Tag, You’re It! (part one)

How to Get Your Children’s Book Published
Step #1: Believe
Barb Rosenstock fielding questions from students during her presentation
Barb Rosen­stock field­ing ques­tions from stu­dents dur­ing her presentation

As a children’s author, I’m used to answer­ing an almost infi­nite num­ber of ques­tions that come up at school vis­its around the coun­try. A kinder­gart­ner could ask, How do you make all those books? or just want to share, I have a new dog! A sec­ond grad­er may won­der, How old are you? or Where do you get your ideas? And a mid­dle school­er might want to know, Do you get writer’s block? or What’s your best writ­ing tip? or Who is the most famous per­son you’ve ever met?  It’s a joy to share my writ­ing process while answer­ing your stu­dents’ many, many (so many!) dif­fer­ent questions.

Yet, in almost every school in every town and at every grade lev­el, teach­ers and librar­i­ans have approached me with the same shy con­fes­sion, I’ve writ­ten my own children’s book. And ask the same ques­tion, over and over again, How can I get my children’s book published? 

Now hon­est­ly, if you meet me in per­son, I’ll typ­i­cal­ly say some­thing like, it just requires per­se­ver­ance. I admit that’s not a real answer, but I’m caught between telling the truth and the time con­straints of the ten-minute break I typ­i­cal­ly have between pre­sen­ta­tions. It would take more time to cov­er the steps of pub­lish­ing a children’s book than most teach­ers have free in an entire school day (or maybe a week)! Like teach­ing, the busi­ness of pub­lish­ing is more com­plex than many peo­ple out­side of it under­stand. When I start­ed writ­ing over a decade ago, I cer­tain­ly had no idea how it all worked. But I feel that I owe the thou­sands of teach­ers, librar­i­ans and oth­er school staff I’ve met a real answer.

So, I’m going to use this space gra­cious­ly pro­vid­ed by the Bookol­o­gy staff for a series of arti­cles for edu­ca­tors explain­ing the basics of pub­lish­ing your own children’s book. There will be things you may already know, and things I bet you don’t. There will pos­si­ble tri­umphs and prob­a­ble pit­falls. And be fore­warned that I’m cer­tain­ly not the only source of infor­ma­tion about how to get start­ed in children’s pub­lish­ing. So, through­out this series I will be shar­ing books and web­sites from oth­er per­spec­tives to help you on your pub­lish­ing journey. 

No mat­ter which infor­ma­tion you find use­ful or what path you wind up tak­ing, here’s the most impor­tant thing you need to know — YOU CAN DO THIS!

You Can Do This!

It is entire­ly pos­si­ble for you to get a children’s book pub­lished. Hun­dreds of edu­ca­tors have become pro­fes­sion­al children’s writ­ers: Rick Rior­dan, Lin­da Sue Park, Eoin Colfer, Kate Mess­ner, Sami­ra Ahmed, and Andrew Clements to name a very few. The for­ev­er famous Bev­er­ly Cleary was a children’s librarian.

I also know you can do it because I did it — with­out know­ing any­one in the indus­try, with­out being the world’s most tal­ent­ed writer, or even a per­son who can use a com­ma cor­rect­ly. My own (though very brief) time in front of a class of sec­ond graders made all the dif­fer­ence in terms of get­ting my first children’s book accept­ed and a career started.

But it’s not just my opin­ion, here are six basic rea­sons why pub­lish­ers often buy man­u­scripts writ­ten by teach­ers or oth­ers who have expe­ri­ence work­ing with children:

