• I have a children's book idea. Any advice on how to get it published?

The children's book market is highly competitive. There is limited shelf space available (and customer mindshare and budget), so publishers have to compete hard to get good placement for their books, which translate into sales.  Getting a book published takes a combination of perseverance, luck and hard work. 

There are three approaches to publishing your book:

1) Shop for an agent.  Because editors get inundated with so many requests, it often takes a trusted source to help something rise to the top of their pile for consideration.  That's why some people take the first step of finding an agent. Publishing agents can help you polish your proposal, get it in front of editors, and negotiate a contract.  For this they are generally paid 15% of advances and royalties. However, getting an agent is also highly competitive.  To find an agent, you can start by researching authors you love to see who represents them.

2) Build a following.  It goes without saying but publishers are in the business of selling books. This means that all things being equal, they will choose to take a risk on a new author who can help them guarantee sales.  In the case of Hello!Lucky, we had been making and selling our own greeting cards for 15 years, built a network of hundreds of wholesale accounts worldwide (who carry our cards and might therefore be more likely to carry our books), and grown an Instagram community of almost 80,000 followers before we got our first children's book publishing deal. The fact that we could help market and sell our own books made a difference.

3) Self-publish.  Given the limited number of available spots for new authors on publisher's lists, many authors also choose to self-publish. There are many avenues out there for doing this now, and it can help you get your book directly to your target audience. If it is successful, it might lead to a traditional publishing deal later on.  Per point 2) above, if you can prove that your book has a market, this will also improve your chances of attracting a traditional publisher (and sweeten the terms you can negotiate). Books like Go the F*ck to Sleep and Dallas Clayton's Awesome Book of Love started out as self-published sensations, and have resulted in several sequels / follow-up works from those publishers.  

Other things to keep in mind:

1) Many publishers are looking for authors who can build a book series or collection, known in the industry as a "franchise."  A lot of their sales come from what's known as the "back list," of previously published works from an author. When a new book is released, customers are encouraged (via things like Amazon's upsell tool) to purchase prior works as well.  The publisher ideally wants to sign authors who can publish hit book after hit book -- think Mo Willems, Oliver Jeffers, Chris Van Dusen, Sandy Boynton, Eric Carle, Dav Pilkey.  Coincidentally, this is also how children's book authors actually make money.  The typical advance for a children's book is barely enough to justify the labor and time that goes into creating it, and the royalties are in the single to low double-digits. It is only after publishing tens or even dozens of books that children's book authors can make a meaningful living from their labor.

2) You can potentially break into children's book publishing by being a freelance illustrator for a publisher, known as "work-for-hire."  Hello!Lucky got started in children's book publishing by first doing free-lance illustration for another author's project. It was through building our relationships with a publisher that we were given the opportunity to pitch books as an author-illustrator team.  If you are an author only, rather than an illustrator, be aware that authors typically submit manuscripts to publishers *without* an illustrator attached, as publishers like to pick their own illustrators for any given project.

We recommend this resource: www.scbwi.org

I have a children's manuscript. Any advice on where to find an illustrator?

There are thousands of talented illustrators on Instagram and Pinterest, and many are open to free-lance work. We recommend looking at your favorite children’s books and searching popular hashtags like #kidsbookstagram and #childrensbookillustration and #childrensbook to discover illustrators.

Look for one whose style fits the theme and tone of your book. That said, remember that many publishers prefer to choose their own illustrators. If you do get an illustrator involved before pitching to a publisher, all you need is one or two sample sketches — the publisher will want to weigh in and shape the manuscript and accompanying illustrations, so don’t get the whole book illustrated unless you plan to self-publish.

Finally, expect to pay illustrators equitably for their work and enter into a contract. You can either hire them in a work-for-hire arrangement (in which you own the artwork), or on a licensing basis (preferred) in which the illustrator owns the artwork and you are allowed to incorporate into your book proposal for a limited time. Ultimately, if you land a publishing deal, the illustrator will typically have their own separate contract with the publisher.

