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Every week, the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club sponsors a special teleclass that covers some aspect of writing and publishing for children.

For just $5.97, you get to attend the LIVE teleclass, where you can ask questions, make comments, and interact with the instructor and the other participants.

This week’s teleclass takes place Thursday, September 17th, at 8:00 p.m. CDT and will be presented by children’s author Simon Rose. He’ll talk about how children’s authors can plan, promote, and present successful school visits.

To find out more about this teleclass, and to register, click here now!

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

In my own books, I have relied upon magic to effect the time travel sequences, rather than using a mechanical device, and children have found this much more engaging than reading about a machine which has intricate controls, switches and dials. In my school workshops, where students invent their own time machines and methods, very often highly sophisticated devices are created. But readers still prefer to read about something that makes them suspend their disbelief. In The Alchemist’s Portrait, Matthew visits the city museum on a field trip with his school and meets a boy his own age, trapped inside his own portrait for over three hundred years. Matthew can step into the painting from the outside and, once within the picture, he can view images from all the different time periods where the painting was displayed on walls in the past. And just as he can step into the portrait from the outside, when he is inside the picture, Matthew can step through and travel back in time, choosing the era in which he wishes to emerge based on the image shown in the frame.

In The Sorcerer’s Letterbox, magic again plays a major role in the story when Jack travels to 1483 on a desperate mission to save the Princes in the Tower of London from the clutches of King Richard III. By the use of magic, Jack is able to correspond through time by means of a scroll placed in the drawer of a wooden box dating back to the Middle Ages. When he makes his initial journey into the past, a mysterious wheel in the box has to be turned anticlockwise in order for him to travel to 1483. This is a mechanical device, to be sure, but the trip back in time is still facilitated by magic, rather than by scientific means.

In The Emerald Curse, Sam discovers that his grandfather, the world’s foremost comic book artist and writer, is trapped in a bizarre comic book universe derived from his own imagination. This time there is a magic object involved - the magical pen with an enigmatic green gemstone embedded in the barrel, which Charles Kelly used to create all his famous artwork and stories over the years. Using this same pen, Sam is able to communicate with his grandfather and by drawing himself within the panels of the story, travels into the comic book world in order to rescue his grandfather.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

Magical realms have had a place in folklore and legends in cultures around the globe for thousands of years and play a major role in fantasy literature. Sometimes, these are the author’s own wonderfully detailed imagined worlds, complete with a form of government, architecture, currency, natural features, history, myths and legends, flora, fauna and traditions.

Middle Earth and Narnia are two of the best known examples, but there are countless others. And even within these enchanted realms there are other special places, too - areas where magical forces or auras are strongest or where special rituals have to be performed for spells or curses to work properly. Parts of the kingdom where only fairies can go, rivers only certain people can cross, the lake where Arthur first receives Excalibur, enchanted woods, mystical mountains, forbidden forests, caves where monsters or demons dwell and so many more. These fantastic universes are nothing like the real world in which we live, yet still have to be realistic.

An author’s own invented fantasy universe in which magic is commonplace can be inspired by non-fictional beliefs and deeply rooted in the history of mankind’s many cultures. However, even if based on real practices, the effect, strength and rules of the magic are usually what the writer requires for the plot of his or her story. And yet, magic should never be used when it is merely convenient for the writer, to simply solve a tricky problem in the plot or to save the hero’s life. Otherwise, the use of it will lose all credibility.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

Some stories featuring magic feature a mystical power, which is present in everything in the world, all around us, or is sometimes found in objects such as magical symbols, a mysterious ring, a precious stone or charm that a character can access.

Wizards, witches and sorcerers often have the power to manipulate one or more of the natural elements, control mystical energy within the human body and many stories strongly feature the mysterious power of the subconscious mind.

While many of these traditions, practices and beliefs may be briefly touched upon in a children’s story, they are not usually as fully developed as they would be in a story for adults or even one for teenagers. However, although as a rule the older the child, the more sophisticated the concepts can be, this does not necessarily mean that the narrative has to be overly simplified for younger readers. While many of the complexities of the magical world frequently feature in books for children, they are less prevalent in novels for younger readers than in those for middle grades and those aimed at teenagers. However, the story still has to be believable. It may feature outrageous monsters or people with fabulous powers, but still has to be rooted in the real world or the reader will quickly lose interest.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

Some characters are common to many magical stories – the evil witch or wizard, the aged wise counselor, the reluctant hero, the noble ruler, the evil advisor. Young readers certainly always need to be able to identify with the chief protagonist, but the story’s other major characters must also be believable, even if they are not strictly human.

