Nancy I. Sanders's Blog, page 73

Highlights: Wanna Have Some Fun?

Okay, how many of you remember going to the doctor’s office as a little kid and looking for the hidden pictures in the magazine, Highlights?

I do! In fact yesterday I went to the eye doctor to get new glasses and there that magazine was sitting on the top of the coffee table in the waiting area.

As a writer it’s prestigious to get published in the Highlights magazine. And it’s tough, too. But I know many authors who successfully get published credits by submitting to Highlights. They don’t pay much and I think they purchase all rights, but it’s a big boost to your published credits as a children’s author if you can add them to your resume.

With all that in mind, I have decided that NOW, yes NOW, is the time that I’m going to write something and submit it to Highlights just for fun to see if I can get published in their magazine.

And I thought it might be extra fun to invite all of you along on the journey. I’ll share the exact process I go through to do this, so you can do it too.

So…wanna have some fun?!

Then follow along here on my blog for the next few days and weeks and let’s write and submit something for Highlights!

FIRST STEP

If you haven’t done this already, check out the current needs at Highlight’s magazine.

Print these out and put them in a manila file folder.

I did. In fact, here’s a picture of my file folder. Of course, my writing buddy Sandman had to sit on it since it’s my newest current project and he wants to get involved, too!

SECOND STEP

Go on a scavenger hunt and find as many current back issues as you can. Check out your local thrift store and even call your local doctor’s office to see if they’re getting rid of any! Plus, you can check out your local library, but the goal is to get some copies of your own to keep so we can really dig through them in the days ahead.

Here we gooooooo!

Picture Books and Magazine Stories

It used to be that magazine stories for kids were vastly different than picture books.

Now, however, the gap has become much more smaller.

The reason is the word count.

Many magazine stories are about 800 words and now children’s picture books are too.

What does this mean for us as children’s writers?

If you want to polish your picture book writing skills but are simply finding it impossible to break into the picture book market, try your hand at getting published writing magazine stories for kids instead.

It will give you great practice creating a compelling fiction story or eye-popping nonfiction article that tops out at 800 words.

It will build up your publishing credits.

It will give you experience working with editors and deadlines and even targeting a publisher by searching what a publisher’s needs are because many magazines have theme lists or current needs they’re looking for. This is all great experience to tuck under your belt if you want to gain solid footing in the picture book market.

It will reach 80,000 kids or more (depending on your magazine’s subscription base) with your story, unlike most picture books where the print run is considered successful if it can sell 5,000 copies. Not only is this an awesome way to reach today’s kids but it quickly helps build name recognition, too.

If you’d like to give it a try, search for small children’s magazine publishers who accept unsolicited manuscripts.

And if you want to start at the top, check out the current needs at Highlight’s magazine.

My Next Big Thing

Thanks for joining me back here at My Next Big Thing, a global blog tour that has been started to showcase authors and illustrators and their works-in-progress. Here’s my final batch of Q and A. After today, I’m passing the baton to the next authors showcased on the blog tour. Scroll on down to the bottom of this post for the links.

Q: Where did you get the photograph for the new cover of your book, Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children’s Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career?

A: People always ask me this when they hear I self-published a book. CreateSpace makes cover design pretty easy. You just take your own photographs, upload them to their template, and you’re set to go. (Or if you prefer, you can use one of their pictures.) But I prefer to take my own.

I’m not a big camera techie, but I like to take photos with my digital camera like most people these days.

I decided that for the cover of my how-to-write books, I wanted to showcase the baby quilts that I’ve made.

So for this cover, I went bold. I just made a pink and black quilt for my niece and nephew and their new baby (and I made one for myself as well–hey! I never know when I’ll be a grandma one of these days!). So I decided to feature my new pink and black quilt as the cover.

