Submissions are at an all-time high, and not every agent is the right fit for every project. So, understanding where your book fits in is essential. It’s not because agents are lazy – it’s because we have to be selective.
How you present your manuscript gives us a sense of your vision for it. If we can tell that your vision for your book is different than ours, it’s probably a sign that it won’t be a very fruitful artistic partnership.
So here are some steps to help figure out where your book fits in this market:
Ask yourself, is my book really for children?
What is your age category?
What are your comparative titles? Ideally, these should highlight what you think are the strongest or most important features of your book
Does your book fill a gap in the market?
Let’s take a closer look at each of these steps.
Is my book for children?
Children’s books are not about adults. Unless you are the ghost of Roald Dahl, your book needs a child protagonist. Arguably, there needs to be other children too, so they’re not just surrounded by adults.
Of course, there are books with animals and even objects – but even though they’re not an actual child, they’re usually child-like. Children’s books need to be about things that children care about, that see the world the way they do.
So my first step is to ask – is this book for children? Does it feature adult characters, dealing with things in their adult way?
Or, does it go too far in the other direction? Does it feature a child character, but told through a reflective lens of an adult perspective? Or is the content, even if it features a young child, not accessible to a child reader? Sometimes stories that are about children are not written for children, but are very adult handlings of very mature subjects.
What is your age category?
We know that it’s exhausting to constantly be asked to categorise your work, especially by age. But here’s the truth: publishing is a business. Publishers are selling a product. Booksellers (read: superheroes) need to make it as easy as possible for consumers to make the best choice in their selection. And we, in turn, want to make it as easy as possible for them to do that.
While categories in publishing may seem restrictive, we have these categories for the same reason that a supermarket has different sections – so that consumers know what they’re getting, and it’s easy for them to find it. When you need milk, you go to the dairy section. If you want to find a book that is aimed at a 6-year-old, you go to that section.
I did say ‘aimed at’ – this is important. Even if your 10-year-old is incredibly advanced, books for 16-year-olds can deal with things like abusive relationships, drug use, sex, mental illness, through the lens of a teenager who may be experiencing it. Just because a 10-year-old can read it, that doesn’t mean that it’s appropriate for them. Books aimed at 10-year-olds can deal with the same issues, but it’s handled with that age group in mind.
There is a lot of work done to provide age-appropriate stories for teenagers who maybe aren’t as seasoned as readers – if you want to write a story for a reluctant or struggling reader, who’s aged 15, great!
Comparative titles
Comparative titles shouldn’t feel like homework. They’re telling us so much about how you see your book.
Agents hope to see that you haven’t written your book in a vacuum. The best writers are readers, so we would expect that you’re reading widely in that space. That you understand your audience and what they’re reading. That you know what’s doing well with that age group.
But I do have some tips to make it easier if you’re really struggling.
For a start, stake out a bookshop. See what’s on the tables – they’re normally more recent publications. Picking a title that’s relatively recent shows us you’re keeping up to date and want to stay informed on the market. Talk to the bookseller! Ask them what’s popular, what’s selling, what people are asking for.
For a second comparative title, you don’t have to choose a book. You can choose a TV show or movie that you really related to, as long as it’s aimed at (more or less) your target demographic.
You can also isolate the elements of a book that you think add to your pitch but maybe overall, it’s not the right fit. Think about things like writing style, setting or time period, dynamics or tropes in the main relationships. You can say that your manuscript combines an element from Book X with something else from TV show Y. Play around with it.
Does your book fill a gap in the market?
I want to be clear here that I’m not talking about writing something specifically to fill a gap. Write what you want to write, write what you love! But you can always pitch something in a way that suggests it’s filling a gap.
The best way to do that is not to be cocky or arrogant. Don’t tell us “no one is writing about this” or “there are no books addressing this”. But what you can do is say, “I think my book would be perfect for readers who are ready to graduate from X” or “readers who aren’t ready for Y” – if you can highlight in that sentence along that there isn’t a lot of material for readers who are ready to graduate from a certain series or brand, that’s a USP that strengthens your pitch. See if you can find a gap that your manuscript fills? For example, I see a lot of calls for more STEM-based stories nowadays. Does your manuscript have a STEM aspect that you can talk about? I would never suggest changing or writing something to fit a trend, but if there is a part of your manuscript that fills a gap, let us know. If your book is the perfect next step (often a step up in difficulty) from a popular book, you’re creating a place for yourself in the market.
Ultimately, we want you to love your book as much as you did when you first sent it to us. It’s our job to sell it, but if you and your agent aren’t on the same wavelength about what you’ve written, along the way someone gets let down. So we ask that you give us a good sense of the book you want us to expect, so that we can find the perfect home for it!
When she began her writing career in journalism, debut author Rebecca King never thought she'd end up as a published children's author.
After learning everything there is to know about writing and attending our Summer Festival, Rebecca was all set for authorial success. Her debut children's fantasy book, Ember Shadows and the Fates of Mount Never, was published in August 2022 by Hachette Children's Group. We had the pleasure of chatting with her about the publishing process and the most important things a children's author should bear in mind.
JW: Hi Rebecca! You began your writing career with a degree in Journalism, and worked for a short time as a journalist. What prompted the transition into fiction?
I loved working as a reporter and spent three years at a newspaper after university. But after a while, I had a feeling that things weren’t quite right, and I was desperate to take off and go travelling. I’ve always been an avid reader and I loved the idea of writing a book, but never knew where to start. Time spent traveling meant I was on trains, boats and planes a lot and with all that time, I thought I may as well give it a go and see what happened. To begin with, getting published felt like a bit of a ridiculous wish. After a while, it became something I desperately wanted to work towards, and knowing that drove a lot of my future decisions.
JW: What kinds of resources did you find useful whilst you were writing?
I’m a bit of a course addict and I love to research, so once I decided to write fiction, I looked for every single tool I could find! I started off by taking the Curtis Brown Course in Writing for Children, then did the Faber Academy course, and eventually got myself onto an MA in Creative Writing. But I have to say, so much of what I found useful came from reading in my genre, as well as from books such as Save the Cat. I listen to lots of podcasts such as The Honest Authors podcast, How Do You Write, Writer’s Routine, and Joined Up Writing. Another great resource is One Stop for Writers, created by the genius minds behind The Emotion Thesaurus.
To begin with, getting published felt like a bit of a ridiculous wish. After a while, it became something I desperately wanted to work towards, and knowing that drove a lot of my future decisions.
One of the things I recommend the most is Jericho Writers, as it gives you a bit of everything – community, expertise, webinars… and plenty more. If you can’t afford to join all year round or have other commitments, I recommend signing up for the Summer Festival of Writing. It’s jam-packed with workshops, Q&As, interviews and panels. The variety is so rich as well, and there’s something for everyone in each event. Even if it’s a workshop outside of your genre, I guarantee there will be something motivational or inspirational hidden within. Jericho also checked over my cover letter before I sent it out to agents, and this was such a confidence-booster – just what was needed before getting prepared for the inevitable rejection experience!
One of the things I recommend the most is Jericho Writers, as it gives you a bit of everything – community, expertise, webinars… and plenty more.
JW: You received three offers of representation at around the same time. How did you choose your agent?
I should start by saying that this was the third book I had submitted to agents, and I got a LOT of rejections. But yes, I was very lucky to get three offers from three incredible agents. I chose to go with Kate Shaw from The Shaw Agency for so many reasons, not least because her enthusiasm for my book was infectious. She’s exactly the kind of person you want championing your book, fighting your corner, and the person I wanted to be on the phone delivering both the good and bad news. As soon as I spoke with her, I knew there was no way I could say no to her. It still feels like such a privilege to be part of her author list among some of my favourite writers.
JW: Your book was published in August 2022 with Hachette – which is so exciting! What has the process of working with a large traditional publisher been like? Have there been any surprises?
It has been SO exciting! I think exciting is my most over-used word at the moment, and for that I feel very fortunate!
There have been plenty of pleasant surprises along the way. The first was discovering how much I love editing! I had been prepared for the worst, thinking that my editor might rip my book apart or make changes I couldn’t agree with, but I’ve been so lucky to have an incredible editor who just gets the book, and every suggestion she makes feels natural and logical. She really made Ember the best book it could be, and it continues to be so much fun working with her. I’m always learning from her notes and feel so fortunate to be working with her.
