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Move to the Write

The Fickleness of Picture Book Publishing

7/18/2015

25 Comments

 
Recently, a picture book text writer asked me why it is that picture book manuscripts are so difficult to sell to publishers. It's a common question---one I've been asked several times before. The confusion about this is real, guys. So I thought, dear readers, that I might share some of those reasons with you here in case we have in our midst any aspiring picture book authors.          
 
I was going to start this next paragraph thusly: "The main reason picture book manuscripts are so difficult to sell to publishers is..." and then tell you the number one reason. But no, there are several reasons and they all carry equal weight. So let's just look them all (or some, at least).

1) Probably close to eighty-five per cent of the submissions we receive in the children's division of Fitzhenry and Whiteside are for picture book texts. Why? Well, I can't be sure, but I have a hunch that it's because many new authors who do not yet feel ready to tackle writing a whole novel assume that writing a picture book will be easier. After all, picture books are short, the language in them is simple, and they're fun. The images in the book can tell parts of the story or at the very least enhance the words, meaning the writer can be a bit vague---remain on the surface. Kids are easy to please, it's the parents you need to impress since they will be the ones forking out the dough to buy the book, so if you can get a lesson in there somehow that parents will appreciate, writing a picture book should be simple. That's the assumption. But guess what...

That assumption is dead wrong. Picture book text is exceedingly difficult to write, and kids tend to hate blatant lessons.
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2) If you look on your own bookshelf, or that of your picture-book-reading-aged kids, how many books do you see that you yourself read as a youngster? Your favourites, the classics? Is Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon there? Did you know that Goodnight Moon was first published in 1947? How about Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham? That one released in 1960. Eric Carlyle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar first came out in 1969, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are was released in 1963 as was Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. Some of these books, friends, are close to 70 years old. My point? Picture books have major staying power, which means there is far less of a demand for new releases than in any other genre.

3) There are a few common themes that repeat themselves in picture books. Celebrate your Individuality and Accept Others for Who They Are; Be Grateful for What You Have and Work Toward What you Don't; Share More, Read More, Help More; oh, and Keep your Room Clean if you don't mind (and help your mom out when you can, too. Just sayin'). Nowadays, it is very, very difficult to come up with an original concept for a picture book if you want to teach a child one of these grand life lessons. Chances are, there are dozens of other books already out there on the subject. Preachy books with blatant "this is the way you should be" life lessons are so prevalent in submissions it blows my freaking mind.

4) And then there're rhyming manuscript texts written by people who don't understand poetry. Let it be said that if the prose for a picture book text is hard to write, rhyming picture book text is triple that in the difficulty department. All it takes is one awkwardly worded phrase to confuse a child and therefore ruin the story. And if your editor tries to clarify the sentence (which kindof is an editor's job), that can throw the whole thing off---rhythm, meter, beat... If you want to try a picture book text that rhymes, you need to first study poetry. Do not underestimate the power of a messed up rhyme scheme and the cleverness of a child that will definitely pick up on it when they hear it.

5) Picture books are very, very expensive to produce. Many of them are hardcover, most of them are full colour. This requires not only the expense involved with printing 16 full colour spreads on the specialty paper needed for colour (most picture books are 32 pages long and all of those pages must be of a certain type and quality), but the artwork must be stellar too. That means there will be an artist involved unless you are one of the rare creatures capable of both killer wordsmithing as well as visual art producing (a very rare animal indeed). As you can imagine, none of these things are cheap. If there is any concern that the book won't sell, the costs involved with producing it won't be in the cards. 

And there you have it. We get heaps and heaps (and heaps and heaps) of new manuscripts from authors who want to publish in a genre that has the lowest demand for new manuscripts. This means your manuscript must be absolutely knock-me-down amazeballs. Picture books are a buyers market, which rather puts off publishers from picking them up.

I'm not saying this to discourage anyone. There are some wonderful new picture books out there (Jon Klassen's This is Not My Hat, Drew Daywalt's The Day the Crayons Quit, B. J. Novack's The Book With No Pictures and others are all fantastic, unique books) and more will come. But before you begin purchasing postage to send out your picture book submission packages, take a tour of your local bookstore, library, and your child's bookshelf to see what is already available. Chances are, those books are not going anywhere anytime soon. 

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25 Comments
Maryann Schacht
7/19/2015 07:32:51 am

This clarifies a great deal. Thanbk you. But..maybe I have a picture book in me anyway.

