Nancy I. Sanders's Blog, page 53

Christmas Gospel Tract

It already feels like Christmas here at my house. I’ve been listening to Christmas music all day long and researching what really happened at the first Christmas 2000 years ago. That’s because for the last month I’ve been writing stuff for a Christmas project I’m working on. I only have until next Wednesday for my deadline, but am almost done. Whew!

So today I felt like taking a break and putting together some of the exciting things I’ve been enjoying and make a Gospel tract for kids.

It’s free!

You can download both sides of the tract (front and inside) at my store at Teacher’s Pay Teachers. Then you can print it out, back-to-back.

*Print it out and share it with the kids you cherish. (Encourage them to share it with their friends, too.)

*Print it out and give it with your gifts this Christmas.

*Print it out and mail it with your Christmas cards to your family and friends.

It’s my (early) Christmas gift to you this year! Feel free to use it in whatever way you want and share the TRUE gift of Christmas with others.

CLICK HERE to download the front page of the Gospel tract. (See above)

CLICK HERE to download the inside page of the Gospel tract. (See below)

Then print them back-to-back, fold like a trifold, and share the Gospel with your family and friends.

Filed under: Inspiration

Writing Opportunity: Research Books Arrived

Last night I picked up my research books that I ordered in at my local library.

You see, even though we’re writing simple little nonfiction manuscripts, the research process is still important. I want to back up my facts with solid sources.

So here’s what I’m planning on doing in the next few upcoming days:

Finish the text of my manuscripts.

I’m writing one to submit to Kaeden and one to self-publish and sell in my store at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Finish the sidebars in my text.

These will be simple yet informative, just like the sidebars in my mentor text, THE BIRD FEEDER.

Finish the footnotes to verify the research in my text.

I want to plug in 3 resources for each fact I state.

Add in art suggestions to accompany my text.

For my one story, I will be submitting it to Kaeden. I plan to suggest one main photograph that will have a different object photoshopped in for each new page.

For my second story, I will self-publish it. I want to dig around on royalty free sites that I shared about in a previous post. If I find enough photographs I can use, I plan to use these. If not, I plan to use one main photograph that I took. I will copy and paste a different royalty-free image on this photograph for each new page in my story.

I’ve actually been progressing more slowly on this adventure than I originally planned. That’s because I have various book manuscripts (and magazine stories) in the publication stage. Every day, it seems, I have one or more editors with various publishers contacting me with things I need to do right away to keep the books or magazines on their production schedule. Just to give you a peek at some of the stuff that goes on during this stage, here are a few of the tasks I’ve had to deal with in this past week alone with various publishers:

*Schedule a phone appointment with marketing to discuss ideas for the book’s website

*Write 6 new pages of content ASAP to get to the illustrator so he can start working on that section

*Fill out tax forms so I can get paid on one project

*Reschedule the phone appointment with marketing due to a snowstorm in their area

*Receive a book map prepared by the editor with the entire text of my picture book plugged into each page so that I can edit it for typos and prepare for upcoming editing sessions in the next two weeks

*Read over a contract that’s in negotiations and call the publisher’s legal department to straighten out some issues

*E-mail marketing to thank him for creating the awesome bookmarks that arrived on my doorstep on Monday for my new books

*Connect with my agent to contact the contracts guy so that we can get paid in a timely manner

How is your book manuscript coming along that you want to submit to Kaeden? If you haven’t yet done so, plan to finish writing your manuscript text, your sidebars, and your photo suggestions.

In upcoming posts we’re going to talk about finalizing the text by adding in front and back matter (table of contents, glossary, word lists, etc.). Then I’m also going to share the cover letter I’m writing so you can copy it and send it in with yours, too. I have an extra special secret strategy that I’ve used time and time again in my cover letter and it’s gotten me so many book contracts I can’t even remember the exact number. I’ll share that with you. Then we’ll talk about the submission process and actually put that puppy in the mail.

And then, after that, I’ll share the process I go through to self-publish my second manuscript for sale on Teachers Pay Teachers. (If you want to do the same, go ahead and set up a free store there so you’re ready to self-publish your own story, too. When you set up a store, you first have to post several free items such as bookmarks or printable teacher worksheets. So go ahead and get that all done as soon as possible. Then you’ll be ready to post your story and sell it like I plan to sell mine.)