• Where is your favorite place to write or draw?

Sabrina: I like to write on my laptop in bed, or sitting in my home office on a sunny day when it’s quiet.  Sometimes I also like to write in a journal.  I keep one on my nightstand, so if ideas come in the middle of the night, I can write them down before I forget!

Eunice:  In my studio - it's on the top floor of our house with amazing light and a view of San Francisco - camped out at my desk while listening to a podcast or audiobook or with a binge worthy show on one of my monitors.

• Where do you come up with the ideas?

Sabrina: I get a lot of my ideas when I’m feeling relaxed.  Often, this is when I’m meditating -- sitting or lying in bed quietly with my eyes closed. It’s like putting my antennae up so I can sense ideas!  Other times, ideas pop into my head when I’m in the shower, reading a book, or taking a walk.  I wrote most of our book, Thanks a Ton! while I was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge -- I spoke the words into a voice recorder, and wrote them down on paper later!  

Eunice: Usually they are inspired by Sabrina's hilarious writing - typically, I let her go to town with ridiculous puns and concepts and then run with it - it makes my job easy! She also has great ideas for visuals or we riff off of each other until we arrive at a solution for the illustrations.  

• What is your process for writing and illustrating a story?

  First, we usually come up with a fun title for the book.  A book has to have a strong title to catch a reader’s attention, and this also helps us decide what the book will be about. We love puns, so these are in a lot of our book titles, like “Go Get ‘Em, Tiger!” or “Sloth and Smell the Roses.”

  Next, Sabrina writes a draft of the story.  This usually includes writing descriptions of the pictures that will go with the words.  

  Next, we review the draft together. Eunice brainstorms more ideas for the pictures and tells Sabrina if any of the picture ideas won’t work, or how they could be funnier.  If she can see the picture in her head, it’s a “go.” If she’s having a hard time imagining how she’ll draw the picture, we revise the text or illustration idea until we have something that works. The words and the pictures both have to be strong, and they have to work together.

  Next, our editor and art director from our publisher review the draft (known as a “manuscript”) and give comments.  We revise the manuscript.  Once the text is approved, a copy editor looks at it to make sure all the spelling, grammar and punctuation are perfect!

  Eunice then starts sketching on her iPad.  Our editor and art director review the sketches and give comments. Eunice revises the sketches.  

  Once the sketches are approved, Eunice colors them in on her iPad in a program called Adobe Illustrator.  Our editor and art director review the color drawings, too, and often they help add the text (known as “typesetting”) in all the places where Eunice is not writing the letters by hand. 

  Finally, the book gets sent to the printer in China to be printed as a real book!  It is always super exciting to finally have the book in our hands -- everything looks better and brighter in real life than on screen!

• Do you have any advice for writing children’s books?

Write from the child’s perspective -- you can imagine that you are writing for yourself as a child, or for a child you know well. Remember that anything that comes across as “teach-y” is not going to work! 

Ideally, a story needs to move forward with action or excitement. Humor is a big plus, too, if that works for your topic.  We find there are a lot of earnest children’s books out there with lovely messages, but it’s rare to find children’s books that are laugh-out-loud funny!  Those are our favorites.  That said, never underestimate children! They can handle serious topics, too, but don’t get too conceptual. Try to keep your writing concrete and simple.

Children’s books are meant to be read aloud, so make sure you read yours aloud again and again. Pay attention to the cadence and musicality of your words.  Incorporate rhyme if that works for you. You should practically be able to sing your story!  Also, fewer words are often better. Choose every word carefully. There should be no extraneous ones on the page. Let the pictures do a lot of the talking. 

When writing a children’s book, we like to start by imagining the visual story before putting words on paper.  Who are the characters? How do we see them interacting on the page?  We also like starting with a strong title, opening line, and ending line.  The middle tends to fall into place with a strong beginning and end!

Have a question we haven’t answered?  Contact us!

Send us snail mail! We’d love to see your drawings or hear from you!

Eunice and Sabrina Moyle

P.O Box 167
Burlingame, CA
94011