An Education in Writing for Children: Author Interview with Janet Halfmann

Five years ago, I started doing author interviews on this blog. Today's interview is with one of the first authors I interviewed in the beginning. I thought it would be fun to see what's she's up to today. As I expected, she is still busy writing and has some interesting insights on the craft. So without any further ado, let's begin the interview!

You’ve been publishing books for more than 15 years, starting with writing for the educational market. Is that a good market for new writers to try to break into the field?
I think writing for the educational market is a good way to break into the field. When I was starting out, I submitted writing samples to various educational publishers and also submitted proposals to them for possible books and series. I wrote series books on bugs, habitats, architecture, “Plant Tricksters,” and more. Educational publishers are in constant need of good writers for the many series that they do every year.

How important is having previous writing credits to those publishers?
I really can’t speak to how important it is to have previous writing credits. Mostly, you want to show the publishers in some way that you are a good writer and can write for children.

How do you go about finding just the right trivia bits about your animal subjects that will intrigue a publisher? How many sources do you use to do research?
I always choose animals I’m interested in learning more about. I try to write about what I think kids will find fascinating. For example, Animal Teachers came about because I noticed that many animals teach their young skills such as swimming, just like humans do. I thought kids would enjoy seeing how animal lives mirror their own.

Eggs 1, 2, 3: Who Will the Babies Be? grew out of research I was doing on bird eggs. I found bird eggs fascinating with their many colors, patterns, and sizes. I figured if bird eggs were so captivating, the eggs of other animals likely were, too. To make my Eggs book more interesting, I created it as a counting book, riddle book, and a book that in a few words told a lot about the animals and captured their habitats. I was delighted when Blue Apple Books decided to make it a lift-the-flap book.

I do a terrific amount of research—mostly books, magazine articles, and internet pieces written by experts. I especially like to read first-hand accounts of animal behavior by scientists and naturalists in the field, because their accounts have lots more specific details, such as exactly how the mom gives a baby a bath, teaches the little one, etc.

What makes a non-fiction book sellable? Is it humanizing the animal? Choosing something that’s cute and cuddly or totally weird?
This is a tough question. When writing about animals, I try to make them come alive for the reader by including such things as the noises they make, their specific behaviors, etc. I also try to use lyrical language.

Before submitting, I always check the publisher’s catalog to make sure they haven’t already done a book on my subject. Some of my stories appeal to editors, and others don’t, so I don’t know the magic formula.

One of your favorite books as a child was Rumpelstiltskin. Those classic fairy tales were closer to 2000 words. Why do you think today’s stories for children are less than one-third that amount?
I think children today expect everything in their lives to move faster, including stories. Editors are definitely looking for shorter stories.

You’ve written numerous books for the Smithsonian Institute. How did that come about?
I saw some of these nature stories at my local library and was very impressed by them. They were very similar to the manuscripts I was writing. The company doing these books in conjunction with the Smithsonian was Soundprints. I looked through their catalog for an animal that they didn’t have in their collection, then spent about four or five months writing the very best story I could about a Sea Star. Soundprints didn’t buy that story, but later one of their writers dropped the ball on a story about the Brown Pelican. I was asked if I could write that story in two weeks—and I did. That led to nine more books. In these books my copy, the art, and the stuffed animals that came with the books all had to be approved by scientists at the Smithsonian. Sadly, Soundprints and the company that succeeded it went out of business a few years ago, and the books are no longer in print.

Luckily, the Sea Star story went on to have a life of its very own with another publisher. With more fine-tuning, it became Star of the Sea: A Day in the Life of a Sea Star, published by Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt in 2011.

What type of publicity does your publisher expect you to do in promoting your book? 
I work with several publishes, and each one is different. But in general, publishers like their writers to do whatever they can to get the word out about their book. That can include speaking and appearing at book festivals and conferences, at bookstores, schools, libraries, etc. Publishers also like writers to contact people in their various networks to let them know about the book, such as traditional and social media, bookstores, friends, etc.

What do they do on your behalf?
The publishers have great networks and sales teams for distributing my books to schools, libraries, nature centers, and other markets. They also promote my books at various trade shows. The publishers also submit my books for reviews in major journals and for awards.

What did you learn in writing your earlier books that helped you in expanding your writing career?
The more I wrote, the better my writing became. Also, getting published by educational publishers gave me the confidence that I could indeed be a children’s author.

