Today’s Children’s Books

Diverse books are now in demand. Publishers are looking for books about children from different ethnic backgrounds who participate in everyday activities, not necessarily in an activity that showcases a different country or culture, but those are popular, too. Diverse books depict families and cultures, promoting understanding and acceptance.

Own Voices is also popular. The definition encompasses all forms of diversity, including disability, sexual orientation, and religion by authors who write about circumstances within their own experiences. This prevents glaring stereotypes or common misconceptions.

Write about a subject kids enjoy. What do kids like? I wrote a book, THE TRUTH ABOUT PRINCESSES, a nonfiction book focusing on fairy tale princesses. When I do book signings, little girls often reach for that book first.

Boys love trucks and cars and rocks. On a school visit, a parent asked me if I had a book on rocks. She said every time she did laundry, she found rocks in her son’s pants. Voila! An idea for a book. As it turns out, I did a six-book series on rocks. Other topics kids love are robots, ballerinas, heavy machinery, cowboys, super heroes, and animals. Listen to what parents and children request.

Notice what is not in the marketplace. One Sunday when I was employed as a librarian, I read an article about pink dolphins. The next day I checked the distributor’s list and could not find a book on the subject. Once again, voila! I had an idea for a book and a couple of years later, I held my literary baby, ON THE BANKS OF THE AMAZON, for the first time. Editors are intrigued with new and different topics.

Call for Submissions for Young Writers:

Save the Earth Poetry Prize.  Open to high school students, grades 11 & 12. Genre: Poem (1). Poems submitted should, in any way possible, evoke humankind’s awareness of the natural world and nature as such. Prize: $200 awarded to seven winners. Deadline: March 31, 2018.
Submissions guidelines at https://sites.google.com/site/savetheearthpoems/

Call for Submissions for Adult Writers:

Speculative Literature Foundation Older Writers Grand. Restrictions: Open to writers who are fifty years of age or older at the time of grant application. Genre: Speculative fiction. Prize: $500.   Deadline: March 31, 2018. 

Submissions guidelines at http://speculativeliterature.org/grants/slf-older-writers-grant/

Nancy Kelly Allen has written 40+ children’s books and a cookbook, SPIRIT OF KENTUCKY: BOURBON COOKBOOK.

Leave a message or check out my blog at www.nancykellyallen.com