So You've Written a Picture Book. What Next?

A friend recently asked if he could send me a manuscript with his idea for a picture book. I run a writing software company, so I suppose I am the closest to “someone in publishing” that he knows. However, I am not strictly in this line of work, and the answer to how do I publish a kid’s book doesn’t have a quick answer I can tap out in WhatsApp. 

On searching for articles with step-by-step guides to send him, I found most providing pages and pages of vague advice ending in “then start querying agents!” Which is a little like saying “Then just build the house!” So I decided to dig in and do the research, talk to some people who really are in children’s publishing, and pull together the ultimate guide for him. And now, for you.

This is advice specifically for children’s book writers who aren’t illustrators, with the aim of demystifying the route through traditional publishing, as it’s the route with the most confusion surrounding it. I may do a post on the un-agented and self-publishing routes (hard and expensive for picture books) soon too, but we have to start somewhere, so let’s start here. 

If you've spent months writing a picture book and are really bloody proud of it, you’ll more than likely find yourself in a very specific kind of limbo. What the heck do I do with this now? Find an illustrator? Send it to a publisher? Find an agent? Ask a friend to read it? Or hide it in a drawer for the next four years while I look for the answers to these questions?

I am going to tell you what you need to write, in what format, where to send it, and what to expect when you do. I have tried to cover both the UK and US markets where possible.

First, two pieces of important general advice:

1. Do not hire an illustrator
   I know this feels like the obvious next step after you’ve finished writing, but I’m highlighting it here first because it is the single most expensive mistake unpublished picture book authors make.
   
   With traditional publishing, publishers want to commission the illustrator (unless you are the illustrator and your art is a selling point). Publishing houses have their own house illustration styles, a list of illustrators, and relationships with illustrators whose careers they are building. Providing art yourself doesn’t help. In fact, it becomes a limitation for them and a reason to say no. (Illustration is also a massive thing that Vanity Presses exploit).
2. The industry moves slowly
   From finished manuscript to seeing your book in a bookshop is in the order of years, not months: the time it takes to find an agent, a year or more to sell your manuscript, and a year or two of illustration, production, and printing.
   
   Things aren’t going wrong if it feels slow. It is just slow. Take a breath and settle in for the ride.

Step 1: Understand the physical book

Picture books have hard constraints, and there is no real reason to have noticed before now, but nearly every book on your kids' shelf has 32 pages. Picture books are printed on large sheets that are folded and cut, and counts come in multiples of 8, with 32 being the default. 

Key takeaway 1: Your book needs to work well across 32 pages.

Of those 32 pages, roughly three are front matter (title, copyright, dedication, etc.) and the story runs across roughly 12-14 double-page spreads.

Word counts differ, but the sweet spot is 400-600 words with an acceptable ceiling of around 800. If you query with a 1000-word count on the letter, you’ll get rejected on this alone.

If you have a manuscript which currently has 1200 words in it, congratulations! You have a first draft. Your next job is to kill your darlings and get that cut in half.

Key takeaway 2: Aim for 400-600 words

Here’s a quick guide to age brackets by book word count:

And don’t forget, your reader may be aged 3-7 but your buyer is an adult! Parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians; they will be the ones reading it out loud two hundred times (trust me on the two hundred times. I have three children and there are books I now know backwards). You need to be writing for both the child and the adult. 

Last consideration of the physical book: books have pages! The page turn is a very important (and one of the only) structural tools you have. It’s powerful and you need to use it. Be that for suspense, punchlines, or for controlling pace.

“Oh help, oh no, it’s the…”
[page turn]

“Gruffalo!”

If you can read your text straight through with no natural breaks, it isn’t shaped like a picture book yet. It probably needs…[imagine a page turn here]

Step 2: A Really Proper Big Edit

A really proper big one. I don’t mean read it again with a [warm beverage of choice], I mean let’s get down to business now. Here are two exercises to force you into a really proper big edit:

Exercise A: The dummy book.

Take 8 sheets of A4 paper, fold them all together and staple the fold. You now have a 32 page book. 

Number the pages. Ignore pages 1-3 (these will be front matter), then hand-write your text onto the spreads from page 4/5 to 31/32.

You will learn:

• If you have enough story to fill 12-14 spreads (or too much).
• Whether each will have a different image (if three spreads are all roughly baby bear on the bed feeling sad that’s a problem).
• Where your page turns fall and if they add anything. If not, you aren’t using them well enough yet.
• Whether your ending has room to breathe or is rushed.

