First of all, I need to draw a winner for the copy of Arcade and the Triple T Token. The winner is Samantha. Congrats! Samantha, please email me your mailing address and I’ll get the book ordered for you.

And now I feel like I need to tell you how my picture book turned out, which inspired me to revamp an old post on the topic. So, this is a retro rewrite of a 2015 post on how to write a children’s book.

1) What does a picture book manuscript look like?

Technically, a picture book manuscript looks pretty much like any other manuscript. So, Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins on all four sides. Below is the first page of the manuscript I wrote to go with the book I created.

If your book rhymes, or is written in meter or short verses like a poem, your manuscript might look different than the one above. It might look something like what I’ve written out below, showing desired page breaks in parentheses. Please don’t judge my rhyming attempts. 😉

FIREBOY LUKE

Luke’s mom and dad took him out to a show
A new movie was playing about a talking big toe.
(Page 1)

Kaitlyn, Luke’s sister, had begged them to go.
How could a toe talk?  She just had to know!
(Page 2)

The line was so long that the four had to wait,
Mommy and Daddy and Lukey and Kait.
(Page 3)

They all stood beside a long velvet rope
By a big smelly man who forgot to use soap.
(Page 4)
etc.

2) Do I need to find my own illustrator before I submit?

No. And here is why:

-Publishers have their own illustrators on staff or prefer to hire their own.
-Publishers like to pair an unknown author with a well-known illustrator OR an unknown illustrator with a well-known author. This increases the chances of the book’s success.
-Your story should stand on its own without the aid of illustrations.

3) Can I submit my own illustrations with my book?

No. And here is why:

-Publishers have their own illustrators on staff or prefer to hire their own.
-Publishers like to pair an unknown author with a well-known illustrator OR an unknown illustrator with a well-known author. This increases the chances of the book’s success.
-Your story should stand on its own without the aid of illustrations.

*wink*

There are always exceptions to these rules, of course. Here are a few:

A. You are a professional artist. You have been paid for your artwork, regularly, over the course of several years. Or you have won several high profile art contests or scholarships for art. Things like that set you apart from other artists.

B. You have written a book in which the illustrations are key to telling the story. The story makes no sense without them. In this case you might create a book dummy to accompany your submission. Another option would be to add illustration notes to your manuscript.

You might not need to do either of these things, however. Simply explaining how the illustrations work in the cover letter is usually good enough for an editor or agent. But if the book has very few words and the illustrations tell the story, like in the case of This is Not My Hat, you might want to send in a book dummy with your cover letter and manuscript or at least add a few illustration notes to your manuscript.

What is a book dummy?

A book dummy is a paper version of your book. Use extra-large paper, fold the correct number of pages in half together, as if you were making a book for fun. You could even staple the pages down the center spine. Then you’d draw pencil sketches, similar to storyboarding, and cut and paste the manuscript text onto each page where it needed to go. Again, this is only something you should do if your picture book manuscript makes no sense without it. If your book is a regular story, simply submit a traditional manuscript with a cover letter and add any necessary explanations there.

Here is an example of what a book dummy page might look like. In reality, the sketch would be even less detailed. (This is simply a drawing I found in my high school art book that I was able to use to show you what a book dummy looks like.)

I found two much better examples of what book dummies look like by Googling “children’s book dummy.” Here is a link to one that will show you what I mean much better. And here is a blog post on the topic of book dummies that is very thorough.

What are illustration notes?

These are notes to the illustrator (or the editor or agent at that stage of submission) to clarify what is necessary to properly tell the story. Here the “show don’t tell” adage applies. Unless it’s applicable to the story, you don’t need to tell the illustrator that your character has brown hair and green eyes and a purple cat. Only add in what is necessary. For example:

They all stood beside a long velvet rope
By a big smelly man who forgot to use soap.
(Page 4)

Luke stared at the rope as he covered his nose;
The long velvet rope made a great fire hose!
(Page 5)

Fireman Luke in his hat, coat, and boots
Picked up his hose and started to shoot.
(Page 6)
(Illo: Luke sees himself as he is imagining himself: dressed in full firefighter gear, holding a fire hose that is shooting water. The rest of the illustration shows what is really happening in the movie theater with Luke’s parents, sister, and the other people.)

He put out a big fire in the nearest trashcan
Then he washed all the stink off the big smelly man.
(Page 7)
etc.

See where I added the illustration note? I explained that the reader would see what Luke sees in his imagination. I left how that will look up to the illustrator.

There are many opinions as to whether or not you should use illustration notes on a picture book manuscript. Some people are strictly against it, others say they are fine when necessary. And “necessary” is key. You must not use illustration notes to boss the illustrator on every page. This is similar to screenwriters leaving out direction or acting instructions in a script. Direction is the director’s job. Acting is the actor’s job. A screenwriter has no business telling others how to do those jobs. The same is true with picture books. You’re the author. Leave the illustrating to the illustrator, and only give instructions when absolutely necessary.

What if you want to self-publish your own picture book?

Go for it! Here is how I did it.

1. I wrote the manuscript that I posted up above.
2. I storyboarded out the book using pages like the one below. Traditional picture books have 32 pages, so I created 32 pages. You don’t have to stick to that, but you will likely need to choose a length that is in increments of four, since that is how the paper is cut for the books.

3. Create your illustrations. My project was different in that I was gluing my illustrations over an old picture book for the sake of a classroom presentation. However, if I was going to self-publish this, I would simply scan in my illustrations, then clean them up in Photoshop and add my text then.

For the illustrations, I chose to make watercolor backgrounds since watercolor covered a large area of space quickly and used little paint. Here are some of my paintings drying.

Then I drew over top of my watercolor backgrounds. This didn’t always work well. And in those cases, I drew my people or objects on separate paper, cut them out, and glued them on. (I don’t recommend this plan, but it worked for my purposes.) Click here to scroll through the PDF I created of my final book. Keep in mind, I did NOT complete my illustrations in time for my class, so that is something I’d need to finish if I ever decided to self-publish the book.

Have you ever written a picture book? Have any advice? What is one of your all-time favorite picture books? Share in the comments.