March 28 is Children’s Picture Book Day. This brings back memories and inspiration. I must bring out that picture book manuscript I wrote all those years ago…
Children’s Picture Book Day. They emphasize children’s. It’s not adults, or young adults. It’s not teens. It’s children’s. And I emphasize children’s because I think children’s picture books are a definitive genre and not a general sort of thing.
Children’s picture books were on my agenda ten years ago but have put that side of publishing to the side. The place for me to tackle these stories again is when the time is ripe.
I would like to share what I thought about children’s picture book publishing during my research and writing ten years ago. First, there were things to do in preparation before sending a manuscript to the publisher:
I had read picture books. I thought this was the easiest part.
I was also aware of the ages of children’s picture book readers. They say there is no hard and fast rule as to who can read what at a particular age, but there are guidelines.
In terms of the writing, I was aware of what I should look out for in picture book texts such as kinds of words were used, types of images, and what sort of subject was present. The text looked simple enough. But I needed to look for nuance and asked why a word, image or sound was included.
I needed to examine the pictures, and see what kind of pictures there are, and note the publisher to see what kinds of picture books they publish.
And I wrote my own children’s picture book stories at leisure, but in the future, I must write with the above parameters more in my mind.
Copyright 2022, Peter Veugelaers.
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