First, you need to want to write – to enjoy it. You need to like it so much that you’ll keep going even when you feel you aren’t getting anywhere. It’s easy to lose heart or let things slip – I’ve done this myself a few times. For a long time I felt I hadn’t completed anything good enough to publish.
There are options, though if you are struggling a bit. Friends or family who are willing to read and give you feedback are a boon. If you don’t have that option, sign up for a writing course. Join a writing group or, if you know enough people with similar interests, form one. And there is a lot of online help out there.
Some Quick Links
How to scare kids: horror stories for young audience
Children’s book writing resources
The Publication Process
I’ve not kept much detail of the publication process up, since there was already quite a bit about this on my first book. I’ve moved the material on the publication process of the first book (from my point of view) into one PDF file. Just click the link below to view it.
Hi Stuart,
What gives The Mirror Gates an interesting middle-grade angle is that its danger is not simply coming from a powerful villain or a dying world. The Blight changes the shape of childhood itself, leaving children to carry the consequences of a world the adults around them can no longer survive. That makes Bryan and the other young characters more than fantasy adventurers. Their survival is tied directly to whether they can take responsibility for saving what remains.
With the October 28 release approaching, that distinction could be important to how the book is discovered. The fantasy elements, the Darkstone, the Red Witch and the beetle-creatures are naturally attention-grabbing, but the deeper hook is the combination of peril, young protagonists carrying an impossible responsibility, and a journey across worlds to put things right.
I’m Kathy Carlson, a Publicist & Marketer, and I work with authors on the positioning and discoverability side of book promotion. For a book like this, I’d look at how its darker middle-grade fantasy elements can be positioned so it reaches readers already looking for this kind of high-stakes adventure, while also strengthening the pathways through which parents, librarians, reviewers, and fantasy-focused communities discover it.
I’ve already put together a short discoverability breakdown for The Mirror Gates, looking at where its current positioning may be leaving some of that appeal underused and which discovery channels could be most useful around the release.
Worth sending it over?
Kathy Carlson
Publicist & Marketer
LikeLike
Hi
Thanks for your offer. The people who are publishing my book are also dealing with publicity so it makes no sense to duplicate the effort and pay extra money needlessly.
Stuart M.
LikeLike