So stay tuned! Lots of fun stuff up ahead!

Filed under: Beginning Readers, Nonfiction

Writing Opportunity: Searching for Images and Creating Art

Over my writing career, I’ve had to work extensively with finding images for publishers to use in my books.

For two of my nonfiction books, I had to find, acquire, (and pay for) all the images in the books! Here are my books I’ve done that for:

 

FREDERICK DOUGLASS FOR KIDS

AMERICA’S BLACK FOUNDERS

 

Needless to say, I figured out FAST how I can get the most free images I could use.

 

This experience has come in handy as I have also self-published some teacher resources in my store on the site Teachers Pay Teachers.

 

Here are some tips on how you can find images that you can use, too.

 

1. Sometimes I take photographs that I can use. (I don’t have a high-quality camera. But it’s digital and not just a cell-phone.) I always take a ton of photos and hope that at least one isn’t fuzzy or out of focus.

1.A. If it’s in a public place such as a wheel on a wagon or a tree, usually you don’t need to get permission to use it. Here’s a photograph I took of a wagon wheel and put it in a word file for a read-aloud play on the gold rush that my husband Jeff wrote: CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH.

 

1.B. If it’s inside a museum or belongs to someone OR if it has an identifiable person in the photo, you do need to get written permission to use it. Hopefully, they’ll let you use it for free. Many of the images I used in FREDERICK DOUGLASS FOR KIDS were from museums that let me use the photographs I took for free.

 

2. Another way to use photographs or images is to get them from free sites.

2.A. Here’s a link I posted about using Creative Commons on Flickr.

 

2.B. And here is an amazing resource Laura Purdie Salas put up with tons of links for royalty-free images. (Thank you, Laura!!!!)

 

3. Of course, you can always pay for images to use. I’ve had to do that, too, for the two books that I mentioned above. Here’s a blog post I wrote with some info about that.

 

And here’s another post on photo research as well.

4. And sometimes I use Inkscape, a free drawing program to create my own clipart. It takes me awhile to do it and it’s not very good, but if you like to do this, it’s definitely an option. Here’s a product I sell in my store at Teacher’s Pay Teachers where you can see some clipart I’ve made.

Here’s one of my favorite clipart I created:

 

 

 

 

 

If you have any questions about all this, just let me know!

 

 

Filed under: Uncategorized

Writing Opportunity: Another Decision

Okay, writing friends! I’ve made another decision.

Since this is a teaching blog where we share and learn about how to do all things writing for children, I have decided to write TWO nonfiction stories.

One I will submit to Kaeden Books.

The other one I will publish on Teachers Pay Teachers.

I have two stories I’ve been working on anyhow all along. I couldn’t decide which one to submit to Kaeden Books first. So now that problem is solved.

I’ll submit the one to Kaeden Books and will continue explaining the real steps I’m taking, really, as I walk forward on this journey. This way you can take an inside peek on how a children’s writer goes through this process and also you can follow along and write and submit a manuscript of your own!

But for my other story, I’ll create it in a Word document file, pictures and all, and I’ll explain the steps I take to complete this one, too. Then I’ll publish it on Teachers Pay Teachers in my store. This way you can see how easy it is…really really easy!…to publish these little stories yourself on Teachers Pay Teachers (or other site) and earn money from them!

Filed under: Beginning Readers, Inspiration, Nonfiction, Writing Tips

Writing Opportunity: Photographs

As I was doing a lot of research for my nonfiction manuscript that I’m working on to submit to Kaeden Books, I started to see various photographs that I could potentially recommend for Kaeden to use in my manuscript as well.

That reminded me that I need to work on potential photographs.

I’m assuming that Kaeden Books might not have a huge budget for photographs. Most publishers are tight on this these days in this economy.

So I plan to recommend photographs they can use for each page of my book.

That led me to a question:

What kind of photographs does Kaeden use in their books?

I started digging around for an answer by looking first at my mentor text, THE BIRD FEEDER.

Hop on over and take a look at the Google Preview. Look closely at the art.

Notice something?

It’s the same empty bird feeder in every photograph.

The birds and the squirrel have been photoshopped on!

If you look at the copyright page, it says that this was done by Signature Design.

So let’s check out a different book of theirs, APPLES.

Take a look at the Google Preview. These photographs look different in each one.

