I did a talk recently for Irish Pen on writing for children – and I thought I’d pass on some of the notes from the event.

The most useful things I can tell you writer to writer:

1/ Read children’s books – especially in the age group/area you are interested in writing for – library/bookshop recommendations, award winners etc.
There are a lot of good guides out there to help you pick fab books – esp the ultimate book guide/teen book guide

It will also help you be aware of what modern children like reading – and what works in a book. And also – it’s fun – some of the best books out there are children’s books. I read very few adult books these days. If a young reader does not like the first few pages of a book, they won’t read on. So books for young people have to catch the imagination from the very first lines, making them darn good reads.

It will also make you aware of the different age groups – picture books, early readers (age 4/5 to 7/8 depending on the child), confident readers age 9+, readers 11+, YA/Teen readers. You must know what age you are writing for – every publisher will expect you to know – if you don’t know, how are they supposed to know? Be very clear about what age group you are writing for. This is often the first mistake people make when writing for children. No book is for 5 to 16 year olds – think about it. OK, maybe Harry Potter, I’ll give you that one. But unless you are JK Rowling you give yourself more chance of getting published if you do the leg work – starting with reading in the age group you would like to write for.

More to come (12 points in total in fact) . . .

SarahXXX

I just got my hands on the new Inkwell flyer (thank you, Vanessa) and it’s full of interesting courses and stuff for writers.
Writing for Children with me and Oisin McGann – Sat 20th March – will be fab of course
But also Getting Published with Sheila Crowley, agent at Curtis Brown, UK and Paula Campbell from Poolbeg Press. Ideal place to hand them your manuscript methinks! Or at least say hello.

They also have a critique service and a free newsletter full of juicy book trade goss.

For more see www.inkwellwriters.ie

Sarah XXX

The Best Books on Writing I’ve Ever Read

I’ve been rubbish at writing decent blogs recently, so I thought I’d knuckle down and do a useful one for all you keen writers out there. So here’s a list of some of my favourite books on writing and why I like them.

Now and again most writers need a bit of a kick up the bum, some ‘just-get-on-with-it’ encouragement, and a good writing book does just that. It can also inspire or simply give you time out and make you think.

Currently I’m bang smack in the middle of a big rewrite of Amy Green book 3. I know where I’m going – which is brilliant – but it’s taking a little while to get there! I am enjoying it, but it’s bloody hard work at the moment and I need to get it finished by the end of Jan, so I can write Amy 4.

Writing to deadlines is tricky but I guess after 10 years or so I’m used to it. And if you really need more time, editors are usually pretty nice about it. I’ve had to delay books before – mainly due to the birth of Amy and Jago! But I don’t like doing it. I guess I’m my own worst enemy.

But back to the writing books.

Number 1 on my list is the wonderful Julia Cameron and her The Right to Write. First published in 1998, I’ve read this book about four or five times now, and dip into it a lot. I find it calming, sensible, inspiring.
Julia talks about making time to write, being honest on the page and loneliness (I get very lonely some days – I’m a sociable kind of person and I find being alone all day tough – shame I love writing so much!); and her book is full of great advice.
I’d highly recommend it to any writer – no matter how far along the writing journey you are. She writes beautifully and it’s a joy to read.
‘Just as a good writing day clears the air, a good writing day clears the psyche.’
9 ½ out of 10

Number 2 is a newish book: The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner. Billed as ‘An Editor’s Advice to Writers’, if you want to know what your average editor is thinking, this is a fascinating book, full of interesting information, and a real eye opener. An excellent book for writers who are on the road to publication and want some insight into how the book business works, albeit in America.
Betsy writes very well and touches on a lot of really interesting subjects, from writers’ egos to being fearless on the page. Great stuff!
I bought it in Chicago so you may need to get it on Amazon.
8 out of 10

Number 3 – Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. Another classic. Sub title is Freeing the Writer Within. A little more new agey than Julia Cameron’s book, but great for dipping into if you’re feeling a bit low writing wise.
Natalie deals with all kinds of things, from verbs to editors, and the importance of being specific. Great for writers just starting out and looking for some inspiration and ideas. But not as good as Julia’s book.
8 out of 10

Number 4 – Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. I love this one mainly for it’s story about her brother. He was trying to do a whole project on birds in one night and was freaking out. His father told him ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’ Which is how we should approach every writing day – word by word.
Another quote I like is ‘That thing that you had to force yourself to do – the actual act of writing – turns out to be the best part . . . The act of writing turns out to be its own reward.’ So true.
It’s not a writing guide as such, more a writing memoir so best for those just wanting some time out and some empathy from a fellow writer.
Another American gem.
8 ½ out of ten

