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A few questions about writing Children's books?
11-27-2012, 06:36 AM
Post: #1
A few questions about writing Children's books?
I want to write a collection of children's book but I'm new to the genre and I tried to research but I have a few unanswered questions:
Word count per story? (I'm thinking of having three stories in one book so three chapters three stories.
I know what the stories should be about but what should the age ratio be? 3 or 5 years and up? or 7-10 years? so that's from year 1 to year 5 (primary school)
Do I draw the pictures myself? because I can draw and I wouldn't mind doing the illustrations?
When I send the manuscript to an agent do I send the pictures along with them. It's my first time writing this genre as I said so HELP! haha thanks. And any other piece of information you know that you think will help, please share...

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11-27-2012, 06:45 AM
Post: #2
 
maybe 30,000 words or so per story.
i wouldn't bother with the illustrations. you can say that you'd be willing to do the illustrations when you send it off, but it won't make any difference to whether it would get published or not if you do the illustrations.

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11-27-2012, 06:45 AM
Post: #3
 
Browse a few bookshops to get ideas of story length, age range and so on.
Unless your books are extraordinary good, you are unlikely to get very far by sending them to a publisher; they get thousands of manuscripts each week and barely have time to read them.
So finding an agent is the best idea. Contact a few now and tell them your ideas; they will guide you through the process.
Do your own illustrations. For one thing it shows your versatility and secondly you wont have to share royalties with an illustrator!
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11-27-2012, 06:45 AM
Post: #4
 
I think you need to research how publishers categories groups of readers. for example Adult (18+) Young Adult (13-18), Middle grade (8-12). These ages can overlap. I don't know what the categories are for younger children. Middle grade books are books like diary of a wimpy kid, Percy Jackson, and Harry Potter (yes, HP, even though many people think it's adult, publishing classes it as YA). Check out some books in your local library and bookstores. The Intermediate section is another word for YA and then there's the children's section that's denoted by age. See what books are similar in tone, age (of character), and themes with your book and you'll begin to get an idea which age group it's for. Since you have pictures, it sounds like it might be a chapter book, but I'm still trying to figure out what chapter books are, haha; I just know they have pictures and advanced storylines for older kids who probably aren't yet ready to delve into full novels (like Wimpy Kid) and I'm just taking a guess.

Look at some publisher websites and see what books they have for children and see how your book compares and that'll also give you clues. Many publishers have children's imprints.

Don't send illustrations. Just send the text. If a publisher buys your book they'll hire their own illustrator and you'll have no control over it. though, you can make it known that you'd like to illustrate it yourself, but the ultimate decision is up to the publisher.

good luck with it. find some literary agents who represent children's books and read their blogs, twitter, and facebook pages because they give a lot of info to newbie writers and give insights into publishing and how to get published. If you find one then you can find many more because they tend to link to each other's blogs and follow each other on twitter. and you can always ask them questions and many do respond. If you have a twitter account, there's a hashtag #askagent

http://kidlit.com/
http://literaticat.blogspot.com/
http://www.literaryrambles.com/

EDIT - correcting some typos since I obviously don't proofread haha: Should have said many people think HP is Young Adult (not Adult) but it's Middle Grade because he's very young in the earlier books, even though he grows older in the later books. & Intermediate is another word for Middle grade (not Young Adult) so some bookstores might have Intermediate or Middle grade and they'll mean the same.
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