Also, about nine years ago, I joined the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. We have a very active chapter in Wisconsin where I live. SCBWI offers all kinds of opportunities to hear editors, art directors, other writers, agents, etc. talk about the writing craft and so much more. The organization also provides many opportunities for promoting one’s books.

What do you think is the most positive aspect of children’s books going digital?
I think with digital books, there are even more opportunities for children to read. Children now can always have books with them—on a phone, tablet, or some other electronic device. Several of my books are e-books, as well as print books.

What frustrates you the most about the current publishing market? 

It frustrates me that more and more publishing houses are becoming closed to writers such as me who don’t have an agent. I was lucky to get my foot in the door of several publishers before they became closed houses. It is becoming more and more imperative that one has an agent in order to get your manuscripts even in the door of a publishing company.

What is the best advice you’ve been given about writing or that you’ve learned that you would like to pass along?
The best advice I ever heard at a writing workshop was that each word in a manuscript must “sing.” I realized that I wasn’t doing that. Now, I make sure every word counts. A good way to hear and feel the rhythm of a manuscript is by reading it aloud. I read each of my manuscripts aloud about 100 times before I send it off to a publisher.

What works do you have in the process?
My book Grandma Is a Slowpoke was released in February from Star Bright Books. The story was inspired by walks with my grandchildren when they were preschoolers.

Grandma Is a Slowpoke is the story of a little girl who goes on a walk with her grandma, but her grandma is such a slowpoke. She stops to take a close look at everything they see in nature. In the end, the little girl sees a muskrat that Grandma didn’t notice, and wants to linger longer to watch this amazing animal. The little girl becomes a slowpoke just like her grandma, and they are happy being slowpokes together. The book is also the story of a loving bond between a grandchild and her grandma. Kirkus Reviews called it “a sweet celebration of intergenerational slowpokery.”

Another picture book that I am extremely proud of will come out in Spring 2017 from Lee & Low Books. It's titled, Midnight Teacher. This is the true story of a courageous enslaved woman who believed in the power of education and risked her life to teach others to read and write.

Also, I am shortening the text for my book Good Night, Little Sea Otter. It will come out as a board book for younger listeners this fall from Star Bright Books. I am very excited about this because this book is extremely popular as a gift for baby showers.

That's all for today's interview. I hope you're inspired to keep on writing and finding the genre that works for you. If you'd like to know more about Janet and writing for the children's market, here's some options to get you started.

Janet’s Website: http://www.janethalfmann.com
Grandma Is a Slowpoke Publisher’s Page: http://www.starbrightbooks.org/details.php?id=540
SCBWI: http://www.scbwi.org

Interview with Janet Halfmann

Today’s interview is with Janet Halfmann who has published more than thirty books. Her writing began with a home-study course in children's writing which soon became her dream. That love of writing took her into various directions from working at a national magazine called Country Kids, to creating coloring and activity books for Golden Books and selling articles to Ranger Rick and Jack and Jill magazines. From there she wrote a series of insect books for children. She now specializes in children’s picture books.

How did you come up with the idea of your current book?

I have two new books out right now: Fur and Feathers (Sylvan Dell Publishing, August 2010) and Good Night, Little Sea Otter (Star Bright Books, September 2010).

I decided to write Fur and Feathers after I noticed on the publisher’s website that they were looking for a story on animal "wraps." That topic fascinated me, so I started researching and brainstorming possibilities, and Fur and Feathers was born!

I got the idea for Good Night, Little Sea Otter when I was writing a magazine article about two young scuba divers. In researching the many creatures the girls met in the underwater kelp forest off California’s coast, I especially fell in love with the sea otters. I was fascinated by how the mother sea otter wraps herself and her baby in kelp strands for the night so the two won't drift away. I knew I had found the perfect pair to star in a bedtime story! And with four kids and four grandkids, I didn't have to research bedtime stallers!

Could you give me a short outline on the story for my readers?
Fur and Feathers, which recently won Gold in the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards, is a fun story of creativity, friendship, and animal coverings. When whipping winds whisk the clothes off Sophia's animal friends in a dream, she shares her clothes with them. But the animals can’t walk or fly in the kid clothes. So Sophia comes up with a creative plan. Using items from her grandma's huge sewing box, she creates new coats for the animals. To each coat, she adds her own special touch, such as a little red heart behind the polar bear’s ear.