Ember Shadows and the Fates of Mount Never, Rebecca King
Another surprise was how many pinch-me-moments there have been along the way. As writers, we are so focused on that goal of finding an agent and getting a deal, I think we tend to lose sight of all the small victories that come with it. Moments like meeting your editor, going into the publisher’s office for the first time, learning that it’s going to be an audiobook… all these things were just dreams at one point, so it’s important to celebrate each and every one.
JW: What’s your best tip for writers working on children’s and middle-grade fiction? What are the most important elements to get right?
Something I’m still learning is how important it is to consider what your writing is saying. When I began writing, I was adamant that my books would be simply adventures - they were just for fun and I didn’t want to force a lesson into the excitement.
For me, it’s not about being didactic or bashing the reader over the head with a moral. It’s about showing characters grow and change naturally through their experiences.
I’ve quickly learnt how naïve that was! We all subconsciously imbue our work with our own values, morals, and opinions. Our writing is shaped by our opinions and experiences. Not only that, but a reader is experiencing your story through their own lens, shaped by their perspectives, opinions, and values. Each person can take something different from your story, and so, we have a responsibility as writers to really consider what message we want to get across.
For me, it’s not about being didactic or bashing the reader over the head with a moral. It’s about showing characters grow and change naturally through their experiences. I think we all want to continue growing and learning in life, so it’s important that we show our characters doing the same. Like us, our characters won’t get it right every time, so if we can imbue our work with positive messages and lessons of growth, there’s a chance our readers might be inspired to continue growing with them.
About Rebecca
Rebecca was born in Wolverhampton, but spent her childhood in a tiny village called Sound in Cheshire. She studied Journalism at the University of Portsmouth, and has worked as a reporter and a primary school teacher, including three years teaching in China.
She now lives in Bratislava, Slovakia, with her partner and her Chinese rescue dog, Mushu.
Sex in young adult literature is one of the topics with the most ‘hot takes’ you’ll ever find. From ‘It’s never appropriate!’ to ‘It’s always appropriate!’ this article will look at the tricky, sometimes controversial, issues involved, before I share some of my top tips for tackling sexual content in your own work.
Writing for Young Adults
Let’s start by defining what young adult literature encompasses. YA fiction will typically feature a protagonist between the ages of thirteen to eighteen, although increasingly they’re predominantly in their upper teens. The themes of young adult novels will correlate with the age and experience of the protagonists, mirroring adolescent concerns, motivations and inner thoughts. Young adult fiction is aimed at readers in a similar demographic to the protagonists, although some readers are younger (often eleven or twelve) and an estimated fifty per cent of YA books are actually bought by adults.
You might have already seen what the issue is here. At the lower end, YA fiction has readers who haven’t even started puberty yet. At the upper end, they’re heading off to university. That’s a huge gap in terms of experience and stage of life, and what might be right (and entertaining) for a seventeen year-old reader might not be for a thirteen year-old.
While not everyone has sex, and not every book needs to include sexual content, to not sometimes include it when writing teen characters feels like a glaring omission. Yet what’s acceptable varies from publisher to publisher. When my debut Noah Can’t Even was on submission, some agents and publishers couldn’t get their heads around the fact it featured a fifteen year-old boy who… wait for it… masturbated. Something that is normal and commonplace for a teenage boy was too much for some gatekeepers in the industry – even against the backdrop of popular publishing ‘buzz phrases’ about how authenticity is important, and teens need to see their lives on the page.
The inclusion of sexual content can also make some schools and libraries nervous, especially if they come under pressure from parents or campaign groups - the recent challenge to Lev Rosen’s Jack of Hearts in a Texas library being a prime example. Meanwhile, some parents are blissfully unaware of the sexual content their children are accessing online, but weirdly furious about content that is far less explicit appearing in written form. When you also factor in religious and cultural sensibilities, it’s a minefield.
Can You Write Sex in YA?
Of course you can! With YA books, you’re striving to be authentic to the teen experience, and whether they’re thinking about it, just curious, or doing it, that experience often includes sex.
Before we look at how, it’s important to address the use of the word ‘appropriate’, which regularly crops up in these discussions, and which often masks what someone’s real objection is – namely the inclusion of LGBTQ+ storylines.
“I don’t want my child reading about same sex relationships - it’s not appropriate,” goes the refrain. For other people, no mention of sex will ever be ‘appropriate’, and these people will also typically withdraw their children from sex education classes too.
So, let’s be clear: not discussing these things, not being open and honest, but living in shame, fear and ignorance –those are the things that hurt people. We shouldn’t, as creators, shy away from giving young people the tools they need to help them make safe, informed choices. Some young people can’t access that information easily elsewhere. Maybe home isn’t a supportive environment. Perhaps school sex ed. is lacking. This is so often the experience of LGBTQ+ teens, but it also applies to many other situations young people find themselves in. For me, this is why this subject is so important, and why, while accepting I have to tow the publishing line to an extent, I’ll always fight to include realistic portrayals of teen sexuality in my books.
So, rather than talking about appropriateness, let’s frame this in terms of how much is too much for this age group and their gatekeepers. After all, you want to get published at the end of the day, and a novel containing a hundred pages of overt erotica probably isn’t going to make the cut. However, a storyline featuring teenagers having sex, if described sensitively, will often be deemed acceptable. While there are a few exceptions (Doing It by Melvin Burgess springs to mind) the issue of how explicit you can be is usually the key factor here, and it’s probably the biggest thing that separates YA from adult fiction in terms of writing about sex. While it’s undoubtedly a constraint, you can also use it to your advantage.
How to Write Sex in YA
Keep it real. Remember that teenage sexual encounters are often awkward. Conveying this fumbling, nerve-wracking inexperience is important, not just for authenticity, but because many young people use literature as an information source. While porn is overblown, Hollywood is rose-tinted, and the internet is awash with misinformation, YA fiction can be a safe and reassuring place for teenagers looking for realistic portrayals of sex.
This is one reason why explicit material isn’t always helpful, but also why it isn’t necessary – realism is more valuable to the readership than titillation, addressing issues of consent, shame, and safe practices, while giving young people the understanding and language to discuss and explore their own sexual experiences. The best writers do this without it ever being didactic, of course – Lev Rosen, William Hussey, Juno Dawson and Holly Bourne being just a few cases in point.
Don’t Overdo It
It’s important not to include sex scenes gratuitously – they need to work within the narrative and support the story. In many YA novels, such scenes may well be the culmination of a romance plot running the entire length of the story. In others, like Lev Rosen’s Jack of Hearts, the content may feature throughout as it’s a key facet of the plot. In the former case, the scenes work because they’re deeply connected with the emotional journey of the characters, so they feel like a natural progression. In the latter, Rosen ensures all his scenes emerge organically from the plot, providing information and a realistic portrayal – a type of sex education, if you like – which is refreshingly upfront without ever feeling gratuitous.
Be Subtle and Sensitive
Less can sometimes be more. Writing good sex scenes is incredibly difficult, and you don’t want to stray into cringe territory. In some cases, leaving exact details to the imagination is your best bet, but regardless, be mindful of anything too explicit, especially in books targeted towards the younger end of the market.
Be sensitive to some of your readers’ lack of experience – something that’s too hardcore might not engage your teen reader as much as something that introduces them to the topic a little more gently. Subtle can also make for a pleasing shared joke, which can break the ice when it comes to discussing themes of a sexual nature, which some readers might find awkward.
A brilliant example of this:
Read the whole of Sex and Reproduction in bed last night. Woke up to find that a few hundred million sperm had leaked out. Still, it will give the remaining sperm room to wag their tails about a bit.
Sue Townsend’sAdrian Mole
Use Appropriate Language
Be aware that your choice of language can have a huge impact on what gatekeepers consider suitable for their young charges. While you need to make sure your voice is authentic for a YA novel, (and you need to use language familiar to teens) an over reliance on slang and swear words in a sex scene may have the consequence of making it read more crassly and being perceived as more explicit.
What if it’s Us? by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera has some good examples of getting this right, where the sexual scenes never read as explicit.
Remember Emotions
Don’t forget the avalanche of feelings that run through a teen’s head during sex scenes – especially if it’s their first time. Spotlighting these internal thoughts can be a very effective way of conveying the scene, rather than focusing too much on physicality and mechanics. It will also resonate with many of the fears and concerns your target readership will have – Is this right? Are they ready?
Anticipation is Exciting
Anyone familiar with thriller or horror writing knows that there’s as much fun to be had in the build-up and anticipation of something happening, as the event itself. The same can be true of sex scenes. If you get the connection right between your characters, your reader will be willing them together - ‘shipping them’ as the kids say - and doing a lot of the work for you in the process. Sometimes, they’ll then go away and write fan fiction featuring the type of material you weren’t allowed to include, in a sex scene that will make your eyes water.
