I've Written a Picture Book, Now What?

It's pretty common when you're starting out writing picture books to have written a picture book and not know what to do next! I get questions about it all the time. So, here are some basics things you should do when you have written a children's book but are not quite sure how to go about getting it published:

1. Get critiques. Just because you wrote a picture book doesn't mean it's ready to send out into the world. Once you've made the story the best you can make it find some other picture book writers to trade with. Getting thoughts and opinions from others writing in the same category as you will help you see your work in a new light. Getting professional opinions from those who are working in the field can be eye opening as well. My recommendation would be to trade with critique partners and when you are ready, to spring for that professional opinion. (To find critique partners you are welcome to join my Sub It Club Critique Partner Matchup. If you are ready for a professional opinion, check out my critique services.)
2. Revise. Revise, revise, always revise! Revise to make your manuscript the best that you possibly can. Revise before getting critiques. Revise after critiques. Ha! Seriously though, putting your manuscript away for a few weeks then taking a new look at it can help your see it with fresh eyes. Picture books take lots of rounds of revisions.
3. Read Picture Books. In between all of those revisions and even when you are revising, read loads of picture books. Reading newly published ones from the larger publishing houses will help you know what the market is looking for. Although there are definitely some good books published by smaller publishers, don't automatically take them to be the general consensus on what publishers are looking for. Sometimes small publishers are able to make allowances that the big publishers don't. Self-published don't make good guides either as the author has no guidelines they have to follow.
4. Read books about writing for children. Get them from your library. Order them from your book store. Just read them!
5. Read blog posts about picture book writing. There is a lot of good information out there. I have some posts about picture book writing. Author Josh Funk has a great Guide to Writing Picture Books. Author Pam Calvert has Picture Book University where you can also learn a lot. All of these resources are free and they are just the tip of the online iceberg!
6. Do numbers 1 - 5 so many times that you can't even count how many times you have done them.
7. Do NOT try to find an illustrator. I put that one in red because it is such a common misconception. If you want to sell your picture book manuscript to a publisher it is their job to find the illustrator for the book. They want to do this. You having the manuscript illustrated counts against you, not for you. If you yourself are not a professional illustrator, write the best, submission-ready, illustratable manuscript you can. Then send it out for consideration. 
8. Learn about what publishers, and therefore agents, are looking for. When you start delving into the world of children's publishing you will know things like #7, for instance. You will know that to give your picture book manuscript a better shot it just might be best to keep it under 700 words. A high-concept can be a good thing too. (Tip #8 here is a little repetitive but I felt like it needed saying. You can learn about what publisher and agents are looking for by doing #'s 3, 4, & 9!)
9. Learn about querying.

• Join me at Sub It Club. We talk about all the things that have to do with submitting manuscripts for publication. We post lots of submission information on the blog and have a very active private Sub It Club Facebook group with loads of super fantastic writers and illustrators where you can learn and ask questions, get help on your query letters, and more.

• Check out the Monster List of Picture Book Agents where you can start learning about agents and what they are looking for. (Hint: agents who represent picture books often like to know what else you have if they are interested in the manuscript you have queries with, so it can be good to have a few polished manuscripts ready to go when querying. But keep in mind, there are no hard and fast rules here. Use your judgement.)

• Check out the Monster List of Picture Book Publishers with links directly to publisher's submission guidelines so you can see what you need to do to ask them to consider your work. (Hint: If you are interested in working with an agent, you should submit your work to them first as they don't like a manuscript to be too shopped around. But you can definitely submit your work straight to publishers who are open to unsolicited submissions.)

• You can join the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. SCBWI is an international professional organization for writers and illustrators of children's literature. They have tons of resources and put on great workshops and conferences. Peruse their website to see all the things they offer.

• Become a member of the SCBWI Blueboards. This is a message board where tons of writers and illustrators hang out. You can learn so much there! You do not have to join SCBWI to take part in the boards.

Please realize that all of these things take time. Picture books may seem short and simple but they take a lot of work and thought to be great. That beautiful picture book you see on the shelf has most likely been years in the making. But, they are definitely worth it!

If you have a specific question feel free to contact me. If I can I will answer your question on the blog here. 

The Lowdown on Cover and Query Letters

Alayne Kay Christian asked me to write a post about query and cover letters as part of the Sub Six All About Submissions series, and I was happy to oblige! I did my best to cover it all in my post: the difference between a cover and a query letter, the main parts, the format, etc. If you're new to writing queries and are figuring out how to write that important letter that introduces your work or just want a refresher, go check out my post- Create a Great Introduction: Cover and Query Letters. Alayne has added some great links for further study as well.

