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Ouch! That's a toughie. I understand the children's book market is pretty hard to break into--particularly picture books.
I hope you're writing and submitting short stories to children's magazines. That'll help tremendously to get your foot in the door at the book publisher's.
Surely you remember Highlights in your dentist's waiting room? There are numerous periodicals out there for children. Many parent magazines also print stories for children. Then there's Cricket magazine and its related age-graded magazines (I don't recall the titles of the others--all but names--but there are three or four of them in all).
How's that for a list of reputable children's magazines accepting stories and poems? True, they are all from the same publisher, but this company has been around for YEARS. Very reputable, I'd guess.
And they stinking pay up to 25c PER WORD!!! (Though I imagine you get paid per experience and name recognition, so a beginning writer likely wouldn't get that much. Still...)
[This message has been edited by djvdakota (edited December 03, 2004).]
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I'm probably showing my youth, here, but I have to say that as a child ages about eight to twelve or so, I absolutely adored Chricket magazine. It beats out Highlights hands down. I was fascinated, enthralled, and mesmerized every time a new issue came in the mail. Unfortunately it was pretty expensive, so my parents couldn't often afford to subscribe. I resorted to flipping through them at the library. The only other imprint of theirs I remember off the top of my head is Ladybug, the one for younger kids. If you can get published by that company, major kudos and I'll buy the issue!!
I have always loved children's literature, and would eventually like to break into that field as well. One book on children's publishing said that 95% of published picture books are written by established picture book authors or celebrities. If you're already famous, go for it. If not, you'll probably rot in slush pile hell. But, WE will ALL be famous writers some day, neh? So no worries there!
A good nature-oriented children's magazine is Ranger Rick, another one I read as a child.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
So no worries there!
