I started doing a bit of researching when I developed an interest in writing children’s books; why exactly were the two jobs so starkly separated? I suppose I never got the why of the matter, but I found that most publishing companies specifically warn authors that it’s less likely that their book will be published if they are unwilling to publish it without their own illustration.

What?!

That’s insane to me. I mean, short of the author submitting some really terrible art – and I don’t think any author would do that because it would sell the story short – why wouldn’t you give the author input on the visual aspect of the book?

It makes me wonder whether all of those beautiful books that I fell in love with as a child were an actual representation of how the author had envisioned the book? Do you think that Margaret Wise Brown (“Goodnight Moon“) is horrified by the images created by Clement Hurd? That book stands out so starkly in my mind for it’s beautiful pictures, but I can barely recall the exact words. And it’s not because it’s not a beautifully written story; just, to me, the images represented the story so well that my mind dwells upon the visual.

It’s sad to think a book has less of a chance of being published if the author refuses to outsource the illustrations. I hope that there are some publishers out there that understand the important connection between the two and celebrate author/illustrators everywhere.

How to get your funny books noticed and how to write them
- Stick to a theme and thread that theme throughout your work. It’s good to add jokes, gimmicks and funny lines in your writing.
- Stay suitable to the age group you are reaching out to.
- Let some of your friends know that you are writing comical books and raise some money selling them for charity at car boot sales. This distributes them further, goes to a good cause and could really catch the eye of someone who could take you far.
- Use good grammar in your work but slang words are appropriate for comical writing.
- Find an agent who deals solely with comical and humorous pieces of writing. Here you can pick up some very valuable tips and learn where to distribute your writing to get good effects.

Random House, of course, was the country’s largest publisher last year, with U.S. sales of about $1.33 billion, roughly flat with 2003. HarperCollins and Penguin usually run neck and neck for the country’s second largest publisher. In 2004, HC, with a big assist from Zondervan and The Purpose-Driven Life, edged ahead of Penguin. HC had North American sales of approximately $965 million last year, with North America accounting for about 73% of HC’s worldwide sales. Penguin, which received a boost of $40 million from its Penguin Press, Gotham and Razorbill imprints in 2004, had estimated sales in the U.S. of $900 million last year.

To compare: 63,000 small publishers (‘everyone else,’ I’m guessing) generated revenue of $14 billion.

[Source: Publishers Weekly, via KeepMedia]

It’s been a few weeks since I sent out my first queries to literary agents. So far, no bites — just a few rejections.

Luckily, I’m immune to rejections. (I’ve been a freelance writer for a few years, so I’m used to them.) Also, I’m thankful they’ve all been good non-form-letter rejections — each responded to specific things I’d said in my query, which is encouraging.

If I don’t have any luck with anyone from this group, I have another batch of queries ready to go out in May…

In the meanwhile, here are a few more sites offering advice on how to get an agent:

• Literary agents: a four-part series from Writing.org
• Words of Wisdom to Snatch a Literary Agent from FreelanceWriting.com
• Literary Agents – Answers and Advice from TaraKHarper.com

That in itself takes a lot of time because it can be sometimes over a year before you are accepted or rejected and then it’s on to the next one. You have to remember it’s not like a demo tape you listen to and toss in the trash. These are words that has to be read, a story that has to be finished for them to get the big picture.

If they get hundreds and thousands of these then it will take time, a lot of time before  yours is even read.

This morning, I sent out my first batch of agent queries.

They were all e-queries, thankfully, so there was no printing, paper-folding, or envelope-licking involved — just cutting, pasting, and sending. This was refreshing, as the process of finding potential agents and crafting a personalized query for each had been pretty arduous.

First, I’d checked sites like Publishers Marketplace and Agent Query to find agents interested in representing the types of books I wanted to write (nonfiction books on parenting). Parenting is a popular topic, so there were hundreds of agents to choose from.

Once I’d whittled my list down to about 40, I began writing my query, which consisted of a hook, a description of the book, a mini-bio, and a conclusion with contact info. It was formatted like a typical one-page business letter.

Researching agents and perfecting my query took weeks. My friends and family (all of whom I’d forced to read the query multiple times) were getting impatient, asking why I hadn’t sent the letters out yet.

Finally, today, I looked it over and could find nothing to change. So I sent out the first batch of 10 (figuring that a rate of 10 per month would suffice).

Now, all I can do is cross my fingers and wait. In the meanwhile, I have a manuscript to edit and a book proposal to write…