This dummy book is for your eyes only, you don’t need to send it to anyone. Your next job is to make all the edits from what you learn.

Exercise B: Read it aloud to an actual child.

You will learn:

• Awkward tongue twisters or hard-to-pronounce phrases.
• Sentences that run out of breath.
• Where you repeat yourself.
• Places where you instinctively pause (ding ding ding we found a page turn).
• Whether the kid was interested. Did they fidget? Were they engaged? Were they confused? Ultimately, did they like it?

After these two exercises you should have enough to rework your manuscript. While you do that, run through this checklist to make sure you aren’t falling foul of some of the likely offenders of rejected works:

Make sure:

• The child (or animal protagonist) solves the problem (not the parent, not the wise old owl or a convenient bit of magic. The kids want the win).
• The text doesn’t overdescribe what the pictures will show, unless the description is fundamental to the story. The illustrator will decide what colour the bear wears, squeeze as much story from your words as you can.
• There’s no moral line at the end. “And so they all learnt that sharing is caring”. The story needs to have the moral tucked into it, not spelled out at the end.
• Adults are absent or entirely useless. It’s a feature of the genre, us grown ups are rubbish. Stick to that.
• It’s re-readable. Not too repetitive or droning. New gags when you read again. That kind of thing.

Step 3: Gathering feedback

From friends

If your friends are anything like mine they will be absolutely useless at feeding back anything but “This is the best book I’ve ever read”. They love us and it’s not their fault. We have put them in an impossible position. However, I am going to tell you a way to not waste the love of your friends and direct it into actually useful feedback. 

Instead of dropping a copy and asking what they think. Send this specific list:

1. What is the book about? (in one sentence)
2. Where did your attention drift? (even slightly. Which exact line?)
3. Was there anything you had to re-read to understand what was going on?
4. What would you say to describe it to a friend in a bookshop? 

Most of the edits required from feedback will be self explanatory, but the reason for question one is that if you get five different answers for it, then your hook isn’t clear and that will show in your query letter.

From Not-friends

Feedback from Not-Friends is much better. People can be more honest and direct with their critique. Here are some sources of feedback better than friends:

• The Novlr Discord — an incredible community of writers, many of whom are willing to give feedback or be beta readers.
• SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) — the single most useful organisation for children’s writers. Membership is modest, there’s a British Isles chapter, and they run critique groups, conferences, and agent one-to-ones. If you join one thing, join this.
• A local storytime — ask your library or a nursery whether you can read to a group. It's free, brutal, and invaluable.
• A primary school teacher or children’s librarian — they know what holds a room.
• Online critique communities — Novlr critique groups on Discord, SCBWI critique groups, Scribophile, or Facebook groups for picture book writers. Reciprocal critiques with people who write in your category beats general feedback every time.
• A paid critique — optional, and only from someone who actually works in children’s publishing (a freelance children’s editor, or an agent offering paid feedback via a recognised organisation). Expect £100–£300 for a picture book report. 

From children

I know it might seem obvious when said out loud, but you’d be shocked to learn how many children’s book writers never get a child to read their books. While you might be selling to adults, ultimately, you need to know that kids will like what they’re reading (or hearing) too! 

If any of your friends (or not-friends) have children, get them to beta read along with their parents. Just because an adult thinks a book is the best thing since sliced-bread, doesn’t mean it will reach its intended younger audience the same way, and vice versa. There’s a reason that so many popular picture books are about dinosaurs and poop. And it’s not because the adults buying those books are super into those things.

After you’ve had beta readers on side, expect very many drafts. Twenty! Thirty! Just try and enjoy the ride. Every draft gets you closer to something publishable and much more likely to get to the top of the query pile.

Step 4: Prepare the query

By this point, you’re hopefully pretty confident your manuscript is ready. You’ve done a really proper big edit. Now it’s time to query. 

Querying is sending an agent or publisher a short pitch letter with your manuscript, asking them to represent or publish you.  Well, before you get too ahead of yourself there are a few things you absolutely must get in order before you start that process.

1. Your title.
   You want it to be short, memorable, and ideally hints at the concept or  joke. Also good to check it isn’t already a famous book title, TV show, or similar. There's no copyright reason why you can't share a title, but you don't want to introduce confusion when it comes to reading your query. And it’s also worth mentioning that even if you come up with a killer title, a publisher might end up changing it. But at this point, it’s all about getting an agent on board.
2. Word count and age range.
   Easy peasy. Make sure you give an exact word count (no rounding):
   649 words, ages 3-6.
3. Your one-line pitch
   Build it like this:
   
   [Character] + [what they want] + [the obstacle to getting it] + [the hook].
   