And finally a newish book which I think will become a classic for new writers and especially young writers – Juicy Writing by Brigid Lowry. Now, it’s not for everyone, it’s very jaunty and practical and positive, but I wish I’d read it when I was starting out. It has a very ‘you can do it’ attitude and is full of practical advice, writing exercises, and ideas on what to write about. Written for teenagers, it’s a fab book for any age and highly recommended for writers starting out or writers who would like some solid, practical advice.
9 out of 10

Hope this is useful!

Yours in writing,

SarahX

Just back from Clare so I owe you a blog but have to edit this evening – so here are some excellent writing tips c/o Paula, thanks, Paula!

WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle
By ELMORE LEONARD
Published: Monday, July 16, 2001
These are rules I’ve picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I’m writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what’s taking place in the story. If you have a facility for language and imagery and the sound of your voice pleases you, invisibility is not what you are after, and you can skip the rules. Still, you might look them over.
1. Never open a book with weather.
If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a character’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.
2. Avoid prologues.
They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in nonfiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want.
There is a prologue in John Steinbeck’s ”Sweet Thursday,” but it’s O.K. because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: ”I like a lot of talk in a book and I don’t like to have nobody tell me what the guy that’s talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks. . . . figure out what the guy’s thinking from what he says. I like some description but not too much of that. . . . Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle. . . . Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That’s nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don’t have to read it. I don’t want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story.”
3. Never use a verb other than ‘’said” to carry dialogue.
The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with ‘’she asseverated,” and had to stop reading to get the dictionary.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb ‘’said” . . .
. . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances ”full of rape and adverbs.”
5. Keep your exclamation points under control.
You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.
6. Never use the words ‘’suddenly” or ”all hell broke loose.”
This rule doesn’t require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use ‘’suddenly” tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won’t be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavor of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories ”Close Range.”
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway’s ”Hills Like White Elephants” what do the ”American and the girl with him” look like? ”She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.” That’s the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight.
9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
Unless you’re Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language or write landscapes in the style of Jim Harrison. But even if you’re good at it, you don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.
And finally:
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
A rule that came to mind in 1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he’s writing, perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the character’s head, and the reader either knows what the guy’s thinking or doesn’t care. I’ll bet you don’t skip dialogue.
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative. It’s my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing. (Joseph Conrad said something about words getting in the way of what you want to say.)
If I write in scenes and always from the point of view of a particular character — the one whose view best brings the scene to life — I’m able to concentrate on the voices of the characters telling you who they are and how they feel about what they see and what’s going on, and I’m nowhere in sight.
What Steinbeck did in ”Sweet Thursday” was title his chapters as an indication, though obscure, of what they cover. ”Whom the Gods Love They Drive Nuts” is one, ”Lousy Wednesday” another. The third chapter is titled ”Hooptedoodle 1” and the 38th chapter ”Hooptedoodle 2” as warnings to the reader, as if Steinbeck is saying: ”Here’s where you’ll see me taking flights of fancy with my writing, and it won’t get in the way of the story. Skip them if you want.”
”Sweet Thursday” came out in 1954, when I was just beginning to be published, and I’ve never forgotten that prologue.
Did I read the hooptedoodle chapters? Every word.

Paths to Publication
September 2009

How to promote and market you newly published book

These are the notes from a talk I gave at the Paths to Publication Conference run by Children’s Books Ireland in association with the Society of Children’s Authors and Illustrators, Sept 2009.

Firstly I gave a brief introduction – detailing my work as a writer and a children’s bookseller (15 years and counting!).

Then I continued . . .

All successful children’s writers work extremely hard and are passionate about their books and about their writing career. If they intend to stay writing, they will do whatever it takes. If that means doing publicity, even if it means telling people what they had for breakfast, they will do it.

The good news is that every writer can do a lot to market and promote their own book.

The secret – and yes, there is a secret – but like most things it’s this – hard work, being organised and determined – a lot of work can be done behind the scenes months before your book reaches the bookshop shelves.

When I started out in books, I had no experience in marketing or publicity – I just used my head – so what I did, you can do too.

But before that some general points.

First things first – don’t worry about any of this unless you have written a book worth promoting. Put your time and energy into the writing first and foremost.

