The Giblin Guide to Writing Children's Books

Dear Writer,

The grateful writer quoted above is just one of the scores of published children's book authors fortunate enough to have received the "Giblin Advantage" --guidance from a star, actually a double star, of children's literature.

Now it's your turn to have that "Giblin Advantage."

James Cross Giblin is that rarest of combinations: a renowned children's book editor who has achieved equal stature as one of America's most honored children's book authors.

As Editor-in-Chief and Publisher at Clarion Books for 22 years, Giblin oversaw Clarion's rise from a small house with only 18 titles to an industry leader with over 400 books in print.

While personally editing almost 500 published books, Jim Giblin helped develop many talented newcomers into frequently published authors, and he is still helping authors today as Contributing Editor at Clarion. Jim is especially sensitive to what aspiring writers want and need because he was once one himself.

Jim has written 25 books, many of them award-winners. His recent The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler received the American Library Association's Robert F. Sibert Award for the Most Distinguished Informational Children's Book of 2003.

Among other awards, 14 of his books have been named Notable Children's Books by the A.L.A.

The wisdom of Jim Giblin's strategies and techniques for writers accumulated during 22 years as Editor-in-Chief and Publisher at Clarion Books--and as the award-winning author of 25 books.
200 pages.

Jim's unique fusion of expertise from both sides of the desk has made him a perennial in-demand speaker and workshop leader at such prestigious writers' conferences as Highlights for Children's Writers Workshop at Chautauqua and those sponsored by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Now he has gathered together all of his how-to's, guideposts, do's and
don'ts--in short, the "Giblin Advantage" that has helped so many writers find success.

It's all here--all yours--distilled into one remarkable book designed to spark and power your book-writing dream, and help you steer it to successful completion:

The Giblin Guide to Writing Children's Books gives you a clear, step-by-step map for achieving success in each of the three major book-writing fields for children--fiction, nonfiction, and picture books.

PLUS you get something you won't find in any text or guidebook--the supportive warmth, enthusiasm, humor, and lively anecdotes that drive home his points and have made Jim Giblin such an outstanding editor and speaker at writers' conferences.

For example, Jim tells you how a man took a seat next to him on a plane, carrying what Giblin thought was a musical instrument case. Its contents turned out to be an unusual set of brushes--chimney sweeping brushes!

Out of this chance meeting grew Jim's acclaimed Chimney Sweeps, winner of the American Book Award (now the National Book Award) for nonfiction.

That anecdote is part of a section in which Jim reveals the researching, outlining, and writing techniques used in the creation of his and other authors' award-winners--then he shows you how to apply these techniques to your own work. He demonstrates how research, far from dry, can become an exciting, enriching adventure of the mind.

Then he puts on his editor/publisher hat. He advises you on how to prepare a query letter, outline, sample chapter, and book proposal for submission, with examples.

In the sixteenth century, the polite thing to do, according to the philosopher Erasmus, was to toss bones on the floor. Jim shows you how to enliven a nonfiction text--and increase its chances at publication--with well-chosen quotations and anecdotes.

Other examples include how skinny St. Nicholas became fat Santa, and what's different about Chinese unicorns.

You'll discover proven techniques for structuring an overall narrative line, hooking readers with your chapter openings and keeping them hooked with your endings, and how to make sure that your book's conclusion contains the one fiction element that is characteristic of the best nonfiction.

In "The Wide World of Picture Books" Jim demonstrates the apt use of verse for dramatic effect with the above example from Eve Bunting's Scary, Scary Halloween. You'll learn how to decide between using verse or lyrical prose in a picture book, how to sharpen your visual thinking, when to do your own illustrations and when to work with an illustrator.

You'll discover the importance of making a dummy of your picture book to show to an editor and how and when to do it.

And you'll get valuable hints on how to meet the specific requirements of a wide variety of picture books for various ages, including the preferred ratio of pictures to text and the preferred number of pages.

Want to be sure your work embodies the four basic elements needed in today's juvenile fiction?

See Chapter 5 of Jim's Guide, which has been expanded and updated from an earlier version.

In Chapter 8, you'll explore multicultural themes and find suggestions and requirements for breaking into the growing field of graphic novels.

Many novels fall short of their potential because the authors make one or more serious mistakes in storytelling. The Giblin Guide to Writing Children's Books devotes a special chapter to these failings and shows how they can be corrected.

These range from sharpening a dull beginning to smoothing those "clunky door" transitions from one scene to the next where exits are described in excruciating detail.

Remedies are suggested for thin characterizations (too heroic heroes, too villainous villains), holes in the plot, problems with dialogue, and endings that are not satisfying.

You'll learn techniques for mastering the special requirements (both form and content) for each of the five ages of juvenile fiction: easy readers (ages 6 to 9); chapter books (7 to 10); middle-grade fiction (8 to 12); transitional novels for teens (10 to 14); and fiction for young adults (14 and up).

You'll be stimulated by such examples as the rare blood disease that spawned the medieval legend of the werewolf--and inspired Gloria Skurzynski's highly praised novel Manwolf, about a boy who survived the disease.

And he did, to the world's relief.

The quote is from Jim's award-winning biography The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler. As author and editor, Jim Giblin has been responsible for some of the most acclaimed biographies--of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and others--for young people. He shows you how to choose subjects and bring them to life in terms of today's editorial preferences.

You'll discover the difference in emphasis between juvenile and adult biography. You'll learn how to handle flaws in your subject's character (such as FDR's mistress) and how to add intriguing extras to increase your book's value (such as the truth about George and that cherry tree).

In Chapter 12, "From Submission to Contract," Jim describes several constructive steps you can take to circumvent a closed-door policy for unsolicited manuscripts.

You get his expert advice on submission strategies, agents, and contracts. And there's much more.

Whatever your writing interest, from mysteries to biographies, from multicultural novels to picture books, The Giblin Guide to Writing Children's Books brings you everything you need to jump-start your writing and move you assuredly toward publication.

Start powering your writing to publication with the "Giblin Advantage." Use The Giblin Guide to Writing Children's Books for 30 days.

If you don't agree that it is everything we promised, simply return the book to us and we'll refund the full purchase price.

No questions asked. No hassles. Guaranteed.

If you'd like to receive The Giblin Guide to Writing Children's Books for a 30-day, no-risk examination, simply click on Order Now.