What to write in a book for a new baby
How to Write a Children's Book in 8 Basic Steps
have you ever wondered if it's easier to
write a children's book just because the
book is shorter we're about to find out
in today's video hello everyone my name
is mani Lane I'm an author book cover
designer in the creator of the book
launch planner and if you want weekly
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so I bet something you are wondering why
is Mandy talking about writing a kids
book when all she's written is adult
young adult and nonfiction well I guess
it's a good time to announce that I am
indeed writing a children's book and
this is my way of telling you so I don't
have a title for the children's book yet
and I also haven't finished with the
illustrations or writing it but I
figured I'd share my knowledge on the
progress that I've made so far so later
on this month I will be showing you how
I'm illustrating my books but for now
I'm gonna show you just one illustration
that I've created that will most likely
also be the cover of the book and this
is one of the illustrations so the book
is going to be all about my cat of
course my cat's name is moon also called
mr. moon he's adorable he's got a whole
personality so it felt natural to have a
children's book about him this is more
of a passion project for me I don't plan
on making anything a big out of it I
just thought it would be something fun
to do a new way to practice with my
graphic design skills because yes I'm
illustrating the entire book myself I am
NOT a professional illustrator but I'm
making it work
so with that said I'm gonna go ahead and
tell you guys the 8 steps that you
should follow if you also want to write
a children's book step one is audience
more so who is your audience so kids
books vary a lot depending on who your
audience is so when it comes to
children's books there are a few
different categories that range anywhere
from newborn all the way to young adults
so here are the categories now board
books are your hard books that are for
ages newborn to 3 years old picture
books are ages 2 to 8 early level of
readers are ages 5 to 9 you might have
had these books when you are a kid in
school they're the type of books that
have the grade level right on the book
and it's kind of how teachers place you
in terms of reading level then we have
your first chapter books in there
two different types of first chapter
books and they are grouped into two
different ages ages six to nine or seven
to ten depending on how they're written
then you have middle grade books this is
ages eight to twelve and young adult
which is more or less twelve and up so
before you even start writing you do
want to keep in mind what age group you
are writing to not only for reasons of
say limited vocabulary but also just to
know what type of story will appeal to
that age group
step two is narrative and that's when
you're thinking about how loyal a story
be told the fun part about children's
books is that they can be a little bit
more magical and fun so you don't always
have to have just your regular old
narrative for example sometimes you can
have the story told through the point of
view of an animal step number three is
elements so what other elements are you
going to have in your story even though
a book is short you still need to
include some important things such as
locations other characters and objects
or anything else that appears in your
book just because the book is short
doesn't mean you can skimp out on these
things you still need to make your story
dimensional realistic and have feeling
step number four is theme what is the
theme of your story
aka what lesson are you trying to teach
the kids that are reading this book now
I do have to say kids are smart so you
can't just make the theme outwardly
obvious you want to make sure it's in
there but that that it's subtle step
number five is storyboards so when
you're actually starting to write your
story it may seem like oh it's just a
picture book it's gonna be easy to write
and then once you get into it you
realize okay this is a little more
complex than I thought especially if
you're someone who's used to writing
novels like myself you may think that
you'll be able to just whip out the
whole story in one day which sometimes
you can do but it's gonna require a
little bit more thought in care because
the story is so short so you need to be
more selective about what you write a
good thing to do
is to create a storyboard so for me my
picture book is going to have photos
that I recreate as an illustration and
then of course I have the story that
goes along with those photos so I had an
index card for every single sentence and
then I paired up the index cards or the
scenes with a photo that would go with
that that way I could kind of keep in
mind what photos worked what didn't now
in your case it may be illustrations
which also brings us to the next step
step six is illustrations and sometimes
that does intertwine with step five
which is the storyboard like I was
saying as the person who's going to be
illustrating the book myself and also
knowing that my illustrations were gonna
be based on photos that I had taken of
my cat when he was just a kid that meant
that I need to make sure that everything
paired up nicely so these two steps for
me intertwine but for you they may not
so if you're hiring an illustrator it
will be easiest to actually just
storyboard the whole story yourself and
write down ideas for illustrations and
then handing it off to your illustrator
but if you're someone like me you kind
of need to intertwine these steps to
make sure that you don't waste energy
illustrating something that won't work
anyways as far as illustrations go like
I said I'm doing the illustrations
myself I'm a graphic designer I design
book covers and now I'm trying out doing
digital painting which is a whole nother
ballgame but if you don't have the
artistic ability to create illustrations
yourself there's no shame in hiring
someone to do so because illustrations
can sometimes be the most important part
of a children's book because children
are so visual you need the illustration
to tell the story just as much as the
words do otherwise it won't quite stick
as well or it won't end up being their
favorite children's book you can hire a
freelance illustrator I will let you
guys know I'm not a freelance
illustrator so please don't contact
me asking me to illustrate your
children's book I barely know how to do
it for my own book like I said this is a
passion project but you can find them
online you can find them on freelance
websites one of my favorite resources is
up work so if you're interested in
hiring a professional illustrator there
be sure to check it out which brings us
to step 7 which is beta readers so just
because it's a children's book doesn't
mean you get to skip the beta reader
step now this actually might be just as
important maybe even more important than
your regular fiction book because kids
can tell the truth
really well children have this wonderful
gift of being unfiltered so if you show
them a children's book they will be
brutally honest with you about what they
think in what you may need to improve
you don't have to get real fancy with
your beta readers all you have to do is
find someone with kids that are the
proper age that you're looking to aim
for have them check out the book and ask
them if they liked it if they hate it if
they thought the illustrations were cute
if they thought the story was cute it's
pretty basic but it's a step that you
should still include and last but not
least step number eight is editing and
publishing so this step will vary a lot
depending on what your goals are
I plan on self-publishing my book so I
plan on hiring a children's book editor
I feel like this is very important just
because when you hire a children's book
editor they know the different struggles
that come with writing a children's book
they know what trends are in the
community at that time and they're just
more knowledgeable than a regular book
editor now if you're looking to publish
traditionally your publisher will
provide an editor for you and if you are
looking to publish traditionally then
you have to start down the long road of
finding an agent then having that agent
find you a publishing house and a whole
bunch of other different things like
that I will let you guys know that it
can be very hard to publish a children's
book traditionally just because so many
people want to write a children's book
in the
is very saturated and that really goes
for any book genre these days but even
more so for children's book so just keep
that in mind when you go down your
Publishing journey and also know there
are great resources out there to self
publish your book which I don't probably
be talking about here on this channel so
make sure to subscribe so let me know in
the comments down below what other
videos you want to see on writing and
publishing a children's book like I said
I have a video coming up on how to
illustrate a children's book but if you
have any other requests be sure to let
me know I also want to give a shout-out
to my patron of the week Zara Hoffman
so Zara is the author of a book called
taming the Alpha so taming the Alpha is
about two alpha soulmates who can't get
along even when doing so would solve all
of their problems if you want to learn
more about Zara in her book be sure to
check out her website which will be
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