Also – publicity and marketing are 2 different things. Now, I don’t have any marketing qualifications so these points are in my own words and probably not very ‘scientific’.

The way I see it, marketing means promoting your book to the market and in the marketplace – ie the shops. It means getting information about your book to the relevant children’s buyers and booksellers, backing up that information with display material – such as posters and bookmarks. And keeping the bookshops informed of any publicity you have lined up for the book.

In general, your publisher should be on top of the marketing – but if they don’t intend to do posters or bookmarks – say for example they are small, your book is self published or published in England (this is directed at Irish authors of course!) – and few books get much marketing spend – think about doing it yourself. And dropping postcards/posters/bookmarks in yourself to your local libraries, bookshops and schools.

Think of investing in business cards, stickers, thank you cards – useful things are good – keyrings maybe?

Yes, it costs money. But think of it as money invested in your future as a writer.

The more booksellers know about your book the better chance it has of being recommended, restocked, put on a table, put in promotions. But there is a fine line between being pushy and helpful. Never be pushy, never be arrogant. Treat booksellers like royalty – they are the ones who put your books on the shelves and into parents and childrens’ hands.

If your book is not on the shelf, it is nothing personal. See it as your problem. Send them some information on your book – or even a copy of the book with a friendly covering note saying you are a local author and would be delighted to see your book on their shelves.

Always check with your publishers before calling into bookshops and talking to booksellers. They may like to ask your sales rep to go along and intro you. They may like to use it as a sales opportunity. Work with your publisher.

But remember – no one cares as much about your book as you do. Be passionate and talk about your book with enthusiasm – and as Patrick Ness would say, joy!

And no bookseller wants to hear you grumble about how little your publisher does to promote you – get on with it yourself (and over yourself) – take control.

But one thing I’ll come back to time and time again – be prepared to work hard and do things yourself. Do not leave everything to your publisher. They have a lot of books to market and promote. Your book is your baby. Once your book is published, your journey is just beginning.

There are over 8,000 children’s books published every year. If you want to make your book stand out, and especially if you want to be a career writer – someone who earns their living from writing or part of their living from writing, then you must do all you can to promote your book.

The reality is it is not enough to just write a book and sit back and see what happens. You also have to connect with children, with booksellers, with librarians, with teachers, with parents – with anyone who buys books. You need to make them aware that your book is a/ in the shops now and b/worth buying.

Looks do not matter – you don not have to be a supermodel – but personality and professionalism do.

Above all, be yourself. Maybe a glittery, happy version of yourself – but still yourself. I call it being on – be the person you’d be at a party, or at a job interview. And think about the image you are projecting – if you write horror, don’t look like an accountan.
Some good black shirts are a good investment. You could go so far as having a signature style – Terry Prachett has his hats, Jackie Wilson has her silver jewellery.
Think about what you are wearing when visiting bookshops/schools/going to children’s book conferences – I’m looking around this room and I don’t see anyone here that screams out interesting science fiction writer; quirky, fun teen romance writer; playful, arty illustrator.

And get involved with your own publicity – but keep your publisher informed of what you intend to do. It can be daunting at the beginning – but having a plan makes everything easier.

Publishers are only too delighted to have help – well organised, professional, well planned help – talk to them about how you can help.

Publicity – means using the media to tell people about your book – print, radio, telly.

4 to 6 months before your book is published – set up a meeting with the publicity person in the publishing house (if possible) and bring a list of possible publicity angles – I’ll talk about angles in a few minutes – and any media contacts you might have.

Think of it like planning a wedding.

In a moment I’m going to fly through the different stages of an ideal publicity plan.

But first – my first book – for my first book I started local. Everyone can do this!

Kids Can Cook – I had no profile at all

I rang Southside news and wrote a piece on cooking with children for them.

My church newsletter – I wrote a piece for them.
I also did a piece for my sailing club newsletter.

The Evening Herald did a piece on me – the first cookbook for children in Ireland – I friend of mine worked in the herald and she set this up. I had an angle – Dublin single mum gets kids cooking.

I did a lot of school events – during the children’s book festival – that my publisher set up and that I set up – I also did some CBI events – I basically told them what I did – cookery sessions with children- and they booked me in to schools.
Because it was something different, they really liked this. And I did several special needs schools also. Also library events

That book is still in print 10 years on and has sold thousands of copies. And it’s still selling.

If I was bringing out a first book now I would certainly use the internet to reach readers – see below for details.

