How to Publish a Children's Book If You're Not a Celebrity

Not famous? Want to publish a children's book? Fear not -- regardless of what you may think when you find the shelves of your local bookshop crammed with celebrity authors, we regular folks can still score a publishing contract. The report offers tips on how to leap over the "slush pile" of unsolicited submissions at a publisher, sell yourself in a query letter, find niches with less competition from other writers and much, much more.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Imagination
• Persistence

1. Learn the Rules.
   
   If you’re not famous, your manuscript or query letter takes the same path as the rest of the non-celebrities. It gets dropped, as part of a huge pile, on the desk of an underpaid, overworked editorial assistant (or a freelance reader). Her job is to sift through the pile of dross and find a few nuggets of gold, and then pass them on to an equally underpaid and overworked editor. The editor then reads through the smaller pile, pulls out the submissions that catch her eye, and brings them to an editorial meeting. If the general consensus is "yes, this is a book we want to publish", you’re on your way to partying it up with L.L. Cool J in the special "Children’s Writers’ VIP Lounge" at the Viper Room.
   
   Buried in that timeline is some bad news, and some good news. First the bad news: The editorial assistant sifts out up to 95% of the submissions that arrive. In other words, the vast majority of submissions to a publishing house never even make it in front of a person in a position to publish it. Why not? They may, of course, simply be awful submissions, loaded with poor grammar, misspellings and hackneyed writing. They may be the obvious work of amateurs, handwritten on lined paper with childish drawings. Or, and this is where there’s some hope, they may simply get rejected because they’re the less obvious work of amateurs.
   
   More subtle things, like using single spacing rather that double spacing, or a manuscript whose word count is out of whack with the "norm" is sometimes all it takes for an EA to say "Beginner". Rejection."
   
   So here’s the good news: simply by learning the specific, but not wildly arcane, rules of children’s publishing, you can leapfrog over the madding crowd. When an EA or reader sees a manuscript that comes from someone who clearly knows how it’s done, they’re far more likely to give it a fair reading, and far less squeamish about passing it on to the boss.
   
   So how do you learn the rules? Try the free article library at http://write4kids.com/info.html. For more detailed instructions, check out the Career Starter Beginners Guide (http://write4kids.com/starter.html) or go to http://write4kids.com/dvd.html to learn about a DVD that tells all.
2. Write to the Publisher’s Needs.
   
   The problem with most aspiring children’s book writers is that they have a specific idea from which they won’t budge. To be frank, it’s usually a pretty dumb idea and, even if it’s halfway decent, chances are it’s been done many times already. Look, I know your dream is to write that book about the talking dish sponge and his sinkside pals, but put the dream on hold for a bit. The absolute best way to get published is to figure out what publishers want – and give it to them.
   
   Here’s an example: Schools desperately need fiction and nonfiction books that integrate into curricula. Publishers, thus, are desperate to provide said books, as schools are big and dependable customers who are likely to buy directly from the publisher, giving even a better profit margin.
   
   And you’re response to this is…..? Hopefully, it’s “Hey, I’m gonna write some books that tie in with school curricula!”
   
   This is just one example – publishers have all sorts of often unglamorous niches they need filled. How to find out? Send for their guidelines and catalog. Often, they’re quite explicit about their needs, other times you need to read between the lines of the catalog to figure it out. But the answer is usually there.
   
   And, seriously, let’s see Denzel Washington try to write an exciting thriller about the passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.
3. Learn to Write a Killer Query Letter.
   
   Your query letter (used if you’re sending a few sample chapters of a longer manuscript) or cover letter (used to accompany and introduce a complete manuscript) is your chance to really make the sale. Almost always, it’s a wasted opportunity filled with irrelevance (I’m the mother of four and I’ve always dreamed of writing a children’s book!), pleading (It would mean so much to me to have this book published!) and ludicrous assertions (Everyone tells me I’m the next Dr. Seuss!).
   
   A good query letter is simply this: a powerful sales letter meant to convince a publisher that it is in its best interests to publish your book. Essentially, you need to tell them that your book fits their needs and will sell to their current market and will expand into new markets. Tell them, specifically, why you will be able to deliver readers (e.g. I have a weekly blog read by more than 20,000 parents and my website attracts 60,000 visitors a month) and how there is a defined need for your book and how you will reach the target customers (e.g. There are more than a half million foster children in America. These children, their foster parents and foster siblings need books like mine to help make sense of their situations. I will promote my book directly to them through organizations, conferences, newsletters and websites.)
   
   To succeed in publishing, you must strip away the romantic nonsense you’ve been brought up with and see things as they are. Kids books aren’t published by magical elves. They’re published by business people (albeit, business people who, thankfully, often genuinely love the books they publish). Show an editor that your book will be an artistic and financial success and you’re taking a big step in the right direction. For much more on writing a great query letter, go to http://www.write4kids.com/query.html To learn about a collection of actual query letters from children’s authors that you can use for models, go to http://www.write4kids.com/a2e.html.
4. Write to an Existing, Underserved Market.
   
   Sometimes the concept of writing to a publisher’s needs can be turned on its head. Perhaps there’s a sizeable, wonderful market that no one is serving and you can convince a publisher that its just the one to serve it. It could be anything – children of interracial marriage, girls who like jazz, boys who play bass guitar, American kids who dig the game of cricket – if there are enough of them out there and are too few books for them to read, you may very well be introducing a publisher to a potentially lucrative market.
   
   Do your research. Talk to trade associations, government experts, owners of websites that serve specific markets or anyone else who can give you some supporting backup on the size of your target group. Search Books in Print for already existing titles that target the group. Speak with librarians and booksellers to get their viewpoint on needs. And include it all in a great query letter.
5. Listen to the Pros.
   
   There’s no need to go it alone. Take the time (and spend a few bucks) to listen to others who have made the journey. Writing conferences, workshops, books and newsletters (such as Children’s Book Insider -- write4kids.com/aboutcbi.html) can dramatically increase your chances of getting published by helping you avoid typical mistakes and pitfalls. An eBook such as I Wish Someone Had Told Me That: 64 Successful Children's Authors Give You the Advice They Wish Someone Had Given Them (http://write4kids.com/wishbook.html) is a great example of this sort of instruction. Pay heed to the voices of experience!

Tips & Warnings

• For a complete PDF copy of the unabridged free report "The Non-Celebrity's Guide to Getting a Children's Book Published" visit http://write4kids.com/nonceleb.html