

Content Curation is the act of discovering, gathering, and presenting digital content that surrounds specific subject matter. – econtent.com
2. Chuck Sambuchino at Writers Digest has nicely curated (see what I did there?) agents looking for manuscripts about diverse topics or by diverse voices via Twitter. Thank you, Chuck!
3. Dan Blank, an industry expert, posts on Writer Unboxed about what editors and agents really want. The headings alone are worth emblazoning on a sticky note.
Look at your current WIP with only this thought in mind and create at least three new approaches for your ms. BTW, just changing POV doesn’t count for this exercise!
Even if the approach doesn’t sing, you’ll never regret trying because you will learn something in the process. I pinky promise.
S T R E T C H!
However, my world, like yours, is full of Must Do’s, Should Do’s, Want to Do’s, and Should Have Done’s. About a month ago, I had to get real with myself and realize my time management tool/s weren’t working. Being a bit of a techjunkie, I’ve used multiple high functioning tools such as colored-coded Excel spreadsheets, I, J, and Kcalendars, and I even resorted to adrenaline-producing phone alarms.
Still, I puttered when I should have been plotting, I worked around projects when I needed to dive in and accomplish. And, finally, the Get Real Moment came when I crashed into a deadline full speed and narrowly met it. That’s not me.
Remember that old adage that probably Oprah said, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten” or something like that? Well, I decided to shake things up and go old school. And it’s working so well, I want to share. Ready to have your socks knocked?
Mine are: NI (my freelance job), SCBWI, Books, YAC (a volunteer position I hold), Home, and Apt. (What’s an apt, you ask? I own and manage a mixed use building so am busy getting an apartment or an “apt” rented right now.) Now, add bullet points for things that need doing. Add your own notes and hieroglyphics, and then Cross Items Off When Done! (ahhh, doesn’t that feel good?!)
Low tech, high reward. You’re welcome.
Why not try shades of BETTER?
Start where you are and strive to make the work BETTER using whatever criteria needs applying (e.g., better for my audience readability, better for the current market need, better for rhythm/cadence/lyricism, etc.). Of course, this means we must first identify the end goal, but that’s very doable.
I challenge you to ditch the limitations of “good” or “bad” as they apply to your work.
Good? Bad? Blech. Better is…BETTER.
This catalog by Sterling Publishing is particularly informative because they provide info on the author, illustrator, and the hook of each book. When you read this section, you can almost hear the editors at acquisition discussing the marketing potential and sale-ability of the manuscript. Here is an example:
The Key Selling Points may be the most important piece for study. Sterling is delivering on a digital platter the many ways this book and this author will appeal to buyers. They are giving bookstores reasons to say yes to buying this book for their shelves and talking points they can use to handsell the book to customers.
As writers, we can study the Key Selling Points and extrapolate to our own WIP. Picture editors and the marketing team debating the merits of your manuscript at acquisition. Does it have the potential for a large audience (notice how Sterling gives numbers of soccer players to illustrate the potential? — again, good material for a cover or query letter)? Does it have opportunities for diversity in illustration or in storyline? Not every book must, but it is an important aspect of our book culture and most publishers are invested in creating more diversity in children’s books. Does it offer a new take on a universal theme (in this case, the importance of teamwork and persistence)?
To land the deal, we want these hooks — and/or others that correspond to your topic and theme — to be sharp.
** What are the Key Selling Points for your WIP? Try listing them. If you can’t, maybe the project needs a slightly better focus. **
Continuing the Hey, Coach! page tour, take a look at the marketing and publicity section:
■ National print and online publicity campaign
■ Blog tour
■ Goodreads giveaway
■ Local events in author’s hometown of Chapel Hill, NC
Which of these items above do you think the author will have a hand in? If you said, “All” you are correct. There will be support from Sterling, but the author (and illustrator) will be on the front line and behind the scenes making this campaign successful.
Just for comparison, here is the marketing and publicity campaign section for Tammi Sauer and Vanessa Brantley-Newton’s fall release with Sterling called Mary Had a Little Glam. Both creators have a deep platform and Sterling is going big on this one:
■ Author appearance at ALA
■ National print and online publicity campaign
■ Included in Sterling’s Children’s White Box mailing (an American Booksellers Association program to mail promotional material to independent bookstores)
■Review copy mailing to organizations and websites supporting diversity in children’s books
■ National book tour
■ Trade advertising campaign
■ Digital focus on children’s book review and mommy blogs
■ Author to promote on her social media platforms and website
Again, lots of support from the publisher, but also lots of time investment by the creative duo as well.
Call me a catalog geek, but there is so much to learn from these pages. Grab your mug, your mouse, and see what you find. I’d love to hear your observations.
Avoiding didactic writing or themes might be one of the hardest concepts when beginning to write for children. I get it; our adult mind — either consciously or unconsciously — wants to share what we’ve learned and what we know. We may feel that children of today need a nudge in the right moral direction. Or if we are of a certain age and grew up when more teaching-heavy stories were the norm, it could feel familiar and natural to write a story with a strong message.
However, I want you to succeed as a writer of children’s books and these type of stories will likely not be acquired in today’s market because:
1. a didactic story reflects the writer’s ideology and unique perspective instead of allowing the reader to bring their own perspective to the story
2. a didactic story narrows the scope of the story to only the writer’s experience instead of opening the reader to new worlds
3. a didactic story often has only one layer — the moral or teaching — instead of offering many layers for self-understanding and growth.
Great literature doesn’t tell you what to think or how to feel. It simply creates the space for those thoughts to happen on their own.”
— Oprah Winfrey
created by Michigan SCBWI member, Lindsay K. Moore