Writing Work-for-Hire by Tina Cho

New book alert: My work-for-hire chapter book, Asian American Women in Science: 15 Inspiring People You Should Know, published with Rockridge Press, an imprint of Callisto Media, yesterday, March 1^st, right on time for Women’s History Month!

As I begged, politely asked, people to review it, some asked what work-for-hire means, so I thought I’d explain.

A work-for-hire book is one in which a publisher, most often an educational publisher, finds writers to write books on a quick time table, according to an idea usually thought up by the publisher, and in which the copyright is in the publisher’s name. So that means they will pay the writer a one-time, agreed upon amount. The writer will not receive any more funds, no matter how well or poorly the book sells. Also, since the copyright is in the publisher’s name, they can do whatever they want with the book. The writer is giving them all rights to his/her work.

Pros of work-for-hire:

·       quick turn-around in getting books published
·       sometimes faster payment for your writing
·       a nice side gig if you want to earn some money (paying for child’s college, hehe)
·       a good way to add to your writing resume
·       a great way to get into the writing business working with an editor

Cons of work-for-hire
·       one payment, no matter how well the book does
·       giving up rights
·       fast turn-around of manuscripts, meaning it can be stressful doing lots of research and writing in a short amount of time

My experience

I started writing in 2008 for the educational, work-for-hire market. Most of you know, I’m an elementary teacher and still am. You can see my work-for-hire projects here. Lately, I haven’t pursued projects, but rather clients come to me. If I have time, I’ll accept.

The summer of 2021, an acquisitions editor from Rockridge Press emailed me. She had seen my bio in SCBWI and of course, my website. (Another reason to keep those bios current!). She asked if I was interested in this project—Asian American Women in Science. I was interested in the topic, but because it was so close to school starting, I wasn’t sure I could dedicate enough time to research. The editor said if I was interested I’d need to do a writing sample test on one of the women. So I thought, ok. If it’s meant to be, then…if not, that’s my answer. Well, it so happened, the editor chose me, out of the others in the running. So I prayed and told God, if He wanted me to write this book, He would have to help me. School was starting soon, and I had a daughter to move in to college.

So from July 26-Sept. 10, I was extremely busy writing 15 biographies, basically every two weeks, five stories were due. I paced on my calendar about how many days to write for each lady. I bought a new notebook (it’s the little fun things that count!) and added tabs for each scientist. I got into a groove of research and writing up my stories. The hardest part was finding enough information on some of the scientists. I wish I could’ve done interviews with those who are still living, but when I tried to contact them, there was no response. Or, I was told not to. 

 

What I learned:

·       I can write a chapter book of 15 biographies in a short amount of time.

·       Check You Tube for interviews of your source.

·       Be activists. I was amazed by the women still living and carrying out their mission. At the time of the writing, one of the women, Alice Min Soo Chun, was back in Haiti, carrying out her mission because they had just had another earthquake.

·       Women are unstoppable. We leave legacies for our children. They are watching us, even if we think they aren’t.

·       Never underestimate yourself and what you can do with your writing!

So maybe you’re thinking, I’m interested in doing work-for-hire. What are the next steps?

·       Here is a work-for-hire writing course from my author friend, Annette Whipple. Annette is graciously offering a discount: code KIDLIT25 for 25% off any of our courses

·       And here’s a handout from SCBWI.

·       Or you can jump in yourself. Go to the library and find the children’s nonfiction shelves. Write down the publishers, check the copyright. Look at the publishers’ websites and how to submit ideas or a sample packet.

For more information, see my posts here.

There are all kinds of work-for-hire writing assignments. Besides nonfiction, my husband and I translate and proofread Korean books for Tuttle Publishing. I’ve written guided reading books for schools, lesson plans, reading passages, devotions, and stories for magazines.

There’s a whole world of writing out there waiting for you to explore. Have fun!

Tina Cho is the author of four picture books with 2 more unannounced-- Rice from Heaven: The Secret Mission to Feed North Koreans (Little Bee Books 2018), Korean Celebrations (Tuttle 2019), My Breakfast with Jesus: Worshipping God around the World (Harvest House 2020), and The Ocean Calls: A Haenyeo Mermaid Story (Kokila/Penguin Random House 2020). Her lyrical middle grade graphic novel, The Other Side of Tomorrow, debuts from Harper Alley in 2024. After living in South Korea for ten years, Tina, her husband, and two teenagers reside in Iowa where Tina also teaches kindergarten. 

