A Quick-and-Easy Introduction to Christian Publishing by Rebecca Grabill

 

Early in my writing career, I decided I wanted nothing to do with Christian publishing. 

I spent years laboring over a fantasy series, placed with the first two books in the series in a notable writing contest for Christian authors, and made a handful of connections in the publishing industry, but fantasy was a tough sell to Christian publishers, and the one published fantasy author I knew said it had taken her 27 (twenty seven!) years to place her first book. I was young, impatient, and most of the Christian books I had read were gifts from my mother-in-law, who really, really liked pioneer romance. So let’s just say I had a very limited and largely incorrect view of the Christian publishing world. If they didn’t want fantasy, I didn’t want them.

Fast forward more than a decade—it seemed I was on track. I had two books coming out with New York publishers, and more circulating with regular bites of interest. But in my spare moments, I had been putting together a book of readings for Advent because I couldn’t find what I wanted on the shelves. I have an undergrad in Religion and Philosophy and am married to a theologian, so this was natural and easy. It wasn’t a project I ever thought I’d try to publish, until I mentioned it to my agent.

 

She looked at a summary and said, “I didn’t know any of this!” And she set about trying to find a publisher in the Christian Book Universe.

We quickly realized that the Christian book world is very, very different from the ABA (American Booksellers Association). It’s so different, in fact, that my agent released my Christian works to another agent, who works almost exclusively with religious presses. I then began my crash course on writing for the Christian market. What are the key things to know for those hoping to break in? And why would you want to?

Published by Eerdman’s Books for Young Readers

Where are Christian books, anyway?

Those who don’t frequent Christian bookstores might think religious books are a tiny fraction of all books sold. The “inspirational” section of the local bookstore is minuscule and usually populated with self-help or gift book titles (and Eat Pray Love wall signs, amiright?), and when it comes to children’s books, you’ll struggle to find any contemporary Christian titles in stores or at the public library. But roughly 20 percent of all books sold are religious, and that number does not include the bestselling book of all time, the Bible.

How do I get started writing for the Christian market?

I have three words for you, three words that are already familiar to most writers: Network, Platform, Proposals.

Network

Network is every bit as essential in Christian publishing as it is in the ABA. I’ve found both my agents via my author-learner-friend network and not through blind submissions. Likewise all of my books have been hand-sold to publishers by my agent. What are the key ways to build network in the Christian market?

• Search out Christian bookstores, visit, and ask if they have author groups or events.
• Attend online and in-person writing conferences.
• If you do social media (I don’t, but that’s a topic for another day), follow houses and professionals online and interact with them in meaningful ways.
• Write fan letters to authors you admire, though without the expectation that they will become a new BFF or refer you to their agent (because that’s creepy).
• Find or create a writer’s group that focuses on Christian literature.
• Make and maintain friendships.

There’s a little-known expectation in the Christian market that other authors are now doing some of the preliminary vetting. Agent guidelines often ask that submitting authors have a referral. A referral is a published author, one of that agent’s clients, who is willing to say, “Yes, I know this writer and they’re worth looking at.” 

Your network matters. A lot.

Platform

In the Christian world, platform rules. Sure, it’s helpful in ABA publishing (otherwise would we have picture books by Madonna? Hmm), but in religious publishing, you truly need a stellar website, active subscriber base, teaching or speaking platform, or some other method of being known by your niche market. You don’t have that? Not all is lost. Use what you do have, and use it well. Here are some platform enhancers for all of us:

• Is your career or day job specific to your writing? Highlight it.
• Are you a teacher, librarian or other book professional? Use it!
• Do you have a quality website? No? ALL you need is a landing page—no need for an elaborate site, and they’re easy to make through site builders like Squarespace and Wix.
• Do you have any numbers at all? Your Christmas card list goes back 50 years and has 2,000 names on it, all of whom are blood relatives? That, my friend, is platform.

Proposals

If you write nonfiction, you know this beast and you know it well. If you write fiction for the ABA you’ve probably never so much as considered writing a proposal. 

Start considering. 

Proposals are the golden nugget of the Christian publishing universe, and I’m talking proposals for everything. Book of Lenten devotional readings? Proposal. Historical novel? Proposal. 3-word board book? Yup, proposal. 