For Amy Green, my latest children’s book, the publicity plans were a lot more elaborate – Walker Books made a special Amy Green website, and did some super posters and hand outs, but I still did some of the publicity myself.

Here is a what I call the ideal publicity plan – with all bases covered. If you can do some of this – great! I hope it will make you think and consider the possibilities. It is not meant to scare you, just to point out what can be done . . .

4 months before publication

Meet the pr person in your publishing house
Draw up your pr plan with the pr person

Set up your website – I would advise every children’s writer to get a website – and put the details of the website in your book so readers can contact you and also teachers and librarians can contact you.

Consider setting up a Facebook page, or a Bebo page, or Twitter or My Space – whatever suits you and your book best.

If you do not want people to know too much about you, invent a writing persona – and invent things to tell your readers – but be consistent.
But you must connect with people online these days. Especially if you want an international career.

3 months before publication

Submit feature ideas to magazines
Now this many take months, years to get anything taken – but keep at it – once you have one piece published, it is so much easier.
Are there any specialist magazines you subscribe to – try submitting an article to them – a great place to start. Or internet magazines/newsletters – again, good experience.

You could offer to review for Inis magazine (specialist Irish children’s book mag) – which is how I started reviewing – for free of course – but I got a/ experience and b/ some lovely books!

2 months before publication

Submit feature ideas to the magazines of newspapers

Set up your book launch if you would like to have one (organise your own in a local bookshop or venue – and yes, you may have to pay for the wine!)

Set up some school and library events – use your contacts – your child’s school etc
But make the events interesting – don’t just expect to go in and read to them. I spend about 3 weeks a year working on content for talks, workshops and readings and making it fresh and exciting. Work at it! Practice! Watch other authors in action and pick up ideas.
Once these events are fixed – send the details to the listings of the newspapers and also local newspapers.

And on that subject – network – go to children’s book events, join CBI, join the Society of Children’s Writers and Ilustrators.

Read Mag from CBI’s the hungry caterpillar blog; read David Maybury’s blog – full of good info. And UK and Americian blogs.

1 month before publication

Submit ideas to the features pages of newspapers – yes, you need to come up with these ideas yourself – depending on you and your life/book

Think of column ideas for guest columns (Realistically – this will be down the line when you have some experience of writing articles etc)

Write your press release (your publisher will probably do this for you – ask them for advice)

3 weeks before publication

Send out the invites to the launch

2 weeks before publication

Send out review copies of your book to relevant newspapers and magazines – eg Inis, Book Fest etc (your publisher may do this – check with them), the irish indo, the irish times.

Set up radio interviews – using your press release (again, your pr person may do this)
Don’t forget local radio – a great place to start – east coast for eg. Send a book and a press release and then ring them politely – with the blessing of your publishers of course. Local radio stations love local authors! You could do a competition and give away copies of your book.

After Publication

Start your school events and library events

Send out press release to newspapers (your pr person may do this – check with them)

If you have any news stories – this is the time to use them – advances, film deals, winning competitions, your dog winning a dog show (for the local papers!)

Angles

An ‘Angle’ – something that makes you stand out as a person for pr purposes.

Some of the ones I’ve used:

Single mum
Parent of teens and toddlers at the same time
Partner of a hopeful Olympic sailor

Other people’s angles:
Teacher – Eoin Colfer
Librarian – Patricia Scanlan
Movie geek and ex screen writer – Derek Landy

Anything that makes you different is good – and that you are prepared to talk about!

Everyone has something -
Do you keep bees?
Can you shoe a horse?
Do you dive? Travel a lot?
If so, you can write about it

Finally, I hope I’ve given you some ideas to think about.
You put 100% into writing your book – so why not put 100% into doing the best you can to promote that book? It deserves it. Writing for children, getting published and visiting and meeting young readers are rewarding and joyful experiences – and worth fighting lions and sweating blood for. I wish you all the best of luck with your own journey to publication.

Good luck!

Sarah XXX

Writing is like a relay race – lots of sprints, which have to be joined up smoothly in order to win the (publishing) race.
And in order to join those sprints up smoothly, and without dropping the baton – in our case, the thread of the story – the sprints being the snatches of time you actually get to write, you must think about your story as often as you can, certainly daily, hourly if possible!
Stay with your characters, dream their dreams, feel their hurt, their disappointment, their pain. Live your novel.
Agatha Christie once said she plotted her novels while washing the dishes. We all have dishes to wash, children to mind, teens to feed, friends to listen to . . . but never drop that baton!

