So your child has published a book. The question now stands, how can you publish a book written by a child?
Then, great, and congratulations to our new Terry Prachet.
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Or, your child wants to right and publish a book? In which case, that too is something we will be dealing with here, so welcome. Finally, you are a child who wants to write/ has written, and publish a book. In which case, welcome!
We will be dealing with all of these groups, and exactly what to do from here.
A child can write, and publish a book at any age. Publishers will accept books from anyone, and will publish them, provided they fit the genre the publisher works in. There is the additional option of self publishing. This would allow the child to keep all royalties, and also it would be much easier for the child to do.
That basically is it.
With those two models, anybody could publish whatever they want. However, the person must obviously have written something for them to get the opportunity to publish it.
How To Publish A Book Written By Your Child?
1. Plan The Child’s Book
The first step to writing and publishing a book is planning out the book that is about to be written.
First, we will focus on the writing part, and to start that, we start with planning.
Planning your book entails detailing what the basic outline of the book will be, the kind of tone you’d like to have and the key scenes that come to mind. Do not focus on genre, since that will often become clear after the writing is complete.
This is important for 2 reasons.
First, the writing reason.
When you have a plan written out, it will make your writing quicker. On top of that, it will make your writing to be more structured. Finally, it will allow you to add in elements to your writing that you never could add before.
Second, the publishing reason.
Due to having planned the book before writing, you may get a rough idea of the genre, and the tone of the story. You will not definitively know the genre until the book is written, but at this point you may get an idea.
This will help you find literary agents. So by planning the book out, you can create a space for you to search for literary agents while still drafting. Do not send anything to them yet. Just keep their contact info.
2. Do Research For The Book
The second step to write and publish a book is to do research for the rough plan you have made.
Research means going online, and finding information about the locations that your story takes place in.
Planning your book mostly consists of single sentences, random scenes taken from your head, and making a rough outline. However, you may not know things like the setting of the story, the characters of the story, the plot for the story, the themes, and the point of view you will right it from.
This research will help you with that.
You can go to the internet and search the setting of your story.
Where will it take place? Which country or town? What is the climate there (so you can know what weather to write)? What is the ecosystem there (so you can know the animals, and plant life to write)? etc.
Then research the characters.
You should have an idea of the characters in the story. Now research what those characters are like online. For example, if they are introverted, a specific culture, religion, occupation or whatever, it would now be a good point to research those people.
The plot of the story.
If you have the plot written down, you should have a good idea how the story will go. Now research whether the things that you want to happen in your story are capable of happening in the real world.
Those should give you a simple bible of your story.
EXTRA TIP
Try to write all this information – including the outline of the story too- in one or 2 pages. When that is done you can paste it on the wall, and it will be that much easier for you during the drafting period
3. Write The Book
The third step to write, and publish a book is to write a book is to begin the writing of the book.
Drafting your book will take you a number of weeks to finally complete, but when it is done, you will feel a great sense of reward.
The drafting process is made that much easier when you can make a habit of the drafting process. Additionally, I have written about how to remain consistent while writing a book. This will allow you to write for a number of days without ever tiring. Also, I’ve written about how to create a writing system that is suitable for you.
4. Edit The Book
The fourth step to write and publish a book is to begin editing the book.
The editing process will follow developmental editing first, then it will be followed by line editing.
Developmental editing is when you start reworking your story around the key plot points.
When you have a draft of a book written, you will know that it has a number of issues that you do not like. You may not like how you wrote the character, and may feel like they are not being shown the way you imagined them. You may not like the story, and find that it is not as exciting, tense, or interesting as you’d like.
Usually it is a combination. You find that the story events do not properly portray the character development you wanted to show.
Developmental editing will help you fix that.
When you are done with developmental editing, you can move on to line editing.
Line editing refers to editing the specific sentences, and words in the story. You are fixing the grammar, and the words that you used. This will allow your story to be that much more interesting through creating a specific atmosphere with the right words.
5. Give To Someone Who Will Format It
“PICTURE 5”
The fifth step to write and publish a book is to start formatting the book so that it fits industry standards.
Now you have a complete book before you. Well done.
However, as much as I hate it, the people in the industry tend to be very hard to please; both writers, and the readers. Understandably so. They tend to receive thousands of books a day, and must read all these books to find the best ones to publish.
So they need to add in more details and standards to assist in weeding out the people.
One of those standards they have added in is the standard of formating.
If your book arrives on their desk and it is not formatted right, they will just assume the story is bad. They will toss it away, and you will never hear from them again. Which is precisely why you must send the book to someone who will format it for you.
If you are hoping to save money, you can format the book yourself. You can just search online for the industry standards.
From what I gather though, they tend to be this:
- Justified
- Line space 1.5
- New Times Roman, or Georgia
- text font=12
- Add in sections (chapters, etc)
6. Give To Someone To Proofread It
The sixth thing one must do to write and publish a book is to give their now complete book to someone so they can read and review your new work.
Giving your book to someone so they can read will allow you to have a better idea of what you could have missed.
Additionally, this step is good for you psychologically. The hardest thing for new writers to do is give their book to someone else so they can critique them. This breaks their souls. However, if you want to be published, you will need to give your book away to people. That is precisely the kind of thing you will do here.
7. Edit It
The next step to getting your book published will be editing it again.
After enough people have proofread your work, you will have a series of critiques. You can use these critiques to improve your story. In fact, you must. This will help a ton later on.
8. Give It To Literary Agents
The eight step to write and publish a book is to send your story to literary agents for them to read.
Literary agents are the only people who can actually reach publishers.
So the best bet for your story is to send it to a literary agent who is looking for the books that you are looking for.
9. A Writing Competition
The ninth step to write and publish a book is to send the book you have written to a writing competition.
This is what will make it surprisingly easy for you to publish, and very few writers think about it. Sending your book to a writing competition will at least allow you to meet an editor, without needing a literary agent.
10. Self-publish
The tenth step to write and publish a book written by a child is to just self-publish.
When all the other steps fail, self-publishing will just help a lot.
Can A Child Write, and Publish a Book?
Yes a child can write, and publish a book.
Dorothy is the youngest writer. She wrote, and published her book when she was 4 years old. Of course, her case was special. You can learn more about why that is in this post.
However, the simple answer is yes. A child can write and publish a book.
Can A Child Self-Publish A Book?
A child could self-publish a book.
Self-publishing basically requires access to internet. So if you access to internet, then you are more than likely to be able to self-publish your book.
Do Self-published Children’s Books Make Money?
Self-published children’s books do make money.
If you have created an efficient marketing scheme for your readers, then you will be able to get a number of readers to come read your book. This will obviously generate revenue for you.
Who Is The Youngest Child Author To Publish A Book?
The youngest child author to publish a book was Dorothy Straight.
Dorothy Straight was an American child from the 1960s. She was the youngest person to ever get her book published.
