“I have an idea for a children’s book”

Adam Koford | February 14th, 2008

This week’s discussion of Pixish has reminded me of a tip I’ve been meaning to share. Are you ever faced with the awkward situation of a friend (or friend of a friend) wanting you to work on their idea for a children’s book, with the promise of “exposure” or some sort of profit-sharing in the future? How do you say no (and you should) without ruining your relationship?

Idiot's GuideI have a solution, and it comes in book form. Whenever I’m faced with this scenario (which is at least twice a year), I first stipulate that they will need to read The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books* first. It breaks down the realities of the industry on several levels: how to submit manuscripts (publishers never want to see unsolicited manuscripts with art**), how artists are chosen for books slated to be published (artists are rarely chosen by the author), and, if your friend is tenacious, what to expect if you want to self publish your book, including the revolutionary idea of paying an artist a competitive rate for their time and effort.

In my experience, recommending this book has two results: they pursue another route, not to be bothered by reading a book about the industry they supposedly want to break into, or they actually read it and learn the realities of their goal.

What do you do in this situation? Feel free to post your tips in the comments.

* Though I really hate that title. No one wants to be told to read a book for idiots.
** It’s also a great resource for writers who want to illustrate their own stories.

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  • Haha! What a great post. Great answer to a common problem.
  • Yeah, that is a surprisingly common problem. Usually "who do you have lined up as a publisher?" is enough to stop my friends / family members / co-workers / new BFFs etc.

    If it does go any farther than that, noting that the publisher will want to match up authors and illustrators seems to work.

    If they say they're thinking of self-publishing, I put together a proposal, with an advance and payment schedule that would make it worthwhile even if they never sold a copy, and a reasonable royalty fee. I have one proposal for a project like that hanging out there, but that one actually has a pretty good chance of happening.
  • I've found that the most effective response is, "Let me see your manuscript and I'll tell you if it is something I'd be interested in doing." Of course the manuscript never materializes.
  • Good post indeed! I've started having this sort of thing happen - friends of my parents, friends of friends who i've met in the pub, friends of my cat, all asking me to look at their ideas. When i ask them to give me the manuscript, I have actually had some of them appear, surprisingly.

    I know how hard going it is getting a book published, but you're absolutely right to suggest reading a book like that and opening them up to the reality of publishing.
  • frickinmuck
    I love this post. and I love the "show me your manuscript" tip, too. *hah!*

    I've had the children's book thing, as well as many requests to turn short stories into graphic novels. *sigh*

    it's very akin to the attitude that I've encountered as a web designer - people frequently come to me with a Really Big Idea For A Wildly Successful Web Project. "with my idea and your web skills, we'll be a guaranteed success!" yeah, right - what exactly are you bringing to the table?
  • this is a great idea. i'll use it.

    until now, i got out of these offers by saying how flattered i am but i have my own children's books to work on and limited time to do them.

    on the single occasion when someone actually had their manuscript written, the story wasn't even a story yet. it was just a series of unrelated epiphanies that the protagonist had about life. i gave that author, my cousin, brutally honest feedback. i intended the criticism to be helpful but it scared her away from children's books entirely; i don't think she expected her work to be scrutinized.
  • I see a lot of these sort of requests on Craigslist. The ones that get me the most are the 100+ page graphic novels that people want illustrated for nothing whatsoever up front, and no real prospects for publication.

    It does seem like everyone's sitting on a children's book idea. It requires a minimum of commitment, just shy of bad poetry. I've never really found it hard to say "no". As mentioned by someone earlier, it's enough to say you're busy working on your own projects, which I find it hard enough to commit to.

    Maybe I have this wrong, but I always thought that an acceptable children's book proposal by an author/illustrator could include a dummy of the book, with one or two finished illustrations, while a proposal by an author exclusively, should only consist of written text. I suppose could probably stand to read that Idiot's guide.

    My only experience in this area, was a book I submitted in my 20s with completed pen and ink illustrations (godawful ones). I did get one of my manuscripts returned with a generous and encouraging post-it note attached, probably by one of their readers who fished it out of the slush pile.

    There's always the hope that some day it will all come together...
  • I don't think there's anything wrong as a writer/illustrator submitting dummy spreads and words. Editors like to take a firm hold of the content, however. I've been working on a picture book for a while with a publisher, and you do find it gets ripped apart then built up - much like that art college ethos tutors seem to have. Still it's better now than it ever was, so I'm quite grateful!