Funny and Awkward is Good
Humour can be a very effective tool for sex scenes. Sex can be built up into such a huge ‘make or break’ momentous occasion, thanks to the proliferation of that attitude in popular culture. So, why not turn that idea on its head and take a lighter approach? Teens will probably thank you for being honest about the messy, embarrassing, awkward side of it, rather than what the movies and porn tell us it should be.
Lobsters by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison is great at using humour to convey some of the most real sexual scenes I’ve ever read, and Editing Emma by Chloe Seager is definitely worth a look too.
Know Your Age Group, Trust Your Reader, and Trust Librarians
If your story is aimed at younger teens, ensure the content you include is right for them. Many books are listed as being ‘Suitable for 12+’ or ‘14+’ and while age banding is a blunt tool, it does mean readers, and gatekeepers, have less cause for complaint when they encounter sexual content. While your book may be picked up by younger readers, in my experience teens are good at knowing whether a book is right for them, and will often abandon one that isn’t. Children mature at vastly different rates and it’s impossible to account for that. Meanwhile, all the school librarians I know are experts at knowing what book is right for which student at which time.
There's No Formula...
There are myriad challenges when writing sex scenes in young adult fiction and there’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution when including this sort of content. The needs, experiences, and maturity levels of YA readers are so vastly different, you won’t ever tick the right boxes for everyone.
However, sex scenes are an authentic and valuable part of YA stories, and by ensuring your portrayals are sensitive, and emerge out of plot and character you can create something highly effective, rewarding for you as a writer, and truly appreciated by your teen audience.
We're thrilled to be offering another round of the Writing for Children course with Eleanor Hawken. The course is six weeks long and is perfect for beginners, lovers of children’s books and for those with a passion for storytelling.
Florence Gladwell, a student on the inaugural course, shared her experience with us.
(Image: @nickmorrison on Unsplash)
Writing For Children With Eleanor Hawken
If I were to sum up my experience of Jericho’s Writing for Children course with Eleanor Hawken, I would say:
I’m so glad I did and I’m confident of what to do next. And because of the tutor guidance, frequent quality critique, and encouragement within the group, I really want to do it again!
Early Expectations
I was excited from the day I enrolled. I had a clear set of expectations for myself and from the course. For myself, I wanted to grow the pocketful of ideas I had been carrying around and focus on developing them into a fun, gripping, and marketable story. Another major driver was to get more experience in exchanging critique with people who were interested in writing for kids.
From the course I expected everything that was advertised – weekly tutorials; peer-exchange and video meet-ups; covering the ins and outs of the children’s book industry; selecting an appealing narrative voice for different ages; building rounded characters with distinctive voices; creating dramatic tension; establishing a workable plot; as well as making sure to nail the ending.
It was a full-on six weeks, to say the least, and I absolutely loved every minute - even if my young daughter sometimes had to nag me to get off the computer.
Delightful Surprises
What I hadn’t expected was how great it would be to have a diverse range of stories, voices, and skill sets all bouncing off one another. Our group had people working on everything from picture books to YA, contemporary to fantasy, first person to third person with multiple POV, and some beautiful lyrical prose to contrast others with a more tightly-paced style of writing.
Although many of the group commenced the course with fully-formed ideas, completed first drafts, and in some cases, well-advanced manuscripts, I did not. This is because after finding no takers for my first manuscript (a middle-grade fantasy adventure), then seeking feedback from Jericho’s manuscript assessors, I decided to let it go and start again. This was a lot easier than I imagined. I had realised the story’s core wasn’t good enough, and this time I was already starting to understand so much more about myself, the industry, and what I really wanted to write.
"What I hadn’t expected was how great it would be to have a diverse range of stories, voices, and skill sets all bouncing off one another."
At this stage, a course where I could develop an idea with some guidance and feedback sounded perfect. And then one day an email came from Jericho Writers, offering me just that.
The Nitty-Gritty: How My Ideas Developed Through the Six Week Course
Week one: Our homework was to write a brief pitch, such as you might send to an agent. This isn’t easy for anyone. Even our most progressed group members struggled. But with exchanges of feedback and Eleanor’s keen eye, I managed to find a pitch I was really happy with. Now there was just the small task of living up to it.
Week two: The exercise involved outlining a simple plot. Again, 'simple' does not mean easy. This was a big concept to turn around in a few days, but I cobbled something together and submitted it. I was relieved to find I wasn’t miles behind many of those with a first draft. After the group helped me express my ideas more clearly, Eleanor really hit the nail on the head when she explained what made my proposed story special and what it lacked. The worst of it was, my proposal didn’t live up to the pitch. For the time being, I let my ideas marinate – but we’ll get back to that later.
"After the group helped me express my ideas more clearly, Eleanor really hit the nail on the head when she explained what made my proposed story special and what it lacked."
Week three: We had our first chance to share the first five hundred words of our writing. This is when I discovered how different all our writing styles and voices were. Though distinct, some voices - like mine - were still emerging, while others were well-developed and confident. It was inspiring. I wasn’t the only person to submit multiple edits following critique from a very encouraging group, and the final offering was much better for it.
Week four: We were able to share any scene from our story which showcased characterisation. As I went away with my family during this time, I wasn’t able to make use of the group’s feedback to edit. But as it was, most comments were on the things I already suspected weren’t clear enough, while Eleanor’s notes made me completely re-evaluate the relationship of my characters. This fed a lot into how I redeveloped the plot.
Week five: This week was all about creating dramatic tension, and Eleanor gave us the option to either submit a scene of our choice or write a scene about the main character entering their bedroom. There were many variations on this theme offered up in the homework as others adapted the exercise to suit their stories. As I didn’t have a settled plot yet, I took the task requirements and built a scene which (with some editing) I think could very likely end up in my final manuscript. Brilliant. Plus, the feedback from the group gave me a lot to think about.
"Eleanor’s notes made me completely re-evaluate the relationship of my characters. This fed a lot into how I redeveloped the plot."
Week six was supposed to be about endings. But as I mentioned earlier, I had not settled on a plot, and I was having a crisis of POV to boot. I had cheated in all the previous weeks, finding scenes in the first quarter of the story which I was pretty sure would remain the same. But an ending required me to make some decisions. Fortunately I had now been arranging and rearranging plot ideas in my head for five weeks, and I was ready to write something down. So instead of submitting a passage of writing from the end, I resubmitted a plot and five hundred words from a slightly adjusted beginning passage using a new POV. The POV change was hard, but I really wanted it so I could better tell the story as I now imagined it. With some absolutely amazing feedback and encouragement from the group, along with a few rounds of shared edits, I got somewhere that felt right. Even better – it lived up to my pitch
In just six weeks, I had found my story.
Expectations Exceeded
I put a lot into this course, but I got so much more out of it than I expected. I am grateful I had the opportunity, and feel privileged to have been able to experience it with such a great group of people.
If you’re interested in writing for children and are looking for a course to progress your skills and story ideas, I can highly recommend this one. Thanks again Eleanor!
About Florence
Florence Gladwell is an aspiring writer from Australia and mother of one adorable but rascally pre-schooler, who charmed the course participants by drawing pictures for them based on passages they submitted as homework.
If you would like to say hello to Florence or ask anything else about how she found the course, you can find her on Twitter @FlorenceGladwe1
About Eleanor Hawken
Eleanor is the published author of nine children’s books, which include the Sammy Feral’s Diaries of Weird series. She has also written numerous books and novels under pseudonyms and as a writer-for-hire for licensed brands such as Disney, Warner Brothers and Universal. Eleanor is an experienced children’s fiction editor, having worked in the publishing industry for over 15 years. She has worked on a wide range of books from young fiction through to YA. She has a passion for storytelling, children’s books and helping other writers find their narrative voice and navigate the path to publication. For more on Eleanor, see her website or Twitter.
For more information on the Writing for Children course and how to apply, just click the button below:
Something to be conscious of as a fiction writer is the market for which you write. Young Adult (or YA) fiction isn’t a genre, but it’s a defined label in publishing, typically considered for readers aged 12-18, and those who are coming of age, though this too is fluid.
Since the publication of titles like J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, YA is a term you need to know if you’re writing fiction for young adults, and want to convince literary agents and publishers that you can do it well.
The most important thing is to always read debuts in your genre, and for the age you’d like to write for. These are the books publishers are looking for.
