Pitching a Picture Book Series

Well, when you say 'frowned upon', it's just that the rule of thumb is that the number of books queried at any one time is inversely proportional to how good they are; so if I got a letter saying, here's my five-book series about a circus, I will be rather expecting that they will be rubbish. However, I will then go on to read the story and judge it on its own merits.

On a purely practical note it is vanishingly rare for a publisher to sign up a five picture book series from anyone who isn't actually a rock star or something, so you might also reconsider devoting a lot of energy to writing and polishing long series...

I would probably say the same thing. Pitch the first and, if it is accepted, then thank them and say "by the way I've another four stories featuring this character". You've more chance of them being intrigued by a series if the first book catches their attention.

Cheers
Skip

I had a series and pitched just the first book. When I recieved feedback, thats when my agent asked if I had any more. That being said, I don't know if its actually a selling point, but I don't see why it would hurt to mention that the book is one of four written about the circus. It would only take up one sentence of your letter, and it won't stop them from reading the ms you have submitted.

BTW Ella- can I just tell you that picture is hilarious!?!

I've published two picture book series--both nonfiction. One series was acquired book by book. The other was a twelve-book series on each of the months of the year. The publisher couldn't very well buy March without buying Januaray and November could he? So I sold all twelve books at once.

However most publishers won't buy a PB series until they've published at least one of the books. They want to know if they'll get their money back. It's expensive to publish a picture book. The publisher has to pay an advance to the author, another advance to the illustrator (or for the illustrations), they have to pay the editor for her time, the salaries of the art director and anyone else who might work on the book. Then they have to ship the whole thing to China where at least two thousand copies are printed. The books have to be stored and distributed. A sales force has to contact each bookstore and get the manager to carry the book. And those are only the expenses I can think of off the top of my head. Why would they ever buy two at once when they can test the water with one book at a time? I'm not saying it never happens--but it's rare.

The situation is different with upper grade books. They're cheaper to produce and it's easier to predict which ones will be mega-hits or at least big sellers.

Betsy- that is right, but you could query one and just mention in your letter that there are others that continue the story. I don't see why it would hurt just to mention it.

From the way you've described it--different stories set in the circus, but not necessarily the same characters or a continuation of the story--I think you're fine selling one and then presenting the others when someone shows interest. It sounds like the kind of thing that sells well as PB, because parents can buy the books out of order and they still make sense. So I wouldn't focus on the "series" aspect of it, unless it really is a series that needs to be read in a certain order.

You're right, Alanna. It shouldn't make a difference. But it does matter to some editors. I've been keeping a list of what all the major editors want on my website. Some specifically say that authors should not to try to sell them a series. I'm sure that others don't care. For example, go here and scroll down to read what Jennifer Rees says:

http://www.ellenjackson.net/editors_o_to_s_94576.htm

In my post above, I was just trying to suggest some reasons why that might be the case.

Ellen-
your site is awesome. VERY informative, thanks for sharing .