Many picture book writers venture into the chapter book genre. It is a natural progression. The word counts allow freedom from the tight 500 boundary of picture books with scope for more developed plots and character arcs. You can even plot your chapter book beats and rising action in a 12 spread grid, just replacing the double pages as whole chapters. They also feel less daunting than a thirty to sixty thousand word middle grade novel. So why aren’t more writers getting signed with agents in this burgeoning genre?
Competition is FIERCE!
Just like picture books, there are a lot of writers trying to get noticed in this space. Whilst there have been a few new competitions popping up to offer opportunities to new authors, these books are still hard to convert into agent contracts.
This genre relies on simple language for newly developing young readers. Picture books are read to children, but chapter books need to have the accessibility there as they could be read by aloud by adults, but more often these are read by children themselves. They need to be pacey, hooky and fun. That can be tricky to do. The standard as with all children’s books, is really high.
You want to grab your agent, publisher and reader with a interesting or quirky concept and make them want read more and more stories with your characters. This is not a stand alone story space.
Stand Out On The Shelf
With word counts of between and five and fifteen thousand, these books suffer from skinny spines. This makes it harder for them to stand out on the bookshop shelf. Many stories in this five to eight age range are sold by book packagers who contract out fully mapped concepts and plots to ghost writers so they can release several books in a series simultaneously. This happens for titles such as The Rainbow Magic and Beast Quest series.
These books dominate the genre along with classics that parents and grandparents enjoyed and want to share with the new generations in their lives. Think Paddington, Flat Stanley and The Worst Witch.
As you can see the shelves are already very full, so you need a concept large enough to grow through a minimum of three to four books, ideally more if your stories sell. Your hook needs to create easily recognisable characters with stand alone stories that can be read and collected as a set. This age group love to collect things from sticker packs to figures from TV and film franchises. Make them want to read everything about your characters too. Think The Kitty series by Paula Harrison, or The Boy Who Grew Dragons by Andy Shepherd. Or take a new spin on an old trope like Sibeal Pounder and her zany world of Witch Wars!
Illustrations Help Encourage Readers
Making memorable characters can be hugely helped by the illustrations. Illustrations are also an important aid to help young readers decipher and enjoy independent reading. Graduating from the full colour magnificence of picture books, chapter books tend to have quirky black and white line drawings, sometimes with a spot of another colour, which often helps with the overall branding. Others embrace the full colour comic style. This is why this age range is also dominated by author-illustrators, such as Harriet Muncaster (Isadora Moon,) Dav Pilkey (Captain Underpants, Dogman) and Laura Ellen Anderson (Amelia Fang, Rainbow Grey, Marnie Midnight).
There are also characters that have jumped from picture books into more developed stories, like The Jolley-Rodgers (from The Pirates Next Door by Jonny Duddle) Hubble Bubble Granny Trouble. You don’t have to be an illustrator, but it can help!
Embrace Your Wild Side
Whatever you decide to write as a chapter book, the current market tends to breakthrough wacky, hyperbolic stories. From Indigo Wilde by Pippa Curnick which is crammed with mad-cap creatures running amok, to the Izzy series of books by Pamela Butchart, (The Spy Who Loved School Dinners, My Headteacher Is A Vampire Rat, Baby Aliens Got My Teacher etc.) where Izzy and her friends imagine baby space aliens have taken over the school kitchens or the Headteacher is secretly sleeping in a coffin, alongside all manner of wild assertions happening at school.
Big, bold, brash stories and humour are standing out right now, so don’t hold back or be shy!
But don’t be put off by the difficulties in attracting agents and selling chapter books to publishers. There is always room for a stand out story and this age group want to believe anything is possible. So unleash your imagination and give this rewarding age range a try!
Need Help? Get in Touch
If you’re working on a chapter book and want some feedback or help, please get in touch here . I have worked with many authors over the years, find out more here.
Kate Walker Children's Author 