I am happily plugging away working on my book and I am starting to see my character’s life take shape. As I mentioned in my previous post my character Ana has become more than mere words on a page, but a living and breathing person and I am enjoying telling her story. I am even beginning to visualize my book being picked up by a world-renowned publishing house (I dream big) and on the shelves of such places as Mahogany Books. I can also imagine the happy faces of children who love reading Ana’s story as it becomes one of their favorite books as so many did in my own childhood.

With that in mind, I decided to scope out the competition. No doubt thousands of writers attempt to publish children’s books each year and I wanted to get a sense of what children’s books are selling right now and who is publishing them. While I have my own built in focus group with my opinionated ten and twelve-year-old daughters (think Ebert and Roeper) I decided to do my research. As I did, I came across many wonderful books, but one in particular caught my attention. A book entitled “Girls Hold Up This World” written by Jada Pinkett-Smith.

Mrs. Smith’s book seemed like a wonderful read geared towards empowering young girls something that Ana’s story also promotes, but seeing her book as well as other notable people brought something to my attention. More and more celebrities are beginning to pen their own books directed towards young people. In times past, while a new writer may have had a greater opportunity to be published will we soon see a trend of celebrities with scores of built-in readers (fans) taking the place of literary unknowns like myself?

While celebrities are by no means monopolizing the children’s market it reminded me of a statement made by actor Nia Long, “…It’s just not about how talented you are anymore. It’s about, ‘How much box-office revenue will this person generate?” Today, browsing the shelves of your local library you may see books by well-known celebrities such as Spike & Tonya Lee, Debbie Allen, Bill Cosby and Whoopi Goldberg. It has made me begin to wonder if the trend that Nia Long spoke of has begun to influence the literary world as well?

While the above people mentioned are talented writers some celebrities write with the aid of ghost writers and the celebrities themselves do none of the actual writing. With the economy in the state that it is currently in book publishers may feel that it is better to promote famous people whose name alone will “generate more revenue”. This may be the reason that more and more authors have begun to self publish as opposed to going through one of the major publishing houses. While I will continue to remain optimistic that a literary nobody like me can eke out a place in the world of children’s authors I am definitely keeping my eye on the competition.

Photo Credit: MahoganyBooks.com