Making Sense of Your Book’s Readability Statistics

 
Is your picture book really written at an 8th-grade level?

You’ve just completed your first picture book. Congratulations! Now you run it through the spell-checker to see if it’s a perfect fit for that cherished 4-8-year-old market… and it says it’s written for an eighth grader.

Or you’ve just written your first gritty crime novel, a hard-boiled trope full of harsh words, tough talk, and adult situations… and it says it’s written for a third grader.

How can this be?

It’s that darn Flesch-Kincaid scale.

The Flesch-Kincaid Scale

The Flesch-Kincaid scale is a readability standard that determines the grade level of your writing based on vocabulary, grammar and sentence length, which makes it perfect for term papers, business letters, and many non-fiction books. So, should you use it for fiction?

Well, let’s break down its individual components to determine how you got your readability score.

1. Vocabulary. The bigger your vocabulary, the higher your score. Makes sense, right? Except that it can work against you in fiction. Take this example: It sounds perfectly reasonable in a term paper to say, “The primary reason x remains an unresolved problem is that business and government have failed to devote adequate resources to a solution.” Quite a mouthful, huh? Of course, nobody talks that way. In your book, a character will say something like, “They haven’t figured it out yet because nobody’s willing to sink any money into it.” Guess which sentence gets you a higher score? Right – the first one.
2. Grammar. Now, take those sentences again. The first contains flawless grammar, even if it’s a bit wordy. The second contains contractions and slang phrases. Both lower your score. Now imagine you went further and really tried to make it sound like dialect: “Y’all ain’t figured it out yet because nobody’s gonna sink money into it.” Your Flesch-Kincaid score just about fell to an F!
3. Sentence length. Generally, the longer your sentence, the higher your score, unless you create a run-on or convoluted sentence that’s practically a paragraph. Then your score drops even further.

You can see why your Flesch-Kincaid score may not tell us just how good a writer you are.

Comparing Picture Books to Adult Books

Of course, that doesn’t explain why picture books often get a higher score than adult books, but the reason is really quite simple: picture books are often written with perfect grammar because they’re used to help students read. Take the sentence, “Dr. Smith’s proposal is inadequate, however, because it fails to consider facts provided by additional research.” Quite the academic sentence, wouldn’t you say? In a picture book, that might become “Dr. Smith realized he was wrong and treated Tommy for a tummy ache.” That sentence may not get you as great a Flesch-Kincaid score, but it will score a lot higher than an adult sentence that reads, “Dr. Smith’s idea is bull.”

So should you pay attention to your Flesch-Kincaid score? Not unless you’re writing non-fiction, and even then, don’t live and die by it.

Focus on your story. Ask yourself, “Will my audience understand it?” And then remember that your audience, no matter how young, will understand the nuances a computer program can’t.

(Flesch-Kincaid score for this post: 6.8)

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John Briggs has been a copy editor for nearly 20 years and is currently the Executive Editor at AlbanyEditiing. Look for his book Editing Your Own Book: Taking Your Work from First Draft to Final Draft this fall from Ari Publishing!

Mary Dyer’s Impact on the First Amendment

Sunday, May 25th, was the 227th anniversary of the Constitutional Convention. It’s not one of those anniversaries that’s easy to remember, like the 200th (1987), but it’s worth remembering because it’s the highest law of the world’s oldest continuous democracy – the United States. It’s also the oldest constitution still in use anywhere in the world.

The hero of my upcoming book, Mary Dyer, Friend of Freedom, had a big impact on part of that document. Now, you can’t draw a direct line from Mary to the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom and separation of church and state, but she definitely shaped the colonists and the Founding Fathers’ acceptance of it in 1791.
How? Consider this: When the Massachusetts Bay Colony hanged Mary in 1660 for refusing to stop preaching Quaker beliefs, newly crowned King Charles II sent soldiers to Massachusetts to enforce religious tolerance. He ordered them to stop persecuting Quakers and other religions they didn’t like. He eventually revoked Massachusetts charter to rule itself.

His brother, King James II, sent a royal governor to rule Massachusetts, and in 1689, the English Parliament passed a law guaranteeing religious freedom to all Protestants in Great Britain and the colonies. And the Quakers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware were already enforcing religious tolerance for everyone, including Catholics, Jews, and Muslims.

So, perhaps Mary Dyer didn’t live to see the First Amendment (passed 131 years after her death), but her decades-long fight for religious tolerance planted the seeds that led to those important liberties. And despite Mary’s battle to see women allowed to participate in politics and church matters, no woman signed the U.S. Constitution – yet it’s clear her spirit lived among those who did.

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To learn more about Mary Dyer’s life and struggles, be sure to pick up a copy of my middle-grade book, Mary Dyer, Friend of Freedom, this fall. Thanks!

