Monday, March 1, 2010

Twelve Things Children's Book Writers Should Do - #11 Work on Getting Published


This is rather like the old adage - to get a job, you have to have experience, but to have experience, you must have a job. Writing is kind of the same, too. If getting your novel published is the equivalent of having a job, then getting published is the equivalent of having experience.

Sound confusing?

It really isn't. Don't forget, while having a book to your name is wonderful, there are other smaller venues - and they count too! While you are shopping around your novel, or still in the middle of writing it, you can submit to other places. Consider journals, magazines, small newsletters, or even on-line websites.

Having said that, do not think just because the length is small that the standards at most places are not. My writing group and I have tried ( to get published in Highlights. We all have submitted to date at least two stories or short histories to the magazine, only to be turned down. But we do not give up. Right now, I am mostly published on these blog pages (with the exception of the odd piece I write for work).

But I don't give up.Think how much better it would look when I submit my query letter to an editor to list the various places I have been published than to have nothing at all. A list of stories published would be the experience I need to land my job.

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