Whilst it’s true publishing trends will always shift, books read by your ideal ‘audience’ are evidently the books they enjoy, so it pays (literally) to be conscious of them.
Read on for our top tips on how to write a YA novel and learn about the market for this age group.
Step 1: Write Your Own Trendsetter
It pays to be aware of trends in young adult literature and the market, if only so you can buck them a little.
This is a balance, however.
Readers of The Bookseller can see regular updates on new UK book deals, and every spring, may espy annual coverage of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, with ample talk and speculation of what’s hot and selling as foreign printing rights are bought and sold. There will always guaranteed be a sentence or two on trends, on what publishers of Middle Grade or Young Adult books are hunting for.
It’s as well to be conscious of trends, but what’s trendy will soon be outdated. If you’re still writing, a hot topic now could be obsolete by the time you’ve finished your novel.
Trends move fast, and a single book can also change things.
Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight happened to be a YA phenomenon, but the ensuing paranormal romances ‘competing’ for attention with Twilight blurred a little into one another, even as the tide continued and anticipated the rise of dystopian fiction, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, James Dashner’s The Maze Runner, and so on.
The lesson of all this is to try and present an idea (even an old idea) authentically. Vampires have been written about before and Bram Stoker’s titular Dracula preying upon Lucy Westenra laid the founding of an established trope. Twilight just happened to hit a certain chord for its readership and this at once predicated and, in so doing, slightly nullified its trend.
So be careful and cautious of trends, since these can be a double-edged sword. Trends are transient, they escalate and subsist again.
Whilst it pays to know your audience and what’s in the bookshops, to be conscious of the books teenagers are drawn to and reflect on why this is the case, bear in mind trendsetter-novels aren’t necessarily the books you want to compete with. Satiated trends mean a saturated book market (for the time being).
Even if you’re ahead of the bookshops, trying to keep up with publishing news and new book deals, what you know now won’t be the thing your writing can keep up with.
You’ll need to write your own trendsetter.
Step 2: Read, Read, Read YA Fiction
That said, read around and shop as much as you can for YA fiction, obvious or intuitive as this may sound. Your novel can’t exist in a vacuum. It’s no good disregarding what your audience is reading now, so know YA books to know your audience.
You’ll need to write in this subtle tension, conscious of taste in YA, of past commercial successes, making your novel similar enough and yet entirely original. You must create a book that fits into the market.
Read around the sort of thing already out there you’d like to write, too. It’s not that vampire-human romances hadn’t been written about before Stephenie Meyer’s Bella and Edward. It’s not that Greek gods hadn’t been written about before Percy Jackson and the Olympians from Rick Riordan. It’s been observed how similar J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of being a Wallflower are, etc.
You’ll want your book to fit with a canon of similar stories, without just writing ‘copies’ of things done before.
YA novels like Beauty by Robin McKinley, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas or Uprooted by Naomi Novik share links to Beauty and the Beast, but each of those books is still unique. The same is true of books like Ash by Malinda Lo or Cinder by Marissa Meyer, with ties to Cinderella.
It’s just that an old idea was reworked by an author in new ways.
So learn what teenagers like, then read what they like. (If you’re not sure, look up book blogs like The Mile-Long Bookshelf.) How does your novel compare to the YA books you’ve found? How do you feel your own work will be judged?
It’s also worth noting that it pays to read contemporary YA fiction. Classical lyricism and verbosity needn’t concern you so much as writing a resonant, gripping story to hook modern readers.
There have been various game-changers in fiction-publishing for young people. Melvin Burgess’ Junk (or Smack in the US) was one. The book won the Carnegie Prize and Guardian Children’s Fiction Award in the UK in 1996. Whilst its subject (heroin addiction) caused ripples of shock, Junk paved the way to an increasingly mandatory style of authentic, honest, raw writing that’s now commonplace in YA publishing.
The success of Junk among its readers, with its prize-winning status, changed perceptions and sent publishers a message.
What’s needed in successful YA fiction is resonant, emotional experience teenage readers can connect with.
Step 3: Know Your Subject (And Write Sensitively About It)
If you’re also thinking of writing a young adult novel on a possibly more controversial topic, explore sensitively and with all due research. Don’t just write to shock. Write to be poignant, and so to connect.
The Fault in our Stars by John Green caused a stir when it was accused of being ‘sick lit’ (a pair of terminally ill teenagers fall in love). Whilst its subject seemed to ‘shock’ some adults, its poignancy that so stirred readers nullifies these sorts of ‘grown-up’ objections.
Who cares?
The Fault in our Stars isn’t a shocking novel. It’s a moving one. It’s been adapted for film, its catch-lines passing into contemporary language via its readership. (‘Okay?’ ‘Okay.’)
Melvin Burgess has shared how his novel Junk, about teenage drug addiction, has been life-changing for some teenage readers, but it’s important to note Melvin Burgess knew his setting. He knew these emotional landscapes.
More recently, Lisa Williamson wrote a resonant transgender protagonist in her YA novel The Art of Being Normal, though she herself is cisgender, but she’s spent time working for the UK’s Gender Identity Development Service. She brought her experiences to her writing.
Bear in mind, though, LGBT+ is not its own separate genre or subgenre, nor should fiction be defined by country or ethnicity, as still per some bookstores.
Patrick Ness’ novel More than This features protagonist Seth, who is gay, but this is incidental to its main plot and it’s okay for this to be the case. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell is a high-school love story between a Korean boy and an American girl, and sometimes it need only be this simple.
“Why is Park Korean?” The first time I was asked that question, three or four months ago, I had a pretty short answer: “Because Park is Korean.” … Because Park was always Korean. Because I think there should be more Asian-American characters in YA, especially boys. (And also more chubby girls.) Because it’s up to people like me, who write, to write them.
Only by writing sensitively and incidentally can writers help make sure all sorts of characters become unquestioned players of mainstream fiction, not sectioned by ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability or anything else.
Everyone, everything, should be mainstream, especially in YA and new adult publishing.
Teenagers, who will be faster than adults to question norms and pick up on injustices, should be catered to in the novels they read and not be defrauded in this respect.
Appreciate and accommodate for diversity in your own YA writing.
It’s good also to have first-hand experience of what you’re writing, but if not, the importance of empathy and careful research to create an authentic emotional experience can’t be stressed enough.
Step 4: Know Your Audience (And Keep Prose Authentic)
This is important. You must know your audience. You can’t write about living in a teenage character’s shoes unless you know teenagers well. If you can’t remember or don’t care, find someone else to write about and to.
YA readers will be looking for experiences outside their own, looking for ways to challenge and break rules, and will be (strongly) averse to feeling patronised or educated in fiction. Write about being a teenager, and never write to educate.
Again – to best do this, read and read up on YA novels that are doing well.
Respecting ‘voice’, too, author Joan Aiken has also observed adolescents are ‘lightning-quick to spot hypocrisy or artificiality’. Never patronise and never attempt a ‘coolness’ that can’t sound organic, at home and natural in your first-person narratives.
An inauthentic teenage voice will destroy your book before it ever reaches a literary agent. This offers a good reason YA fiction should be taken seriously.
A manuscript assessment can also certainly give you invaluable editorial feedback with insights into the commercial perspective that drives YA publishing, and to harness your own voice in a way that sounds both raw and compelling in YA fiction.
From Allan Ahlberg to Dr Seuss, picture books matter because they create the foundations of a child’s reading life – and you never know what a difference your own book could make.
Once upon a bicycle, so they say, a jolly postman came one day, from over the hills and far away.
Or:
I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am!
Or:
Silly old Fox, doesn’t he know, there’s no such thing as a Gruffalo.
These are just a few of the all-time classics, quotes that stick in your head long after you've stopped reading the books yourself only to come back around when you hear them read to children later in life or even read them yourself to your kids.
As such, there’s a timelessness to children’s picture books, which makes them great to write – and a picture book draft is a draft like no other.
Read on for valuable tips on how to create a picture book that children will love for generations to come.
Tip #1: Write Memorable Characters
A sure-fire way to delight children of all ages is to populate your book with joyful characters like the Enormous Crocodile, Winnie the Witch, the Highway Rat, Sam-I-Am, Sir Charlie Stinky Socks, or Spot the Dog.
Start by asking yourself if there's an animal or idea you feel an affinity for. Then, start to create connections from there!
Let’s say you’ll write about a puppy. Maybe from there you’ll think up a chewed-up toy he’s attached to. Or a child (maybe his owner) he wants to follow to school. There’s all sorts of links to be mind-mapping from this.
