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Introduction

If you’ve gone through the trouble of opening up this book, we’re going to take a wild guess: You dream of writing your own children’s book and getting it published. Your desire may come from a deep-seated yearning to communicate with young people or to share experiences with them. Or it may stem from an interest in a subject you think children may also delight in. Regardless of where your desire comes from, we want to help you turn that passion into a well-written, saleable manuscript.

Our goals in writing this book are to help you understand the children’s book writing process and give you the tools you need to turn your children’s book dream into reality. Many people think writing a children’s book is child’s play. Actually, it’s not. It takes a lot of hard work. In fact, it can even be tougher than writing for adults. But we believe you can do it!

We know plenty of people just like you who attempt to tackle the process of writing a children’s book. Some haven’t the slightest idea where to start. Others have a good idea where to start, but they don’t know what to do with their manuscript after they write it. Good news: We understand the process and what it takes to move through it with as little stress as possible. In the pages that follow, we provide you with the very best advice that our many years of experience have to offer.

About This Book

Writing a children’s book and getting it published involves a lot more than simply knocking out a manuscript and e-mailing it to a publisher. If you’re serious about getting your book published, then you need to understand the entire process of how a children’s book comes into existence and how to deal with the different challenges that present themselves along the way. Where do you start? How do you get your manuscript in front of an editor at a traditional publisher? Should you consider self-publishing or maybe a hybrid publisher? Should you engage a literary agent or an illustrator? How can you use social media to promote your book? This book answers these questions, and hundreds more like them, in an easy-to-use reference that you can take with you anywhere.

Also, throughout the book, we sprinkle a generous helping of insightful, candid interviews with publishing pros who answer common questions with incredible candor and honesty — and often a great sense of humor.

We use the following conventions throughout the text to make everything consistent and easy-to-understand:

 All web addresses appear in monofont.

 New terms appear in italics and are closely followed by an easy-to-understand definition.

 Bold text indicates keywords in bulleted lists or highlights the action parts of numbered steps.

 Sidebars are the shaded boxes that appear here and there throughout the book. They contain fun facts, interesting asides, and interviews with industry experts. Of course, we hope you read each and every one, but if you're just not interested or don’t have the time, don’t worry about them.

To make the content more accessible, we divided it into six parts:

 Part 1: The ABCs of Writing for Children

 Part 2: Immersing Yourself in the Writing Process

 Part 3: Creating a Spellbinding Story

 Part 4: Making Your Story Sparkle

 Part 5: Getting Published and Promoting Your Book

 Part 6: The Part of Tens

Foolish Assumptions

We wrote this book with some thoughts about you in mind. Here’s what we assume about you, our reader:

 You’ve long fantasized about writing your own children’s book and getting it published.

 You may have already written a children’s story but aren’t sure how to prepare it for submission. You may have already had a children’s book published, but you want to experiment writing a different type of children’s story. Or you may even be an experienced children’s book author who’s looking for new perspectives on social media, publicity, and the industry as a whole.

 You’re looking for a comprehensive guide that demystifies children’s book writing by focusing on the information that’s most worth knowing.

 You want to improve your writing skills and hone your craft.

 You’re willing to take the time to become knowledgeable about the conventions in the children’s book world to separate yourself from the wannabes.

 You’re interested in exploring different publishing options, including self-publishing, hybrid publishing, and/or e-books.

 You want to know how to promote and market your book to improve sales.

 You want to know what you need to do to find an agent or publisher.

Icons Used in This Book

To make this book simple to use, we include some icons in the margins so that you can easily find and fathom key ideas and information.

This icon highlights important information to store in your brain for quick recall at a later time.

These tidbits provide expert advice to help you save time, money, or frustration in the book-writing process.

Avoid mistakes by following the sage words of advice appearing alongside this icon.

Beyond the Book

In addition to the abundance of information and guidance related to writing and publishing a children’s book that we provide in this book, you get access to even more help and information online at Dummies.com. Check out this book’s online Cheat Sheet. Just go to www.dummies.com and search for “Writing a Children’s Book For Dummies Cheat Sheet.”

Where to Go from Here

The great thing about this book is that you decide where you want to start and what you want to read. With this reference book, you can jump in and out at will. Just head to the table of contents or the index to find the information you want. For complete newbies, Part 1, where we provide you with a 50,000-foot view of all the different aspects of writing books for children, is a great place to start.