Are you writing for some little ones you love? Writing because you love children’s books? Are you an illustrator looking for a way to put some sketches to work? Are you writing for love, for-profit, or both? Who are the children you picture reading this book? What are they like? Why are they reading it? Sometimes you have to start with a little thinking about why you want to make your book. Getting clear on this helps the book take shape.
Read a lot of children’s books
There’s a rhythm, formula and style that makes children’s books successful. There’s a pattern to how the stories move. Characters have certain traits in common. Because it’s been a while since you’ve been part of the age group you want as readers, you have to spend some time seeing what they see and gaining insight into their communication. Explore different genres, note relationships between words and pictures. What works well and what doesn’t? Which elements do you want in your book? The nice thing is that with volumes of only 32 pages, you can read several. If you don’t know what to write, this research phase is critical. And research counts as getting started.
Write and draw every day
Whether you’re writing or you’re illustrating, all stories are born from hours and hours of practice. The more you work on your characters, the more they sort themselves into a story. Many of the characters you create, stories you think up, or lines you write won’t make it into the final book, but it’s not a waste of time—it’s keeping the channels clear for your best creative work to flow and it’s giving you lots of practice. You don’t even have to write about your project. Just keep pens and pencils moving, because the habit of creating is just as important for making a children’s book as creating the content itself.
Find Your Best Idea
You probably have an idea already, but you should work on refining it. Here’s how:
- Google “children’s book” or whatever subject you are writing about and a phrase that describes your book.
- Once you’ve found books that are similar, look at the summary of those books.
- Figure out how your book is different than the published ones.
When I lead most authors through this process, they discover that their idea has already been written about. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing — actually, it’s proof that children want to read about their topic!
The trick is to have one twist for your story that makes it different. If it’s a story about bullying, perhaps your book tells the story from the point of view of the bully! Or if it’s a story about a dog, make this dog a stray or blind in one eye. A relationship that went wrong or a relationship that turned into something never expected. Maybe your story is different because you have a surprise at the end, or maybe it’s different because it’s for an older or younger age group, or your character has a magical guide like a fairy or elf to lead them through their journey. Just add one twist that distinguishes it from other books.
Develop characters one at a time
They are quirky in some way. They have a funny habit. They look strange. They talk differently than everyone else.
You don’t want a character who stands in for every child, you want the main character to feel REAL.
Before you start to put your characters in a story, you need to know who your characters are:
Are they human or animal or something altogether unique?
What age is your main character meant to be?
How about your supporting characters?
What do they look like?
What are their identifying personality traits?
What does your main character desire?
What is their best/worst habit?
Are they an extrovert or introverts?
How do they speak differently than everyone else? (cute sayings, repeated phrase/word, dialect, high/low volume)
Do they doubt themselves or do they have too much bravery?
Do they have any pets? (or does your animal character have human owners)
What makes your main character feel happy?
Do they have any secrets?
What would this character do that would be very out of character?
What is one thing this character loves that most people dislike?
Who in your real life do you know that is like your characters?
Once you have your characters, your story starts to come together. If you develop more characters than your story needs, you can use them for your next book!
Figure Out the Main Problem
Every character has a problem. It could be a mystery, it could be a person, it could be a crisis of confidence. That problem is what they will struggle with for the entire book. The majority of the book will be obstacles the main character has to hurdle before they can solve their problem.
Here are the main mistakes beginning writers make with their character’s Main Problems:
- The character solves the problem too easily. Make your character really struggle and fail. Ideally, the main character should fail at least three times before solving this problem, and perhaps fail as many times as five (if you’re writing for older children).
- There are not a series of obstacles. On the character’s way to solving the problem, the main character should run up against a whole bunch of obstacles. Don’t have him defeat a single obstacle and then voila, the problem is solved. To build a rocket ship to fly to space, the main character should lose some parts, his mother should call him for dinner, his friend should tell him it won’t work, it should rain, etc.
- The character doesn’t care enough about solving the problem. This has to be a HUGE problem for the child — they have to feel like it’s a matter of life and death, even if the actual problem is only a missing button. As long as the child feels like it’s a huge problem, the reader will feel like it’s a huge problem.