Characters with recognizable traits, quirks and mannerisms who seem to almost leap off the page are always going to be popular with readers and are rarely forgotten. Magical creatures, eccentric personalities and other worldly realms are an integral part of fairy tales and to some degree the success of the Shrek movie franchise, with children and perhaps even more so with adults, owes a lot to the presence of so many familiar characters, albeit used in somewhat unconventional ways for comic impact.

Children are both familiar and comfortable with stories incorporating magic and although some may have gone a little stale in today’s technology dominated world, the recent success of the Harry Potter phenomena, along with the movie adaptations of Lord of the Rings and other fantasy classics has shown that children still have a craving for traditional stories of adventure in which magic plays a major role. Even Star Wars, reintroduced to a whole new generation of followers through the more recent movies and their accompanying books, games and other paraphernalia, can be said to have some of these features, with the Force being a form of magic perhaps.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

The next series of articles in this column will explore the use of magic in stories for children, ranging from early chapter books, through middle grade to young adult.

Magic plays a big part in children’s lives as they grow up. Santa Claus is a very familiar figure to millions of children, along with all the magical things associated with the secular side of Christmas each year. This is something many children are sure is real, for a while at least, as is the tooth fairy, an ever present character in the lives of kids when they are younger.

Many children may even be afraid of the dark and fearful of the supposed creatures that may lurk there, including ghosts. They may be reassured repeatedly that ghosts doesn’t exist, but are never entirely convinced and in a strange way, it is indeed much more terrifying to be scared of something you know isn’t real. After all if it can’t be defeated, how can you ever win?

Magic of course appears in so many of the stories that children avidly consume as they grow up. Indeed, the process of reading is itself a kind of magical experience, as children begin their own personal journey of discovery. As I often point out to children during my school visits and workshops, books can be time machines, space ships that whisk you off to another planet or become doorways to other dimensions, all powered by your own limitless imagination.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

Some writers get at least part of their inspiration from pictures, paintings or photographs. Photographs of people are easy enough find online and another good writing exercise is to take two people and imagine a situation were they might meet. They could be stuck in an elevator for ten minutes and have to strike up a conversation or a have minor car accident on a deserted road, then have to exchange insurance information. It could be anything, entirely based on whatever you think the characters might be like, from the impression you get from the photographs. Then to make it particularly interesting, you can have the two people discover that they have an unexpected connection, in which they learn they are long lost siblings, have the same type of dog, are both looking for the same treasure or whatever idea you come up with. If you handed the same pictures to two different writers, they would doubtless invent widely differing personalities for their imaginary person, but whatever you come up with will be unique to yourself.

Another idea is to set up an imaginary dinner party at your house. The guests could be celebrities, movie and TV actors, characters from books, comics, cartoons or movies. These could be characters you like, admire, find irritating, or even detest, it’s really up to you. What would they have in common, what might they talk about, agree on or argue about? You choose the guests based on the dynamics that might occur from having them all in the same place, at a truly fascinating imaginary party.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

One of the best story starter ideas can be to simply wonder ‘what if.’

What if you received a letter telling you you’d been accepted into a school for wizards?

Or discovered a door into another universe at the back of your bedroom closet?

Or a flying boy dressed all in green appeared at your bedroom window, inviting you to take a journey to a magical land?

Perhaps you followed a rabbit down a hole and ended up in a bizarre underground universe?

What if you met someone who’d been imprisoned inside a painting for over three hundred years?

If you could travel back in time, where would you go?

What would you do if you had a clone for the day?

Whether this is how Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland or The Alchemist’s Portrait first came about isn’t the point, but rather how this type of thinking sets the thought process in motion.

Another great way to get started is to consider an overheard conversation and where it might lead. How about. “I’ll never forgive him for as long as I live” or “I didn’t mean to set the laboratory on fire, it just kind of happened” or “after that incident last year, her family will never be the same again”. Any of these could be overheard in the aisle of the supermarket, at a store checkout or on a long bus or train journey.

