Writing Children’s Books For Dummies

Tips for Editing Your Children’s Book

At some point after you have a solid draft of the children’s book you’re writing, you must begin the editing process. Here’s a quick overview of the salient points to keep in mind:

• If a sentence doesn’t contribute to plot or character development, delete it.

• Make sure your characters don’t all sound the same when they speak.

• If you have a page or more of continuous dialogue, chances are it needs tightening.

• When starting a new scene or chapter, make sure to briefly establish context.

• When changing place or time, provide brief transitions to keep your story moving smoothly.

• Make sure to keep the pace moving from action to action, scene to scene, chapter to chapter.

• If you find yourself using a lot of extra punctuation (!!!), CAPITAL LETTERS, italics, or bold, chances are your words are not working hard enough for you.

• When you can find one word to replace two or more words, do it.

• Don’t be afraid to introduce a new word; just make sure to define it right away.

• Watch excessive use of adjectives, adverbs, and long descriptive passages.

• After you choose a point of view for a character, stick to it.

• If your character has not changed at the end of your story, he probably isn't yet fully fleshed out.

• If your character talks to himself or does a lot of wondering aloud, he needs a friend to talk to.

• If you’re bored with a character, your reader will be, too.

• If you can’t tell your story in three well-crafted sentences — the first one covering the beginning, the second one alluding to the climax (the middle), and the last one hinting at the ending — you may not have one yet.

• If you find yourself overwriting because you’re having trouble expressing exactly what you mean, sit back and say it aloud to yourself, and then try again.

Tips for Writing Books for Younger Children

The rules for writing books for younger children (ages 2–8) are different from the rules for writing books for middle graders, young adults, and adults. Keep the following twelve commandments in mind when writing a younger children’s book. (As with most commandments, you may be able to dance around one or two, but you’d better have a dang good reason.)

• It’s okay to be different, but it’s not easy.

• Bad guys never win.

• Good guys must win in the end.

• Extremes rule (the world is black or white, not both — most children ages 10 and under can be quite literal).

• People can change from essentially good (with faults) to pretty bad (with some good points) or vice versa, but they can’t be both at the same time.

• It’s fine for something to be scary, but it can never touch your body.

• Little people can triumph over big people.

• Poopoo, peepee, tushies, passing gas, burping, underwear — they’re all hilarious.

• Turning things upside down is funny — as long as those things make sense in the first place right side up.

• Magic can occur as a logical reaction to an action.

• Regular children can perform extraordinary feats.

• Regular children can go on implausible missions sanctioned (or not) by adults in charge.

No-Nos in Writing Children’s Books

Just as writing children’s books has a unique set of rules to follow (you know that the good guy or gal always wins), some things you should never do — never! Don’t even consider doing any of the following in a book for children:

• Write books that preach or lecture.

• Talk down to children as if they are small, idiotic adults.

• Write books that have no real story (nor a plot with beginning, middle, end).

• Use art that is totally inappropriate for the story or vice versa.

• Pack picture books with text.

• Pack nonfiction books with too much text and too few visuals.

• Create characters who are boring or uninteresting.

• Create main characters who have a problem they don’t solve or who don’t change throughout the course of the story.

• Tell instead of showing by using narrative as a soapbox.

• Anthropomorphize animals and use alliterative names (Squishy Squirrel, Morty Mole — Wretched Writer).

How to Promote Your Children’s Book

After you’ve written a children’s book, you have to sell it — you didn’t spend all that time and effort just to entertain youself, did you? Try to accomplish one of the following tasks each week to help your labor of love blossom to life in the marketplace:

• Set up an interview on a local radio or TV show.

• Do readings in a bookstore, school, or library.

• Submit your book for an award or prize.

• Think up a crazy publicity stunt and set it in motion.

• Brainstorm new promotional ideas with a professional children’s book publicist — and then start working on one.

Age Levels for Children’s Books

If you’re writing a children’s book, it pays to be familiar with how publishers classify them. Publishers generally assign age groups for readers of various formats, as set out in the following list:

• Board books: Newborn to age 3

• Picture books: Ages 3–8

• Coloring and activity (C&A) books: Ages 3–8

• Novelty books: Ages 3 and up, depending on content

• Early, leveled readers: Ages 5–9

• First chapter books: Ages 6–9 or 7–10

• Middle-grade books: Ages 8–12

• Young adult (YA) novels: Ages 13–18

It’s okay to veer off a year or so in either direction when assigning a target audience age range to your work.