The idea for the big sewing box came from the one I always kept handy for creating or fixing whatever while my four kids were growing up. As for the special touches, Sophia just seemed to start adding those on her own. In writing the story, I used each class of animals so the story would be not only fun, but as educational as possible. The book also has a “For Creative Minds” educational section on classification at the end.

Good Night, Little Sea Otter is a soothing and fun bedtime story featuring a baby sea otter who stalls going to sleep. He has to say “good night” to each and every one of his ocean friends. It seems like he'll never close his eyes! But he finally settles down to sleep cuddled in his mama’s loving arms and a cradle of kelp.

From the time you sent in the manuscripts for these two books, how long was it before you got any feedback?

With Fur and Feathers, I got feedback almost immediately because Sylvan Dell Publishing published another of my books, Little Skink’s Tail. The publisher asked me to add two more animals, including an insect. After that revision, it took about ten months before the publisher bought the manuscript.

I submitted the otter manuscript to Star Bright Books in October 2007, and they bought it in April 2008. I originally wrote the otter story in 2001 and over the years submitted it to several publishers, fine-tuning it several times in the process.

What was the total time frame from the point of submission of the original manuscripts to the actual printing of the books?
Fur and Feathers took a little over two years from submission to finished book. Good Night, Little Sea Otter took about three years.

I see that you work with several different publishers. Why not with just one source?
Several of the publishers I publish with have specialties. Sylvan Dell Publishing wants fiction with a math or science tie, Soundprints is a work-for-hire publisher, Lee & Low Books publishes only books on minorities, etc. Even when a publisher buys one of your manuscripts, it doesn't mean they will buy the next one you send to them, so then you look for another publisher for that manuscript. Sylvan Dell Publishing encourages its writers to send their manuscripts out to other publishers as well as them.

What type of publicity does your publisher do to promote your book?
The publishers send review copies to review journals, bloggers, etc. (publishers more and more prefer to send e-books or pdfs rather than actual books). The publishers post the reviews in various places: their own websites and blogs, Facebook, etc. The publishers also promote the books at trade shows and through their school, library, bookstore, and other contacts.

Sylvan Dell Publishing also created a trailer for Fur and Feathers, which can be viewed on the publisher’s page for the book: http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/bookpage.php?id=FurFeathers. The publisher also created a 57-page free online Teaching Activities Guide to go with Fur and Feathers, plus several other free resources, including reading and math quizzes, alignment to state and national standards, English and Spanish audio, etc. Sylvan Dell also has provided thousands of schools and libraries free access for a year to all 55 of their e-books through educational resource grants.

What do you do to promote your book?
I organized a virtual book tour for Fur and Feathers that included the illustrator. The tour featured reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways. For both books, I contacted several bloggers and asked if they would review my work. I share all reviews and other publicity for my books with my publishers and on my Facebook and Twitter pages. I let bookstores, nature centers, libraries, etc. in my local area know about my new books and offer to do events. I do interactive story times at libraries, bookstores, book festivals, nature centers, etc. Before any event, I contact the media for publicity and submit the info to various media calendars.

What do you know now about getting published that you wished you had known earlier in your writing career?
I wish I would have known that each word of a manuscript has to sing before it’s good enough.

What advice would you give someone who wants to write children’s books?
Read, read, read, the kind of books you want to write.
Write, write, write, every day if possible.
Revise, revise, revise, until every word sings.
When you feel every word in your manuscript sings research markets to see who publishes your kind of project and send it off. Then forget about it and start something new.

Also, write about what you enjoy. Join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and get involved in their state or regional group. You can learn so much by going to writing conferences, workshops, or chatting with other writers in person or in online writing groups.

Janet Halfmann now writes in a home office in South Milwaukee, WI, where she lives with her husband Tom, an artist and retired teacher. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with her family; working in the garden; exploring nature; visiting new places, especially wildlife areas and living-history museums; and watching movies.

If you have small children to whom you read bedtime stories, I would wholeheartedly recommend Good Night, Little Sea Otter. I think it could have the same long life as the perennial favorite, Good Night Moon. It is extremely charming!

If you would like to know more about the author, you can check out her website at: http://www.janethalfmann.com
Star Bright Books Good Night, Little Sea Otter page: http://www.starbrightbooks.org/details.php?id=300