   For example
   
   [A bear] must [survive Library Day], but being [physically incapable of staying quiet] makes every page-turn [a disaster].
   
   See if you can identify some books you know from my pitch of them:
   
   A lonely boy wants to escape his bedroom, but a wild adventure with monsters teaches him that home is where he belongs.
   
   A hungry caterpillar wants to eat his way through the week, but his enormous appetite leads to an unexpected transformation.
4. Comp-titles (the bit everyone gets wrong).
   Comp titles are comparative titles that show where on the bookshelf your book would sit. It proves you know your market, so getting this bit right is so important. 
   
   Rules for good comp titles:

• • Make sure they’re recent i.e. published in the last 3-5 years.
  • Make sure they’re traditionally published.
  • Make sure they’re in the same age category.
  • Don’t use films, TV Shows, or novels.
  • Use good solid sellers, not mega sellers. Realistically, nobody’s book is the next Gruffalo and you need to show you know the market outside of that.
  • Never claim yours is “better than” anything. 
  • Make sure they’re similar in tone, structure, or theme.

It goes without saying but make sure you have actually read your comp titles and truly believe they are comparative in these ways. 

If you don’t know your comp titles, the best way to find them is the enjoyable way. Get to a library, bookshop, or friend with kids house and read as many picture books printed in the last five years as you can. Note down the publishers and imprints (this is your publisher/agent research too). You can also read publisher’s seasonal catalogues, Booktrust’s Bookfinder, and recent prize shortlists like The Carnegies (UK), the Newbery Medal (US), the National Book Award (US), and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize (UK). 

My example comp line, then, is going to look like:

BEAR CAN’T WHISPER will appeal to readers of Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne and Max Lang and Meesha Makes Friends by Tom Percival — character-led, funny, and all about learning to live with the thing that makes you different.

Step 5: Format the final manuscript

Next, we are going to prepare the documents that we will send to query agents. 

The document:

• DOCX format (unless the agency specifies another format. Always follow their guidelines over anything outlined in this post).
• Font in 12pt Times New Roman (Arial, or Calibri are usually also OK, but Times New Roman seems to be the universally preferred).
• Line spacing: double or 1.5.
• Margins: 1in/2.5cm all round.
• Left-aligned, ragged right (not justified, not centered).
• Text colour: black.
• Background: white.

Page 1 is your cover page. You’ll need, top left corner (single-spaced block):

[Your Name]

[Your Address]

[Your Email]

[Your Phone Number]

Then, centred, a third of the way down:

[TITLE]

[by Author] 

[word count] | [genre] | [age range]

This will look like:

BEAR CAN'T WHISPER

by Kim Montgomery

649 words | Picture Book | Ages 3–6

Then, on the next page, start the book text. Every page should have a header, that follows the formula:

[author surname] / [title] / [page number]

This will look like:

Montgomery / BEAR CAN'T WHISPER / 2

Some import things not to do! 

• Don’t break the text into numbered pages or spreads (unless specifically asked).  Submit it as flowing text with a paragraph break where the page turn falls.
• Don’t include illustrations*, clip art, borders, or colours.
• Don’t include a copyright line or “do not steal” instructions. It’s automatically copyrighted and can come across as a little naive. 
• Don’t add a synopsis. Picture books don’t need one as the whole text is shorter than a synopsis. 

*You may add illustration notes only where the text makes no sense without them (irony or a visual joke that the words deliberately contradict). Format them in square brackets. For example:

The dog had been perfectly well behaved all day

[ART: total devastation, e.g. sofa destroyed, dog wearing lampshade]

Note: This is a guide for general best practice, but always check with an agent’s specific submission guidelines first, and adapt accordingly. I can’t stress this enough. Not following an agent’s submission guidelines will result in an immediate rejection.