Yours in writing,

SarahX

The Loving Kind - Feb 2010

Where here it is – the back cover of my new adult book – to be published in Ireland in Feb 2010 – and UK, Ireland and rest of work in paperback, Sept 2010. I’ll reveal the front within the next few weeks . . .

Hope you like it! The stars will be glittery. Tres Exciting!

SarahX

Today I’ve been dipping into a big bundle of children’s books, deciding which ones to review for the Irish Independent in the next few weeks. Mainly August and September publications, but some July and Oct ones too. And to be frank, some of them aren’t great.

These are books from all kinds of publishers: big UK publishers, smaller UK publishers, Irish publishers (and I must say the O’Brien Press early readers for July/Aug are good). There are picture books, early readers, 9 to 11 novels, teen novels. A lot of them held my attention for a few pages, and then I got bored/fed up/annoyed with them and stopped reading.

The ones that are good :
1/ In general the team at Puffin seem to be selecting good teen novels to publish at the moment – meaty, interesting, clearly intended for particular markets and jacketed this way – ie the new Charlie Higson is a horror title for teens, and the cover is black with skulls on it. It’s called The Enemy.
Great opening line: Small Sam was playing in the car park behind Waitrose when the grown ups took him.
See!

The Bride’s Farewell by Meg Rosoff has a fab cover – atmospheric pic of a girl on a horse, with lots of swirls of gold. Fitting for this 19th century set, Hardy-esque novel.
Some thoughtful publishing from Puffin.

2/ Walker – OK, OK, I’m published by Walker so I’m slightly biased. But Life Swap by Abby McDonald does exactly what it says on the cover – 2 girls, 2 different lives, laughter and tears – funny, sweet, Meg Cabot stuff.

And their Kate DiCamillo cover for the Magician’s Elephant is perfect – glowing, subtle, magical. Nice typeface inside too – different. Great book (so far).
So, again, some thoughtful publishing here.

Now, do I name and shame the ones I didn’t enjoy and put down after a few pages?

No, I wouldn’t like to hurt or upset any fellow writers – so I won’t. But suffice to say some of the writing is just plain bad, some of the covers are terrible, terrible, terrible (shame on you, publishers), and even some of the ‘names’ don’t always produce the goods – and this includes the picture book writers too.
There’s not enough heart and soul writing out there – very few of the books are making me laugh out loud, cry, gasp, people! I haven’t had a gasper for quite some time.

So, to get to the point, if you hope to, or are writing for children, take heart. The children’s book world needs you; the publishers need you; us poor reviewers need you; and damn it, most of all, the readers need you!

Original ideas, genuinely funny writing, a truly wonderful, from the heart writing voice. Fresh blood! A strong premise or hook would be an added bonus. And gets-me-in-the-belly humour – unfortunately the hardest thing of all to write. And picture book writers, please, please, please – a story for goodness sake, not just some linked images, or yet another a to z book, even if the illustrations are quite sweet.

Right, got that off my chest! More on writing for children next time . . .
SarahX

Hi All,

I’ve been hosting writing workshops over the last few weeks – to celebrate the launch of Amy Green and because it’s good fun and I love meeting young readers and writers.

Some of their ideas are  brilliant – and they really get the whole story writing thing – the importance of interesting, fun characters, exciting, unusual plots, snappy dialogue etc.

One interesting thing that came up on Thursday evening in Clondalkin library - and I think this may be useful for adults too – and forgive me if I’ve talked about it before – dialogue tags. He said, she said; he shouted – or, if you were to do it the way some teachers like it – he said quietly, she said loudly; he shouted loudly . . .

I love Roddy Doyle’s book, Wilderness. The dialogue is brilliant. And it has very few dialogue tags – only those needed to clarify who is speaking.

My first few books are littered with ’she said gently’, ‘he said passionately’ – I’ve learned by reading other writers’ work.

Even now I still have a lot to learn but I’m getting there, slowly. Inching closer and closer to writing the best book I can.

Writing – what a funny old business. The more the write, the more you learn.

Check out some of the children’s great stories on www.askamygreen.com in The Goss blog. Yes, I have two blogs now – yikes!

Sarah X

Ha, yes, I’m cheating – 3 days in one!
I have to talk in a school tomorrow and I’m taking a rest today – I’m sick – boo – I’m a terrible patient! Sinus stuff – v boring.

And I really must get back to writing – so for the next while I’ll only being doing the odd post I’m afraid – at least ……