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If You’re Looking for Easy Side Income, Writing a Children’s Book Isn’t the Answer
A look inside the publishing process
Iam publishing a children’s book. It’s a story about a little girl who learns about values through the arrival of different animals to her family’s hobby farm.
When I wrote the first draft, I didn’t intend to publish it. But then I realized the story materialized out of a passion I didn’t even know I had: to promote kindness amongst children. It has been my dream to publish a book and so I decided one day, after printing four copies of my story and distributing them onto my colleagues’ desks, that I was going to pursue publication.
When I tell people I’m working on a children’s book, I often hear what a great idea it is, and that they, too, have considered writing a children’s book as a way of bringing in some extra income.
I so badly wish it worked that way. But it doesn’t. Or not for most people, anyway.
Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site is a classic bedtime story with a great backstory: author Sherri Rinker sent her unsolicited manuscript to Chronicle Books — and they published it. It topped the New York Times bestselling list. This book is a hit. It is also an anomaly.
With the odds against me, I polished up and submitted my manuscript to Chronicle Books. This publisher happens to produce some of my favorite children’s books, most notably This Bridge Will Not Be Gray and Her Right Foot, both by Dave Eggers. I’d be in such good company there, I thought.
It should come as a surprise to no one that Chronicle Books did not pick up my book.
After six months passed with no word from the publisher, I began thinking about my next plan. As I saw it, I had two options:
- Find an agent and have him or her sell my book to a publisher
- Indie publish
I chose option number two. There are a lot of different ways to indie publish a book, but I chose to go with a publishing agency that works with authors through the entire process, from writing to editing, illustrating to printing. I wanted to give my book the best chance at success so I decided to work with people who know what…
