|
Safe computing site
| |
WritersServices Factsheet no 12
by Michael Legat
Writing children's books
Many writers hoping to be published
turn to children’s books as an easy option, but
find that it is in fact one of the most difficult genres.>
 | The market for children’s books is far from saturated, but
competition is intense and to arouse a publisher’s interest
you need to produce work which is original in content or
approach, and which meets the demands of editors,
librarians, booksellers and parents (all of whom need to be
considered at the same time as the interests of the child). |
| The primary requirement is that you should have a clear
idea of the age group at which your work is aimed.
Vocabulary, content and length must be right on target. |
| Children of this 21st century are more sophisticated than
most of those in previous generations, thanks to the
ubiquitous television and the more liberal society in which we
live. Adults do not talk down to children as they used to, and
pas devant les enfants is rarely heard. Nevertheless, the
vocabulary used in books for four-year-olds is obviously
restricted in comparison with that intended for eight-year-olds,
and in fact vocabularies change and increase as the child grows.
This does not mean that you cannot include a difficult word
occasionally, following in the footsteps, as it were, of Beatrix
Potter’s celebrated use of ‘soporific’. |
| When considering the content of a book for children,
political correctness is essential. In particular you should
be careful to avoid sexism and racism. Be aware that we live in
a multi-racial society in which one-parent families are
commonplace, and that the days are long gone of books aimed at
middle-class children living in a nursery and looked after by a
Nanny. |
| The length of the text in children’s books varies
from nil to 7,500 or more, depending on the age which is aimed
at. Check appropriate lengths in a library or bookshop. Most
picture story-books consist of 16 or 24 pages, four of which are
used as endpapers securing the printed pages to the boards in
which they are bound. |
| Books for younger children are always illustrated.
Unless you are an artist of outstanding ability you should not
include your own pictures when submitting a children’s book to a
publisher, and that goes for relatives and friends too. You can
however indicate where illustrations should appear and what they
should depict. Publishers are good at marrying authors to
suitable artists, and vice versa. |
| In books for children (and for that matter, those intended
for adults) it is important to have heroes or heroines with
whom the reader can identify. To write a successful
children’s book, the author must be aware of what it is like to
be a child. How long is it since you saw the underside of a
table? In books for older children, if there is a problem of
some kind to be solved, the solution must be found by the young
people in the story, rather than by grown-ups. |
| It is probably wise to avoid anthropomorphic heroes and
heroines, which are currently out of favour, so The Tale
of Timothy Teapot, or Caroline Computer’s Christmas
are unlikely to appeal. And, with apologies to Ratty and Mole,
and Pooh, and Peter Rabbit, you should avoid giving human
characteristics to animals, whether alive or stuffed. |
| When submitting work to publishers some writers (especially
grandmothers) tell them that the children to whom the material
has been read loved every word. Publishers regard such
statements with caution, knowing that the relationship
between the reader and the read-to undoubtedly increases the
pleasure the story gives. |
This factsheet links to
Writing for Pleasure and Profit
© Michael Legat 2001
| |
|
