PB manuscript formatting question

chef troy

Hi folks - apologies if I missed the answer to this elsewhere...

Let's say I've written the text for a picture book, with relatively few words on a given page. (don't worry, I know I don't hire the illustrator.) :) When I prepare the manuscript for submission to a publisher, am I supposed to actually put the words that go on each page on separate manuscript pages, or am I supposed to "fill the page" and indicate page one, two, etc., with several (finished) pages' worth of text on one manuscript page?

In other words, should my manuscript for a 28-page PB be 28 pages long (even though the illustrations aren't there), or 7 pages (just to pull a number out of the air)?
 
brittanimae

brittanimae

making a fresh start.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 21, 2007
Messages
2,336
Reaction score
695
Location
plotting on another planet . . .
Consult The Children's Writers and Illustrators Manual. Format it exactly as indicated (it's one of the early chapters). The basics are courier new font, generally regular paragraph format (the 7-page version in your example), double spaced with an extra double space between paragraphs. There's a little wiggle room on how to do pagination, but generally each page should be one of your paragraphs with no final page numbers indicated.

GOOD LUCK and WELCOME!
 
jannawrites

jannawrites

no, really
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 5, 2007
Messages
893
Reaction score
3,207
Location
shh... I'm thinking...
Hiya chef troy!

Each PB page appears after a paragraph break in your Word document, so you double-space between them. Like this:

Sally picked Teddy up and gave him a big hug.


She felt something rough on his head.


Looking closely she saw a bald spot.


She wondered where it came from, but then she saw scissors on the floor.


Sally knew that meant her brother had cut Teddy's hair.


So your 28-page PB could very well take up just two pages in your Word doc.
 

chef troy

Okay, so if there are multiple paragraphs on a single page, they should have just one carriage return between them, like so?

Sally picked Teddy up and gave him a hug -- and what do you think happened next?
She screamed as his head swiveled by itself to face hers, his friendly brown eyes replaced by glowing red coals.

Sally ran for her life as her possessed toy sprouted fangs and roared in demonic rage.
"I never should have let that guy from Microsoft hold Teddy," she thought as she fled.
 

chef troy

brittanimae said:
Consult The Children's Writers and Illustrators Manual. (snip)
Click to expand...
That sounds like a very valuable book. Where can I get my hands on it? An Amazon search didn't come up with anything. Is it different from the Children's Writers and Illustrators Market?
 
MsJudy

MsJudy

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 12, 2007
Messages
5,669
Reaction score
1,441
Location
california
Another resource is to join SCBWI. I don't write PBs, myself, but I know they sent me a whole bunch of stuff about them when I joined....
 
brittanimae

brittanimae

making a fresh start.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 21, 2007
Messages
2,336
Reaction score
695
Location
plotting on another planet . . .
Oh, uh, right--Market. It's all in the details, isn't it. Maybe that's why I don't have anything published yet. That and that I spend too much time trolling around here instead of actually writing! :D

See ya in 10,000 words (or 1000--let's be realistic).
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.