Good news! People are still reading books printed on paper in a format they actually turn pages for. Book sales figures were surprisingly healthy in the midst of a global pandemic, up 29% this first quarter of 2021 in the U.S.. With three children’s books under our belt, my twin sister and co-author, Wah, and I have learned the hard sloggy way how to break into the children’s book market.
Warning to you more technologically savvy types, this article applies to the realm of the non-digital, three dimensional world…here are 5 non-linear, non-sequitur, non guaranteed tips to getting your children’s book published:
Step 1: Join SCBWI.
If you are an aspiring first-time author (or illustrator) of anything, join the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Members comprise of children’s book editors, agents, published and unpublished authors, illustrators, poets, artists and all of us striving in between. A wonderful repository of contacts, connections, and compassionate peers, SCBWI has membership chapters in most major U.S. cities as well as a few different countries. This organization offers conferences, newsletters, writing and critique groups, awards, podcasts, and publishes the very useful annual The Book: Essential Guide to Publishing for Children. I would also recommend buying a copy of Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Guide which has hundreds of listings of publishers, literary agents, magazines, contests and how-to advice on properly package your manuscript. Indeed, our publishers (Lantana Publishing and EM Press) were sourced through this guide via old-school submissions process of mailing our manuscripts. It feels like winning the lottery but it worked. The annual SCBWI conferences in NYC and LA are excellent and SCBWI critique groups provided us with good early support for objective comments on ideas and technique.
Step 2:Create a pocket of air in your life to WRITE.
The desire to post, like, share, curate, scroll and tweet on your hungry, mangy beast can easily drown you in trivia, trends and TED-esque Big Thoughts. No matter how ‘busy’ you feel, you need to shut a door somewhere and clear some mental and actual space to write. According to JK Rowling (who wrote REALLY long books and A LOT OF THEM) she has said on writing, “Moments of pure inspiration are glorious, but most of a writer’s life is, to adapt the old cliché, about perspiration rather than inspiration. Sometimes you have to write even when the muse isn’t cooperating.”
Step 3: It’s the story, stupid.
Or put more politely, your writing needs to be publishable! Figure out who you are writing for. Don’t be a bore. Get some objective feedback besides your adoring mother and patient friends to critique your work. Remain open minded to edits. And here I repeat for emphasis, FINISH your story. You need one first draft to edit, share, and agonize over, but just get that first draft DONE. Identifying what category of children’s fiction you are aiming for can help you target the right publisher.
· Picture Books: under 5 years old, under 1,000 words
· Early Readers: 5+ years old, 2,000 to 5,000 words
· Chapter Books: 6–9 years old, 5,000 to 10,000 words
· Middle Grade (MG): 8–12 years old, 30,000 to 50,000 words
· Young Adult (YA): 12–18 years old, 50,000 to 100,00 words
Remember if you are writing a picture book, it is not necessary for you to submit your story with visuals to publishers since most publishing houses prefer to link the story with illustrators. Our picture books were exception to the rule as we submitted our manuscripts with three sample pages (text + visual) drawn by talent artists who our publishers decided to contract as illustrators for our projects.
Step 4: Agents — nice but sometimes not necessary
Thankfully, the children’s book category in America is wide (from 0 to 18 years old) and is a bright spot in an otherwise digitally decimated book publishing industry. Depending on what category you are writing for (picture book, middle grade book, young adult book, etc), an agent may or may not be relevant. We had an agent in the case of our chapter book but not for our picture books. As first-time picture book authors, we used SCBWI’s annual Children’s Writers and Illustrators Guide of publishers to figure out how and who to mail our manuscripts to. For our more ambitious middle-grade chapter book, we had a marvelous agent who sheparded us through the process of writing a chapter book, from feedback on our original story outline to critical editorial advice to manuscript submissions. So we have seen both sides of the coin- and can argue both ways for and against having an agent. But from my perspective, an agent will provide structure and deadlines and useful contacts, but the real onus is still on you, the writer, to deliver a sellable manuscript!
Step 5: Embrace rejection.
In trying to get your book picked up by a publishing house, you will build resilience to rejection like a seal builds blubber to survive an Artic winter. Take heart- the world’s most beloved and successful storytellers, Agatha Christie and Beatrix Potter, were rejected countless times before they found publishing success. Today, the bottleneck is the number of publishers who invest the funds and editorial care into number of publishers have been bought, submerged or leaped over by the worldwide web. For many, self-publishing is a perfectly legitimate way forward, but for us, we felt that having a publisher who funds and provides editorial expertise to bring our books to market was important.
Good luck!!!
For further reading https://www.underdown.org/
