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WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR
MANUSCRIPT I am a consultant for the critique company Adventures in Fiction http://www.adventuresinfiction.co.uk so if you have written a picture book or other young children's fiction and would like a detailed manuscript appraisal then please contact Adventures and ask for me to be your consultant. You'll get a comprehensive and honest report covering presentation, language, plot, characterisation, illustration (if applicable) as well as recommendations to help you get your story published.
also
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KNOWLEDGE Introductory price is £9.99. Email me here giving your your name and accurate email address so I can contact you with full details).
How to get your book published - short article An honest look at what to do (and what not to do) © Andrea Shavick * Note: this article is mostly about children's fiction & picture books but also has some hints and tips about adult fiction, non-fiction & self-publishing. Alternatively there are links to great writing books here INTRODUCTION
It isn't easy to get published - it took Jacqueline
Wilson over 20 years before she finally had a book accepted, Roald Dahl and JK
Rowling all had their work rejected by absolutely everyone, and Enid Blyton even
had to marry a publisher to get her books accepted! I'm not going to
suggest you do that. Not yet anyway! Number one - if you're serious about getting published,
either in book form or in magazines and newspapers you will need the most recent
copy of The Writer's and Artist's Yearbook. It
contains a comprehensive list of publishers and agents ( Here's a link so you can buy it from Amazon now: You'll need the latest copy (copies in libraries are
always out of date). If you're sure you only want to write for children
either buy Writer's and Artist as detailed above, or try The
Children's Writers and Artist. Here's a link to Amazon for this book: If you're in the MANUSCRIPT
SUBMISSION Make sure you send your ms (manuscript) to a publisher
who is interested in your type of book. In other words don’t send picture book
fiction to a publisher who only publishes non-fiction. If in doubt, ring and ask
for their catalogue or look at their website. This advice may seem blindingly
obvious but I can assure you every non-fiction publisher receives mountains of
picture books stories every week - and they all go in the bin. If you were them,
you'd do the same. When you send you ms out, present it professionally.
The books mentioned above give advice on this, and there are lots of websites to
help you too. I have a huge section in my new ebook to help you but the absolute
basics would be: -
Use a
font like Arial or Times New Roman 12 regular, double spaced -
Check spelling and punctuation
carefully. No mistakes! -
Put contact details on every single sheet of your ms. -
Send a
covering letter with your manuscript. Sum up the story in a few sentences and
say a little about yourself and your writing
history. DON'T say things like, "My children love it.” Be professional. -
Enclose
a SAE. If you don’t they will not reply. -
Put
the correct postage on the letter containing your ms. If it doesn't have
enough stamps, the publisher will NOT go and collect it from the Post
Office! WHAT
TO SEND If it’s a children's picture book story - send the
WHOLE text. Don't send three sentences. Don't say it's great, here's my
telephone number! Send the whole thing. For picture books DON'T send illustrations unless you are a professional illustrator For longer fiction you generally need to
send a synopsis and some example chapters LENGTH
OF TEXT Children’s picture books are usually 32 pages long
and the text is based around twelve double page spreads. That means you
turn the page 12 times. Get some picture books from the library to familiarise
yourself with the
format. This doesn't mean that you should send a 32 page dummy
book. Your ms should simply be printed on white A4 paper, double spaced. More
than one sheet can be stapled together. As for actual word count – for children’s picture
books aim for less than 600. If you can get it down to 300 you're a
genius! WHAT
DO PICTURE BOOK PUBLISHERS WANT? The million dollar question. They want stuff with child appeal, parent appeal
(remember the adult will read the book to the child), some
excitement and possibly a twist ending. They also have
to be easy to illustrate. And have a happy ending. OTHER
TIPS FOR PICTURE BOOKS -
Unless
you want a sack full of rejections, steer clear of witches, religion,
anti-religion, sexism, anything connected with your particular locality or
country, swear
words, local slang, racism, ageism, gender bias or sexism. When they say they
want 'edgy and different' they really mean play it safe. -
Avoid showing dangerous situations which a young child might copy,
for example flying (sorry
Peter Pan, you've been rejected). Other 'danger' items include fireworks,
balloons, candles, fire and all weapons. -
Don't
write anything scary unless your age group is over 10 -
Don't
bother with issue books ie 'Billy was a bully' as
they’ve all been done to death. -
Unless
you are a brilliant poet, don't rhyme. Rhyme does not translate. - Don't try to be funny. British humour does not translate to the rest of the world (nobody else understands sarcasm either). They don't like wacky either which is very unfortunate in my case as nearly all my picture books are wacky) -
If
you’re writing longer fiction or stories for older children and teenagers then
you don't need to worry so much about language or topic, or even international
appeal. Remember I am mostly talking about picture books for
2-5 year olds. HOW
TO GO ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING YOUR OWN BOOK Having said all that, I've done it very successfully
with Grandma was Eaten by a Shark! WHAT
ABOUT NON-FICTION? Are you an expert in any particular field? Is it
something people want to know about? Are you a teacher with any particular
educational interest? If you are, ring up non-fiction and/or
educational publishers to see what they need. Tip – many non-fiction publishers have submission
guidelines on their websites. Remember, with non-fiction you do not need to have
already written the book. Look at the submission guidelines and see what is
actually required before you do any writing. DO
YOU NEED AN AGENT? For picture books and non-fiction – not necessarily. For adult and teenage fiction – probably yes. WHY
PEOPLE GET REJECTIONS Don’t worry about rejections - even great writers get hundreds. Think of each one as being one step nearer your goal. If you get very upset every time you receive a rejection, your skin's not thick enough. Read my comments about Dahl and JK Rowling at the top of the page again. No one ever got their ms accepted first time. Except me (but that's another story). Also - just because your book is rejected doesn't mean it's no good. It might simply be wrong for that publisher. They might have something similar already. They might not have space on the list. They may not be able to think of a suitable illustrator. They might not think your book is commercial enough. Maybe the ‘reader’ was incapable of recognising brilliant writing when they saw it. Maybe they were too busy taking their cat to the vet. Who knows. Some rejections are very impersonal, others gush about how wonderful the story was, or how it made the entire editorial team fall off their chairs laughing.....but it's just not quite right for their list. Ho hum. I hate rejections like that. All rejections from publishers will be polite. On the other hand, rejections from agents will be downright rude. Don't worry - it's not personal. FINALLY Whatever you do keep writing.. If a publisher or agent likes your stuff, the first thing they’ll say is, "What else have you got." If you’re a one-book-writer they'll lose interest. Above all, do the following: 1. Send the manuscript. IT IS NO GOOD IN THE FILING CABINET. 2. Never send original illustrations, or your only copy of a text. 3. Don't write because you think authors make loads of money. IT'S NOT TRUE. Only write because you love writing. I hope this helps, good luck Andrea P.S. this article is copyright so if you'd like to use it for your magazine (or would like me to write you something longer/shorter etc) please email me to discuss it.
WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR
MANUSCRIPT I am a consultant for the critique company Adventures in Fiction http://www.adventuresinfiction.co.uk so if you have written a picture book or other young children's fiction and would like a detailed manuscript appraisal then please contact Adventures and ask for me to be your consultant. You'll get a comprehensive and honest report covering presentation, language, plot, characterisation, illustration (if applicable) as well as recommendations to help you get your story published. FOR COMPREHENSIVE INSIDER
KNOWLEDGE Introductory price is £9.99. Email me here giving your your name and accurate email address so I can contact you with full details).
Here are some of the recommended book links to buy from Amazon again - more ideas for interesting websites to visit if you're a writer on the Writing Link page here.
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