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MTTW (Ellie)
7/19/2015 08:07:45 am

Oh, I very much hope that you do, Maryann! As I said, I don't mean to discourage anyone by sharing these things. I simply want to shed some light on some of the reasons why excellent manuscripts get passed over by publishers. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your comment!

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Meryl Harris
7/19/2015 11:51:15 am

Thank you so much. I have picture books sitting in my computer. You have inspired me to take a close hard look at them before I send them off again.

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MTTW (Ellie)
7/23/2015 07:55:06 am

I confess that I too have a picture book manuscript on my computer. Two of them, actually! The point is, because they are difficult to get published, picture books are endearing. Write them for yourself and for your kids. If it gets published, that's just an added bonus. I simply wanted to give the reasons why some marvellous manuscripts get passed over. It's not always to do with the quality of the writing. Publishing is a business.

Thanks so much for reading and for commenting.

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Laurel Houck link
7/19/2015 12:40:12 pm

Although I write much more MG and YA, I do have a fave picture book clamoring to be released from the computer file. We shall sit down together and make sure that what my main character is trying to say is something so unique that his voice will be heard! Good post; thanks!

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MTTW (Ellie)
7/23/2015 07:58:08 am

Yes. Picture books are still being published. As I said, there are some wonderful new books out there! Picture book authors must have some perseverance, that's all. I just wanted to explain why that is.

Thank so much for reading!

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janet smart link
7/19/2015 09:45:29 pm

Very good post! I love reading and writing picture books. You are right, picture books are hard to write, but I will continue to write them :o) I don't like the preachy manuscripts either - too much telling. Kids don't like to be told what to do. Thanks for your insight and advice.

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MTTW (Elie)
7/23/2015 07:59:21 am

Oh, my eight-year-old son can attest to the "kids don't like to be told what to do" thing! That is an excellent point.

Thanks for reading, and keep on writing.

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Christy Underwood link
7/20/2015 08:24:57 am

Thank you! It's so tough figuring out why your work isn't chosen when publishers are so busy. This makes so much sense!!

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MTTW (Ellie)
7/23/2015 08:00:39 am

Wonderful! Being rejected is not always about the writing. Don't be discouraged. Just be sure that what you submit is your very best work. That's all.

Thanks for your thoughts!

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Karen Allen link
7/20/2015 03:33:29 pm

I am one of those rare birds, I've illustrated and written a book and the process of sending work off to a publisher seems so daunting and complicated. Especially after reading an article like this. But I won't let that stop me.

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MTTW (Ellie)
7/23/2015 08:02:03 am

Submitting work isn't complicated, really. It can be a bit daunting though. Still, remember that writing is a form of art and everyone will appreciate it differently. Just because one house passes doesn't mean they all will.

Keep writing and good luck!

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DannaYork
7/23/2015 01:13:42 am

I have peeps around me, acting like it's easy for me to do. I don't bother to let them know what all goes into it. Nothing is easy out there-or it wouldn't be worth it. Great stuff-helps get us to narrow down and grow in ourselves. Thanks!!!

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MTTW (Ellie)
7/23/2015 08:05:33 am

Ah yes, you've touched on an oft overlooked fact: it is easy to want to write, but not easy to actually do it. The fact that you are managing is in itself an accomplishment! This is yet another reason why there are so few successful writers---writing is freaking HARD!

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Sarah Zinn
7/23/2015 01:29:36 am

I respect and appreciate all of these points, but it doesn't explain the vast array of terrible picture books that take up space on my son's shelf (given by well-meaning relatives). I won't name titles, but one has a teddy bear helping a frog search for his lost underpants in a jungle and I can't stand it because of the teddy bear. (Why a teddy bear?! Why not a parrot, or an elephant, or an ant? Why is teddy bear in a jungle?) Another about dinosaurs and underpants (anyone noticing a theme) has a rhyme scheme that makes me cringe. How did these disasters get published? I know, I know, they are probably anomalies. But those are what make people like me say to themselves, "I can do better than this." And another manuscript ends up on your desk.

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MTTW (Ellie)
7/23/2015 08:17:27 am

The thing about publishing (and writing altogether for that matter) is that it is 100% subjective. Acquiring editors take on what they like (or what they think there is a market for), and what they like will be different from what another editor likes. My kids love stories about underpants. They just do. Me...not so much. However, I buy (or borrow---I <3 the library) the books because the kids will actually read them. Publishing is a business first and foremost, unfortunately. Supply and demand and all that. I feel a little dead inside each time I see a Dora the Explorer book on the shelf and a kid gravitating toward it. The kids are reading though. Is that a good thing or a bad one? It's up to the parents to decide.

