Getting Your Children's Book Published

I keep telling myself I’m going to write a blog post and then I keep forgetting to.  Or I just tell myself that I don’t want to and that the conversation is over (sometimes I’m a bit of a jerk).  And…I kinda want to save my good blog post ideas.  For money.

See, a billion years ago I submitted an article to Babble.com, because I heard they’d pay you for articles.  And they liked it.  And they published it.  And then I learned the truth: they pay you for articles after you’ve established that your posts will be popular by writing several posts for free.  So I submitted another article, they liked it again, and I’m kinda working on becoming a freelance blogger maybe.

On top of that, the fact that they actually liked my work gave me the confidence boost I needed to submit the book I’ve been working on to a publisher, so I spent a lot of time editing, formatting, and writing my query letter.  Now that’s done though, so I can pick up where I left off with being good about blogging often.  Ha.  Haha…

In other words, I now have approximately 700 ideas for books that I’m researching, because writing is apparently one of the few things that makes me feel good about myself.

While writing this though, I decided what this post would be about: Getting Your Children’s Book Published.  I realize all too well that I am not an expert on this, but I really can’t think of anything else to write right now.

First, go to the library and borrow a ton of children’s books to read to your child.  Do this for many months.  Eventually realize that ¾ of the children’s books out there are really lame and you could probably do better.  So I guess the first step is [probably unwarranted] self-confidence.

You’ll need an idea.  Something that’s not too preachy, something that could have entertaining pictures to go along with it, something clever, whatever.  It’s your book.  Once you’ve got an idea, start writing.

And write and edit and write and edit and write and edit.  Make your friends read your book so much that they literally run away when they see you approaching.  If you have any friends that majored in English, make them cookies and cakes and a copy of your book to look over and edit.  Read your book to actual children.  Do they like it?  Maybe you’ve got something there, Ace.

As a side note, most publishers like to choose the illustrator.  Unless you’re really awesome at illustrating, it’s usually recommended that you just stick to the words.  If you DO illustrate your book you’re usually expected to make what’s called a “dummy;” essentially a home-made version of your book.  Make sure you don’t include your original drawings in the dummy (photocopies are fine).

Once you’ve edited so much that even you’re sick of your book but it’s all shiny and grammatically correct, it’s time to choose a publisher.  There are several resources out there, but the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) guide

 comes highly recommended – it lists tons of publishers, what kind of manuscripts they’re looking for, if they take new writers, if they take writers without agents, and more. 

Got your publisher?  Good.  Check their submission guidelines.  Most publishers look for a manuscript and a query letter (think a cover letter for your book), but it definitely varies.  Also, some publishers will want you to physically send in your book, some will want you to send it electronically.  If you don’t follow their rules, they won’t give your book a second glance. 

Now it’s time for formatting.  While it can vary publisher-to-publisher, there are some pretty common rules for both query letters and manuscripts.

Query Letters

• Keep it all on one page (single-spaced is fine)
• No fancy fonts
• 12 pt Arial or Times New Roman are often suggested
• Include your complete contact information at the top
• If possible, find the editor’s name to include in your greeting
• You’re trying to sell your book, your writing skill, and yourself, so edit this over and over again – it’s the first impression they’re going to get
• 1^st paragraph: usually an intro to your book (genre, word count, title)
• 2^nd paragraph: a summary of your book – the main character, their goals/desires, etc. (this is the most important part of the query – make it fun, show why your book is awesome, explain why it is unique)
• 3^rd paragraph: any specific background you have that makes you the perfect writer for this book, any publishing cred you have, any awards you have won, et cetera
• 4^th paragraph: why you chose this publisher (but don’t be too brown-nose-y)
• Of course you don’t have to follow this exact outline, but you should include most of this information in some form

Little Sister, I highly recommend you read this (and the one below) since I wrote them for you.
Everyone else: if you like poop, you're in luck.

Manuscript

• No fancy fonts/fancy capitalization
• 12 pt Arial or Times New Roman are often suggested
• Include your complete contact information and the word count at the top
• Do not write one line per page, and turn off your widow/orphan control (the thing that moves entire paragraphs to stay together on page breaks)
• Double space
• Center your title and write it in all capitals
• Create a header that starts on the second page that includes your last name, the title, and the page number
• No footers
• Avoid putting in illustration tips (i.e. “And here the illustrator should draw a magical rainbow unicorn shoving its horn through the Carebear”) – if your writing is good enough the illustrator should be able to picture what to draw

Your manuscript should look something like this.  Hopefully with less scatological references.

