How much should I charge for writing children’s stories?

I was recently hired by a children’s clothing company to write short children’s stories based on a cast of characters they created for the line. The stories will be posted on their website as part of a “kids club” section. However, they have given me no payment guidelines. How much should I charge for writing children’s stories?

First of all, you really should bring up payment guidelines to your supervisor, or whomever you are working with on this project. I have worked plenty of freelance jobs like this and frankly the sky is not the limit. They always have payment guidelines in mind on their end. You can save yourself a lot of embarrassment and worry if you can glean some idea of the range they expect to pay.

Will you have a byline on these books?

Who will own the copyright?

How much research in involved?

The answers to these questions are also the key to what you can expect or ask for in payment. For instance, when I wrote film scripts for a small company, they owned all rights and paid no royalties. I had no byline and was expected to do all the research. So I charged an hourly rate, and turned in my hours every two weeks like an employee.

If you’re a member of SCBWI, go to the Publications section of the web site and click on the link at the top of the page for “Members”, then scroll down to Answers to Some Questions About Contracts, which is a good primer for understanding children’s book payment structures and book contracts.

Lynn Wasnak’s article How Much Should I Charge? offers a complete list of guidelines for what to charge for all kinds of different projects in the publishing business. Wasnak’s recommended rates are hourly, therefore you might have to estimate how long it will take you to write a book and base your fee on that. For example, the low range for book writing is $20/hour. So let’s say it takes you 2 weeks to write a book, the math would look something like this:

40 hrs/week X 2 weeks = 80 hours
80 hours X $20/hour = $1600

Next, you need to determine two things:

Is this a fee the company is willing to pay?

Does this seem reasonable to you for the amount of work involved?

How Much Should I Charge as a Freelancer? by Moira Allen is another good reference. While it’s geared toward articles it offers a good frame of reference and some excellent advice. Be sure to check out the links at the end of the article.

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What’s the difference between a simile and a metaphor?

My critique group was discussing which makes for better writing, similes or metaphors. I felt stupid because I said they’re sort of the same. The rest of the group said I was totally wrong. Now I’m confused. What’s the difference between a simile and a metaphor?

Don’t be so hard on yourself. Understanding similes and metaphors can be confusing. I always say you know it when you see it – meaning a simile or a metaphor.

Actually, you were on the right track. A simile is a type of metaphor. Still confused? The reason they can be confusing is because similes and metaphors basically accomplish the same thing by comparing things that are not alike, or unrelated to one another. But they accomplish this is different ways.

Simile

A simile uses two different nouns to create an image (or description). The words “like” or “as” are usually involved.

The kitten’s fur was like silk.

Although fur is nothing like silk, the reader knows this means the fur is soft and smooth – like silk.

Her nose was as cold as a snowflake.

Again, a nose and snowflake are two completely different things, yet comparison creates a more vivid description.

Metaphor

A metaphor is a figure of speech. You say one thing when you really mean something entirely different.

My grandma’s a peach.

Of course everyone knows Grandma’s not really a juicy fruit that grows on trees. She’s a very sweet lady.

My car is a gem.

If my car was really a gem I couldn’t drive it. In this case, the reader knows it’s special.

In the literary world a metaphor is considered stronger than a simile simply because it requires more skill to create, and often packs more punch than a simile.

In her article It’s Like This: Mastering Similes & Metaphors (scroll down to Item 7), Laura Backes says, “Similes are easier, and can be more effective for younger readers.” So whether one is preferred over the other depends on your targeted age group. Skilled writers use both.

Below are some examples of really bad similes and metaphors taken from the Washington Post’s Style invitational which had invited readers to submit really bad writing.

Enjoy!

Every year, English teachers from across the country submit their most amusing similes and metaphors gleaned from high school essays. Here are some of the winners from 2007:

He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
 
She grew on him like she was a colony of E.Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. 

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up. 

Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
 
John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
 
Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
 
The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
 
It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
 
He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

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Go! Magazine Writing Contest

Go! is an online magazine for teens published by Iowa State University’s Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE), is sponsoring a writing contest. The goal of the contest is to encourage writers and readers to think about how integral transportation is to our everyday lives. Transportation encompasses roads, rail, air, and sea, including:

• All sorts of vehicles, cars, semi-tractor trailers, trains, ships, and planes
• The “drivers” of all those different vehicles
• Infrastructure such as roads, bridges, airports, railroads, ports, etc.

Contest submissions MUST be focused on some aspect of transportation and be previously unpublished.

Open to: Writers age 16 and up

Categories: Short story and nonfiction; well-researched, technically correct articles are preferred over personal essays or creative nonfiction

Target audience: Young adults from 14 to 20 years old

Word length: Short story, up to 2,000 words; Nonfiction article, up to 2,000 words

Prizes: $1,000 for best short story; $1,000 for best non-fiction; $500 ISU Book Store gift cards to 2 best student writers

Deadline: January 15, 2009

How to submit: By snail mail to
Go! Writing Contest
Michele Regenold, Editor
CTRE
2711 S Loop Drive, Suite 4700
Ames, IA 50010

Click here for full guidelines.

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Review: George Green’s, The Lion Who Couldn’t Roar

George Green’s, The Lion Who Couldn’t Roar
By George Green and Amy J. Brooke
Illustrated by Shiyin-Sean Luo
Visikid Books
October 2008
32 pages

Lenny and Chad are young lions and best friends. One day Chad challenges Lenny to see who can roar the loudest. Lenny is horrified to discover that he can’t roar. So he hides out in shame, knowing he can never be King of the Jungle without being able to roar.

An ad on a Bilboa tree sends Lenny in search of a wise monkey. He hopes the monkey will help him find his roar. Along the way he makes plenty of new friends in the jungle and discovers something he never knew he had.

Green and Brooke’s engaging lyrical verse tells a heart-warming story that brings to mind Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Books. Lenny the lion’s quest shows readers how actions speak louder than roars.

The Disney-esque illustrations in George Green’s, The Lion Who Couldn’t Roar will delight fans of The Lion King. The exquisite details and vivid color in Luo’s drawings bring the lovable characters to life, making this book a treasure for readers young and old.

Copyright (c) 2008 by Peggy Tibbetts

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