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What's the typical word count for the different genres (picture book, middle grade, etc.)?

http://literaticat.blogspot.com/2011/05/wordcount-dracula.html

You’re a beginning to intermediate writer. You’ve just getting to the point of submitting. Do you need a website, do you need to build a platform?

A platform just means that you have a following for some reason, a group of people that you can easily tap into to jump start sales. Keep that in mind: the purpose of a platform is to jump start sales–from a publisher’s point of view.

Yet, when you work to develop a platform, you can’t think that way. Instead, you need to consider your strengths and interests.

Topics

Do you have a passion for the environment? See AuthorsforEarthDay.com
Are you a former astronaut? See Marianne Dyson’s site where she reviews children’s science books, but especially space/astronomy books.

Here’s your first task: list five passions. Rank them. Which one(s) would you like to talk about a lot? And I mean–a lot.

Types of Content

Consider what sorts of content you like to produce: photos, videos, short commentaries or essays.

Does this match up with your passions? Can you consistently create content in one format or another that relates to your passions?

Content Delivery Platform

Once you know your passions and your strengths in creating content, you can start to build your platform.

• Photos: Flickr.com (or similar sites), a photoblog and Pinterest
• Video: YouTube, Facebook and blog
• Text: Blog, then pull it into other platforms
• The latest gossip: Hey, you’re on Twitter.
• Instagram, Pinterest—other social platforms all have a typical type of content, too, but with a twist. Study each platform for what it requires.

Everyone Needs a Brochure and a Mailing List

Finally, everyone needs two things.
Brochure Website: This is a website that rarely changes and acts merely as a brochure for you and your work. It mentions your work as a writer and something about your passions.

Email Newsletters: Everyone needs to be collecting email addresses of people interested in your work and your passion. Use an easy program such as MailChimp.com or AWeber.com and set up a sign-up form. The list may grow slowly, that’s fine. The point is that it will grow.

Examples of Online Platforms

Puppeteer. For example, I recently talked with a puppeteer who loves working with kids and getting them excited about plays, voices for puppets, making puppets, creating sets, performing with puppets. What she can consistently produce is videos of puppet performances. She doesn’t want to do long how-to blog posts, so a blog doesn’t make sense. Facebook doesn’t make sense, either, because she doesn’t post multiple times a week which is needed to build an audience on FB. Instead, she can only post once a month. Our puppeteer needs a YouTube channel, where she posts monthly (important to be consistent, even if it’s just monthly) videos of performances. From her Brochure Website, she needs an email newsletter signup, so she can send out monthly info on how that video was produced, where it was produced, who was in it, etc. Or at least a

From Harold Underdown's book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books
http://www.underdown.org/cig_3e_ch08a.htm