Month: September 2020

When I attended the SCBWI Conference in Washington, everyone got a list of agents and publishers who also attended the conference. I found this list very valuable because some of the publishers don’t accept unsolicited materials unless you attended the conference. There is a timeline for you to submit to them after the conference so I was glad I had finished my dummy book when I attended the conference. In addition, the conferences are info packed and you get to meet a lot of like minded people.

I like to hear about other people’s publishing journeys and their creative processes.

Check out SCBWI’s official blog to see what’s happening in a conference. http://scbwiconference.blogspot.com/

I’ve sent my dummy book to every agents/publishers that were in my category (picture books abbreviated PB) on the list. I didn’t hear back from any except an agent who asked if I have any other work. I don’t have anything that’s ready to be shown but it was encouraging to hear that from an agent. I sent out a few more dummy books in the mail to publishers who accept unsolicited material but didn’t hear back from any of them. When I checked their websites, they were all closed due to COVID-19. Please see my previous post Getting ready to submit my picture book dummy to see how I compiled a list of publisher to submit to. In addition, if you google picture book submissions, you will find lists like these: 75 Children’s Book Publishers Currently Accepting Submissions

Before submitting to publishers, it was advised on most submission guidelines to research what kind of books they publish to see if your story fits in with their collections. This is a very time consuming process but I think this way, the publishers can weed out a lot of people who are not serious or prepared.

Leave a Comment

I finally felt ready to send out my dummy book. I have emailed my dummy book to several agents/publishers on the list provided by the SCBWI conference that I’ve attended.

Writing cover letters to send to publishers was another art in itself. I googled “picture book cover letter sample” or variation of it and use the ones I liked as template. At this time, I’ve already collected a list of publishers that I wanted to send to and entered their submission requirements in an Excel sheet. In my picture book illustration classes, we were taught to read lots of picture books, make a list of publishers that publishes the kind of books that you like or make and google their submission guidelines. A lot of publishers don’t take unsolicited submission meaning you will have to have an agent to submit on your behalf. I think it cuts down a lot of work for the publishers as they receive a lot of submissions. I do see a number of publishers who do not accept unsolicited manuscripts but welcome illustrators to email them their portfolios. Chronicle Books is one of the publishers that still takes unsolicited submissions and they write a very good blog about the whole process plus some useful tips. I read their blog posts when I first started preparing to submit and found it illuminating. A good place to start here: So, You’ve Written a Children’s Book…Now What?

Some publishers require physical dummy books to be mailed to them. I am happy that I agreed to make yearbooks for my son’s school and was taught how to use Adobe InDesign. It was very useful when I needed to print my own dummy book and have contact to the printing company.

Here is a list of publishers that accept unsolicited manuscripts:  30 Children’s Book Publishers Seeking Picture Books               

Go to the publisher’s website to see their most updated submission guidelines as they may change.

Leave a Comment

In 2019, I put my full effort into making my picture book dummy. I remember feeling excited every morning, wanting to get up to start working on my picture book. I felt I had a purpose because the story has meaning to me and it felt good making it come together!

I went to SCBWI critique meetings and signed up for the SCBWI conference in Washington. At times, I felt frustrated or dejected when I got negative feedback. Sometimes I felt pulled into different directions by other’s opinions. I tried to re-work my story and illustrations many, many times. But in the end, I always referred back to my original inspiration which was on pieces of scrap papers. All in all, I found the critique groups very useful and necessary. I met friends who encouraged me to move forward on this journey when I doubted myself.

These are what I’ve learned from my experience so far:

1. Trust when you are inspired to do something.

I felt the story coming to me at dawn and that I had to write it down means something and I need to pay attention to it. I remember an interview of Abraham-Hicks by Dr. Wayne Dyer who quoted Rumi: “The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep!”

Watch the interview What Is Inspiration  – Dr Wayne Dyer & Esther Hicks: Co-Creating at Its Best:

2. Fail faster.

As it was my first dummy, I didn’t know how finished/legible my sketches should be so I tried to do it well which took a lot of time. I finished my dummy before I went through the majority of the critiques and it caused a lot of frustrations when I had to redraw them again and again. Sometimes I felt hesitant to change because I didn’t want to redraw them again. Then I stumbled upon this video: Fail Faster – A Mantra for Creative Thinkers – Extra Credits

It says the most basic lesson of design is to fail faster. Don’t wait until you think you have a perfect product before testing it out with people. On the other hand, my picture book classmate told me that because the amount of work I’ve already put in, the final illustrations will be easier. Thank you Mariana for the encouragement! And since it was my first dummy and I don’t have a lot of illustrations in my portfolio (yet), the sketches needed to be pretty finished to give potential publishers/agents a better idea of what the finished illustrations would look like.

So whatever happens, it’s all good.

Leave a Comment