First and foremost, the story has to be in a near-perfect state. This means the plot is tightly woven, the characters are real, and the punctuation and grammar are correct.
These are absolute prerequisites before submitting a story to a publisher.
Secondly, the writer must have a strong belief in self to persevere the long and bumpy road to getting published.
My first book, Sir Princess Petra – The Pen Pieyu Adventures, (a fantasy/adventure kids book), took 9 years of perseverance to find a home with a publisher. Below are my suggestions and insights on how I got there..
If you are just beginning the process, or if you are years into the process, remember to do your research.
As a children’s book writer, one of the most invaluable tools that I resort to is the book “Children’s Writers Book Markets”, which is produced every years. The updates in this book, as to which publishers are accepting, what they are accepting, send query or send the pdf for review, simultaneous submissions or exclusive submission, the list goes on, will become your best buddy in getting to know and understand the publishing industry.
But one thing that stays the same, the publisher guidelines must be followed.
The nature of the publishing game is that publishers have all the rules. And if you want your story to get out of the publisher’s slush pile, you must follow their rules.
To just read the “Children’s Writers Book Market” is still not enough. You must visit the publishers web-site, see what kind of books that have been published and decide if yours would fit in. If it does, write them a query letter with a synopsis of you book. Send a SASE (self address stamped envelope) for their reply. And, if they ask to see the book and want an exclusive submission, don’t sent the book elsewhere. Then wait 6 – 8 months for a reply.
In the meantime, don’t sit idle. More research, more queries. Query letters to other publishers can still be sent, even if a different publisher is reviewing your book on a exclusive submission.
Make a list of possible publisher to send our queries to. Make a list of publishers that accept manuscripts without a query and what kind of submission that publisher wants.
But make the list and keep track of where your manuscript is. This all becomes very confusing in no time. You need to keep a log of what was sent, where, and to whom.
I know. It’s a lot of rules.
For all of the 9 years that I was trying to find a publisher, my manuscript was constantly somewhere. I received 30 rejections for this book. Talk about perseverance.
A writer trying to get published has to have thick skin. Rejections are not necessarily about you as a writer, sometimes, rejections are about the immense choice a publisher has in manuscripts sent in that year. Some publishers receive upward of 10,000 manuscripts for review in a single year.
So, back to the research. Did I want to send my manuscript to a publisher that receives that many submissions? I usually tried to stay away from these large publishing houses. Being a first time author, I knew my chances would be less with these large publishing houses. I submitted to publishers that had a record for publishing the majority of their books with new authors. These facts are all in “Children’s Writers Book Market”.
So, just when I thought I knew what I was doing.
My first contract was with a traditional small press that did 70% of their yearly books by new authors. The contract was signed by both parties involved; the publisher held my book for one year, which was their time period to produce the book; the publisher never came through. Things happen in this industry. After the one year time line the publisher had to produce the book, the publisher informed me they were having financial difficulties and would not be producing the book after all. Twenty-six writers contracted with them received the same news.
Devastating.
Back to the drawing board.
After more market research, I submitted to three other publishers on my list that all accepted simultaneous submissions. Several months later, I was contacted by one of these publishers–they wanted to give me a contract.
.Ode To Joy!
The home my first book finally found was not where I expected it to be. This second contract was with a much larger publisher that publishes less than 10% of the 10,000 plus submissions it receives yearly.
So after all of the years of my submissions to small publishers, thinking that is where my best chances were, I finally got accepted by a large publisher.
My advice–send your queries and/or manuscript to every publisher, big or small, as long as your book meets with their guidelines.
An interesting fact: Dr. Seuss received 27 rejections for his book entitled “Mulberry Street:” before it got accepted for publication.
This fact is a reality for many authors. Patients, perseverance, and shaking off the dust of another rejection is the road the writer must take on the journey to finding home.
Sir Princess Petra – The Pen Pieyu Adventures, 2012, Available here:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sir-princess-petra-diane-mae-robinson/1107150083?ean=9781613462645
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B007DKO8SK
http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61346-264-5
Sir Princess Petra’s Talent – The Pen Pieyu Adventures, forthcoming, 2013
