Naima B. Robert – Children’s Book Training WHO Should you Write Your Book For FREE CLASS
AI: Summary ©
The speaker is teaching children how to write books for children. They suggest that it is important to determine the age of the audience and that writing for children is more sophisticated than picture books. The speaker also advises parents to use more words when writing for children and to be clear about the age group they want to write a book for.
AI: Summary ©
This is your sister Naima B Robert here
with another
video on how to write for children.
If you know me then you know that
I'm
the author, award winning author of almost 30
books for children, teens and adults. But I
have to admit,
I do have a soft spot for children's
books. And so in this series,
I'm going to be teaching you what I
teach my students and my clients about how
you can write a book for children inshallah.
So, in this video,
we're going to be talking about the who.
Who should you write your book for? Who
are you writing for?
Now,
in my time training, teaching, coaching,
I've noticed that a lot of people
think that it's enough to say, I'm writing
for children and that makes all the sense
in the world. Well, I'm here to tell
you that you need to get a lot
more specific
than just children.
We want to know
how old are these children?
Are you writing a book that, or a
story that appeals more to boys or girls?
Is this a story specifically for Muslim children
or does it have a more general audience?
Are you writing for children who've been through
a particular experience, for example?
Are you looking for a particular demographic culturally
or even racially?
These things make a difference.
And what I would like to invite you
to do is to think
long and hard about who your ideal reader
is. Because when you're writing for example for
0 to 3,
completely different book from 3 to 6.
3 to 6 is the age that most
people think of when they think of writing
for children because that's where picture books are
pitched. Right? We're all familiar with the wonderful
picture books and that is for ages 3
to 6.
Anything above 6, 7 to 10 for example,
is going more towards an early reader or
an early chapter book, which means it's going
to be longer than a picture book, which
is usually a 1000 words. It's going to
be longer. The story is going to be
that much more sophisticated
and the characters will be older.
Now one of the things that I find
very common with students and clients
is that they have a book idea which
they're very, very excited about and
they write it within a 1000 words, for
example, so it's picture book length,
but the main character is 9 years old.
And when you ask them who the story
is for, they'll say, oh, it's for 7
to 10.
But can you see how that's a mismatch?
We've used,
a formula or a format that does not
work.
If it's going to be only a 1,000
words, it needs to be for a younger
audience
which means that your protagonist,
your main character, typically also needs to be
younger.
So you can either make your protagonist younger
and keep the story length as it is
and understand that you're speaking to 3 to
6 year olds or
you could take the same topic and rewrite
it, so flesh out the story, make it
a bit more sophisticated
and keep your protagonist at the age that
you had in mind,
fleshing the story out so that it's no
longer a picture book, but something that 7
to 10 year olds will actually read and,
and, you know, and be interested by.
So
what about you?
What age group would you like to write
your first story for? As I said, when
you're thinking
broadly,
0 to 3, that's baby books and board
books.
3 to 6 is picture books. And when
it comes to board books, by the way,
they could have as few as 5 words,
10 words.
I'm sure you're all familiar with books that
have even less than that. When it comes
to picture books, you want to cap it
at a 1,000 words. It can be a
lot less than that but you want to
not go above a 1,000 words for a
picture book. And then when you're going to
older age groups, obviously, depending on the type
of book, you can use more words. But
be very clear in your mind about which
age group you're writing for and make sure
that your story is one that would appeal
to that age group.
In our programs, we call that the who.
Who is the ideal reader? And that's your
homework for today. You need to think about
who you're writing for. And I hope that
you'll let us know in the comments who
this book is for. If it's becoming a
bit clearer for you, then I'm happy and
my job is done and alhamdulillah.
I will be talking tomorrow
about the how.
Of course I'm not gonna tell you what
the how is, you have to tune in
for the next video insha'Allah.
But for now,
if you know that you would like my
help and you'd like to work with myself
and my team to help you take your
what and your who and combine it with
the how to actually get a book out
into the world,
then I'd love for you to be one
of
the 222 Muslim authors that I support and
bring out into the world this year Insha'Allah.
So simply click on the link by this
video or go to my website naimarobert.com/services
where you can apply, send me, you know,
your information
about your idea, I wanna hear more about
it. And you can also see the other
sisters that I have helped to become authors
and Insha'Allah, you'll be on that list soon,
bi'idnila.
But for now,
thank you so much for your attention and
start thinking about the who because tomorrow we're
talking about the how.