Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #200645 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 391 pages

Synopsis
The comprehensive guide to markets in all areas of thechildren's media, completely revised and updated, with a foreword byaward-winning writer Julia Donaldson. The emphasis is on giving the aspiring writer and illustratorknowledge of the children's market in all areas, to help them pursuetheir careers in this increasingly competitive area. No other guide towriting and illustrating for children does this. New articles for 2006: Writing for boys - Russell Ash - Writing for girls - Louise Rennison - Graphic novels - Raymond Briggs - Picture books - Debbie Gilori -What's the next big thing - Rachel Airey - Publishing for the educationmarket - Jim Green - Children's book categorisation - Caroline Horn -Writing for teenage magazines - Michelle Garnett - Story-tellingthrough poetry - TV programmes Listings include newspapers and magazines, book publishers andliterary agents, TV and film producers, websites, picture agencies andlibraries, societies, prizes, festivals and editorial services - allrevised and updated.New listings and features for 2006: Indexing children's books - Calendar of awards - Animation, licensed characters and cartoons

Excerpted from Children's Writers' and Artists' Yearbook by Julia Donaldson. Copyright © 2005. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Foreword
Julia Donaldson is the author of over 70 books and plays for children, including the picture
books One Ted Falls Out of Bed and The Gruffalo (which won the Smarties Prize in 1999)
and the novel The Giants and the Joneses. She is also a performer, acting out her stories
and singing her songs in theatres and at book festivals. Her latest book is Charlie Cook’s
Favourite Book, illustrated by Axel Scheffler.
I have a theory that many of us end up doing what we wanted to do when we
were five, even if we take a long and winding road to get there.
For my fifth birthday my father gave me a fat navy blue book called The Book
of a Thousand Poems. I read the poems, memorised many (if not all thousand)
of them, marched round the house reciting them and started to make up some
of my own. I also changed my ambition: instead of being a ballerina I was going
to write rhyming books.
My road was particularly long and winding, and it was nearly 40 years later
that I scuttled sideways into print.
For that first book I was lucky enough not to need to seek the advice and
information with which the following pages are packed. At the time, I was an
occasional songwriter, an expert at writing to order for children’s television
programmes on subjects such as guinea pigs, window-cleaning and horrible
smells. Usually when the phone went it would be someone saying something
like, "Julia, could you write a song about throwing crumpled-up wrapping paper
into the bin?" It came as a surprise when I got a very different phone call – from
a publisher, asking if she could turn the words of one of my songs into a
children’s picture book.
Once A Squash and a Squeeze was published (2003) – with witty illustrations by
Axel Scheffler – I was hooked. The songs had been fireworks; the book felt
wonderfully solid and durable. (And it sold quite well.) But then came the shocking
discovery that publishers weren’t queuing up for more. In order to continue with
my writing career I would need some help. The Children’s Writers’ & Artists’
Yearbook didn’t exist then, but there was a chapter about writing for children in the
‘grown-up’ version,Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, which became my Bible.
Out went the manuscripts and back came the rejection letters. In those days I
was often to be found prostrate, wailing and beating my fists on the ground. But
in my calmer moments I reminded myself that a rejected manuscript is actually
the best kind of rejection there can be. I mean, if you are turned down after a job
interview all you have is the rejection letter (unless you count the bitter pill of
Life Experience).When you have a story turned down you still have the story. It
is perhaps a cliché, but no idea is ever wasted, and many of those early attempts
of mine, which were "not quite suitable for our list" or "too gentle for today’s
competitive marketplace" have since been reshaped and found happy homes.
One would-be picture book is now a novel; another would-be musical has
become a picture book.
It is also worth remembering that times and tastes change (which is one
reason why this book is updated every year). When I was unsuccessfully
submitting manuscripts it seemed that every book had to fit into a series,
whereas now I sense that publishers are less prescriptive and are on the look-out
for something individual, different, mould-breaking.
Another argument for persistence is that no two editors think exactly alike. I
was once told by one publisher that she loved my "jaunty rhyme" but that "the
story needed more of a twist in the tail" and by another that she "loved the clever
twist in the tail" but "felt that the rhyme needed a little more attention".
Talking of rhyme (jaunty or otherwise), if The Children’s Writers’ & Artists’
Yearbook had existed in the ‘90s I would have devoured the poetry chapter. I was
still addicted to writing in verse, despite constantly being warned that it was "too
difficult to translate". When I sent off a rhyming tale called The Gruffalo I
prepared myself for the usual prostrate fist-beating, but this time when I opened
the envelope with the London postmark I found myself dancing round the room.
The Gruffalo – again illustrated by the incomparable Axel Scheffler – was my
breakthrough, but the Yearbook still kept its place on my shelf. It came valiantly
to my aid a few years later, helping me to find an agent who has turned out to be
a perfect fairy godmother.
Since then there have been fewer frustrations and more rewards. Perhaps the
greatest reward is when I hear that a child can recite one of my books from
memory. Then I think back to The Book of a Thousand Poems and my own five
year-old self, and I wonder about all the other long and winding roads which are
just beginning.
Julia Donaldson

Customer Reviews

Essential text for the professional
An admirable spin-off from the original "Writers' and Artists' Yearbook", this one does exactly what it says on the cover. Writing for children is not child's play. You may cut your teeth telling your own kids bedtime stories, or may be a teacher dramatising learning experiences, but if you want to get your work published you need to be professional about it. Writing for children (or illustrating) is a highly professional challenge.

This is an excellent tome. It provides you with details of markets available and a lot of information and encouragement besides. It is an essential primer if you want to write or illustrate professionally. Writing today is as much about marketing skills as it is about art. It's a commercial business, so you need to know your market thoroughly. Most writers struggle, a tiny few make a lot of money, but all selling writers will have studied their market and decided there was a niche they could fill. There aren't many niches the size of Harry Potter … but you never know, you might just have the right idea at the right time and the skills to make it work.

The "Children's Writers' and Artists' Yearbook" is a well-packaged information system. It outlines the markets available, provides hints on analysing the sorts of material they are looking for, and gives both advice and encouragement - how to, where to, when to, etc. It is, as I say, a good primer. It's a book to be used - not just as a list of addresses, but as a source of inspiration. It will make you think about the process of producing a book or story. It will sharpen up your focus and help you get into a professional frame of mind.

And if I keep using the word 'professional', I'm not trying to take the fun out of the experience or water down the artistry and craft involved, but writing for children is a highly competitive environment and the more you understand the processes, the better your chances. Excellent book which you will use until it is as dog-eared as a favourite teddy!