Tell Me How to Get Published!
Q: I have a manuscript that I’d like to submit for publication. How should I do that?
A: First I’d encourage you to read my essay on why you shouldn’t be in a hurry to publish, and why it’s important to enjoy the process of writing. If you’re not already a professional writer (and even if you are) it sometimes takes years to write something worth publishing – it takes going to conferences, having a writing group, reading as many brilliant children’s books as you can, revising your manuscript dozens of times, and even (in my case) finishing and discarding one or two entire, not-so-bad manuscripts. Writing will be a miserable endeavor if your expectations are tied to publishing and not to learning.
When you think you’re finally ready to submit your manuscript, learn everything you can about the submission process so that you get it right the first time. Each editor (and agent) receives thousands of queries and manuscripts from hopeful strangers every year, in addition to her regularly scheduled chores, and she won’t hesitate to reject one without reading it simply because it’s presented unprofessionally. And really, you ought to take pity on her because her job includes a lot of drudge work. In order to survive, she has developed a few weeding-out mechanisms. It's not personal.
Today, submissions have become mostly electronic, although the publishers' guidelines will tell you if they also accept paper. If your (carefully researched, well-matched) publishing house accepts unsolicited manuscripts, make your submission easy on the eyes by sticking to the formula: white paper (if sending hard copy), double spacing, proper margins, surname and title at the top of each numbered page, 12-point Times New Roman font. In short, the manuscript should look plain, plain, plain, and it should wow her instead with your voice, fascinating characters, and a compelling plot. The editor may or may not acknowledge receipt of the manuscript: if you sent it by US mail you may receive your self-addressed, stamped postcard back within a few weeks; if you sent it by e-mail, the editor may or may not shoot back a reply. Did I mention that she's short on time?
Now you've officially entered the "slush pile." The wait could take several months.
Today, submissions have become mostly electronic, although the publishers' guidelines will tell you if they also accept paper. If your (carefully researched, well-matched) publishing house accepts unsolicited manuscripts, make your submission easy on the eyes by sticking to the formula: white paper (if sending hard copy), double spacing, proper margins, surname and title at the top of each numbered page, 12-point Times New Roman font. In short, the manuscript should look plain, plain, plain, and it should wow her instead with your voice, fascinating characters, and a compelling plot. The editor may or may not acknowledge receipt of the manuscript: if you sent it by US mail you may receive your self-addressed, stamped postcard back within a few weeks; if you sent it by e-mail, the editor may or may not shoot back a reply. Did I mention that she's short on time?
Now you've officially entered the "slush pile." The wait could take several months.
The following mistakes earn you an automatic trip to the editor’s recycle bin: you've misspelled her name; the text is in Comic Sans MS because the story is about a kid who draws comics; you’ve single-spaced it so that it will seem more like it’s picture-book length; you’ve included helpful instructions for the illustrator (or you’ve named your preferred illustrator, or included illustrations done by your neighbor); your cover letter tells the editor what the important message of the story is.
Q: How can I find submissions guidelines for publishers?
A: You can find the submission guidelines for each publisher either in The Children's Writer's and Illustrator’s Market, or just by looking at the individual publisher's web site. Note that even if you find publishers’ guidelines elsewhere, you still have to check online with them directly or call them immediately before you query, because they sometimes have random, unexpected moratoriums on unsolicited submissions when they feel overwhelmed by the height of their slush pile.
You may send your manuscript to more than one house if they accept what are called "simultaneous submissions," but many houses specify "exclusive submissions" only.
Make sure to choose publishers that have books similar in genre to yours. You can go to the library or a bookstore to browse for books like yours, and check the copyright page for the publisher and year. Each house has its own style and specializes in particular genres and age groups. In a perfect world, you're reading so much children's literature that you already have a feeling for which houses seem right for your work.