And I have no idea about the teddy bear in the jungle. That just sounds crazy to me.

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Joe R. Frinzi
7/23/2015 02:26:25 am

The point you make about author/artists being a rare thing is true. What bothers me is the reticence of publishers to consider an author and artist team. I’m a writer and my collaborator once worked at Disney, yet most publishers aren’t interested in a team. Worse still, they won’t even look at your dummy layouts, even though more than half of the appeal of a picture book is the art. The text by itself never gives the reader the full impact of what the author intended the visual component of the finished book to be.

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MTTW (Ellie)
7/23/2015 08:45:11 am

*Long answer alert*

Oh, there is no question that the quality of the art in a picture book is at least equal to the quality of the text. But let me possibly shed a little light on this for you because I know it can seem off-putting from the outside.

A two person team equals two advances, two royalty payments, two contracts, but the book will not retail for any more than what a book with a single author/illustrator will. See what I'm getting at? Everyone deserves to be paid. When a project is presented by a team (it's different for co-authors of a novel, I'm just talking about illustrators and writers here), costs are a bit different.

Sometimes, publishers like to hire illustrators they already have a history with, too. If the illustrator's previous publications were of high quality, if they met deadlines, if they showed up for book signings and promotional stuff, all that matters to the publisher. Taking on an artist you know nothing about is a bit riskier. Yes, publishers will launch an artist's career and it is very exciting when they do (EVERYONE loves a success story), but if funds are limited, sometimes it is better to go with what you know.

And one more thing. I am not sure about this in countries other than Canada, but the Canadian Arts Council gives publishers grants when they employ Canadian illustrators. This helps pay advances so everyone gets the money they deserve when the book is being produced. Unfortunately, though I know it seems unfair, sometimes this will sway a publisher's choice.

Thanks for reading my blog post and thanks for your comment. I hope this clears it up a little.

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Monica Batiste link
7/23/2015 07:55:23 am

Great article, and great comments too. Thanks for writing. It felt like I was waiting a hundred years to be recognised by an agent or publisher for my writing and illustrating skills. I finally took the plunge and published myself. I still dream of a big publishing contract, but in the meantime, I am living my dream, selling my books and having fun along the way.

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MTTW (Ellie)
7/23/2015 08:56:14 am

That is so wonderful, Monica! Personally, I think it's best to write for yourself and no one else. If you believe in your book, if you've put your best into it, if you've not overlooked the details (such as punctuation), you are increasing your chances of being noticed by a publisher. But if that doesn't pan out, just write because, like anyone addicted to anything, you have no other choice. Getting published is just a bonus.\

Thanks for your thoughts.

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Linda Giraffe
7/25/2015 11:05:29 pm

Is there much interest in picture books without words?

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MTTW (Ellie)
7/26/2015 01:34:31 am

Hi Linda. I would have to say that if the book is unique and well put together, with words or without, they fair about the same. The points I mentioned above are not particularly influenced by the amount of text involved (or not) in the book aside from the point about rhyming text. There are some wonderful art-only picture books out there, though it goes without saying the artwork must be really, really outstanding and be capable of telling a story with all the same rules as those books with words (plot arc and all that).

Also, now there is at least one picture book with no pictures (Drew Daywalt's The Book with No Pictures). There is interest in unique stories that are well told. That will never change.

Thanks for reading and for leaving your thoughts.

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John & Soma Stickler
7/26/2015 01:28:36 pm

Perseverance helps. My wife and I produced a Korean fairy tale in 1999 and started sending it around. 12 years later, after 29 publishers had turned it down, it was picked up by Tuttle and is still selling. Just because it's good doesn't mean anyone will buy it.

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MTTW (Ellie)
7/28/2015 09:31:21 am

That is a wonderful success story, John and Soma! Congratulations on your publication. "Just because it's good doesn't mean anyone will buy it" was part of the point of this blog post. Having your picture book manuscript rejected may not necessarily mean that your work is not good. It just means the market is not (at that particular moment).

Thanks for reading and for sharing your publication story with us.

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sally suehler
7/30/2015 10:09:35 am

I have several PB manuscripts just waiting to be discovered. And if publishers don't recognize my genius, my grandchildren see me write and share my love of reading. To me, that is everything.

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