From the outside, the publishing world can appear mysterious, bordering on inscrutable, and sometimes it can appear that way from the inside, too. (Assuming I've actually seen the inside. Can one ever be sure? See above.) Here are some clarifying resources I've found helpful and that I hope you will find helpful, too.

 

 

 

• Writing With Pictures, by Uri Shulevitz. Start here. (Possibly out of print but that's why we have eBay.) This is the best book out there on writing and illustrating picture books. The chapters on the printing process may be outdated, but never the chapters on storytelling. See also Picture This: How Pictures Work, by Molly Bang.

 

• Spend a long afternoon with the children's collection at your local library. Leave sentimental memories and associations at the door. Read actively and critically. Consider the books from an adult's and a young person's perspective. Which books do you find engaging, moving, interesting, beautiful, convincing, and why?

 

• How to Write a Picture Book, from author Mac Barnett and editor Taylor Norman.

 

• Tips and techniques from Marla Frazee are here.

 

• An example of a book dummy — an early dummy for my book The Racecar Alphabet — is here.

 

• The Purple Crayon. A good introduction to children's book publishing is here. Answers to questions about agents — do you want one, and how do you find one? — are here. From Harold Underdown, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children’s Books.

 

• Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators. SCBWI runs a web site, publishes newsletters, holds conferences, and conducts guest speaker/panel discussion series. SCBWI events often offer the chance to meet other people active or interested in the field, including writers, artists, editors, art directors, and other publishing professionals.

 

• How to choose a publisher, in five easy (?) steps, from First Second Books, here.

 

• So, You’ve Written a Children’s Book…Now What? How to submit a manuscript for publication (and how not to), from Ariel Richardson at Chronicle Books.

 

• Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market. A guide to how and where to submit work, with interviews with people in the field. (Published annually. If I've failed to update this link recently, look for this year's edition!)

 

• Finally, a note to authors about illustrators: unless you're working as author and illustrator, both, on a book proposal, and no matter how important the illustrations will be to your book, a manuscript is best submitted to publishers without art or artist attached. Editors and art directors are used to seeing the manuscripts come in like that, and they are professionals at putting manuscripts and illustrators together. And they probably know more illustrators than you do, too. (There are exceptions to this rule but they are, truly, exceptions.)

 

• And really finally: The Life Cycle of a Book, by Elisha Cooper.

 

 

 

Happy writing, happy drawing, and good luck!