Now Playing: Short course

 

I've written a short course for those who are interested in creating ACTIVITY books for kids.

Here's the outine:

How to create Story/Activity Books for young children

 

Instructor:  Liana Metal

 

In this course I will show you how to create your own Story/Activity books, the way I have done.

 

But why create an activity book?

There are many reasons:

 

Because you love writing and drawing

Because you feel you can create much more than just texts stories.

Because you wish to show your work to your students and try it out in class.

Because you wish to learn something new and exciting.

Because you want to try a new market.

 

There are more reasons, depending on the needs of a writer, so why don’t you just add your own ones?  Story/Activity books can be fun to create, so, even if you only need that fun, it’s a great activity for you, the writer and artist.

 

Objective:  Aspiring writers and artists will learn how to create a story for kids and enrich it with illustrations and activities that cater to primary school children. The final product will look like a picture book with activities that will educate and entertain the young readers.

 

Duration:  There are 5 lessons within 5 weeks.

 

Prerequisites:  Basic writing skills.

 

Class material:  Instructor will use e mail to supply all material to student.  No need to buy any book, but if the student wishes to have more sample material they can follow the suggestions of the instructor.

 

Curriculum:  In this 5-week course, you will learn how to create a story for kids, how to combine the illustrations with the text, how to create the activities and finally, how to transform your word copy into a PDF file, that is, an e book.  The course will also instruct you on how to promote and sell your book.

 

Lesson 1:  The Story.

This lesson will look at how to craft and present a story for kids through fast and simple tips.

 

Lesson 2: The illustrations.

In this section the student will learn how to combine text and illustrations via the use of a computer.

 

 

Lesson 3:  The book structure.

This lesson focuses on the book plan. The student will learn how to compile the different parts of the book and create a Story/Activity book.  There is advice on the kind of activities that a story book can have, so that the student can create their own pages.

 

Lesson 4:  The e book.

Finally, there is advice on how to transform the Word file into an e book.  All is free and a great fun to do.

 

Lesson 5:  Promote your book.

In this section the student will learn how to market the book in a variety of ways.  There is information about reviewers, agents, publishers and a lot of other recourses and help, such as publications and organizations related to children’s books.

 

Instructor Bio:

Liana Metal, an MA (Applied Linguistics) holder, has been teaching young children for over twenty years, and during that time she has written a wide range of teaching material, fiction and non fiction for children and young adults.  She is currently writing articles and reviews for various publications, both online and print ones, and creating e books. Her first site, http://lianametal.tripod.com, caters to all writers and artists, while her second site, http://liamet.tripod.com, is for e books.  Both sites offer free exposure to writers and artists.

 

Her latest children’s book is Achilleas’New Pet and can be viewed at http://liamet.tripod.com/achilleasnewpet