Actively Seeking Children's Book Authors

[Stephanie]

Here's an opportunity from FabJob:

To launch its new line of children's picture books, FabJob is
seeking complete manuscripts containing both words and pictures.

If we wish to publish your book we will pay you a flat fee of
$2,000 U.S. for rights to publish the words and pictures. (This is not a royalty publishing arrangement.)

Before you send your manuscript please note the following. If any of the following points are a concern, please do not submit a manuscript.

* No submissions will be returned.
* Due to the anticipated volume of submissions, we can
respond only if we are interested in publishing your book.
* Do not send original artwork. We cannot be responsible
for artwork being lost or damaged in the mail.
* Send your submission by regular mail only.
* Do not submit anything except children's picture book
manuscripts. We cannot accept other types of manuscripts.
* Only complete manuscripts (containing both words and
pictures) will be considered. No incomplete submissions can be accepted.
* We apologize for these "rules" but we are already
receiving numerous inappropriate submissions and want to save you the trouble of sending us something we won't be able to accept.

Copies of manuscripts and artwork (DO NOT SEND ORIGINALS) should be mailed to:

Children's Book Editor
FabJob Publishing
19 Horizon View Court
Calgary, Alberta T3Z 3M5

Please do not submit a query. We need to actually see the book to decide whether we want to publish it.

[Reece10]

Hi Stephaine,

I had seen this posted elsewhere. The only "catch" for me, is the manuscript has to be complete with story and PICTURES!

My art leaves a lot to be desired! :lol

Reece

[Stephanie]

Stick figures, Reese, stick figures! (and clip art of course....)

Seriously, though, I like artwork that either carries a parallel story or one that has another character in it (ie., like the mouse in the Critter series).

--steph

[lucyishome]

Thanks for the information. Is there any specific guidelines for formating the manuscript somewhere? Thanks.

Anne

[Stephanie]

I looked all over, Anne. Doesn't seem to be anything. I suppose we'll just have to email and ask - be nice to know the target age and word count, eh?

--Steph

[lucyishome]

I am sorry it took me awhile to respond. I have been having problems posting on the boards. Anyway I went to their site and it did nto have anymore information so I will try to email them and see if I can find out more information about this. With any luck I will be able to give some more answers to this soon. Thanks Stephanie for your help. I will let you knwo if I find anything else out.

Anne

[lucyishome]

I sent an email and got an automated response that basically said most information you need is on their website and since they get so many emails they only will respond to you if they feel there is a need so hopefully I will hear something back. I am interested but without knowing more specific details about what they would like to see it is hard to know how to proceed. Also since they only respond if they wish to purchase your book how long is long enough to wait before moving forward and submitting to other publishers. Yikes I sure hope we can find out more information. Anyway I will keep you updated.

Anne

[Stephanie]

Thanks for that Anne. I'll try at this end too - maybe if they get enough "huh?" emails and snail mail letters, they'll put up just a few specifics.

--steph

[Stephanie]

Lookee here!

www.fabjob.com/writers.html#childauthor (http://www.fabjob.com/writers.html#childauthor)

--Steph

[lucyishome]

Thanks Stephanie yu are the best. I do beleive I can go ahead and submit my work. Now I just need to work on the illustrations yikes thats going to be hard.
Anne

[lucyishome]

I was wondering how you interpet this from the posting on the Fabjob site. Do you think it means that the manuscript needs to be submitted in book type format meaning both text and pictures on the same page or pictures on a seperate page from text?
Only complete manuscripts (containing both words and pictures) will be considered. No submissions without artwork will be accepted.

I am working my illustrations right now and it is coming along alright. The text is ready I just need to type it up since it is already handwritten. Anyway just hoping to get some feedback. Anybody else plan on submitting to them? The only thing that is kind of a bummer is not hearing back unless they are interested becasue you do not how long to wait before moving on to another publisher. Anyway thats it for now. Thanks.

Anne

[rhymegirl]

I saw this ad, too, for picture books and I'm thinking of trying.

I wrote a children's picture book years ago complete with artwork. I made a "dummy" of the book and cut and paste the words onto the pages with the drawings.

I know I can't submit the book this way because then they would have my original copy and I won't get it back. So if I do this, I will photocopy the pictures (blocking out the copy) and type the manuscript separately.

Questions: If you get a flat fee of $2000 for the book, do you still hold the copyright?
How many drawings are necessary? I have a whole bunch.
Did it say anywhere in the guidelines about a deadline??

Thanks!

[Agy Wilson]

Personally, I don't find this a good deal, AT ALL. The minimum going rate for writer/illustrators is $10-15,000 plus royalties for the first book. The fact that they don't respond unless they are interested, it's $2,000 FLAT FEE, that's all you get period, would preclude the majority of working artist/illustrators in the business from even submitting.

For the record, I'm not averse to taking smaller advances or even no advances under special circumstances with new startups with GREAT BUSINESS plans, but this seems real wonky on that front and offers it's talent, you know, the ones that SELL their product by making it something worth offering dismal at best. I'd be leery.

Love,
Agy Wilson
www.Yellapalooza.com
www.kidmagwriters.com
ArtSmarts writer
www.robertssnow.com
www.cafepress.com/agywilsonshtuff
www.hometown.aol.com/twi1009589/page1.html

[stunner1]

I agree with Agy! Though I am fairly new to submitting children's manuscripts (I have only submitted two thus far), I have done a great deal of research on the subject, as well as having various articles printed online(paid format). There are a couple of things that give me pause about this situation.

First the leap from publishing how to's primarily online to print children's books is like going from being a cashier in a fast food chain to opening your own full service restaurant. Yes, they are somewhat related, but...

Second, some publishers do pay a flat fee, however, this generally does not include the illustrations. Typically they are considered separate entities, and are paid as such.



If any of you try this and have luck with it, I'd sure appreciate hearing about it!

[Ali B]

I submitted my book "The Kitties Danced" on Friday. I'll let you guys know if I hear anything.

From what I've heard about this company is that they are pretty good at the e-book business. Who's to say that their new adventure won't go as well?
Besides, $2,000 is $2,000. I don't sneeze at that. It only took me two days to go from idea to illustrated book, since I'm a professional illustrator. That's $125 an hour for 16 hours.
Just something to think about.