Not-to-Do List

For anyone who is new to children's publishing, here are a few common mistakes that are easily avoided. 

1. Don’t get an illustrator for your picture book manuscript. It’s the publisher’s job to assign an illustrator to the project. So if you are planning to go the traditional publishing route, you don’t need to include illustrations. In fact, unless you are a professional illustrator, sending illustrations in with your manuscript is a sign of an amateur writer. A few sparse illustration notes are acceptable if absolutely necessary, but for the most part, editors and agents will be able to “get” your story without any visuals. They do this every day.
2. Don’t mention anything about how much your child or grandchild loves your book. This is the equivalent of writing “my mother thinks I’m really smart” on your college application. Of course your child loves your story, but it tells the editor or agent absolutely nothing about the quality of your manuscript. It means your child loves you. Which is wonderful, but don’t put it in a query letter.
3.  Don’t rush. It’s not a race. Too many writers are in such a hurry that they send out a manuscript that still needs work. Or they send out a manuscript to any publisher at all without taking the time to find the best fit. That is a formula for automatic rejection. Be deliberate. Be purposeful. Be professional.
4.  Don’t worry about copyrights. There are all kinds of ideas about mailing your manuscript to yourself, or paying fees to register the copyright paperwork. Forget all that. The moment you write anything, your writing belongs to you legally, lawfully, copyrightedly, and every other way. The only way that changes is if you sign a contract that assigns rights to someone else.
5.  Don’t be paranoid about someone stealing your idea. Only you can write your story. Even if someone else were to have the same idea, no two people would write it in the same way. You wouldn’t want to plaster your manuscript all over the internet, but sharing your manuscript discreetly with a writing group or a critique partner is a good idea.
6.  Don’t give up! It’s very rare that a writer’s first written work gets published. Keep moving forward. What will you write next? Develop new projects, try a different kind of writing, practice patience and perseverance. You’ll need it in this business. 

Story Elements Series: Got Plot?

by Hazel Buys

You’ve come up with a great plot, one you know will keep the reader’s interest. It will surprise, fascinate, scare, amuse and even educate the reader. A real winner!

But is it logical? Developing a plot that is rich with twists and turns and still makes sense from beginning to end is one of the most difficult tasks a writer faces. It’s easy to put in a plot twist and never get it turned back to the original problem you devised for your protagonist.

Ask yourself, does the solution presented at the end of the story match the problem set up at the beginning? One way to test this principle is to state your premise and your conclusion in a sentence or two. For example, you want to write a story about Rover, a puppy. At the start of this story, Rover, more than anything in the world, wants a home where there is a little boy to play with. But there are no little boys where he lives. The conclusion is that at the end of the story, Rover finds a home with a little boy who, more than anything else in the world, wanted a puppy to play with.

Compare your statements with your story. If you’ve written a story that concludes with Rover finding a home on a farm where he learns to herd sheep, that’s a great outcome. But it doesn’t match the problem you set up. If Rover is taken in by a family with three little girls who love him and give him lots of attention, that’s also a great ending. But you are still missing your mark.

Some mis-matches are obvious, like the ones I outlined above, but many are subtle and easy to overlook. And even the little misses make a difference. Your story will seem off kilter and, although they may not be able to tell you why, readers will not enjoy it.

The Business of Writing: Submissions 101

The first thing to keep in mind about the business of writing is that writing is a business. So the first rule for submitting your manuscript is BE PROFESSIONAL.

Be professional when creating your manuscript. This means know the genre you’re writing for. Understand the difference between a board book and a picture book or the difference between an early reader and a chapter book. There are tons of great websites that expound on this topic, but for starters you may want to visit the Literary Rambles blog post on word counts. Once you know your genre, create the best story you possibly can. If you haven’t edited it and revised it several times, it’s NOT the best it can possibly be. I strongly recommend joining a critique group to help with the editing process. To find a critique group, please check out the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators.

