Hi

I am in the process of sending off manuscripts (again) for my children's picture book stories for 4 to 7 year olds and am confused about the advice I have read about how to present the manuscripts. Should I:

a) Present the story just the same as a non-illustrated story, i.e. straight through, no page breaks, double spaced etc. (This is what I have always done.)

b) With notes of the page breaks, i.e. Page 2 etc at the top of each paragraph or whatever.

c) With notes about page breaks and my ideas for the illustrations that will accompany each bit of text.

Hope this makes sense and someone can help.

Binkle

If you think something is essential to the plot - facial hair or expressions, something that you really want the illustrator to pick up on, then I (personally) would say yes. It would be helpful for the illustrator if you gave him/her a starting point, an anchor point. But I have heard that splitting the lines up and including page numbers or a full description of what you want is generally a no-no. The illustrator might surprise you.

I was once asked to do a painting of woodland scene with a cottage almost lost in the woods. I was given a list of colours that she wanted me to include. The list included; green for grass, some orange for the sun, and yellow of course, brown for tree trunks - I'm not making this up. Then she asked if I would be able to paint her house hidden in the woods, instead of a cottage. I had to point out that she lived in a semi-detached house with garage in a built up area. She was happy with the result though.

Ha! I can well believe that story unfortunatly! People are funny.

Thanks for a decisive reply - that's what I needed. Every book or article I read seems to say something different on the matter, but your thoughts are in line with what I thought anyway so I shall stick with it.

Now, if I can just manage to print out a final copy without noticing any more typos I'll be fine!

Binkle