First I spread out my quilt on the floor in my living room. It hadn’t been down there for 10 seconds before my cat Pitterpat decided to come join in the fun. So I snapped a picture. Here it is:

And before I knew it, my orange and white cat, Sandman, decided this was worth checking into. So he came and sat on the quilt too. I snapped another picture:

By that time, Pitterpat got bored, so she ran off to look at the hummingbird flitting around outside the window. Now it was just Sandman on the quilt. So I snapped another picture:

But now I was ready to get serious about photographs for my book’s cover. I thought it would be a nice touch to arrange some of my published books on the quilt, so I put them there. By now Sandman had fallen asleep, so he was still in the picture. Here it is:

By this time, the hummingbird had flown away. So Pitterpat decided to come back and check out everything going on the quilt again. I snapped another picture and viola! I got the photograph for the new cover of my book. Can you see Pitterpat and Sandman?

Q: Do you plan on writing more how-to-write books for children’s writers?

A: Oh yes! I’m working hard on my next one already. Once again, I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag too early, but here’s a hint about it. I like to write these books on topics that have never been covered before for children’s writers. I like to base these books on real experiences from my 20 years writing books for children. My first book (the one shown here) is all about an insider’s look at the children’s book publishing industry. I share successful strategies on getting published that I’ve never seen in any other how-to book for writers.

My second book is unique as well, Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Beginning Readers and Chapter Books. There is no other book on that topic and once again, I based all the info on my years of writing successfully for the market of beginning readers and chapter books.

For my third book, it will cover a topic no other book has yet covered for children’s writers as well. But I don’t want to say what it is because I don’t want someone else grabbing the idea and coming out with their version first. Just stay tuned and I’ll let you know when it’s going to be out. Hopefully next summer!

In the meantime, I’m getting this first book out again. With its new chapter on Common Core State Standards.

And that’s it for “My Next Big Thing.” Thanks for joining in on the fun.

Now hop on over to this great blog and discover what another author is doing!

Visit Terri Foreland at her blog, Writing and Other Ways into the Heart

And here’s an opportunity to welcome a brand new blogger to cyberspace! Be sure to post a comment and congratulate author Carolyn Huston on her blog.

My Next Big Thing

Thanks for joining me back here at My Next Big Thing, a global blog tour that has been started to showcase authors and illustrators and their works-in-progress. Here’s another batch of Q and A.

Q: Are there any other projects you’ve been working on?

A: Yes! I always like to be working on 3 projects at the same time. I call this the Triple Crown of Success. I work on one project to earn income. I work on one project to build my published credits. I work on another project for personal fulfillment.

So for personal fulfillment, I’ve been busy getting Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children’s Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career, self-published. This is actually the book where I talk about the Triple Crown of Success in detail so other authors can follow their writing dreams and experience a successful writing career, too.

I had it taken out of print for awhile. One of the reasons was that I wanted to add a section in it on the Common Core State Standards.

So I’ve been getting it ready, and it’s almost there! I ordered the proof in and have been reading it ever so slowly to look for those elusive typos and formatting glitches.

Q: Which publisher are you using and why?

A: It’s with CreateSpace. I LOVE this publisher. It’s a print-on-demand publisher for people to self-publish your books. You can publish a book totally for free, or opt to pay for services you choose along the way.

This is my third book with them and I think the quality of their final product is superb.

Here are my other two books I did with CreateSpace.

Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Beginning Readers and Chapter Books

Mystery on Warrior Ridge

My Next Big Thing

Thanks for joining me back here at My Next Big Thing, a global blog tour that has been started to showcase authors and illustrators and their works-in-progress. Here’s another batch of Q and A about my current project, writing a multi-book nonfiction children’s series for the Christian market. My cat, Pitterpat, liked to hang out with me in my office as I was typing these books on my laptop, so I thought I’d snap this photo of my other writing buddy to show you.

Q: What steps did you take to help you reach the goal of writing these nonfiction books for the Christian market?

A: I knew from talking with my editor that writing these books was going to be like racing down the racetrack in the Indy 500. They wanted these books and they wanted them fast.

So I printed out a blank calendar for the next four months. I started by writing down my writing schedule each day and which sections I needed to write on each day.

