Adventures in Writing for Children: More of an Author's Inside Tips on the Art and Business of Writing Children's Books and Publishing Them

By Aaron Shepard

Fifteen years after publishing "The Business of Writing for Children" -- the all-time online bestseller among guides to children's writing -- award-winning author Aaron Shepard returns with a new collection of articles on the art and business of creating literature for young people. 
 
Topics include managing time in stories, structuring a chapter book, retelling folktales and legends, obtaining permissions, databases and business forms for children's writers, performance tips for author readings, online interaction with young readers, reviving a book with print on demand, converting from picture book to ebook, and more. 
 
Whether you're aiming at traditional publishers or choosing to self publish, let "Adventures in Writing for Children" help you pursue an adventure of your own. 
 
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Aaron Shepard is the author of "The Legend of Lightning Larry," "The Baker's Dozen," and sixteen more picture books and early readers, along with several chapter books for middle grades, extensive resources for storytelling and reader's theater, and a graphic novel. His publishers have included Atheneum, Scribners, Clarion, Lothrop, Dial, and HarperCollins, as well as Cricket and Australia's School Magazine. Aaron's work has been honored by the American Library Association, the National Council for the Social Studies, the American Folklore Society, The New York Public Library, and the Bank Street College of Education. He has been a judge for the Golden Kite Awards of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
 
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"Simply stated, anyone aspiring to write a book -- any kind of book -- for a child should read Aaron Shepard's 'Adventures in Writing for Children.' This little volume fully lives up to its hype. An invaluable addition to personal and community library collections and reading lists." -- Small Press Bookwatch, March 2015
 
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SAMPLE
 
My earlier book on children's writing, "The Business of Writing for Children," was drawn mainly from two sources: handouts from the classes and workshops I used to give, and my articles for "Once Upon A Time" and the "SCBWI Bulletin" (earlier called the "SCBW Bulletin") -- the newsletter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. 
 
In selecting the articles to include in that book, I tried to keep a balance among its main subject areas -- writing, publishing, marketing -- and to avoid domination by my personal specialties. I also chose to omit my more controversial articles, to make the book more generally accessible. 
 
Naturally, these criteria left out a number of articles I considered valuable. I'm pleased to offer at least some of them now, in this second collection. I've also included later articles, with some brand new ones -- some of which I've meant to write for years. (There's nothing like publishing a book to help you tie up loose ends.) And as an added treat, I've thrown in the children's writer quotations featured on my Web site. 
 
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shepard Publications
• Release date: Mar 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781620352175

Aaron Shepard

Aaron Shepard has written award-winning short fiction and has been published in a number of Canadian literary journals, including the Fiddlehead and PRISM International. His personal essay “Edge of the Herd” appears in the anthology Nobody’s Father: Life Without Kids. He is a graduate of the University of Victoria’s MFA in Creative Writing program, and has served on the fiction board of the Malahat Review. An avid outdoorsman, Aaron enjoys hiking, camping, birdwatching, and cross-country skiing in his spare time. When is a Man is his debut novel. Follow Aaron on Twitter at @AaronWhen.

Book preview

ADVENTURES IN

WRITING FOR CHILDREN

More of an Author’s Inside Tips on the Art and Business of Writing Children’s Books and Publishing Them

By Aaron Shepard

Shepard Publications

Bellingham, Washington

Copyright © 2015, 2018–2019 by Aaron Shepard

Ebook Version 1.3.2

Aaron Shepard is the author of The Legend of Lightning Larry, The Baker’s Dozen, and sixteen more picture books and early readers, along with several chapter books for middle grades, extensive resources for storytelling and reader’s theater, and a graphic novel. His publishers have included Atheneum, Scribners, Clarion, Lothrop, Dial, and HarperCollins, as well as Cricket and Australia’s School Magazine.

Aaron’s work has been honored by the American Library Association, the National Council for the Social Studies, the American Folklore Society, The New York Public Library, and the Bank Street College of Education. He has been a judge for the Golden Kite Awards of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Aaron lives in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and fellow author, Anne L. Watson.

The Kidwriting Series

The Business of Writing for Children ~ Adventures in Writing for Children

The Kindle Publishing Series

From Word to Kindle ~ Pictures on Kindle ~ HTML Fixes for Kindle

The Print on Demand Series

Aiming at Amazon ~ POD for Profit ~ Perfect Pages

For updates and more resources,

visit Aaron’s Kidwriting Page at

www.aaronshep.com/‌kidwriter

You have to write whichever book it is that wants to be written. And then, if it’s going to be too difficult for grownups, you write it for children.

Madeleine L’Engle

It does not seem to me that I have the right to foist a story on people — most of whom are children who should be learning all the time — unless I am learning from it, too.

Diana Wynne Jones

If a book comes from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts.

Thomas Carlyle

I’m not writing to make anyone’s children feel safe.

J. K. Rowling

Getting Started

My earlier book on children’s writing, The Business of Writing for Children, was drawn mainly from two sources: handouts from the classes and workshops I used to give, and my articles for Once Upon A Time and the SCBWI Bulletin (earlier called the SCBW Bulletin) — the newsletter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

In selecting the articles to include in that book, I tried to keep a balance among its main subject areas — writing, publishing, marketing — and to avoid domination by my personal specialties. I also chose to omit my more controversial articles, to make the book more generally accessible.

Naturally, these criteria led to me to leave out a number of articles I considered valuable. I’m pleased to offer at least some of them now, in this second collection. I’ve also included new articles, appearing here for the first time — some of which I’ve meant to write for years. (There’s nothing like publishing a book to help you tie up loose ends.) And as an added treat, I’ve thrown in the children’s writer quotations featured on my Web site.

I hope you enjoy this new book and find it helpful. And if you want to read the articles I left out this time, you can find them on my Kidwriting Page.

Please Note!

Though comments on this book are welcome, Aaron regrets he cannot provide help individually to aspiring writers.

Real Time

This is not the beginning of the book. If it opened here automatically, please page backward for important information.

Time. No one has enough of it, no one can stop it, no one can make it pass one bit faster.

Unless, of course, you’re an author.

Literature, more than any other art form, offers its creator almost limitless mastery of time. It can be stretched, shrunk, or even rearranged, all to suit the needs of the story. But you have to recognize the kinds of time at work in a story, and then learn the tools for manipulating them.

One kind of time serves as part of the story’s setting, determining when the story takes place. Each chapter or other story division has a starting point in time from which it progresses. This point can be vague or specific; it can also be relative to the time it follows or else absolute, standing on its own. Direction is another option — the new starting point can immediately follow the preceding time, or jump forward to a later one, or backward to an earlier one.

Whatever the author chooses, the time is commonly set by some kind of time marker — any phrase that establishes the time for the reader. And to avoid confusion and uncertainty, this marker should normally be placed right at the chapter beginning or soon after.

On May 14, at 2:32 in the afternoon, Muriel Terwillicker made her way through the girls’ locker room at West Hollow High.

Hand me that trowel! said Megan.

Coming right up! said Richard.

It was just two weeks since the ice cream shack had burned down, and already another building was rising in its place.

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Jack.

The marker can also be indirect, perhaps supplied by a dated element.

Helmut anxiously inspected his chain mail and armor. This was the day of the tournament!

Mirial was all ready to go when Jonwen arrived in his heli-car.

The absence of any marker indicates a generic anytime, which in the reader’s mind places it roughly in the present or shortly after the