I want to write a book for kids between the ages of 8 to 12. I want it illustrated

[Guest]

Where do I start in this process? How many words per page? How many pages?

Any direction at all is appreciated.

[Bran]

It would be best to define your audience clearly before writing, but that's no fun .I'd say write it a few times, first stroke very basic, second stroke advance a reading level, third stroke make a story that you would wanna read to your kid, fourth, write a story you would wanna read yourself. Then ask the market which one suits your audience. You may be surprised how smart kids are.

[Shayne]

Kids in the 8 to 12 range are reading middle grade books, not picture books. Also, that's a big age range. Middle grade is usually broken down into lower MG for 8 - 10 year olds, and upper MG for 10 - 12 year olds.

[Carrie]

The standard picture book is 400-800 words with the sweet spot for agents being around 500-600. The standard picture book length is 32 pages, but you have to account for extra pages, so maybe 26 pages of actual words.

[Jeri]

Spend some time with your children's librarians and ask them to show you the most read books by that age group. Look at a lot of them. Figure out what they have in common and what's different. Look at the brand new ones. Create a chart that compares books.

[Chelsea]

First, you need to consider industry standards. Ages 8-12 are typically reading chapter books which might have a few black and white illustrations, but aren't typically fully illustrated.

[Shannen]

Use simple words, maybe 2-4 lines per page. Make sure it rhymes. Think of a model or a dummy as your subject. Explore a plot that would create a different interpretation coming from a kid's perspective and an adult's perspective. Once finished, iIt would be cute if you read the story to a kid and have them draw the characters and how they imagine the story goes.