Breaking into the Children's Book Market
© Arden Davidson
A lot of people think writing for children is easy. They think all you have to do is come up with a cute little story, draw a few juvenile pictures, send it off to a publisher and become rich and famous. Those who have never tried it can be quick to assume that it's a simple art form, but those of us who are trying to break into children's publishing may appreciate better than anyone just how complicated a process it is.
Part of the difficulty results from the fact that those who make the decisions on which children's books are published are adults. The entire market relies on adults to "decide" what kids will like. Executives who are a decade or two removed in age from the audience for whom they are publishing books are making all of the decisions. They do market testing with children, of course. But just because a child chooses a book as his favorite out of the five that you've shown him doesn't mean he would actually buy it. He was picking the best out of five, not the best out of the entire plethora of children's manuscripts out there. A child's sense of humor and delight is quite different from an adults, and though a publisher or editor may try to see the book through a child's eyes, there is no substitute for a true child's opinion.
Someday I hope there will be a children's publishing company run solely by children. If that were to happen, I wouldn't be surprised if the quality, entertainment value and profitability of children's books quadrupled.
If I sound a little frustrated, I guess that's because I am. Every child, parent and teacher who has read my work has loved it, and every publisher and agent I've submitted to for the last 7 years has turned it down.
Of course, they say perseverance is the key to success, so I'm not anywhere near giving up yet.
If you want to see my writings, please visit http://members.aol.com/Bvsangl/pocket.ht...
Go To Page: 1