You may be thinking it’s absolute insanity to create a proposal for a board book, but I can guarantee a good, well written proposal is the industry expectation. So if you’re interested in writing for the Christian book market, learn to write, and learn to love writing proposals. I could write at length about the benefits of proposals that go far beyond book submissions, but here ends your introduction.

That fantasy series I mentioned at the start is still languishing on my hard drive, but rewriting it (and creating a proposal) are high on my writerly to-do list.

Rebecca Grabill is an award-winning author of a collection of poetry (Sweetened Condensed, Flying Ketchup Press) and two picture books published by ABA houses (Halloween Good Night, Atheneum; Violet and the Woof, HarperCollins) and one picture book, A Year with Mama Earth, with Eerdman’s Books for Young Readers. She balances writing with homeschooling some of her six children and lives in rural Michigan with kids, husband, sixteen chickens, and high-maintenance cat. Discover more about her at her website www.rebeccagrabill.com.

Here's a peek at more of Rebecca's books:

https://bookshop.org/books/halloween-good-night-9781481450614/9781481450614

https://bookshop.org/books/violet-and-the-woof/9780062441102

https://www.flyingketchuppress.com/sweetened-condensed-rebecca-grabill

BONUS! 

To celebrate her most recent release, Rebecca created a printable poetry journal and printable bookplates as a gift to readers. You can download them for free here: https://mailchi.mp/8539bd427a5a/mtamg8r3hz

• Here's a related article from Publishers Weekly: Kids Books Fuse Faith and Fun

Coming up on The Mitten Blog:

Website tips, writing craft tips, Equity & Inclusion Corner, Book Birthdays, and more!

The Mitten Blog is looking for a new editor! Learn more here, and email current editor Kristin Lenz with any questions.

Coming up in SCBWI-MI:

This is an hour dedicated to sharing your ideas and hanging out with our new E&I Team Coordinator. We welcome your thoughts for continued growth as we work together to celebrate and create quality content for young readers.  

Bring your questions, comments, and your favorite candy. We may have a few tricks up our sleeves and some treats too!

SCBWI-MI members: Check your email for more info and the Zoom link.

Make Your Own Video Book Trailer with Rebecca Grabill, Plus Upcoming SCBWI Learning Opportunities

Rebecca Grabill created her own book trailer for her picture book, Halloween Good Night (which got a starred review from Publishers Weekly!) and she shared a step-by-step guide so other authors can give it a try themselves. A typical book trailer often consists of a slow pan of a book cover, followed by an image or two from the book. But Rebecca's videos go a little beyond this format by using iMovie and photo editing software. Rebecca says she's not a video expert by any means, but here's a brain-dump of everything she knows about creating a video trailer yourself (for free!). Watch the video below and find Rebecca's step by step guide on her website here:
https://www.rebeccagrabill.com/blog/make-your-own-video-book-trailer-for-a-childrens-picture-book

If you're looking for more examples of book trailers and other step by step guides, see these previous posts:

From Supriya Kelkar: https://scbwimithemitten.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-making-of-book-trailer-ahimsa-by.html

From Deb Gonzales: https://scbwimithemitten.blogspot.com/2019/02/painless-self-promotion-book-trailer.html

Deb has also been teaching Book Trailer Basics at some of our SCBWI-MI Shop Talks. If you're looking for an in-person tutorial, come to the Lansing Area Shop Talk on Oct. 27th.
1:00 to 3:00 pm at the Biochemistry Building at MSU
603 Wilson Rd. Room 208, East Lansing, MI 48824
Parking is free on weekends. Lot 46 is a lovely place to park.
Here's the interactive map https://maps.msu.edu/interactive/
Doors will open at 12:30. Email Ann Finkelstein with questions.

Thanks to our generous and hard-working SCBWI members, we have more learning opportunities ahead:

This Sunday, Oct. 20th: 

KAST a Spell: Create Spell-Binding MG and YA Literature. 

