I was listening to a radio program that was debating various careers that were related to children. One of the guests stated that, considering children are the future (sorry, not my choice of cliches!), it’s pretty astonishing that jobs to do with children are usually lower paying. Childcare is the most obvious first on the list, but even doctors like pediatricians and child psychologists make less money that their counterparts in adult healthcare.
I can’t tell you how many people have said to me or my writer friends, “So when are you going to write a real book?” Translation: a book for adults. Or, when I’ve been asked what my latest book was, and I, referring to my middle grade title, said, “I just had a novel come out from HarperCollins,” they respond, “Oh, how great! You’re writing for adults now!”
I’ve heard advances are bigger in the adult book world, and I’ve been to book festivals where the children’s books are, shall I say kindly, not front and center. But I don’t care – well, I care, but I wouldn’t trade it for the email from a mom of a third grader who wrote me that because of a book that I wrote, her child finally learned to read. How cool is that?! We tend to forget those incredible, miracle-like moments because it’s such a solitary job.
So remember, as you toil away on your story for children, that writing for growing minds is the best job ever.
