Need really good tips on getting a childrens book off the ground and published?

Question

Looking for info on agents, printing, costs& fee's, how best to approach publishers, who're the best publishers for young kids books, timelines, best ways to maximise chances of publication.

Answer 1

Hi there. The biggest hurdle for a first time author is finding a bona fide agent to represent you. Most agencies have thousands of manuscripts sent to them every year and typically, they only select a few works that are worthy to represent. Submitting your work directly to publishers is almost a waste of time, as the slush pile for publishers is ten times what it is for most agencies.

DO NOT submit to anyone that requires up front money or "reading" fees. Most agencies will read your book for nothing if it's well presented and if they think it has merit. Reading fees are a rip off. You can check on legitimate agencies at the "Preditors & Editors" website. They keep an up to date list of current agents and any problems writers have had with them.

Now, once you find an agency, you need a great query letter to get their attention. Search the web for examples. If your query letter is sloppy or has misspelled words, you're TOAST. Get a qualified copy editor to help you, if you can afford one. Then, once the agency reads your query and agrees to look at your manuscript, MAKE SURE IT IS PERFECT before you send it off. Again, bad formatting, grammar problems or poor spelling will doom you from the start. Pay an editor to proof your work--it's worth a few hundred bucks to get your foot in the door with an agent.

After that, be prepared to wait up to 3 months for an answer from the agency. DO NOT submit to more than one agency at a time. If your work is good and the agency sees potential in it, they will offer you a contract. From there, it can be another 3 month wait for them to find you a publisher. Once you get a publisher, it takes about a year to actually see your book in print.

You can also go the eBook route, which is becoming more popular every day now that eBook readers and publishers are more readily available. I did that and it worked out very well for me. I went from a very small online eBook publisher to a major hard cover print publisher, but it took several years. These days, it's much more acceptable to start out with an electronic version and move into print. However, you should think about doing your own eBook instead of paying some company to throw it together for a fee. Most of those services could care less if your book looks good, has typos or whatever. They also OWN the ISBN's for their titles--you do not--so keep that in mind.

I hope this helps. If you're serious about getting published, you can make it happen. It takes time, patience and a lot of luck. And as a note of reality, of all the fiction books published in a given year, only about 13% ever sell more than 1,000 copies. Most (75%) sell fewer than 500. Contrary to popular belief, most authors don't get rich.

Jon Baxley, author, editor, proofreader and ghostwriter

THE SCYTHIAN STONE (a medieval fantasy eBook)
THE BLACKGLOOM BOUNTY (a medieval fantasy epic in hard cover from Thomson Gale)

Answer 2

Today with computers and printers, manuscripts are turned out by prospective authors by the thousands. Not one in a thousand is worth looking at. So, publishers won't look at ANY by a no-name author.

Scholastic won't even LOOK at your story. Why? They get a thousand a month. They quit trying to find that needle in the haystack.

Publishers are run by money-men: what sells is what they'll publish, and they'll stick with a good selling author long after he or she's run out of steam.

You're not going to get that story published. If you want to see it in print, have it printed. A good short run printer is Friesen's in Canada. See Friesens.com. Children stories come in many sizes, like 4 to 6, etc. Most children books are illustrated, which is expensive. Consider that, too, if you plan to have it printed.

Answer 3

Scholastic & Western Publishing print kid's books. If I knew the other answers, I'd get my kid's books published.

Answer 4

Well, even from J.K.Rowlings experience it's tough - the first book of Harry Potter got turned down by SEVEN different publishers before Bloomsbury took it on!

It's tough. Keep persevering.

Answer 5

Search for Olivia Goodrich's Book on Roman London and contact her and her publisher.

Answer 6

fart explosively when in public, e.g. in public libraries, i am speaking from my own experience