Two books on writing for children
I wrote a book for kids, nothing very special. Like a Nancy Drew except it’s a family of kids who solve the mystery instead of a teenage girl and her friends. Next step would be to have it published, so I went out and bought two books on the children’s book market: The Business of Writing for Children by Aaron Shepard and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books by Harold D. Underdown.
Neither book offers a lot of insight into writing for the middle grade market. There’s some specific information on writing and illustrating picture books and a lot of general information on getting published. I was hoping to learn what age range I’d written for. I mean, I have an idea but I’m not a child or a publisher of children’s books. There must be guidelines as to manuscript length, word choice, appropriate topics, etc. Well, if there are, I didn’t learn any of that from these books.
I did learn that publishers aren’t drooling for a new series. I’d thought the fact that my family of kids could easily go out and solve a second mystery would be a plus but apparently it’s more of a minus. The good publishers want more original work and the series publishers contract out or work with celebrities. They aren’t looking for undiscovered talent. In fact, both books made it sound like there’s barely a market for undiscovered talent at all. Apparently the children’s market is much smaller than the adult market (Harry Potter aside) and there aren’t many openings each year.
So what little I learned was discouraging. If you’re looking for a book on this topic, I’d get the Idiot’s Guide which is meatier and covers a broader range of children’s books. The Shepard book is a little off the cuff in spots. It recommends an informal tone that may or may not work. It’s certainly an unusual recommendation.