I’m finally getting back to discussing the individual elements of a manuscript submission. We’ll start with the cover letter. In my research, plus the copious advice I received as to what makes a strong cover letter, I can tell you for sure that NONE of it worked for me, because in the end I self-published!

I thought the best way to illustrate what I tried was to show you some excerpts from my actual cover letters. The advice I followed mainly ran along the lines of proving to the publisher why my book should be included in their list. For instance, does the publisher publish certain “genres” of books, like talking animals, rhyming, or non-fiction books? Do they focus on a certain theme like friendship, humor, or folktale? Once I went through ~30 books from each list to “determine” whether my book fit in, I then had to make sure they didn’t already have a book starring a magical hybrid benevolent creature.

Now, I tried “sell” my book, employing many approaches to get them to see the merits of adding my book to their list: I emphasized the excellent message of my book; the uniqueness of the protagonist; enumerated the ways in which I was dedicated to the industry; linked my character to endearing characters of the past; related my story to themes from other successful books; quoted what they’ve written on their sites about what they seek and how my book does just that….

So why didn’t any of this work? Of course I don’t know, but I think 3 points about book publishing MUST be answered in the cover letter. At least, this is what I will try in future:
1) How AND why your book will sell a ton of copies?
2) What is your book’s most promising angle for marketing?
3) What makes YOU memorable?

I think my cover letters did not make ME memorable. I’ve read articles about the lengths aspiring authors have gone to get their stories read by editors, but going to NYC and knocking on doors with cookies in hand isn’t always feasible, nor does it truly work. SO, if kindergartners, friends, strangers, book lovers, fellow aspiring authors and illustrators, librarians, and an independent bookstore owner have thus far had only good things to say about Centipede Dragon, what is the reason behind my rejections? Anyone care to guess?

Every once in a while you hit upon the one person who goes the extra distance by connecting you to that person who can change a game that is heavily stacked against self-published you.

To illustrate, let’s do a quick exercise: everyone who has a soft cover copy of Centipede Dragon, look at the spine. What do you see?

One major roadblock in self-publishing to getting your book onto actual shelves is the inability get text on the spine. This seems like a minute detail, doesn’t it?

A second exercise: everyone, shelve your Centipede Dragon. Now, ask someone else who didn't see you shelve it to go find it!

For years, the “trend” in children’s books has been to keep the page count to 32. But in self-publishing, unless your book is at least 48 pages, you can’t put text on the spine because your book is not thick enough. When you don’t have text on your spine, brick and mortar stores will not sell your book, because once it's shelved, no one knows what it is or where it is; it is unidentifiable. This is a rather unfortunate hindrance to your sales.

My person who found my person, is Christine T. from the Children’s Book Illustrators LinkedIn group. After seeing my desperate SOS post, she dug around to find me a post from months ago, written by Tzivia M., who writes a blog called : http://blog.writekidsbooks.org/. She had faced this spine text conundrum with her own book, No Santa!, and decided to submit the book cover file to her self- publisher WITH spine text designed right into the layout of the cover design. I want to give a HUGE shout-out to Tzivia for this ultimate in “workaround” solutions, because it worked for me!

I.LOVE.HER. And you should too. Just for me.

A big thanks to Christine as well, a true moderator who knows her stuff for ALL OF US struggling to get this done.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/centipede-dragon-alice-y-chen/1119947767?ean=9780692333068&itm=1&usri=9780692333068

Also still available at:

http://www.amazon.com/Centipede-Dragon-Benevolent-Alice-Chen/dp/0692333061/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1422903068

Before we get on to the cover letter component of a book submission, I wanted to talk about a singular decision that must be made in self-publishing. When I initially decided to self-publish, there were certain quirks about the company I chose to publish with, one of which was they didn't have the option to print hard cover versions of the book. This was NOT a deal breaker at the time. But I also have learned so much more about the book acquisition industry that lead me to pursuing a hardcover version in the end.

Here's the story: A lovely librarian from Arlington County had reviewed my book and said she loved it, but since it wasn't in hard cover she couldn't purchase it for circulation. I hadn't realized that as hard cover books endure the wear and tear on a loaner book much better than soft covers, I'd need a hard cover version in order for libraries to carry my book. My self-publishing platform didn't offer this service, so it wasn't going to be easy! I therefore began another long and painful journey into the realm of Print-on-Demand to produce the hard cover version.

When I say self-publishing is not easy, I can't emphasize this point enough. There have been days when I have simply wanted to walk away from this whole process. There have been MANY days where I have regretted this decision. I had to choose a second Print-on-Demand platform, and re-do the process of formatting and proofing. Then there were so many quality control issues with the new platform, new realms of issues I hadn't encountered with the 1st platform....And though we worked hard to eliminate the issues, I still have no guarantee that even 2 copies will come out flawlessly. This is why I emphasize exhausting the traditional publisher route, for again, have you ever bought a book that's been poorly printed?

