Iwould really like to write childrens' books,but how to start ?

Question

I am a 56 yr old recently retired elem teacher and hold a wealth of info in my head and have the ability to write, but I just don't even know how to start. I am not an illustrator at all but am extremely good at getting religious ideas down to their level and could use photos but how do you do this when picture books are mostly pics ? I have the words and ideas. I know how hard it is to sell the books, I can self publish

Answer 1

It's not a picture book you want. It's simply a story book you want to write. You can always advertise for an illustrator, but it's getting the story out that you need to worry about. Just write a story. It will need to teach a lesson, or be used to teach how to read. You have to have fun with words and the sounds of words. Using made up words is even acceptable in childrens books. I strongly recommend the book "Through the Eyes of a Child". It's the book I use to teach my childrens literature course to college students wanting to become teachers. It's an excellent resource tool for anyone interested in childrens literature. It's updated regularly and really has it's 'hand' on the pulse of childrens literature.

Once you get the story written, then you'll be ready to tackle the idea of publication. I have a colleague in Australia that self-publishes her own childrens books. Then she arranges story times with various elementary schools and libraries. She's successful at this. You might be as well.

Good luck to you! :o)

Answer 2

Any good agent worthy of the name can put you with a good illustatror to realize your characters besides that,i would say come up with a good story that will hold the attentionof little ones,in other words,START WRITING

Answer 3

Check out this website:
http://firstwriter.com/
It' costs like 3 bucks to join, and it has seriously everything you need to know to send your manuscripts to agents (a LOT of agents available on this site!) It was a huge help to me...I'm not published yet, but it's not because i didn't know where to send my work!