Hi guys!

I found an awesome new competition for children's writing online, and submitted my story. I made it into the final 50, and if my story has the most views by June 1st then I would win £1000 / $1500! Aside from the fact that I could really use the prize money (I am struggling to find a job right now) I really want the pride of knowing I have achieved first place!

Please help me by watching my story at the link below. I really hope you enjoy the cute plot and the lesson I was trying to impart.

http://www.smories.com/watch/chocolate_challenge/

Thanks so much!

Let me get this right… by clicking on this link we automatically ‘view’ your story, therefore voting for it? Without the opportunity to read it or make a valued judgement on it by comparison to other entries?

Why would we want to do that?

Very cute - link is to Youtube video of child reading a poem - but if you are serious about being a childrens author then you have an awful lot to learn about the publishing industry and your target readership. Competitions like this are on the road to nowhere. I would suggest you join the Childrens Group and post work for feedback.
Best of luck in the competition.


- NaomiM

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if my story has the most views by June 1st then I would win £1000 / $1500!

No, that's the total prize money. First Prize: $500, Second Prize: $400, Third Prize: $300, Fourth Prize: $200, Fifth Prize: $100


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the lesson I was trying to impart

It seems that the entry allows feedback:
Never, never, write a story which is based soley on theme - especially a moralizing one. Childrens Agents want stories with a proper beginning, middle and end, and preferably not in verse.
Also, if the reader is stumbling over words & phrases, then that's part of the verse that needs fixing.

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Hi, and Welcome to WriteWords.
If you need any help navigating the site, feel free to ask.

No, the system is set up so that the view only registers if you watch the full video, making it a fair competition. Pretty clever!

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Also, the prize amounts listed on the site are for all subsequent competitions. The prize for the first competition is £1000 straight up to the winner only.

Everyone else, thank you for your feedback! I know this site isn't a way of getting published, but I wanted to see how the story fared, sort of like market research if you will.

Further comments...

Rhyme: I have found a significant proportion of popular books for children are written in rhyme, since I was writing for younger kids that is an integral facet of their literature which enhances language development and imagination. However, if you are coming from a position of experience then thank you for the heads-up!

Morality: It is my specific interest in writing children's books to convey a message. If that means losing out on mass popularity, then I will deal with it. I am more concerned with at least trying to get past the notion that kids cannot enjoy / deal with learning something important from their books.

Stumbling reading: I didn't choose the kid, the website did. I was writing the book for the age group that is read TO, not that reads for itself. Plus any child just learning to read with be hesitant in doing so, regardless of simplicity. The language in the story isn't complex.

Hi jsj, and welcome to WriteWords

You may know it already, but your mention of the message you're trying to get across in your writing made me think of some excellent posts on that subject, on the Editorial Anonymous blog. I can't find the specific one, but she's a children's editor, and has very good and useful things to say on that and many other topics.

Best of luck in the comp.

http://editorialanonymous.blogspot.com/

Emma

If that means losing out on mass popularity

Publishers make a profit by selling a book to the highest number of readers in a target readership, and so commercial considerations come before all others. If they are specifically targetting readers who want morals in their stories, then they would be interested; but if it is for the general readership then they will reject it if the subject matter is too specialist to have mass market appeal.

Target readership is very important. The competition is for stories aimed at children aged 3-8yrs, but the publishing industry follows age bands of 3-5yrs and 5-7yrs, (and, even within that, you have books targetting the younger readers and older readers in each band) which are different readerships and require different stories with different ranges of vocabularies. At a max word count of 750 words, the competition is more suited to the 3-5yr age range, and your verse is more suitable for the upper end of that age band and yet it is not early-reader material, it would have to be read by a parent. These are all things to bear in mind when writing for children.
Last but not least, childrens agents are inundated with stories written in verse so the bar is set very, very, high - it has to have mass market appeal because verse does not translate easily into other languages, so they lose out on the sale of foreign rights (The Gruffalo is a rare exception). Also, if it can't be read fluently after a couple of read throughs, then it fails the first test.

Emma's link is well worth checking out.
Also: http://www.helpineedapublisher.blogspot.com/ - and check out the other links on this blog.


- NaomiM

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Sorry if this comes across as badgering, but you are making the absolutely classic mistakes of writing for children - we all go through them, and I could show you a portfolio of verse which were my first efforts too. With perseverence and a steep learning curve, you'll eventually see the way the publishing industry works too and will eventually be successful, although it'll probably take a few years so I hope oyu're not in any particular rush.