July 2003
How Do I Revise My Picture Book Manuscript To The Editor's Specifications?
I submitted my picture book manuscript to a children's publisher and received back specific suggestions and an invitation to resubmit. Unfortunately I don't know how to follow the editor's advice. What should I do?
I've been in your position many times with editors and have found, from my own experience and the experience of other authors, sometimes these editorial requests can be difficult to understand.
To help you better understand what editors are looking for -- what makes a picture book manuscript "sparkle" -- read my article, Make Your Picture Book Sparkle! and Moira Allen's interview, Exploring Sparkle: An Interview with Peggy Tibbetts.
A number of writers in your same predicament have enrolled in past sessions of my online workshop, How to Make Your Picture Book Sparkle. They brought their finished picture book manuscript, in need of revision of course, to my class. Using the step-by-step method of creating a picture book dummy and dissecting the story into three parts, each writer was able to find the core of her story and learned how to revise her manuscript to better meet the editor's specifications. Since I have experience working with children's book authors and editors, I can offer editing recommendations based on an editor's specifications.
Visit my class listing at Writing World.com for a detailed weekly synopsis, plus testimonials from writers who found the eight-week course helpful in revising their picture book manuscripts.
Does an Author Offer All Rights Or First Rights?
When submitting a picture book manuscript, does the author offer all rights or first rights? Or do you offer any rights when selling a picture book?
When you submit your manuscript to the editor of a publishing company, it is implied that you are offering rights, although specific rights will be determined once a contract is offered. When a publisher offers an author a contract, rights are requested. In standard advance plus royalty and royalty only contracts the author grants exclusive rights to the publisher. Many children's publishers ask for subsidiary rights, such as electronic, film, foreign, recording, merchandising, etc. Subsidiary rights are generally negotiable. Exclusive rights are not.
According to >The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing, by Harold Underdown and Lynne Rominger, "The core of a publishing contract is the transfer of an author's rights in a manuscript to a company that (we hope) has the resources to use those rights in ways that you could not. In return, you get some form of compensation." You can read all of "Chapter 19: Oh Boy! A Contract!" at Harold Underdown's web site, The Purple Crayon.
Be sure to check out the Rights, Contracts and Copyright section at Writing World.com. You'll find more articles about rights and contracts.
Where Can A Young Writer Be Published?
I'm a 10-year old writer. Where can I get my poems and stories published?
Markets for young writers are few and far between. I always recommend that young writers look for contests to enter. At Writing World.com you can find a list of contests for young writers with links to the contest guidelines.
Click on the link to "Markets for kids and teens" at the end of my column for a list of markets, such as Stone Soup and Cyberkids, for kids like you who like to write. Talented Kids is another web site where you'll find all kinds of links and information, plus you get the chance to "add your talent" just by filling out a short online form. Membership to this site is free and it's a great way to meet other talented young writers. You can even try your hand at writing movie and book reviews.
For young female writers, New Moon magazine is always looking for content written by 8 to 14-year old girls to fill several departments in each issue. You can find submission guidelines for girls at their web site.
For more information:
- Make Your Picture Book Sparkle!
- http://www.writing-world.com/children/sparkle.shtml
- Exploring Sparkle: An Interview with Peggy Tibbetts
-
http://www.writing-world.com/children/tibbetts.shtml
- How to Make Your Picture Book "Sparkle"
- http://www.writing-world.com/classes/children.shtml
- Chapter 19: Oh Boy! A Contract!
- http://www.underdown.org/cig_ch19.htm
- Rights, Contracts and Copyright
- http://www.writing-world.com/rights/index.shtml
- Contests for Young Writers
- http://www.writing-world.com/contests/young.shtml
- Markets for kids and teens
-
http://members.tripod.com/~Beawriter/kids.html
- Talented Kids
- http://www.talentedkids.com/index.php
- New Moon magazine submission guidelines for girls
- http://www.newmoon.org/magazine/writerGirl.htm
Peggy Tibbetts has been a professional writer, editor, and full member of the Society for Children's Book Writers & Illustrators for the past 26 years. She offers courses in children's writing and has edited several successful children's manuscripts. She is the author of the children's novel The Road to Weird, as well as the adult novel Rumors of War. Peggy also moderates the The Write List discussion list at Yahoo.
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