You could even find a mysterious note or find a cell phone with either a text or a voice message with tantalizingly vague details, from someone who may be in serious danger.

Or maybe you receive a letter and immediately recognize the name above the return address as belonging to someone you thought was dead.

All of these are great story starters, but can also help you develop your own idea or take it on a completely different path altogether.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

Even if you are really determined to work on your writing and have set time aside for it, there will be days when nothing seems to work to get you started. An interesting exercise to get a story moving is to use a collection of random objects drawn from a bag.

The idea is then to create story, in which these objects must all be used as a significant part of the narrative. It’s a method I use on a regular basis with children in younger grades at school visits and during summer camps and parties, but can easily be adapted to an older audience. For example, you could place a set of keys, a hairbrush, a pen, a cell phone, an apple, a sock, a postcard from the Caribbean, a toy bear, an address book, a broken pair of sunglasses, a post-it note, a watch or indeed any other collection of random items in bag. You then draw out four or five at random and use them to create your story. This type of exercise always sparks the imagination of children and you’d be surprised at what you might come up with when confronted with a set of seemingly unconnected objects.

You could even set yourself a time limit to force yourself to devise the beginning, middle and end of the story. The final result may not be best-seller material, but the process will certainly stimulate your imagination and like some of the other ideas we have examined, it might be just enough to get your creativity moving again.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

Thinking of names for the characters in your stories can be very easy for some writers, with the names just popping into your head, while for other it can be a torturous and painstaking experience. Sometimes it may not even be that crucial to get the name just right, but there are a few things to remember when choosing names for the people you invent.

Names very often typify characters and conjure up certain images in the minds of the reader. If you need to know what impression a particular name can give, check out the better baby name books. Many of these types of publications inform you in detail how names mean strength or wisdom or beautiful and so on, but some baby name books refer to famous, and even infamous, people who may have had that name or remind you of characters in movies. Hollywood, of course, has been doing this kind of thing for decades. The given names of Archibald Leach, Marion Morrison, Betty Joan Perske, Norma Jean Baker, Maurice Micklewhite and Gladys Smith were all deemed to be surplus to requirements. To conjure up the right image in the minds of moviegoers, these actors respectively became Cary Grant, John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Caine and Mary Pickford.

Often the longer a person’s name, the more we think they might be educated, confident, accomplished or possess many other desirable qualities in a hero or heroine. For example, if you want a strong male character in your novel, will you go with Alexander Wainwright or Tom Smith? If your female character is a sophisticated, well educated, statuesque beauty, will she be known as Elizabeth Castlewood or Susan Jones?

J K Rowling also had these things in mind, when creating the names for both the heroes and villains that inhabit the Harry Potter universe. Professor Severus Snape, for example, is a perfect name for the man who symbolizes Slytherin house. It also seems highly appropriate for a serpentine, snake in the grass kind of person that you will never truly trust, no matter how much faith Dumbledore seems to have in him. Malfoy, according the Rowing, means bad faith in old French. However, this is relatively unimportant, since just the sound of this name is enough to personify an evil or at least highly unlikable character. Names are very important and you only get one chance to make a first impression, so make sure you make the right choice.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

Despite the need for children to be the chief architects of their own adventures in novels for middle grade readers, there is certainly a place for adults in children’s stories, and not just as villains either.

In my first novel, The Alchemist’s Portrait, Tess is a young woman in her early twenties who works in the restoration department at the city museum where the infamous portrait of Nicolaas van der Leyden is being expertly restored. In the course of the story, Matthew, the chief character, does indeed receive a great deal of important information from Tess at various points in the narrative, and her help is essential to allow Matthew access to the museum after hours, for example, by the means of her security pass. However, in the end it is always Matthew, rather than Tess, who is responsible for finding all the answers and ultimately winning the day.

