Naima B. Robert – Children’s Book Training WHO Should you Write Your Book For FREE CLASS

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.