A Southern Missive

I’m not giving up my adult writing, but I am now officially a children’s picture book author. (Likely, I’ll try my hand at young adult books also). I have two children’s picture books published with Pelican Publishing, and another as soon as they find an illustrator, which brings me to the point of my blog. If you know an artist, or if you are an artist, if you have done artwork for children’s books before, if you don’t mind the hard work and rewrites (in the artist case, re-draws) if you can do research to make your art factually actually accurate as well as beautiful, then you need to apply to Pelican Publishing.  If you’re lucky, you’ll do the artwork for a hard-working author who will move a lot of books. If you’re smart, you’ll try to sell many books yourself. (You split the royalties with the author, so it’s in your favor to hook up with an author who will burn up the roads and do signings at many stores. For example, I did over 110 signings, programs, readings, and presentations last year. My book didn’t do badly, but if my artist had matched my efforts, we could have had a national best seller. )

I have more children’s books that Pelican would like to publish beyond these three I have with them, but they need artists. The one they’re ready to sign a contract on is The Little Confederate’s ABC Book. Please apply to Pelican, or tell a friend who is a good artist to apply. Please do look at the artwork for Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House and my Scottish Alphabet Book for samples of the quality of artwork that is needed.  Here are Pelican’s Guidelines for Artists. If you’d like to team up with me, you need to be interested in and  to do VERY well at Civil War art. You can find the guidelines page yourself here:

Pelican Publishing Company, the largest book publisher in the South, is always interested in talented, hard-working illustrators. All materials that are submitted to us are kept on file and reviewed as new projects arise. We would be very happy to have you send some of your best work for our perusal. Below are our basic guidelines for submissions.

Please Note: Pelican does not accept illustrations submitted via e-mail or the Internet!

Appointments: Pelican prefers submission by mail only. If an appointment is necessary, contact will be made with the artist.

Via Mail: Please send all materials securely packed and insured if necessary. Any materials to be returned must be accompanied by return postage and return packing materials.

Artwork Markings: Be sure all materials have your complete name, address and phone number in case the materials are separated or some are to be returned.

Artwork Format: Try to keep the size of all materials under 8 1/2 x 11 unless they may be folded. Materials are stored in a standard letter file cabinet, so oversize material is returned. Published works are preferable, but color and B/W copies are acceptable. Please do not send faxed materials unless requested.

Suggested Subject Matter: Since the majority of our illustrated books are for (1) children, (2) young adults and (3) technical, work submitted should be in these categories. Our children’s books are generally full color with both whimsical and realistic, human and animal characters. Our young adult books require black/white line work in a mostly realistic style. Technical work would include maps, diagrams, charts etc.

A current resume showing work in the design area (especially books) is helpful.

Pelican address:
All items being sent UPS, USPS or Federal Express materials should be sent to:

PELICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
1000 Burmaster St.
Gretna, LA 70053
Attn: Production Manager

I have been fortunate to have had two great artists to have illustrated my books so far. Both did meticulous research and the illustrations are beautiful. I realize that their artwork is one reason I can sell and promote the book so easily. You’ll have to pitch your work yourself as it is standard policy for the author to have little decision-making power in regards to the illustrator. I wish you luck. I hope we can work together someday.  You can query the editor of Pelican Publishing (only regarding ideas. Do NOT send artwork via email unless they request it) at this email: nkooij@pelicanpub.com  or you can query them by snail mail at the address listed above.

Why Write Children’s Books?

I write children’s books because they are great tools. I want to teach children, teachers, and parents the great stories of history that have been left out of the history books. In my school programs (email me and I’ll send you a brochure) I’ve seen the joy that good books can bring to children. I’ve seen parents crack up with laughter over a book they read to their children. I’ve seen gifted and talented high school students do great read-alouds with children’s books. Children’s books are here to stay. Parents will keep children’s books when they’ve sold all their others in garage sales.