In my third novel, The Clone Conspiracy, another adult character, Lisa Mackenzie, is employed at LennoxGen, where secret human cloning procedures have been carried out. Lisa, is like Tess, crucial to the plot, providing a number of compelling details, offering tantalizing clues and so on. In this way, she is able to point Luke and Emma, the main characters, in the right direction to expose a shocking international scheme. However, it is once again the young protagonists who formulate strategies and eventually find solutions as a result of their own efforts.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

Children as Heroes

In your children’s science fiction or fantasy novel, even if the setting is in a different time period, in outer space or in a world completely unlike our own, it is imperative that the young characters in the story overcome their adversaries through their own efforts and find solutions to the problems and obstacles they encounter.

Adult characters can certainly appear in the book, and even assume very large roles in the story, but the main character or characters have to succeed by using their own abilities, even if they are young children. Think about some of the stories you are familiar with. In Peter Pan, the children are taken from their London home to Neverland and face grave danger, but there are no adults to help them solve the issues that they face.

In the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the two brothers and two sisters find themselves in a strange land in the grip of evil and are even expected to act as kings and queens. They do get help from Aslan, of course, but Peter still has to command a large army and also faces the possibility of death at the hands of the evil witch.

Harry Potter frequently confronts grown ups who wish him harm and his relentless enemy throughout the series is an adult. He gets help from Dumbledore, certain teachers, his godfather and others at various stages, but usually works things out for himself or in partnership with people his own age, even against the deadly Lord Voldermort.

In any number of children’s stories you are familiar with, the pattern will be similar, if not identical. To maintain the tension and hold the reader’s interest, the main character or characters have to be in some form of danger, even in the reader strongly suspects that the heroes will win in the end.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

NOTE: For the month of February, Simon Rose has focused on where ideas come from and how writers turn them into stories.

For a writer, having ideas in some ways is the easy part. If all that was needed was a good idea, everyone would be a writer. What takes time, dedication and effort is actually turning these ideas into stories.

You may have the general premise, but it must be able to sustain the reader’s interest for over a hundred and fifty pages or even three hundred or more for YA, teens or adults. You have to sit down and think about it, determining if it is actually feasible as a story.

I have a lot of ideas that may never become full blown stories, but I always keep a record of them, since you never know when you might get another piece of the puzzle. On several occasions, I have had part of the story, but haven’t been able to put my finger on some element that would make the plot work really well. Then one day, something comes to you out of the blue, an overheard conversation, a song on the radio, when you are working on some other story entirely and so on. Keep everything you get as an idea, no matter how insignificant it may seem at the time. Create ideas files, either on paper or on the computer, character names you like the sound of, even if you don’t have a story yet to put them in, a title for a story or whatever it may be. Keep notepads handy, or even use a voice recorder, if you have ideas while driving.

And remember, not all ideas make a novel either, since some may be only suited to short stories, pictures books or even poems. Some ideas may turn out to be separate stories, as happened with The Alchemist’s Portrait and The Sorcerer’s Letterbox, which became two different books. If your dog or cat does something amusing, and this may seem fascinating to you, your family and friends, you have to ask yourself not only if this is sustainable as a story, but if people would actually want to read about it. That being said, writing what you know can be a lot easier too, if you are not prepared to do lots of research into a totally fresh topic.

Perhaps you are a dog owner. Or are into sailing, rock climbing, hiking or antique vehicles. Do you have an interesting hobby or occupation? Or do you own property that has been in your family for several generations and has spooky stories attached to it? Creating a story about what you know, admittedly with embellishments as you build the plot, is still easier than starting from scratch. And even if it is a totally fresh idea, make sure that you really like the premise, since you will be immersed in the writing, editing and revising while you live in that world for months, or even years, at a time.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

NOTE: For the month of February, Simon Rose will focus on where ideas come from and how writers turn them into stories.

History has, of course, inspired filmmakers for decades, with countless movies making use of historical events and characters, sometimes very accurately and sometimes taking a great deal of license with highly inaccurate portrayals. Star Wars has elements seemingly inspired by world history - such as rebellions against oppressive empires, the French resistance, Robin Hood, and even mythology - in movies that also created a fictional timeline for a galactic empire spanning centuries. The various incarnations of Star Trek have similarly drawn on past events for inspiration and the scriptwriters have created an entire future history for mankind.

Although Lord of the Rings is set in a fictional world, many of the characters have some basis in history. Aragon as a reluctant hero, who shuns power for himself and merely seeks to free his people, has echoes of Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace, the hero of Braveheart.

