Occasionally I get emails from people looking to get a book published. They usually go something like this:

“I have an amazing idea for a children’s book and I’d love if you illustrated it. My daughter/nephew/grandchildren love when I tell it. I’m sure it will make tons of money. If you will illustrate it we can split the profits.”

Or something like this:

“I see you write. I’ve written some stuff too. A full novel actually. Would you like to edit it for me? Do you have any contacts I should send it to?”

The answer to both of those emails is no. It’s not because I don’t care about what you’re doing, it’s because I’m not the man to do it. I’m super busy working on my own stuff over here. Plus I’m pretty selective about the projects I take on because my time is limited (husband, father, day job--that kind of stuff). What I can do is provide you with a handy checklist. A place to get started if you haven't done so already.

You Should Do These Things

The following is a list of things you should strongly consider doing. They won’t guarantee your book on the shelf at Barnes & Noble, but they will help you create meaningful connections and teach you a thing or two you might not have known otherwise.

Join the SCBWI

If you write children’s, middle grade or young adult books or illustrate, this is a must. It’s a goldmine of information. Join here.

Go to a SCBWI conference

Regional conferences are everywhere. Go to one. Meet people, attend lectures. Learn. I guarantee you will walk away from your first conference with a headful of things you didn't know before.

Join a critique group

They aren’t hard to find or get in to. You might be able to find one through SCBWI connections (which you've already established right?). Some are conducted in person, some over email. Get people that aren’t related to you looking at your stuff. People that know more than you and/or are striving toward the same thing.

Read!

With the Kindle app available for just about everything with a screen, there’s no reason to not read books in your genre. You learn through osmosis with this stuff. It’s easy and enjoyable education.

Practice

You should be writing or illustrating as much as you can. Write short stories, scribble out doodles. You will get better just by doing it. Practice might not make you perfect, but it will make you confident.

Diversify

Don’t write one story or draw one picture and cling to it as your only project. In other words, put those eggs in multiple baskets! You never know where the market will go next. That amazing vampire romance novel you just finished is probably going to need to be shelved for a while. That’s okay, work on something else.

Stay in the loop

You don’t have to have a blog or a Twitter account as long as you follow those that do. Get online and follow some authors and agents. Keep an eye on the world you want to be a part of. Join the conversation—the book world is full of friendly folks.

Research

When it’s time to submit to agents or editors, take the time to do your research! Make every query letter unique. Send only to people you know would be interested in what you do.

There you go. I’ve been seriously working on the things in the list above since late 2008. Yep, that’s four years of work on top of a day job. Two written novels and two illustrated books and I feel like I’m almost there. For some people it’s a faster process, for some it’s even longer. Like I said, you don't have to do these things, but you should. Be warned, they'll cost time and money. If any of the above seems like too much work, then bad news bears: you don’t really want it. For reals. There are no shortcuts. I’ll leave you with my favorite Thomas Edison quote:

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

This is a meme that's been around for a while, but one well worth participating in. We all have different creative influences in our lives. These are mine. They aren't in any order--some influenced me more than others depending on where I was in my life at the time. Some of them continue to influence me, even inspire me at times. What does your influence map look like?

Numbers 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, and 11 are my art influences. You may notice some stylistic similarities between them. They all have a cartoonish, heavily stylized look to them, and they all emphasize smooth flowing lines and detail through simplicity. Number 1, Bobby Chiu, is the most practical influence because I took a class at Schoolism.com taught by him. He gave me personal instruction and tips that helped improve my art a great deal. The art of Penny Arcade influences and inspires, mainly because I’ve been reading the web comic for years and I’ve watched it improve, which is cool. The artist at Penny Arcade, Mike Krahulik, has mentioned Stephen Silver (9) and Ben Caldwell (3) as influences for his art as well. As for Disney’s Aladdin, that was just a watershed moment for me when I was a kid. The animation, the story, the computer animated magic carpet ride (which hasn’t really aged well); it was all amazing to me. I was the only eight year old raving about the quality of animation and design in a movie.

Number 5, video games, influenced me in a number of ways. From the music I listen to, to the stories I’m interested in. I’ve been playing them since I was old enough to grip a controller, so I’m deeply ingrained in game culture. Video game magazines like EGM and Next Generation got me interested in writing and journalism. Watching the technology, storytelling opportunity and industry grow over the years has been a lot of fun. Video games inspire and excite me and it’s great to be a part of the culture as it grows and matures with me.

That leaves my writing influences.

Number 2 is Stephen King and particularly his book, “On Writing”, which I consider a must for would-be writers. I’ve also always admired King’s characterization skills. He can craft some amazingly deep characters, especially villains.

Number 7 is Christopher Moore. He writes humorous novels, and I’ve read most of them. I like Moore because he writes comedy with heart. He can pull off crass and heartfelt on the same page. His book “Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal” is hilarious, well-researched, sad, heartwarming and, like many of his books, a tad bit insane.

Number 8 is mythology in general. I took a course on mythology in grad school and it shifted my entire worldview. There’s a weird connectivity in mythology that spans cultures, classes, religions and continents. It’s fascinating. Joseph Campbell, the author of “The Power of Myth” and other influential books on mythology, spent his life drawing meaning from and interpreting mythology. His work has influenced numerous storytellers, most famously George Lucas and the original (as in, not the crappy one) Star Wars trilogy.

Finally there’s number 10, “Life of Pi”. It’s one of the few books I’ve read multiple times, and the only book I have more than two copies of. I think I read it at an important time in my life, because Pi’s journey struck a chord that continues to resonate. I enjoy his quest for spirituality—with his earnest and honest mixing of religions—in the early part of the book as much as I like the harrowing journey at sea with the tiger.

There are other influences I could have included, but I tried to narrow it down to the biggest influencers. I also had to really think about which things influenced me and which inspire me. My inspiration map would be much larger and feature some of the artists and writers above.

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Wanna Be in the Book Biz? Do These Things