There is a stark difference in the experience of reading and writing your first children’s book. Writing a children’s book can be a lot more daunting than reading your first children’s book.
If you think that writing a children’s book is easy, you are certainly mistaken. This journey is filled with riddles and challenges. Of course, the competitiveness of this field cannot be overlooked either.
While this journey is certainly challenging in several ways, things can become so much easier when you have an easy-to-follow roadmap for guidance.
Here are some of the most important things you must do while writing your first children’s book.
Know Your Audience
If you are writing a children’s book for the first time, one of the biggest misconceptions you may have is that children’s books are one-size-fits-all. However, you will be surprised to know that children’s preferences for books can differ on several bases.
You cannot just write a generic children’s book and hope that everyone will fall in love with it. It is crucial for you to study and understand your target audience before you pick up your pen. Here are the different age categories and the types of children’s books for reference:
0 to 4-year-olds: Board books
2 to 5-year-olds: Early picture books
4 to 8-year-olds: Activity books
5 to 8-year-olds: Early fiction
6 to 9-year-olds: Chapter books
8 to 12-year-olds: Middle grade books
12 to 18-year-olds: Young adult books
To learn more, you can head to the nearest library and look at some books that have been written for your target audience previously. Keep an eye on important factors such as word count, font, spacing, and more. These details can not only help you become well-informed but also inspire you to take the next step.
Know What Children Want
On the surface, it can seem very simple to determine what children want. You may think it is all about bright colors, bold illustrations, and comical fonts, but you will be surprised to know that appealing to a child’s mind is not as easy as it seems.
Before considering anything else, you must know how children like to read. Children have a very short attention span. You have to put your best efforts to ensure that their focus is not lost.
The best thing you can do is to ensure that your sentences are easy to read, short, and simple. To make it even more engaging, it is best to ensure that your sentences also rhyme and appeal to a child’s creative mind.
Appeal to the Adults
One of the most important things novice children authors often forget to consider is that most children’s books for young minds are chosen by their parents. This means that a children’s book author does not only have to appeal to a child but to their parents as well.
The best way to ensure that your book also appeals to adults is to ask your friends and family for their input. They can read your book and share their honest opinions with you. While their review can be very helpful, you cannot consider it to be the most objective.
In order to ensure that your children’s book appeals to your target audience, you can consider hiring reliable freelance children’s book editors. These professionals can provide an honest review of your work without compromising your essence.
Professional children’s book editors have hands-on experience in helping authors like yourself bring out the best in their work. You can rely on them to help you improve your book holistically and get a step closer to publishing your book successfully.
Read Out Loud
Just because your children’s book looks wonderful while reading does not mean that it will have the same charm when read out loud. Therefore, all rising children’s book writers are recommended to not only write and read their book in their minds but also out loud.
Read your children’s book out loud a few times to listen to the flow. Be honest with yourself when determining whether it has a good flow or not. If you feel stuck at a few parts, it highlights the need for a few tweaks to your manuscript.
While you read your children’s book, do not forget to turn on the timer. Make sure that you maintain a steady pace. Since children have a short attention span, you must ensure that your book does not read longer than 10 minutes. Short books are loved by children and appreciated more by parents.
Test Read
One of the best things you can do to ensure the success of your children’s book is to ask the opinion of the audience themselves. Do you have any nephews and nieces you have been wanting to spend some time with, or does a friend of yours teach young children?
In any case, do not miss a chance to read out your book to a group of kids. This activity can help you see how well your book engages young minds. In addition to gauging their reaction, you can also ask them for their feedback to improve your work.
Add Illustrations
A children’s book cannot be marked as “completed” without interesting illustrations. If you do not have any experience in creating illustrations, do not worry. Several professional illustrators offer their services to ensure that your children’s book stands out among its competitors.
Your book illustrator holds the power to elevate your story. Before you hire them and let them start working, make sure that you have an in-depth discussion with them to discuss how you envision the illustrations of your children’s book.
Your illustrator can only provide you with the best services if they have the right information. Hence, you must ensure that you give them time and be descriptive enough to convey what you want your characters to look like. This way, you can form a successful partnership with your illustrator to ensure the success of your book.