Thoughts on Rush Limbaugh's Win as (Gulp!) Children's Author of the Year

Was children’s literature really damaged?

It came as a bit of a shock in the passive, upbeat and immensely caring world of children’s publishing last Wednesday when Rush Limbaugh was named author of the year.

Take a moment to let that sink in.

Sounds shocking, right?

But it’s true. Rush Limbaugh was named the Children’s Book Council’s Author of the Year.

Now, kidlit is famous for being sensitive and inclusive, so how did Limbaugh, one of the most bombastic and divisive figures in the media, win a prestigious award?

Simple. And it’s the reason I really don’t care that Rush won.

Turns out, it’s a popularity contest. Author of the year is based first on book sales, and then people vote on the finalists. And no other author has a coast-to-coast media platform with a diehard following that even the host admits is incapable of thinking for itself. He calls them dittoheads because they simply parrot what he says. “Vote for me as children’s author of the year!”

Ditto.

That alone, of course, isn’t enough. Glenn Beck has nationwide reach but he didn’t win the award for his children’s book. That’s because he also has a much smaller audience and, unlike Rush, has fallen out of favor with much of the right. Limbaugh, on the other hand, is a powerbroker within the Republican Party who makes conservative candidates jump through hoops like poodles training for a B-grade circus act. His followers could now hold sway over the CBC like they do over the Tea Party. After all, just as elections happen every year, Limbaugh plans on releasing more books in his Time Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans series. He’s already released two.

So what happened here? Did conservatives take over children’s publishing? Will there be more books catering to the conservative market? Hardly. There have always been publishers willing to publish books appealing to a conservative audience, but Rush is an anomaly with built-in buyers. The rest of the industry isn’t going to cave to meet some new demand. When the Colbert Nation floods the ballot box to give Stephen Colbert some honor, TV execs don’t rush to create another faux pundit. They may create more talk shows, but they don’t replicate his character. The industry goes on with hosts being themselves and Colbert being a major exception.

No, what happened here is that the award has been diminished. That’s it. Just as The People’s Choice Awards or American Idol don’t hold a candle to the Oscars and the Grammys, the author of the year award doesn’t seem as impressive as an award based on merit. If a book that received no starred reviews can win, what does it say about the quality of any book that wins (although some great authors have won this award)? That said, any author – including Limbaugh – should be proud to win it and put it on future book jackets, but the industry will now look askance at it. It used to mean something, but it’s now as tainted as SuperPac money. It’s just another change, no matter how minor, that Limbaugh brings to another system.  The CBC finds itself in the position of not only explaining how Rush won, but quietly apologizing for it, like Time magazine reflecting on its decision to name Adolf Hitler Man of the Year. They are in damage control, meaning that they, too, recognize that the award is in danger of losing its luster.

The award’s importance may be diminished, but children’s books stand tall. Limbaugh’s followers will take it seriously, of course, just as they do every asinine and ill-informed thing that comes out of his mouth.

None of this changes my position on Limbaugh or children’s literature – just the award, because it now has an ugly side, like a race-baiting, rancorous, remonstrative rant from Rush Limbaugh.



An additional note: The main character of the book that led to Limbaugh’s win – Rush Revere – has bothered me since I first learned of it. This man who beats his chest while simultaneously placing his hand over his heart will continue to mythologize Paul Revere. I like that he’s trying to help children become interested in American history, no matter how skewed (like Braveheart, perhaps it will lead people to want to know the truth behind the events), but I’m offended by him co-opting this icon. My work relies on facts, not on self-aggrandizing to sell books. Well, at least Rush didn’t have Revere riding off to warn the British. I’m guessing that will be the subject of Sarah Palin’s first children’s book.

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I am the author of the upcoming book Mary Dyer: Friend of Freedom (Atombank Books) about the civil rights leader whose death led to religious tolerance in America.

The Best Moms in Children's Books

Children’s books are often filled with traditional families and loving parents, but even in that world of positive role models, a few moms stand out. So here’s a (short) list of some of the best mothers in kidlit.

1. Mrs. Little. Sure her name is Eleanor, but everyone knows her as Stuart Little’s mother. Stuart Little is in so many ways a stand-in for children with developmental issues of all kinds, and yet his mother loves him dearly. She is extremely proud of him, lets him explore the world, and protect him from the many coming dangers. OK, keeping a cat in the house was not the best idea, but every house has danger lurking somewhere. Chemical cleaners, anyone? So I’ll give Eleanor a pass on this one and ask, honestly, if you had a mouse for a child, would you love him like all the others? Stuart’s mom did.
2.  Mrs. Berenstain. Mama Bear is the quintessential 1950’s mother who has answers for everything and is always there for her kids. There are no dark skeletons in her closet because they are too well-organized to hide them. To harried moms everywhere, she can be infuriating and an icon – the unachievable know-it-all trendsetter you hate yet secretly desire to be. Mama Bear is the original supermom in kidlit, and the impossible standard every kid expects in a mother. She always had time for Brother and Sister Bear. Of course, how much time do you think she saved by never getting out of her housecoat?
3.  Charlotte from Charlotte’s Web. This is an odd choice because Charlotte never met her
   
