WRITING FOR CURRICULUM AND SCHOOL/LIBRARY MARKETS
By Rita Milios
As writers, we are all painfully aware of the difficulties facing the publishing business today. It seems that every publishing house has been affected by cutbacks. With bad news everywhere where does a writer today find a viable and healthy market?
If you are a writer of children's books, I have good news for you. As you know, the children's book market has been steadily increasing over the past few years. According to the Association of American Publishers, 1989 sales for children's hardback books rose 19%, and paperback sales rose 22%. The children's market is one of the few that has been moving in a positive direction. While growth may be slowing down and stabilizing, the children's market today remains one of the best opportunities for writers.
Even more growth and opportunity can be seen in one segment of the children's market - one that is often overlooked by writers, even writers of children's books - that of the school/library, curriculum-support market
What is The School/Library, Curriculum-Support Market and How is it Different?
To understand this specialty arm of the publishing business, you must first understand the difference between a children's "trade" book and a school/library book. Trade books are bookstore books. They are the beautiful picture books, the fine hardcover nonfiction books with full color illustrations that you see displayed on bookstore shelves. These are the books that mom or dad, grandma or grandpa buy.
School/library books, on the other hand, are found - where else?---in the school library. Or in the public library. A few even find their way into the bookstores, but seldom to the display shelf. The point is that school/library books are less expensive. Instead of full color fine art paintings for illustrations, school/library books often have cartoon-like drawings. These books are often sold through school book clubs, where children, not parents or grandparents, make the choices. Or, a librarian may be choosing these books to supplement the library's list. Besides being less expensive, these books have a specific purpose. They are created to supplement the curriculum being taught in schools. When a teacher sends her class to the library to find a book for a book report, the children will likely come back with a book that was specifically created to supplement that subject, whether it be science, history, geography or social studies. That is not to say all curriculum-support books are nonfiction. Children read fiction in school, too. Today's reading programs rely more and more on "real" books to teach literature and reading skills. And smart children's writers are benefiting from this move to "whole language," or literature-based education.
Curriculum-support books cover a wide range. They help teachers expand on a topic that is being discussed in the classroom. Children may select a library book on penguins or polar bears to learn more about the North Pole for a science project. The teacher may read them from a biography of Martin Luther King, or she may read a Chinese folktale, to illustrate a point on cultural diversity for a social studies program. As new teaching methods are explored, new books must be written to supplement classroom materials. Who will write these books? Smart children's writers who do not see the school/library market as "second class," less prestigious than the glitzy trade book market. Children's writers who are looking to find a steady market where assignments often come one right after the other and editors are loyal and appreciate a good writer who can write to their specifications.
But before you run off to write a book on the sinking of the Titanic, there are a few things you need to know about the school/library, curriculum-support market:
1. It ain't what it used to be. This is the number one guideline you need to keep in mind. If you are thinking of writing the same old school/library books that you grew up with, you are in for a surprise. That simply will not work. Kids are more sophisticated today. They expect more than Dick and Jane. They expect more than encyclopedic nonfiction. And they deserve it. Today's nonfiction is alive and exciting. It has a message beyond the simple facts. It takes a skilled writer to pull off this unique combination of information and insight. It takes a careful and dedicated biographer to dig up old letters or newspaper articles to find real dialogue to replace the invented dialogue that is absolutely no longer acceptable today.
2. It takes a writer who realizes writing for children is just as important as writing for adults, perhaps more important. It takes a writer who is willing to think about the reader, to know the reader's limitations as far as reading level and ability to understand complex concepts, but who will never, never talk down to the reader and who can relate to children. It takes a writer who is willing to see the issues from a child's point of view.
3. It takes an understanding of today's teaching trends. It is not enough to go to the library and read a few children's books. You need to become sensitive to the principles and purposes behind the new teaching methods. You must be familiar with concepts such as "whole language," and "reading and writing across the curriculum." Social issues, too such as "ethnic diversity," ecology and the environment also play an important role in today's classroom. A children's writer of curriculum-support books must know the environment in which his or her books will be used.
