any adwise on writing a book?

Question

I have begun to write books (in swedish!) And would like to have a few advices.
In youth books or childrens books are there any minimum numbers of sides? Do publisher accepts books thats say 20 a4 pages or do they want more pages?
How many pages is a "normal" book?
Is there any trick in getting say 200 pages out off a story and still make it a good story?
Whats the best way to find fact if youre low on money?
Any other hints and advices? Johan

These answers are great. Its wery helpfull to do a outline. But its still seams like wery hard work to produce say 150 pages.
Another question: What kind of formats does publisher whant the book in? Words? Works? Email? Paper?(thats look like a waste of time, I write it on computer, print it out and sent it, then some one must re write in in to the computer!) Johan

Answer 1

here are some writing sites
children's http://children.fictionfactor.com/articles.html
length http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/wordcount.html
editing + revising http://www.fictionfactor.com/honing.html
http://hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/wc2-4.html

hope this helps! good luck!

Answer 2

The size of the book depends on the age for which your book is intended. Younger children will not read a long book.

For beginning readers, a book may be as little as twenty pages long, a book for intermediate readers may be a hundred pages long, and a book for young adults may be two hundred pages long. Reckon on 250 words per page so see the upper limit as 50,000 words.

Questions to answer - what is my targetted age group?
5 - 6 year old, 8 -10 year old, 11 - 14, 15 +
What theme or knowledge are they getting from my story?
People are different? Don't trust strangers? You can overcome all obstacles if you persist?
Can my readers identify with the hero/heroine?
Hint: children like to read about children a year or two older than they are who do exciting things! Children love adventures!

Read childrens young adult books and see how authors address these issues.

Write down your ideas, and your outline of how the story develops, and who the main characters are. Then write and write until you feel there is nothing to add.

As you write, you may find you are not writing for the audience you expected - you may decide it would appeal to an older reader.
Above all, write the story you want to tell and then decide which market it is aimed at. There are no limits if you produce a great story.

Harry Potter broke rules - they are too long , set in an English school and the hero grows up as the books progress. Yet they blew the publishing world away!

Answer 3

Johan. Have gone through the saem dilema as you. Have written off over the years to prospective publishers and have followed a writing course. The answer is: if it is worth publishing and an 'original' story, it could go quite far down the line, meaning you may get people to read it.
I have found that it is what is in the story rather than how long it is, what is worth it.
Above all, it has to be an original, well thought-through and researched story line.
Good luck!!

Answer 4

it is a good think that u're writing a book: for kids book try not to make it big and try to fill it in pictures so they read it easily. and for youths try to make some slide for the story so you can success. a normal book depend on his story so you can not resemble u're book to another. why not making a book in 200 pages even more haven't u read for poalo coelho the zahir it is about 400 pages and u're very exited to countinue.
try to found a special title to attach people's mind and if u were low in money u have many chioces: maybe work a part time and maybe go to a bank. good luck with u're book.

Answer 5

Make sure you hook the reader on and provide a good plot