Have you been thinking of creating your own stories for children, but you just don’t know how to get started?
Then here are some tips to help you start your own career as a published children’s author:
1. Join your local chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Authors & Illustrators (SCBWI) and then start attending some of this chapter’s regular events.
Just go online to www.scbwi.org to learn more about this wonderful organization for anyone interested in children’s publishing.
2. Take a field trip to your local book store or library and read all the children’s books you can.
Be sure to read some of the most current books for children on the market.
Children’s publishing has changed over the years and you need to know the types of books for children that are being published today.
There are also different genres of books for children, so be sure to read books in the genre or genres that you wish to write.
For example, if you want to write picture books, read picture books.
If you want to write middle grade novels, read middle grade novels.
If you want to write nonfiction books for children, read a wide variety of nonfiction books from many different children’s educational publishers.
3. Take a writing course that is specifically for children’s writing.
Writing for kids is much different from writing for grown ups, so you need to take a class or workshop that will address all the elements of writing and publishing FOR CHILDREN.
Try to find a class or workshop taught by a published children’s author and/or editor.
4. Join or start a local critique group for children’s writers.
Be sure the group includes at least one or two published children’s authors.
Otherwise, the group will be little more than “the blind leading the blind.”
5. Submit your stories and articles to publishers.
You’ll never get published if you don’t send in your manuscripts.
It can be scary at first.
But you’ll soon realize that rejections are just part of the process.
6. Be persistent.
Don’t give up.
It can take a while to break in with any of the children’s markets.
But keep trying.
If you keep writing, keep learning, and keep submitting, eventually you’ll sell one of your children’s stories or articles.
Now…just get started!
Try it!
The Working Writer’s Coach
www.workingwriterscoach.com
