Description

Learn how to win over an editor at a children's book publisher.

Transcript

cbiclubhouse.com Jon Bard: Hi, everybody I'm Jon Bard, Managing Editor of Children's Book Insider, The Newsletter for Children's Writers. The Fightin' Bookworming Chief at The CBI Clubhouse, the community for children's book writers, it is packed with information, video, audio, articles, a step by step writing course called the CBI Challenge and of course our great newsletter children's book insider. It's all over at cbiclubhouse.com, come on over and hang with the Fightin' Bookworms. Today, three steps to avoiding rejection letters. Every time an editor opens an unsolicited submission, she is hoping she'll find a new undiscovered talent. But because of the volume of books being published has dropped in recent years each book carries more weight for the publisher. And fiction by new authors in particular must be of the highest quality to compete with the novelizations of movies and TV shows crowding the shelves and picture books based on familiar, popular and licensed characters. When you're revising your work and sending it out try to think like an editor. As you attend conferences or read books on publishing, compile a list of don't's that will get your manuscript routed immediately to the rejection pile. Here are a few to get you start. Avoid unprofessional presentation. A cover or query letter that shows the writer clearly doesn't understand the different age categories of children's books tells the editor she doesn't have to read any further. By simply studying recently published books written for the same age group as your work, you can learn many of the basic rules. We also have the rules in black and white right on the CBI Clubhouse. Sloppy queries and those that explain the writer's motivation for creating the work instead of summarizing the work itself or submitting five manuscript at once are all turn offs to an editor. Avoid week openings, write a strong opening. The first paragraph of your book needs to grab the editor and insist that she keep reading. The opening page should introduce your main character establish the setting and time period, push the action forward, include the reader into a hook of the story, that is something that makes your book different. To learn how to craft strong openings ask your librarian for award lists, especially those awards voted by children. And read the first paragraph of each of the winners. Note how much information you get from the small amount of text. Also note whether you wanted to keep reading and why. Try not to have a lack of vision. Editors often tell us that they look for stories that make them ask what if. In other words, they want to identify so strongly with the characters that they'll wonder what it would be like to live their lives. Fully developed characters coupled with a unique way of approaching an idea results in a book with vision. The author does more than tell a story, he transports the reader to another place and asks the reader to look at the world in a new way. It's often clear to an editor from the query letter whether the editor has vision or has written the kind of book children "Should read" or "Need to read". In the end, what distinguishes a manuscript from the hundreds of others in the slush pile is the writer's passion. If the writer positions himself as bestowing a story upon children or imparting wisdom from a distant adult perspective, the book will fail. However, if the author is so enthralled with the characters caught up in the plot, then the experience is shared with the reader and the manuscript will shine, and editors will notice. For more tips and tricks, visit us at The CBI Clubhouse for a much, much more about the art and craft and business of writing children's books. Until next time this is Jon Bard, reminding you keep writing. Learn more tips and tricks: Visit The CBI Clubhouse (cbiclubhouse.com) for much more information about writing children's books!