Institute of Children's Literature - Getting Your Writing Published

Sooner or later, most writers come to recognize that publication is the paramount goal of writing. Whether it’s a news item, a letter to the editor, a short story, an article for token payment, or a book sale for hundreds of dollars and future royalties—the object of writing is to break into print and see your work and your name in type. This is the objective every student-instructor team at the Institute accepts and works toward.

But don’t overlook “everyday publication” in the form of the letter you write for an important job or grant, and the résumé that may accompany it—and who knows better than an organization person how influential well-written reports or memos can be in advancement. The fact is, writing is a critically important skill—and those who master it make it work for them in everything they do.

Writing for Children and Teenagers includes seven different assignments that can produce manuscripts suitable for submission to a publisher of children’s fiction or nonfiction. Your instructor’s editorial comments, suggestions, and personal letters of instruction—and expert guidance in selecting appropriate publishers—greatly enhance your prospects of breaking into print.

Thousands of our students have sold one or more of their assignments to publishers. Many of these sales were made before they completed the course. Our students’ success is not surprising. Our teaching faculty is both the largest and the best qualified in the field of writing, thus assuring the highest degree of personal, individual attention to the needs and goals of each student.

Every North American publisher of children’s books and magazines is contacted every year, and all information pertinent to the freelance writer is brought up to date in new editions of the Children’s Magazine Market and Children’s Book Market available only from the Institute.

The course materials, designed and developed by the Institute, provide you with the most effective tools to tap the substantial juvenile market

• 106 top authors and editors give you the secrets of their success
• you get 84 model stories and articles from 49 different publishers
• 51 “technique builders” show you how the professionals do it
• more than 100 “idea generators” get your creative juices flowing
• 405 research tools and ready references are placed at your fingertips
• more than 1,150 actual markets for your writing are defined in detail.

That Extra Edge

In the publishing field, you get an extra edge by learning what editors are buying right now.

You’ll find this information in the Institute’s Children’s Magazine Market and Children’s Book Market, and your instructor will acquaint you with these valuable resources. Every editor and publisher represented in them tells you how to target your writing to his or her readers according to:

• age levels of readership
• current editorial needs, such as mystery, how-to, crafts,
biography, devotional, and so on
• submission requirements
• pitfalls to avoid.

You learn how to research and analyze the content and style of magazines, books, and publishers’ catalogs to find out how your own ideas fit their needs—and to get new ideas you can develop for their readership.

You learn how to prepare your manuscript for submission to a publisher in the form that will gain the greatest consideration. You also learn the professional way to handle your submission on both ends of the transaction.

You learn how to write a professional-looking query letter that’s perfectly targeted to an editor’s requirements. Our mission at the Institute of Children’s Literature is to give you the finest training available in writing for juveniles. We teach you how to write and, because the final definition of success in writing is publication, we teach you how to market your writing to the editors and publishers most appropriate to your personal and professional goals. Your success is our success.

“Insiders” Publishing Data—Exclusively for You

Our exclusive market lists, totaling 944 pages, are available only from the Institute.

The first two annuals, the Children’s Magazine Market and the Children’s Book Market, are provided to you as a student at no additional cost. Subsequent editions may be purchased from the Institute.

The importance of marketing skills cannot be overstated. The Institute’s instructors have seen, time and time again, that the student’s knowledge of marketing and sheer determination may even surpass natural talent, educational background, and writing experience as factors in success.

Of course, one-on-one training in the craft of writing for young readers by a seasoned writer or editor, along with expert guidance in the art of marketing your writing, is the unbeatable combination! You won’t find either at most schools, colleges, or universities. You’ll find both at the Institute.

The Advantages of Time-Tested Instruction

Over the years since 1969, Writing for Children and Teenagers has been revised and expanded to make it the finest/most comprehensive course of its kind. It is a practical, publishing-based course of instruction in learning how to write for the juvenile market according to the requirements of editors and publishers.

The experience of having taught thousands of students over many decades has heightened the Institute’s insights into how to relate instruction to publication. Our “secret” is in our course materials, in the annually updated marketing guides we make available to our students, and in the selection and training of faculty members who know the juvenile market from firsthand experience; every instructor is a published writer or professional editor we have trained to teach our course.

As a result, the course we offer is even more thoroughly tested than those offered by colleges or universities. And, because we stay on top of the juvenile market with our several marketing publications, it is also the most current, up-to-date course available.

The Importance of Continuity in Instruction

When you enroll at the Institute, you are a “class of one.” You are given an assignment by your instructor, and when you return it for editorial review, commentary, and critical evaluation, you receive his or her undivided focus and attention. Your instructor knows your personal background, your hopes and aspirations, your strengths and weaknesses, all of your course work—and the effort and the progress you’ve made to date.

Once you’ve established a relationship with your instructor, you’ll probably find it to be the most important one in your writing world. It takes time to build this valuable bond, and that’s why we make sure that you stay together as a team from the time you enroll to the time you complete the course. We have found, in almost 35 years of teaching people how to write and how to market their writing, that “growing the bond” between student and instructor is one of the most important aspects of success.

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