Woohoo! I’ve finished another revision of my current favorite children’s story, made some brutal edits to reduce the length, and when I read it aloud a few times, it sounded pretty good. I’m usually very critical of my own work, so when I get something to the point where I actually like it, I’m flying high. Hey, if I like it, this thing must be half-decent!
And then I started looking for agents to query. Wheeee! There goes the rollercoaster right back down again. First off, even among kidlit agents, there aren’t many who want picture books for older kids (the upper end of the PB market, that is: 4-7-year-olds). Of those, most don’t want rhyming books. And no one, anywhere, seems to want a book of more than 1,000 words – 400-600 seems to be what they’re looking for. Mine’s nearly 1,200, in rhyme, after serious editing. Damn.
Now, don’t get me wrong – I love a good minimalist picture book. Some stories, even for older kids, just don’t need a lot of text. “I Want My Hat Back” and “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!” are two current faves in our house, and they’re 253 and 161 respectively. Plenty of books that seem longer (but are still in the acceptable bedtime-story range) are 800-900, like the Octonauts books, the longer Julia Donaldson books, and plenty of fairytales.
Some classic children’s books have much, much higher word counts and can evoke a feeling of dread when bedtime is already being dragged out and the kid announces, “Let’s read Eloise!” I love Eloise, but at over 3,000 words it’s a bit much for sleepy parents. Same goes for “Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book,” which at 1,700+ can put the entire family to sleep, including the person reading it from memory with their eyes closed. (Note that the four-year-old’s attention span is not a problem with these longer books – though she’s a little bookworm and we read lots of chapter books to her with no attention problems.)
But some of my very favorite (rhyming, no less!) books are above the desirable 600-word ceiling and definitely don’t feel too long for bedtime. “Bubble Trouble” is 832, “Iggy Peck, Architect” is 699, “The Pirate Cruncher” is 928. Maybe these are exceptions, but it seems to me that lots of favorite books in our household are in that general range. I’m not saying that my book is as good as those examples (and thus should also be an exception), just that there clearly is a market for books of that length, so it’s frustrating that agents/editors don’t want them. I know it’s about trends in publishing and shorter books are in favor right now, but I’m left feeling frustrated and disappointed that the book I really wanted to write, that I thought I wrote pretty well, probably doesn’t stand a chance.
I haven’t even sent a query letter and I’m already feeling rejected.
michelle heimburger 