Children's Book Authors/Illustrators discussion

Hello Carrie. My suggestion is to make sure that your manuscript is right first. You don't want to have to redo the illustration, that's more work and more money.

If you are looking to pitch it to traditional publishers, they typically arrange for the illustrator, so you would want to have your manuscript as polished as possible, but not include illustrations. Good luck!

If you want to, you can include a description of the illustrations in text with each page of text. As in: [Charlie huddles under the blankets, terrified of the noises coming from under the bed.] and on the next page [Spike huddles in the darkness under the bed, terrified of the noises coming from overhead.] This sort of directions to the illustrator can be quite helpful, particularly for books where the text is sparse. However, it isn't really necessary for most picture books. But if you have a specific idea of what needs to be illustrated (even if it's just one particular page) it is helpful to note it. But you don't have to. Certainly not at this stage.

Carrie wrote: "Thank you so much for the comments! I found a picture book critique group which I joined and am going in with a draft.

Thanks all!"

Hi Carrie,
Keep us updated on what you learn from the critique group. I'm an illustrator, so I'm interested to learn what the "formal" process is. Thanks!

If possible, can you also provide a link to that picture book critique group you mentioned?