Tips For Getting a Children’s Book Published

I have had this post rolling around in the back of my mind for a while, and lately it seems like I’ve received an extra amount of emails and DM’s asking me for tips about getting a children’s book published. I am very open about my experience and happy to share everything I’ve learned the past few years. Instead of sending individual responses to every person, I’d much rather make the information widely available here, on my blog. That being said, once you’ve read this if you have additional questions go ahead and leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer it.

I also want to say that this post does not address self-publishing, but if that is something you are interested in know that there are so many great resources out there, but I am not one of them! And please know that self publishing is just as valid as traditional publishing. Neither one is inherently better or worse, and they both have their pros and cons.

My Process
First, I want to quickly take you through my process of getting a book deal, because I followed the “traditional” route but my publisher and I ended up finding each other in an non-traditional manner. By “traditional route” I mean I wrote the manuscript, I did a lot of research, and I sent individual query letters (emails) with my manuscript to publishers and literary agents. This is the traditional route, and I have a lovely pile of email rejection letters to prove it, thankyouverymuch. However, what led to me actually getting a deal was that I wrote a blog post (yes on this very blog!) talking about the need for disability representation and in that post I mentioned that I had written a children’s book I was hoping to put out into the world, to add to that representation. A woman named Rachel read that post. She had found my blog a while earlier when her daughter was in the NICU, and she happened to work for a small publishing house out of Minneapolis. And while she wasn’t a “decision maker” as she said, she offered to pass my manuscript onto her publishing house. And she did!

As you’ll come to learn most publishing houses will tell you that if you don’t hear back from them in 6-8 weeks, you can consider it a no. Therefore you can imagine my surprise when 6 MONTHS after sending Rachel my manuscript, I heard from my soon-to-be editor Andrew, that Beaming Books, would like to publish my children’s book!

Biggest Misconception
Before I officially move onto my tips I’d like to share what I believe is the biggest misconception about publishing a children’s book: Unless you are an author-illustrator (meaning you do both like Mo Willems, Eric Carle, Beatrix Potter) you DO NOT pitch your book with an illustrator! Like most people I had no idea about this when I first started, but this is definitely the biggest misconception I come up against. When you are pitching a children’s picture book as the writer, you are submitting the manuscript. That’s it.

(Some of you may be thinking, but wait Miggy, didn’t you know your illustrator beforehand? Didn’t you ask her to illustrate your book? YES! Back when I didn’t know any better, and we had just met at a conference I reached out to Merrliee Liddiard immediately to see if she was interested in illustrating my book. And she was! But, she also educated me about the misconception above. We briefly considered trying to pitch together anyway, but her plate was full at the time and she graciously had to bow out of the initial process. When I signed my contract, I asked my publisher beforehand if I could have a say in the illustrator. They agreed. When I presented Merrilee’s name they immediately loved her style, reached out to her and the rest is history. I’ve have since heard this is very unusual and that publishers almost always choose the illustrator.)

And now onto the meat of the matter! Please keep in mind that I am still very much a newbie in this world, but over the past few years I’ve learned a lot. However, there are a lot of other places to look around and ask as well. Which leads me to my first point….

1. Research! Research! Research!
It’s not the most glamorous or fun part of the process, but it’s absolutely essential. I always point people to the two main resources I used during the process. First, you’ll want to join SCBWI or the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, I believe the cost is about $90/year. Not only do many publishers want to know if you’re a member (street cred) but it is also a WEALTH of information. There are articles, local chapters you can join, national meetings (and I’m assuming international, as it’s an international organization), contests, message boards, and each year they make something called The Book: An Essential Guide to Publishing for Children, available to members that you can either download or order. But again you have to be a member.

The other source I always recommend (which is very similar to The Book I mentioned above) is the annual Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market which again is published every year. This book (which I checked out from the library FYI) was where I spent a lot of time researching publishers and agents, which I eventually aggregated into a large spreadsheet ranking which publishers and agents would be the best fit for my book.

I remember so many of my precious and few “work days” (when my little kids were with a babysitter) were spent making spreadsheets and putting lists and emails together. The process is days of work that really give you no sense of feeling productive as you don’t have much to show for it at the end of the day. And even though I didn’t find my publisher through this work, it made me all the more informed and respectful of the process.

Also, just good ol’ fashioned Google. There are so many blogs and articles from people in the publishing world with all kinds of advice. DO YOUR RESEARCH.

On that note, I will say, that while I am more than happy to share what I have learned, I am always a little surprised when I am asked questions by someone who clearly hasn’t done a Google search about this process, let alone spent a couple hours digging through blogs, articles, and on-line resources. Really this goes for nearly anything in life, do you part first, before you expect someone else to simply hand you all their hard-won knowledge.

2. Write. The. Book.
Seems obvious, but A LOT of people say “So I have this idea for a children’s book…” and while that’s great, publishers and agents don’t get on board for an idea (barring your enormous celebrity status). So write it! Also, this is where the rubber meets the road; Can you do it? (Yes!) Will you do it! (Yes!) When I first started writing When Charley Met Emma, I knew exactly what I wanted the story to be about, and what I wanted to say… but it was still hard. There are a million ways to write a story. What exact words are you going to use and in what order? How does it start? Who are the characters? What is the setting? 

