What Every Aspiring Children's Author Should Know About Manuscripts
When I first started writing picture books, I assumed the hard part would be the words. Finding the right ones, making them sing, that sort of thing. As it happens, the words were only half of it. The other half was learning what a manuscript is actually supposed to look like, and quietly unlearning most of what I thought I knew.
So if you have a story tucked away and a dream of seeing it on a shelf one day, here are a few things I wish someone had told me at the very beginning. None of it is complicated. All of it would have saved me a great deal of guessing.
Shorter than you think, then shorter still
Picture books are tiny by design. Most modern ones come in well under 1,000 words, and plenty land closer to 500. My own debut, coming this Fall, is barely over 200. That felt terrifyingly short when I was writing it, until I remembered that the pictures do half the storytelling. Your job is to leave room for them. If a sentence can go, let it go. Every word that stays has to earn its place.
There is a "proper" way to format it
This one surprised me most. Editors and agents expect a manuscript to arrive looking a certain way, and turning up in the wrong outfit marks you as brand new before they read a single line. The basics are simple enough:
Your name, address, phone, and email in the top left corner
Word count, age range, and category ("Picture Book, Ages 0 to 6") in the top right
The title centered, with your byline underneath
Double-spaced, a standard font like Times New Roman at 12 point, one-inch margins
That is genuinely most of it. Clean, plain, easy to read. No fancy fonts, no clip art, no decorative borders. The story does the heavy lifting.
Resist the urge to describe every picture
New writers often want to spell out exactly what each illustration should show. I understand the instinct completely. You can see the whole book in your head. But an illustrator is an artist and a storytelling partner, not a set of hands following instructions. Only add an art note in brackets when the words would genuinely confuse someone without it. The rest of the time, trust the pictures you cannot see yet.
Should I hire an illustrator?
The short answer is, if you’re planning on self-publishing, yes. If you’re planning on going the traditional route, no. It seems obvious at first glance, you write the words, find someone to draw them, hand over a finished book. In traditional publishing it works the other way around. The publisher pairs you with an illustrator, you send your words on their own and let the art come later.
Read it out loud, then out loud again
Picture books live in the voice of whoever is reading them at bedtime. Rhythm matters enormously. If yours rhymes, the rhyme has to be effortless and the beat has to hold from start to finish, or it will trip up every grown-up who tries to read it. When in doubt, read it aloud to someone small and watch their face. Children are the most honest editors you will ever meet.
The first draft is just the beginning
I revised my little book more times than I care to admit. That is not a sign you have failed. It is the actual work. Write it badly first, then keep polishing until every line does something. The magic is almost never in the drafting. It is in the tidying up.
None of this is gatekeeping, by the way. These are just the quiet rules of a lovely, welcoming corner of the writing world, and knowing them lets your story be the thing that stands out rather than your formatting. Your words deserve that.
Now go and write something wonderful. The shelf is waiting.