It's a Bunny-Eat-Bunny World: A Writer's Guide to Surviving and Thriving in Today's Competitive Children's Book Market

This is easily one of the best books available about writing for children. It provides a clear explanation about the factors that acquisition editors consider when evaluating manuscripts and explains how to avoid looking like one of those writers who believes that children will read anything so long as it is cute. It also shows how to make a submission look professional and describes the proper etiquette of approaching editors and agents. Several books are available about this subject but this one, in my opinion, gives the most specific, helpful, and realistic advice.

OK, I'm exaggerating.There aren't any scenes of cute li'l bunnies ripping out each other's throats, but there ARE true and sometimes terrifying tales of what goes on behind the scenes in the children's book trade. Having seen the biz from three sides (author, editor, agent), Olga Litowinsky gives us a frank, refreshing, and often scary alternative to the glut of "Read this and you WILL get published, GUARANTEED!" tomes crowding the shelves.From editors who steal ideas for successful new book series to editorial meetings where potentially great books meet their end, "It's a Bunny-Eat-Bunny World" takes the reader behind closed doors to see the stuff we're not supposed to see. The book also follows the publishing adventures of a fictionalized author selling his first book and showing the first-time author what to expect after signing on the dotted line. Often, it's another several months of even harder work than writing the manuscript for the book.Beyond being a guide for writers, "It's a Bunny-Eat-Bunny World" will also give parents, teachers, librarians and anyone else who buys children's books a fascinating insider's view. Once you read it, you'll realize that every cute li'l bunny on the cover of a children's book had to claw his way there.

Olga Litowinsky gives writers and aspiring writers exactly what they've long hoped for: a totally honest, realistic picture of children's book publishing with good, solid suggestions for submitting and promoting their books. She offers the evolvement of children's book publishing from the early days, in which editors made publication choices, to the present time, in which marketing departments play a large part in the selection of what is published. In my opinion, this is the finest, most helpful book ever written for readers who are writers or who hope to be published children's book writers.