Picture Book Submissions – The Mighty Manuscript
The third item to include in your full proposal submission for a picture book is your mighty manuscript. This is the reason you are submitting to a publisher in the first place. Once you’ve written your killer picture book manuscript, tightened it, strengthened it, had it critiqued, rewritten it several times and feel it’s ready to send, now it’s time to put it in the correct submission format.
Always use Times Roman Numeral 12-point font and double space your text. Always. Editors read all day long and this is easiest on their eyes. More importantly, they may not read it if its in a different format. Create one inch margins on each page and stick to it. Don’t adjust these to squeeze in more text. Create a title page with your name, address, phone number, email and web address in the left upper corner. One third to one half of the way down in the middle of the page place the Title in Caps and Bold if you’d like. This can be 14-point font though nothing fancy. Don’t include clip art or any form of pictures on this page.
On the first page of your manuscript in the header in the top left put your name – brief title. In the header upper right put page numbers with the exception of the first page. This is in case your manuscript gets dropped, they’ll know if pages are missing and to which manuscript a stray page may belong.
Begin the text one third to one half the way down again with the title centered. Four spaces below this begin your text. I usually put my suggested page count and pages of text below the title.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I support and suggest breaking your picture book manuscript into spreads and pages. The publisher may not stick to your lay out and has the right to change it as they desire, but it makes for easier reading and gives them an idea of how it will fit within the pages. The right side of a spread are odd pages, the left are even. Remember the book will have front matter so keep in mind as you lay out your text in spreads that the text does not begin on page 1. If you choose to submit in this format, this is the way it may look:
Title
32-page manuscript
26 pages of text
Introduction
Page 6-7
Begin text here with your hook. I usually indent the text but it may not appear that way in this blog.
Spread 1
Page 8-9
Continue your story for these pages. I add a space between the spreads for ease in reading but it may not appear that way here.
Spread 2
Page 10
You may break the spread into separate pages like this.
Page 11
And continue your text here, which your text would indicate the pictures needing two pages for this spread.
Spread 3
Page 12-13
Break your spreads into a combined pictures across both spreads and separate pictures on each page to break up the monotony of each spread looking exactly the same.
I continue on like this and end with my conclusion.
Conclusion
Page 30-31
Ta Da! The fabulous conclusion of your manuscript.
Look through multiple picture books and notice the layout of the spreads. Watch where the pages turn. Are there pictures on each page or across the full spread? How often does this change?
Make sure you don’t put too many words on a page as you want to keep the children’s attention.
Have fun with it and keep in mind that the editor will most likely change your layout so remain flexible.
The editor may change your page count.
Do not suggest specific pictures as your beautiful writing should elicit the images for the illustrator to create.
Keep in mind that this is just one form of picture book submissions. If you have found success with another form, please comment below. I’d love to hear about it. Good luck and happy submitting!