How to Start Writing Books for Preschool
If you're considering writing books for preschoolers (also called children's picture books), you're in good company. This rewarding career or side job allows you to express your imagination, hone your writing talent and potentially touch the lives of numerous young readers. But it's not always as easy as it looks. Just like beginning any other career, you'll have to take a few important steps before you can call yourself a published author.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Study your market. Before you even set pen to paper, you need to determine what your consumers (preschoolers and their parents) want, and how to give it to them. Go to your local library or bookstore and take a look at the most popular books.
Write down all the ways in which they are similar and why they appeal to your target audience. Talk to librarians and booksellers. Ask them what changes in consumer behavior they've seen in recent years, and what trends they see emerging. Go home and brainstorm ideas that fit into those categories.
-
2
Find a unique way to tell your story. The children's book market is highly competitive, with many excellent writers churning out new ideas every day. Chose a way to address your audience that is distinctly your own style, whether it's through a certain kind of rhyme, a special character or an original point of view.
It may sometimes seem like every good idea in children's literature is taken, but it is often the little tweaks, not the major storyline revisions that catch the public's attention.
-
-
3
Start writing. Now that you know what you want to say and how to say it, it's time to put your nose to the grindstone. Give yourself a deadline for finishing a first draft. That way, you are less likely to procrastinate and never finish the book.
-
4
Revise, revise, revise. This is the golden rule of writing. Never send your first draft to an agent or publisher. In fact, work on several drafts before you show your work to anyone. A good beta audience can be your own children, grandchildren or any preschoolers you know well.
Ask them what they liked about the book, and what they didn't like. Let them suggest changes or improvements. Their ideas may be things which you may not have considered. One thing you'll never have to worry about with preschoolers is them holding back on their opinions.
-
5
Proofread your manuscript carefully several times. This is the final step before you send your book to someone with the power to get it on the shelves. Misspellings, typos and grammatical errors will make publishers pass on your project and look to someone else's, so make sure that whatever you send to an agent or publisher is flawless.
-
1
References
- Photo Credit reading child 1 image by DMITRY BOKOV from Fotolia.com