Sometimes, a simpler story is what works best, too. An enormous crocodile who wants a child for dinner (The Enormous Crocodile). A postman delivering letters to the Big Bad Wolf, to the Witch, to Baby Bear, Goldilocks and Cinderella (The Jolly Postman). Aliens who come to earth to wear underpants (Aliens Love Underpants).
Also, who will meet who? The jolly Postman meets fairy tale characters. Max meets the Wild Things (Where the Wild Things are). Jemima Puddle-Duck meets a fox (The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck). Mouse meets Gruffalo (The Gruffalo). The very hungry Caterpillar meets chocolate cake, ice-cream cones, pickles and cheese (The Very Hungry Caterpillar).
Most children remember iconic characters like the Cat in the Hat as they grow up, long after all the rhythmic intricacies have faded from mind (vital as these are; much as the rhymes of Dr Seuss or Julia Donaldson linger with us, too).
Try to give your characters a quirk – a Cat with a hat, Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit with his blue jacket, Aliens who love (and wear) Underpants, or the more unusual fairy tale characters from Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes.
Create vivid characters to linger in children’s minds, whom they’ll want to return to.
Tip #2: Repetition
Speaking of returning, repetition might be discouraged in fiction writing -- but not in picture books. Repetition is a source of huge fun and suspense for children, reeling in attention and building anticipation.
In Funny Bones, for example, Allan Ahlberg opens the story with relish:
In a dark, dark town there was a dark, dark street, and in the dark, dark street there was a dark, dark house, and in the dark, dark house there were some dark, dark stairs, and down the dark, dark stairs there was a dark, dark cellar, and in the dark, dark cellar … three skeletons lived!
By the time we get to those skeletons, we’re very ready to meet them and spend time with them!
In The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, a caterpillar gets hungrier and hungrier. Each day, ‘he was still hungry’. We’re told (and want to know) about his increasing amount of foods and what’s eaten each day, until the caterpillar gets stomach ache.
There’s a rhythmic quality to repetition, too, e.g. descriptions in The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson, where the Gruffalo, in Mouse’s descriptions, has ‘terrible tusks and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws’. Later he has ‘knobbly knees, and turned-out toes, and a poisonous wart at the end of his nose’.
After the build-up, it’s an exciting moment when we and Mouse get face-to-face with the Gruffalo in the woods.
Tip #3: Strong Beginnings And Fun Endings
It's true for any kind of writing, but with children it's even more-so: if you don't grab the reader right away, they're gone. So be sure that your beginning comes out of the gate strong and exciting, giving a sense of the story and the character and the world all in a few lines.
And then, when you get to the ending, keep in mind that kids are smarter than they get credit for. Don't be afraid of a surprise ending, something that might make them (or their parents) laugh -- because that positive last experience will be the thing that keeps bringing them back to your book over and over again.
Tip #4: Rhyme And Rhythm
Rhyming in picture books means additional care and work – and you can still create wonderful rhythm in prose without rhyme – yet rhyme is still worth exploring if you’re confident or just passionate about doing this.
If poetry is something you're familiar with, crack on! If it's new to you, let's take a moment to explore:
The most common rhyme style, the one Shakespeare often used, is called 'iambic pentameter' -- a line of ten syllables, alternating stressed and unstressed. Think about the sound of a human heart and you've got it:
Da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM.
That’s all it takes! Ten syllables or five iambic 'feet' to create your framework. There are other forms of poetic styles you could also try writing, and Stephen Fry’s The Ode Less Travelled is a good book to invest in if you’re keen to be exploring this. You may also like to invest in a copy of The Poet’s Manual and Rhyming Dictionary to help you.
Children’s publisher Nosy Crow has written a great blog post on rhyming in children’s books, well worth a read, too.
Tip #5: Writing A Good Baddie
Not every story needs a villain, but if you're thinking about a story that includes one, the best way to write ‘baddies’ and darker elements in picture books is to make these elements comic. Take the scariness out so that children laugh instead.
For example, Roald Dahl’s comic gift lies in the mischief of books like The Enormous Crocodile, about a thwarted crocodile looking for a yummy child to eat (before he’s smacked into the sun). Dahl’s crocodile is only funny because he's painted as an object of fun. The rest of the jungle hates him, and after the crocodile finds the children, jungle animals appear in turn to warn them to look out. Finally, the elephant hurls the crocodile by his tail up into the sky – where he’s ‘sizzled up like a sausage’.
A similar thing happens when the Mouse makes the scary Gruffalo convinced he’s the monster, and ‘now my tummy’s beginning to rumble – my favourite food is – Gruffalo Crumble!' -- and off the Gruffalo runs.
Don’t Eat the Teacher by Nick Ward is also hilarious, even if it wouldn’t very funny in real life. Sammy the Shark happily eats everything on his first day of school because he’s so excited, which translates into hilarity.
Skeletons (Funny Bones), witches (Winnie the Witch), monsters (Where the Wild Things are), or vampires and werewolves (Well, I Never!) are absolutely ‘writable’ in picture books. Just remember to translate that darkness into something funny and silly. You need to make your readers laugh.
Tip #6: Thinking About Illustration
Are you wondering if you need to illustrate your own picture book?
A picture book is often a collaborative book between writer and illustrator. Sometimes writers are also illustrators, like Maurice Sendak -- but often, we think of the great duos like Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake, or Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.
If you can't draw a lick, don't worry! You don't always need an illustrator to write your picture book, and a good publisher can match you to the right artist for bringing your story to life.
Keep in mind that you should keep the in-text descriptions sparse where you know pictures will be conveying details, too. A reasonable word limit for your picture book should be about 700 words – but that should be enough to give illustrators an idea of what they need to depict.
Tip #7: Read It Aloud
Whether you're writing in rhyme or not, you should read your work aloud as you're working on it! After all, most children's books are read aloud at one point or another -- by parents, by teachers, by librarians, even by precocious children themselves -- and you'll know when you read it what's working and what's not.
If you have them available, it's worth it to read other picture books as well. Consider it market research: you'll get a sense of what works to you, what excites your ear -- and if your inner child is into your work just like it was into Dr. Seuss or Maurice Sendak (or whomever else!), then you're on the right path for sure.
Happy writing!! If you're looking for a bit more support, consider our guide to writing children's books. If you’re further along than that, and in need of editorial feedback for your picture book, you’ve come to the right place, too. We can't wait to read your tale (aloud)!
How aware are you of the market you’re writing for? Despite the MG label being reserved for readers aged 8-12, defining Middle Grade literature is tricky.
Many young gifted readers will move out of picture books and onto Middle Grade fiction before aged 8. Other readers aged 12 or older still happily peruse Middle Grade books.
This is no ‘one size fits all’ age group. (Just as for adults, there’s no ‘correct’ genre, only taste.) Books are all being tested, tried out, at Middle Grade. This outlines some things worth remembering if you’d like to write for the loose label of this age range and find out more about the world of Middle Grade fiction publishing.
1: Read All The Middle Grade Fiction You Can – And Make Sure It’s Relevant
Read the popular fiction you know is being read now by this age group.
Perhaps you’ve heard of L.M. Montgomery or Lewis Carroll, Anne of Green Gables or Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but have you heard of Jeff Kinney, author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Katherine Rundell, author of Rooftoppers, or R.J. Palacio, author of Wonder?
If not, and you want to write for MG readers, start learning these popular authors writing in the market today. Begin reading their books, especially, the sorts of books you’d like to be writing yourself.
Children aren’t hypocrites, and they won’t wait for pace to pick up or give a book a chance if they’re not gripped immediately. Agents, librarians, and Middle grade fiction publishers – the curators and ‘gatekeepers’ of children’s’ fiction – will be thinking along these lines.
You’ll need to know what books prospective readers are reading, so understand these titles to understand your audience. Popular books are reflective of tastes. What common themes are there? Which characters seem to appeal, and which common elements do you sense are enjoyed, and which could you emulate yourself?
You’ll need your novel similar enough and yet entirely original. You must create a book that fits into the market, but is different enough to pique readers’ curiosities.
There are many books published about animals, for instance, like The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo, or The River Singers by Tom Moorhouse.
There are many books about dragons, like Eragon by Christopher Paolini, Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke, How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell, or The Dragons of Kilve Court by Beth Webb, to name a few more.
If you are writing a book about dragons, animals, or anything else, how will you differentiate your story and make it authentic, whilst still similarly appealing to all these books readers enjoy?
It’s a difficult balance to find, but reading currently popular Middle Grade titles will help.
