Children’s Literature is: “The imaginative shaping of life and thought into the forms and structure of language” (according to the book Children’s Literature pp. 3) There are picture book authors who write books that use pictures to help tell the story .  There are non-fiction authors who write books that are true and require research.  Fiction authors write imaginary books for audiences of all ages.  They all share their ideas in words.
 
Job responsibilities include working hard to write a story piece by piece.  If your job is writing, you’re only going to get paid if you produce a book, story, or a piece of information. The only way to do that is to get published so you must work to get a publisher.

The good aspects of the job are having a free will, doing everything you want to when you want to. Your job is just plain FUN!!! You just make stuff up!!!

But, before you say “this job is perfect for me”, THE BAD ASPECTS. There are many bad things as far as children’s author go. For example, you don’t get paid untill you produce a book. So, if you are capable of staying on track and getting things done, the job perfect might be for you.
 
A college degree is useful, but, not required. If you want to become  an author, classes in English, Journalism and Communications  should help.

To become an author, all you have to do is write a story. But, to produce a book, you must find a publisher.

Authors use computers to type and edit their stories and so they can look up information on the Internet. Libraries are where they can go to look up words and find encyclopedias.  Encyclopedias help them get true facts.  In libraries they also can get inspiration or good new ideas.  They can also look for publishers of books that are similar to the ones they just finished writing.  The copyright page always tells the publisher.  That way they could send their new book to a publisher where they would have a good chance of being accepted by that company.

Publishers pay authors in different ways. Most authors get paid according to how much their book sells.

