A few questions about writing Children's books?

[Joss]

I think you need to research how publishers categories groups of readers. for example Adult (18+) Young Adult (13-18), Middle grade (8-12). These ages can overlap. I don't know what the categories are for younger children. Middle grade books are books like diary of a wimpy kid, Percy Jackson, and Harry Potter (yes, HP, even though many people think it's adult, publishing classes it as YA). Check out some books in your local library and bookstores. The Intermediate section is another word for YA and then there's the children's section that's denoted by age. See what books are similar in tone, age (of character), and themes with your book and you'll begin to get an idea which age group it's for. Since you have pictures, it sounds like it might be a chapter book, but I'm still trying to figure out what chapter books are, haha; I just know they have pictures and advanced storylines for older kids who probably aren't yet ready to delve into full novels (like Wimpy Kid) and I'm just taking a guess.

Look at some publisher websites and see what books they have for children and see how your book compares and that'll also give you clues. Many publishers have children's imprints.

Don't send illustrations. Just send the text. If a publisher buys your book they'll hire their own illustrator and you'll have no control over it. though, you can make it known that you'd like to illustrate it yourself, but the ultimate decision is up to the publisher.

good luck with it. find some literary agents who represent children's books and read their blogs, twitter, and facebook pages because they give a lot of info to newbie writers and give insights into publishing and how to get published. If you find one then you can find many more because they tend to link to each other's blogs and follow each other on twitter. and you can always ask them questions and many do respond. If you have a twitter account, there's a hashtag #askagent

http://kidlit.com/
http://literaticat.blogspot.com/
http://www.literaryrambles.com/

EDIT - correcting some typos since I obviously don't proofread haha: Should have said many people think HP is Young Adult (not Adult) but it's Middle Grade because he's very young in the earlier books, even though he grows older in the later books. & Intermediate is another word for Middle grade (not Young Adult) so some bookstores might have Intermediate or Middle grade and they'll mean the same.