If you look at the copyright page, it shows the photo credits for each different page.

Go ahead and explore various of their nonfiction books like this, including your mentor text, to see how the photographs were acquired.

For my particular manuscript, I have given the art some thought. I think my story will work well with photographs that are the same on every page but have a different item photoshopped in. OR, there are actually photographs in the public domain at the Library of Congress that could be used.

What art design would work in your manuscript, do you think?

Give this some careful thought.

Why?

For several reasons:

1) I think it might be nice to recommend a potential art concept for your book in your cover letter. Normally you wouldn’t do this for a fiction picture book manuscript, but I think it could help give you an edge over other submissions if you recommend this for yours.

2) Since I’m going to publish this book even if Kaeden rejects it, I can either use free photographs I find or use an art program such as Inkscape to make my own images without too much time.

3) If I find free images or make my own, then I can use these on a website I build when my book is published or for creating marketing items such as bookmarks and student worksheets that will help market my book.

I’ll talk more in an upcoming post about art options you can acquire for free, especially if you decided to self-publish this manuscript.

Filed under: Beginning Readers, Nonfiction

Writing Opportunity: Get It Published!

I have decided that all my work on this nonfiction manuscript I’m writing will lead to a successful end. It WILL get published!

That’s because we work in a wonderful day and age here in the children’s publishing industry. If someone else doesn’t publish our book, we can! For free!

So first, after I finish my manuscript, I will submit it to Kaeden Books. I’m hoping they will publish it. But if I haven’t heard from them for 3 months, then I will assume they have rejected it. That’s the standard rejection policy these days.

So then, I am going to publish it myself!

There are various ways to do this:

Save it as a pdf file and sell it or give it away as a downloadable file from your website or blog.

Publish it for free as a paperback book with CreateSpace.

Publish it as an e-book for free with Kindle Kids’ Book Creator.

Here is my favorite so far:

Save it as a pdf file and sell it in my store on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Somehow knowing that this manuscript will get published no matter what has renewed my motivation, energy, and enthusiasm for this project.

I encourage you to make a similar decision today.

So if you’ve gotten behind because you’re thinking your manuscript might not get published anyhow, then think that way no longer. You CAN get this manuscript published whether Kaeden picks it up or you publish it yourself at Teachers Pay Teachers (or some other free site).

Filed under: Beginning Readers, Nonfiction

Book Review: NKJV Study Bible

NKJV Study Bible

Thomas Nelson Publishers

This is a Bible dictionary, Bible atlas, Bible handbook, and complete NKJV Bible all in one handy volume! Full color maps are featured in most books of the Bible that show where events were happening in that book. References to Greek and Hebrew word origins in Strong’s concordance are accompanied by a brief word study of that entry. Brief insight into most verses plus in-depth discussions of key concepts fill the lower half of each page with meaty information.

Last month we started a new study on Wednesday nights at my church where we will be reading through the book of Isaiah verse by verse and chapter by chapter from beginning to end. Can I tell you how excited I am to think of bringing this along for the next two years or so that we’ll be digging in deep on one of my favorite books of the Bible?!

One of the things I appreciate about this Bible is that it refers to Israel as “The Holy Land” on historic maps. I wish all my Bibles had this, especially since Jesus himself referred to the region as Israel in his day. (See Luke 4:25)

My other personal favorite is reading the BIBLE TIMES & CULTURE NOTES that help me understand the context of the era various events took place in. These colorful boxes also have photographs of archaeological finds to help bring the Bible to life.

Here is what the publisher shares about this amazing new study Bible:

The NKJV Study Bible, the most comprehensive study Bible available, now in a full-color edition with added features! The acclaimed NKJV Study Bible is the most complete study system for all who desire accurate study in God’s Word. The Second Edition includes more features to make it the best all-purpose study Bible. Using the trusted New King James Version, The NKJV Study Bible has “the mind of a scholar and the heart of a pastor.” Nelson’s skilled team of scholars has produced the system to reach for when study in God’s Word is the goal.

Features include:

NEW attractive full-color page design

NEW stunning Bible-land photos and graphics

NEW in-text maps and charts

Full cross-references with textual notes

Word studies and indexes

Bible Times and Culture Notes

Book introductions, outlines, and timelines

Reader-friendly notes and articles ideal for extended study

Deluxe NKJV Concordance including proper names

-Thanks, BookLook Bloggers for another wonderful free book in exchange for my honest review!