   children. After laying her eggs, she died. But the following spring, Wilbur told her thousand offspring what a great mother they had. She was so good, she influenced her eight-legged darlings from beyond the grave. Now that's a good mother!
4.  Ninja Mom. OK, so Ninja Mom is the only non-classic character on this list, but I included her because every kid at some point thinks his mother is secretly a ninja. It explains how she can do all those things. My mother could hit you from across the room with a pointed shoe like a throwing star. She wielded a wooden spoon like a Samurai sword. I never heard her coming, and she knew what I was doing while in another room blindfolded. The Ninja Mom series by Scout Walker makes mom supercool and explains the essence of every mother out there. 
5. Lily Potter. Harry Potter never knew his mother. She was just images in moving pictures and mirrors, but she sacrificed her life to coat him in an unbreakable magic spell of love against he who shall not be named. She protected her son against the greatest evil in the wizarding world, and all Harry got was an interesting scar and ten years with some relatives he couldn’t stand (like a long summer stay at your aunt and uncle's house). Yes, Harry tragically lost his parents, but their love for him made him a legend. From somewhere on the other side, we know his mother is as proud of him as if he had become a doctor, lawyer or defense against the dark arts teacher.

Bonus Listing: The Worst Mother in Children’s Books

Any stepmom. If a stepmom is in your story, you know she’s going to be evil, favor her own children, and make a good villain in a Disney film. And if she’s a widow, forget about it – all bets are off because at some point, she will try to kill her stepchildren. Cinderella? Turned into a household servant. Hansel & Gretel? Ordered killed in the woods. Snow White? Attempted murder by poisoned apple. The list goes on and on, and includes a few contemporary stories. Stepmothers are treated better today, but kids still worry about the evil stepmother stereotype because, well, stepmoms are the worst mothers in children’s books. And Disney movies.

So Happy Mother’s Day to all the great moms out there, and stepmoms, too (except the evil ones!).

Do Editors Get Better with Age?

At our monthly SCBWI meeting on Monday, I learned that Emma Ledbetter, assistant editor as Atheneum, is going to be one of the advisors at this year’s Falling Leaves master class in Lake George – and that made me smile. Three-and-a-half years ago, Emma was my mentor at the Rutgers One-on-One Conference. It was her first Rutgers -- and mine. And it made me wonder whether editors, like authors, get better with age.

Now, before anyone sees this as negative or an attack on Emma’s abilities, let me say that I have no complaints about her. I implemented one of her suggestions in my picture book, and she suggested I send it to her boss (mentioning her in my query letter), since, as an assistant, she didn’t yet have acquisition authority. But that doesn’t answer my basic question: Do editors get better with age?

It’s a truism that authors get better with age. While a few authors’ best-known works were their first books (Elie Wiesel, J.D. Salinger) that doesn’t mean it was their best work. And scores of author got better after they had a few books under their belts (Mark Twain, Stephen King, Charles Dickens, George Orwell, etc., etc.) So, what this really tells us is that writers get better with practice. The closer they get to their 10,000 hours, they better they get. But practice takes time, and time brings experience and age. Experience makes one a better writer because it gives you something to say and something to draw upon – but experience, without practice, gives you something to say without the skill to say it.

The same is true of editors. After all that education and English degrees and hundreds of books under their belt, experience makes them better editors because a good editor doesn’t just fix commas and semicolons -- she develops and massages the author’s style until the message gets out. And that is something a veteran editor does better than an inexperienced assistant. (And this is to say nothing of the relationship between author and editor, which would probably be a great topic for a future post!).

Of course, that’s true of any job, whether it’s master mechanic, carpenter, accountant brain surgeon. Time on the job makes you better -- and I’m not making some academic argument here. I was once in Emma’s shoes (and yeah, that's as uncomfortable as it sounds). That is, I got my first editing job nineteen years ago, and I’d sure like to think I’m a whole lot better now than I was then. Today, I’m the Executive Editor at AlbanyEditing. There is no way I could have handled that two decades ago.

Come to think of it, I'm sure I couldn't have handled Emma’s job at a big publisher like Atheneum then either.

Emma Ledbetter has a great reputation in the world of kidlit, and Nancy Castaldo, the Eastern NY SCBWI regional advisor, sang her praises. Since she was good three years ago, I can only imagine that she’s amazing now. And I hope to see that in person at Falling Leaves!

P.S. I'm still funding my next book through Indiegogo. Any amount you can contribute, is greatly appreciated. And the best part is, you get a copy of the book! Thanks for your donation!