This helped me stay focused and also helped me maintain a workable pace. Sometimes I got ahead of schedule and sometimes I got behind. The worst was when I got sick with a nasty cold for a week and didn’t do a THING.

In the end, I used a lot of white-out on my calendar to adjust my schedule as I needed to, but having it all written down like that really motivated me and helped me get the project done on time.

Q: Can you tell us many more details about this project?

A: Not really. When a book is at this stage, especially with a big publisher, there needs to be a measure of confidentiality. I have to wait for the publisher to give me the go-ahead to lift the confidentiality curtain.

Then it will be full steam ahead as I work with my publisher to market, promote, and get the word out about these books! I can hardly wait to tell you all about them!!!!

My Next Big Thing

My Next Big Thing is a global blog tour, started in Australia, to showcase authors and illustrators and their current work. I was tagged by the author of Independence Day from A to Z, Catherine L. Osornio. Hop on over to her blog and learn the story behind the story about her amazing book!

I get to be part of the tour for the next two weeks, and then I’ll pass the blog along to two more cyberspace writer friends, Terri Forehand and Carolyn Ellenberger, who will pick up the tour on August 1. I’ll send you the links to their blogs on that day.

Here we goooooo! Let’s talk about my next big thing!

Q: What book projects have you been working on?

A: Since March, I’ve been consumed by one of the most interesting writing projects I’ve ever done. It’s a multiple-book series for the Christian market.

I feel like I’ve been traveling back through time in a time machine to explore various aspects of Christianity…and then I have to zoom forward to the 21st Century to write it in such a way that will appeal to today’s kids. All this zooming around has been a lot of fun.

Q: When will these books come out?

A: Not sure about the publication dates yet…but after four intense months of writing, the books are finally written. Soon they’ll enter the editorial stage and then the production stage when they’re getting ready to send to the printers.

I’ll keep you all posted on titles and publication dates and covers as those final decisions come down to me through the editorial pipeline.

Q: In what genre do these books fall?

A: Nonfiction! So for the last four months, I set up a folding table as my research center. I piled all my research books on the table in stacks according to their topic. Keeping these all in one handy spot really helped me save time during the research process. Here’s a picture with my cat Sandman hanging out with me!

Goals

Are you a goal-setter? Are you a goal-oriented person? Are you a goal-oriented writer?

If not, I recommend that you start setting goals, no matter how small, for your writing.

For example, 2 years ago I decided that for personal fulfillment as a writer, I wanted to learn how to write chapter books for kids. (Think early chapter books, middle grade novels, and YA novels.)

That was my goal.

So then I thought about the steps I could take to set out on a journey towards my goal.

I didn’t really want to just start this journey alone, so I decided to have a writing class meet in my home for 4 weeks. I also decided to teach this class (I learn so much when I have to prepare to teach something!) but I could easily have invited a writer friend to teach the class if I didn’t want to. All it takes is some digging around and researching how other writers write chapter books and then sharing the information to teach about what you discover.

And then we met for 4 weeks and we each wrote a chapter book/Middle Grade Novel in 1 month.

That was a short term goal and yippee!!!! I reached my goal of learning how to write a chapter book for kids. (Afterwards I recorded that very same workshop as an audio teleclass and it’s available for sale at the Working Writers Club.)

So then I added a new short term goal to my goal of learning how to write chapter books for kids. I made it my goal to repeat the steps in the workshop again by myself and write another middle grade novel.

So I wrote my next one. And then I submitted that one to my agent and she accepted it and started to shop it around. (No takers yet but we’re still shopping!)

And somewhere in there, I heard about a callout for a publisher looking for a writer to write chapter books for them. So I submitted my sample writing per their guidelines and landed the job! Since then I’ve written two chapter books under their contracts and am just starting on my third for them.

Now I’m writing chapter books for the goal to earn income where I’m signing contracts before I write the books and working with editors and really having a blast.

So…how does that relate to your own writing life?

Are you setting goals? Are you a goal-oriented writer?

If not, start today. And it’s okay to start small.