Step 6: Now write the actual Query

The time has come to write the query letter. You are going to usually be writing this in an email and it has five parts, in the following order: 

1. The personalisation (1-2 sentences). Why you chose this agent specifically. Reference a client of theirs whose work you like or an interview or podcast you heard them on. Be specific and honest. No vague “I love the books you represent”. 
2. The pitch (2-4 sentences). A brief of the story and obstacles in it. Include what makes yours fresh or different from others on the market. Write it in the voice of the book if the book has a strong voice. Don’t summarise the whole thing but you can give away the ending since they will read the whole thing anyway. 
3. The metadata (1 sentence). BEAR CAN’T WHISPER is a 649 words picture book for ages 3-6. Comp titles are [list them].
4. Your bio (1-3 sentences). List any relevant credits you have, especially if you have past publications or membership of author organisations; courses you have taken or an adjacent career (primary teacher, librarian). If you have none of that, that’s ok! Do not apologise, most debut picture book authors have no previous experience. Instead be honest; “This is my first picture book. I am a Primary PE Teacher in Woodford with a new baby and nieces with strong opinions on picture books”. 
5. Close (1 sentence). The full text is attached to this email. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Do not include:

• “I’ve been told I should get this published”.
• Your kid’s opinion of the book.
• Any mention of an illustrator you’ve hired or plan to.
• Series potential (“this is the first of 12”). Let’s sell one book first.
• Comparisons to Roald Dahl, Julia Donaldson (or any other writer. Be your own thing).
• Confidentiality requests or NDAs (this is implicit).
• A rhyming query letter. Please. 

Download this free template and edit it to your needs.

Many agencies specify an exact subject line format. Use theirs, always. They may filter their inbox with it. If they don’t specify, then use  QUERY: TITLE (PB, word count). PB being shorthand for picture book.

Step 7: Make a massive spreadsheet

You are going to make a big spreadsheet 😃 Well actually, I have made one for you but you do have to fill it in! Below is an empty template to get you started. 

Download the spreadsheet template

It’s time to build your agent list! This is the list of people you will be approaching and it’s your job to do the work to find and vet them. It’s a constantly moving industry with open and close submission windows and changing names and agencies with specific categories and genres, so nobody can hand you the list that is right for you. You have to do the work on this.

Where to find children’s agents

• The Children’s Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook (Bloomsbury) is updated annually and is the standard UK reference. Get yourself a current edition or ask your local library. UK edition. US edition. This is your new holy text.
• Once you’ve found agents in the books, go directly to their websites. Every agency lists their agents, clients, interests, and submission requirements.
• Acknowledgment pages of books like yours. Authors often thank their agents in the acknowledgments, so check the books which are similar to yours to find them.
• Manuscript Wishlist (MSWL) is a database of agents and the work they are looking for. You can filter search by specific book types and genres to find exactly who might like your work. (mostly US-oriented)
• Query Tracker is a US and UK agent database which also tracks whether they are open or closed to submissions.
• Agent Query is another one :) 
• The Bookseller (UK) and Publishers Marketplace (US) deal announcements will tell you who sold what, recently. Both have paid tiers.
• Social media - mostly Bluesky and Instagram. Many agents post their open/closed status on their so follow as many agents as you can. 
• SCBWI conferences and other writing events and festivals often offer paid one-to-ones with agents which could be good only if you are sure you are a right match.

How to vet an agent

So you have an initial list, then we are going to want to double check them. There are a few ways to vet agents.

• The Association of Author’s Agents (AAA) is a UK trade body and code of practice it is good baseline vetting filter agents are members of this.
• Are they actually open to submissions? Check the dates and remove or archive into another list for now if not. 
• Do they have recent sales? Ideally they have client books published in the last couple of years.
• Do they charge reading fees, editing fees, or any other upfront fees? If yes, walk away. Agents are paid a commission on money they earn you, always. Don’t get pulled into a scam.
• Check them on Writer Beware; a great source of tracking dodgy schemes, scams and other bad practice in the publishing industry. US-based but international reach.

Step 8: Hit send 

Okay. You have a final edited manuscript. You have a tight, thoughtful query letter. You have a vetted list of agents to send it to who are currently open to commission…now it’s time to hit send!

Send to eight agents at a time

Only fools rush in. We have to be methodical about this. You are going to send your query letter to 8 agents to begin with, then wait for responses. If the first eight are all rejections, it may be that something in the query or opening isn’t working that can be tweaked and you still have hundreds of agents left to fix it for. 

Do not burn your whole list on a flawed pitch.

So get your email fired up. Separately (not cc’d in or anything silly like that. We already spoke before about how they need to be personalised) send each email, double, triple checking the information in it before hitting send. Check the spelling of the agent and agency name, check the subject line, check the personalisation, check you haven’t pasted anything weird. Send yourself a test copy if needed. Then send and update your spreadsheet with what and when you sent it. 

Send it from a sensible email address and follow the agency's guidelines (on subject line, format etc.) to the letter. Do not colour any fonts or add any images (unless asked).

