How to get your picture book published

Lesson #3:Give your submission as much attention as your  manuscript.

Once you've edited your work and got some independent feedback (paid or otherwise), the next step is sending it off to agents and/or publishers with a well-polished query letter.  But which ones? And how?  
This is where you need to get hold of the latest copy of The Children's Writers' & Artists' Yearbook:

The Children's Writers' and Artists' Yearbook

Here you will find invaluable advice from professionals who know the industry inside out and back to front.  As well as contact details for every agent and publisher in this country and even some from overseas.  But which ones should you submit to, and how many?  Here's where you need to do some further investigation.  So, get your red pen out and start scribbling...

Narrow down which literary agents you're going to send your query letter to!

Even in the Children's Writers' & Artists' Yearbook there will be plenty of agents and publishers listed that do not accept picture book submissions, so don't waste your time, and theirs, submitting your work to them.  As you can see from the picture above, I put a big red cross through these.  If the listing wasn't clear then I put a question mark next to it, so that I knew I would have to check the website, to make sure.

From those that were left, I went through and narrowed it down to my top ten.  It can take over three months to hear back from each agent and longer from a publisher (if at all) so, if you send out the submissions one at a time, it could take years to get through them!  

Once you know who you are going to submit your work to, you need to make sure you do the following:

1.     Have a look at the agent’s website. READ THE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES CAREFULLY – each agent wants slightly different information. Tailor your submission to each one.  

2.     Do try to use the name of the agent you are submitting to, if you have one (don’t spell it wrong, they hate that).

3.     Open with a brief, one or two sentence, introduction to your story, including the word count.

4.     Then, in one or two paragraphs, provide a full synopsis of the story – you’re not writing the blurb on the back of the book jacket to get a potential customer to buy the book, you’re telling an agent what happens in the story, so they can decide whether or not it has potential.  If your synopsis has no ending, they may not think your story has one, either.

5.     Tell them whether or not you are supplying them with illustrations.  Unless you’re a professional illustrator, it’s not usual to do this – they would rather you submitted without them, you’re actually reducing your chances of being accepted if you do.  They may like the story, but not the accompanying illustrations or vice versa.  And only if they liked both (and thought that they complimented each other) would they accept your work.  I love chocolate and I love scrambled eggs, but I wouldn't like chocolate-coated scrambled eggs.  And, if the first time I came across them was in that combination, then I would be forgiven for thinking that I didn't like either.

6.     Include some information about yourself.  Not a lot.  Just enough to give them a sense of who you are.

7.     Don’t make any spelling or grammatical errors.  Agents and publishers get so many submissions they don’t need much of an excuse to bin yours and move onto the next one.

Then, when you've honed each individual query letter to perfection, send it off.  And try to forget about it.  Write something else.  Read something else.  Do that bit of DIY you've been meaning to do for ages.  Whatever it takes to stop you from obsessively checking your emails or rugby tackling the postman.  It’s out of your hands now.

**BEST OF LUCK**