Comments on: how to format your manuscript

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:09:14 +0000

Thank you for this site. I was wondering how would I do a manuscript to include drawings? Would I include them on every other page, or at the end?

By: cynthea

cynthea — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:46:13 +0000

Do you mean, one sentence per LINE? instead of page?

You can break the sentences according to how the text would be broken in a real picture book. But you shouldn’t break a page for just one sentence.

For example, you could do this:

Johnny and Mabel went to the store
to buy milk.

Johnny and Mabel went to the store to buy milk.

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:30:07 +0000

I am writing an easy reader book, but I am sending it to the publisher without the photographs that I intend to use. I know that it has been said not to include page breaks. If my sentences are only three to five words long, do I put one sentence on each page or just submit them as a string.

By: Fiona Griffin

Fiona Griffin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:11:11 +0000

Thanks for that, Cynthea,

I’ve been suffering terrible writers cramp recently since I’ve been very busy doing just that! Writing that is! This one quite long, but some of my stories are only 1200 words. Would this be considered to short for an 8 year old to read?

You also spoke in your book about the layout of submission. Is it still advisable to use double line spacing or is single appropriate these days? One more thing, when writing the thoughts of a character, what font should you use and is it correct that you DON’T use inverted commas?

Thanks!
Fiona

PS: Belated Happy Easter!

By: Fiona Griffin

Fiona Griffin — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:01:45 +0000

Thanks for that Cynthea,

It has clarified it for me, I thought it was the case. I might just continue with it & see how I get on.

Have a good weekend

By: Cynthea

Cynthea — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:26:08 +0000

If you show thoughts of a pet, that is also considered anthropomorphic. Attributing human-like qualities to animals, such as showing us thoughts from the POV of an animal, counts, too. They don’t actually have to talk-talk to be anthropomorphic. Hope that helps explain it better!

By: Fiona Griffin

Fiona Griffin — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:44:38 +0000

Hi,

Hope the weather is better where you are. I am sitting in Ireland coffee shop, very wet. However, I am being creative it’s not all bad.

I have started writing about the “thoughts” of an family pet who has just arrived in the home. The animal is not talking, only voicing his thoughts to the reader. Would this fall into the anthropromorphic category?

Thanks,
Fiona

By: Cynthea

Cynthea — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:59:41 +0000

For me, the definition of a well-written anthropomorphic story applies to most published “animal” stories that are doing well in the marketplace today. So use that as your standard when judging your own work (at least that’s what I do when I consider my own anthropomorphic stories.)

It is NOT taboo to submit anthropomorphic stories. It’s just harder to sell talking-animal stories because most people don’t write them well. If YOU write them well, do not worry about the naysayers. Just keep chugging and find your editor/agent match.

If you can not locate an agent in Ireland, feel free to extend your search beyond your borders!

By: Cynthea

Cynthea — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:53:17 +0000

You are right! Text is about 50% of the story, when taking the illustrations into account. Your picture book text must allow the illustrations to tell at least half the story (visually!).

BTW, Dragonfly specs provided in this link you sent me are fairly atypical for major trade picture book publishers. Almost all major trade picture book publishers publish to the 32-page format. While Dragonfly requests brief illustration notes per page, most major trade publishers actually discourage this unless the illustration note is absolutely necessary to understand the text. So do keep that in mind when you submit to other publishers who do not specify specific guidelines such as these.

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:05:35 +0000

I have noticed that Dragonfly Magazine has a specific format for picture book text.

http://www.dragonflypubs.com/dfp/storyboardsampler.pdf

Basically the text for each separate page is paired with illustration hints.

After seeing Laurent Linn discuss illustrations at the Oklahoma SCBWI meeting, I am convinced that story books “show” much more of the story than they “tell.”

Kate