On Saturday, I went to a class about writing and publishing. It has been a really long time since I did anything like that and I learned a few things:
1. I was able to out of the house for 6 hours without leaking milk all over the place. Or missing my children too terribly. I did miss them a little, but … I will probably try to leave the house without them every weekend from now on.
2. The man sitting next to me paid $850 for his first novel to be edited by a professional. And when he got it back, it was still full of copy-editing mistakes. Um, wow. Copy-editing should not be so expensive.
3. Several people were talking about self-publishing picture books. I have been thinking the same things myself lately, but it always makes me pause because my favorite children’s books are like little jewel boxes, perfect objets d’art. And I don’t know how that level of artistry gets translated by an online publisher.
4. Milkshake and fries: still the best lunch ever.
Oh, thank you so much for the link to the editing services. I know many good copy editors who charge between $4-$6 a page! In fact, a freelance editor I interned for charged $6 for a copy edit job, but, while I’m not justifying the price, she edited half my novel for free, and I improved exponentially as a writer and was pretty much able to self-edit the book that now has a contract because of her.
I have been thinking that basically all of Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky’s poems would make excellent individual picture books. For example, “I’m Being Eaten by a Boa Constrictor” – you could turn the page every time you said “Oh no, it’s up to my X.”
So I guess my recommendation is that you write a bunch of amusing poems (preferably with onomatopoeia, because this will always be my suggestion) and then write a book (ie, charge money) for each one, instead of compiling them.