Best Children's Books
Author Services

Best Children's Books Author Services (a service of Steve Barancik, LLC)
Writing for children? Perhaps we can be of some assistance.
Steve Barancik Steve is the creator of Best Children's Books - Find, Read or Write. Before turning to the web to indulge his love of children's books, he was a successful screenwriter. "See Dick. See Jane. See Dick read Jane a bad book. No, Dick, no!"	P.J. Rooks P.J. Rooks is a freelance writer and researcher with backgrounds in English, journalism and biology. She has written over 50 reviews of children's books. Her articles have also appeared in The Kansas City Star, Skeptic magazine and The Best Times magazine.
Children's Books Author Services Praise from our customers
Critique Looking for tough (but constructive) feedback on your manuscript? That's our area of expertise. More on children's book critique services.	Editing and Proofreading You can doubtless find cheaper, but you might not find better. More on children's books copyediting.
Best Children's Books Author Services does not recommend contracting for editing and critique services at the same time. Why? A critique resulting in a substantial rewrite means wasted editing.
Skills Evaluation It can be hard for a new writer to know how advanced he/she is. Submit a writing sample and we'll give you an idea where you are, as well as some thoughts on what you can do to move forward. More on the writing skills evaluation.	Query/Cover letter help Ready to query, or send out your manuscript? We're here if you'd like to run it by us first. More on children's book query/cover letter services.
Review Have you already published or self published? Looking for a reputable review? You'll want to learn about Best Children's Books' paid review service, An Honest Read. More on paid children's book reviews.
Web Help Want to find your own audience writing on the web? Or wondering why an existing website isn't bringing the traffic you'd hoped? Steve can help. As of Sept. 09, Best Children's Books receives over 1100 visitors per day. More on finding an internet audience for your work.

Every piece of writing is unique and therefore needs a different kind of tending to; that's why you won't find firm quotes here for of Best Children's Books' author services. Use the form at the bottom of this page to request a quote or simply to let us know of your interest in our services. We'll get back to you promptly!

Critiques

(Our most unique and most popular service. Read what our delighted customers have to say.)

A critique is constructive feedback on your work, intended to help you move forward. Points covered will include:

• Feedback on elements of fiction: plot, setting, character development, etc.
• Feedback on coherence and cohesiveness.
• Feedback on organization.

Translation: Best Children's Books Author Services will pinpoint weaknesses in your storytelling.

Critiques do not include editing or proofreading, though they will include comment on the overall quality of grammar, spelling, clarity, sentence structure, etc.

Make an inquiry.

Copyediting and Proofreading

We will need to see your work in its entirety in order to provide you a quote.

Make an inquiry.

Do ask yourself though if your own technical writing skills are what they should be. (There's only so much we can do for prose that's a mess!) You might want to read a book we recommend: Get Your Writing Fighting Fit.

Writing Skills Evaluation

It's hard to write in a vaccuum! Friends and family are hardly critics. If you want to know where you stand with your writing, Best Children's Books Author Services can give you the lowdown, complete with advice on what you should work on and where to get help. (Books, websites, etc.) Our Writing Skills Evaluation is for those who see themselves as new or beginning writers...a friendly mini-critique intended to let you know where your skills stand. You'll be given feedback on

• Writing skills (grammar, spelling, clarity, sentence structure)
• Storytelling skills (organization, elements of fiction)

Your work needn't be aimed at children. For the writing skills evaluation, we recommend you submit shorter length works.

Make an inquiry.

Query/Cover Letter Help

A query letter asks a publisher or publication to agree to consider a manuscript; a cover letter accompanies a manuscript. One determines whether your manuscript will be read, the other sets the tone for a reading. What could be more important?

Best Children's Books Author Services can critique queries and covers or help you write them. Contact us!

Make an inquiry.

Paid Review Service

Is your book about to be published (or self published), or has it been already? We've reviewed hundreds of books on this site, and our reviews rank highly with the search engines. Our review service is called An Honest Read. Visit our paid children's book reviews page.

Website Help

The Web works in mysterious ways! A website can be a tool to drive traffic to your book, it can be a sign on the information superhighway pointing to your services, or it can be a small business in and of itself. If you're depending on the search engines to send you free visitors, though, and you don't know what it takes to get them to rank you highly, you're flying blind.

Tell me what you want from a site and I can give you an idea what it'll take to get there.

• The bad news: it'll be hard work.
• The good news: the hard work involves writing...and you're a writer!

Make an inquiry.

Please note: Our preferred file format is Microsoft Word (.doc)

Word allows us to use the terrific Track Changes function, the best way to eyeball your original work overlaid with our edits and comments.

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