Is it delusional to think a book of children's poetry has a chance?

Seeing how the market is right now and especially because most agents say (no poetry), I'd say it is not possible at this time. You might want to do a little research on agents and publishers as well as query letters. It's a long and tedious process, but after the rush settles down, you get used to it.

I think it would be wonderful. I used to go to the library and sit for hours reading poetry meant for kiddies. (I was 6-ish). I especially loved new, funny, or made-up words. A lot of successful children's books also have a rhyme or flow to them too. Just have cool pictures!

Anything has a chance, but in the case of a children's book of poetry by an unknown author--not much.

First, why don't you post some of those poems in the SYW (Share Your Work) section on AW? You could get some great feedback.

Second--aim for getting just one poem published in a kid's mag. It's not easy, since most don't take rhyming poems, but look them up online or in the Children's Writer's And illustrators Markets book.

Third--no, no, no illustrations (sorry Moonstone!) but the large and (even the smaller) publishing houses pair illustrators with the writers.

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stormie said:

Anything has a chance, but in the case of a children's book of poetry by an unknown author--not much.

First, why don't you post that poem in the SYW (Share Your Work) section on AW? You could get some feedback.

Second--aim for getting just one poem published in a kid's mag. It's not easy, since most don't take rhyming poems, but look them up online or in the Children's Writer's And illustrators Markets book.

Third--no, no, no illustrations (sorry Moonstone!) but the large and (even the smaller) publishing houses pair illustrators with the writers.

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I second Stormie. And the next advice I'd give you is to go to the library and reserch to find all similar books published in the last 5 years. Then look at those books - who wrote them (debut, unknown, authors? well-known authors? Anthology? etc); who published them (small niche press? Inspirational press? large trade publisher? etc); look at what the poems are like - and what they are about (themed? story told in verse? etc).

Then, take that list and try the agents who repped the books or the editors who published them. I will warn you, I'm not sure you will find many, and I can't think of any by a debut author. But the research is where you should start, so you know how best to try to market this.

I'll second, for emphasis, Stormie's nod that anything is theoretically possible, but in this market, such a collection would likely be a tough sell.

I'll also suggest posting some of the poems in the writing for children forum in Share Your Work for some critique. I'd also suggest reading any threads on here and elsewhere on rhyme and meter and make sure your meter is perfect in every line of every poem. There is no room for fudging anything in poetry.

good luck.

~suki

onerubberducky said:

Thanks, I guess it does not hurt to submit. Who knows? I put a few more in the post your work section.

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No, it doesn't hurt to query/submit, but make sure you've done all you can to make it as marketable as you can before you do - ie, IMO, and it's subjective, of course, but in my opinion the poems need more work. So posting is SYW is a great first step. You may also want to try to find some beta readers familiar with poetry to also give more in depth critique.

So, do your homework - reading other poetry for children will help you research the market and improve your own work.

good luck.

~suki

The best advice I can give is: Join SCBWI! http://www.scbwi.org/

They offer workshops specifically for children's poets. They publish a quarterly magazine that includes poetry. They have resources on markets and agents.

Becoming a published poet is a totally different process than publishing stories. You'll need to research it. A lot.

The short answer: yes, it most certainly is possible to get a poetry book published. You could start by checking out websites for published authors. Betsy Franco, Jack Prelutsky, Allan Katz, plenty of people are doing it. But I'm not sure how they got started.