Female Speaker: Hi everybody! It's Jon Bard, Managing Editor, Children's Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children's Writers and Fighting Bookworm in Chief at The CBI Clubhouse, which is the community just for children book writers. At CBI Clubhouse, you will find lots of articles, of course, our famous Newsletter Children's Book Insider, videos, updates about where editors are, opportunities to get published, and entire free writing course called the CBI challenge, interviews with hot authors like Kaleb Nation, Laura Rennert and much, much, much, much more. So head on by CBI Clubhouse and check it out.
Today, how to find the right publisher for your book?
Editors always plead with authors to research the market before submitting manuscripts. This makes sense. It cuts out the number of inappropriate submissions an editor might receive and presumably, will lower the chance of a manuscript getting rejected. But how exactly does one research a market that produces thousands of new products every year?
We suggest a systematic three part approach which works for books and magazine publishers. Involve studying a publisher's overall list, individual books or magazine issues and their writer guidelines. It doesn't really matter which part you do first as long as you cover all three.
Overall lists: Book publishers have two lists; spring and fall. A magazine's list is comprised of years worth of issues. So get a sense of what each publisher does, read industry newsletter such as our own Children's Book Insider, attend writers conferences and consult Children's Writers and Illustrators Market , the directory, published annually by Reader's Digest books. Note which publisher cater to the audience for whom you want to write. Both in age group and subject matter. Send for those publishers catalogs typically free for 9"X12" self address stamped envelop , with 2-4 first class stamps. Bigger publishers mean bigger catalogs. So always put some extra stamps in if it's a larger publisher.
Now many of these catalogs are also available in PDF format by visiting the websites. So if you don't mind looking at something online or print to get of, check out the websites first before you send away for the catalog. For magazines, take a look online or pick up the most recent issue and study back issues at the library.
Now what if you receive several catalogs from large publishers and they seem to look the same? Then it's time to read the fine print and find the differences. Does Harper Collin seem to have an abundance of fiction picture books for ages five to eight? Then they might not be buying much this age group for the next couple of years. Has another publisher just debut a line of non-fiction chapter books? Perhaps your chapter book on Wells is exactly what they need. Do certain publishing giants tend to repackage classics from known authors rather than books from new authors? Pick another publisher who is not afraid to feature new talent. Narrow down your number of potential markets.
Individual books or magazine issues: Go to a bookstore or a library, actually hold books from your potential publishers in your hands. Look at the vocabulary and sentence structure. The style of writing. The pacing of picture book stories. For magazines, note length and subject matter of fiction and the slants on non-fiction topics. If you don't want your book to be just like someone else's , it must fit in with the overall taste of the editors from each company and the general tone of a publisher's list. Narrow down your markets one more time.
Writers' Guidelines: Lots of writers' guidelines are available online as publishers' websites or again you could send a self-addressed stamped envelop to each publisher asking for these guidelines. Follow the submission procedures in the guidelines exactly. If you submit a manuscript or query letter, more than a month after receiving guidelines, call the publisher to verify that they are still open to submissions. A month can sometimes be an eternity in the publishing world.
Once your manuscript is in the mail, try to put it out of your mind, start writing something else and be assure that all your research means your work is most likely headed to where it will be early wait. Again for much more information about writing children's books, come and visit us and hang with the Fighting Bookworm at the CBI Clubhouse, we are CBIClubhouse.com, we are looking forward to seeing you there. Until next time, this is Jon Bard, reminding you keep writing.
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