Years ago, my focus was book marketing and content marketing, but I ended up gravitating more and more toward writing, specifically children’s writing. Why the change? The thing is, writing has a beginning, middle, and end; marketing and selling your book is never-ending. And, the information you need to write about changes a lot. I…
Author: Karen Cioffi
Karen Cioffi is an award-winning author and children's ghostwriter. She loves to help those who want to be the author of a children's book fulfill their dream. Contact Karen today to get your story started!
One Last Edit – Rethink Before Submitting
Contributed by Linda Wilson Can you look through your completed book without making any changes? I tried it after thinking I had finished up the basic editing and even the polishing. There couldn’t possibly be anything more to “fix,” thought me. Wrong. I found more changes, important changes, many changes. Throwing caution to the wind,…
Writing Inspiration – Get a Club
There are authors and writers who feel the need to wait for writing inspiration to come knocking at their door in order to produce creative work. Unfortunately, you may have a very long wait. Writers who write all the time know that as Jack London put it, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to…
5 Common Themes in Children’s Writing
I have children’s ghostwriting clients from all over the world and below is what I’ve noticed in regard to themes in children’s writing. Keep in mind that my clients include doctors, therapists, dentists, teachers, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and business owners. I’ve even had adult children who wanted to turn their a story their father…
Your Story Should Be Like a Roller Coaster
I’ve noticed that people who want to write a story but are new to the arena, don’t understand what ‘s involved in writing a good story. I’ve seen lots of drafts that are cute, but they have no story arc. They’re simply a series of related events or incidents. Another thing, is that sometimes, along…
Three Critical Components for Publishing Ebooks
Contributed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers. A website owner was asked what the “three most important components are for publishing a professionally produced e-book” and he referred the question to me. As long as I was figuring out the answer to this all-important question, I figured…
Words to Live By – The Three Gates
Sometimes, you read a quote or adage that makes you want to share it. This is one of them. Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates. At the first gate, ask yourself, “Is it true?” At the second gate ask, “Is it necessary?” At the third gate ask, “Is it kind?” Sufi…
The Foundation of Every Children’s Story
While every story starts with a good idea, that’s not enough to create a good story. Your idea, while possibly the cornerstone of the creation, is only one part of the foundation. There are other elements needed to make a fully developed story. To give you an example of this, a protagonist wants to take…
Twist Endings – Are All Children’s Books a Good Fit?
Twist endings in young children’s book can give a great story a blast off ending. One that kids will want to read over and over. Twist endings in young children’s book can give a great story a blast off ending. One that kids will want to read over and over. This type of ending is…
Naming Your Characters A-Z
Contributed by Melinda Brasher I recently read a book where eight significant characters (which was a good percentage of the significant characters) had names that began with the letter A. To make matters more confusing, it was a fantasy book, so many of the names were not familiar to us. The worst combo was Avem…