Who I Interviewed And What I Learned I interviewed George Shannon on Bainbridge Island on the 21st of December, 2004. He was very nice and funny! ! George said that there are lots of kids who don’t think he has a job.  “There was a kid I was talking to last night who said ‘do you have a job?’… and I said yes: I write stories and books, and the kid said NO, do you have a job?  And I said again, yes, I write stories and books…and   he said again NO…DO YOU HAVE A JOB? So I said… I guess not.. and he said ‘Oh, Okay’… For him I guess staying at home and writing didn’t seem like a job.  And a lot of the time even when it’s a job it doesn’t seem like it because you’re making up stuff and pretending.”  He added that his job is pretending and not getting in trouble for it! I asked him how long he has been involved in writing.  He said “I like that question because involved is really important.  If you mean my first book… it was accepted when I was 27… 25 years ago. The first book that I sent in to get published was when I was 16…but they said no thank you.  When did I start writing because I wanted to?… not because it was homework?… well I started doing that in the 7th grade.  I was 12 or 13.  I like to tell kids at school that I was involved in writing stories since I was 3 or 4 years old… almost everybody has been.  You watch some preschoolers and they start even making revisions through their play… no you be the bad guy today.  Even though they are playing they are making up stories.”  He is currently involved in writing pretty much the same as always….pretending…trying to think up new stories. George says “On one hand it’s true you don’t need any training.  Some have written books without much schooling.  I think it’s good to learn as much as you can.  What’s even more important than going to school is reading lots and lots of different stories.  I went to school and graduate school to become a children’s librarian.  I learned a lot from reading those stories to kids.  That taught me what makes a good story.  I got a Master in children’s literature.” He enjoys writing because it’s his favorite kind of puzzle.  He like figuring it out.  What he like about writing is doing it, figuring out how it fits together. When he gets it, he just want to do another. He decided he wanted to be a writer in 7th grade.. but he didn’t know how to do it.  He went to a tiny school.  His whole county had one 4th grade classroom.  He figured all writers were dead and he didn’t want to die to be a writer.  In high school he figured out that was not true! When I asked him what has changed in recent years about getting books published.  He responded “Publishing has changed a lot.  Big companies publish books and want to make a lot of money.  Books by famous TV stars who have never written a book before.  They don’t want to take a lot of chances.  There used to be lots of small publishers who just simply wanted to make books, so that part has changed.”  Mr. Shannon says writers are like actors or baseball players.  Only a few get famous and make tons of money, but most do it because they like what they do and are lucky enough to earn enough money to buy their Cheerios. “The part about writing I think stays pretty much the same, except I like to think I’m getting a little bit better.  Pretty  much the same.  Some days it feels easy, some days it feels hard and sometimes I think I’m stupid.”  Said Mr.Shannon. When I asked him “What types of stories do you like to write?” he said “I am curious…what type of stories do you think I like to write?” I responded “I don’t know, ones with animals?”. He says ”About 75% of my books are about animals, they are like fables.  One of the things I like about fables,when you have talking animals, you don’t have to give too much detail.  Like when you have a rabbit and a fox, you don’t have to figures out who the bad guy is!  So I don’t have to tell you they have a fight on the playground and get in a disagreement.   A lot of authors seem to write books like the ones they enjoyed reading when they were little.” When I asked if he ever had to do research on something when he wrote a book  he says “Yes and NO.  Not that in I needed to learn what the main crop of a foreign country was and what time of year a certain leaf falls from a tree.  But when I get stuck, sometimes I’ll go to the library and look through other books and get ideas from similar books because they help put the pieces together. In my book Heart to Heart he’s needing to make a valentine.  He has just a little bit of time.  There is a long picture book about Dandelion with curly hair and the story starts with the Lion goes to the mailbox with the invitation for the party.  So I took that idea and incorporated into my Heart to Heart story. The types of books he is interested in reading are mostly non-fiction and funny books. He think there will be about the same amount of authors in the future. “In some ways, if authors are authors simply because they want to write, that probably won’t change much.  There will always be people who want to write.  I also know the number of books that get published every year goes up.  But probably the number of people who want to make stories stays about the same.” George says “Its still sort of hard to get published. A lot of people think since I’ve had a book published, everything I submit will be welcomed.  It’s not always so. I sometimes write books that stink… or perhaps someone had just submitted a story very similar so they don’t want to publish mine.  (Sometimes I think it would be fun to write a story about all the people who came second).” Usually stories are accepted and then they’ll help you revise it and make it better.  Someone else will look at it and perhaps help fine tune the story.  Editors ask questions that help the author write a bit better. He gets ideas anywhere they happen.  He doesn’t think he would ever say Oh, I’m not in the right place for an idea, so it’s wherever it happens.  It’s not so much that where he is it’s how, meaning you pay attention to everything that looks interesting o you.  If you pay attention, you’ll get ideas everywhere you go. When I asked him what ages he write for he says “Well , you’re almost getting to old for the books I like to write.  You’re a ‘geezer’!” followed by “So most of my books are for probably four years to fourth or fifth grade, so far anyway.” “I get ideas from my ideas well, my writers journal” he said while pulling out a funny notebook. “it’s number 75 because I have 74 filled up on my shelf already. So I can put ideas in here and ask questions, put pictures, etc. I come up with story pieces this way. One day I thought in the winter how when it’s cold you make a cloud with your breath so I got to thinking if it’s cold and a bird wants to sing a song, does it make a cloud? … Do you ever scribble or doodle? … Did you ever have that scribble turn into a picture…? same thing with my scribbling around with story pictures. So I play with my notebook every morning and sometimes it just stays a mess, but other times it gives me ideas I didn’t know I had! “How do you find illustrators for your books?” I asked.  “It’s very easy. I’m not allowed to. Almost never do the illustrator and writer get to talk to each other. You can’t allow one to tell the other how to do their job. The publisher gets the illustrator.” he says.“Some authors are both…but that’s not a conflict.” He goes on. “It’s standard for the publisher to arrange for the illustrator.” I asked him how hard is it for someone who’s never been published to be published he replied “There are a lot of people who will let kids publish. Some companies only allow kids to be published.” Sometimes he’ll see which other publishers like similar stories and He’ll send transcripts to those same editors. There are people who’ve had children’s books published in high school. It doesn’t really matter how old you are as long as it’s a story publishers think someone will buy.” “When the Harry Potter books were brought to America….no one wanted to. The editors didn’t think anyone would read them. Now everyone is looking for similar fantasy stories to publish.” “It’s hard to live as a writer. That’s why when you start thinking what other people will think about your story while you’re writing it… it takes all the fun out of it. If I worry about what Shannon thinks about it… then I’ll worry about it. If I have as much fun as I can while I write it… then it’s okay if someone doesn’t like it as well…. Because I had fun! I never give a story to someone and say "do you like it?" That really puts someone in a difficult position. But I can ask specific questions about the characters… ie. What was the funniest part of the story?” If the book he is working on now gets accepted it would be book number 37 published. I send stories to different publishers all the time. Sometimes companies are working on similar type books so they’re not interested. If five different places say no…. I might put it on the shelf for a while and look at it again and see if I think it’s still good. I think to make a good book there needs to be something in the story that makes me think about what could happen to me. People you can relate to in some way…or a situation. I think there should always be some kind of mystery to the book as well. “Actually I have wrote a story that relates to memories. I almost always do it a little bit. The one where the skunk pretends to be sicker than he really is! Did you ever do that? I did. And another one about the seed…I’d visit the lady next door and ask questions about his garden. Then when I had a garden of my own, a little boy next door would come to visit me… then he moved away.. and I missed him. I kind of wrote about that.” “There is another story about a little boy in Kansas I wrote about. One of the things that happened, happened to me…but then everything else in it I made up.”     I would like to say thank you to Mr. Shannon for taking time out of his day to help me with project.

Bibliography “Book Publishing,”. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. 2001.  Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook,  2004-05 Edition,  “Writers and Editors”, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos089.htm (visited February 24, 2005). Cosgrove, Holli R (Editor). “Writers.”  Encyclopeidia of Careers. 2000 Huck, Hepler, Hickman and Kiefer. Children  Literature. New York: Mc Graw-Hill, 2001. pp. 3-5. Karl, Jean E. How to Write and Sell Children’s Picture Books . Cincinnati, Ohio: Writers Digest Books, 1994. pp.33 Reeves, Diane. Career Ideas for Kids  who like Writing. New York,NY: Checkmark Cosgrove, Holli R (Editor).  “Writers.” Career Discovery Encyclopedia. 2000.

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