Learn more here: https://scbwimithemitten.blogspot.com/2019/09/kast-spell-what-makes-spell-binding.html

Monday, Oct. 21st and 28th: 

The SCBWI webinar series continues with Be the Perfect Panelist and Social Media for Authors and Illustrators. 

Learn more here:
https://michigan.scbwi.org/2019/05/17/the-buzz-about-the-biz-preparing-yourself-for-success-webinar-series/

Save the dates for 2020:

Book Birthday Blog with Rebecca Grabill

Welcome to SCBWI-MI's Book Birthday Blog! 

Where we celebrate new books by Michigan's children's book authors and illustrators

Congratulations to Rebecca Grabill on the release of her new book,  A YEAR WITH MAMA EARTH!

Q#1: Congratulations on the release of A Year With Mama Earth! What inspired you to write a book about the seasons?

Thank you! I’m thrilled to see this book become a reality. I had the luxury of growing up in Michigan with our four vividly distinct, often unpredictable seasons, and so many of my childhood memories are “hooked” on a remembrance of the seasonal weather, like getting off the school bus in the afternoon, dripping sweat, because my sweater and corduroys that were cozy that September morning were now waaaay too warm. Or scuffing through a golden carpet of leaves, stuffing snow in my brother’s hood, catching the first spring worms after a rain.

For me, seasons are a way of telling time, a way nature communicates where I am in the year, where I’m headed. It felt natural to use that inspiration to encourage children to listen and see if Mama Earth is whispering to them as well!

Q#2: What’s something you hope readers will take away from your book?

Stillness. More than anything I want to cultivate stillness. It’s only when we put our devices down, turn off the video games, close Spotify, take the earbuds out that we can hear, truly hear: nature, one another, our own thoughts. Hearing is essential to experiencing, to living, to empathizing, to understanding. And our culture is sadly out of practice.

I also want kids to get outside, explore their area’s own seasonal uniquenesses. This book is set in Michigan because that’s my experience, and I have the benefit of living in an “idyllic” Hallmark-channel locale with brilliant fall leaves and serene winter snow. A book about seasons set in Hawaii or the Arizona desert, for example, would be very, very different. But if children develop stillness they can sense the subtle nuances no matter where they are. December smells different than July, even in New Mexico, Texas, Tokyo. The book won’t speak directly to every child’s experience (no book can do that), but it can help enhance their experience no matter where they are, and it can either broaden their experience by painting a picture of another place, or affirm it with its similarities! Both are valuable outcomes, both desperately needed.

One of Rebecca's photos, featured in
Sweetened Condensed

Q#3: Your writing for this book is described as “a poetic exploration of the seasons”. Where does the inspiration for that lyrical voice come from? Do you have any favorite poets, or are there certain themes in nature that you find especially inspiring?

Where to start? There are so many poets I admire, I can only begin to list them: Mary Logue, Jane Kenyon, Dorianne Laux, Ron Koertge… Rumi, Edgar Allen Poe, the ubiquitous Emily Dickinson. I’m drawn to poets who don’t use the form to show how educated or smart they are (i.e., poems full of allusions to “classic lit,” even when I get the allusion. Paint the form with words and leave Plato in his cave). I’m drawn to poetry that sees language as a means of communicating—to others, language that’s playful, meaningful, accessible.

As for themes, I find the cycle of nature inspiring (as it is exhausting). Every year the natural world is either improving upon itself or slipping more toward chaos, like my garden, now in a second year of neglect. It’s amazing how dominant mint can be! I also love exploring the sensory experience of nature, the silliness and unpredictability of it, the mind-boggling complexity and intelligence of it. Science has shown that even trees communicate, that nature it has a mind, or a mind behind it. I’m convinced that those who believe this living mind emerged randomly, no matter over how many millennia, have far, far, far more faith than I could ever summon. I love to witness and celebrate that stunning complexity, to feel my own smallness, to express what it feels like to be significant in the face of that grand insignificance.

Q#4: You make a lot of activity pages, crafts, and teacher’s resources. What inspired you to start doing this, and what do you hope it adds to the experience of reading your books?

