Category: giveaway

giveaway · My Writing · picture books

The Christmas Crumb Giveaway – and writing with a moral

loutreleaven6 Comments
The Christmas Crumb by Lou Treleaven illustrated by Alex Willmore

I’m sorry to mention that word, but I hope you’ll forgive me when I explain that I have a new Christmas picture book out soon and I would love you to be in with the chance of winning a signed copy! All you need to do is comment below and I will choose a winner on 1 October 2021.

Christmas Crumb mouse feast spread

A family of giants drop a crumb of Christmas Pudding – but one crumb doesn’t matter, does it? Join Pip and his mother, the mice and the ants as everyone benefits from this giant Christmas bonanza and learns that what might be a little thing for you can turn out to be a big thing for someone else. The Christmas Crumb is published by Maverick at the end of the month and is illustrated by the amazing Alex Willmore. It celebrates the value of kindness, especially at Christmas, so I thought I’d share my tips on incorporating a moral or message into your picture book story.

  1. What is your message? If it’s been done before, how can you communicate it differently? In The Day the Crayons Quit, Drew Daywalt tackles the subject of everyone having something to contribute and learning to cooperate, but he did it with crayons instead of people!
  2. Is your message communicated throughout the book? Does anything in the plot contradict it?
  3. Are you telling not showing? The story should show the message. You shouldn’t have to spell it out, although sometimes a summary can be a tidy way to end the story.
  4. Are you preaching too much? Don’t forget to include a plot in your story and a sense of fun if appropriate. It still needs to work as an enjoyable experience. In Catch that Cough by Bonnie Bridgman, the plot involves Maisy chasing her cough, who becomes a character in its own right!
  5. Are you communicating something you feel deeply about? If you care about what you are saying, this will feel authentic and come through to the reader.
  6. Could your story be made more universal? In Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, the message of unconditional love is told using hares rather than people. Using animal characters can allow you to widen your scope.

To enter the draw for a free signed book including postage, please leave a comment below. I will pick a winner using a random number generator on 1 October 2021. Good luck!

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giveaway · Internet Resources

Free worksheets and resources

loutreleaven1 Comment

In these uncertain times, lots of people are pulling together to make resources available for people at home.  There are some great activities going on with authors reading their books on YouTube, daily drawing sessions and writing prompts.  Check out Draw with Rob, Let’s Draw with Maddie Frost, How to Write with Gareth P Jones and Steve Antony Daily for starters.

I have updated my website to include lots of free worksheets and resources for anyone homeschooling or just looking to keep the children occupied.  Also check out my giveaway of 6 early readers on Twitter.  I’m hoping to put some more stuff on YouTube soon too, but meanwhile I have some book extracts and some Q and A sessions on my channel.

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If you’re homeschooling, why not go to Twitter for a chance to win these!

Stay safe and well everyone,

Lou

giveaway

It’s a gigantomungous book giveaway!

loutreleaven28 Comments

* THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK PART!  THE DRAW IS NOW CLOSED AND THE WINNERS ARE DENISE THE ALIEN AND RACHAEL THE PIRATE!  WILL BE IN TOUCH TO ARRANGE FOR YOUR BOOKS TO BE POSTED. *

This month is an exciting one.  I have three books out on 28 May!  Three!  It seems hard to believe that only four years ago I was submitting manuscripts and wondering if I would ever find someone who liked what I wrote.  So to celebrate I would like to give  a signed copy of each of them to you, dear reader, plus a copy of the latest Pluto book, Teachers on Pluto.  That’s what I would like to do anyway, but I can’t, because I can’t give away a thousand copies.  So instead I will do a draw.

The Pirate Package

You have two choices: The Pirate Who Lost His Name picture book plus Slugs in Space early reader (henceforth to be known as The Pirate Package, even though one of them is a slug), or Teachers on Pluto junior fiction and Turns Out I’m an Alien middle grade books (The Alien Package).  To enter the draw, just let me know in the comments section whether you are a pirate or an alien.  I will draw the two winners on 28 May.  Good luck!