Writing a Guided Reading Book 101 by Tina Cho

Have you ever thought about writing a guided reading book? Educational publishers need writers to write these little 8-10 paged books for beginning readers.
Teachers use these in reading groups in schools. Some are based on phonics. Some are based on sight words. And all are based on some kind of leveled reading system. Take a look at Caring for Your Dog by clicking here and then return to this post. This book was based on a Lexile reading level and controlled vocabulary. There are fiction and nonfiction guided readers. 

Each publisher has their own way of writing them. They will tell you how many words per book, words per page, even words per sentence! They might give you a controlled vocabulary list, and you can only write using the words on that list. They might have a template for you to use. You have to be creative!

As with writing picture books, you have to read them in order to write them. If you want to write guided reading books, you need to read them, especially since they are written on so many levels. How?

• listen to your children/grandchildren read them for homework
• volunteer at an elementary school for reading time and listen to kids read them
• ask a teacher if you could look at her collection, tell her you're interested in writing them
• peruse educational publishing websites and look at their guided reading books, there may be samples you can click on

When you're ready, try writing a manuscript for a guided reader. I even self-published one in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I wrote the text, and my daughter illustrated it. This is a sight word reader. Can you guess the sight words?

My Hamster
My hamster lives in a cage.

My hamster can eat a seed.

My hamster can drink water.

My hamster can run.

My hamster can slide.

My hamster can dress up.

I love my hamster.

Guided reading books are fun to write. But just like picture books, every word counts, since they are sparse. 

www.edu-clips.com

If you want to know more, check out these posts I wrote:
Writing Beginning Readers or Guided Reading Books (at my OLD blog)

How to Write for the Educational Market Part 1

How to Write for the Educational Market Part 2 (explains Lexile levels)

Guided Reading Levels and the Writer (explains Fountas and Pinnell leveling system)

If you have any questions, ask in the comments, email/message me, or find me at my blog!

How to Write a Lesson Plan for Your Book by Tina Cho

So you've written a book and would like to market to teachers. How can you make something yourself? You could start off with a lesson plan to put on your blog/web site or use as a handout. 

Let's take a look at some approaches. Author Laura Sassi has extension activities on her blog for her book Goodnight, Ark. This is great because as a teacher I can peruse the ideas and find what would fit my class. Nancy I. Sanders makes a web site for each of her books with links to activities or develops lessons herself and puts them in her teacher store at Teachers Pay Teachers. She did all of these for her newest book, A Pirate's Mother Goose. Very handy!  R.J. Palacio, author of Wonder, has discussion questions for teachers to use on her site. Wonderful! Debbie Ohi has a plethora of swag and activities for each of her books on her web site. Really cool is that these are PRINT-READY! Teachers don't have much time. So having something ready to go is awesome! And Suzanne Slade has a very organized list of her books with teachers' guides, book trailers, and a button to order each book.

 

Are you getting ideas? For this post, I'm going to take you through steps for a traditional lesson plan. And all you other educators out there can chime in in the comments with your fabulous ideas!

1. Brainstorm. Here are some questions to think about. What is your book about? (the pitch) What themes does your book fit under? (seasons, science, history, friendship, bullying) What grades would this appeal to? What grades study this topic? Could this book be a mentor text for something?

2. Introduce. Think of a snazzy introduction a teacher could use to get students' attention. For the rest of this post, I'm going to share how I used Dr. Seuss' latest, What Pet Should I Get? as an example. I used just a simple question for my 1st graders. If you could pick any pet, what would you get?

3. Read. In the lesson plan, the teacher will read your book to students, unless it's for older kids.

4. Ask. Write a list of comprehension questions. If you want to get really technical, you could refer to the Common Core Standards to see what kind of questions to ask. Common questions are: Who is the main character? Where is the setting? What happened in the beginning, middle, end? What was the problem? Solution? What's the main idea?

5. Assess. Here's where you can get really creative. You can develop worksheets, crafts, activities, recipes, you name it! You could list several and have teachers choose. For Dr. Seuss' book, I made a rhyming game to be played like Old Maid. And I made a comprehension worksheet with 3 boxes for kids to write and draw what happened in the beginning, middle, and end. I made another worksheet for them to journal/write about what they think happens next in the story because this book ends inquisitively. To be helpful, list the objectives that students will perform in your plan. For example, students will invent a pet using craft and recyclable materials. 

The sky's the limit. Have fun being creative and reaching out to teachers. Once ONE teacher discovers you and your book resources, it will travel like wildfire through channels such as Pinterest. I know, because one of my educational activities is being shared on Pinterest almost every day now that it's Fall.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments. I'd love to help you.