How to Write a Children's Book and Get It Published

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Summary: A Great Place to Start
Review: Are you thinking that you MIGHT want to be a children's writer? Maybe you have a story that the family loves but are wondering what to do next. This book is a great place to start. Ms. Seuling gives step-by-step instructions for categorizing your work, editing, formatting the manuscript and deciding where to send it. Great references for related information in the back, too. This is not a perfect book for someone already on the way to being published, but it's a great little book for beginners.

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Summary: Barbara Seuling Is Very Knowledgeable and Practical: I Know
Review: Barbara Seuling was my instructor when I took a two-year writing course in writing children's literature from The Institute of Children's Literature. Ms. Seuling is exceedingly knowledgeable, skillful, talented, and very practical about writing children's literature and getting it published. Also, she writes instructions that are very easy to understand. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: necessary information
Review: How to Write a Children's book and get it published by Barbara Seuling is a very informative book for those who are just starting in the business of children's books--Although the book has a brief chapter on illustrating children's books, this section could have been expanded to be more useful to both those of us who are illustrators and those who write and illustrate their own books.

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Summary: A confusing book filled with conflicting advice
Review: It may not have been the author's explicit intent to discourage new authors form entering the field of children's literature but, it is certainly one of the likely effects that this book will have on its readers. Its hard to believe that this book which is filled with ambiguous and conflicting advice was written by a former editor. The author seems to be interested in showing off erudite sentence structure at the expense of clarity throughout the book. In addition her credibility is drawn into question has she frequently offers conflicting advice regarding format and lay out for submissions. Beyond problems of readability and consistency, the tone of the book is so discouraging that it seems to be the product of an embittered experienced professional out on a crusade to "fix" all of the errors hat she had to endure over the years. Also note that although the book was first published in 1984 and revised in 1991 all of the technical submission advice is geared towards a typewriter. This is to me further evidence of either the author's lack of attention to relevant information or, evidence of an antediluvian attitude. I recommend that you avoid this bitter and confusing advice manual.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reference Manual and Must-Read for Beginners
Review: This book was and is a concise account of the how-tos of the Childrens Picture Book world. From writing, to submission process, everything a would-be CPB author/illustrator needs is in here.

In addition to her book, I have taken her AOL online class and found her to be informative, organized, and a concise constructive critic. It was her book and her course that enabled me to successfully complete my first picture book.

I highly recommend this book for anyone wishing to publish picture books.