Writing for kids is the most rewarding career I can imagine. I get to learn cool stuff, play with words, and create kids’ books–the best things in the whole world! What more could I ask for?
If you’re interested in writing for kids, here are a few things that might be of interest:
Classes for Children’s Writers
I offer a selection (more to come) of inexpensive video courses just for children’s writers. You can see them all here!
A Writer Can Be… – My Free Monthly E-Letter
I send out a monthly (usually) e-letter where I share articles on everything from school visits to negotiating contracts with editors to finding ideas. When you sign up for A Writer Can Be…, you’ll receive my downloadable document, “So You Want to Write for Kids: 6 Tips for Getting Started” (plus a video). That download also includes 5 of my most popular past articles: 1) 3 Picture Book Idea Sparkers 2) Is Your Picture Book Manuscript Too Quiet? 3) Do Authors Have Any Say in Picture Book Art? 4) Do You Have to Have an Agent? 5) How Much Money Does One Book Earn? Click here to learn more and sign up.
Facebook Group for Children’s Writers
Looking for a community? Join the Writing for Children Facebook Group I started. You can ask questions, read content other writers find interesting, and build a community with other children’s writers.
Mentors for Rent
This was a cool service I used to offer with Lisa Bullard. We offered by-the-hour mentoring for writers of kids’ or ya books. Lisa still offers this service, and there are all sorts of goodies for writers on the site. Learn more at MentorsForRent.com.
Books for Writers
I have written or collaborated on a number of books for writers. Especially useful for new writers are Picture Books the Write Way and Rhyming Picture Books the Write Way. You can learn more about those and the rest of my books for writers at the Mentors for Rent website or by looking at my book table of books for writers. I also highly recommend Lisa Bullard’s Get Started in Writing for Children and Linda Ashman’s The Nuts and Bolts Guide to Writing Picture Books.
Tips for Writers
Congratulations on wanting to write for kids. It’s an exciting but challenging thing to do.
The most important advice I can give to a writer is to read a lot. Then write something. Then revise. Then repeat. Over and over again.
But, of course, you also need to learn how the industry works, how to pace a picture book, whether or not you find your own illustrator (no!), and all that practical stuff. You need to learn how to write a query letter and how to end your novel for maximum impact. I had to learn all that stuff, too. And, of course, I’m still learning!
I’ll give you a few resources that I think are absolute requirements for beginning writers. I hope you’ll find lots of useful information in them.
Your best resource is the bookstore. It stocks the newest children’s books, and reading about a million of those will help you see what kinds of books are being published today. Libraries are great, too, of course! But with budget cuts everywhere, so many libraries can afford few new books. If you’re new to writing for kids, you want to focus your reading on books published within the past couple of years. So wherever you can find those books — read them!
Children’s Writers & Illustrators Market This annual book is put out by Writer’s Digest. In addition to a comprehensive market listing of what kinds of publishers buy what kinds of books, it has lots of helpful articles for the beginner. It’s about $25. You might also be able to get it at your library. I love to mark mine up, though, highlighting various publishers and tips, etc. It’s a constant reference book for me.
If you’re interested in writing poetry, check out my How to Write Poetry page. I have a bunch of essays under Poetic Pursuits that I wrote on various aspects of writing poetry for kids and teens. If you’re interested in writing nonfiction for the educational market, check out my book, Writing for the Educational Market. It’s a comprehensive workbook based on the online class that I taught for several years.
Editor Harold Underdown’s site is a treasure trove! Check out the Basic Information, Self-Publishing, and Writing Children’s Books sections, for starters. This should keep you busy for a long time!
Writer’s Digest has some fantastic articles about writing, and you can search the site easily. When I need immediate info on, say, increasing tension or coming up with a good ending, I just type in my search terms and look through the articles and blog posts that come up. Lots of great, practical information here.
Subscribe to a newsletter or magazine. I send out my A Writer Can Be… eletter every month or two, and I also recommend the Children’s Writer eNews from Institute of Children’s Literature, especially for beginners. I subscribe to Writer’s Digest, as well.
Join SCBWI if you’re not already a member. Attend conferences if you can. Listen hard. Ask questions, both of speakers and of fellow attendees.
Build a community for yourself. Join an online email list. This is a group of writers who communicate by email. There are huge lists and small lists and specialized lists. I’m on a nonfiction list, for example. You can go to https://groups.yahoo.com/neo and type “children’s writers” in the search box, and it will show you various email lists devoted to people who write for kids.
Connect through social media. The KidLitosphere is the world of people who blog about writing for kids. Look through the lists there and check out a few blogs. Or just Google the name of a kids’ writer you admire and see if that person blogs. Start out small and you’ll soon find yourself with more information about and insight into the lives of children’s writers than you thought existed! On Facebook, request to Friend some writers you admire. And join Groups devoted to kids’ writing. They are everywhere! And writers are constantly sharing their processes, struggles, and successes, and you can learn from them.
Also build community through a critique group. Establish a writing group with other writers who write for kids. This might be in-person or online. You can join a crit group through SCBWI or through an email list. Just keep telling folks, “I’m looking for a critique group.”
Spend time around kids. I think this is crucial in order to stay in tune with what today’s kids talk like and think like. That really changes over the years. You could volunteer at a school if you’re not already around kids the age of your intended readers.
Write. Write as much as you can, then rewrite. My manuscripts go through many, many revisions before I ever submit them. Once you have the words exactly how you want them, proofread them or hire someone else to proofread your manuscript — or ask someone in your critique group who has excellent punctuation and grammar.
Consult experts! Many, many talented writers and editors also offer freelance critiquing services. Lisa Bullard, with whom I used to run Mentors for Rent, is one of them. You can check out the site to learn more about her. I’m on hiatus, but I may return at some point.
In looking at all these resources, you will likely find some fascinating and some discouraging information. Writing for kids, and especially selling your writing for kids, is not easy. But it’s so worthwhile. Welcome to this crazy world!
Good luck on your writing journey!
Best,
Laura Purdie Salas