Tips for Writing and Publishing Children’s Books

Children´s library books. Photo from here. Tak...

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Children’s books have become very popular within the current literary and book markets. These books can include both fiction and non-fiction books and can be educational as well as entertaining.

If you are an aspiring author, you may want to consider writing children’s books as a possible creative outlet. You may find that this can be a very profitable endeavor. In addition, you may be writing the next children’s classic, such as the Harry Potter series.

Here are a few tips on successfully writing children’s books.

Write an age-appropriate outline for your prospective book. If your target reader is under the age of five, make sure you will be including plenty of pictures.

Make sure your story has relatable characters and global, universal issues. It’s a great idea to try to teach a lesson.

When writing, make sure you are not talking down to your audience. It’s a good idea to actually write at a higher level than your audience, as this will provide a challenge to the children reading your book.

If you have the ability to illustrate your book, do it. Publishers do have illustrators on staff if you need help with pictures and illustrations.

Study the children’s market using resources such as the Writer’s Digest for Children’s Books. There are also great online resources that can help as well. Doing this research will help you properly target your market when you are ready to submit your book. Make sure you follow all the guidelines for submission properly.

Book Themed Costume Party

Boy dressed as pirate

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Teaching children to enjoy reading is an important step for every parent to take. Books can not only be a great source of fun, but also help children to perform better in school. Unfortunately, it can take a little work to get children interested in reading sometimes; however, with a little effort, most children will love to read with a little encouragement, such as by having a book-themed costume party.

Children love to dress up, so costume parties offer the perfect encouragement to kids to read. Costumes come in almost every storybook character you could think of, from Harry Potter to Spot. Kids can get very excited about reading when they can take the story outside of the book and role play as their favorite storybook characters at a costume party. Book-themed costume parties are also a great way to turn annual celebrations, such as birthday parties, into an educational experience where everyone can dress up as a book character and get excited about reading new books.

You also do not need to spend a fortune on a costume. While it can be fun to buy an extravagant costume, many people have trouble affording expensive costumes; however, with books you get to decide how characters look. Many kid costume stores sell generic costume pieces, such as pirate eye patches and ninja swords, so you can create your own image of your child’s favorite book character. Kids can get excited about the costume party, and you can get excited about the educational experience it offers.

Encouraging your children to read vs them watching the movie.

Cover of "BFG"
Cover of BFG

Today, many books and stories have been rewritten into movie scripts and splashed across the big screen. Encouraging your child to read the original story vs watching the movie can be a difficult task. But Reading not only expands your child’s vocabulary, a lot of the original stories are much better and richer for the imagination than their movie counterparts.

Some of the books that have been turned into movies are, “The BFG” by Roald Dahl was turned into a movie in 1989, “Black Beauty” by Anna Sewell was put into the movies in 1946,1971 and 1994.”Bridge to Terabithia” By Katherine Paterson appeared on the big screen in 1985, and 2007. “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White was in the movies in 1973,and 2006. and a sequal “Charlotte’s Web 2:Wilbur’s great adventure” was also on screen in 2003. One of the most popular children’s books turned into a movie series is the “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling.

While there are benefits to watching the movie counterparts on the big screen, such as actually seeing what your child could only imagine previously, Hollywood edits allot out of script. They have only so much of a time slot to fill, and only so much money to produce the movie. So cuts and edits are made, removing a part of the script that may have been an important filler in the story.
Sometimes, scriptwriters edit out entire chapters and scene’s completely out, because they do not think it’s necessarily important to the plot, or they do not like the way the author ended that particular book. Sequels are also made, even though the book may not have a sequel.

Children may be disappointed when they go to watch the movie, and see several factors of their favorite books edited out of the script. Often times, Children will insist that the book isn’t the same as the movie, and will want the richness of text, and exploring their imaginations.

Must Read Children’s Books

Bedroom Bookshelf
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There are just certain children’s book series and stand alone novels that are a must read when it comes to children or adults. These are timeless treasures that people should read no matter what just to say that they read them.

Some people find these titles boring and silly. Others love them and read them so often that their copies of the book fall apart and pages fly all over the place.

Here are some of the must read books for children.

Harry Potter. It’s not a children’s picture book but Harry Potter changed the world and way children look at reading. If you don’t give the books a try from a children’s stand point you are missing out.

Narnia. Another series that is a fantasy favorite. These books have captured the hearts of people young and old and teach a great moral story while they are at it.

Spot. So spot is a dog and this is very much an interactive children’s book but what shelf wouldn’t be complete with at least one or two of the books on the shelf.

The Little Engine That Could. If you haven’t read this book, stop what you are doing, go to the store, Amazon or the library and get it out immediately! This is an inspiring and great story that all children and adults should read at least once. I think I can!

The Magic School Bus. A great series that allows children to learn about science, weather, biology and a number of other items with great story lines, silly characters and great pictures. Gotta get that spark for science going at an early age.

Fairy Tales. Every child has to be read some version of the fairy tales. These don’t have to be the dark scary versions but every child must know the very basics of the fairy tales that are such a foundation for today’s literature.

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