It must be easy to write a children's book...

How hard can it be to write a children's book? Unfortunately, this is a common misperception among those who have never actually tried to get a book published! You write a few rhyming lines, think of a simple story, send it off to a publisher and voila! Writing for children is a craft, and like any other craft, practice makes perfect. And while it may seem easy to write in "kidspeak" - for most of us, that means going back in time. Often decades have passed since most of us have thought like a kid. Brooke Shields was recently on the Today show promoting her new children's book, published by HarperCollins. I'm happy to report that she pronounced writing for children was "more difficult than she had ever imagined." The trick with children's publishing is that the author could possibly be writing for three markets: the child, the parent who will be reading the picture book to the child (perhaps hundreds of times if the book is a favorite - "Goodnight Moon" anyone?) and possibly a different person who is buying the book as a gift for the child. A picture book author must also write with thoughts of the illustrations: is there enough action in the book to provide 16 pages of illustrations? Is it varied? Will it be believable? Has it been done before? And, of course the inevitable rhyming issue. As parents we love to read verse to our kids - it's fun. Kids love to read books in verse too. But, do editors love verse? That's another post.....