Books are a wonderful source of knowledge for children. They introduce children to an amazing new world of wisdom and knowledge. It familiarizes the children with people of different cultures and traditions that they may not come in touch with in real life. They also help in increasing their vocabulary, rousing their curiosity and exploring their imagination. This in turn helps in their intellectual growth.
It is a fact today that children and youth of today watch a lot of television, surf the internet, chat online with their friends or listen to their iPods. Recent research conducted showed that over the last two decades, the reading levels of younger people are on the steady decline and plummeting. The only way to salvage the situation is to attract the attention of the children and youth by producing good quality and well-illustrated books of different genres written by various authors.
6 Tips to create Attractive Books for children
Tip #1: Research & Development
Before you can get on with the task of writing a new book, you should read and read. This will help you to get the right inspiration to write a marvellous story. You should make sure that the storyline has twists and turns, and the right ingredients that will keep your readers engrossed. Each and every page should make the reader yearn for more and more. Keep the story simple without making it too complicated and add the element of suspense and mystery to it.
Before you begin a picture book, have a look at other picture books available at the library or your local bookstore. Picture books are of different types; let your imagination run wild and jot down your ideas. Never let go of any idea that may seem insignificant. There is no need to stick to the conventional way of storytelling, but make unexpected twists and turns to your stories that may thrill the readers. This imparts a new uniqueness and freshness to the book.
Tip #2: Make the write-up Interesting!
One thing that you should never take for granted and that is writing stories for children. The story should have the right ingredients of a fascinating story, a tricky situation, trouble and solving of the problem. It should have an authoritative message throughout. If your publishing house needs expertise go on and get it, in the end every little bit pays off well. Get feedback from your team, illustrators and authors. Motivate your team and get the maximum output from them. You should have an exhaustive look at important techniques of story-telling, such as structure of the plot, tempo, pace of the story, character development etc.
Tip #3: Know your Audience!
Children’s books contain a wide assortment of books and it can be anywhere between board books with a single word on a page to books with chapters, fiction and non-fiction. To make it more appealing for the envisioned readers, the theme, content and plot should be age appropriate.
Young children like picture books with lots of colour pictures. It should be kept in mind that since these pictures take on a lot of colour to print it, it could be expensive. The story should be good and have a cadence in order to grab the child’s interest.
Older children like fiction/non-fiction, chapter books and general knowledge books. Beginning with toddlers to teenagers, there is a huge scope to produce great books of various genres but may involve a lot of research and writing.
Tip #4: Your Stories should have a Moral!
Good stories with morals play a very important part in moulding the child’s character and attitude in life. It inculcates in them the desire to always do the right thing. They help them to make them good human beings and teach important lessons on honesty and love. The story of “The boy who cried wolf” expresses the need to be truthful in all that one does and the story of “Hare and the tortoise” teaches us to be slow and steady. Stories also provide good instances to help the child grow and that are absent in the present environment. Younger children get acquainted with codes of conduct that are essential in today’s society.
Most people in modern society do not comprehend the extent to which moral stories can influence the child’s behaviour and attitude in life.
Tip #5: Provide your Books with Good Illustrations
The maximum number of children’s books comprise of illustrations accompanying the text. It preoccupies the younger children more readily and allows them to follow the action easily. They need to be properly planned and drawn to match the text that complements them. Plan in advance how many pages your children’s book is going to contain and the number of illustrations that will be necessary for each page. That will roughly offer a framework for you to work on and allows you to judge the time you need to spend for the project. The illustrations should fit within the precise space allocated. The text should not be superimposed on your illustrations, you must allot appropriate space for illustrations and text and determine how much text should be present on each page.
Tip #6: The Perfect Ending
The last sentence is as imperative as the first sentence. It sums up the theme or the story’s message. Children like most of the stories to have happy endings and they never accept their favourite characters to end up in a mess. They get disappointed when they do so. Illustrate characters and places well, so that children may picture them as you want them to. But things should not get complicated and lead the child into confusion. The key for writing children’s story books is to get into the shoes of the child and look at the world from a child’s perspective. The writer should not miss amusing details and view the world from a curious and child’s point of view.
For those who are creative and sportive, this art could be a satisfying and enriching experience.
Conclusion
Producing children’s books could be tedious and consume lots of time. But all the hard work put in pays off well. Revise, revise and do it a number of times before the book is printed. Proofreading the book and editing it are very important elements which help in getting rid of bloopers and enhancing the quality of the book. Added to all this, a good marketing strategy is a must to successfully publish the book.
