A Word on Word counts

Here's what Litereary Rambles have to say about it

Board Books: 0 - 100 words.
Early Picture Books: 0 - 500 words.
Picture Books: 500 - 1,000 words.   Less is more as the pictures do the talking.
Nonfiction Picture Books: 500 - 2,000 words.
Early Readers:  200 - 3,500 words, depending on age level. 
Chapter Books: 4,000 - 10,000 words.

Young Adult: 45,000 - 70,000 words. 
Nonfiction MG/YA: 5,000 - 70,000 words

http://www.literaryrambles.com/2010/09/word-counts-for-children-books.html

And here's another point of view.  

• Board books. These contain very few words- no more than 100 total.
• Picture books. Generally, between 500-700 words (although it's much easier to get a 500 word picture book published) in a standard 32 page count. 
• Early readers. e.g. Dr. Seuss, Between 1,000 and 4,000 words.
• Chapter books. Between 5,000 and 15,000 words long
• Middle grade novels (ages 8-12). A typical word count of 25,000 to 40,000.
• Young adults. (ages 12+)  Average 50,000 to 70,000 words, There are always exceptions - e.g. Eragon - but the guy's parents did own the publishers!

 http://suite101.com/article/a-guide-to-word-counts-in-childrens-book-writing-a338820


 Comparing both, there are some differences but roughly the same.  Though as ever in this industry, nothing is set in stone.  Stephanie Mayer herself admits the fact that had the assistant literary agent not known that 130,000 words was a bit long for a young adult book, the agent who ended up taking her on would not have looked twice at it!


Some publishers will give you a rough guidline as to what they are looking for.  But most of them won't bother - assuming that anyone worth looking at will have researched it for themselves and know what they are doing!


Best Picture Book of the moment;

Getting it right from the start

Getting it right from the start

Rule Number One

In a lot of cases, first drafts will be handwritten.  My first two were, although I tend to type quicker these days and my handwriting is seriously lacking in legibility!  Therefore, rule number one is type out your manuscript onto a computer.  Sounds obvious, but it’s a MUST.

Rule Number Two

Use the correct format.  For children’s novels; this differs depending on where you look, but here are some basic rules from www.ehow.com;

o    1

Once in Word, open your Normal Template to establish the basics for your manuscript.

o    2

Set the font to Times New Roman or Arial, 12-point size in black. Do not use bold, italics, underline or any colors.

o    3

Set the paragraphs to left alignment based on the body text and the line spacing to double.

o    4

Set the margins for the document to one inch on all sides.

o    5

Set the indentation to zero and the first line indentation to a half inch.

o    6

Set the spacing before and after each paragraph to zero.

o    7

Number your pages. Start with one. Set a page break at the end of a chapter. Don't start numbers over after each chapter.

If your manuscript is a picture book, do not break it into pages with a few sentences on each, as it would appear in the finished book--just type it out as a story.  The publisher along with the illustrator will decide when the page breaks occur. 

Poetry should be in stanzas, as you would see it in a book.  A stanza is when you group two or more lines, that are usually within a set pattern of rhyme.

Rule Number Three

After you’ve written your masterpiece, use the spellcheck – each and every single time you make revisions.  There will be spelling errors, no matter how well you spell! 

Getting it right from the start will make things a whole lot easier for you.  Good Luck x

Getting Started

This blog aims to help those wanting to become children's authors. 

Getting Started

You have an idea - now you want to write it down.  This is a good thing although it may not always feel like it.  It's a long process, but well worth it. 

Bear in mind that planning is vital.  A well thought out storyline makes the world of difference and eliminates errors that an agent/publisher will scrutinise you on. 

Using a good structure and thinking of it like an equation is an effective way to get started. 
Scrivener is a tool that many people use to structure and edit their story outlines. You can try before you buy so give it a go and see what you think.

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/trial.php


I you dont have Scrivener, use the old fashioned method.  Break your story into parts:

1. Characters: Start with who is involved. 
2. Where:  Actively describe where the characters are, using senses.
3. Conflict: This makes up the biggest part of the story. Why are points 1 and 2 important? 
4. Resolution: How do the chartacters fix the conflict?
5. Outcome: How does it end? What is the moral of the story?

Here's a quick example :

WHO: The gruffalo's child
WHERE: in the woods
CONFLICT: wants to eat a mouse
RESOLUTION: the big bad mouse scares him off
OUTCOME: he learns his lesson not to go off into the woods on his own

Thats the simple version and it should be simple, at least the structure of it.  How many times has this structure worked?

Beginning - Once upon a time

Middle - Something bad happens involving magic

End - they all lived happily ever after

(Certainly works for disney!)


Have a go yourself - see who can come up with the most interesting plot!