Today I’ll speak with Membership and Marketing Manager at the Children’s Book Council and recent PW Rising Star Honoree, Ryan Mita, all about the world of children’s books. He’ll share his insights and tell us all about the Children’s Book Council and how they support authors and publishers in this genre.

1:15 - Could you start off by telling us a bit about what you do?

• I'm the membership manager at the Children's book Council.
• We create content for book publishers with librarians, educators, and booksellers.
• And prior to that I was at Knopf Doubleday in the marketing department, and I was an illustration agent in children's books
• I also went to the Denver Publishing Institute, and I have bookselling experience as well.

2:20 - Could you tell us more about the Children's book Council?

• The Children's Book Council is a trade association nonprofit. We represent 100+ publishers who are our clients and we help their artists and writers through our partnerships.
• We partner with national organizations, such as, Girl Scouts of America, Library of Congress, and a number of national educational organizations on reading lists and promoting events.

3:35 - What insights do you have on helping authors make their books stand out?

• Marketing children's books is really tricky because there are two audiences that you're selling into.
• To help a children’s book stand out, it’s really helpful to have a third party’s stamp of approval. For example, the American Library Association. If a book gets onto one of their lists, then it's a lot easier to sell that to a parent.
• Comics and graphic novels are definitely a thing that parents, teachers, librarians, and kids all love.
• And I think also it ties in with our culture. Right now, there is a real push for diversity and inclusion titles. There is an awareness now and a hunger for books by creators of color.
• I think it's really helpful to be part of a community. Authors are always blurbing for each other or promoting each other’s books. Even if a writer doesn't have an agent and doesn't have a signed deal, there are tons of organizations, like the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Any author or illustrator can tap into that community and go to review groups or promote other writers and other illustrators.

7:30 - As someone you who works with a lot of children's books and publishers if you were to meet an aspiring first time children's book author, what would you say to them to help them get set up for success?

• I always make that distinction with aspiring writers and illustrators: get clear on what your goal is.
• The second step is to make your manuscript or illustrations as clean and amazing as you can get them. Because if the book is really amazing, overtime it will find its audience.
• And I think it's a long haul with books. You have to build a community, put in the work, and then know or have an idea of what you want the end product to be.

10:55 - Now working with so many children's book publishers, what would you say are some of the big challenges or hurdles they are facing today?

• I think one of them is discoverability and being able to be unique and be distinct and be the number one in your category

14:15 – What would you say are some of the biggest mistakes that children's book authors make?

• So as I mentioned, I worked at a bookstore in events and I remember there was a panel with a New York Times bestselling kids comic artist, and she told me about being at a conference and go into the restroom and an aspiring author slid their manuscript under the door. That’s an extreme example of what not to do. My jaw hit the floor when I heard that story.
• You can be a part of the community without being really pushy. And I know that that is frustrating to hear, that there's no magic bullet.
• If an author gets a reputation that they're difficult to work with, or they’re pushy, or that they're not nice, it makes it harder to sell the next book. So, don’t be pushy and put in the good work.

16:45 - I'd love to hear more about what the CBC is working on now. Can you tell us about any programs that might be of interest to our listeners?

• Sure, every child a reader is our sister organization, it's a nonprofit within the nonprofit. The major programs for that are The National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. We have Jason Reynolds for the rest of this year promoting literacy and appearing virtually with schools all over.
• Another thing that they do is a children's book week, and we just wrapped that up for the spring. We had author videos, they offer free downloadable content, posters with original illustrations, and activities for kids to do.

18:08 - if we do have publishers listening and they want to get involved how would they find you?

• They can go to our website cbcbooks.org. I'm also happy to answer questions by email. My email is Ryan.Mita@CBCBooks.org.

19:00 - Any parting advice or words of wisdom for our listeners?

• I would advise authors and illustrators to really polish their manuscripts before they submit them. Editors and agents are there busy people and they want to see your very best work.
• And I just wanted to point authors and illustrators to a resource on the CBC website www.cbcbooks.org\publishers to our members age. That page lists 100+ of our member publishers and their submissions policies.
• So, if you're a writer or illustrator looking to submit manuscripts and you do not have an agent, this is a resource of 100+ publishers, which lists the ones that accept unsolicited manuscripts and those that do not.

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ABOUT RYAN

As CBC’s Membership Manager, Ryan Mita has added 25 publishers, bringing CBC membership to over 100 publishers for the first time. In addition to apprising new members of CBC benefits, he also coordinates three key committees: CBC Diversity, Graphic Novels, and ALA-CBC. He’s worked for Knopf Doubleday in marketing, as an agent at a small illustration agency and at Beacon Press in Boston. Ryan is a graduate of the Denver Publishing Institute and though he was born and raised in California, has come to love the canyons of steel in NYC.