In my post I linked to the Query Letters that Worked at Sub it Club for reference because I know that when I was figuring out how to write queries it really helped me to look at successful queries. The first one listed when you click on the link is by picture book author Rebecca Colby. She went above and beyond and showed how she progressed with query letters, what she did wrong, then breaks down the query she used to obtain her agent and showed us what she did right. It is so helpful! I just love the generosity of writers in the kidlit world. Definitely check it out to figure out what you are saying with your query!

Querying a Picture Book? Don’t Do These Things

It may come as a shock to you, but I get a lot of queries for picture books. It certainly comes as a shock to me! I’m not an agent or an editor and I think that is pretty clear on my blogs and all of the social media I do. I like to think that people work on their writing ad nauseam to make it the very best they can before submitting. I also like to think that people do their research and make the very best decisions they can when deciding who to send to, then work hard to put together a great query letter. I have learned firsthand that this is unfortunately not the case.

When you get a lot of query letters you start to see some common mistakes. Oh I have seen some doosies! For some of you these types of things in a query may be hard to believe, but they definitely happen. A lot. For those of you learning how to make you query the best it can be, here are some things you want to avoid:

• Do not send queries out to random addresses. Study the people you want to query. Make sure they are an agent or editor who works with books in the genre you have written. Also make sure they are accepting queries. Check their submission guidelines and follow them! They are there to help you.

• Do not address your query Dear Agent. It is pretty easy to learn about agents online (my Monster List of Picture Book Agents is a good place for picture book writers to start). Use the standard Dear Mr./Ms. greeting along with the person's last name. This goes for when querying editors at publishing houses as well although I will say that every once in a while it can be difficult to find out who any of the editors are at a publishing house. But, this is few and far between. In the rare case that you have exhausted all of the research outlets and have found nothing, it is okay to use Dear Editor. Or when a publishing house specifies to use that, which I have seen as well.

• Do not talk about what your illustrations or character will look like. Once you sell a manuscript, if you are not the illustrator, you generally have no say in this matter. The publishing company will pair the manuscript with an illustrator they believe will best bring the story to light. The illustrator is a partner in your book. They get to have their own creative input into the story. In your query, showing what your story is about with a good hook and description of your book is the way to make readers see the story in their mind.

• Do not talk about how many books in the series you have written, or plan to write, and make yourself sound like a starry-eyed dreamer who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. The first book needs to be published…first. Focusing on the one story is very often the best way to go. Of course, mentioning that there is series potential is okay, if you feel strongly about it. Some non-fiction books are published in series so there are definitely exceptions to this rule. Do your homework, learn about the different types of children’s books that are published, by who, and how. It will go a long way when figuring out how to query something when you think it has series potential. But keep in mind, many picture books that have gone on to become series came from that one great first book.

• Do not talk about having stuffed animals and accessories to go along with the book, or films or television series that will stem from it. When you sell a manuscript to a publishing house they want the book, first and foremost. Agents know that too. Other things will come later, in the rare case that they come at all.

• Do not tell the person you are querying that this is the first book you have written. You don’t want them to roll their eyes and think “obviously!”

• Don’t talk about other things you have written that have not gotten published. The mere fact that you have written them doesn’t make them good. If you have had something published give the title, publisher, and date of publication. Hiding your credentials in a wishy-washy statement like I have had a piece published in a magazine isn’t working in your favor.

• Do not tell the person you are querying that you want the book to be well done or professional. They are professionals. If you are querying them they can only assume that you have researched the sort of product they put out and like what they do. Trust in that, otherwise you are just being insulting.

Of course, there is a time you can ask questions and go over things like whether or not your book will be published as a hardcover or softcover(for editors), or what the submission strategy will be for the book(for agents) and you can decide whether or not to sign the contract based on the responses. But don’t ask these things before you have an offer. You aren’t going to get an answer.

Most picture book submissions come along with the manuscript as well. I will post about some of the common mistakes I see in picture book manuscript submissions soon!

Cutting Words in a Picture Book Manuscript

Chop chop! Word counts for picture books are tight. Every word has to count. Before you even think of submitting a manuscript to an agent or publisher, be sure every word makes the cut.

• Think about what the illustrations will show. Do you really need to say that your character is sitting by a stream? (Don't be afraid to use an illustration note if you need to, but only use them if absolutely necessary!)
• Can you say with one word (better) something that you've said in two... or three... or four?
• Contractions! Going though your manuscript and changing they are to they're and I am to I'm, etc.,  can cut quite a few words. Of course, you don't have to contract everything contractable. Use your judgement on what sounds best in your story. Remember to watch for it is. It's it's not its!
• Check your descriptions. Can they be tightened?
• Are there sentences that can be combined? 
• Can words that end in -ed be changed to -ing, omitting the pronoun?
• Don't be afraid to go even further. Can you rid the story of any scenes, characters or dialogue? If it isn't moving the story forward get rid of it!
• Try Twitter. It's really great for helping make one aware of cuttable words. When you're trying to fit a thought into so few characters you can really see what needs to go!
  