Then wait

Waiting time as stated by agencies is typically 6-12 weeks.

Agents may say something like “if you haven’t heard anything from us in 8 weeks, please assume it’s a no”. We call this a NRMN - no response means no. It's normal, if bleak. 

Most authors get rejections or silence from the large majority. This is not a signal about your book until you’ve done thirty or forty queries. Which brings me on to:

Step 9: Embrace rejection like it’s your best friend

I am going to need you to completely reframe how you feel about rejections. I want you to want to collect them. Like Pokemon. Collect the first ten rejections then treat yourself to a nice dinner. Rejection is not a failure in the game, it is the whole game. 

Published authors are not people who did not get rejected, they are people with the metal to collect enough rejection to find their yes. That is you. That’s going to need to be you. 

Some famous cases worth mentioning:

• Dr. Seuss’s first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, was rejected by 27 publishers. He was reportedly walking home to burn the manuscript when he bumped into an old college friend who’d just become an editor at Vanguard Press. The most successful children’s author in history got published on a coincidence, on attempt 28.
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was rejected by 12 publishers before Bloomsbury took it, and reportedly only because the chairman’s eight-year-old daughter read the first chapter and demanded the rest.
• Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time was rejected 26 times. It went on to win the Newbery Medal.
• Watership Down was rejected by multiple publishers and agents (commonly cited as seven) for being too long, too dark, and impossible to place; too adult for children, too rabbity for adults. It’s sold tens of millions of copies.
• Kate DiCamillo has said she collected over 470 rejection letters across roughly six years before selling Because of Winn-Dixie, which became a Newbery Honor book. She kept every one.

Agents report receiving thousands of queries a year and signing a handful. Often fewer than five. That's an acceptance rate of under 1% which I know sounds terrible but let me reassure you of one thing; most of those people may not have had a guide like this. So many rejections happen because they have queried the wrong agents, or the wrong category, or with an inappropriate query letter, or a wrong word count, or having not considered the physical book (dummy book exercise again anyone?!). 

Doing the steps in this post moves you out of the instantly deleted pile and into the potential to read pile. It's not a guarantee of success, but it means you won't fail based on things that can be easily avoided.

I would advise you to set yourself a rejection target. “I will get 30 rejections before I reevaluate my manuscript.” Make it a tick list that you need to get through. Make it your process.

Agents pass on great potential books all the time! Either because they simply have too much on, have just signed something too similar or because there are one too many books about bears on the shelves this year. It’s best not to try to decode the rejections.

Step 10: Sign on the dotted line

Ok. You’ve dealt with all the rejections and now you’re getting some response. Any response sends you a signal. Here is what they mean:

Once you get a yes

You’re flying now. But here’s what you can roughly experience once you have an agent ask to represent you. 

If an agent offers to represent you, be sure not to rush into a firm yes. It is sensible to ask for a week to consider. A real agent will say “yes, of course”.

In this time you can email every other agent who has your submission and say you’ve had an offer and asking if they’d like to read it by [date x days in the future]. This can often produce more offers. 

Then ask the questions you want answered from your agent. This will probably happen naturally on the call but some example may be:

• What’s your editorial vision for this book?
• Which editors would you send it to?
• Do you represent me for this book or my whole career?
• Is the agreement a fixed term and what is the notice period to leave?
• What happens to my work if you leave the agency?
• How do you prefer to communicate and how often?

Then read the agency agreements. The Society of Authors will vet a contract free for members and membership costs less than an hour of a lawyer’s time. Join them before you sign anything.

Standard commission they will take is 15% domestic and 20% on translation, foreign, and film rights. Anything above that or additional charges are a problem.

Once everything is signed

You will be moved into a well oiled industrial process once you are in the system. This will consist of editorial rounds with your agent, submitting to publishers, offers or acquisition meetings, working out deals with illustrators, roughs, and then artwork for the book and then the whole production and print process. 

This is all across many many months and it is your agent’s job to walk you through it all and let you know what to expect when. Also be prepared that signing with an agent isn't a guarantee of publication, but it is a foot in the door. But once you’re agented then it’s their job to sell your work.

And that’s it. Easy Peasy, right?

That’s all there is to it. It’s work. It really is work, but these are also very actionable steps for you to follow. If you think you have a great idea and are serious about the dream of publishing then work through this post. Follow it as closely as possible and your chances of success are vastly improved. 

Best of luck with it and don’t forget to share your journey with the Novlr community. They may have lots of advice for you too.