Writing a Children's Book

Lesson 1: Writing for Children

Writing for Today's Young Readers.

To write a successful children’s book, you should have a broad knowledge of the kinds of books that are being published in the 21st Century. Children’s books change enormously every few years, so books that were popular in your childhood will almost certainly be out of date today.

Here are some books from the 1960s and 1970s! See the difference?

Just as an example, let’s say you loved the Narnia books of C.S. Lewis or the stories of Enid Blyton when you were younger. You probably know that these books are still available in most children’s bookshops today. What you might not have considered is that if these books were offered as unknown manuscripts to a modern publisher, they would probably be rejected.

If this is the case, why are they still being reprinted and stocked in new editions? The answer to this is easy. These books are reprinted and sold because they already have a reputation.

In the same way, you could go to a shop and buy a modern DVD of a film first made in the 1930s. Such a film would not get an audience now, if it were shown at the cinema for the first time, but because it is known and loved, there will always be customers who will buy it for reasons of nostalgia.

There will also be those who will buy it for educational reasons. They will be studying the acting, production values, script, social attitudes and camera work rather than watching the film for simple entertainment.

You might argue that the people who buy such older movies are adults, whereas the people buying the reprints of older children’s books are children, but this isn’t quite the point. For one thing, many (if not most) pre-teen children (the ones for whom the “older” (SCB) books were usually intended) rely on adults to pay for their books. Often, adults choose the books as well as pay for them. If children do most of their reading from the school or public library, they will be choosing from a preselected list of books.

Adults buying books for children will be guided by several criteria.

(1). They may choose a book they enjoyed when they were young. (“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”.)

(2). They may choose a book they have heard of, and know to be “famous” or “well-known”. (“Anne of Green Gables”.)

(3). They may choose a book from a prominent display. (The latest “Harry Potter” or “Artemis Fowl” title.)

(4). They may look for a book whose subject matter or author they will know, or believe, that specific child will like. (A horse book, or a book by Lemony Snicket.)

(5). They may look for a book at a reasonable price. (Most older books or “classics” are cheaper, unless they are deluxe editions.)

(6). They may ask the advice of the shop owner or assistant. (The assistant will probably recommend something from one of the prominent displays.)

(7). They may choose a book they have seen reviewed, or heard discussed. (The latest “Harry Potter” or “Artemis Fowl” title.)

(8). They may choose a book from a genre the child favours. (The three set course books are examples of genre fiction. We will be looking at each of these in more detail soon.)

It is a combination of these guidelines that reinforces the demand at bookshop level for the reprinted older books and also for the already-popular books. However, when writing a children’s book you must look instead to the demand at publishing company level.

And here are books from the past decade. Now do you see the difference?

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