Once your book is all shiny and perfectly formatted and awesome, send it in!  Then sit back and chew your fingernails in anxiety for the next several months until they get back to you.  So much fun…

If I Was Pygmalion I Could Make a Friend

I have no idea how to make friends.  I make acquaintances all the time, but I seem to have lost the ability to make friends that want to hang out with me.  Luckily I’ve kept hold on several friends I made back when I had the knowledge and skills, but part of me is afraid I will never make new friends again.  The other part of me wonders if I ever had those skills or if it was just dumb luck.

During my childhood there were three different ways to make friends:

1.    My parents would make friends with people that had kids.  I made the majority of my friends this way.  If your parents want to hang out with each other, you’re kind of forced to hang out with each other and since your parents are friends and you’re usually like your parents, it just stands to reason that you will have similar interests and develop a friendship (How’s that for a run-on sentence?).

2.    School (including Sunday school).  These friendships were based on mutual experiences and me trying to make people laugh because I didn’t know how else to ingratiate myself.  Most of these friendships were great at school, but didn’t go any further.  I can probably count the number of times I invited school friends over to my house on two hands.

3.    Being neighbors.  This one overlaps a bit with the first way, but not entirely.  When you’re out riding your bike, kicking a ball, catching crawdads, or whatever you do as a child, you automatically make friends with other kids doing similar things.  It just happens.  Since you live in the same neighborhood it’s easy to hang out when you’re bored.  I made some of my best friends this way (Granted, we now only communicate via Facebook, but that’s neither here nor there.  At the time, we were best friends).

In adolescence things changed a bit.  Since I was a buthhole, when my parents wanted to hang out with other families I often ignored the new kids and only paid attention to my own siblings.  I still tried to be sardonic and witty at school and church, but never really made many friends because of it.  And though we had one neighborhood friend, our closeness barely lasted through middle school – it ended about the time it wasn’t as cool to play night games like jailbreak and sardines anymore(don’t worry, I gained back my appreciation for those in college).

It was right after middle school that I made one of my first real friends, and I went about it in the most awkward and socially unacceptable way possible.

You know how everyone you ever made eye contact with in middle school writes something along the lines of “Have a great summer!  Never change!  Keep in touch!” in your yearbook?  Well.  One fine summer day I was bored out of my mind and my mother told me to call one of my friends to hang out with.  I didn’t have any “hang out” friends, but I did have my yearbook.  And one unfortunate soul had written her phone number down.  We didn’t really know each other, we just had a mutual friend.  Mum insisted though, and I called her up and asked her to come over.  I ended up leaving the house before the time her mother had arranged to pick her up (I have no idea why) and she ended up spending most of her time at my house canning with my mother.  By some act of God that day actually marked the beginning of my longest-lasting friendship.  And by some greater miracle, she welcomed me into her friendship circle, thus blessing me with several new friends.  That was my most successful attempt at making friends.

When it came time to choose a college I decided that I wanted to reinvent myself, so I went off to a school that none of my friends were going to (stupid, I know).  I made lasting friendships with many of my roommates, but that’s mainly because we lived together and got to know each other so well out of necessity.  If we had just had classes together I’m sure we would have liked each other, but I don’t think we would have ever been so close.  The only other way I made friends in college was by inviting myself over to people’s houses.  I never hung out with the friends I made in class or at church; I had no idea how to invite them over, I guess.

And now that I’m a married adult with a child, I’m totally lost.  I know that once Stormageddon’s older I’ll probably make friends at the park or something, but for now I’m floundering.  I still make acquaintances quite often, and I’ve even invited several couples over for dinner and games, but it never seems to go anywhere.  One time The Man and I even got so desperate as to try out my tried-and-true creeper method of friendship.

We were trying to sell our contract at an apartment so we could move into our current place, and we had hit it off pretty well with a couple who came to tour.  I ended up texting them, asking if they wanted to hang out some time.  They expressed interest, but the hang-out never fell through, even after several attempts of setting one up.

Now it’s to the point where The Man and I meet a couple we like and we joke about how we need to stalk them and show up at their places of employment and tell them how much we enjoy their company and how much we’d like to be best friends with them.  You know, typing that out makes it pretty clear why we don’t have friends…

I guess we’re kinda creepy.