The other alternative to getting your book published is self-publishing. This shouldn’t be seen as a ‘last resort’ option. In fact, plenty of authors create lucrative careers from publishing independently and it is fast becoming the number one option for a lot of writers.
It can be a little harder to self-publish in the world of children’s books. Illustrated books don’t always transfer to eBook easily and the market tends to favour print in general. However, there are authors who are doing really well in the YA genre fiction market, particularly for things like paranormal romance. If you are interested in this option, then you can find plenty of free information here.
Being a children’s author takes an incredible amount of hard work and dedication, but it is the most fulfilling thing you can do (in my biased opinion!) Children don’t like books, they LOVE them. And once your book is published, hearing from those readers makes every step of this whole process completely worthwhile.
I’ve mentioned the Jericho Writers membership a few times in this article, and it is something to think about if you are serious about carving a career for yourself as a children’s author. Reading and writing will take us so far, but sometimes we need a helping hand from the experts to create something at the level it needs to be to get published. You can find out more about that membership here.
Sarah Ann Juckes writes books for young people. Her YA debut, Outside, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal Award 2020, shortlisted for Mslexia's Children's Novel Award and longlisted for the Bath Novel Award. Her YA novel The World Between Us will be published in five languages and her Middle Grade novel, The Hunt for the Nightingale was published in early 2022. Sarah is a Trustee for Creative Future, a charity supporting under-represented writers. You can often find her hibernating in her writing shed in East Sussex, with her cat. See more on Sarah's website, Twitter, or Amazon author page.
This year, more busy teachers and homeschoolers are looking for easy creative writing lesson plans, and some of them have used my summer writing prompts and my Christmas writing prompts.
So I put together this list of writing prompts for kids. They include some story starters, some funny writing prompts, and some mystery and adventure ideas. I hope these are helpful for parents looking for creative writing activities, too…so their kids can learn how fun writing can be. Then again, maybe they already know!
If you liked my story ideas for kids, please share them on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter—I really appreciate it! And if you don’t want to miss future posts, be sure to subscribe to the blog. Thanks so much for reading, and have a great rest of your week!
Thanks for this post. I think this is a great idea. Since my grandson always wants me to tell him stories and he always adds to them, I can simply give him one of these and let him create the stories. Also, I have several friends who are teachers. I will share your post with them. I’m sure they will appreciate these.
Hi Bryn, Just what I needed and at the perfect time! How did you guess? Tomorrow morning I am giving a Zoom meeting through Nepris for a class of 4th-graders. The topic is writing fiction. Since I am a Discovery Writer, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to present “how to write fiction” till I remembered your index card plot illustration from Blank Page to Final Draft page 61. I simplified it a bit. Haha. I’ll bet you didn’t think it could be simpler than what you created. (Don’t worry, I give you credit) I feel confident now, that I will be able to help the students “see” the structure of a story. And then the BIG FINISH. We can let them choose an idea from your list to write their own story. It’s Perfect! Thank you so very much not only for this post, but also for all the tips, ideas, encouragement, and (OK I admit it) LOVE you give and are willing to receive.
Jessie! You’ll probably be done teaching by the time you read this, but that’s so great that this was helpful! I love it. Lucky kids, getting you for a guest teacher! Thanks so much for the kind words…you made my day. 🙂
YES! This is perfect timing. Both my kids have expressed interest in writing, and the youngest is getting a word processing machine (a Neo2) from Santa (he asked; how can I say no??) so I might have to print out this list for them. Thank you, Bryn!! <3
Hi there! Thank you so much for this incredible prompts! I have a little cousin who doesn´t like to write, she says that she never gets good ideas and that she gets bored when she’s writing, so I’ll try to use this prompts to increase her writing. There are so many funny and cute ideas in this post so I am sure that she will find something she would love to write about.
This is a very generous list! Thank you. Also , it reminded me that my dad always used to make up a story when he tucked me in at night, so good for this too.
Picture books can appear deceivingly simple to create. But in reality, are some of the trickiest books to write. With the word count being so low, every passage and illustration needs to be absolutely perfect so a child will want to read it over, and over again.
Story-based or fiction picture books are usually 32 pages long and vary between 500 to 1000 words. They are designed for pre-schoolers and children in the first few years of primary school, and are usually intended to be read aloud as a shared experience between an adult and child. Becky Brown, editor at Ladybird explains, "At the younger end of this range, children will love to follow pictures as someone reads to them, joining in with any repeated phrases and spotting things on the page that relate to the story.
Once a child begins to read for themselves, these books are a great way to build confidence and language development. At any age though, children love to share stories with other people, so will enjoy revisiting their favourite books and having them read to them.
Non-fiction picture books tend to be longer in both page and word count because they are usually designed for older children who are reading for themselves. It’s not unusual for non-fiction picture books to go up to 96 pages due to their more complex subject matter, and because they are enjoyed by children of all ages through primary school.
A common misconception about picture books is that it’s necessary to be both an author and illustrator – you don’t need to be both, and you also don’t need to worry about finding an illustrator before approaching a publisher.
Legends For KidsSometimes authors will add a few illustration notes to the manuscript if they feel it will help position the story, but your publisher will work with you to find the best partner for your words. Ygrain Cadlock, editorial director at Puffin says, "In a good picture book, the text and the pictures will add something to the other to create something truly magical. Picture book writers don’t need to show everything in the story, but should also not rely on the illustrations to do all of the storytelling work."
Just because picture books are short, doesn't mean they will be published quickly. It's not unusual for the entire process to take anywhere between 18 and 24 months, given all the intricacies of perfecting the text and illustration.
