Morning all writers and artists,
I am new to this website and world of writing - professionally. I have written a children's rhyming story and am at the stage where I need to find a publisher. All I want is for said publisher to say 'yay or nay' with regards to the quality and potential for publishing.
I have read it to many poeple such as friends, family, work colleagues, a class of primary school children and many more, without blowing my own trumpet, it has received rave reviews. This has urged me to pursue this avenue further and hopefully have it published.
The fact that it rhymes - and I like to think rhymes very well - may be the ace up the sleeve when it comes to getting publishers interested. I feel it is as interesting and fascinating to the imagination of a child as well as being educational and understandable. There is plenty of alliteration and repetition and would be very beneficial for any individual facing difficulties with speech and writing.
Being self employed in all other aspects of my life I thought 'self-publishing' would be the ideal way to go forward. However, after reading various articles I feel a literary agent is the best way to go forward, as I'm a 'virgin' to the industry. I have purchased the writers and artists yearbook for children's books and will browse through the list of literary agents when it arrives.
I just wanted to ask of any help/guidance from more experienced writers and even publishers in this community.
Mainly, how would I go about copyrighting and protecting my story? Is this left to the literary agent to deal with or publisher?
What I would need to offer to an agent other than the manuscript?
Are there many legalities surrounding ownership and partnership when it comes to finding a literary agent?
Do agents and publishers have the deciding decision on how the script reads? I appreciate any constructive criticism and am happy to change the script - knowing full well it will no doubt be stripped apart - but how much input would I have If I feel losing certain parts result in losing plot details and interesting points?
There are numerous other questions I have, but just wanted to get some advice on the above.
I'm sure if there is a literary agent out there who is interested in my work, that is a giant leap forward for my story. I guess it;s just finding the right one?!
Thanks all.
Jim
Jim, I suggest you read:
Heartbeat - Sharon Creech (Carnegie and Newbury medal winner)
Cloudbusting - Malorie Blackman
Out of the Dust - Karen Hesse (Newbury Medal for Out of the Dust)
Three excellent examples of prose by best selling authors.
Hi Alice,
Thanks for your reply.
I am quite surprised about how many people are now telling me rhyming stories are not great. I completley forgot about translations and difficulties that may be faced and guess like you said the publishers would ideally like to maximise their profits.
Would you say it's particularly difficult for newbies? As there are many thousands of rhyming stories out there - Dr. Seuss for example - that must have had similar problems come publishing? I know that example is probably one of the best and well-known in childrens rhyming literature, but still, like you said it depends on the quality of the writing.
I personally think that the rhyming I have produced is very good, I'm sure there are countless people out there who can do a much better job, but I feel it works really well.
However, I will pursue it and do my best to find the right agent/publisher. You never know, it may just work!
Thanks again for your help,
Best,
Jim
Hi Jim,
Publishers tend not to like rhyming stories as much because they don't translate easily into other languages. It is much more expensive for a publisher to print a full colour picture book than it is to produce a text only book. Therefore, they often want to maximize profits by printing in many different languages.
That being said, if you have a genuinely excellent rhyming story I don't think they would necessarily turn it down because it rhymes. Don't give up, trawl through the writers and artists yearbook and send your work out to everyone you can. ALWAYS follow the submissions guidelines (mostly found on the websites) as some submissions aren't even read if they don't comply.
Hope this helps,
Alice :)