Product Description

This guide covers the writing of picture books, plots and planning, teenage fiction and non-fiction books. The author also deals with the business side of publishing, including market research and finding a publisher.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #163266 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Writing Magazine
`Pamela Cleavers shows you how to create characters that will appeal to young readers'

About the Author
Pamela Cleaver has sold 50,000 copies of her own children's books. Her children's stories have been translated into French, German, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish.

Customer Reviews

A guide book that immedialty engages the creative mind
Pamela Cleaver has provided an easy to follow, clear insight into the field of childrens writing that prompts any daring new writer to put pen to paper immediately. Each chapter engages the mind into thinking about ones own stories and it is impossible to stop the myriad of ideas from coming. If you are serious about writing, this is a good companion to own.

Excellent & Very Informative book!
I found this book to be extremely helpful. It has taught me things that I would never have thought of and has therefore improved my book so much already.
This book gives you so much information that I kept going back to bits and reading them again.
It gives some fantastic advice on the use of the word 'Said' which i found very helpful. I had no idea that trying to replace the word 'said' with other words like 'he smiled' etc can sometimes make you look obviously amateur.
At the end of each chapter, Pamela, gives you some simple helpful exercises to do. These are also helpful & useful to do.
It tells you about all the things that are important in childrens books and thing to avoid. I have thought about buying a book like this one for a while but just didn't know which one to purchase as there are so many. I am really glad i chose this one and I definately recommend it to all you budding writers out there. I would say this book was a necessity to your writing. I really enjoyed reading this book. It was easy to understand and made me realise things I had never even thought of before.

Useful Tool...
As a writer, I was given a book by my mother and aunt that showed me how to get started in writing. Whilst it covered the basics, I found it to be long winded and boring at times. This book is none of that. It is straight to the point, informative and treats you with respect.

The word 'said', as the other reviewer mentioned, is dealt with wonderfully. Also, there is a nice piece of advice that should be common sense to thesaurus-bashers like Paolini - do NOT use overly complicated words when writing for children. I once got told to edit out the word 'catharsis', so you can see what I mean. It is also wonderful in teaching you how to edit. My first chapter was 4900+ words. After reading this book, I edited it and it came down to 3300. The chapter reads MUCH better.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book.