Monday, July 25, 2011

Writer's Conference

I made it there and back without getting lost, yay me! So I’m directionally impaired and geographically impaired, that’s why I have a TomTom. I had a couple copies of my manuscript Azariah’s Story and my “one sheet.” Within an hour of arrival, they announced how to signed up for fifteen minutes to talk with a publisher. He read through the story and responded positively, but then the reality check came.

Children’s picture books are hard to publish and sell right now. I think it has to do with the picture process. Picture books need an illustrator. Therefore the royalties need to be split between the author and the illustrator. It takes extra time to print the pictures and sometimes this is an overseas process. There have even been some studies that say some parents are skipping the picture book stage with their children and moving right into reading chapter books.

While it wasn’t a full rejection, it wasn’t an offer either. At first I was discouraged, but since the conference didn’t end after that 15 minute segment, I continued taking notes. There was a lot of other information to digest and many ideas to go over and start working on.
Incidentally, one of those ideas involves a monthly segment to interview people and/or organizations who seek to positively impact and improve the lives of children. So if you have a person or organization you would like to suggest, please leave a comment (please include an email for you or them so that I can follow up :) )

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