2: Engage With Complexity
Certain tropes – animal stories, fairy stories – will likely hold appeal always and be revisited by authors and publishers time and again. All the same, don’t take this to feel that anything will do, or that writing for children is easier than writing for adults. It isn’t.
As Joan Aiken, author of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, has said, a good children’s book ‘should not be perfunctory, meaningless, flat.’ Again, reading and developing your awareness of the market is key. Look for richness.
Whilst some children will always be more sensitive than others, most can handle the thrills and scares of Middle Grade fiction. Yours aren’t picture book readers, where any darker elements need to be sillier, funnier for very small children to read about.
The success of books like Lauren Oliver’s Liesl and Po, or Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book shows that MG readers are often braver than adults may credit. In Liesl and Po, Liesl is held captive in her attic room, whilst The Graveyard Book’s macabre premise is set chiefly in a cemetery and about an orphan raised by ghosts, yet is still moving and punctured with hilarity.
You’ll need to (gently) indicate to these children the world isn’t simplistic. Your readers are flexing and growing their imaginations.
Jacqueline Wilson is just one writer exploring children’s issues sensitively through the eyes of her characters; like Andy facing parents’ divorce in The Suitcase Kid, Mandy facing bullies in Bad Girls, or Tracey facing foster care in The Story of Tracey Beaker. The voices of her protagonists are authentic, her stories never condescending.
‘If I write about a problem, I’d like to find some solutions,’ Wilson has said of her fiction. She shares hope.
There’s no need to worry you’ll be dampening moods by engaging with complexity, either. You might be writing the book someone needs. Children look for literature tying in with their experiences, as well as exploring new experiences outside their own. A book could just help change a life.
Alternatively, engage in pure, unbridled imagination to enhance and help build children’s imaginative faculties, like Haroun leaving this world on the back of a mechanical bird in Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, or Colin Meloy’s Prue and Curtis discovering Wildwood.
Whatever you write, you should always find means to convey that the world is a sprawling, dark and complex place. Children are growing, but they’re tough, sharper than some adults allow, and this audience mustn’t be underestimated.
3: Leave Room For Diversity
Whilst there are topics which might not be appropriate for younger children, there’s no need to render books didactic, and many things are writable for younger audiences if they’re written with grace and deftness.
Again, to have an idea of what this deftness may look like, you’ll have to read around.
Read David Walliams’ The Boy in the Dress, Donna Gephart’s Lily and Dunkin, or The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman. Children needn’t grow up with adult prejudices, biases that perhaps otherwise wouldn’t occur to them. Another means of handling issues, of course, is to dress them up in fantasy.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets are the only clear Middle Grade titles of J.K. Rowling’s series. The series, from an early point, has helped increase tolerance in young readers, dealing frequently with the stigmas attached unfairly to groups (i.e. to Muggles, and to house-elves in the case of Dobby and the Malfoys).
These themes are implicit early on, unpacked later; but at the close of the second book, Harry has compassion on Dobby, rescuing him with ‘clothes’.
Stories can therefore lay the foundations of empathy and acceptance in the real world – and this is a big thought.
You have some responsibility as a writer. Beware overt morals, beware didacticism, and write a story with implicit themes that explores, questions, shines a light and encourages contemplation. (Yes, they’re young. They can handle it.)
4: Remember What Children Are Reading For
Know your audience. You can’t write about living in a child’s shoes unless you know or can remember well. If you can’t remember or don’t care, find someone else to write for.
Middle Grade readers are reading to explore, to flex imagination, and to discover the world. They’ll be open to new worlds and dynamic characters, to hilarity and thrills, adventure and enchantment. Write to appease these traits and to open minds (as opposed to informing them, unless you’re writing non-fiction, which is very different).
If you need more advice on your novel, a manuscript assessment can give you invaluable feedback with insights into commercial perspective driving Middle Grade publishing. It’ll help you harness your own voice in a way that sounds both raw and compelling in Middle Grade fiction.
Or for more encouragement and inspiration, take a look at more free advice.
There are some people who will tell you that writing a children’s book is really easy. I mean – they’re shorter than books for adults, right?
Wrong. Writing children's books is actually a lot harder than it looks! In this article I will be explaining what it takes to write great children's books, how to avoid classic mistakes and how to get your book published.
How To Write A Children’s Book In 10 Steps:
Know the children’s book market
Read contemporary children’s books
Have a unique idea
Create relatable characters
Plot using character arcs
Find a captivating voice
Use settings and experiences kids recognise
Write and re-write!
Avoid classic mistakes all new writers make
Get an agent
Writing books for children isn’t an easy alternative to writing a long adult novel - in fact writing a book in fewer words is harder than churning out a lengthy tome. There are a whole host of new things you have to consider when writing for children that wouldn’t cross the mind of an adult novelist.
How do I know? Well, I’ve been writing books for children and young adults since I was just a kid myself. When I began, I thought it was going to be easy, too. Three dead books, over fifty rejections and fourteen years later – I realised that it was a whole lot harder than it looks.
Writing Your First Children's Book
Sometimes, in the world of writing, you need to stop. Take a deep breath. And change tactics. And that's exactly what I did.
Instead of giving up after so many set backs I sat down and I followed a set of rules to write a book for Young Adults called ‘Outside’. I sent it to an agent, who offered me representation within forty-four minutes of receiving it. And in January 2019, it was published in the UK by Penguin.
Writing for children is hard. But you’ve got this. And this blog is going to tell you exactly what you need to write a book that children (and publishers) will love.
And even though it’s going to be a difficult ride, I think you’re secretly going to love every minute of it – just like I did.
So, where do you start?
1. Know The Children’s Book Market
‘Children’ isn’t a very defined audience.
Within that category, you have babies and toddlers (board books and picture books), young children (early reader, chapter books, and middle grade), all the way through to teenagers - from those starting secondary school to those about to leave for university (teen and young adult books).
Children’s books are as rich and diverse as children themselves, so it’s absolutely essential that you know exactly what kind of children you are writing for.
The market tends to shift every few years, but in general, the categories within children’s books look a bit like this:
Picture Books (0 – 5 years) Between 300 – 1000 words, depending on who the book is aimed at (babies 300, toddlers 500, pre-schoolers 1000).
Early Readers (5 – 7 years) Less than 10,000 words. These books can be illustrated and are divided up into chapters.
Lower Middle Grade (7 – 9 years) Between 10,000 – 30,000, depending on the reading age they are best suited for. The lower the reading age, the lower the word count.
Middle Grade (9 – 11 years) Between 30,000 and 60,000. There is a bit more room in Middle Grade to push the boundaries of wordcount and theme, within reason.
Teen (12+ years) Usually around 60,000, but there are books in this category as low as 40,000 and as high as 90,000!
YA / Crossover (14+ years) Over 60,000 words. Fantasy books in this category can push the wordcount to more like 90,000, but usually around 60,000 – 70,000 is the magic number.
As you can see, books for younger children are much shorter. To write picture books, you don’t have to rhyme, or even know an illustrator (in fact, some agents prefer writers to submit text minus any artwork, as they find it easier to match these with their own illustrators later).
You do need to be able to tell a story that will make adults and babies feel all the feels though, within a very short word count. If you ask me, writing picture books might well be the hardest of all of these to perfect – and is one of the most competitive, too.
Between ages 7 and 11, the reading ages start to shift. You might have an 8-year-old reading a book written for an 11-year-old, and that is okay! At this point, it’s worth thinking about things in terms of ‘Reading Age’ rather than actual age. Early Readers are for children who are just learning to read, and Lower Middle-Grade tends to be lighter, funny reads.
Middle-Grade books are booming at the moment and are often read for pleasure by adults, too (myself included). They can be darker and you can push the wordcount a bit further. You can perhaps take a few more risks, providing the heart of the book is with the characters (more on that later).
Then we have Young Adult (YA) fiction. I like to think of this as two categories: Teen and Young Adult / Crossover. Teen fiction tends to focus on topics affecting teenagers around 12-13 years old. They are lighter, sometimes funny books. Young Adult or Crossover fiction can be anything where the protagonist is under 18. They can be romances set in a school, or dark, chilling tales.
Whatever age you choose to write for, ensure you know that market back-to-front. Which leads me to tip number two:
2. Read Contemporary Children’s Books
The best way to know your market is to read everything you can that fits into it. Yes, adults can read children’s books for pleasure too, you know! Some of the most delicious and astounding books I have read have been for children.
