It’s not particularly difficult to write an excellent blurb for a children’s book, but it may be when attempting to draw people to our works.
Children’s Book Blurb serves as a global debut for your work. And everyone knows the value of first impressions, whether they pertain to books or not.
Therefore, make sure to take your time.
1. Act mysteriously.
Humans are inherently curious creatures. So the trick to writing a good summary for a kid’s book is to give readers just enough information to become excited about the plot without giving anything away.
While it’s OK to spoil one or two significant events, do your best to avoid doing so. This will diminish the sense of surprise in your tale if you provide too much detail.
Your prospective reader will then ask, “Why to bother reading this book if I already know what’s going to happen?” This is not what you want.
However, avoid becoming too nebulous in your summary. As a consequence, your novel will sound either trite or dull.
2. Include a passage that exemplifies the book’s central message.
Including a snippet of dialogue or a location description from your novel might help you develop an engaging summary.
Your audience is given a taste of the action and offered insight into the book genre they are about to pick up.
The summary adequately explains the story’s setting, the main characters, and the genre.
3. Create a book summary using no more than ten words.
This one is certain to stir up some debate, but from experience, I can say that Nobody enjoys reading long passages of text.
As a Y.A. If the book’s blurb is 15 sentences or more, you won’t read it.
Being mysterious is connected to this. Avoid excess; little is more. See if you can tell your tale in 10 simple phrases.
4. Collect Opinions
Like with any piece of writing, hearing what readers think is crucial. If you’re not sure about your blurb, have a buddy read it over for you.
Next, you should inquire (in an honest way) whether they would read your narrative based on the summary.
If they don’t, you should ask them the four questions at the top of the article and revise the summary accordingly.
How long should a children’s book blurb be?
Think about the tale you want to tell and who you want to hear as you read this article. The length of your book is directly related to who you’re writing it for.
1. Books with Pictures
Compared to other types of literature, picture books are often relatively brief.
Consequently, word counts for picture books are a rigorous area in which authors must exercise extraordinary caution.
Word limits in picture books are not suggestions but rather mandated standards.
The guideline is the text for 32 pages, which may imply one line per page or more. 500-600 words is a decent quantity to strive for; when it comes closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away.
Remember that you may write a picture book in less than three double-spaced pages if the margins are 1 inch and the font size is 12 points.
Focusing on one character, as opposed to two or three, may help you bring the reader (or, in this instance, listener) into the tale more effectively.
Again, this is because you can provide more information about this character’s experience.
Choose a point-of-view (POV) character whose perspective will add the most interest to your report, then narrate the tale from that person’s perspective.
This will allow you to convey information in a small amount of space.
Expressed in first-person narrative form protagonist, the antagonist, the stray cat next door, and the mother could work for a young adult (Y.A.) book, but telling a decent tale from that many POV characters in fewer than 600 words is challenging.
2. Early Readers
Word counts between one thousand and two thousand and five hundred are optimal for young readers (ages five to eight).
Remember that your book may be the first they’ve ever read, and this is, ideally, a thrilling experience for your young readers.
As an author, your ultimate objective ought to make your readers happy, so they keep returning for more.
Even though you have a more significant word limit than you would if you were creating a picture book, that doesn’t mean you have to make every word unique.
It is helpful to use words and phrases often, return to them when needed (within the context of the tale), and exclude most terms that early readers would not be able to sound out.
Alternatively, you may choose words that sound similar to one another or sentences that rhyme.
This should increase their interest in reading since kids won’t be overwhelmed by the number of unfamiliar words.
Instead, they will look forward to reviewing previously learned material and maybe even feel proud of themselves for knowing a new word or two by the novel’s conclusion.
3. Books for Kids in Middle School
Word counts for middle-grade (M.G.) novels vary from 20,000 to 55,000 words on average, while this is highly dependent on the topic at hand and the age of readers since middle grade covers a broad range of ages.
According to Writer’s Digest, “when creating a lengthier novel targeted at 12-year-olds (and maybe be called tween), utilizing the word ‘upper middle grade’ is appropriate.”
The upper middle-grade range, which includes novels between 40,000 and 55,000 words long, is a transitional reading level between the younger middle-grade and Y.A. genres.
While it is OK to include YA-appropriate topics into your middle-grade word count, they should not be the emphasis of your work.