You may have a particular reader in mind who fits one of those age groups, even before you have your story. If you spend some time thinking about what’s important to your reader, you can then develop characters and stories your reader might like. List concerns, conflicts, struggles, and experiences that your age group faces... Where does your story take place?
Fully flesh out the world of your characters, and brainstorm a list of things that might happen.
You can also decide to start writing a non-fiction book, and this is the time you’d think about how you’d want to depict your topic so your young reader enjoys the discovery.
Play with your characters in different scenarios
What problems can your character solve?
What struggles?
Who is with your character in these situations?
If you’re starting to write a nonfiction book, consider creating a relatable character that experiences the discovery of the information that will connect with your readers.
Decide on an age group
You may have had a story idea and a character idea well before you considered who might read it. You’ll need to choose one, and check that your story, its length, and its characters are suitable for that audience. Children’s books fall into one of these age groups:
- Toddler books ( ages 1 - 3) 0 to 300 words
- Early Picture books ( ages 2 - 5) 200 to 500 words
- Picture books ( ages 3 - 7) 500 to 800 words. These can be fiction or non-fiction
- Older Picture books ( ages 4 - 8) 500 to 800 words. These can be fiction or non-fiction
- Easy Readers ( ages 5-8) 32-64 pages, and up to 1,200 words
- First Chapter Books Graphic Novels ( ages 5-10 ) 3k - 10k words
- Middle Grade - novels & graphic novels ( ages 7 - 12 ) 10k - 30k words
- Young Adult (YA) novels and graphic novels - ( ages 12-18 ) 25kto 45k words
Nonfiction
There are nonfiction books for all age groups. These include biographies, autobiographies, books on countries, animals, history and other factual information. These are often illustrated or contain photos. Nonfiction publications frequently have a higher word count than their fiction counterparts for the same age group.
Create a story arc
Outline your book with a beginning, middle, high-point, and resolution. This applies to both fiction and nonfiction.
Start The Story Quickly
Many unpublished children’s books fail to grab the reader's attention, and that’s because they start too slow.
*The pacing of children’s stories generally moves quickly.
Use Repetition For Children's Books
Children love repetition! Parents love repetition! Publishers love repetition! Everybody loves repetition!
If you’re not repeating something in your children’s book, it’s not going to be a great children’s book.
Here are three types of repetition that you can use:
- Repetition of a word or phrase on a page
- Repetition of a word or phrase across the entire book
- Repetition of the story structure
Write Your Children's Books For Illustrators
One of the main jobs of the writer is to set up the illustrator for success. (and you can hire an illustrator from the SCBWI illustrator gallery)
But so many writers aren’t thinking about what kind of material they’re giving to the illustrator.
If you have a book that takes place inside a house between two characters, the illustrator is going to struggle to draw visually interesting images.
A good illustrator can radically improve your book, but they’re also working with what you give them. So give them more:
- Choose fun buildings for your setting (put it in a greenhouse rather than a school)
- Think of funny-looking main characters (a lemur is much more fun to draw than a dog)
- Get out in the open rather than being inside (wheat fields are more entertaining than a bedroom).
End The Story Quickly
Once the main problem of the story is resolved (the cat is found, the bully says he’s sorry, the two girls become friends again), you only have a page or two to finish the book. Since the story is done, there’s no longer any tension for the reader, which means they don’t have an incentive to keep reading. So do them a favor and end the book as quickly as possible. Basically, you want to provide a satisfying conclusion and wrap up all the storylines. One of my favorite tricks for an ending is a technique that stand-up comedians call a “Call Back.” This is when they reference a joke from earlier in their set to finish out their routine.
You can use this in children’s books by referencing something in the first 5 or 6 pages of the book.
Chose Your Title
Now you may say: why are we figuring out the title after we do all the writing? Good question.
The truth is that many writers don’t know the essence of their story until after they write the book. So you can have a temporary title, but just know that you’ll probably revise it after you finish.
And revising is fine! Everybody revises. Don’t be afraid to change your title multiple times until you hit the exact right one.
Also, the title is the number one marketing tool of your book. Most readers decide whether or not to pick up your book from the title alone. That means choosing a title might be the most important thing you do (although it’s probably a tie with choosing an illustrator).
