Is Your New Year’s Resolution to Write for Children? Don’t Let Overwhelming Odds of Being Published Hold You Back

Houston, TX—Only one in 4,000 is overwhelming odds that a children’s book manuscript will ever get into book form, yet those writers who must publish or perish struggle on. The ABC’s Children’s Picture Book Competition, now in its third year, intends to cut those odds drastically. So, if your New Year’s Resolution is to get a children’s book published, this competition could be your ticket to a publishing contract, but hurry the deadline for entries is midnight, February 28, 2007.

“We decided to sponsor this competition because there were so many good manuscripts out there by unknown authors who were never given a second look by a big publisher,” Ms. Mills, director of the ABC’s, said. “In reality,” confides Rita Mills, “unless we receive over 4,000 entries, an author has a far better chance of getting published through the ABC’s competition than by shipping manuscripts everywhere and waiting for rejection letters. And, they will have a lot more fun with this competition,” she added.

“Any of the ten finalists will be a worthy publishing project, but we want the winner to be selected by the parents and children who actually read the books not an editor sitting behind a desk,” added Ms. Mills. “And, with the competition’s first winning manuscript, Don’t Eat the Bluebonnets, barely in print two months, it has already been nominated for two prestigious book awards, so the future looks much better for newbie children’s writers.”

Judges pick the ten best stories with marketability a prime factor. Then an illustrator is chosen to produce a piece of spec art to compliment each story. The finalists will be posted on the internet for a two-week period of voting in September 2007, and the winner of the vote will get a publishing contract. “Word is spreading fast in the schools about the competition and many teachers are making the vote a class project, so we anticipate exceeding last year’s competition total of 20,000 votes by 100,000 or more this year,” said Sandy Lawrence who heads up the marketing of the competition.

The competition is open to any published or unpublished writer, over the age of 21 who lives in the US. Competition rules and submission guidelines can be found on the website. Finalists in the first two competitions are also there so you can get a feel for what the competition is all about.

www.abcBookCompetition.org

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