    I think whatever you submit you have to be prepared for changes. It's just a real achievement to get something ready to be submitted in the first place!
  • supersalad
    My friend who is working as the Illustrator on the unsolicitated series of childrens books we've worked on for a year kindly forwarded this link to me. Ouch. I suppose I will track the book down, although I regret breaking my vow never to buy a book that calls me an idiot while I pay for it. (Mistress Kiki would be upset with the competition)
    So..what do you do when you have manuscripts and pieces of art already? We currently have scripts and sketches of art. I want, if an opportunity arises for publication (a vague, murky distant state) for my artist friend to use the opportunity as well. How can I use the sketches he's already done as a way for him to get attention, should the manuscript recieve some?
    While I've published in magazines and newspapers and the weeklies, I have not published a Book.
    But in my defense, I teach pre-school, and the stories we have been working on are some that I have been telling and revising hundreds of times over the last 6 years. They are fairly well focus-grouped.
    Thoughts?
    jon
  • I'm sure it's perfectly OK (at least here in the UK) to submit a manuscript with illustrations, especially as a dummy with some samples finished already. Surely the whole point about picture books is that the illustrations and words augment one another. I sent one out like this and eventually a publisher took it. No-one complained about receiving it in dummy form but it's right to expect that they'll want to change words or illustrations... especially to suit an 'international' readership to bring print costs down. What I get now is loads of people telling me 'great' ideas for a children's book, usually involving their cat.
  • cdkingart
    I'm supersalad's artist friend. We are working on the project together. Supersalad's ideas are great, we're old friends, and we'd really like to work together. Is there anything we can do to keep my illustrations with his stories?
  • clairebcotts
    oh man, don't get me started....
    my biggest peeve - the craigslist ad, "illustrate my kid's book/graphic novel, we'll split the royalties."
    or the phrase "...it should be pretty easy".

    I've illustrated several books, the publisher's don't want a manuscript bundled with artwork, and they don't want finished artwork. I always feal bad for those people who take up these offers, in the hope of getting published.

    One great resource, harold underdown, who wrote the book you mentioned, has a great website, a lot of very good info and links.
    http://www.underdown.org/
  • There is a section in the book for artists who write and, if I remember correctly, it's still standard to submit a dummy or sample illustrations if you want to illustrate your story. Publishers usually have general guidelines listed on their individual sites.
    Cdkingart and Supersalad, again my advice is to read the book. You can also ask around on some of the online communities that focus on childrens publishing. I certainly don't want to rain on your parade, and there is always the self publishing route.
  • Steven W. Taylor
    It has always been my practice to give anyone who asks me to work on their children's book
    one of those "What're ya,...crazy?" looks. If they persist I very succinctly tell them that I don't work for free and I don't do work on spec. I'm always running into people who seem to have the idea or the attitude that art is something that happens magically and instantly. What are they,...crazy?
  • supersalad
    When I tell people I am a teacher, even before I mention that I write children's stories, I hear the great ideas they have for children's books. As someone who reads to children every day, it pains me to hear these stories that would cause a class of 3 year olds to almost immediately get bored and start poking each other or take off their shoes and smack their friends on the back of the head with them. It is a very small group of books that my kids will call to have read to them again as soon as I'm done the first time. And these books are by authors who have been in the game a long time.
    Everyone's stories are always very hippie-ish, with long boring morals learned by extra-special kids. My class would riot if I tried to force such treacle on them. I used to joke that the ultimate girl-hippie tattoo would be a dolphin riding a unicorn jumping over a rainbow, and at a party once, a girl told me her idea for a children's book so amazingly similiar I almost had a hernia trying not to laugh. Although truthfully, Dolphin Riding a Unicorn Jumping Over A Rainbow is an awesome band name. (I have to go register that domain name now, bye)
  • Any time I have leafed through a book like this, I've found them to be as laughable as they are inaccurate. Anybody wishing to write or illustrate children's books should be reading them voraciously -- not referring to a book like this in hopes that it contains some secret code that can be easily unlocked which will lead to seeing your children's books easily published. It takes work -- hard work -- and considerable insight into the business of children's literature to break into this very specific niche.
  • With all due respect, Mr. Staake (and it's a lot), how do you say no when someone approaches you with "the next big thing"? The point of my post is that if someone (specifically an author who thinks they need an artist to pitch a manuscript) is serious about their story being published, the very least they can do it research the market, and move on from there. I don't mean to imply this book is the end all be all, but it certainly gives novices a realistic view of the actual process and work required.
    --edit--
    Also, there's nothing about the actual writing of a children's book in this guide. It doesn't purport to have a magic formula or anything like that. It's more about the market than anything else. But enough out of me.
  • adam:
    i can't tell you how often I am approached by absolute STRANGERS to illustrate their "books" (usually quadruple-spaced gibberish banged on on two sheets of butcher paper). my friends and FAMILY know to steer clear of me, but the STRANGERS, they seem to have no qualms whatsoever about emailing and saying "I've written this amazing children's book story -- and I'd like you to illustrate it". The first question is obvious: "Who's your publisher?" -- and they invariably say that they don't have one -- and have never had a thing published in their lives. ANYONE who approaches you, me or the next chump with that sort of brazen (and delusional) chutzpah isn't going to read a book on children's publishing, ought have ALREADY read 50 books on children's publishing, and should really be slipping back into their straight jacket and cuddling up against the southern wall of their padded cell. ah, but the world needs dreamers -- or idiots -- or both.
    bs
  • Author Wendy McClure works in the industry and did a great blog post and children's book publishing:
    http://www.poundy.com/2007/11/11/five-things-i-...
  • Also, good to ask, "Do you read children's books? What are your favorites?" If they can't answer or answer with books from 20 years ago... not gonna work.
    But my favorite, "You want to do this as a career or a hobby?

