I've had an idea in my head, for years, for a story that I think would make a great childrens book...about a month ago, I finally started getting things together creatively and started writing...anybody know how to get things like that published...where to submit them...any advice/ideas???

i've had a poem published... however to my dismay (at a very naive age of 14)
i realised that poetry.com wasn't really all it was cracked up to be

70$ later, i still have to coffee table book with my poem in it


it was a nice feeling being that young, and being "published"


i wish i had more information for you, i've been shy to that world since that mishap

but best of luck, keep writing and hopefully the right opportunity comes up for you.

I have written several pieces for the Newspaper - that's all

I am 2 yrs into writting a book called " For our children "

sammij said:

I really have a lot more work to do...I've even thought about trying to illustrate it myself...we'll see how it goes...
[Edited 3/21/08 12:16pm]

Mach said:

wow..two years??

I'm about three weeks in...

roodboi said:

I've actually had a couple of ideas for coffee table books over the years... But sort of always just figured I don't have the know-how and resources to do it.

Maybe I should persue it more...

Get The Writer's Market (there's also a specialized one for the children's market). I don't know as much about the children's market, but I know it's tough and crowded, especially because a lot of celebrities have decided to write kids' books. They get a lot of publicity and take it away from other writers. Good luck!

roodboi said:

I have much I want to share with them sometimes I will go months without writting anything and the some weeks I will add a ton of info

Also, will it be illustrated and, if so, do you need to find an illustrator? From what I understand, the publisher will want you to find the illustrator instead of finding one for you. Do some research into the market and have a reference of similar books that targeted the same age group. That way, in your book proposal, you can list similar titles. It's even better if you can show how your book will sell well by showing 1) how your book is unique and fills a void that isn't already being covered, and 2) how your book will sell well because of trends in the marketplace. Those two seem kind of at odds with each other, but it will help an agent believe in the book and then sell it to a publisher.

I had a poem published once through some publication as part of a competition when I was in the 10th or 11th grade.


I don't remember the publisher, book, or poem actually. I didn't get any money from it that I can recall.

Plus the poem was shit. I just threw stuff together to make it sound edgy.

roodboi said:

I have a story that I started writing EIGHT years ago & is still "a work in progress".

i've been published. i find that the best way to get the eye of a publisher is to go the DIY route and put some writing out into the world on your own, and try to attract some good response, an audience, some buzz. then, when you propose a project to a publisher or to a magazine, you're able to say "i'm already sharing my writing with the world via my blog, which gets X thousand hits per day" or you can say "i self-published a virtual book (you can do this via PDF) and sold it via amazon.com, and sold (however many) copies."

if you can get your work out there on your own and have it be a success, publishers and editors see you as a low-risk with a built-in readership. and if they don't accept you, then screw 'em. you're already getting your work out there. it'd be nice to attract a new or wider audience, but if you have a healthy, loyal readership through your independent projects, you're not going to be hurting.

i worked for awhile for a very large publishing house and frequently dealt with [frightening] unsolicited manuscript submissions, and here is my advice to you for whatever it might be worth:

firstly, don't let anyone convince you that you must get an agent. agents don't get paid unless a book gets published, and finding a decent agent to take on an unpublished, first-time children's author can prove a challenge in and of itself. generally speaking, if you're a good writer with a good story, you're on the same playing field as is an author with an agent.

the suggestion already given on this thread to get a copy of the book The Children's Writers and Illustrators Market is an excellent one. also, visit the bookstore and examine closely all the newer children's books of similar genre and audience and write down by whom they were published, as those publishers might be ones more apt to be interested in what you have to offer.

when you decide it's time to begin contacting potential publishers about your book, first send each publisher a short letter requesting their writer's guidelines. this is important, because those guidelines will instruct you as to whether a publishing house even accepts unsolicited manuscripts, in what format they prefer manuscripts be sent, whether they prefer query letters, etc. knowing the aforementioned can make the process finding a publisher much easier, as well as making you look much more professional.

regarding illustrations: don't include illustrations with any manuscripts you submit. the fact is that most publishing houses have well-known illustrators with whom they usually work, and prefer to utilize those artists instead of letting an (unknown) author illustrate their book themselves.

when you do submit your manuscript, make sure the copy sent is typed, spellchecked, and neat, and don't send anything besides your manuscript, a short cover letter, and a self-addressed, stamped envelope. (note: in your cover letter, don't brag yourself up or compare your work to that of other authors in complimentary terms or otherwise, and don't include reviews from friends and family about your book. these tactics don't impress nor garner anything positive for you, trust me.)

again, concentrate first on just writing a good story, then be diligent as to how and where you submit it. then, be patient, persevere, and don't feel discouraged if and when your book gets rejected. submitting work to be published can be a career in itself, and rejection doesn't necessarily mean your book isn't good.

best of luck!

i had some books published but i think that was mostly just luck since my stuff ain't that grand.

