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Are educational writers the Rodney Dangerfields of children's literature? Sometimes it feels like we get no respect.

 

I spoke with a talented writer (published by several trade publishers) recently who's interested in writing for the educational market, as well. Her agent is not thrilled. Now, most agents don't handle contracts for educational writing because it generally doesn't involve royalties. My own agent and I have that same agreement--my work for the educational market is excluded from our contract. But she's fine with my writing for the educational market. She understands that I have to make a living. But this writer's agent actually doesn't want her to do any writing for the educational market at all.

This raises the old question: Does writing for educational markets help or hurt your career if you also hope to write for trade markets?

I think educational writing is getting much more respect than it used to. No, an educational market book is not going to win the Newbery or the Sibert. At least, it's highly unlikely! And not every writer for the educational market can also write for the trade market. They each require some very specific skill sets, and a writer might have the skill set for one but not the other.

But there are certainly plenty of writers who can and do write for both.

Sally Walker, writer of the Sibert-winning Secrets of a Civil War submarine


and also one of my favorite nonfiction books, Fossil Fish Found Alive, is also the author of many books, like this one, for the educational market:



And from what I can tell by the copyright dates, she has continued to write for the educational market even after being published very successfully in the trade market.

Talented writer and poet Mary Logue, who has poetry and fiction for adults and a fun middle-grade fiction series written with her partner, National Book Award-winner Pete Hautman, also writes nonfiction books for the children's educational market.

I'm really happy to see more and more trade writers also writing for the educational market--and using their own names. I hope that the old-school stigma of writing work for hire materials keeps fading. Being able to write quickly, accurately, and to a publisher's specifications should not be considered a bad thing!

I'd love to hear of other writers who have published in both the trade and educational markets. Are you one? Do you know of one? If so, please share!

 

In the past month, I have received several gifts I didn’t want and didn’t ask for, but I believe are gifts nonetheless.

One was a letter from an editor who had looked at a chapter book I had written. (All my published books have been for teens or adults.) She spent a single-spaced page evaluating the book, pointing out its flaws. In her closing sentence, she did not request to see it once those flaws had been dealt with.

What I wanted was an acceptance letter. What I got was a rejection. But it was still a valuable gift.

First of all, she took the time to tell me where and why I had gone wrong. Better yet, she pointed out patterns. She could have sent my agent one of those “not strong enough for the market” or “not right for our list” notes that are meaningless. Instead, she generously shared her opinion.

This letter is also a gift because I now have enough distance from the manuscript to be able to see it with new eyes.

Some of what she said echoed what my editor at Putnam has been working on with me. I tend to summarize action or otherwise move it back one step from happening right in front of the readers’ eyes. After seven books, I still make “show, not tell” mistakes, but they are subtle ones. For example, instead of showing the reader Olivia trying to trade her lunch with someone, I made the mistake of simply telling the reader that Olivia has boring healthy lunches and no one wants to trade with her.

Another gift from this letter – and this may simply be a matter of me pulling the wool over my own eyes – is that it leaves me free to concentrate on the things that need to be changed, rather than worrying that everything about the book is suspect. Now I can look at it with a laser-beam gaze.





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