Writing a Children's Book

I'm always surprised at the number of women who tell me they would like to write a children's book. And indeed, I thought about it for several years before I wrote one. I think a lot of people want to write a children's book because they believe it is shorter than an adult book, and therefore easier. In most cases they are, indeed, shorter (I'll except J.K Rowling here), but they may not be any easier. They are different and it takes a certain type of personality to write a good children's book. You have to be able to identify with children, but of course, you may be one of those that can. You never know until you try.
The first thing you'll have to do is select a topic and a title. I live on a small farm with three goats, two horse, a mule and some chickens, so it was perhaps natural for me to write about them. I selected a small goat that we had named "Baby" as the main character, and decided to call the book "Baby's in the Doghouse." As it had turned out earlier, we had put a small doghouse in the goat pen so that Baby would have some protection from the other goats, as they tended to be rather mean to her.
So look around and see what you can come up with. Maybe you have a dog or a cat you could use. Or think back to when you were young. What type of book did you like? Needless to say there are a lot of possibilities.
Once you have a title and subject, you need a story, and you need to be sure that it will be of interest to a child. This brings up the question: what age group are you directing your book at? Is it for 3 to 6 year olds, or 9 to 14 years olds? It makes a big difference; the story line will be quite different depending on their age.
And regardless of age, the book will have to have some pictures in it. If it is for very young children, in fact, it will likely have to have a lot of pictures. But even older children like some pictures. Are you planning on drawing your own pictures, or will you have to hire an artist. If you're only so so as an artist I would suggest hiring somebody.
Getting back to the story, one of the best ways to decide on a good story is to read several other children's books. If you have a small child, you've no doubt read many stories to them, so this may not be a problem for you. Nevertheless, I'd look over a number of books. And of course, this is where your imagination and creativity come in. Almost everything you can think up has been written about numerous times. But don't despair. One way of overcoming this is to think of a new twist on an old story. Anyway, I'll leave this to you.
Once you've finished your story, the next step is to get it published, and for this you'll have to send out what is called a "query letter." In this letter you will describe you book, explain why children would love it, and describe your qualifications. Unfortumately, as with all books, if you are a new writer, it's not easy to get a publisher to accept your book, and after a dozen or so rejections almost anyone gets rather dejected. Fortunately there is an alternative: you can publish it yourself, and with todays technology this has become relatively easy. Of course, you'll also have to sell it yourself, but you'd be surprised how many you can sell with a little work. Anyway, I'll describe some of these things in later posts.
Check out my website at BarryParkerbooks.com