What is a lead? How do I begin? Theoretically, I knew that the first lines (lead) have the crucial job of drawing readers into the book and capturing their attention. But practically, how to do so? If writing the first lines isn’t more difficult than writing the rest, it isn’t easier either. […]
Lead; hook reader’s attention Read More »
I knew one of my nonfiction manuscripts was mission something—something that I couldn’t identify! The topic was interesting, about a space telescope. The text wasn’t wordy; less than 800 words. The language level was appropriate for my target audience. Yet, I felt something crucial was missing, SOMETHING that should be in the blueprint of
Slant in nonfiction Read More »
Some calls this text layers or text features I have always thought of back matter as a way to include extra information about the book’s subject. However, backmatter is only one of the options, among many! Reading this blog post was eye-opening. Then, I looked at recent traditionally published picture books and compiled