    -Andy
  • How refreshing to read about this common problem. I don't know why people think ANYONE can write a children's book. All the manuscripts I end up reading are so awful - cloyingly sentimental, poorly written or painfully un-clever in their attempts at cleverness. The worst thing about these proposals is that they usually come from the nicest people in the world. That makes it so hard to turn them down. But regardless of what so many people here from all the pop-psychology mumbo jumbo out there, it takes so much more than effort, a positive attitude and a go-get-em spirit. It takes talent - not tenacity - to create a great book. Hard to believe with all the crap that actually does get published.
  • Adam, thanks for the mention of my book and your response to the poster who hadn't read it. As you said, my intention in writing the book, which draws on my experience as a children's book editor, was not to reveal "secrets" but instead to lay out the realities of the business. It's meant to be different from those other books, and I think it is. I also tried to include information that would be useful to beginners AND to those already published.

    A revised third edition will be out in a few months.
  • I can't believe no one has mentioned this yet so I will: you can also send these people to the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators: scbwi.org. At least by sending them along to a central information source you're not just stiff-arming them.

    There's a great blog called Editorial Anonymous that's also a must-read for newbies: not only for the excellent submissions advice but to give them a sense of how much editorial resistance they should expect on publishers' parts.

    I do kids' books pretty much full time so this issue crops up for me pretty frequently. I always add when putting people off that if they really like my work they're free to suggest it to the editors once the manuscript is accepted. 'Cause you never know... their idea might actually end up being brilliant.
  • My favourite job offer was the guy who said to me that he taught a course in how to write a book in a week, and that anyone could do it. Using his teaching techniques, he had encouraged his six-year-old son to write a children's book, and wanted me to illustrate it. I gave him my price and that was the last I heard from him.

    When I am approached by people who want me to illustrate a story they have written, I just say that my policy is to not illustrate self-published picture books. Children's publishing is an extremely competitive business, and I tell it straight to these people that they would be doing themselves a disservice to either self-publish, or to send a manuscript to a publisher already illustrated. Publishers and editors want to pick their own artists. Yes, there are some occasions in which an artist can send in a story already illustrated, but in that case it's usually an artist who is already established in the field of illustration.

    If the struggling author is Canadian, I direct them to places like The Canadian Children's Book Centre or the Canadian Society of Children's Author's Illustrators and Performers. I also recommend the book the 'Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market', which is an excellent resource.

    Bob Staake is right. If you're really serious about getting into writing books for kids, you should be reading them on a regular basis. Writing for kids is not for the faint of heart. It's damn hard work.
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