I am starting to get really excited as I have started to hear from quite a few nice people. These people want to participate in the Memetales beta by sharing their stories/illustrations for children!I have collected some useful information for myself and for these wonderful people!
As with pretty much any website, content is the main aspect of Memetales. Memetales will provide a marketplace for writers and illustrators, but first and foremost we WANT it to be a library for books. A go to place for parents and kids – to find stories written for kids and written by people that are truly inspired by children. A place that people will come back to again and again because the best and most inspired stories are right here!
As I started to dig into some small stories I had written a few months ago myself, I started to think about where I or anyone on Memetales would go for a little inspiration and some how-to pointers with respect to writing children’s picture books. I found some and thought I should share them here.
Before I share them I want to state that Memetales is not a publisher. It is a website that will help create, share and market picture books. Memetales will not refuse to put any book on the website. Everyone is welcome to share any books they create. Infact, that is what we want! Free flow of creativity. If you were inspired to tell a story then there is someone that wants to hear it. It is not about what sells, it is about what is inspired. The links presented here are pointers. Personally, I work with my inspiration and take reasonable lessons from the folk more experienced than I am. The kids who read the books will determine what they like and what they don’t – and perhaps with time, we will all learn a lot more. But for starters, here are the links. Note that if your goal is to be “spotted” by publishers then presenting your stories and illustrations in a classy and professional manner will certainly help!
write4kids.com has a wonderful guide that you can use. The e-book starts off explaining why picture books are probably the most difficult category of children’s books to master …
“Of all the different categories of children’s books a writer has to choose from,
picture books are probably the most difficult to master. Because the texts are
short (usually 32 book pages), each word is important. With longer books, a
weak paragraph can go undetected, but in a picture book a few unwieldy
sentences will kill the story”
There is a lot of information about what you should think about while writing your first draft and editing it as well. It is a simple yet resourceful e-book. I am not sure I can give you the link here, but you can get your copy if you register at this location.
Mem Fox has a wonderful blog – I found a couple of her posts really useful.
- In this post she talks about both the inspiration side as well as the execution side of writing a children’s book. Here are her instructions.
- Here is her post about dos and don’ts for writers and potential writers
Children’s Literature http://childrenslit.com/
Picture book – http://picture-book.com/
The Drawing Board for Illustrators -http://thedrawingboardforillustrators.blogspot.com/
2008 Children’s Choice Book Award Winners- http://www.cbcbooks.org/cbweek/gala2.html
Publisher’s Weekly – http://www.publishersweekly.com
American Library Association – http://www.ala.org
Children’s Book Insider – http://www.write4kids.com
The Children’s Book Council – http://www.cbcbooks.org/
Amateur Illustrator Network – http://www.amateurillustrator.com/
Jacket Flap -http://www.jacketflap.com
AuthorsNow – http://www.authorsnow.com
Please feel free to add any other links you see useful in the comments section. I plan to build this post into a resources page on the Memetales website.
If you have additional pointers with respect to writing children’s picture books, I’d appreciate if you put a note in the comments section.
If you are a parent/author/writer or illustrator and would like to participate in the beta for Memetales, send me an email at m@thinkmaya.com or fill the contact form.
photo credit: chocolissa