HOW TO GET NOTICED BY A CHILDREN'S PUBLISHER | what to send to a publisher

some time ago you had a cracking idea for a book you spent ages writing and crafting your story and now it's sitting at home on a shelf sound familiar [Applause] you might feel that you have absolutely no idea what to do next i know i've totally been there i've had manuscripts dummy books and book ideas floundering on bookshelves for ages before i've done anything with them in this video i will tell you the best way to send them out to publishers although this is a really creative process you really have to go at it like it's a business idea imagine that you have designed a new product and you want to showcase it to a big business you have to think about how you're going to approach it if you already have experience in running a business then you need to draw on those skills publishers get lots of submissions i mean lots of submissions so you have to do a bit of homework to get seen they have something which is revoltingly called the slush pile that's the ever-growing pile of unsolicited book ideas that have been sent by authors that they really don't have time to read you might get a letter back with words saying to the effect thank you but we don't really feel this is right for our list don't take offense it's just that they literally don't have enough time or enough staff to read every single idea that comes through their door or via email if you're not so lucky then you might get nothing back from them at all and you'll wonder for the rest of your lives whether it actually arrived at their door so what can you do to make sure that you don't end up on the pile of doom firstly make sure that you do your homework if you have written a picture book don't send it to a publisher that only releases romance novels niche down to use a phrase that i keep hearing everywhere at the moment that is find a publisher that publishes books that are like your idea but not exactly the same as your idea if they already have a series about a sarcastic snail then they're not going to want to publish another book exactly like that idea from another author what you're looking for is a gap that you can fill and when we're talking about children's books there are even more niches some publishers only publish picture books some only publish chapter books some only publish young adult make sure that you look at the individual websites to find out exactly what it is that they are publishing if you're in the uk you should get hold of a copy of the writers and artists yearbook or the children's version the children's writers and artists yearbook they come out every year and they're updated with new information in them when i first started out i was buying one every single year they're laced with really good advice as well you also need to look at the website and check out the submission guidelines for each individual publisher first of all you need to find out if they are accepting any submissions at all and if so do they accept unsolicited manuscripts and unsolicited means that it's submitted by an author rather than an agent by the way publishers call all of these book ideas manuscripts whether they're picture books or romance or novels of any description or even non-fiction agents are a filter for the publishers and will send them manuscripts that they think have half a chance with that publisher sorted you might be thinking i'll just get myself an agent more about that later however if you already have an agent you have a better chance of being pointed in the right direction and sent to the right publisher but if you don't then make sure that you read the publisher's submission guide really carefully it will tell you what they expect what format it should be in how to send it what to send and who to send it to if there are no specific formatting guidelines make sure you use an easy to read typeface that's around 12 point in size and that you have spacing of 1.5 to 2 between lines you just have to think is this easy to read you might have written the next potential blockbuster but if no one has the patience to read it because of your formatting then this is a bit of a problem and make sure that you know who to send it to do they want a one-page synopsis first chapter all of it if it's a picture book then they're likely to want to see the whole dummy book but if it's a longer story then they might want to see say the first three chapters you should make sure that your product remember this is a business is the absolute best that you could possibly get it that means it's been edited and proofread that has been formatted in an easy to read manner and that it's presented really professionally consider hiring an editing service that will get rid of any of those rogue spelling punctuation grammar mistakes and they will also highlight any massive plot holes if you happen to have any this will ensure that your manuscript is really well polished but also don't forget it doesn't want to have any crumbs on it or coffee marks or sticky fingerprints you'll need a covering letter that is tailored to that individual publisher make sure you know the editor's name either look it up on the website or get the phone number give them a call and say who should i send this to and make sure when you've got their name that you've got the absolute correct spelling for it in your covering letter you need to explain to them why you want them to take time to read your story you could draw comparisons with other books that they have already published and why yours would complement that keep it simple though a paragraph about you a paragraph about your book and a few of the other essential details be polite confident but not cocky so the letter needs to be concise but also includes some really important information about your book that is its title and age range its genre its word count and that has an enticing hook you want the editor to feel sufficiently curious to want to read the synopsis whatever you do do not send them a template letter the publisher doesn't want