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Sure, it’s aggravating. You work like the dickens on your manuscript, revise, re-write and revise again. You send it off to publishers and get a mailbox full of rejections. Meanwhile, some pop star or ballplayer gets a big money deal to write a children’s book without lifting a finger.

Well, that’s just the way of the world. No need to get down about it. Just get to work. Non-celebrities get book deals every day. Here’s how you can do the same.

Step 1: Master the Rules.

If you’re not famous, your manuscript or query letter takes the same route at a children’s book publisher as the rest of the non-celebrities. It gets dropped, as part of a huge pile, on the desk of an overworked, underpaid, editorial assistant (or a freelance reader). Her job is to sift through the pile of dross and find a few nuggets of gold, and then pass them on to an equally underpaid and overworked editor. The editor then reads through the smaller pile, pulls out the submissions that catch her eye, and brings them to an editorial meeting. If the overall consensus is “yes, this is a book we want to publish”, you’re on your way to partying it up with Madonna in the special “Children’s Writers’ VIP Lounge” at the Viper Room.

Buried in that timeline is some bad news, and some good news. First the bad news: The editorial assistant sifts out up to 95% of the submissions that arrive. In other words, the great majority of submissions to a publishing house never even make it in front of a person in a position to publish it. Why not? They may, of course, simply be terrible submissions, loaded with poor grammar, misspellings and hackneyed writing. They may be the clear work of amateurs, handwritten on lined paper with childish drawings. Or, and this is where there’s some hope, they may simply get turned down because they’re the less obvious work of amateurs.

More subtle things, like using single spacing rather that double spacing, or a manuscript whose word count is out of kilter with the “norm” is sometimes all it takes for an EA to say “Beginner”. Rejection.”

So here’s the good news: simply by picking up the specific, but not wildly arcane, rules of children’s publishing, you can leapfrog over the madding crowd. When an EA or reader sees a manuscript that comes from someone who clearly knows how it’s done, they’re far more likely to give it a fair reading, and far less squeamish about turning it over to the boss.

So how do you learn the rules? Visit http://cbiclubhouse.com and have a look at the resources available there.

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Step 2: Write to the Publisher’s Needs.

The problem with most aspiring children’s book writers is that they have a specific idea from which they won’t budge. To be frank, it’s usually a pretty dumb idea and, even if it’s halfway decent, chances are it’s been done many times already. Look, I know your dream is to write that book about the talking dish sponge and his sinkside pals, but put the dream on hold for a bit. The absolute best way to get published is to figure out what publishers want - and give it to them.

Here’s an example: Schools desperately need fiction and nonfiction books that integrate into curricula. Publishers, thus, are eager to provide said books, as schools are big and dependable customers who are likely to buy directly from the publisher, offering even a better profit margin.

And you’re response to this is..? Hopefully, it’s “Hey, I’m gonna write some books that tie in with school curricula!”

This is just one example - publishers have all sorts of often unglamorous niches they need filled. How to find out? Get their guidelines and catalog. Often, they’re quite explicit about their needs, other times you need to read between the lines of the catalog to figure it out. But the answer is usually there.

And, seriously, let’s see Denzel Washington try to write an exciting thriller about the passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.

Step 3: Learn to Write a Killer Query Letter.

Your query letter (used if you’re sending a few sample chapters of a longer manuscript) or cover letter (used to accompany and introduce a complete manuscript) is your chance to really earn the sale. Almost always, it’s a wasted opportunity filled with irrelevance (I’m the mother of three and I’ve always dreamed of writing a children’s book!), pleading (It would mean so much to me to see this book in print!) and ludicrous assertions (Everyone tells me I’m the next Dr. Seuss!).

A good query letter is basically this: a powerful sales letter meant to convince a publisher that it is in its best interests to publish your book. Essentially, you need to tell them that your manuscript fits their needs and will sell to their current market and will expand into new markets. Tell them, specifically, how you will be able to deliver readers (e.g. I have a weekly blog read by more than 30,000 parents and my website attracts 60,000 visitors a month) and how there is a defined need for your book and how you will reach the target customers (e.g. There are more than a half million foster children in America. These children, their foster parents and foster siblings need books like mine to help make sense of their situations. I will promote my book directly to them through organizations, conferences, newsletters and websites.)