Don’t fall into the trap of re-reading the books you enjoyed as a child. The market is constantly evolving and what was publishable ‘way back then’ may not be marketable now. Keep your eye on books that are coming out this year, particularly debuts (as you’ll hopefully be one of those yourself soon!)
When you are reading, make notes on things like sentence structure, characters and plot arcs. Is the language simple or sophisticated? What age are the characters? And what twists and turns appear in the story? This will help you no end when it comes to write your own.
3. Have A Unique Idea
So, now we come to your own book (woohoo!). And I have some bad news, I’m afraid (boooo).
The world of children’s books is incredibly competitive and only the absolute best books stand a chance of getting published.
But that’s okay. Because you can make your story into one of those books using this blog post. And it starts with an astounding idea that will make an agent stop scrolling and forget to breathe.
Think of your favourite stories. You can usually sum them up in one, hooky line, can’t you? Something like:
“Death narrates as a girl steals books in WW2 Munich, as her foster parents conceal a Jewish fist-fighter in their home.” – The Book Thief
“A girl has been trapped Inside her whole life, until one day she finds a hole in the wall.” – Okay, so that’s my book, but you get the idea.
Your concept needs stakes. It needs to be different. It needs to pique interest. Nothing else will work for this market.
Okay, so you have your amazing concept that will hook an agent, then a publisher, then eventually a reader.
Want to keep them? Then you’ll need to create characters that children can relate to.
The first rule for this is to think about their ages in relation to the categories we outlined above. Usually, children like to read about characters a couple of years older than them. In Young Adult fiction, I usually make my characters between 15 and 17.
90% of books for children have children as their central protagonists. The other 10% is usually made up of animals and magical beings, but they will nearly always speak and act like children in that age group. They are hardly ever adults.
The next thing is to think about the qualities that children of that age look for in a protagonist. Usually, this is bravery (although this doesn’t mean all characters need to be sword-fighters – there are many different kinds of bravery). Usually they are kind (although not always to everyone all the time). And usually they are quirky in some way – they have some interest or ideals that colour their world and make them interesting.
This is a funny Lower Middle-Grade book, and the main character is a boy who suffers with anxiety. Whenever he gets anxious, he turns into an animal. And with his brother in hospital and the school play coming up, there is a lot to worry about.
Although Charlie has something going on that I would hope most children can’t relate to (eg: turning into a pigeon), there’s an awful lot about him that readers want to root for. His anxiety is one – and the book does a lot to normalise this and teach the reader how to deal with it. He’s also a classic ‘good guy’ – always one to attempt to smooth things over with his bully, and worry about his brother. He is brave, kind and quirky.
In terms of secondary characters, this book is great at busting stereotypes, and that’s really something to keep in mind when writing (more on this later). You’ve got a smart, scientific friend, as well as those who provide some comic relief. You’ve got an antagonist bully, who we understand. And other grown-up antagonists such as grumpy teachers, and parents who have the ability to be ‘disappointed’.
In short, these are all characters that children around 8 years old will relate to and enjoy reading about. (As well as grown-up writers who have the mind of an 8-year-old, too!).
It’s worth spending time getting to know your characters using something like this Ultimate Character Builder (downloadable via email). This worksheet asks hundreds of questions about your character that forces you to think of answers.
Something else I quite like to do (mainly because it is wonderfully fun procrastination) is to use personality tests. Try getting into the mindset of your characters – including secondary characters – and taking the House and Patronus quizzes on Pottermore, for example. You might find out that your protagonist is a Slytherin with a rare winged Patronus, which might affect the way they behave in your plot.
Another great tool can be found at 16 Personalities. This asks you a lot of questions and gives you a Myers-Briggs personality type at the end, with pages and pages of information about how that person would react to things like relationships, family and difficult situations.
When it comes to plotting a children’s book, it is useful to keep one bit of advice in mind at all times:
Plot is driven by character. Never the other way around.
If your characters are at the centre of your story, then you need to ensure that they are the ones driving it forwards. If you shoehorn them into a twist that goes against everything that your character stands for, then readers will be left cold.
For me, I like to start with something my character wants. This can be simple, like perhaps they are looking forward to an upcoming school trip. Or it can be much bigger than that – like perhaps they want to keep their family safe from being picked for The Hunger Games.
Next, you throw something in their path that means they can’t have what they want. They get framed for something they didn’t do at school and are banned from the school trip. Their sister is picked for The Hunger Games and they must volunteer as tribute to protect her from almost certain death.
What comes next is a series of incidents that raises action and keeps your character on their journey. They try to sneak onto the school bus, but end up on the wrong one, going instead to France. They get off the bus for a wee and it drives off without them. They try to buy a baguette with their lunch money, but it gets eaten by a dog (which they are afraid of) etc etc.
Within this middle point are highs and lows. They meet friends and helpers along the way – usually children their own age, or animals. There might even be other grown-up helpers or antagonists (think about Haymitch and Crane in The Hunger Games).
Usually around the mid-point of the story, what your character wants has now changed. The boy on the school trip now wants to find a way to go home. Katniss in The Hunger Games wants to stay alive.
This all leads up to the climax of the story – where all the issues you have dropped in before come to a head. There is usually a small battle to be won first – perhaps that is getting over the fear of dogs to save a friend in France, or it is beating the other Careers in order to stay alive in The Hunger Games. Then there is a small dip in action before the big beast is slayed – maybe that is as simple as finally asking for help to go home in France, or it is tricking the makers of The Hunger Games so that they can live.
To finish off, we have the resolution. This is where you tie up the questions you set up earlier in the story and resolve differences between characters. Maybe we see the boy return from France and ask his parents for a pet dog. Or Katniss returning home to her family as victor (whilst also leaving something unresolved here with a larger antagonist for book two in the series).
Even if you’re not traditionally a plotter, it is worth spending time thinking about the main beats in your story and how this relates to your character’s central journey. Thankfully, there’s loads of help for useless plotters (like me!). One useful blog post for further reading is this one on the seven basic plots.
There are also some brilliant masterclasses on the subject by the brilliant Jeremy Sheldon and this one from C M Taylor, all free as part of the Jericho Writers membership.
6. Find A Captivating Voice
Okay, so you now have the bones of an exciting story down. Excellent. Now – we need to talk about the way you are going to tell this story.
The first thing to do is consider what point of view you are going to choose, and then stick to it entirely. The most popular ones in children’s books are either third person (He/She/They), or first person (I/We). You do tend to find books for younger readers tend to be third person, and teen and YA are usually first person – but this isn’t a rule. Try writing a scene using both and see which one feels more natural for you and this story.
It’s worth noting that children’s books in second person (You) are few and far between. This is because it’s a difficult thing to do well, and to relate to as a reader. But nothing is ever out of bounds in the world of children’s books, so if you are confident about using this POV, then go for it.
Whatever POV you choose, you must, must, MUST have a captivating voice. By ‘Voice’, we mean the way the story is being told – the language and sentence structure used to tell it. In first person, we need to believe that the person telling the story IS a child. In third person, we need that to a lesser degree, but we still need that sense that we are close to a character and understand who they are through their language.
Let’s take first person as an example to start with, because it’s a bit easier. A first-person voice can contain any one of the following things to make it a bit different:
An accent or dialect (eg: Southern American).
Short, matter-of-fact sentences, or long lines with little or no punctuation.
Complex language, or simple words.
A ‘Frame of Reference’ for understanding the world. For example, if your character loves painting, then you would expect their language to be a fountain of colour, using terms that painters would love.
When creating your voice, it is worth making a note of all the things that might influence the way your character speaks. So, think about where in the world they come from, and the different words they will use. Think about their age. Think about their personalities. Think about their passions and interests. And use all of this to create a voice that is unique to them.
This becomes a bit harder when writing in third person. You can use some of this to colour the voice of the narrator, which can be particularly important when writing for younger children, who need to be reading ‘simple’ words along with the protagonists. You can also give the narrator their own voice altogether, as done in The Book Thief and Charlie Changes into a Chicken.
Whatever you choose to do, ensure that it is striking and work on it until it feels like ‘you’. It took me around four books to realise what is ‘me’ about my writing – I think sometimes it is one of those things that you need to write to realise! You can find out more about finding your voice here.
7. Use Settings And Experiences Kids Will Recognise
So, now we come on to the setting of your book. There are no real rules here when it comes to setting. Books like The House With Chicken Legs is set all over the world, within a rickety old house with the legs of a chicken. But even in this book, there are still things included that children will recognise as similar to their own experiences. A feeling of loneliness from travelling all the time. A parental figure. A feeling of being bored when trapped inside the house.
