Last year, I wrote and illustrated a children’s book for a Children’s Literature class. It was a fairly large class, more than thirty people; on the day we all presented our projects, my prof took me aside after class and said, “You really ought to think about pursuing publication - your book is that good.” She went on to say that she only said the same to one other student (a professional artist who’d done a wordless picture book that was just stunning). I was flattered to be included in the same company as my classmate and said I’d give it some good hard thought, but beyond reading some books on the subject I haven’t done much.
I’m tired of sitting in my office feeling the mute reproach of this book as it sits on the shelf, though, and I think I really want to try. I know there are people on this board who have ties to the publishing industry, or experience writing books and getting them published – what advice can you give me? Everything I’ve heard suggests the odds of getting published are long even for a good book - what can I do to shorten those odds?