The Alien Package

chapter books · giveaway · My Writing · Uncategorized

Publication day giveaway!

loutreleaven23 Comments

Homework on PlutoThis weekend I’m celebrating the release of my new junior fiction title, Homework on Pluto published by Maverick, and as part of that I’ll be giving away a free signed copy to the lovely readers of this blog.  To take part, just comment on this post and I will choose a winner at random on 15 May by printing them out and putting them in a hat.  (A sou’wester probably, judging by the weather at the moment…)

Junior fiction or chapter books are great fun to write.  Here are my tips:

  1. Write to the right length.  6-10,000 words are what you are aiming for.  So think in terms of 6 chapters of 1000 words each to give you a rough outline.
  2. Keep it punchy.  You’ve got a lot to fit in to make a complete book work within this small space, so don’t waste words on lengthy descriptions or long dialogue exchanges.
  3. Write a series.  Readers this age (around 6-10) love series.  Conversely, your first book should be able to stand alone, just in case it doesn’t get followed up.  And you only need present one book to the publisher, as long as it has series potential.
  4. Create memorable characters.  Think Mr Gum, Horrid Henry, Flat Stanley… The character is the book.
  5. Utilise humour.  Don’t be afraid to be silly.  Silliness is underrated.

Homework on Pluto is available to order from all good bookshops, The Book Depository or Amazon.

giveaway · Uncategorized

Seasonal signed books giveaway!

loutreleaven19 Comments

As 2017 thinks about putting on the kettle for its hot water bottle and taking its nightly medication, I would like to thank the followers of this blog for another year’s loyalty with a signed book giveaway.  This will be for my new picture book Daddy and I, sumptuously illustrated by Sophie Burrows, plus my two early readers that came out this autumn which have delightfully cute pictures by Dean Gray and David Creighton-Pester.

To be entered into the random draw, just comment below by the end of November, and I’ll get them signed and sent to you in time for… shh!  You know what!

courses · giveaway · My Writing · picture books · Uncategorized

Signed book giveaway and workshop

loutreleaven20 Comments

The SnugglewumpMy new picture book The Snugglewump illustrated by Kate Chappell is out!  The Snugglewump is a featureless comforter with an inferiority complex.  When it hears the other toys arguing about which of them Molly loves best, it crawls out of the cat flap and ends up in a puddle in the local park.  Will the Snugglewump be reunited with Molly?  Could it be that she loves it best after all?  To find out, why not enter my free signed copy giveaway?  Just comment below and tell me what age group you like to write for and why.  I will print off the comments and draw one out of a hat!

Also I’m running a two hour picture book writing workshop at the Get Writing 2017 conference at Oaklands College, St Albans, on Saturday 3 June.  It’s an all day event where you pick which workshops you would like to attend as well as talks and opportunities to pitch to agents and publishers.  Plus lunch!  A lovely day – I have attended several times in the past.  More details and tickets available here.

About me · giveaway · Uncategorized

It’s giveaway time!

loutreleaven35 Comments

Snowflake-Mistake-LR-RGB     Letter-to-Pluto-COVER-LR-RGB

To celebrate the launch of my two new books, The Snowflake Mistake and Letter to Pluto, I am giving away a signed copy of the two of them.  To be in the draw, just comment below with your most helpful writing tip.  Hopefully we will get a good pool of knowledge we can share!

Here’s mine: Don’t be afraid to write a terrible first draft.  No one will see it!  Silencing your inner critic is really hard, but just tell them (or it) that you’ll be letting them out when it’s editing time, and they can feast on your words then but not now.

The moment I mastered this tip, my productivity increased by about 500%!  What’s your most helpful piece of advice?

giveaway · Uncategorized

Giveaway results

loutreleaven7 Comments

Thank you to everyone who entered the Professor McQuark and the Oojamaflip publication day giveaway.  It’s been inspiring to hear your writing resolutions for 2016.  I hope everyone has a fruitful year!

The winner (drawn out of a tissue box – appropriately as I have the mother of all colds) is… duitwit!  Sorry not to use your real name duitwit as I’m sure you have one.  If you email me at lou dot treleaven at sky dot com with your name and address and who you’d like the book dedicated to, I will pop it in the post to you.

I had a lovely tea party yesterday with some friends to celebrate. We ate gingerbread Professor McQuarks, oojamaflapjacks and square balloon peanut blondies (brownies without the cocoa).  I signed lots of books and felt like a real author!

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Gingerbread McQuarks

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The sign for the toilet!

