Publishing Childrens Books: Find a Publisher or Self Publish?

You could formally put together a manuscript and start the process of sending it off to publishers in the hopes that you’ll find one who’ll publish your book, or you could actually publish the book yourself.

The basic difference between submitting a manuscript and publishing your book yourself is where the money will come from. If you are sending in a manuscript then you are looking for someone else to foot the bill to turn your book from simple computer paper into a glossy, high-quality childrens book. If you are publishing children’s books yourself then you are paying for that glossy, high-quality book out of your own pocket.

With a manuscript there are a few elements which must be submitted along with the manuscript itself for children’s book publishing companies. There must be a title page with the title of the book, name of the author, the type of book along with a word count (i.e. children’s book with 20,345 words), address, e-mail, website (if you have one), and a phone number.

You will need to include a brief cover letter which details why you are sending your book to that particular publisher, a short overview of the book (2 or 3 sentences at the absolute most), how long the actual manuscript is, and the target age group and why they will like your book.

There should also be a synopsis which is no more than two pages long. Your synopsis should briefly tell what happens in the book and underscore the major scenes. You should tell how the story ends and what the theme of the story is. Briefly tell about the main character(s), what they do, what they learn, and how they change by the end of the story.

If you are publishing childrens books with more than one chapter, include only the first three chapters with your initial submission to the publishing company. It can take quite a long time to actually hear back from the company. This is partially because at least three people will read and review your book before you ever hear anything, and most publishing companies actually have rather small review departments.

You can eliminate this hassle altogether by publishing children’s books on your own. However, you must be sure you can actually afford to publish and print the book. There are a number of companies who will print very high quality books for you at a price (between $500-$2,000 for about 125 copies). There are also publishing services companies that will do the editing, book and cover design for you for one low price. Since these are service companies, they do not take any royalties and the copyright belongs to you.

These companies will only print exactly what you submit to them. This means you are solely responsible for editing your work and submitting a quality manuscript. You will not have the benefit of copy editors and readers to catch any mistakes you may have made in grammar, syntax, ambiguity, etc.

Also children’s book publishing on your own, you are the one responsible for actually selling your book. You will have to hit the streets and find creative ways to do your book marketing to get the word out about your book.

Don’t let that creative children's story continue to sit on your shelf. Set aside some time and either submit your work to a publishing house, or invest in yourself by self publishing children’s books yourself.

Copyright © 2010 by Laura Ramirez. All rights reserved. This article may not be copied in full or in part, but you can link to from your site.

Laura Ramirez is the author of two award-winning books, three ebooks and thousands of articles.

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