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Children’s Stories - Submitting Manuscripts to Publishers
By richpat1 | May 27, 2008
First you must enjoy writing ? you are doing it for your own satisfaction. I?m sorry to have to inform you that you won?t make a J.K. Rowlings fortune even if you do find a publisher - and you may not. The competition is fierce!
If you haven’t read many children’s books since you were a child yourself, spend some time in the local library or big bookshop looking at what is on offer, what is being published at the moment. And read read read in your chosen genre!
Picture books are a very specialized skill. You need to know how they are put together, the number of pages (32), the number of words (under 500 preferably), the relationship between the words and the pictures. You can do a course or workshop, but unfortunately many don’t give you these details. If you are working on shorter novels (easy chapter books with lots of pictures, for early readers) or longer novels, you need to know who your audience is. If fantasy, know the parameters of your invented world, and stick logically to its rules.
Once your masterpiece is completed, before you even send it to an assessor, let alone a publisher, have someone proofread it for you, for typos, grammar, punctuation and the most obvious plotting flaws. You will be too close to it to see flaws.
It is invaluable to find out how a professional considers your work, and the easiest way is to go to a reputable manuscript assessment agency. You should get a report of several pages length, and often marking on the hard copy manuscript as well. Don’t be too discouraged by this. There is something to suggest in even the best manuscripts, so if you feel upset, put it away for a week or a month and then come back to it and consider everything suggested. Of course opinions differ, but you’d be wise to think carefully about corrections, and decide whether to incorporate them or not. You can include an excellent assessment or a recommendatory letter to publishers with your submission. This may get your manuscript off the slush pile. In fact it may not even be considered “unsolicited”. Publishers appreciate knowing someone else has read it. Today they cannot afford to spend as much on editors as they once did, so there is less time for nurturing potential, and for correcting typos too.
In the best of all possible worlds, you will find a literary agent to handle your work for you. They find markets, negotiate contracts, help the whole thing along. The bad news is that they are more difficult for a new author to find than an actual publisher is. Once you?ve been published they are eager to take you onto their books, but most won?t consider unknown writers for children. The reason is that they are paid only by a cut from your royalties, and they know how tight the children?s market is. They only take on manuscripts that they are sure they can sell.
Research publishers. Use a big bookshop, or a children’s one. Most large cities have a bookshop specifically for children ? search out yours. Work out which publishers produce work that is similar to yours in some way. Study review journals also, and join SCBWI (The Society of Children?s Book Writers and Illustrator) and perhaps a writing group as well.
To submit, your manuscript must look as professional as possible. Double spaced, one sided, paragraphs indented, a running header with your name and the title on. If you are doing the illustrations as well, you will need to make a mock-up of the book, with sketches for each page, and two openings in colour, as you will do them for the book itself eventually. Include a stamped addressed envelope for return. You might like to also include a stamped postcard for the publishers to return acknowledging receipt.
Phone and ask first what they are accepting, and check their submission guidelines on their website. At the same time, see if you can find the name of the children’s editor for addressing your cover letter. Should you make one submission, or use the scattergun approach? The most usual today is sending to several publishers at once. Editors expect this, even if they would prefer that they were the only publisher targeted. As they can take up to six months to reply, it?s better for the author to send it to several at once. Keep careful records though ? you don?t want to send it back to someone who has already rejected it!
The cover letter: You will need a writing CV or r?sum?. Mention that you are including an assessment. It is good to mention if you’ve had anything at all published - poem, article - or been commended in a competition. This gives you some credibility, even if the publications are not relevant to children’s work. Also mention the relevant societies you have joined. Remember that the cover letter is the first piece of your writing that the editor will read. It needs to be perfectly presented, and if possible a pleasure to read as well, and certainly will prompt the reader to go on to the text itself. Sometimes using a hook ? a catchy sentence from your work for instance ? is a good opening. And all this should ideally fit on one page! The number of words is always vital too.
If it’s a novel, you need to include a synopsis (many people find this the most difficult part of the whole undertaking). It is a pr?cis of the whole story, if possible taking only one page. Don?t leave anything as a surprise. The reader wants to know exactly where it?s going. If it?s a picture book text, or a short chapter book, you can include the whole manuscript instead (with notes to illustrators, if needed - see my example Yabby on the website); or if picture book with pictures the mock-up.
Keep your reject letters - keeping track of who you’ve sent it to and where it still is, is essential. You should ideally have a couple of manuscripts out at once, or at least be working on the next one, so that you’re not waiting desperately by the letterbox. And remember that you?re not a real writer until you?ve had your quota of rejection letters!
If you want to have your work published as a “trade” picture book but feel discouraged by how few are accepted, try some school readers first. These are marginally easier to get into. Find the educational publishers and see what series they are currently working on. Remember, The Cat in the Hat began life as a school reader.
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? Virginia Lowe. Dr Virginia Lowe has a PhD on young children?s responses to books. Her thesis has recently been turned into a book Stories, Pictures and Reality: Two children tell (Routledge). It is based on a reading diary kept of her son and daughter with books, from birth to about eight. She has been a university lecturer, a judge for the Australian Children?s Book Council Book of the Year Awards, and children?s and school librarian. Her manuscript assessment agency, Create a Kids? Book, has operated for ten years. Details about the assessment services, and about her book, on http://createakidsbook.alphalink.com.au |
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