If you ask most children's book editors about it, they will tell you they get a lot of magazine stories submitted to be picture books. Sometimes, especially for beginning writers, it's hard to know if a story is picture book material or if it would be better suited to a magazine. Many "first published" magazine stories are manuscripts the writer thought would make it as a picture book.

So, let's assume you've written an interesting and exciting story, under 1000 words, that you really like (if your story is over 1000 words, you may have difficulty marketing it as either a picture book or magazine story.) Let's assume your critique group likes it and encourages you to be thinking about picture book publication. You know it's good but is it a picture book? The key to deciding if a story is suitable for a magazine or picture book isn't quality -- many children's magazines stories are excellent. The key is understanding that picture books and magazines stories are not the same kind of writing. To finding out if your story is a picture book or a magazine story, you'll need to ask yourself a few questions.

Does your story sing? Whether the story rhymes or not (and not is usually better unless you are an exceptional verse writer and storyteller), your picture book sentences need to sing. Even prose picture books tend to fall into patterns of meter that make the text melodious. Try humming the story to yourself. Does it have a flowing, singing rhythm? Not sing-song, but melodic. Picture book stories require a special attention to the sound because if they succeed they will be read again and again and again. That only happens if the text is truly stumble-free.

Does every word dance? Both picture books and magazine stories are very tight forms. You don't have room for extraneous words. But while every word in a magazine story has to be doing a job, the requirements go a bit further for a picture book. Every word in a picture book must be essential so that the sentence loses something vital if you remove the word or consider synonyms or rewording. Some picture book writers spend weeks or even years choosing exactly the right word for their 300-word story. The word choice should be crisp, juicy, rich but never heavy like a perfectly ripe apple.

Does your story go beyond the story? A great magazine story may tell about a child's fear of the dark bathroom at school or about how smiles help everyone, but a picture book will go beyond and speak to the very heart of fear or joy. The question isn't "Would every child relate to this situation and feeling?" (as happens in a good magazine story) but "Is this story about every child even though focused on my main character?" (then it's a picture book.)

Does your story offer a strong visual forward motion? In a picture book, it is not only important that every illustration be different (not all in the same room, not all of two people talking) but also that the illustrator be able to couple your words with pictures that tell your story and their own story that moves forward drawing the reader along to the end. Will the theme of your story unfold in the pictures or will it be lost without the words? Do you have enough for the illustrator to work with?

Does your story have repeat readability? If you include a visual (or verbal) joke, will it be amusing every time the parent reads it? Will your dialogue still sound crisp and exciting on the 500th read aloud? Is there something in the quality of your language that gives a gift to the reading parent even as it gives to the child? Does your story linger in the mind of the reader both parent and child?

Is your target audience the pre-reader? Although there are some stories for older children that are told in picture books, if you count the number of picture books released overall you will find most reading child stories are by seasoned picture book authors whose name will help sell the story. Classroom stories don't interest as many picture book editors now because the target audience has largely become the pre-reader. Chapter books and Emergent readers are targeting the young reader. So if you've written a school story for grades 2 or above, ask yourself should I sell this as a magazine story or expand it into a chapter book? If you want to write
picture books, be certain your story situation and language speak to the pre-reader.

Is your main reason for insisting you have written a picture book because you want to be a book writer? Magazine stories are not failed picture books. They are different creatures and you simply cannot turn most of them into picture books, but many times they are excellent stories. Read recent magazines. Read recent picture books. It's like telling the difference between a pony and a zebra if all you know about is ponies, you are going to call a zebra a pony every time. Study both and you can learn to stop saddling your zebras.

Jan Fields began writing for magazines in 1983, after escaping the clutches of newspaper journalism. After about ten years, she became good enough to write for children and has stayed with children's writing ever since. She's taught writing for money at the community college level for many years. She presently writes courses and teaches for the Institute of Children's Literature. She also speaks at conferences on the topic of children's magazine writing. After becoming the children's magazine writing "go-to" girl, she lost her head and began her own emagazine, the only one dedicated to writers for children's magazines: Kid Magazine Writers .

Jan lives in New England with her husband, young daughter and two dwarf
hamsters.

http://www.kidmagwriters.com
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