We also made Professor McQuark fortune tellers / cootie catchers / chatterboxes – there are lots of names for these little gizmos but basically you fold the paper and work through the three options until you have an idea for an invention.  Then you can draw it, act it out or simply muse on the possibility of actually having a portable cloud straightener or whatever your result is!  If you’d like one of these, simply click here to download a pdf which you can then print and follow the instructions to fold.  The artwork, as always, is by the incredibly talented Julia Patton.

professor mcquark's curiously creative cootie catcher

You can also find Professor McQuark’s Curiously Creative Cootie Catcher at downloadablecootiecatchers.com

giveaway · My Writing · success stories

Publication day giveaway!

loutreleaven40 Comments

Coming soonDear readers,

It’s nearly publication day!  Fifteen years ago I started submitting children’s book manuscripts to publishers.  Five years ago I decided to share my list of publishers I was submitting to by putting it on my blog.  I never dreamed it would be such a popular post, with nearly 800 comments, queries and even success stories.  It’s been great sharing the ups and downs of publication with so many people.   Finally, on 28 January this month, my own dream will come true and my rhyming picture book, Professor McQuark and the Oojamaflip, illustrated by Julia Patton, will be published by Maverick Books.

To say thank you for everyone’s support, I would love to give away a signed copy.  If you would like one, please share your new year’s writing resolution below!  On publication day I’ll print out the comments and pick one at random.  I’ll then be in contact to ask you for your address and dedication.

If you are still submitting, don’t give up!  I made this promise to myself and I’m so glad I did.  I will keep updating the publishers and agents lists and keep encouraging you all.  Maybe your success story will be the next one on here?  I hope so!  Have a brilliant 2016 and keep writing.

editing · giveaway

And the winner is…

loutreleaven12 Comments

Thank you to everyone who entered the critique giveaway.  It was so interesting to read about everyone’s work.  The winner has today been chosen at random from the woolly hat and it is (fanfare)…

ROSE SHEARER!

Rose, please email me your story at lou dot treleaven at sky dot com.  I can’t wait to read it and give you my feedback.

critique draw

Meanwhile, I promised to keep you up to date with the publishing journey of Professor McQuark and the Oojamaflip.  After acceptance (hurrah!), the next stage has been editing, which took the form of emails from and to my editor, plus the input of an external freelance editor.  This has been really interesting and a great learning process.

The first job was to cut several verses which was a little painful but I could instantly see improvements.  Apparently in a picture book the less words you can use the better.  The words that make the final cut have to work so much harder that they become exactly the right words for the job.

Next to be picked up were inconsistencies and unnecessary areas of the plot.  Yes, even a picture book has a plot – it needs a clear beginning, middle and end. The beginning has to jump straight into the action, the middle needs to be absorbing, and if the end can be a bang, a snort of laughter or a giggle of happiness then so much the better.

One issue I always struggle with is finding the right words for the target age group, and there were a few words that needed changing.  When you’re writing rhyme, changing one word is not that simple – it can mean rewriting the entire verse.  A fun challenge! After two or three rounds of editing, my editor was happy and I was very happy.  I could see the improvements straight away.  In fact the text is so much better than before that frankly I can’t understand why it was even picked it off the slushpile in that state in the first place!

The next stage is the really, really exciting one – illlustrations.  I will blog about that in my next post. Here is a summary of what I have learned so far during the editing process.

  1. Although most publishers specify a maximum of 1000 words for picture books, there’s a magic number to aim for if you can – under 500.  It doesn’t sound like a lot, but too many words on a page can spoil the layout, overwhelm the illustrations and put a child off the book.
  2. You can spend a day deciding on the right word.   Luckily you can be doing the washing up at the same time.
  3. My publisher (hurrah!) favours 13 double page spreads.  Not every picture book is that length (some are more), but if in doubt it’s a useful guideline.  That means if your book is a rhyming one, 13 4-line stanzas would be a good maximum to aim for.
  4. Be prepared to lose a lot of your manuscript in the editing process.  You will benefit from it.  It’s like polishing a stone and getting all the rough edges off.
  5. Even a picture book needs to have a plot.  If it’s rhyming, try to step away from the ‘poem’ concept and make sure you are telling a story.
  6. It’s easy to sacrifice meaning and or sense for the sake of a good rhyme.  I’ve realised I do it all the time.  I need to make the rhyme serve my story, not the other way around.
  7. Every word is important and has a job to do.  You could say writing is making sure the right word does the right job at the right time.

Enjoy your writing and keep submitting!