With contemporary children’s books, the settings tend to be focused on home, school and other familiar places, such as parks and after-school clubs. If you are writing a book set in the real modern world, then you will probably need to include a school in there somewhere. Some authors do this really well, but I personally hate writing schools. If you’re like me, then setting a book in the summer holidays, or having protagonists who are over sixteen can sometimes be a way around this.
For fantasy writers, it’s worth thinking about things like education and home-life when you are world-building, too. Your character may well be going on a huge quest that will take them to the ends of the earth, with no time for school. But even The Hunger Games had lessons in flashback.
As I’ve said before, there are no rules here as such. Children’s books can take you to all corners of experiences. But ensure you think about your settings and how a child reader will recognise them. And if you choose to include things like school, then ensure you get that experience right!
8. Write And Rewrite
Okay, so now we’re getting to the part where you have to put pen to paper. You’ll read a lot of articles all over the internet that will tell you rules here like “write every day” and “don’t look back on your first draft”.
But I don’t want to tell you any of those. Because honestly – writing a book is something every writer does differently, and that’s rather wonderful. Try writing every day, but if you can’t because you have your own kids to worry about, then that is perfectly fine.
And maybe try not to spend years perfecting scenes before you get on to the next one (only because you will probably have to delete it later), but if you do need to make something perfect before you can move on, then that’s fine too.
Do whatever you need to do to keep writing.
I will however say this. First drafts suck. They do. And that is okay.
Books aren’t made on the first draft. This is where you let your characters drive that plot, and sometimes they don’t really know what they are doing. Books are made in the next stage – the re-writing. The editing. By getting feedback and working to make something shine.
In fact, I personally don’t even do first drafts any more. I call all my first attempts the ‘ditch draft’, because I know that chances are, I’m going to have to bin most of it and start again. I know that sounds a bit long – but again – do whatever you need to do to keep writing.
When it comes to re-writing, I personally like to open up a new document for my second draft and copy-paste the bits I like over and write the rest from scratch. There’s something freeing about not having words already there in front of you.
Books are made in the self-edit stage, so keep going until you have something that is really quite something. Because nothing much less will be good enough when it comes to the next stage…
9. Avoid Classic Mistakes All New Writers Make
But first – I want to pause and look at some common mistakes. Because these are the things you need to watch out for before you even think about sending out to agents.
Avoid Stereotypes
The cry-baby little sister. The dysfunctional dad. There are certain stereotypes we take for granted. So think when you make decisions about every character in your novel – can they be subverted? Can you show that boys can cry too, and that dad’s can do all the housework? This goes for race, gender, sexuality, disability and pretty much everything else. Write characters, not clichés.
If You’re Writing What You Don’t Know, Get To Know It
This is becoming increasingly important in children’s fiction – and so it should. If you are writing about a character with an experience different to your own, then you need to ensure you do copious amount of research – including speaking to people who live this experience. This especially goes for anything to do with race, gender, sexuality and disability. There are things you can do to help ensure you are not portraying these lives in a way that is stereotypical or harmful. Sensitivity readers are now becoming a mainstay in children’s publishing and authors can even hire their own if they feel the need to check their facts. You should know however that no amount of research ever makes up for the real experience and you should learn from any feedback you have from readers, rather than challenge it.
Don’t let this put you off writing diversely as this is incredibly important for all children’s writers to do, whatever background they are from. But ensure you do it sensitively.
Don’t Start A Story Where The Character Is Waking Up
If I had a dollar for every story I have read that starts with this, I would be a very rich author. Don’t do it.
Think about what the inciting incident is, then give your readers an idea of what life was like for the main character before then. If the inciting incident is about to send them on a big adventure, then show the contrasting quiet life they had before then. If the big character arc is that they become braver, show them being scared early on in the story.
Don’t Start A Story With A Scene That Has Nothing To Do With The Rest Of The Story
Alternatively, don’t go the other way and start your story somewhere that has nothing to do with the rest of the story, just because it is more exciting than waking up.
Your opening scene should excite, but it should also introduce the reader to the world that will appear in the rest of the story. So, if you’re story is about a girl’s relationship with her mother, then don’t start your story in the middle of a fist-fight unless that very quickly turns into something to do with the mother.
Of course, this changes if you are writing fantasy where the beginning of the novel is set in the everyday world before the magic is let loose. Still here though, ensure you are spending time introducing us to the characters and situations that will be important throughout the rest of the story.
Don’t Mix Tenses Or POVs
Pick one, and stick to it (flashbacks permitting!). There’s nothing worse than reading a story that switches heads or propels us back and forth in time. Try reading this article on Psychic Distance if you need more clarification.
Depending on the the age of the children you may want to stick with one or two points of view so they find it easier to follow, but once you are writing young adult novels for teens, then don't hold back from pushing boundaries and being brave with format and structure.
Teens are no different to adults when it comes to following a more complicated plot!
Don’t Tell Us – Show Us (For The Most Part)
This is one of the biggest mistakes I see writers make – including myself. When you are trying to explain a world or situation, it can sometimes be easier to just dump that information on the page. And some of that is fine, but too much can slow action and feel amateur.
This one is particularly for the picture book writers amongst you. Rhymes are wonderful when they work, but I’ve seen writers fall into the trap of sacrificing sentence meaning to shoehorn in a rhyme.
If you are struggling to make a sentence flow because of your rhyming structure, then try something else. Or try no rhyme at all! Some of my favourite picture books don’t rhyme – it’s all about the characters and the story you are telling.
Don’t Overuse Adverbs And Adjectives
All new writers seem to fall into this trap. Perhaps we want to show off how beautifully we can write, so we pen long, languid sentences that dazzle and glitter with sparkly splendour.
Unfortunately, they also weigh down your words. Keep your sentences to the point and I promise that those metaphors and similes that you do scatter in, will be all the more breath-taking because of it.
Avoid Clunky-Sounding Dialogue
Usually this happens when we want to try and ‘show’ something and not ‘tell’ it. And we might end up with a scene a bit like this:
“Why are you so upset Billy?” Mum said.
“Because my game was cancelled again, like it was last week.”
“Do you mean when you kicked the ball over the fence and it had to be called off?”
“It wasn’t my fault. A dog came onto the pitch.”
“And we all know you’re afraid of dogs.”
This doesn’t feel very realistic, does it? That’s because people don’t tend to spend their time reiterating things they all already know. Avoid doing this in your own book – especially with parents and their children, which tends to be where the clunkiest dialogue comes into its own! Try these tips on writing realistic dialogue.
Don’t Have An Adult Save The Day
Finally, we have the ending. There is nothing worse than rooting for a child protagonist all the way through a book, only to have a grown-up step in and save the day at the end. Children want to see themselves as having the power to change the world. Sometimes, that might mean asking for help from a grown-up, but the decision to conquer should always come from the child.
10. Get An Agent And Get Published
So that leads us to the last point – how to get this wonderful children’s book you have written, published and on the shelves.
However, the most important things to know are that you will nearly always need an agent to get a publisher. And getting an agent is very, very difficult.
Agents will receive around two-thousand submissions every year and will only have space to take on one or two. Out of these one or two, a third then never find a publisher.
So the odds are perhaps not in your favour. But that’s okay. Because the fact that you have read all the way to the bottom of this blog post tells me that you are serious about writing a brilliant children’s book. And brilliant children’s books are the only ones that get published.
The other alternative to getting your book published is self-publishing. This shouldn’t be seen as a ‘last resort’ option. In fact, plenty of authors create lucrative careers from publishing independently and it is fast becoming the number one option for a lot of writers.
It can be a little harder to self-publish in the world of children’s books. Illustrated books don’t always transfer to eBook easily and the market tends to favour print in general. However, there are authors who are doing really well in the YA genre fiction market, particularly for things like paranormal romance. If you are interested in this option, then you can find plenty of free information here.
Writing For Children: Conclusion
Being a children’s author takes an incredible amount of hard work and dedication, but it is the most fulfilling thing you can do (in my biased opinion!) Children don’t like books, they LOVE them. And once your book is published, hearing from those readers makes every step of this whole process completely worthwhile.
I’ve mentioned the Jericho Writers membership a few times in this article, and it is something to think about if you are serious about carving a career for yourself as a children’s author. Reading and writing will take us so far, but sometimes we need a helping hand from the experts to create something at the level it needs to be to get published. You can find out more about that membership here.
I do hope you have found this article useful and wish you every luck (and enjoyment!) in writing your own children’s book.
You’ve got this.
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