Hi my 8yr old daughter is very keen on writing and wants to publish her own book. she has been writing books using MS Word on her Mac but I think I am going to get her Scrivener as it has the ability to publish ePub books and Kindle Books as she wants to publish her own books and sell them on the itunes and Kindle stores. I guess my question is what is the best way to do this in terms of content and Grammer? I am wondering if i should proof read and spell check her work before publishing or not, seeing as she is 8, she wants to create books that appeal to children her own age. I can handle the copyright etc of any images she wants to use, but grammer and content (i.e is she using something from someone elses story? will I get sued) I am unser about? Any resources suggestions or help would be much appreciated. Thanks Steve
I use a mixture of software myself: Storymill: Good for novels Scrivener: Good for short works Pages: I use to export .epub & .pdf (my version of Scriv. doesn't have this) Calibre: to convert to .mobi (for Kindle, unofficial) I would advise extreme caution with copyright. The second you put work on the commercial market, there's a chance a lawyer may see it, or another author, or a reader, and if any of them recognise anything plagiarised from another work, you could get in a fair bit of trouble. Proof-reading her work sounds like a good idea too.
Hi Thanks for the info, I showed her a video of Scrivener and she seemed to understand it so I will give the demo a shot first as I expect her first stories to be short and look at storymill if she doesnt get on with Scrivener. Pages I have but I feel like for her its just a pretty version of word which she uses and gives her no direction or meaningful purpose?, i.e use this for writing and word for everything else kind of thing. Copyright is a concern as I figured I will have to publish them on her behalf given her age and unable to have a bank account etc. So I don't fancy getting sued for an innocent mistake, any ideas, I wondered if there was a IMDB for books etc so I could do a little plot research before putting anything out? Steve
Steve, firstly, you cannot copyright plots. Even if your daughter wrote something with a similar plot to another published book, you could only be sued if she had actually copied part or all of the original word for word. Secondly, you might have to set up the e publication on her behalf if there is any payment involved, but I don't think you really have to sorry so much about the financial or legal side of things. The likelihood of making much money with short stories is almost non existent. Many people offer them for free. Why don't you set your daughter up with a blog she can post her stories on instead?
I wouldn't worry too much about plot ideas, it's actual passages, characters, settings, names and other specifics you need to concern yourself with. After all, some would say that Hunger Games is just Battle Royale with white people, and there are no lawsuits flying over that one.
Why doesn't your daughter join a kids writing forum. There is one called Miss. Literati that is mean for 11-15 year old (I would say). I know it's a bit old for her, but if she is using software like Scrivener (which I can barely figure out) and writing stories that she has thought of publishing then I'm sure she is advanced for her age anyway. She can post her stories there, although they won't be purchased, but they do get rated and she can read others stories and comment. She can even get featured on the webpage if she submits her story to the editor of the webpage. It's a pretty cool site that I stumbled across by accident, but it seemed like a great website to promote and encourage young (mostly female) writers. Anyway, if you google it it's fairly easy to find. It appears to be strictly moderated for the language and content for the stories, obviously that will be your call as the parent. It might give her a sense of "purpose" for her writing without having to get into the complicated publishing via e-books.
www.copyright.gov in re copyright issues, go there and learn the facts from the source, since some of the well-meant info and advice being given here isn't accurate... if, after studying all the ins and outs of what can and can't be copyrighted or sued over, you still are not sure about something, you should consult a literary attorney and never rely only on what's thought to be true by helpful folks on writing sites... and yes, i include myself in that warning, even though i know more about the subject than most, having been an editor, writer, writing consultant and writing mentor for over 3 decades... it's great that you are so supportive of your little girl... you'll find sad tales in threads on this site and others by aspiring young writers who have to keep their dream of becoming a writer secret from parents who wouldn't approve, much less help them to reach their goal... i've worked with a raft of talented young writers, so if there's anything i can do to help, drop me a line any time... love and hugs to you both, maia maia3maia@hotmail.com
