Here is the Course that Guides You
on the Road to Publication

Writing for Children and Teenagers is designed to prepare you for success—as a student and, after completion of the course, as a freelance writer. It is based on the professional requirements of book and magazine publishers in the juvenile market, and it is modeled on the classic master-apprentice relationship.

The success of this course, since 1969, is largely due to the highly personal relationship developed between student and instructor. The student demonstrates his or her particular level of skill in completing the required Writing Aptitude Test, and expresses personal writing goals.

Based on this information, the instructor develops a personal teaching plan for each student, starting at his or her beginning level of skill, and they work together as a team to achieve the student’s objectives.

Although individual goals vary widely, we make this basic promise to each student we accept for enrollment: 

By the time you finish Writing for Children and Teenagers, regardless of your beginning skill level, you will complete at least one manuscript suitable to submit to an editor.

Part 1

Getting started

 The course begins with an overview of the field of children’s literature. It defines the various age groups within the category also known as the “juvenile” market. Your instructor will introduce you to the basic techniques of writing stories, showing you how to establish professional work habits so you can make the most of your time.

You learn how to write by working with three different but interconnected and complementary resources: (1) your own creative efforts, (2) commentary, editorial notations, and guidance from your instructor, and (3) your study of the work of established authors. You analyze stories by these authors and identify the techniques and styles they developed to make their work distinctive and successful. 

 Best of the Children’s Market contains 84 exemplary stories and articles reprinted from current magazines that buy freelance writing. In addition, the authors offer insights into their writing and the methods they used to market and sell their work.

The text for this introduction is Best of the Children’s Market, the Institute’s exclusive anthology of 84 stories and articles carefully selected from 49 leading children’s magazines. Each author has supplied a commentary revealing the source of the idea for the story or article and how he or she developed, wrote, and sold it. As you progress through the course, you discover that the fiction and nonfiction models in this book are priceless tools—solid references that demonstrate editorial standards, what sells and why.


You begin by writing an autobiographical sketch and a short story, to give your instructor material to evaluate. Based on your present skill level, your instructor works with you to develop your strengths and correct your weaknesses. Your autobiographical sketch will reveal your aspirations and the background you bring to the course.

For your second assignment, you use the story form and apply what you’ve learned from the course materials, your instructor’s notes and comments to you in Assignment 1, and your own analysis of Best of the Children’s Market, to establish a setting, create action, and introduce characters.

Factual details give strength and vitality to any kind of fiction or nonfiction writing. They make your writing come alive and ring true. Searching is an indispensable guide to the research resources that writers need to find this crucial information.

You use all of your senses and your newly sharpened powers of observation to invent a realistic scene or setting. The ability to create the appearance of reality is essential in writing fiction, and your instructor will be looking for a sketch describing a specific time and place.

The materials for Part 1 include From Inspiration to Publication, our text drawn from over 30 years of teaching our course, and our special anthology, Best of the Children’s Market. You also receive the first part of your course manual.

Part 2 

Taking a new perspective

The ability to perceive your surroundings from the young reader’s point of view is an essential requirement for the children’s writer.

You learn many of the innumerable methods of collecting ideas for stories and articles by noting incidents, personality traits, odd pieces of data, bits of conversations, details of scenes, and the dynamics of special situations. You learn how to use these techniques to produce a piece of writing with a life of its own.

You are introduced to nonfiction, a large market that welcomes new writers, and you write a short article on a topic that interests you, targeted to young readers. You learn how to use fiction-writing techniques in your articles to interest and involve your readers.

In your assignment in characterization, you follow a well-defined method to describe a child of whatever age you wish to portray. You use specific techniques to observe, analyze, and listen to your subject, and you learn the methods successful authors use in creating convincing fictional characters.

The next step in inventing a character is to work from the inside out. 
Essentials of English is “a practical handbook of grammar and effective writing techniques.” It is a “user-friendly” guide to the fine points of language, usage, punctuation, and all of the essentials of good communication.
You use behavior and dialogue to reveal motivation, tension, and conflict, and to create a believable child the reader can “hear,” “see,” and “touch” emotionally. You build a story based on your child character, using what you’ve learned about writing fiction to transform a real child into a fictional character. 


For your final assignment in this section, you have a choice: you can write another nonfiction article or revise one of your earlier assignments. In either case, you emulate professional practice by choosing a suitable magazine for your manuscript and following its guidelines.

With Part 2, you receive Essentials of English, to help you sharpen your skills, and Searching, a unique guide to writers’ research resources. You’ll also receive the second part of your course manual, and the latest edition of the Children’s Magazine Market. This is a special compilation of more than 600 periodicals that buy freelance material; it lists the editorial requirements, rates of pay, age and interest groups, and editors’ names and addresses. 


Part 3

Writing for the market

Your writing takes on a new dimension in the final part of the course. Using techniques and insights you developed in Parts 1 and 2, you write stories and articles and put them in the correct form to submit to publishers. Your exploration of both fiction and nonfiction markets teaches you the importance of tailoring your manuscript to editors’ and publishers’ requirements, to increase the chances of its acceptance.
The distillation of almost 35 years of teaching adults how to write for children and teenagers and how to market and sell what they have written, From Inspiration to Publication is the most authoritative and instructive guide ever written on the subject. It is available only through the Institute.


Your ability to match your ideas with editors’ needs is applied in another assignment. You send outlines of three stories or articles and get back your instructor’s evaluation and commentary on all three, as well as a choice of publishers. He or she also selects your most promising story or article, and you develop it into a finished manuscript.

Your instructor takes on the role of editor or publisher (continuing also as your teacher and guide), because the job now is to prepare you to approach the market as a freelance writer. With your instructor’s help, you learn how to prepare your work for magazine and book publishers. To complete the course, you focus on magazine stories, articles, or a manuscript for a book.

At this juncture, you take the most promising outline you prepared for your assignment, incorporate the revisions suggested by your instructor, and develop it into a manuscript tailored to the requirements of a specific magazine. You and your instructor will have agreed on the most appropriate publication. 
Your instructor edits your work and returns it for revision and polishing. It may then be ready to submit to the selected publication—or it may require more honing.


With Part 3 of the course manual, you receive the latest edition of the Children’s Book Market, a comprehensive listing and description of more than 500 editors and publishers of children’s books. Children’s Book Market, like the Children’s Magazine Market, is available only through the Institute of Children’s Literature. The first edition of each directory is provided to you as a student at no additional cost. Subsequent annual editions may be purchased directly from the Institute. 


You will also receive “Writer’s Guide to Current Children’s Books,” an annotated list of more than 300 titles. This guide offers an overview of the fiction and nonfiction books published for each major age level.

Your final assignment gives you a further opportunity to concentrate on the magazine market. You study the Children’s Magazine Market and tailor a story or article to fit the requirements of the publishers you select. Your instructor edits your work and evaluates its suitability for those markets. 

  
The 507-page course manual for Writing for Children and  Teenagers is made up of three parts and four special sections, which you receive as you progress.
If your choices are not appropriate, alternatives will be recommended. If, instead of the magazine option, you decide to complete your course work by writing a book-length manuscript, you’ll analyze publishers’ requirements as listed in your Children’s Book Market, prepare an outline, write the full manuscript and submit it to your instructor for review, if it is under 8,000 words. If it is more than 8,000 words, you’ll write the first three chapters to give your instructor enough material to evaluate the direction your book is taking. His or her final comments and suggestions will help you produce a complete manuscript that meets professional standards.

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