Kids Music into Kids Books

So as you say one route would be a book of lyrics - basically you'd be trying to sell poetry. Poetry's really tough. Hardly anybody publishes it and when they do it's from well-established authors.

The other thing would be trying to adapt one of these songs into a picture book, which is not a bad idea. Writing a picture book is more akin to writing poetry than it is to writing, say, a short story or chapter book; it's about structure and economy and rhythm, all things that music helps to train. (I often advise somewhat startled picture book authors to listen to more rap.) So you're right, that's how you keep the energy going. The only caveat is that you need to pick the right song; you'll need a story of some kind, rather than just a string of images.

I second Torgo's suggestion about picking the strongest as working it into a picture books. Dan Zanes has a few kids' books based on his songs. They're very cute, but I'm not sure if they would work as well if I couldn't sing them -- no story.

Not at all my field of expertise...but in thinking about books I know of that are actually songs, I would have to say...probably not the easiest way to get one's book in the door. Most of the song-turned-books that I know of are by people who were already known as singer/songwriters. Several of Raffi's songs have been made into books, for example, but they were already really, really popular children's songs first.

For it to work, I think the "lyrics" would have to read just as well without the tune. In other words, a tone-deaf person like me could pick it up, read it out loud like a poem, and it would sound good.

Thanks ibid. You reminded me of a song I want to illustrate. There are plenty of songs that have been made into PBs. Check them out.

Newguy1428 said:

Thanks ibid. You reminded me of a song I want to illustrate. There are plenty of songs that have been made into PBs. Check them out.

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Is it your own song or someone else's? I would imagine it's difficult to get permission if you don't already have some other published illustration work.

Old folk songs in the public domain would be fair game, though. I've seen several great PBs made of Miss Lucy Had a Baby, The Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly, etc.

JudScotKev said:

Old folk songs in the public domain would be fair game, though. I've seen several great PBs made of Miss Lucy Had a Baby, The Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly, etc.

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You need to be careful that they actually are PD - some of them are more recent than you might think and people do check. I understand there's a guy whose livelihood is based on owning the rights to I'm A Little Teapot.

Keep in mind too that sometimes the lyrics are copyright even if the melody isn't.