Be professional when presenting your manuscript. No colored paper, no hand drawn pictures, no letters from friends telling how great your story is, no personal photos, no gifts of chocolate. You do want your manuscript to stand out to an editor, but not for all the wrong reasons. Your manuscript should be computer printed in a standard 10 or 12 point font and double spaced throughout. Your margins should be an inch to an inch and a half on each side. You should have a header with your title and page number. You should include a cover page with your title, author’s name, word count and your contact information. Again, don’t be afraid to use online resources like WritingWorld.com and others to make sure your manuscript is formatted to editors’ standards.

Finally, be professional in your query letters. If your query letter isn’t done right, editors may not even look at your manuscript. Take the time to research which companies and editors publish your genre. Never send a query “To whom it may concern.” It may pay to subscribe to resources like SCBWI, Children’s Book Insider or Children’s Writer to receive monthly leads on editors looking for specific genres. The query letter itself must be short and to the point; using only four paragraphs (as outlined by Noah Lukeman:)
1. Intro (explain why you chose this particular editor for your story)
2. Synopsis: (briefly describe your story, highlighting your character’s main conflict)
3. Bio: (list your writing credits, classes or experience with most relevant first)
4. Conclusion: (thank the editor for taking the time to review your manuscript)

So there you have it. Be as spontaneous, care-free, crazy, uninhibited, and unorthodox as you can when writing your story. But be as professional as possible when submitting to editors.

Bits and Bytes

Jane Friedman at Writer's Digest has compiled a brief but rewarding list of "5 Free Ebooks Every Writer Needs"
The ebooks offer terrific advice on everything from the nuts and bolts of writing to query letters to marketing your published works. "What Publishers Want" is an especially good place to start to get a feel for what is involved in submitting a manuscript to a publisher.

The Business of Writing

Do I Need An Agent?

By Lana Krumwiede

Questions about literary agents come up in exactly 100% of the writing conferences I attend. To get the definitive answer, let's consult the modern marvel of decision making, the magic eight ball. The answer is: Yes. But quite possibly no. And  furthermore, it depends.

Let’s start with the yes answer. You need an agent because so many publishers are not open to submissions from unpublished, unknown,  untested writers. Even in the case where the editor does take unsolicited submissions, Mt. Slushpile is a pretty tough climb. When you have an agent, he or she handles all the submissions and therefore your manuscript automatically gets higher priority. That’s just the way things work. Additionally, most agents help you hone your manuscript, which gives your writing  an extra coat of professional polish. In this ultra-competitive market, you will need all the professional polish you can get. Believe me.

Now on to the no answer. Agent or no agent, a writer with the aim of becoming published must present a captivating manuscript, couple it with a cover letter, carefully research the person to send it to, and hope for the best. Agents can be as equally hard to attract as editors, so why not skip that extra step and go directly to the editor? That just might work for you. There are ways for unagented writers to gain access to editors; namely, attending conferences and workshops. Plenty of writers break in this way and that makes it a viable option.

And lastly, we have the ever-popular “it depends” answer.  It depends on the genre you write in. It’s hard to find an agent that is interested in representing picture book texts. Nonfiction writers often deal more directly with editors when it comes to proposals and idea development.  Your decision about seeking an agent should also take into account your goals as a writer and on how you want to handle your career. If you don’t have an agent, you have to be your own agent. You have to learn everything there is to know about contracts, publishers, the children’s book market, etc. Agented authors need to know the business end of things too, but a good agent can be a mentor and a guide through the complex landscape of publishing.

A strong work of caution: NEVER pay an agent any kind of up-front fee. Good, reputable agents earn their money from selling a manuscript. The shady kind of agent earns money from pulling a fast one on an inexperienced writer.  That’s where the research comes in. Check reputations of publishers and agents at websites like Preditors & Editors and Query Tracker.

When you’re starting out, the best thing to do is focus on your writing. Find a critique group, join professional writing organizations like SCBWI, go to conferences, and read, read, read! Work hard to become the best writer you can and in the process, crank out some incredibly awesome stories. When it comes down to it, that’s the only way to catch the eye of either an agent or an editor. And until you have a great manuscript, you don't need either one.