Children's Writing - Kelly Milner Halls
Like many successful people Kelly Milner Halls identified a need and filled it with cute dinosaurs and chicks. Well, that´s how you fulfill the need when writing children´s books is your calling. Halls is the author of I Bought a Baby Chicken (Boyds Mills Press), Albino Animals (Darby Creek Publishing) and look for her book Tales of the Cryptids (Darby Creek Publishing) coming fall of 2006. Halls explains that she knew she wanted to become a writer while, get this, she was learning the art of the school paper as a teenager. Her interest in writing children´s books was ignited when her own children began reading. “If I was influenced in that decision (to write children´s books) by anything, it was the fact that I was a reluctant reader as a kid. I was a good reader, but I didn't like what I found to read. I decided to write the books I would have loved in my youth," says Halls in an email interview.
Halls, a single mother who would take her children along on magazine assignments, says her first children´s book was a non-fiction family book called, Dino Trekking (John Wiley & Sons). “It is a guide to fossil stops across the US and Canada--more than 300 of them." To entertain her kids as they traveled around, Halls had the excellent idea of stretching their legs at fossil stops rather than not-always-so-kid-friendly truck stops, “and I thought they should all be in a guide together," says Halls. Thus the idea for the guidebook was born. Being a freelance writer, Halls was able to use a former connection to help the publishing process along. “I sent it to a dinosaur writer I'd interviewed named Don Lessem. He sent it to his agent Al Zuckerman who represented the book and sold it in a matter of weeks to John Wiley and Sons." Halls´ career path is a shining example of one of the keys to getting published—become a part of the community you are interested in. Keep connected, help people out, when the time comes someone will likely reciprocate. Though even Halls admits that this was an extremely easy birth, “It was pretty painless, really...not the typical 35 rejections story."
After reading how the publishing of her first book went down, Halls´ main advice about writing books is no surprise. “It's cliché, but write about what you love," says Halls, and then more specifically, “If you tackle topics that make you excited, it will show in the text you produce--it will be contagious. If you disrespect the subject you try to write about, that shows too." Halls sometimes teaches children about writing and admits a secret to them. {quotes}“I get paid for being weird."{/quotes} That´s got to be a great thing for a kid to hear—she tells them that she wears her weirdness with pride and it´s what has made her a success. “So be who you are--personally and in what you write," offers Halls to both children and adults, “It won't steer you wrong."
As far as marketing her books goes, Halls´ background as freelance writer and editor helped her understand which parts of a newspaper to pitch her book to get articles written about it. “Because I was a freelance writer for magazines and newspapers so long before I wrote books, I had a sense of what editors wanted. So I market my books with that background in mind," says Halls. “For example, if it's a dinosaur book, I don't hit JUST the book section. I submit to the science section, the education section, the kids sections. I know there are lots of places to expose a book, far beyond the book section." Get to know the theme(s) of your book so you can start expanding where you are submitting your book. “If I have one scrap of advice, it´s that."
Once you get an editor´s attention, it is good if there´s one place to find out more about you—that´s where a sweet-lookin´ web site with all your easily searchable credentials comes in handy. “It gives me credibility and it helps press professionals to find what they need to make it easier to make me or my books the topic of their featured selections," explains Halls. Especially in the children´s book arena, it would seem a natural to make schools and teachers aware of your book. “My website also makes it easier for people hoping to host authors at school and library events to find me," says Halls. “Websites are essential in this digital age. Non-negotiable."
The one thing that Halls would like to dispel about writing children´s books is the misnomer that it is easy. “It´s not." Having fewer words to write means less time and space to get your point across. It is exactly this that can make it more daunting says Halls. “You often have to distill complex concepts in a streamlined format kids can understand. You have to write tight and smart--only the information that's core to the subject." Halls also says that if you don´t write compactly you will lose your reader. This is not to say Halls is trying to dissuade anyone from writing the children´s genre, she´s merely putting the all the cards on the table. “It´s harder than writing for adults. But it's also a lot more fun."
As far as making the big bucks goes and the earning power of a children´s writer Halls has this slice of reality to impart. “I'd like to say children's writers are underpaid. I hope, someday, we value our children enough to pay their writers what they should be earning."
Check off the pros and cons that Halls offers up against your own wishes, but as far as Halls´ experience goes, I think it´s clear which column has more tick marks for her. “Last but not least, I want to say writing for kids is the best job in the world. If it's in your blood, if it's fun for you too, don't give up. Dreams come true, and I'm living proof."
Kelly Milner Halls
Kelly Milner Halls is weird and proud of it. From dinosaur skin to exotic rainforest dogs to albino lobsters to the Altamaha-ha river monster to kid mummy mysteries, she specializes in well-researched but quirky nonfiction for young readers 9 and up. Heavily influenced by 10 years as a children's magazine and newspaper writer (Highlights, Boy's Life, the AJC's News for Kids and dozens of other publications), her work is aimed at reluctant readers -- and anyone else who wants to read and learn for fun. Her books include Dinosaur Mummies (Darby Creek, 2003), Albino Animals (Darby Creek 2004), Wild Dogs: Past and Present (Darby Creek 2005), the Random House Dinosaur Travel Guide (2006) and her latest, Tales of the Cryptids, written with Atlanta illustrator Rick Spears (Darby Creek 2006). Kid Mummy Mysteries will be her next release, also for Darby Creek in the spring of 2007. When she's not writing, she's working for controversial (frequently banned) YA novelist Chris Crutcher to streamline his hectic schedule and help him battle the censors. She makes her home in Spokane, WA with two daughters, three dogs, too many cats and a five-foot rock iguana with a room of his own.
www.kellymilnerhalls.com
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