to feel like they've been shortlisted into a group of lots of other possibilities that you have been considering unless that is you are a super famous already blockbuster author then feel free to take your pick have you ever written a synopsis now is the time to learn how to write one you'll need the title the genre like adventure fantasy or the age group you're writing for your pitch line or your hook the key question that drives the story forward maybe a quote from the book cover your plot in its simplest terms your protagonist's name and perhaps their motivation setting the where and the when things that you do not need are praise for yourself cramming in too much chapter breakdowns and including too much information about the plot and cheesy sales language for more details on how to write a synopsis just google it there is so much information out there and that's exactly how i started when i first wrote my very first synopsis next you need to think about creating a spreadsheet of publishers that you are going to send your work out to which company is it who is the editor who else do they publish what is the age range and the genre then as you send your manuscripts out keep a note of when you sent it and then if you get a response back this just helps you keep track of everything the last thing that you want or frankly the publisher wants is for you to keep sending out the same thing to the same person if you think that getting an agent is the answer to all your prayers i'm afraid it's just not as easy as that i've had a couple of agents in the past and to be honest it didn't really work out that brilliantly for me it also can be quite difficult to get an agent because the top-notch agents who've got all the brilliant connections are usually representing the top-notch authors and are not taking on new authors however if you really feel that this would be a good path for you and you would like to look for an agent then the things that i've talked about so far with publishers also apply to agents do your homework make sure that they're looking for new authors to represent do they work in the same genre and the same sort of niche as you do send them a letter that outlines the sort of stories that you're currently writing maybe add a synopsis or a dummy book or possibly a couple of chapters have a look on the internet see if they've got a website and see if they also have submission guidelines you might wonder if you need to get copyright before you send your idea out to anybody i should say that i'm not a lawyer i mean look at me just in case you were wondering and i'm only going on copyright as i understand it it's a very complicated set of laws that differ from country to country so i would suggest that you get proper advice if you think you really need it however i've always understood that if you create something then the copyright is automatically yours it's just a question of trying to prove that if you ever have to in a court of law and also proving when you wrote it or when you made it if it was a piece of artwork any decent publisher would not steal your ideas to pass on to someone else you can think of them as dealing with the paperwork of the project if they really like it then they're going to be in contact with you to bash out a deal and then the copyright issue will be down to them to secure i was taught of a very old school thing to do and it can work as a sort of insurance policy and it's dead easy to do print off your manuscript or dummy book seal it in an envelope sign across the envelope flap and put a bit of sellotape over the top of it write your name and address on the front and in the top corner the title of the book then take it to the post office and send it to yourself when you get it back make sure you don't open it but put it somewhere for safe keeping you'll have a dated sealed envelope with your signature under a piece of tape and your manuscript inside you can then prove that you have that idea on that particular date because it's date stamped by the postal service i'd just like to say a big thank you to chrissy medina publishing who gave me lots of good ideas for this video and i hope this has given you lots of really good ideas too sending your book away to a publisher is one way of doing it but it's not the only way if you want to have a look at my course on self-publishing then i'll link it in the description box below good luck with your project your manuscript might be the one that lands on the right desk at the right time and before you know it you're a published author it does happen if you'd like further artist tutorials i have a variety of short courses that will help you there are real time sessions looking at painting drawing and marker pens among others and if you're keen on producing your own book there is a more in-depth course on what you need to know about self-publishing a book with illustrations and that covers making key decisions how to make layouts and dummy books rhythm and pacing as well as several tutorials on illustrating your book and a look at the tech you can either hop over to my website or join me on patreon for more information go on give it a go next week i'll be showing you how to draw someone who's running it can be tricky to get that idea of movement into your work so join me for that it will be enlightening but not necessarily in a spiritual sense until then i'm off to google a gorilla i will see you next time

Channel: Jules Marriner

Views: 30,580

Keywords: how to get noticed by childrens publisher, tips get noticed by publisher, what to send to childrens publisher, what to do with my childrens book next, what to do with my picture book next, what do i do with my kids book next, how does my childrens book get seen, i don't know what to do with my childrens book next, what are publisher submission policy hints, tips send picture book to publishers, tips send book idea to publishers, how to get noticed by publisher

Id: tlTV1kta3Zc

Length: 12min 57sec (777 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 05 2021