Start with setting a new goal for your personal fulfillment as a writer. Is there a skill or technique you’d like to study? Is there a certain manuscript you’ve been carrying around on your heart that you’d like to start…or finish?

Do you want to do the journey alone? If so, set small practical steps that you can do this week and next week and the next to work toward your goal.

Would you rather have other writers join you in your journey? Then contact some of your writer friends! Invite one or more of them to teach about the skill you want to learn or volunteer to teach it yourself. Then embark on your journey together. It’s fun! Plus, it’s very very satisfying as a writer to actually take your own progress in your own hands and move forward along your journey.

Go for it!

Hobby or Career?

I was working on my current manuscript and got up from my desk to go grab a research book from the other room. I walked past my window, and just outside I saw this gorgeous orange dragonfly in my little flower garden, enjoying a tasty brunch.

Since dragonflies are rare and seldom seen here in our yard, I decided to drop everything and grab my camera. I’m glad I did. He was very happy to pose for me and I got right up to him and snapped a dozen or so gorgeous pictures. Isn’t he a beauty? He was sitting on a succulent that was blooming in my little birdbath turned succulent garden.

I like to garden, as you may have guessed by now. Since we live in a suburb of Los Angeles, we just have a little yard but I like to plant flowers and grow seedlings and walk along my little stone pathway through the trees.

Gardening, for me, is a hobby. I enjoy going to the plant nursery now and then and purchasing a new variety of flower or plant to see if I like it or how it grows in my soil. I like to read through the gardening books I purchase occasionally from the thrift store, and learn about how to tend different plants here in this near-desert heat we live in.

I never plan to make gardening a career. I don’t ever want to work at a plant nursery or sell seedlings I grow to people in my neighborhood. It’s not even a SERIOUS hobby in that I don’t ever go the next level or do stuff like fertilize regularly or have a compost heap or install drip irrigation systems to better water my plants more effectively. It’s just a nice little hobby I do when I feel like it.

Writing, however, is a different story. It’s my career. I treat it differently than a hobby.

How about you? Is writing a hobby for you? Do you like to try out different types of genres as you feel like it? And if it’s a hobby, is it a casual hobby or a SERIOUS hobby where you’re really dedicated to learning all you can about it?

Or is writing your career? (Or do you want to make it your career?)

And if you’ve already made it your career, are you just starting out or earning a substantial income each year?

There are no right or wrong answers to these questions…whatever works for you is what’s best!

It’s just good to identify your commitment to writing because it will help you be more motivated to set goals to maintain your level of commitment to writing. This will help bring satisfaction to you personally.

Sneak Peak

Hey! Here’s a sneak peak at the new cover design I’ve created for my writing book, Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children’s Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career.

Do you like the pink and white quilt in the background? I just made that! Plus, can you find my two cats on there? They decided to sit on the quilt while I was doing a photo-shoot so I decided to put them on the cover! (Sandman is orange and white, Pitterpat is a Siamese snowshoe) And I put some of my favorite published books in the cover picture, too. What do you think?

I decided for a variety of reasons to self-publish my first book for writers in the Yes! You Can series.

One of the reasons I’ve decided to do that is because I wanted to update it and include a section on Common Core State Standards.

It’s been a fun journey. I had the book taken out of print for awhile. During that time, I wrote the new section on Common Core State Standards. Then I reformatted the entire book to fit into CreateSpace’s template. That took me some time, but whew! It was worth it. I really like working with CreateSpace from step one to the finish line. Most of all, because they put out a quality product and it’s totally free! (Okay, I did opt to pay $25 for it to be available in bookstores and I paid $8 for them to send me a copy of my proof to review. But you don’t have to do that…you can do it totally for free. And even at that price, it practically feels free ’cause it’s so cheap.)

And now I just have to spend time finalizing the proof checking for those elusive typos.

But as soon as I finish that, my book will be up and ready to purchase again! This time it will be available at online bookstores AND you can order it in at your favorite local bookstore AND you can order in multiple copies for using it to teach classes, too!

