Self-Publishing Your Children’s Book

by Sharon Pelletier, Editor

It’s a cherished bedtime routine—bathtime, teeth brushing, cozy pajamas, then parents and children curl up together for a bedtime story. Turning the bright pages together, reading the familiar words, laughing at the adventures of adorable characters and enjoying the favorite rhymes… but what about the stories that aren’t in books? The ones that live only as storytelling tradition passed down for years? Is it possible for you to self-publish the tale in your imagination, so that it comes to life as a book you hold in your lap? What follows will give you an idea of the behind-the-scenes action involved in self-publishing a children’s book with Vantage.

Children’s books come with a unique set of questions: What age is your story intended for? Is your story a read-aloud, or for children learning to read on their own? Does it address a common childhood fear, or help prepare children for a milestone experience? Your editor works with you to answer these questions, suggesting the best format for your story and working with you to perfect your manuscript, from each word to overall storyline. With industry expertise, a keen sense of children’s cognitive development and literacy levels, and an ongoing focus on your own vision for your work, your editor is a most important partner.

The next step is one that authors of books for adults seldom get to enjoy: planning the illustrations! You and your editor will have a lot of fun determining the right style of art for your story and discussing which scenes should be brought to life on the page. Because this is self-publishing, you get to be fully involved in this process, reviewing the illustrator’s sample sketches, approving final illustrations, even collaborating on how the text flows with the art as the pages are laid out.

Once the illustrations are perfect and every word has been proofread, your book goes to print! You will wait eagerly to see that first copy of your own story as a published book, and everyone in our office is just as excited when a beautiful new children’s title rolls off the delivery truck and into our hands.

Then it’s on to the publicity department, where children’s books again have special privileges of their own, thanks to storytimes and other outreach events at local bookstores, libraries, and schools. Your publicist will work with you to identify the best opportunities in your community where you can share your new book with children and their parents. Soon families in your neighborhood—and beyond—will be able to turn the pages of the story that once lived in your imagination alone.

Putting Authors First

by Laura Ross, Managing Editor

“Laura, these covers are all beautiful! I’m awestruck. I’m over the moon! Thank you so much!”

Do you wonder why I love my job?

I quote a happy author here at the risk of sounding immodest. (In fact, the credit for all of this delight belongs to Sheila Hart, one of our talented designers.) But, oh, how I love to help writers realize their personal visions—to bring their books to life in a way that exceeds their expectations. It is something we are uniquely positioned to do at Vantage. Don’t laugh, but I think of this as the “Vantage advantage.”

I know what I’m talking about. Over the course of thirty years in publishing, I’ve worked at corporate giants and scrappy independents—all successful, competitive, and staffed with smart, creative, and passionate professionals. But I can honestly say that I’ve never before worked at a publisher that wholeheartedly makes the author’s vision its top priority.

For a lot of good reasons, an editor at a conventional publishing house serves many masters. She answers to marketing gurus, sales teams, CEOs, and consultants. She is expected to protect the company’s investment in a project by putting the company’s needs first—sometimes at the expense of the author. And when it is finally time to market and sell the book she believed in and acquired, the overworked editor has already moved on to new projects and challenges.

At Vantage, our authors are our partners from beginning to end, and we do all we can to polish, perfect, and build upon what they’ve created to make the best and most beautiful books possible.

When I take on a new Vantage project, the first thing I do is have a heart-to-heart talk with the author about his or her artistic journey. Some of the questions I ask are, how long have you been writing? What inspired you to write this particular book, in this particular category? When you close your eyes and imagine holding the finished book in your hands, what does it look and feel like? What other books and writers do you admire? Who do you think of as your ideal reader?

Writing can be a very solitary pursuit. Believe it or not, some of the writers I work with have never talked frankly and in detail about their work with anyone, until I ask them these questions. I wonder if they realize how valuable these conversations can be, and that I enjoy them as much as they do?

The next step is to make every aspect of the book live up to the vision we’ve laid out together—from the prose style and illustrations to the cover design, flap copy, and marketing plans. No editor can do all of that alone—so we put together just the right creative team for each project. At Vantage, we draw upon the talents of some of the best and most experienced text editors, illustrators, designers, and other professionals in the business. And I’m pretty sure that each of them feels just as I do—that it is uniquely gratifying to be working unambiguously toward fulfilling an author’s vision.

The author is an active participant at each stage of a Vantage book’s development—and if everything goes smoothly (as it usually does) I have the pleasure of delivering the book that my author has been dreaming of from the start. Or maybe something even better—the book he or she never dreamed possible. That’s when I get the e-mails and letters with the exclamation points and smiley faces. That’s when I think about how much I love my job.

Inaugurating the Vantage Press blog

Welcome to the Vantage Press blog. We are launching this in tandem with our new web site, www.vantagepress.com. Please have a look and comment here about what you like or dislike. We are not only updating our design and presentation, but also trying on the site to be crystal clear about our full-service approach to fee-based publishing, and our values. In this blog we’ll address topics of concern to all authors seeking to publish a book: copyright, the role of the editor, design and production values, promotion and publicity, distribution – and, of course, royalties. Please join us (subscribe at right) and most importantly give us feedback as we continue to offer top flight service to authors. You may also always email us at feedback@vantagepress.com.