It’s wonderful that so many people today want to write books. But I keep running into the peculiar situation of books written by people who don’t think writing matters. They write all types of books but mostly picture books because the word count is short, and the words are simple. They think that means they are fast and easy to write.
Professional children’s book authors have learned to craft a story that a young child can fully understand and be entertained by. Between the writing and the pictures, every element of the craft of writing is in the book. As in all writing, strong, simple, verbs are the key but never more so than with children’s books. Because children’s book authors are limited in what words they can use every word has to be the perfect one. You can’t have anything unnecessary in the book. There is no one in the world who understands the craft of writing who doesn’t realize writing children’s books isn’t easy.
However certain people don’t understand that. They will hire someone to do the illustrations because they can’t draw, and they don’t want to learn how to. And they’ll hire someone to do the formatting because they don’t know how to and don’t want to learn. But when it comes to not knowing how to write at a professional level they choose to not learn how to and to not hire someone to do it or help them do it. They think the least important part of a book is the writing.
Though they know that books are made up of the written word they think the quality of those words and the way they are structured has no bearing on the story. I don’t get it.
If a person has no knowledge of the craft of writing there are three ethical and sensible options to authoring a book
• ïLearn the craft of writing (so you can write it yourself)
• ïHire a ghostwriter (to write it)
• ïHire a developmental editor or book coach (to help you fix what you’ve written on your own)
But, as, I’ve mentioned, a lot of people are choosing a fourth option–unskilled writing. Let’s take the example of a children’s picture book I was handed the other day by a person who made no attempt to learn the craft of writing or utilize the other two options.
A basic in writing a children's book is a main character. She has none. The book is filled with bible verses and song lyrics (in public domain) and in between are weak, boring sentences—every one of them.
It’s a children’s picture book with a little boy in it who breaks his arm. However, we have no dialogue from him. No idea what he’s thinking or feeling. We don’t even know how he broke his arm. We do have dialogue from adults telling him he has to work hard in physical therapy so he can use his arm again. Also, in the book, these adults go to a separate room to pray for him.
She’s writing for children while showing them they should be seen and not heard as adults tell them they have to work hard at something. That’s not the way to reach young children much less entertain them. Additionally, there’s no plot.
This author could have taken the time to learn how to craft the story, hired someone with those skills to write the book, or had a skilled book coach or editorial editor guide her on fixing what she’d written. Then the author would have a quality book children would love that she would be proud of.
Why did she even want to author a book written at an unprofessional level. A book no one can enjoy and the author could never be proud of? Why write a book just to prove to everyone who reads it that they don’t know how to write professionally and won’t make the effort to learn how?
I believe they feel writing just doesn’t matter. But if they think so little of the written word, why do they want to author a book?
Moreover, I consider this to be a type of fraud because by selling the book on Amazon and other distributors she is proclaiming it to be at a professional level.
I also worry that children’s book authors who refuse to gain knowledge of how to inspire or entertain a child when it comes to the written word could turn children against reading books. We don’t want children to think reading is dumb and boring. I think we can all agree that reading good writing is a wonderful adventure that no one should miss out on.
And anyone who authors a book, especially one for children, should see that it is done well, especially since there are several options to making that happen. For anyone who hasn’t learned the craft of writing and wants to author a children’s book, The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators ‘https://www.scbwi.org/ is an excellent source.
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