While everyone has a different writing process (and perhaps you already know yours and don’t need this advice) I find it’s easiest to just get started. Don’t worry about how it flows, the characters, the setting, etc… just get the ideas on paper and start because starting is half the battle. From there you need to…

3. EDIT!
It’s easy to think that because they’re short, a children’s book is easy to write. I sure did! But, the tricky thing about children’s books is that you are trying to say a lot, in as few words as possible. I went through 16 drafts before I came to the manuscript I felt good sending out. In my research I found out that many publishing houses won’t even consider a picture book manuscript over 1,000 words. Sure, I thought, but my book has this super important message and it just has to be longer… in other words, my book is a special unicorn. I was wrong. My manuscript was around 1,300 words. When my publisher agreed to publish my book, they did so with the understanding that we would work together to whittle it down, which I was totally on board with. In the end When Charley Met Emma was around 750 words–almost in half! And it is such a better book for it. It would be a great idea to find a few people who would be willing to read your book and give you feedback. In hindsight, I’m very grateful my publishers were willing to see the diamond in the rough that was my manuscript, because it could and probably should have been edited more. (Even though I did my best and had a friend who is also a writer look over my drafts.) 

One of the main reasons for brevity that has stuck with me, was when my editor talked about reading books with our children. Do we like to read books that go on and on and on? No we don’t. He had me think about which books I read with my daughter–the ones that felt longer than the others–and then to look up the word count. I was shocked to discover that many of the books I considered “long” (but still great books I loved to read!) were around 650-700 words! So if you want your books purchased and read by parents, word count matters.

And lastly, every word counts. Personally I love getting to the final nitty-gritty of editing and thinking about each and every word and defending it’s position in my book. Just like any art form, the why’s are so very important and knowing that I gave every word consideration gives me a lot of confidence in what I’m putting out into the world.

4. Respect the Industry.
The publishing industry is an old, traditional industry.
First and foremost publishing is a business and when they choose a book to publish it’s because they believe it will sell. I had to get over the idea that someone was going to publish my book solely because of its important social message. That might be part of why they were attracted to it (and I believe it was!) but also, they believed it could bring in the dolla’ dolla’ bills y’all.

Also, in my research I came across the idea again and again, that publishing is a traditional industry and that you need to respect the rules and the process if you want to be considered. For example, when sending a query letter don’t be cute, keep it formal and professional, yet personal. What this means is that you cannot write one query letter and then BCC a bunch of publishing houses/agents at the same time. First, each agent/publisher will have their own guidelines for the format of the query letter and you must follow those formats or your query will likely go straight to the trash folder. And each letter should start with something a little personal letting them know that you took the time to read about them–ie. “I see that you are looking for stories featuring female protagonists…” Double and triple check spelling, grammar, everything. And for heaven’s sake, be sure to get their name right.

Again, this is part of the research, so I’m not going to expound too much here, but consider this your heads up.

5. Put it out into the Universe
Now to get a little woo-woo. When I first had the idea to write a children’s book I was giddy with excitement, but also very, very protective of my little baby idea. I believed in it, yet I wasn’t ready to share it with the world. Ideally, I would do all this work behind the scenes and then one day I’d announce out of the clear blue, “Ta-da! I’ve written a children’s book and it’s getting published!”

And that’s what I did for a long time–kept it to myself, telling only a handful of people. Until one day I felt a nudge to put it out into the Universe. (Yes, that would be a nudge from the Universe, to put it out into the Universe.) That was scary. What if it never got published and every one knew that I had written a book that never got published? I didn’t want to be that person.

The day I wrote the fateful blog post where I “put it out into the universe,” at first, I actually didn’t mention the book at all. I finished the post, closed my computer and felt a familiar tapping on my mind and heart that said, “Do it. Tell people about your book.” So I opened the post back up, and inserted a paragraph about this children’s book I had written and re-published the post. Call it a spiritual prompt, call it woo-woo, but I did what I felt.

I’ve since had the chance to meet Rachel, the woman who reached out about my manuscript, face-to-face. I told her about my experience writing that post and how I actually went back and added that part about my book a little later. She told me her side of the story… (paraphrasing from memory here) she said when she read that post, specifically the part about me having written a children’s book, she immediately knew she needed to reach out and ask me about it. She felt something. As I recall, she told me she stood up in her cubicle and said something along the lines of “I have a feeling about this book…” or something to her co-worker in the next cubicle. The person she spoke to was Andrew, my future editor.

Me, the day I signed my contract.

Final Words of Advice
Believe in yourself and your voice. You have an idea for a reason! It chose you! Do something with it! (I highly recommend reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic while you’re at it and find out what happens if you ignore that wonderful idea.) You are no more or less qualified than anyone else to write a children’s book, so do it! YOU CAN DO IT. That being said…

Be realistic with your expectations. One children’s book is not going to skyrocket you to fame, fortune or even necessarily a career as a children’s book author. You’re not going to make a living (or even a lot) on one book. Most successful authors write many, many books before quitting their day job (again, see Big Magic). And even if you have a few books under your belt, most authors working in children’s supplement their income with school visits and other sources of income. Of course if your goal is to be a children’s book author, GO FOR IT! Just be realistic with your expectations, time, commitment, etc. 

Patience grasshopper. I thought that it would take 2-3 weeks to write my book and that I would have a book deal 2-3 months after that. In reality, I started writing my book in January of 2016. I signed my deal in December of 2017, and the book came out in March of 2019. The process is slow. Embrace it.

I hope this has been helpful and encouraging. You have no idea how much I believe in you. Again, if you have additional questions feel free to leave a comment below! I thought about telling you to email me, but I think it’s great to make the questions and answers public so others can benefit from them as well. I am not an expert, but I will give you my best answer based on my experience. 

XO, 
Miggy