The wise counsellor is also a recurring character throughout history. Gandalf in Lord of the Rings is not ambitious for himself and only has his king’s best interest at heart. He thus tells the king what he should hear, not want the king wanted to hear. Queen Elizabeth I had several such wise counselors throughout her long reign. Conversely, in The Two Towers, King Theodan is ill served by Wormtongue, an excellent example of an evil adviser. In history, Rasputin wormed his way into the affections of the Russian Royal family in the First World War. He told the Tsar and his family what they wanted to hear, especially about their invalid son Alexei, even when qualified doctors told them the truth. Many factors drove Russia to revolution in 1917, but Rasputin certainly had a major role in the downfall of the Tsar.

Often books can be said to be very much a product of their time. Tolkien was writing during the Second World War, when it seemed very likely that Hitler and the forces of evil might triumph. The entire world appeared to be headed for darkness in the early 1940’s before the tide of battle eventually turned in the Allies favour. The fact that the often competing forces of the shire, Rohan, Gondor, elves and dwarves all put aside their differences for the common good has echoes of how Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union worked together to defeat the Nazis.

In Lord of the Rings, the heroes are up against overwhelming odds all through the story. Sometimes there is good and sometimes there is evil and sometimes to save your civilization you have to be prepared to fight and die for it. Optimism runs through the tale. There is a refusal to give in, no matter what and to always have hope. In the end, its message is that is possible for good to triumph over evil and the victory is worth all the blood that had to be spilt.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

NOTE: For the month of February, Simon Rose will focus on where ideas come from and how writers turn them into stories.

As a writer, I often find myself wondering “what if.” This in itself can lead to many story ideas, some of which may end up being more developed than others.

What if there were a letter in your mailbox, inviting you to attend a school for wizards?

Or if one night a flying boy dressed in green appeared at your window with an invitation to accompany him to a magical realm?

Or you discovered another universe at the back of your closet?

Or followed a white rabbit down a hole into another dimension?

This might not have been how the famous stories of Harry Potter, Peter Pan, The Chronicles of Narnia or Alice in Wonderland actually came about, but these “what ifs” demonstrate how the writer’s mind can work simply from the starting point of “what if”?

Ideas can, of course, also be generated from your own influences, either from childhood or things from later in life. I became immersed in science fiction as a boy. The original Star Trek series springs readily to mind, along with other TV shows of the time, and I also read a lot of science fiction novels and collections of short stories, as well fantasy writers. I also read a tremendous number of comic books as a child. Pure escapism perhaps, but comic books were great for the imagination. I leapt headfirst into those tales of superheroes in what was probably the golden age of comic books in the 1960’s. The stories took me across the universe, into strange dimensions, into the land of the Norse gods or had me swinging from the New York rooftops.

At high school, I studied a great deal of history, retaining my interest in the subject up to the present day and historical events and personalities have certainly served as an inspiration for some of my novels for children. Sometimes I have used real stories and characters, as in The Sorcerer’s Letterbox, which is based on the true story of Richard III and the Princes in the Tower of London, or sometimes just utilized the setting of medieval England at the time of the Black Death, as in The Heretic’s Tomb. In The Alchemist’s Portrait, Matthew’s time travel adventures take him Amsterdam in 1666, the French Revolution, the American Civil War and the Russian Revolution. My upcoming novel, The Doomsday Mask, features the legend of the lost city of Atlantis, mysterious artifacts from ancient civilizations, the Pleistocene Extinction and the chaos of Berlin in 1945.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

NOTE: For the month of February, Simon Rose will focus on where ideas come from and how writers turn them into stories.

One of the most common questions asked of authors, whether from children during school visits or in interviews, is where do you get your ideas? In so many ways, ideas are all around us – in newspapers, magazines, pictures, photographs, other books (whether fiction or non fiction), television, movies, even video games.

History can be a constant source of inspiration for writers, but so are personal experiences, family vacations, family, friends or pets. Many writers have had ideas come to them in dreams, often not an entire novel, but at least a significant enough piece of the puzzle to set them on their way to crafting the actual story.