Make sure to choose publishers that have books similar in genre to yours. You can go to the library or a bookstore to browse for books like yours, and check the copyright page for the publisher and year. Each house has its own style and specializes in particular genres and age groups. In a perfect world, you're reading so much children's literature that you already have a feeling for which houses seem right for your work.
Q: An editor wants my book, but I have to pay to have it published.
A: You should never pay to get your book published, unless you're self-publishing. There is one small exception to this rule: a new, upstanding publishing house called namelos, which specializes in eBooks, and splits the cost of production of the book, but pays much higher than average royalties. namelos also offers editing services for a fee, without a contract for publication. In fact, the business of editing-for-hire (also known as "editorial consultancy") is growing: many former agents and editors offer this service - the latest one I read about in Publishers Weekly was Tamson Weston, formerly of Hyperion - and if you can afford it and can find a legitimate company, it's another revision tool for your arsenal.
Q: Where else can I do some homework?
A: You can find online help in many places. Try reading the tips on the web site of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and on Harold Underdown’s Purple Crayon web site. There are also several blogs written by editors and agents that include advice and submission suggestions. Mary Kole's blog, Kidlit.com is chock full of not only submission and publishing advice, but also writing tips. There’s also an editor at Arthur A. Levine named Cheryl Klein who has a blog here and who has compiled some of her essays on writing and submitting here. If you want to keep really current with children’s books (mostly picture book and middle grade), check out the business chatter and frequent book reviews on librarian Elizabeth Bird’s blog.
Q: How did you get Overboard published?
A: I published it the old-fashioned way, by pounding the pavement, so to speak. I sent it out over and over again to different editors myself. That's called sending "unsolicited submissions," and it’s an arduous process. I also took it to a couple of writing conferences. At one of those conferences I had a ten-minute critique with an editor from Houghton Mifflin, who asked to see the entire manuscript.
The Houghton Mifflin editor was still considering Overboard a year later when I received an e-mail from a new editor at Cricket Books, who knew me and remembered critiquing an earlier draft of the manuscript. She asked if she could read the latest version. I got permission from the HM editor to send it simultaneously to Cricket. The editor at Cricket liked it, and rushed to put together an offer, thinking that Houghton Mifflin might be on the cusp of buying it. In fact, the editor at HM ended up kindly rejecting, so it was sort of lucky that everyone at Cricket thought it was a hot commodity.
Somewhere in this story there’s a moral: it’s good to go to conferences because you meet editors face-to-face, you learn their tastes, and when you submit to them you circumvent the slush pile.
I sold my second novel, Syrenka, through my agent, Sara Crowe. The process was very, very different, and you can read about it here.
I sold my second novel, Syrenka, through my agent, Sara Crowe. The process was very, very different, and you can read about it here.
Q: Do I need an agent?
A: Unlike adult book publishers, many children’s houses still accept unsolicited manuscripts, so you don’t actually need an agent to get published. But if you want to write more than one book and you're not already affiliated with a publisher who adores you (like the partnership between M.T. Anderson and Candlewick), having an agent is the way to go. Editors will read your manuscripts more quickly, you'll receive more detailed responses from them, and you'll be able to play Big League games. It's not impossible, but it's harder for an individual author to send out multiple submissions, to parlay interest from one house into interest from multiple houses, and to negotiate a contract. Don’t worry that you’ll be giving the agent a cut of your sales: he will more than earn his keep by getting you a much better deal than you likely would have gotten for yourself.
If you decide you want an agent, you’ll go through as rigorous a process as when you submit to editors. With agents, the first step is always a query e-mail, which basically asks the question, "Do you want to read my manuscript?" You can find a lot of advice online about how to write query letters, and the particular agent you're querying may even have blog posts or interviews in which he describes his ideal pitch. To me, the most important thing is to be as succinct as you can while still conveying everything you need to (which takes lots of revisions), and to make sure that your writing voice shows in the query letter. Tell him the hook of your manuscript, give a short synopsis, list your previous publications or qualifications, if you have any, and attach sample pages if that's his policy.