So again, it's easy to say this but hard to do: if you believe in your work and want nothing other than to share it, grin and bear it, or laugh out loud and make the whole process funny to all including yourself. I promise you'll get through it that way.

In a previous post I digressed somewhat from talking about how to choose a publisher. I mentioned as strategy to limit yourself in number of publishers you initially target for the first go-around, and then sticking with the basics with your research, like making sure the publisher accepts unsolicited work, and the type of book you are publishing. Start with a few current children’s books you adore, look up their publishing houses, and do your in-depth from there.

The 3 most important components to your submission will be your cover letter, your manuscript (text only), and a dummy of your book (optional, but helpful). Even if you are not the illustrator of your book, remember that the dummy shows the editor who gets your submission how you are thinking of pacing your story. You have to convey to him/her just how serious you are about your book, so even if making a dummy adds more prep time, do it to make your submission stand out from the hundreds and thousands they receive per month.

Publishers may ask for other things, like a biography or a market analysis for your type of book. Who are you? Why have you written this book? Why do you care about children's books? And how do you think the current market lacks your type of book? Who will buy your book? While I think the latter question is a little unfair to ask of us, just make your best effort and speak from the heart. Speak it flawlessly, though, make your cover letter your priority, and your manuscript and dummy perfect.

In the next few posts we’ll take each in turn, starting with the cover letter, which to this day still somewhat eludes me as to how to write a great one!

There’s A TON of information out there on how to submit to publishers and what to expect after you submit (Basically, nothing unless your manuscript gets chosen!). The great thing about the internet is that it provides easy access to us for ALL this info. The bad thing about the internet is that it provides easy access to us for ALL this info. This is one major reason I think narrowing your search as much as you can, as soon as you can makes this less daunting. There is always time to expand out, should you not find success in the first round.

The other advice I’d like to add is from personal experience, and so will be strictly anecdotal. Traditional publishers–a maddening, esoteric “old boys club” that seemingly sifts through our hopesdreamsbloodsweattears so cavalierly–KNOW what they are doing. Have you EVER bought a children’s book that was poorly printed, poorly manufactured? NO. And that quality has lasted over decades. So, exhaust the traditional publishing route, including the boutique publishers.

Self-publishing has been a real learning experience. I’ve learned so much more about graphic design than I expected: layout, design, and pre-press and post-print concerns. But I want to say, choose this route ONLY if you have a different goal in mind aside from world domination. There is just so much more that needs to be figured out as well as executed and it's ALL on you. And the only way to accomplish what needs to be done is by pounding the pavement, one library at a time, one bookstore at a time, one presentation at a time.

What I do know is that so far, kids have been excited by my character and story, they have asked for autographs, creative adults have been inspired to give an Asian-themed gift to go along with the book,  and on more than one occasion, I have heard a kid say, "this was the best storytime ever!"

When I leave this world, Centipede Dragon will still be around, somewhere. And that’s got to be the sweetest thing that I can take to the bank.

I’m going to take last post's questions out of turn because I didn’t group them in as organized a fashion as I should have.

For question #1, do I want an agent to represent me? I’m going to be fairly ignorant on this point, because I haven’t ever really entertained the idea.

There are pros to having an agent represent your book: 1) S/he has more inside contacts in the publishing world, likely because s/he came form the publishing world, and will be able to determine to which publishing companies to market your book; 2) S/he can work with you, like an editor, to get your book to the proper publishing standards, which I CAN say from personal experience in doing this alone, would be a HUGE advantage; 3) S/he will help you in the marketing of the book, at least, in the planning and initial execution stages. It’s in the agency’s best interest for your book to sell well.

There are also cons: 1) There is an additional layer of submissions to go through, because you have to research and submit your work to many agencies/agents, just as you would with a publishing house; 2) You are not the only client the agent has, so, their time will be spread amongst many; 3) You lose some of your already miniscule royalties to the agency AND the publisher.

So the next question (#3) is time expectations. In my case, there are times in the year that would be more advantageous to release the book (eg, Lunar New Year in late Jan/Feb., or Asian American Heritage month in May). Since diverse books featuring minority children are already NOT big sellers in the marketplace, timing a publication where general interest may be higher, or being taught in schools, for instance, becomes way more crucial to success. If you’ve got no place to be, if your book happens to be of a more marketable subject like anthropomorphized animals, take the time with your submissions and keep going. It’s almost like a game of chance, where you may hit the right editor at the right time. But you don’t have a chance of doing that unless you’re submitting!