If you are serious about writing for today's curriculum-support, school/library market, I would advise you to spend some time in a school environment. Visit classrooms. Visit the school library and see what is going on. Go to meetings where educators discuss issues. Attend local IRA (International Reading Association) meetings. Go to teacher symposiums. At these events, you will not only find the educator who can enlighten you on these topics, you will also find the publishers who publish curriculum-support books. Visit the exhibits. Talk to curriculum publishers. Ask what they publish, what they need. The more you know about the education field, the more you will know about your market ? and the more likely you are to make a sale.
What Exactly Do School/Library Markets Want? How do you as a writer focus your work to fit into current teaching trends, current market needs? Teachers desperately need books for:
The Whole Language Movement. "Whole Language" has taken hold. It is the "now" way of teaching reading. Whole language simply means a trend of "back to the basics," where reading and meaning are intimately connected. There is a move away from teaching reading by using "skill sheets"(papers which, for instance, have the child underline the "ch" sound, etc.). The idea is that if reading has meaning -it makes sense - and if it's interesting (or, heaven forbid, fun) then children will learn to read more easily.
So, along with this need for books that are fun, interesting, and have relevance to the child's life is the need for more books. More and more teachers are bringing "real books" into the classroom for instructional use. Primers are out. Fiction is in. "Early Readers" are in.
Early Readers are books that the youngest child, the child in kindergarten, first or second grade, who is just learning to read, can read him or herself. Early Readers are in great demand today. Little fiction stories, very simple nonfiction, fun single-concept stories, all at very low reading levels, are desperately needed. The trick for the writer is not to hit the reading level. With practice, any writer can learn to write one, two, three or four word sentences. The trick is to write these short, easy sentences and say something. Today's early readers demand more than repetition, more than easy words. They demand, and deserve, something unique -an element of surprise, a unique view of the world. This requires a subtle theme, appropriate to the child's age, incorporated into the simple (but not simplistic) story. Writers must find a way to put meaning into a story.
Often, with these Early Readers, a teacher workbook is produced for the teacher to use in the "whole language" curriculum. Several of my own Early Readers have been reproduced in Big Book format. (The books are literally "big" in size - about two feet long and one and a half feet wide. The jumbo print and big colorful pictures jump off the page and into the child"s mind.) Big books are often read aloud, and the child may later read his/her own small book version. Exercises from the teacher workbook expand the story and make its meaning and relevance clearer to the child's life. My Sneaky Pete is about a small boy playing hide and seek with his family. The teacher workbook suggests that the teacher ask the children about times when they hid from their family or friends. It goes on to suggest a parallel between animals hiding, introducing the concept of camouflage. In this way, a simple story is both expanded and the introduced information made more relevant to the child's life.
Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum is another new teaching concept. In this concept, subjects are not compartmentalized or segregated from one another. As in the teacher workbook example above, science "infiltrates" into reading social studies and math can be taught in the same lesson. And part of this cross-teaching is, again, the use of more "real" books to replace the total reliance on textbooks.
To supply the books called for in such teaching methods, publishers are calling on good children's writers who can understand the concepts and work within the guidelines that are required. If you think you are such a writer, begin contacting the publishers who list school/library or curriculum-support as their needs in the Writer's Market. Join the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and keep up on the news of the children's publishing business, including announcements of new publishing ventures, many of which are curriculum-support markets. Expect to be asked to write to a specific grade level, and to incorporate certain concepts into the writing. Expect that you may be asked to write on a work-for-hire basis (but the pay, at an average of $1,000-$2,000 for a one-to-twenty-page manuscript is not bad). Expect also that, if the editor is pleased with your work, you may be asked to write another book in the same series or to start a series of your own. You may even expect, once you have come this far, that you will begin to receive royalty and advances. Your writing may even lead you to new horizons. One day you may find yourself inside a classroom talking to the very readers your books were written for.
And once you reach this point, expect that you will be hooked. You will come to believe that there is no better audience and no better purpose than to write for curriculum and school/library markets.
Rita Milios is a freelance writer, psychotherapist and seminar presenter. She is author of more thirty books for adults and children. She speaks at schools and writing conferences around the country on topics of creativity, self-growth, writing and publishing. Visit her website at www.RitaMilios.com.