  
  Here are some common word offenders to be on the lookout for:

the

and

at

was
that
so

as/as they
suddenly
however
quite

And of course: adjectives and adverbs!

My biggest offender? The horrible! The horrifying! Just. Oh how that word seems to make it into every single one of my manuscripts.

What are your biggest offenders? I'll add them to the list!

For more on cutting your picture book manuscript read STOP! Cut Picture Book Mss by 1/3 at Darcy Pattison's blog,  and Six Steps to Make Your Children's Story Sparkle by Laura Backes.

Of course, it can be hard to see what can be changed in our own work after we've looked at it for so long. If you've done your best to cut and still have a manuscript that's too long, ask a critique partner to look at it with an eye towards cutting!

I Wrote a Book, Now What? (#2) --Market Research

I did post #1 in I Wrote a Book, Now What? about critiques and revising. But, if you're looking to get published there's a lot more to it than that. You've got to learn about the market, what it wants, and how to approach it.

There are some really good books on writing for children (and writing in general) and reading a stack or two of them will open your eyes to a lot of things. If you aren't sure where to get started I recommend The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books by Harold Underdown. He's really knowledgeable about the children's publishing industry and his book covers all the basics. Harold's website is a great place to learn too.

Cynthea Liu has a crash course for writers at her site writingforchildrenandteens.com.

And I would definitely recommend you join Verla Kay's Blue Board. It's a great place to learn, keep up to date, and "hang out" with writers.

The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators offers lots of opportunities for learning about writing and the market. They have conferences and a monthly magazine plus lots on online info on how to go about all sorts of things that children's writers need to know. You can find them at http://www.scbwi.org.

Get educated on what the market is publishing by reading tons of newer books in the genre you are writing. Learn how to approach the market (Harold Underdown's book covers this nicely.) Learn the standard way to format a manuscript (Cynthea Liu's site will show you how.) Little steps like these will help you make a good presentation when you're ready to submit a manuscript.

Okay, so maybe all of this talk of research sounds dry. Lucky for us children's book writers, research is fun! For my research today I read a bunch of TumbleBooks at my library's website. I could do that type of research all day!

I Wrote a Book, Now What? (#1) -- Critiques and Revising

I've been getting this question a lot lately and I totally understand. It can seem overwhelming to find your way into a huge industry like publishing. Lucky for us, there is more information out there on publishing than ever. I'm going to do a series of posts answering this question and I'm going to start with something basic--revising.

You may have a great story, but it will get even better with revision. Put it away for a little while until you can get a fresh perspective. I find three months to be helpful. It's okay, you can work on writing something else while you're waiting! You could also go read a bunch of books in the genre you're writing. What? You're doing that already? Good. It's always fun, and when you read tons in your genre it can help you see what works in a story and what doesn't.

When you're ready pull that story out and revise it again (I know I'm ready when I can't stop thinking about the story!), as many times as it takes. Put it away again for a little while if you need to, but when you feel like you can't see anything else that needs to be changed you're ready for the next step, getting critiqued. There are many ways to do this, but the best method I've found is to trade with other writers in the same genre, or at least those that understand the genre. (I know, picture books are kind of a specialty, so I find this point especially important for what I write.) There are lots of ways to find critique partners if you don't have any: writer's chatrooms, local and national organizations, the library...I found my critique group on Verla Kay's Blue Board.

Once you've gotten your critiques, revise accordingly. I know, this can be difficult and the critique/revision process can happen more than once, but it's good to have an open mind and not take offense to anything anyone says. You are all there to help each other. (Yes I know there can be the occasional 'bad critique partner' but I think they are the exception to the rule.) Just keep in mind that it's your story. You don't have to use all of the suggestions. I do take all comments into consideration, and really take notice if more than one person points out a particular spot.

When your critiques and revisions are all done and you cannot see how in the world you can make the story any better it is time to a.) go to a conference and/or workshop and get a professional opinion from an agent or editor. No, this is not a requirement, but it can be pretty eye opening to hear what a professional in the business has to say about a manuscript. OR b.) start querying, which involves writing a query letter(and a synopsis for those of you who write longer books), studying the market(if you haven't already), and submitting to agents and/or editors. I'll do some posts on those topics soon.

Write on people!

Go to: I Wrote a Book, Now What? post #2 -- Market Research