Write a Book

Dear Parents,

What an incredible amount of work our young authors are putting into the write-a-book! The drafts I have seen have been awesome! There are just a few things I'd like to point out as we come to the end of the project.

1. Final pages are due on January 2. January 3 at the absolute latest. Books going to the county competition will be chosen then. If you turn in a book after January 3, we will still help you bind it, but it will not go to County.

2. Whenturing in your pages, please put them in a folder, clearly marked with your child's name and teacher's name. This will keep them from getting bent, dirty or lost.

3. Books going to the county competition MUST obey all the rules (see back.), including size, font-size, number of pages, and number of pictures.

4. Please make sure your child has someone look over the book for spelling, formatting (paragraphs!), and punctuation.

5. Books can be hand-written (on unlined paper) or typed on the computer.

6. Illustrations can be drawn on the paper, pasted in, or scanned into a computer and printed out.

7. You must have a title page and a cover with the title, author's name, illustrator's name. They can be two copies of the same page, or they can be different. The cover page will be attached to the hard cover when the book is bound.

BINDING

We will bind as many books as we can during the week of January 6-10, but it is a testing week and the schedule in the school will be a bit disrupted.

Donations of hard (non-flexible) cardboard and contact paper (both clear and patterened) for the covers would be welcome! Volunteers to help will also be welcome. Let me know if you're able to help, and I'll let you know our schedule once the testing schedule is finalized.

Thank you for all your hard work on this project. Your support is very important to your child's success!

Genevieve Clemens

COUNTY LITERARY COMPETETION RULES

  1. All stories and illustrations must be the original work of the student(s). No clip art or pictures downloaded from the internet. Photographs are permitted in the non-fiction category only, and must be taken by the student. Any photograph or artwork that is scanned into a Write-A-Book entry must be available to judges upon request.
  1. Text must be legibly hand-printed or typed on the computer and printed on computer paper (not lined/loose-leaf paper). Computer-assisted drawings must be original (no Clip Art permitted). If any drawing software is used, the name of the software must be included on the entry form.
  1. If the text is typed, the font must be no smaller than 12 and no larger than 14. The only exception exists in Picture Story Book and Poetry categories. There the font may be larger than 14 but for headings and titles only.
  1. Books must be edited with appropriate grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
  1. Pages in each book should be numbered. Books should contain no more than 30 numbered pages, including illustrations/photographs. This does not include translation, bibliography, footnote pages, title page, fly sheet, author’s biography, or appendices.
  1. The size of the finished book may be no larger than 10” x 12” and no smaller than 5” x 8.”
  1. Students must securely bind books with hard-back covers that do not bend (examples: corrugated cardboard, foam board). No folders, photograph albums, rings or loose-leaf bindings will be accepted.
  1. The title and author's name(s) must be on the outside cover of the book. There must be a title page inside the book.

PICTURE BOOKS -- between 10 and 30 numbered pages, with an illustration on each page.

POETRY -- between 15 and 30 numbered pages. Illustrations optional.

ILLUSTRATED FICTION: between 15 and 30 numbered pages, with NO MORE THAN five pictures.

NON-FICTION: between 15 and 30 numbered pages, with AT LEAST five pictures or photographs, taken by the author.