Writing for the Education Market

© Antony McCallum, Wikimedia

I love writing for the education market. It’s where I got my start as an author. I’m a big believer in it as a market that is very friendly to new writers. You should know about it if you want to break into kid-lit.

In this series of blog posts, I’m going to teach you about this market and show you how you can get started writing for it.

The kingdoms of kidlit

Children’s book publishing in the U.S. is made of two markets. You can think of them as two kingdoms. The kingdoms sit side by side. They get along. They work together. They even share territory.

These kingdoms are the trade market and the education market.

What is the trade market?

Trade books are the books you’ll find at a bookstore. These are books like If Animals Kissed Goodnight, or Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, or Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, or Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

When people say they want to write children’s books, they’re usually thinking of trade books.

They may not realize there is a whole other kingdom out there.