver has an article called Information for Parents: Foreign Language Acquisition in the June issue of Guardian Angel Kids Ezine. Her article called The Greatest Gift You Can Give Your Child is scheduled for publication in the July 2011 issue of this publication.
The shortlists for the Alberta Book Awards have just been announced and Loonie and Olympic Torch, two of Simon Rose’s non-fiction titles with Weigl Educational Publishers, are on the shortlist for the Children and Young Adult Books category this year.
Marge Gower received an acceptance from Jeanette Littleton for her devotional titled “Renewed Spirits” to be published in the Gary Chapman/James Bell project. The anthology titled “Love is a Verb Devotional” will be published by Bethany House. It will be available during the late summer in 2011.
Irene S. Roth’s nonfiction article entitled Mr. Mom will be appearing in the Summer Issue of Stories for Children Magazine.
Marge Gower just received an acceptance letter for an article titled ‘Lenten Reflections ‘ that will be published in the April/May issue of My Light Magazine and a fiction piece titled “Melinda’s First Ash Wednesday” that will be published in 2012. She has also received an acceptance for a devotional titled “Let God Change His Creation, While You Change Yours” in the Fellowship of Christian Writer’s Newsletter.
Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club Instructor Renee Gray-Wilburn has recently been contracted to write two books for Capstone Press for their brand-new First Graphics brand. These science books, written for grades K-3, will present the topics of volcanoes and earthquakes in graphic novel format.
2011 has started off well for Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club member Grier Cooper, who is under contract with Vook.com to write How to Build a Ballerina Body. Her short story “The Peacekeeper” will appear in the February issue of Skipping Stones, and the story “Ho Ho Hamsters” will be published in the February issue of Literature 4 Kids. She is also a regularly featured dance columnist for BAY STAGES magazine in San Francisco.
Announcing three new books in the educational market for Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club Instructor, Nancy I. Sanders. Two books for teachers are with Scholastic Teaching Resources: Cut & Paste Mini-Books: Math and Cut & Paste Mini-Books: Science. She also has a new book with Libraries Unlimited, Hello Hi-Lo: Readers Theatre Math. To view Nancy’s new releases as well as her other books, please visit Nancy’s Bookzone at http://nancysbookzone.wordpress.com/4-teachers.
Donna McDine is pleased to announce that her book, The Golden Pathway, a work of historical fiction for children, placed in the Top Ten of the Preditors & Editors Readers Poll 2010.
Suzanne Lieurance has two articles in the Writers Guide to 2011, published by the Writer’s Institute, Inc.