And of course, the biggest misconception of them all – just because picture books are short and full of pictures, doesn’t mean writing one is an easy thing to do. Both Becky and Ygraine agree that children are often the harshest critics, and it takes a really good story to capture their attention. "Picture books are actually tricker to write because of the short length," says Becky. "It’s a real skill, as each word has to count and the stories require visual imagination."
Becky and Ygraine emphasise that strong characters are integral to a successful picture book. According to Becky, "There are exceptions to the rules, but most good picture books have a central character (or characters), with lots of personality, a compelling story and there’s often a problem to overcome or solve.
Good picture books come in all shapes and sizes – they can be heart-warming and moving, funny and silly, or all of these things at once! Lastly, endings are really important. A good picture book is wrapped up with a satisfying resolution or a twist. Read lots of other picture books for your research and don’t be afraid to be silly!
Similarly, Ygraine looks for standout characters and a strong story. "The best characteristic of a good picture book is the story or characters – the same as you would think for any adult story.
Remember that just because picture books are shorter in length, doesn’t mean that a reader doesn’t want the same story arc as you see in any book, tv show or film – a beginning, middle and end are always important! They also need to be something you want to read time and time again, without boring the reader, or the child being read to.
We received over 2,300 applications to WriteNow this year, with less than 40 places on offer on our longlist. While we can’t give individual feedback to everybody, our assessors have shared the following advice…
Thank you for applying to this year’s WriteNow programme. As an applicant to WriteNow 2024, you are invited to our exclusive online webinar on how to get published, with a specific focus on writing science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Held online on Saturday 22 June (9.30am – 12.30pm), this workshop aims to give you information […]
Are you an audiobook lover keen to get into the publishing industry? Or an aspiring author figuring out where audiobooks fit into the publishing process? Here, our audio teams answer all your questions, with insights on their day-to-day work, responsibilities, and what skills they think are needed. Editorial The editorial team work alongside the studio […]
As someone who writes books for children, I am privy to a never-ending debate in children’s-literature circles. (You may now be imagining old ladies in floral dresses sitting around Victorian parlors, knitting and discussing the relative merits of “Johnny Tremain” and “Little House on the Prairie”; I assure you, nowadays it is mostly tattoos and pink hair in these groups, though there are still some lovely floral dresses.) The debate is this: What makes a children’s book “good”?
Now that summer vacation is over and students are submitting lists of books they have read since June, the question is particularly relevant. Does having read the novelization of the latest superhero movie “count” as having read a book? How about a graphic novel based on a line of toys? After my seventh-grade summer, I turned in a reading list that consisted of a single title—the illustrated book “Dinotopia,” by James Gurney. My teacher wrote “This is a sad list” on the paper. More fool her: I hadn’t even read “Dinotopia.” It just happened to be the only reading material other than Mad magazine in my room that summer, and I’d felt that my proximity to the book constituted reading it.
The conundrum of the “good” children’s book is best embodied by the apparently immortal—or maybe just undead—series “Goosebumps,” by R. L. Stine. “Goosebumps” is a series of horror novellas, the kid’s-lit equivalent of B-horror movies. It’s also one of the most successful franchises in the business, selling over three hundred and fifty million copies worldwide—which is a ludicrous, almost obscene, number. And here’s a secret from the depths of the publishing industry: neither marketing nor publicity nor movie tie-ins can move three hundred and fifty million copies. The only way to sell that many copies is if millions of kids actually and truly want to read the books. The conclusion is obvious: “Goosebumps” books are good, right?
Maybe, but kids have weird ideas of quality. The children’s author Laura Amy Schlitz, in her 2007 Newbery Medal acceptance speech, explained: “I must remind myself that ‘good’ is an approximate term. A second-grader once asked me for ‘a really, really good book,’ and I asked him, as librarians do, what he considered a good book. He eyed me with thinly veiled impatience and replied, ‘Medium-long with poisonous snakes.’ ”
Adult responses to the question of good children's books tend to fall into two general camps: a content-oriented approach and a results-oriented approach. The ladies in floral dresses of ages past were concerned with content. A good book for children is somehow instructive or nutritive, often morally so. You might laugh that off as hopelessly old-fashioned, but there has been a broad resurgence of the idea that children’s books should be “socially conscious,” which isn’t that far from morally instructive. Vast numbers of children’s books these days are somehow “timely” and “relevant,” taking on issues like discrimination or animal cruelty. Some particularly wonderful ones that might be described as “socially conscious” are Gene Luen Yang’s “Boxers and Saints,” a duo of graphic novels about religious and colonial persecution during the Boxer Rebellion; Katherine Applegate’s masterpiece “The One and Only Ivan,” which deals with the cruel treatment of a gorilla in a roadside zoo; and Cece Bell’s brilliant and funny “El Deafo,” a graphic memoir about the author growing up with a hearing impairment. But must a book be “socially conscious” to be good?
A different content criterion is psychological value. This is what the child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim advocated. As he explained in “The Uses of Enchantment,” he believed that a good book would “promote [the child’s] ability to find meaning in life. . . . It must stimulate his imagination; help him to develop his intellect and to clarify his emotions; be attuned to his anxieties and aspirations; give full recognition to his difficulties, while at the same time suggesting solutions to the problems which perturb him.” As a children’s-book author, and even as a purchaser of children’s books, I am daunted by those requirements. Bettelheim claims that few children’s books achieve these lofty goals—with the exception of fairy tales. When I read this passage, Maurice Sendak’s “Where The Wild Things Are” always comes to mind. That one, it seems to me, satisfies Bettelheim’s stipulations. O.K., so we’ve given our children Grimm and Sendak. Now what are we supposed to do?