- Use Similar First Letters (Alliteration). Say your book is about Amy’s adventure finding a whole meadow full of poppies, and how she befriended a mouse there.
- Don’t Title: “Amy’s Adventure with Poppies.”
- Do Title: “The Mouse in the Meadow.”
- Don’t Use a Descriptive Title. Many people just describe the contents of their book in the title, but I would warn against this. For instance, there’s a book about a boy who is searching through a vast library to find a special book about eternal life. What would you title this book?
- Don’t: “The Vast Library.” (Boring)
- Don’t: “The Library Hunt.” (This is better. “Hunt” is a good word, and the combo with library is intriguing.)
- Do: “How to Live Forever.” (This is the actual title, and it’s great. This is the name of the book the boy is searching for, and it lets the reader know there will be some deep topics discussed.)
- Use an Action Title. You want energy in your title. A lackluster title will spoil your book’s chances for sure. That means you want fun active verbs inside your title rather than passive ones.
- Don’t: “Johnny’s Wonderful Day.”
- Do: “Captain Johnny Defeats Dr. Doom.” (Captain Johnny makes it more playful, we have the active verb of “defeat” and Dr. Doom uses alliteration.)
- Use the Technique of Mystery. Does your title tell the reader everything they want to know about the topic or does it provoke their curiosity? Your goal is to give enough information that the parent says, “Huh, that sounds fun.”
- Don’t: “The Bird in the Window.”
- Do: “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” (What places?)
- Do: “Olivia Saves the Circus.” (How? We want to know.)
- Do: “How to Catch an Elephant.” (Tell me more!)
- Google “Children’s Book [Your Title]”.You want to see if the title is already taken (or if there is a title that is too close). Now say your perfect title is already used. Can you still use that title? Well, yes. People can’t copyright titles. But you’ll have a hard time distinguishing your book from that book, so it’s not always the best idea.
- Test Your Title with Children and Adults. It’s important to see how children react to your title. Are they excited? Do they seem bored? But remember that children aren’t the ones buying books — parents are. So make sure to bounce it off some adults as well and get their reaction.
In other words, you highlight it and hover over the delete button (this is the “walking the plank” moment) and ask yourself: if I cut this, will the story no longer make sense?
If the story will still make sense, then PUSH that phrase/sentence off the plank and delete it.
If the story will not make sense, then that word or phrase or sentence gets a reprieve (at least in this round of editing!).
In general, the shorter your children’s book, the better chance that publishers/agents will like it and the better chance you’ll have of pleasing children and parents (not to mention shorter books are cheaper to illustrate — and illustration is expensive!).
How to Find A Illustrator
An illustrator will be the most expensive step of publishing a children’s book, but also the most essential for a successful book. The more you spend on this step, the better your book will look. I mentioned the SCBWI illustrator gallery above, but I also wanted to recommend Fiverr as an inexpensive place to hire an illustrator. If neither of those works out, check out the website Children’s Illustrators or for another option, Illustration X.
WHAT FOLLOWS IS VERY IMPORTANT
You can’t just throw words up on an illustration and expect them to look good. It’s essential to have a happy marriage between text and image. You want to think about:
- The font. This is incredibly important. I see a lot of self-published children’s books that selected the wrong font, and it’s glaringly obvious. You need an illustrator to help you choose exactly the right font to match the illustrations.
- The size of the font. This is important as well. It should be consistent across the whole book and should pair well with the size of objects in the illustration.
- The placement of the words. If you put the words in the wrong place on the image, you basically ruin the entire illustration. It needs to be carefully balanced and follow good composition guidelines like the rule of thirds. Ideally, the words should enhance the illustration rather than detract from it.
- Page breaks. What words should go on which pages? This is something you need to discuss with your illustrator before they begin. They need to have a say in this — don’t just tell them how you want the pages to be broken up. For instance, they might have the idea to have a two-page spread without any words at all, separate a single sentence across several pages, or have one page with a few sentences on it and the next page with just a short phrase for emphasis. This is the number one mistake I see beginning writers/illustrators make: they have the same amount of text on every single page (usually a single sentence).
30 publishers who will accept submissions without a literary agent.
