Book in A Month Club!

You're invited to join the BOOK IN A MONTH CLUB! Each year in March one of my critique groups participates in this club as we try to write an entire book in just one month. It's crazy...it's zany...and it's fun! To find out more information and tips about how it works, you can visit my website and click on WRITERZONE, which has a link to the BOOK IN A MONTH CLUB.

This year since I already have a couple of long-term book manuscripts under contract, I'm planning to write a new picture book manuscript. Throughout the month of March, I'm hoping to post my progress here on the blog to help show you more about the world of writing a picture book from start to finish.

So hop on board and join the fun! Better yet--get your entire critique group to agree to meet the challenge of trying to write the first draft of an entire book manuscript--in just one month!

If you decide to join the club, it's important to start now to gather your ideas, plan out a working calendar of goals you want to accomplish each day, and prepare to start writing. Since I'm planning on writing a picture book that is targeted specifically toward getting published, the first step I took was to decide which publisher I want to target: Sylvan Dell. I love their science-oriented cute fiction picture books. Throughout this month, I plan to read as many of their books as I can so I can really familiarize myself with their product line. I'm going to borrow as many books from the library as I can find and purchase key titles I like best at low prices from used bookstores listed on amazon.com. I'm hoping to type out several of those books word for word to get a better "feel" for the story and word use and pace and weight of text on each page.

It's important to choose your topic, too. Since I knew THE BOOK IN A MONTH CLUB was approaching in March, I've been searching for a brand new topic that would fit into Sylvan Dell's product line. This last month, I finally got my idea: a story about nocturnal and diurnal animals that would end up being a bedtime story. The science is there and also the potential market of a bedtime story increases the possibility of sales.

If you decide to join the club, let me know! We can encourage each other along the way!




Ask the Author:
Attention teachers, home-schoolers, families, kids and everyone who loves to read! If there is a question you'd like to ask about my newest book or my life as an author, post your question as a comment on my blog. I will be selecting questions to answer on my blog throughout the upcoming Virtual Book Tour celebrating the release of my newest book, D IS FOR DRINKING GOURD: AN AFRICAN AMERICAN ALPHABET. Mark your calendars to join in the fun! The tour starts February 1, 2008.