I’ll let you know as soon as it’s available, but for starters, I wanted to let you all get a sneak peak at the new exciting cover!

Author Interview: Brock Eastman

Meet Author Brock Eastman!

Web site: Brock Eastman: Author, Daddy, and Imagination Explorer!

Facebook: facebook.com/eastmanbrock

Twitter: twitter.com/bdeastman

YouTube: youtube.com/user/FictionforAll

Pinterest: pinterest.com/brockeastman/

E-mail: info (a) brockeastman (dot) com

Email Subscription: BrockEastman.com and click subscribe

Bio:

Brock Eastman lives in Colorado. Inspiration comes on his morning drives to work with America’s Mountain in view. He lives there with his wife, three kids, and two cats. Growing up in the Midwest, Brock enjoys autumn most and misses the chilly sweatshirt morning air and colorful leaves. Brock is the author of The Quest for Truth and Sages of Darkness series and writes for The Imagination Station series. You may have seen him on the Official Adventures in Odyssey podcast and Social Shoutout, informing Adventures in Odyssey fans about the latest news. He works at Focus on the Family as the Odyssey Adventure Club producer. He enjoys getting letters and artwork from fans.

Featured Book: Unleash

Book 3 in the Quest for Truth series

Claws raised, mouth open, it was coming for her!

Game on! The Wikk kids must unleash fresh courage in the face of new adventures! Working as a team, they face their greatest dangers yet: lies, betrayal, a frozen planet, and fierce lizards that want to eat them all! Facing their fears and searching for answers, Oliver and Tiffany slip into a high-security laboratory while Mason, Austin, and Obbin battle Corsair pirates and make a shocking discovery! Will they be able to unlock the truth about Creator and take the next step? Will you?

Interview:

Q: What exciting news do you have to share with us today, Brock?

A: We’re having a big promotion this week for my Quest for Truth series.

Book 1 in the series, Taken, is $0.99 on Kindle.

And Book 3 in the series, Unleash, releases for the first time ever on Kindle!

For more information on the first three books in this series, click on these links:

Book 1: Taken

Book 2: Risk

Book 3: Here’s an awesome Youtube video with Brock on his third book in this series and what he hopes to bring to his readers.

Q: What inspires you most as a writer?

A: Inspiration is all around us. God created an immersive world with sound, sight, touch, smell, taste and so much more. I really love listening to soundtracks while I write and often will click through pictures of beautiful places like islands, castles, jungles, bridges, and even mysterious narrow paths. I find that a good cup of coffee or apple cider also inspire me; how though I can’t say exactly? Those are few examples of sound, sight, and even taste. I was inspired to write The Quest for Truth after a conversation about clean entertainment for kids really got me rolling. I wanted to create a series that was safe for kids but had all the adventure and excitement as most YA series. I hope you’ll find I accomplished that with Taken, Risk, and Unleash.

Q: Describe part of the research process it took to write this book.

A: Though this is a work of fiction, I actually did have quite a bit of research. I use a lot of science fiction terms, but all things are based on a reality. So keeping up to speed on technology and space exploration terms is essential. Reading scientific articles and understanding key terms is important to building a believable world.

Q: Where do you get most of your ideas?

A: Ideas are all around us. I read books and news articles. I find that news articles give us a snippet of a story, but then my mind gets whirling and I want to know the ‘fictitious’ background story behind all of it. A lot of time I get ideas while taking hot showers, I can’t quite explain it. But something opens my mind and I am in solitude. I think God speaks to me or gives me ideas during that time.

Q: Please share one word of advice you’d like say to encourage other aspiring writers for the middle grade or young adult market.

A: If you’re still in school, PAY ATTENTION! I was not a good English or Literature student and I wish I could get all that time back and pay attention. Of course the path God has placed me on is pretty awesome, so I suppose I wouldn’t change anything. I recommend seeking God’s plan for you, finding Him and letting Him lead you. That is what I’ve done, though sometimes not as willingly as I should have.