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Many people would, but aren't sure what to do with that desire.
Here are some suggestions:
- Read, read, read the types of stories, articles or books you'd
like to write. Or the other way around -- writers most enjoy writing what they most enjoy reading.
- Borrow books on writing for children from your public library.
- Investigate courses at The Institute of Children's
Literature (ICL), a correspondence school at which I am proud to teach. The curriculum is top-notch!
Subscribe to ICL's monthly publication Children's Writer. www.institutechildrenslit.com
- Join the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).
Here you can find critique groups and writers' conferences, get information on publishers and agents, apply for grants, receive
a bi-monthly Bulletin, and much more! Unpublished writers can join as associate members. www.scbwi.org
- Visit publishers' websites and look at their submission guidelines
and book catalogs.
- Study book market guides such as Book
Markets for Children's Writers and Magazine Markets for Children's Writers (both published
by ICL), Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market (Writer's Digest Books) and
Christian Writers' Market Guide by Sally E. Stuart.
- Borrow magazines from your library such as School Library
Journal, The Booklist of the American Library Association, the February and July issues of Publisher's Weekly
that announce new children's books, or The Horn Book.
- Browse children's bookstores, or the children's section of a general
bookstore or Christian bookstore. What's on the shelves is what's selling now.
- Schedule regular writing time on your calendar. If this is a challenge,
plan one week at a time.
- Write, write, write.
- Read, read, read.
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