Filed under: Book Review

Writing Opportunity: Research

Today as I worked on my nonfiction manuscript for Kaeden Books, I focused on the research.

THE BIBLIOGRAPHY

I created a bibliography of books and reliable Internet sources. I added this to the end of the manuscript.

Most of these books I found by searching on Amazon for nonfiction books on my topic. Then, since the book I’m writing only needs several facts to verify, I found most of the research by using the LOOK IN THE BOOK feature.

THE FOOTNOTES

I copied and pasted each bibliographical entry into the footnote for each fact I stated, including the page number of the book where I found that fact.

THE LIBRARY

Then I went to my local online library site and actually ordered in all but one of the books I’d found on Amazon. That way I can actually photocopy the pages I need to back up my research and keep in my files.

THE EXTRA MATERIAL

In doing my research I found so many fun facts that could be used in my book! So I collected a list of these at the end of my manuscript, plus the footnote of where these facts were found. I want to keep these for 2 reasons:

1) I want to dig around on Kaeden Books and see if I can include more pages in my manuscript.

2) If I don’t use these in the actual manuscript, they will make great additions to a website I can build when this book gets published.

THE DECISION

Okay…did you catch what I just said?

I said WHEN this book gets published.

Not IF this book gets published.

That’s because I reached a place today where I made a decision. I decided this manuscript WILL GET PUBLISHED. Yours can, too. I’ll explain how in the next post.

Filed under: Beginning Readers, Nonfiction

Writing Opportunity: Nonfiction Sidebars

In a previous post here on my blog, we talked about writing the main nonfiction story of your manuscript.

Today let’s talk about writing the nonfiction sidebars that many of Kaeden’s nonfiction books feature.

For starters, let’s talk about how to format a sidebar in your manuscript. Here’s how I like to do that, based on their book THE BIRD FEEDER:

Page 4 Blue Bird

One blue bird is

on the bird feeder.

Page 5

[Sidebar]

Male and female Blue

Jays are the same color.

Acorns are their favorite

food.

[End of Sidebar]

Basically, put the words in brackets:

[Sidebar] at the beginning of the sidebar.

[End of Sidebar] after the sidebar is done.

Anything in [brackets] tells the editor it is something for the editor to know.

Now is the time, if you haven’t yet done this, to go back in the nonfiction story you’ve been working on and add sidebars based on how your mentor text does it.

For example, you can look at how THE BIRD FEEDER has sidebars by seeing where the words are on the photographs.

READING LEVEL

You’ll notice that the sidebars are a much more advanced reading level than the actual story. Higher level vocabulary words such as “dull” or “warbler” are used.

Also, more complex sentences are used and they don’t repeat sentence structure as the main story line does.

You’re a little more free to write the sidebars than you were when you wrote the main story text. Just keep it simple, still, based again on the example of which mentor text you’ve chosen from Kaeden Books to use.

RESEARCH

For a nonfiction book manuscript such as this, I like to have 3 reliable research sources for each fact I state. By reliable I mean that I’ll use info from the Smithsonian site or the online Britannica Encyclopedia and not someone’s personal blog. Here’s the standard format for citing internet sites that some of my publishers use:

Author’s Name of site. “Name of page.” Accessed Month, Day, Year. URL.

Here’s what that looks like:

Eccleston, Jim. “Chronology of the Siege of Yorktown.” Accessed March 21, 2014. http://www.nps.gov/york/historyculture/siegetimeline.htm.

I document these in footnotes on my manuscript. Then, after I have all my footnotes documented, I save this file as the FILE NAME WITH FOOTNOTES.

Next I go back through and save a new version of the file WITHOUT any footnotes.

So if you haven’t yet done this on your own manuscript, go ahead and write your sidebars and plug in your footnotes. If you have any questions, just let me know!

Filed under: Beginning Readers

Happy Halloween!

Here’s a fun coloring page that you can do with your little ones or print out and give to children who ring your doorbell tonight!

pumpkin coloring page

And for more free printables, Halloween Gospel tracts to print and distribute, and a free brochure with fun activities to help have a Christ-centered holiday this year with your family, CLICK HERE to visit the site of my church.

Filed under: Inspiration