Information on Children's Book Publishing Agencies
If you enjoy writing stories for children--and have an active memory of what it was like to be a child yourself--the publishing opportunities in today's market have never been better. Unlike companies that publish fiction and nonfiction for adults, many of the publishers seeking fresh material and adaptations for young readers don't require writers to have literary agents representing them. They do, however, expect prospective authors to possess excellent writing skills, familiarity with popular titles already on the market, a high degree of professionalism and a demonstrated ability to use age-appropriate language and themes in their projects.
Other People Are Reading
-
Demographics
-
Publishers of books for young people focus on four distinct age groups: toddlers, early readers, middle schoolers, and young adults. Books for toddlers are colorful picture books that are read aloud and help children to associate images with the spoken word. Early readers are those who know their alphabets and numbers and with the help of an adult use books to sound out words and learn sentence structure; they can eventually read these books independently. Middle schoolers (often referred to as "tweens") fall into the 9-12 age range, and young adults are 13-17. The size of a publishing house typically dictates whether it publishes works for all four groups or focuses on just one. The age ranges served--along with submission requirements--are found in annual resources such as "Writer's Market." Visiting bookstores and chatting with school librarians will also help you identify which houses publish titles for the age group that interests you.
Themes
-
Books for very young readers revolve around subjects that are the most familiar to them. Examples include families, pets, foods, toys, weather and home. These books also contain lots of illustrations as a learning tool, teaching children about animals, buildings, shapes, vehicles and clothing. The plots for middle school readers are often consistent with what they're learning in school, such as history, geography, inventions and social studies. Themes about friendship, good citizenship, honesty and patriotism are also introduced at this juncture. For young adult readers, many books focus on adventure, light romance, mysteries, coming of age, careers and the consequences of making bad choices.
In their submission requirements, many of which can be found at publishers' websites, editors identify their specific interests, whether certain themes have been overdone, and any particular taboos to avoid.
-
Book Length and Vocabulary
-
The younger the reader, the shorter the book, the simpler the plot, and the more pictures it will contain. For toddlers and early readers, the range is respectively 12 and 32 pages. If it's easier to conceptualize this in terms of word count, a baby book will be around 300 words; an early reader around 1,000. Children in middle grades have the attention spans to handle 100-150 pages of material; young adult novels are typically 200 pages or more. Publishing houses are especially strict about these lengths and will also expect writers to have performed a Flesch-Kinkaid reading level test on their material prior to submission. (This function is available in Word under the readability statistics button.)
Submission Requirements
-
Every publishing house has its own guidelines on how much--or how little--they want to see from a new author. In the majority of cases, this will include a cover letter introducing the writer's background, a synopsis and one to three chapters so they can glean a sense of the writing style and appropriateness of the material for their demographic. Many children's publishing companies now accept queries by e-mail, but this should not be automatically assumed. For snail mail queries, professionalism dictates the inclusion of a self-addressed, stamped envelope for return correspondence. It's also a reality of today's economy that many companies have cut their marketing staff and accordingly want to know how authors plan to promote their own books through advertising, blogs, book signings, interviews and speaking engagements.
Resources
-
Staying abreast of all the trends in children's publishing is a full-time job. Fortunately, there are comprehensive resources such as "Children's Writer Newsletter" (http://www.childrenswriter.com) that provide monthly overviews of market needs, interviews with editors, agents and authors, and how-to advice. If you feel more comfortable having an agent do all of the legwork in finding your children's book a home, websites such as eBook Crossroads are a good place to start looking for the right match for your writing interests. Yet another valuable site to bookmark is Children's Publishing, Writing & Illustrating Resources, where you can hook up with illustrators and writing partners, collect contact information for prospective publishing companies and seek been there/done that advice from published children's authors.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit children image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com
