Multiple Books in a Single Query
I recently decided to make a long delayed return to a genre where I had early publishing success, upper-level picture books. Given that I now have school-aged children, I have a number of stories that I made up for bedtimes that are ripe for being turned into books. In particular, I have three that I am particularly happy with, and that I've made progress at turning into manuscripts.
I know that you would never try to sell more than one novel at once, but what about picture books? When I'm ready for queries again, should I query just one, or all three at once? If I'm only querying one, is it an advantage to mention the others? (Given how long it's been since I published in the field, I want to make it clear it's not going to be another fifteen year gap between books.)
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1 answer
I think it depends on the specific style/genre as well as your relationship with the publisher or agent.
There are formal queries and then there are chats you have with someone in a position to get your work to publication.
In the comic book field, pitching more than one piece is more common, even to someone you don't know. At least my spouse does it. For anthologies and other work where they want something that fits into a very particular theme, but it's not clear to him as an author which of his works fit, he will offer more than one story idea. If they like one, they'll ask for him to flesh it out and/or include sample art.
For standalone books, you can throw the idea out there as part of a different chat, if you have one. "And by the way, I'm working on..." If you have a relationship with anyone at your old publisher, that is where I would start (and even if you don't know anyone still there).
With a formal query, because they're short, because they can be published in quick succession (or even together if that happens to work), I would either put all the books in the same query or focus on one then quickly mention the other two. I agree with you that letting them know that an investment in you could go beyond one book is a good idea.
I'm assuming that, because of the low page numbers and the fact that the text is short (because of the heavy amount of art), that there will be some overlap between how the children's picture book industry and the comic book industry handle things.
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