see the documentary
"The Pixar Story"

"The Pixar Story"

wireless notebook
separators
3 ring binder

(For the record, I must add the following disclaimer that this paragraph is my opinion and personal deduction, based on what information I could discover Names have been changed to protect the researcher). I did a little research, looking at Simon & Schuster who had bought Schribners and The Free Press, and in turn they were bought by CBS. One thing that the macro-game "Mergers and Acquisitions" creates in any business is a need to "reduce excess baggage" as it is called in the high finance trade, which means that the parent company tasked them to layoff people to reduce costs so that the general manager and CEO will look better to their board of directors and feather their own nests with bonuses, stock options and golden parachutes (in case the worst happens and their policies actually hurt the business). The result of all this upper level management is much the same as what happened at Microsoft. MS found that their compensation package for new hires was actually costing them money, as was the necessity of supporting an entire human resources division to screen applications & applicants for the company. As a result big MS began using the services of Volt temporary services to provide initial screening. That company became the screening agency which provides these HR services for less. Simon & Schuster changed their policy in a similar manner, when they decided to limit book reviews to those pre-screened manuscripts coming from the hands of literary agents. This policy cost them the advantage of the first or initial contact with new writers, and theoretically they might lose an opportunity to another publishing house if the agent presented something good elsewhere, however, the cozy relationship they cultivate with agents will insure that they see the best prescreened manuscripts first. Allegedly, the agent works for the author taking a 10 to 15% commission from the authors compensation package, but as in real estate the agent is paid by the buyer but enjoys a "cozy" relationship with the seller because the greater the selling price the better their commission. In actuality the literary agent has a "relationship" with particular publishing houses which may or may not benefit a new author. This is the best recommendation I can imagine for finding a small publisher first, on your own, then after you have a book in print or letter of agreement in hand, approaching an agent with a good reputation who has an "in" with a particular publisher who is your actual target. If this seems convoluted, remember that the goal is to arrange to have the publisher with the best reputation and history publishing & promoting your work.

The next step is to arrange for publicity as soon as possible, preferably before your book comes out in print. You do this by sending a copy of the galley proofs for your book to a trade publication like Publisher's Weekly. They have submission requirements requesting the galley proofs as early as possible, so that they can provide the earliest possible release for reviews for new books. Their subscribers include all sorts of buyers for bookstores & libraries. These sorts of submissions are usually handled by the marketing & promotions departments for publishers, so as a new author, it might be good to know whether your publisher will handle this aspect or expect you or your literary agent to do so.

I did an online search for book submission guidelines and received 14,300 hits. Many were vanity press links, but there were interesting major publishers represented there as well. It is a legitimate resource for beginning authors to do research in addition to the writer's market books which come out every year.

    Question
How do you expand a single good chapter into an entire book?
I asked my mentor"How do you produce enough work for 5 one-man-shows a year, when we have a limited number of good ideas? He answered that for every good idea, you should be able to produce at least 5 variations: size, color, medium, emphasis, or focus which will generate at least one prize winner or museum quality piece to make your name and provide extra additional work for other shows. This translates into writing as situational variations. Many children's authors produce repeated chapters with the same premise, changing only location, additional characters or viewpoint. The situational plot remains the same and becomes a predictable story line that children can follow and anticipate. Many books are built as collections of short stories that share characters and general locale. "Variations on a theme" build collections from a single idea.

As to writing the book, we can begin with the entire story, or a character study & situation You can use a script outline or a storyboard to maintain continuity and adjust timing. Once the characters are well crafted, some authors claim that the stories almost write themselves. The script or storyboard outline can keep these active characters under control.

I suggested finding a "perfect book" to use as an example or template for your writing. Creating an elegy to an admired hero is the best compliment. Many artists & writers use this process to begin writing. However the goal is to improve upon the model - a good aspiration for any creative endeavor. Improve upon the role model or template. History is replete with such examples. Shakespeare's"The Tempest" was used for many similar stories: "Forbidden Planet", comes to mind first. "Taming of the Shrew" was recently used with warm affection as the basis of the contemporary Movie with the local setting "10 Things I Hate About You". =================================
Homework:
Do your research,Select a publisher: explain why in class (hint:other books, awards, submission guideline comments online, reference comments from other authors)
=================================
1. alternative class text- Text - "How to Write a Children's Book and Get It Published by Barbara Seuling"
http://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Childrens-Book-Published/dp/0471676195/ref=sr_1_14/002-5473058-0264002?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186156313&sr=1-14
2. children's book publishers:http://www.publishingcentral.com/subject.html?sid=86&si=1
3. Canadian Children’s Book Centre:http://www.bookcentre.ca/general_interest/pub_sites.shtml
4. Information about Writing, Illustrating, and Publishing Children's Books: The Purple Crayon:
http://www.underdown.org/
5. Children's Book Publishers:http://www.publishamerica.com/childrens-book-publishers/
6. Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (International): http://www.scbwi.org/store.htm
7. Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (Western Washington): http://www.scbwi-washington.org/
[$75 initial fee 1st year $60 renewal thereafter]

How-to books for illustrators: my favorite 4
links: for class notes www.jonraderjarvis.com/classes.htm and email contact address jrj@jonraderjarvis.com © 2008 Jon Rader Jarvis, all rights reserved