My own ideas come from anywhere and everywhere. Perhaps when out walking the dog, in the car, something in a conversation, a newspaper story, a billboard, an item on the evening news, TV, movies, books of all kinds, song lyrics, historical events, ancient mysteries, long lost civilizations, the supernatural, ghost stories, the paranormal or something completely out of the blue.

Sometimes the challenge is to stop having ideas. Although I have been known to get ten ideas at once, which amazes my school audiences, I also have to point out that I can go for six months with no ideas at all. Some of the ideas may never be used, and may only be part of a story or a title. They could even feature a character or a piece of dialogue and you aren’t sure where it comes from. However, I do try to record as many ideas as I can, since I never know when they might fit in with a story I’m writing. Even ideas that don’t seem to work right away may have a use in the future.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

If I’m struggling a little with a project, I also opt for writing tasks unrelated to my current novel, such as writing articles like this one, but also e mails, planning out another story, creating a new word search puzzle for my website, making changes to my online pages, editing blog entries, sending invoices and other paperwork to schools in advance of an author visit or other general marketing and promotional work.

Once I am actually tapping away at the keyboard, it eventually seems to get the creative juices flowing again. It’s also a good idea to walk away from the computer every once in a while, just to take a break from your writing. I often work elsewhere in the house, such as at the kitchen table, for example, when I’m preparing a new workshop or residency, writing an outline and so on, usually with pen and paper. This can also involve editing a manuscript, if I’m at that point in the process and I need to see the novel on paper, so I print off a copy and go elsewhere, simply for a change of scenery. I will also sometimes head to a coffee shop or some other similar establishment, working for several hours and invariably return home feeling refreshed.

As writers, we spend so much time at our desks, engrossed in our projects and it’s a good idea to take a break and recharge our batteries once in a while.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

In the days before computers, when writers were restricted to typewriters or pen and paper, one writer had an ideal strategy. Each time he finished writing for the day, he would always make sure he started another clean page. Even if all he wrote was a few lines, it prevented him from coming in the next day to the daunting prospect of a blank sheet of paper, which would most likely have the effect of freezing any inspiration and being a deterrent to getting started again right away.

I always create a detailed outline of a novel before I start work, but not all writers work this way, no matter what their preferred genre. However, even if you don’t usually work with an initial plan, if you’re stuck at a particular point in the story, writing a basic outline could be a good way to get back on track. You can even try breaking the story down into smaller chunks, with just the main points and headings, as is common with information on websites. It might even result in you taking the plot in a whole new direction that you had never previously considered, to the benefit of the story as a whole.

You could also try reviewing your notes, research or source materials. Alternatively, you could search for writing exercises online or engage in random writing exercises of your own, writing down whatever comes to mind, just to get the process moving again.

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For more from Simon Rose, watch this short video:

If your New Years resolution is to set up a website to promot eyour writing, then today's guest article will interest you. Virtually Famous - Websites For Authors and Writersby Simon Rose It's been said that everyone can have fifteen minutes of fame. With the advent of the Internet, the amount of time we can all spend in the public eye changed somewhat. Today anyone can have a website,

1. Tell us a little about your publication credits. If you have none, tell us about the genres you prefer to write, and your current projects. The Doomsday Mask 2009, The Heretic's Tomb 2007, The Emerald Curse 2006, The Clone Conspiracy 2005, The Sorcerer's Letterbox 2004, The Alchemist's Portrait 2003, The Complete Guide to Writing Science Fiction Volume One 2007 (Contributing author) 2. How

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

As I mentioned last week, I spend a fair amount of time on the outline for a novel. Once I actually start writing the book, I usually edit at least a little as I go. Sometimes this involves checking over just one chapter, sometimes two or three, once they are done, if I want to assess how it’s all going, if everything flows properly or if a section doesn’t feel right in some way, before I move on to the next part. I’m able to do this because I know what will happen next in the plot. In some ways, I am almost merely expanding on the outline I created, filling in details, adding description, dialogue, action and so on.

Does the outline change as I progress? Absolutely, although usually not too dramatically. There will invariably be parts of the story that may not work as well as you thought they would, new ideas that emerge as you write or you may simply have a new take on a situation you’ve already created. However, the outlines always serve as a valuable guide and ensure that the general flow of the story is well mapped out. You may, of course, still change your mind about certain aspects of the story as it is written, but hopefully you can avoid the situation where you have produced ten chapters, then decide to scrap everything you have written, because you’ve have a great new idea. This new inspiration, however, might actually be part of another book altogether and be ill suited to your current project.

