Membership Benefits
The Children's Book Council (CBC) is the only national trade organization exclusively dedicated to children's book publishers. Our goal is to serve the needs and promote the interests of our members. We do this by providing professional development, marketing, and networking opportunities; by advocating for the industry at large; and by positioning our organization as a valued, critical, and relevant resource for and on behalf of the industry.
CBC membership enables you to:
Participate in the CBC co-sponsored bibliographies free of charge (or at a highly discounted rate). The bibliographies (Children’s Choices, Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, and Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12) are used by teachers, librarians, and parents across the country and promoted regularly by the CBC and partnering organizations. Titles submitted for consideration to the Children’s Choices list have the chance to become finalists for the Children’s Choice Book Awards, the only national awards program in which the finalists and winners are selected entirely by children and teens.
Get your authors and illustrators face time with booksellers at our highly-attended BEA programs. The CBC sponsors two programs at BEA: Speed Dating with Children’s Authors and the Author Tea. Speed Dating is a great promotion for up-and-coming authors to pitch their books to 150+ booksellers. The Author Tea allows more established authors to highlight their newest projects in an hour-long discussion with a smaller number of booksellers. Check out photos from our 2012 BEA events on the CBC Facebook page.
Feature your authors and illustrators on Girl Scouts’ website. The CBC is partnering with the Girl Scouts on The Studio, a new website where girls can learn about the craft of writing and storytelling. CBC members will be able to submit their authors to create content for The Studio, which will be promoted extensively to the 2.4 million Girl Scouts across the country.
Submit your authors and illustrators for consideration over 35 Children’s Book Week official events across the country. Official events are hosted by bookstores, libraries, museums, and schools throughout the country, and are highly publicized by the Children’s Book Council in national and local markets. Only authors and illustrators published by CBC members are eligible to participate in these official celebrations of Children’s Book Week, the longest-running national literacy initiative. Official events and celebrations will be held in 40 cities in 2012.
Participate in networking and career development programming for your employees. The CBC Annual Meeting and Forum events, open only to employees of member houses, discuss current trends and issues facing the industry. These events are streamed online for members unable to attend in person. The CBC Early Career Committee gives junior personnel the chance to learn more about children’s publishing and network with peers at events geared toward those in their first five years in the industry.
The option to feature your new books in the popular Hot Off the Press list, or promote your backlist titles in the seasonal Showcase on the CBC website, a regular destination for teachers, librarians, booksellers, and parents.
Participate in professional programs sponsored by the Early Career Committee, including the Publishing Luminaries speaker series. Give your junior personnel the opportunity to learn about the industry and network with their colleagues, as only employees of CBC member publishers may attend these programs.
Stay up to date with news, events, and deadlines with the monthly CBC Update e-newsletter. CBC Special Legislative Updates are also published on an as-needed basis to bring you the latest information about governmental issues of interest to publishers.
Submit your authors and illustrators for consideration to be featured as speakers in CBC-sponsored programs at national conventions and conferences of teachers' and librarians' associations.
List your company's job and internship opportunities on the CBC website's Careers Page, the children's publishing industry's one-stop job board.
Provide submission information to authors and illustrators in one central location. Members’ basic submission guidelines are included in our Members List, which is available online.
Membership in the Council also connects you with the work of the CBC Foundation, Every Child a Reader, Inc.
The annual Children's Book Week bookmark is created by a CBC member's illustrator. Distributed on the CBW website, the bookmark is downloaded by teachers, librarians, parents, and kids across the country.
The CBC is a founder of the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature program. This program is also administered by the CBC Foundation. Among publishers, only those who are CBC members may sponsor this joint effort with the Library of Congress and have the chance to associate their name with this worthy and highly-visible literacy effort.
If you are interested in joining the CBC, please email rachel.hoban [at] cbcbooks.org for more information. Please note, memberships are not available to individual authors or illustrators at this time.