To succeed in publishing, you have to strip away the romantic nonsense you’ve been brought up with and see things as they are. Children’s books aren’t published by magical elves. They’re published by business people (albeit, business people who, thankfully, often genuinely love the books they publish). Display to an editor that your book will be an artistic and financial success and you’re taking a big step in the right direction. For much more on writing a great query letter, go to http://www.write4kids.com/query.html To learn about a collection of actual query letters from children’s authors that you can use for models, go to http://www.write4kids.com/a2e.html.

Step 4: Write to an Existing, Underserved Market.

Sometimes the concept of writing to a publisher’s needs can be turned on its head. Perhaps there’s a sizeable, wonderful market that no one is serving and you can convince a publisher that its just the one to serve it. It could be anything - children of interracial marriage, girls who like jazz, boys who play piano, American kids who dig the game of rugby - if there are enough of them out there and are too few books for them to read, you may very well be introducing a publisher to a potentially lucrative market.

Do your research. Talk to trade associations, government experts, operators of websites that serve specific markets or anyone else who can give you some supporting backup on the size of your target group. Search Books in Print for already existing titles that target the group. Speak with librarians and booksellers to get their viewpoint on needs. And include it all in a great query letter.

Step 5: Listen to the Pros.

There’s no need to go it alone. Take the time (and spend a few bucks) to listen to others who have made the journey. Writing conferences, workshops (visit http://wemakewriters.com for an excellent one), books and newsletters (such as Children’s Book Insider — write4kids.com/aboutcbi.html) can dramatically increase your chances of getting published by helping you avoid typical mistakes and pitfalls. An eBook such as I Wish Someone Had Told Me That: 64 Successful Children’s Authors Give You the Advice They Wish Someone Had Given Them (http://write4kids.com/wishbook.html) is a great example of this sort of instruction. Pay heed to the voices of experience!

Laura Backes is the publisher of Children’s Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children’s Writers. For more information about how to write children’s books, including free articles, market tips, insider secrets and much more, visit Children’s Book Insider’s home on the web at http://write4kids.com and the CBI Clubhouse at http://cbiclubhouse.com

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When my boy Conor started school 5 years ago I imagined that we would go through the same process that we had done with my older daughter, enthusiasm and excitement of finishing her first book and ready for the next. She built her vocabulary knowledge as she went and with it an understanding of how stories began, developed and came to interesting conclusions and of course alongside this so to did her willingness to write her own imaginative stories which sometimes were very long repetitive ones!! I guess many of you recognise this as perfectly normal behaviour which of course it is. Being a teacher I was pleased with how Shannon was progressing into a confident reader.

Conor on the other hand was, as you say, another kettle of fish! Homereader sessions were torture, he would slump over his book at the mere request of having to open it, cry because he couldn’t blend the sounds together in the words in front of him or just guess wildly, by checking out the pictures. Conor was oh yes what I had experienced many times in my job a ‘reluctant reader!’ I tried coaxing, bribing, shouting, withdrawing toys, to no avail, we did move on a little each year but I new that he was set for problems later in school with reading and writing; anyway what he did like was listening to me read to him and the whole bedtime routine that you do! As he got older we discovered AUDIO BOOKS! What a fantastic invention and the saviour, I believe, to my child’s education.

They helped him to become involved in the books, experience them himself, develop his own ideas and imagination and indeed with this a fantastic range of vocabulary. When his year 3 teacher asked me to come in one evening after school it brought tears to my eyes as she showed me a piece he had composed in class, with her as scribe, the vocabulary was amazing and structure of the plot interesting and exciting. From constant failure in literacy he and I could both see a light at the end of the tunnel.

He is about to go into Year 5 now and yes I am worried a little because the physical task of writing is still a chore but at least he has the knowledge, understanding and vocabulary to develop these skills. Audio books saved my boy from a world without books and adventures and to all those parents out there who recognise the pain and torture of a reluctant child to reading, just give it a go, It’s a great way to get them to sleep on time too as they just drift off, with adventures to discover in dreamland!!

Checkout this website for iPod Books where you can Download Audio Books for a whole range of adventures

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