Pre-planning may not be for everyone, but it will often help you maintain your focus, enabling you to get your book to the finish line.

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Simon Rose was in the UK last week. Here is an article about his visit that ran in the local newspaper there.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

I take a number of things along to my events at bookstores. Business cards are a must, of course, but I also have other items as well, so that the table isn’t just filled with books while I sit with a smile on my face.

You have to have a hook and I find that my flyer advertising my school visits always gets attention and people decide to approach the table to read more about it. You can engage them in conversation and, even if they don’t buy a book, which many of them do, they will pick up a card and may later contact you. It’s just like a trade show and this is your business.

I have also had bookmarks on occasions, but these can be expensive if you are printing them yourself and can be pricey to have as giveaway. I also have a sign advertising the fact I am an author, just in case anyone doesn’t realize why I am sitting there smiling at them. It might seem like I am hitting the potential customer over the head with the obvious, but it does help.

I also have several shirts displaying my book covers and I wear one of these to most events in schools and, of course, to book signings. Do the same for your book and you become a walking billboard for your work. These shirts can be produced very easily if you have access to the artwork, your own desktop printer and the iron-on versions of the cover pictures can be made right in your own home. It’s well worth it for the attention you get, not just at a book signing or school, but anywhere you may go, such as the bank, post office, grocery store and so on. People are more often than not intrigued by why your name is written on a book cover on your shirt and you thus have the chance to sell them a book, anytime, anyplace or anywhere.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

Although your primary mission is to sell and promote both your books and yourself, it’s a good idea to know a little bit about distribution as well, even though this is normally something your publisher deals with on your behalf.

It is possible to show up at a bookstore for an event and discover that your books are nowhere to be seen. The bookstore certainly could have forgot to order them, but it could also be an error from your publisher or simply a case of miscommunication. It’s really not worth getting angry about and it is never a deliberate slight against you as an author, although it doesn’t help if you have no books on display. However, it’s always good to have a back up plan.

I always take copies of my own stock for book signings, even if I leave them in the car. This is just in case there are no books at the store, but the extra stock also serves as a reserve if the event is a tremendous success and you actually sell out of one or more of your titles. If this happens, you can often come to some arrangement with the store manager about selling the books to the store on consignment or something similar. As a result, I always determine in advance that there are no problems ordering the books.

On several occasions, the stores have been informed me that there are no copies of a certain book, when I know there is a good supply available to order. Or the distributor claims they never received an order, while the store then tells you they actually forgot to send a fax or an e-mail. There are a number of different scenarios, but it’s wise to be aware of any possible problems in advance.

Stay on top of things to make sure your event goes well and of course ensure that the store has books for you to sign, sell and promote.

A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

In order to ensure that your book signing is a pleasant experience, it’s very important to forge a good relationship with the store as well. Bookstores, especially the bigger chain operations, can be very busy as Christmas approaches. Consequently, if you have a book signing and for some reason your table isn’t ready when you arrive and the staff don’t even know you are having an event that day, don’t go crazy and storm out of the store.

Be respectful, accept that the store is busy, and remember that they are providing you with what amounts to free advertising space in a prime location at the most lucrative time of the year. Always arrive earlier than your scheduled time and then you can help set up your own table if necessary, either to assist the staff or just to get things moving more quickly. You have to make the effort in many different ways in order to make a book signing a success.

I have a good relationship with all stores I deal with on a regular basis. Usually they have a sign on the table advertising my signing several hours before my arrival and those with notice boards at the front entrance display a poster a few days in advance. However, the bookstore will not normally do a lot of advertising on your behalf and it’s up to you to promote the event.

Use any local online groups you may belong to, tell everyone you know. Also, make use of sites like Facebook, and, of course, advertise on your own blog and website.

You have no idea if anyone will look at the things you are posting online, but they won’t see them at all if you don’t even try. Personally, I do a minimum of advertising for my events, since I am mostly relying on the traffic in the store, which has often served me well in the past.