  1. Teach­ers know which books work. They know what sto­ries kids like. They also have expe­ri­ence with par­ents, teach­ers, librar­i­ans, and oth­ers who influ­ence book buying.
  2. Teach­ers have typ­i­cal­ly had at least one class (some­times dozens!) in children’s lit­er­a­ture across gen­res — they know what good children’s lit­er­a­ture is, and why it’s impor­tant in the class­room and the home.
  3.  Teach­ers under­stand the cul­tur­al, racial, or gen­der diver­si­ty of chil­dren and the diver­si­ty of their indi­vid­ual read­ing tastes and learn­ing styles.
  4. Teach­ers are famil­iar with cur­rent vocab­u­lary and the spe­cif­ic slang of kids at spe­cif­ic ages and places. They know how real kids sound.
  5. Teach­ers know kids’ cur­rent inter­ests and they know the places kids spend a lot of time — school, home, clubs, music, sports, games, books, cyber­space, etc.
  6. Teach­ers know the prob­lems, tri­umphs, fail­ures, and real-life chal­lenges fac­ing today’s kids. They have a unique win­dow on kid-kid, kid-fam­i­ly, and kid-edu­ca­tor rela­tion­ships. They pos­sess a wealth of emo­tion­al sit­u­a­tions and mem­o­ries on which to build a story.

In a typ­i­cal day at a school, almost with­out think­ing about it, you have poten­tial book-inspir­ing expe­ri­ences that oth­ers who want to write for chil­dren will nev­er, ever have. You are exposed to chil­dren, liv­ing with your audi­ence, all day, most days. Your teach­ing can inform your writ­ing, your writ­ing will also inform your teach­ing. Each set of skills will make you bet­ter at the other.

Yet, though edu­ca­tors start giant steps ahead of oth­er non-teach­ing writ­ers, there is still tons of basic infor­ma­tion spe­cif­ic to the pub­lish­ing indus­try that it’s bet­ter to know ear­ly. In future arti­cles this space will cov­er top­ics like: types of children’s books, read­er ages and man­u­script length, pub­lish­ers and their per­son­nel, the process of book-mak­ing, the basics of sto­ry, how to sub­mit, and resources for more help. It might seem like a lot, but it’s all doable.

How­ev­er, the chal­lenge I’ve strug­gled with most (as most writ­ers do) is not only the hard­est, it’s also one you must teach your­self. You must learn to be con­fi­dent in your work — con­fi­dent enough to make time for it, con­fi­dent enough to allow it to change and grow, and con­fi­dent that you will be capa­ble of learn­ing at any age (I was 48) the skills to move for­ward in your writ­ing and pub­lish­ing jour­ney. So, here’s a few clas­sic books that I’ve found help­ful for inspir­ing me to write, while also encour­ag­ing the belief that pub­lish­ing is not just a dream, it is pos­si­ble if you put in the work. 

Art and Fear:
Obser­va­tions on the Per­ils (and Rewards) of Art­mak­ing
by David Bayles and Ted Orland

This is a book that “explores the way art gets made, the rea­sons it often does­n’t get made, and the nature of the dif­fi­cul­ties that cause so many artists to give up along the way.” This one is essen­tial read­ing for my anx­i­ety-rid­den brain.

Bird by Bird:
Some Instruc­tions on Writ­ing and Life

by Anne Lamott

This long time New York Times best­seller is “An essen­tial vol­ume for gen­er­a­tions of writ­ers young and old.” Lam­ott is fun­ny, ten­der, and bril­liant as always. Even old­er stu­dents may love this one.

The Artist’s Way
by Julia Cameron

For those of you who like a work­shop, this best­selling work­book will change your writ­ing as you “embark on a cre­ative jour­ney and find a deep­er con­nec­tion to process and pur­pose.” Dozens of insights, hun­dreds of exer­cis­es, a way of life as well as a book for any­one who wants to live more creatively.

Try to pick at least one of those books up at your local library or book­seller. Next time we’ll cov­er the phys­i­cal types and basic gen­res of children’s books, includ­ing age tar­gets, and word count. Note: What you know of children’s books as a teacher is dif­fer­ent from how pub­lish­ers see them as a prod­uct.  Until the next issue of Bookol­o­gy, put your butt in a chair and WRITE!

P.S. You can stand up or lie down too, I just like a com­fy chair … more soon. 

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