I didn’t intend to be a children’s book author, but I’m glad I am.

First, the very good news: The Scottish Alphabet (my children’s picture book) is in the Pelican warehouse!  I’ll be delivering copies to those who preordered them soon. This also means that copies will be available for sale at the Jackson Celtic Fest in early September.  I haven’t quite finished my study guide and teacher packet for the book yet, but I’ll get to it.

Performances:

I will be performing guitar/vocals at the Daily Harvest Bakery and Deli 1105 Forsythe Ave
Monroe, LA 71201 (318) 812-2253, Saturday, August 23; Saturday, August 30. Both days I will perform from 9:00 a.m. till noon or one. The music will be a mixture of Americana, instrumentals, and Scots-Irish music. On Saturday, Sept. 13, I’ll be performing there again, but probably most of the day. Teresa and Gale, the owners/managers, are great ladies. They now have their own cookbook, entitled, Daily Harvest Bakery and Deli Cookbook. If you love to eat healthy but good-for-you food, you need these recipes. You can read all about the book (and order it) here:

I’ve heard there are folks who are professional sweepstakers, or who make a living entering contests (some requiring skills).  That must be fun, though I know it must be brutal work and require constant focus and a lot of organization.  There are contests for writers too–lots of them! Somewhere along the way, I started entering them, and I’m glad I did.  Winning the Ernest Hemingway Short Story Competition was really the jump start to my writing career. Since then, I’ve won or placed in a few others. I now enter every contest I can, though not as many as I should. Some of them are free, others you have to pay an entry fee for. I’m glad to pay the entry fee since the judges of the contests I enter are usually writers, publishers, or editors, (some of them very influential in the publishing world) and I know that my submission will actually be read instead of discarded or added to an overworked and underpaid editor’s huge slush pile.  There are writing contests for the genres of poetry, drama, fiction (short stories, collections of short fiction, and novels), essays and other nonfiction pieces, songwriting, recipes and a gadzillion others.  Winning contests looks good on one’s resume and the winning, published piece perhaps can catch the eyes of influential editors, agents, and publishers.

Contests for Writers:

For High School Students:  The mother of all writing contests are the Ayn Rand essay contests. BIG bucks. And the Ayn Rand institute will supply teachers with class sets of Rand’s novels in exchange for a commitment (and I would document it) to actually teach the novel.  (The novels are Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged.)  I’ve read these, and I liked them more than I thought I would. These are perfect novels that work well in dystopian studies.

Contests develop students’ writing skills. When I taught high school, I would make it mandatory for my high school students to enter such contests. Some of my high school gifted and honors students won money every year in one contest or another.

The link for the contest with the rules and prizes for the Rand contest  is here:

Other Writing Contests:

1) I enter the Booklocker  24-Hour Short Story Contest, held quarterly. The writing prompt is mailed to you at noon on a Saturday, and you must have it to them by noon on Sunday.  The entry fee is five dollars, and when you enter, guidelines are given. Prize money is good, the judges are excellent. Entering this contest will not only give you a bank of good stories (which I keep and enter in other contests) but will surely raise your computer skills as you wrestle with technological problems. Such timed contests are the ultimate stress-producers, but I believe it’s true that we writers sometimes produce more and better stuff under pressure. The start time is: Saturday, September 27, 2008 at 12:00 p.m. (noon) Central Time. Here is the site for the fall contest. If you decide to enter it, I’d read former winning entries. That will give you some idea of the tastes of the judges.  

2) New Millennium Writings Contest. This is also a quarterly contest, and a prestigious one. Entry fee is $17.00.  You can enter in any or all of the following categories, and with as many entries as you wish: Fiction, Short Fiction, Short-Short Fiction, Poetry, and Nonfiction. Winners get a very nice cash prize and publication. The contest’s website is here:

The magazine’s homepage is here:

I’ll likely post more information on other contests in the future. If you liked this contest information, send me an email at rickeyp@bayou.com