The reason is largely pragmatic—I have a background in graphic design and over the years have made oodles of quick worksheets for kids because it’s so hard to find *just the right* worksheet, and to find it for free. Serendipitously, I stumbled upon Teachers Pay Teachers, a website where educators can sell the very resources they stay up late creating on Sunday nights. This led to imagining how my books might be used in the classroom. I realized I could save educators a step—they don’t have to stay up late making worksheets, because I already made them!

I also feel it’s an effective use of my (severely limited) time and energy. There’s tremendous value to doing events (and I do go to schools and bookstores, even to the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum!), but as mother of six children who are all busy and going in different directions, a school visit isn’t a simple “show and do” event. I have to arrange childcare for the toddler, the homeschooled 2nd grader gets a “day off” from school (homeschoolers don’t get subs), and my husband has to be available for the ECSE school bus, which means someone else has to pick up teens from high school, etc. It’s madness.

I can create printables at home, in my pajamas (though, confession, I don’t. I hate staying in pjs all day — sorry to all the pj fans out there). The added benefit of an online resource is that once that resource is online, it’s there FOREVER. A school visit lasts a few hours in a specific location with a limited range of influence; a well-designed printable is perennial, global, and as eternal as the internet itself.

One of Rebecca's printables, find it here

Q#5: What’s next for you? Where can we find A Year With Mama Earth, and how can people connect with you?

Ooh, good question! Next up is a book of poetry set to release October 10th. Flying Ketchup Press, a new indie publisher is launching with a select handful of books, mine included. Sweetened Condensed is about motherhood, daughterhood, the life of a writer, and is illustrated with my own b&w photos. I hope it touches on the universal—what it means to be a writer-mom who feels like one of those single-serve pats of butter that needs to cover the whole dang loaf of bread. That book will soon be available on Amazon, and I think could be a fun book group read! And wouldn’t you know, I’m creating a book-group-guide that will be on my website sometime next month. (Be warned: it’s *not* poetry for children! About them, yes, and so much more. For them, nope.)

A Year With Mama Earth will be available from bookstores and on Amazon. Plus, if anyone wants a SIGNED copy, just call Hopscotch Children’s Store in Grand Rapids. They can arrange for me to come in and sign, and either ship the book or set it aside for pick-up.

I’ll actually be at Hopscotch September 28th from 4-5:30 to lead a story time, read the book, and sign copies. I would LOVE to meet all of you in person, so stop on by! If October is better, I’ll also be at Baker Books in Grand Rapids the morning of October 10th for a special story time with crafts, snacks, and nature-related fun.

Otherwise, I’m active on instagram @rebeccawritesbooks, and present on twitter and FB. Plus, I hope everyone will visit my website, rebeccagrabill.com. You’ll see that I don’t do *just* printables. I have creative resources and an ever-growing collection of tools for writers, creatives, educators, and parents. Like the printable nature journal I’ll be releasing one month at a time all year!

One last thing, I would LOVE for you to friend me on Goodreads and follow on Amazon! Send me your links and I’ll do the same (we need some Goodreads and Amazon link list, don’t you think?).

A little bit about the book: In September, Mama Earth sighs out the first autumn frost, which crunches under children’s feet. Mama Earth looks after nature’s plants and animals throughout the year—singing lullabies to fat bears in the fall, dressing evergreens in icicles in winter, and waking up the crocuses in spring. And in the summer, Mama Earth sends warm sunbeams to her beloved children, so they can play outside and enjoy the amazing world around them.

With enchanting text and radiant artwork, A Year with Mama Earth offers a joyous celebration of nature’s beauty and the changing seasons.

A little bit about the author: Rebecca Grabill is an award-winning author of the picture books, Halloween Good Night (Atheneum, Simon & Schuster), Violet and the Woof (Katherine Tegen Books, HarperCollins), A Year With Mama Earth (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers) and the forthcoming poetry chapbook, Sweetened Condensed (Flying Ketchup Press). Her other publications include poetry and essays in a broad range of literary journals. She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University and is a Sustainable Arts Foundation awardee. Her children’s and general market works are represented by Victoria Wells Arms of Wells Arms Literary, and religious works by Karen Neumair of Credo Communications.

She lives in rural Michigan with her husband, six children, and two cats. Find the latest updates at her blog, Works in Progress.