Willy has great advice. and, get a copy of Writers Market - its a good resource for who and where to send your stuff. good luck!

sammij said:

One4All4Ever said:

man, my spelling isn't all it's cracked up to be either

One of my professors wants to submit a short story I wrote for publication and I am seriously considering writing a book.

Did you consider maybe writing to other well-known authors for pointers, Jason?

Stymie said:

the reference section of your local bookstore is another really inspiring place, too...there are lots of great books about how to get published, how to get motivated to write, how to structure the whole process...even if i don't buy anything, i always come away with a bunch of ideas just from browsing.

Anxiety said:

Thanks Chris.

roodboi said:

This sounds very cool Jason. I hope you get it all figured out, and on your way to success!

WillyWonka said:

Hi Willy What excellent advice ~ I'm going to copy this for future reference ~ thank you.

I've had several magazine articles and short stories published.
All the advice given here is excellent. Don't be discouraged if you receive several rejections. It doesn't mean your work isn't good, usually it means that your work doesn't fit their needs at the moment. Often they will give you really good tips for improving your writing. Follow their guidelines to the letter.

The best advice I personally can give you is to join a local writer's group and get some feedback from fellow writers.

Anxiety said:

This sounds like a good strategy. For the past few years, I've written and edited law-related publications for a local publishing company. When I started, pretty much everything was done in-house, aside from some of the printing being outsourced to a local printer. Not exactly DIY, but similar.

Then, we were approached last year by one of the "big three" multinational legal publishing companies. They've now licensed some of our publications and are distributing/marketing them nationally under their brand names. Thus far, I've had various degrees of involvement in writing and editing five books that have been released under this deal. Earlier this week, I finished the master for a sixth book. I've also started work on a seventh book, and there are plans for at least one more after that.

A major factor in getting the deal was that we could show them several books we'd published ourselves, so they could be sure we're capable of creating high-quality publications. In fact, at the time, we already had four of the five books completed and released by us, so they could have published the first national versions of those immediately. (We did, however, decide to prepare new editions before turning over the masters.)

* * *

Another thing that helped: every one of our books has an evaluation form at the back that asks the reader to provide us with feedback. This allowed us to give the publisher multiple independent critiques of our work.

Also, the feedback we'd received had helped us make multiple improvements to the original "local" editions of the books. One of the nice things about DIY or small-publisher books is that you can do small print runs and make revisions on an ongoing basis. It's been said that there's no good writing, just good re-writing, and I largely agree with that.

Coincidentally, the evaluation forms were part of how I got started as an author/editor of book-length publications. Some of our books are used as textbooks in professional education courses. Throughout the course that I took, I kept a running list of comments and suggestions regarding the text. My final, very lengthy evaluation crossed the desk of the company's owner. After reading that and the work I had done as a student in the class (essentially 24 samples of my writing), he called me up and asked if I'd be interested in working for him.

* * *

One final note, since this is a Prince fansite. Unlike Prince and his Warner Bros. releases, we do own our masters.

WillyWonka said:

That makes sense. Although our books don't exactly have illustrations, the publisher that prints/markets/distributes our books nationally had their own graphic design team create some really sharp cover art. There's no way we could have created anything in-house as nice as their designs. Furthermore, it was their time and money that went into doing the covers, not ours.

One other idea. I don't know how applicable this is to children's books, but....

Before I started doing book-length publications, I wrote some article-length stuff, and I did it for free. In the legal field, there are many possibilities for getting short pieces published if you're willing to forget about getting paid.

For my very first publication, I not only wrote it for free, but I also gave up all intellectual property rights to it. I also did the second one for free -- again, I gave the copyright to the publisher, but that time, they at least licensed the article back to me.

I put a lot of time into those early pieces, which was difficult due to the demands of my paying job. But now I had a list of publications to put on my resume.

To be sure, my current publishing company (the local one) didn't know about my prior publications when they first contacted me. But during our initial meeting to discuss the possibility of working together, I was able to present them with a list of the things I'd had published before, and I think they were impressed. I don't know whether it ultimately made a difference, but we did reach a deal on the spot.

Today, writing is my largest source of income. I'm certainly not wealthy, but it's getting more lucrative over time. And there are some non-monetary benefits that come with it, such as a great deal of freedom in how I do the work. I largely set my own hours, and I can usually work from wherever I want.

thanks for the information and advice, everyone...


maybe one day, your children will read my story...