Wrapping Up Our Series on Frequently Asked Questions

Image by Margo Lipa from Pixabay

Happy August!  

It's hard to believe that summer is already waning here in the northern hemisphere and students and teachers will soon be returning to classrooms. Today, I'm closing out our latest TeachingAuthors series. At the end of this post, I also share one of my poems and a link to this week's Poetry Friday roundup.

I've enjoyed reading all my fellow TeachingAuthors' responses to the prompt: "Share a question you often get from your students or readers." I must admit, though, that the post that most resonated with me was April's, in which she talks about someone approaching her with an idea and asking her to write the book. I, too, have received that request many times, not only from my students, but also from strangers I've met at social functions and even via email from random people who found me online.

But there's another question I've heard far more frequently from those same sources: "How do you get a book published?" In fact, when I first started teaching classes in writing for children and teens over 25 years ago, the question was frequently worded as "How much does it cost to get a children's book published?" Back before self-publishing became prevalent, many people assumed you simply paid a book publisher like Scholastic or Random House to publish your book. These same people also typically assumed that if you were a writer and not an artist, you had to hire someone to illustrate your picture book before submitting to that publisher. 

If the person asking the question was not a student in one of my classes, I simply directed them to the Frequently Asked Questions page of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) website. But over the years, the answer has gotten increasingly more complicated, and the SCBWI FAQ page isn't as helpful as it used to be. Thankfully, Jane Freidman has a great resource: "Start Here: How to Get Your Book Published," that covers publishing books for adults as well as for children. The post describes three publishing paths: traditional publishing, hiring a company to publish for you, and self-publishing, and she updates the information periodically. 

There are now all sorts of books on writing for children, too. Two of my favorites include Ann Whitford Paul's Writing Picture Books: A Hands-on Guide From Story Creation to Publication and Writing Irresistible Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers by Mary Kole, both published by Writer's Digest Books.     

How about you, Readers? Do you have any questions we haven't addressed in this series? If so, please let us know in the comments. 

Now for the poem I promised. Earlier this summer, I had the honor of having two poems accepted for publication at The Dirigible Balloon, a UK-based online magazine that publishes poetry for children--my first time being featured there! Here's one of them, which you can also see on their site here: 

      On the Launchpad (An Etheree)    
      by Carmela A. Martino

      Preparing for takeoff! I fuel up 
      on determination so I can 
      blast past expectations and climb
      skyward, higher and higher—
      beyond the stratosphere—
      to where earthly fears
      won’t weigh me down.
      Here I go—
      THREE, TWO,
      ONE …

  © 2025 Carmela A. Martino. All rights reserved.

As noted above, this poem is an Etheree. If you're not familiar with the form, you can learn about it on the Shadow Poetry site.  And you can read my other poem, "Puppy Litter," on this page of The Dirigible Balloon.

Don't forget to visit this week's Poetry Friday roundup hosted by Jane Whittingham for more terrific poetry.

Happy writing!

Carmela