How many words should a seven-year-old have in a book?
This is a rough estimate based on the averages I’ve compiled from what I’ve heard from publishers and agents at children’s book events and from my research and reading on the appropriate ages and word counts for children’s books.
Remember that an age category is not a genre; Y.A. (young adult) books are for teenagers.
There may be fantasy, contemporary, or sci-fi within that category, so check with individual publishers if you plan to submit.
Coloring books
If you’ve never written a before, picture book, keep the text brief (ideally, around 600 words) and consider how the drawings will complement the narrative.
Young readers
Beginning readers between the ages of five and seven should start with what we often refer to as chapter books.
These books typically contain less than ten thousand words, are illustrated in black and white, and use basic vocabulary and shorter phrases.
children ages 7 to 9
Typically, books aimed at 7–9-year-olds begin at the 15,000-word level and seldom go above the 30,000-word mark.
Middle grade
Age: 9-12
Word Count: When I first began writing three years ago, it told me that middle-grade novels shouldn’t exceed 30,000 words.
I see more middle-grade books with up to 60,000 words, so I think the waters have gotten murky here.
Whenever you’re not sure, err on the caution; the younger the audience, the fewer the words.
Young adult
Although 50,000 words is a standard length for Y.A. books, this is no requirement.
What makes a children’s book successful?
Popular children’s novels have engaging plots that kids will like reading, including protagonists that kids will identify with.
Children under the age of eight like stories that include repetitive phrases and rhymes, and they also enjoy bright pictures that help them visualize the story’s setting and characters.
You may have a conventional publisher handle your books’ editing, printing, marketing, distribution, and storage, or you can self-publish and take charge of everything yourself, including the finances.
You may either choose to work with a traditional publisher, where you will hand up control of your work in exchange for a cut of the profits, or go the independent publishing route, where you will have complete control over the book’s content and its distribution.
Duration of a Book
Word counts for picture books for children ages 2–5 are typically between 200 and 500 words, while those for children ages 3–7 range from 500 to 800 words, and those for children ages 4–8 range from 600 to 1000 words.
Chapter books for children ages 5–10 should have at least 3,000 words, while those for children ages 7–12 should have between 10,000 and 30,000 words.
The 5 Essentials for a Prolific Children’s Book Writer
Unless you want to write books for kids that do well, the fact that over 100 MILLION children’s books are sold annually is astounding.
1. Maintain your enthusiasm for reading and writing from when you were a kid.
You’re not the kind of kid who needs constant supervision, so when you need some alone time, it’s best to leave you with a book or a notepad and some quiet time.
The best advice for a career is to find something you enjoyed doing as a kid. If it was writing and reading books, then, by all means, pursue those interests as an adult. Bonus points if you can do so while cozying up to a fire during a blizzard with some hot chocolate.
2. have the imagination to create compelling narratives and publish thought-provoking books.
Of course, you’ve grown up and moved on to more responsible pursuits, like purchasing your books and using your computer to write, but you’ll always have a soft spot in your heart for the old, classic children’s novels.
Since you’re now responsible for raising a family of your own (or at least imagining one), you should look for tale ideas in the everyday experiences you have with your kids.
3. Be a creative thinker whose ideas may range from funny to icky (Because of boy humor).
You’re all into the “what if” scenario, like “what if dragons liked tacos” or “what if pigs could fly.”
You may make your tales more entertaining by telling them from an unusual perspective or basing them on actual events (since kids say the cutest things).
You can even throw in some made-up phrases or sound effects.
4. Have a soft spot for kids, even only in theory
It’s easy to become bored while talking to an adult.
When was the last time you mowed your lawn?
Bored to death by inquiries of the “what, why, and how” kind at dinner
An activity as basic as a youngster squiggling red crayons on paper for a minute may grow into a full-blown, twenty-minute discussion if you let them keep talking.
5. be willing to test your writing abilities.
People mistakenly believe that creating a children’s book requires more than slapping a few sentences randomly on a page.
Incorrect! Authors often find creating children’s books among their most challenging tasks.
Each word counts more when fewer of them and your target readers have a restricted vocabulary.
To become a successful children’s author, you must write a story that children will want to read repeatedly.
However, suppose you enjoy reading children’s books, have an imaginative personality, value a child’s spirit, and are up for the challenge of writing.
In that case, you may also be considered a successful children’s author.