Crafting Secrets

You’ve always wanted to get a children’s book published. You’ve scribbled and “dibbled” and now you have what you believe is a finished manuscript.

You are among the ranks of writers who dream of writing a children’s book and getting it published. You believe that if you just keep sending your story out, it’s only a matter of time until an editor recognizes your talent and your story is accepted for publication.

That’s before the rejections start to pile up. Getting a kid’s book published, it turns out, it far from easy. You keep asking yourself what factors led to those rejection letters.

Picture the following scenario: you are sitting in a restaurant and you hear the woman at the next table talking about the publishing industry. As the minutes tick by, your realize that this woman is a successful children’s author and you lean in, while trying to make it appear you aren’t eavesdropping. You learn that she’s published 76 children’s books. You sit riveted, all ears now.

What you hear grabs your attention and gets you thinking about book publishing in a whole new light. You grab a pen so you can take careful notes.

The author reflects that it’s easy to get a children’s book published. “It’s easy” she continues, “once . . . you . . .  know . . . how.”

She says that many people have good ideas for stories but they simply do not know how to craft those ideas into publishable stories. She relates that most children’s book manuscripts, are, in fact, unpublishable.

You start wondering if you wasted your time sending your stories out. Were they really that bad?

The author says says that people receive publishing contracts, once they know how to give publishers exactly what they want. She says there is no magic formula, simply this one key truth. “So many people spend years studying writing, investing in expensive courses, attending writer’s workshops . . .”

As you continue jotting down notes, you hear her concluding remarks: “When people give publishers exactly what they want, this shaves years off the pre-publication period.”

You leave the restaurant, determined to learn what it takes to make a saleable children’s book.

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