If the agent is interested in your manuscript, he'll probably ask to read a "partial," like the first fifty pages, or he might ask to see the whole thing. But more likely, you'll either hear nothing (which is a growing rejection method that I'm not so fond of), or he'll succinctly say "Thank you for your query, but the project isn't right for me. Good luck!" Hey, it's not his job to give you a critique, that's what your writing group is for.
There are a lot of ways to research the track records of agents (see Query Tracker, for instance). Casey McCormick has done a yeoman's job of scouring the Internet to compile profiles of many of them in her Agent Spotlight web page. An agent's literary taste and work style will be extremely important, so pay attention to how agents describe themselves. When you think you've found someone reputable you'd like to work with: 1) find his guidelines online if possible, and e-mail him or mail him a brief but thoughtful query; 2) if he responds that he’d like to see your manuscript (or chapters) send it to him with all the proper formatting, as if you were submitting to an editor. Be prepared to suffer rejection. It's not uncommon for experienced writers to query a dozen or more agents before they land one.
If the agent is interested in your manuscript, he'll probably ask to read a "partial," like the first fifty pages, or he might ask to see the whole thing. But more likely, you'll either hear nothing (which is a growing rejection method that I'm not so fond of), or he'll succinctly say "Thank you for your query, but the project isn't right for me. Good luck!" Hey, it's not his job to give you a critique, that's what your writing group is for.
There are a lot of ways to research the track records of agents (see Query Tracker, for instance). Casey McCormick has done a yeoman's job of scouring the Internet to compile profiles of many of them in her Agent Spotlight web page. An agent's literary taste and work style will be extremely important, so pay attention to how agents describe themselves. When you think you've found someone reputable you'd like to work with: 1) find his guidelines online if possible, and e-mail him or mail him a brief but thoughtful query; 2) if he responds that he’d like to see your manuscript (or chapters) send it to him with all the proper formatting, as if you were submitting to an editor. Be prepared to suffer rejection. It's not uncommon for experienced writers to query a dozen or more agents before they land one.
Also be prepared to interview the agent after an offer of representation, to make sure the chemistry is right between you. It’s just as important to feel comfortable with your agent as it is to have an agent in the first place.
Q: The word on the street is that finding an agent to represent you is as difficult as finding an editor to buy your manuscript. Why is that?
A: An agent won’t choose to represent you unless he loves the actual manuscript you've submitted. He needs something physical to sell. It's not enough for him to admire your writing skill. He won't sign you on because he thinks you have potential, or even because you've been successful with a previous book. Your current manuscript has to grab him. For the same reason, your agent may ask you to make changes to the manuscript, to make it better. Remember that he has to both sell your product and cultivate his reputation among editors for submitting great stuff, so his standards are high.
Q: Should I join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators?
Q: Should I join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators?
A: Whatever steps you take toward treating yourself as a writer will help, and will make your work more professional. SCBWI is a great organization when you're starting out as a children's book writer. There are many regional chapters (in the U.S. and in other countries, too), so you can usually find lots of conferences and writing seminars to go to, depending on where you live. If you go to those sorts of events you'll meet other authors, which is important for establishing a network and a sense of your writing self. And many of the conferences have editors as guest speakers, which is a good way to find out what those particular editors are looking for.
Q: What else can I do to take myself seriously as a writer?
A: Get involved with a writing group. Writing is hard to do in a vacuum – which is counter-intuitive because by its nature it's solitary and suited to hermit types (like me). But it's imperative to have other eyes (and not just your family's) see your work before you put it out in the world. If a few people have questions about the same part of the story - or the language, or the pacing, or the characterization - it causes you to seriously consider whether you've written that part correctly. You're always free to ignore advice or comments that people give you, but it's vital to hear them. Your odds of getting published go up dramatically if your manuscript is highly polished, and that happens by having a lot of critiques with colleagues you trust, and by revising, revising, revising.
