This easily answered question about writing a children’s book manuscript and illustration notes in picture book manuscript format comes from longtime reader Siski:
I’ve got a story that absolutely requires illustration notes but I feel amateurish including them because I’ve read you shouldn’t do it when writing a children’s book manuscript. Should I try to rewrite the story without them?
Children’s Book Manuscript Format
Just so we’re immediately clear, I’ll talk a little bit about picture book manuscript format. When you’re writing a children’s book manuscript, you’ll typically have your text on the page, with line breaks or white space to indicate page breaks as you envision them (extra tips about creating a picture book here). Like this:
I am writing a picture book story.
I think it’s very fun.
I’ll include a page break in it,
So the lines don’t start to run.
You can even dictate page breaks in parentheses, like this:
(Page 1)
I am writing a picture book story.
I think it’s very fun.
(Page 2)
I’ll include a page break in it,
So the lines don’t start to run.
Well, when you’re writing and you want to convey something about how you see the page illustrated, you include illustration notes, usually in parentheses and italics. This is what we’re talking about:
I am writing a picture book story.
I think it’s very fun.
(Illo: Mary cradling her MacBook Air, beating out the meter of her story with her fingers.)
Writing a Children’s Book Manuscript: Illustration Notes
If you write picture books, you’ll hear a lot of opinions about illustration notes. Some people say they’re a no-no, others say to add them in. I’m in the middle of the debate on this one. The reason so many people advise against them is this: too many writers use illustration notes to micromanage.
For example, you’ll see illustration notes like:
(Illo: Sally has brown hair, glasses, and a blue skirt. She is skipping down the street with a red backpack in one hand, a lunch sack in the other, by a house with a green mailbox, while her braid swings to the left.)
Or the note will be too detailed in other ways. Or the writer will include an illustration note for every page. The list of illustration note misuses goes on and on.
Do’s and Dont’s
The point of an illustration note isn’t to jot down every single thing that’s in your imagination. It’s also not to micromanage the potential illustrator. The point of an illustration note is to convey something to the children’s book manuscript reader that is not obvious from the text.
Only use illustration notes in your picture book manuscript if there is something integral to the plot that you want the illustrations to convey, but it’s not described or alluded to anywhere in the text. In other words, if I will be blind to something from just reading the text, use an illustration note to describe it, but really do keep them simple, spare, and few in number. The average picture book text will only need one or two, tops. An example of an effective picture book note:
I am writing a picture book story.
I think it’s very fun.
(Illo: Mary typing, blithely unaware that a monster is sneaking up behind her, claws bared.)
If you’re interested in a picture book editor with over ten years of experience, hire me to dig into your children’s book manuscript.
I am very glad that you have internet again and I am thrilled to see another picture book post. As always, your advice is incredibly helpful. Thanks, Mary!
If somebody is proposing a wordless picture book, would the advice be different? Or would you recommend that debut author/illustrators leave that kind of project for later, after they’re published and established in the writing world?
Thanks again.
This is really timely! I was critiquing a PB ms last night and wondered if the illustration suggestions might be more than were necessary. I’ve passed this post along to the author. Thanks, Mary!
Oh, thank you! Mary, this may well end up being one of the best-received blog posts of the YEAR. I appreciate you clearing this up for us picture book peeps.
*(Illo: Said from atop a tree, arms spread to the Heavens.)*
I write picture books and use illustration notes. I certainly agree that they should be brief and to the point, and only used to explain a visual element that is key to the story, but at the same time, since picture books rely on pictures so heavily to tell the story, it would surprise me to find a text that didn’t need at least one illustration note.
I think pb writers who don’t illustrate themselves sometimes forget that they don’t have to do everything. If a text is getting too long, there’s often scope to reduce it by passing some more of the story-telling over to the illustrator.
Very interesting, Mary! Thank you! I love your picture book posts because it seems like there is so little information out there geared toward PB submissions. Interesting also to see your advocacy of the page breaks. I read sometimes that folks want them and sometimes they don’t. Nice to know your opinion on the matter!
Thanks, Mary!
[Illo: Smacks self b/c has never used breaks.]
I have one PB story that has no illustration notes. I would be thrilled to see where an illustrator would take it.
I have another PB that has one sentence per spread and would definitely need illustration notes, because the words are an unexpected description of the pictures. But since I’m illustrating it myself, I won’t need the notes. My dummy will speak for itself.
Thank you so much for the helpful blog post. This is a huge matter of debate, so it helps to get your input. I found that once I started putting in illustration notes, some of my unnecessary text fell away. Also good suggestion to put in the breaks. I’ve heard differing opinions on that one too, but I think breaks make sense. It shows that you have thought about the spreads.
Thank you for clarifying this issue. I am a writer, and not a visual artist. Therefore, I try to steer clear of illo notes altogether. However, lately I’ve been working with more word-play concepts that would require notes here and there. I’m glad to see some definitive advice. Thanks!
Thank you very much for clearing this up. Great post Mary!
You’re back! Phew, was worried you’d gone the way of Editorial Anonymous, wherever that is.
Thanks for this. I feel far happier and less amateurish including the illo notes now.
I am so glad you posted this! The only experience that I have had with “proper formatting” was when I was hired for a specific job, and given a specific format to follow, which to my surprise included using illustration notes, so I thought that was the way it was always done! This could save me some headaches. Thank you.
Thanks.
A very clear explanation.
Jean
I have a PB manuscript similar in style to David Shannon’s NO DAVID books where the words don’t always convey everything that is going on. Because I am not an illustrator I have been struggling with how to get my point across. Your post has helped me tremendously. Thank you!
Very good post on PB. Again, so many different views on formatting on what agents want to see. Thank you Mary for your input. By the way. I have a MacBook Pro. Can’t live without it. Windows was driving me nuts.
Great post! I use illustrator notes quite a bit — but they are always, as you say above, crucial to understanding the plot. I also format my PB manuscripts almost as you would format a poem, rather than a run-on narrative.
Thanks, Mary. I always get nailed from my critique group about the illustration notes thing, but I recently went to a conference where the very-in-demand author said the sweet spot for PB word count is now around 500 (wow!) and that because of that, you almost have to use illustration notes. I also sat next to an editor from Scholastic and she said that notes (where needed) don’t bother her at all.
Cara
Thank you SO MUCH for this one. I co-authored a picture book that includes illustration notes because the humor of the story relies on visual irony (what is said and what the picture shows are… different). There’s no way to convey this in manuscript form without adding illustration notes, but I had qualms about including them anyway out of fear we’d be dismissed as amateurs right off the bat. Glad to know they are acceptable where they make sense, and thank you for the formatting tip!
This comes at a good time for me. I have two picture books that I want to send out, and one of them actually does seem to require a note or two in parentheses. I also found the tip about page breaks helpful. Thanks for this post!
Thanks for this great post. I agree that illustration notes are important if your story requires visual irony. But illustrators deserve not to have their creativity squelched. We have to remember that picture books are a unique art medium where the pictures are as important as the text. If we’re not illustrators, we really need to stick with what we know . . .words!
Oh, THANK YOU! This is EXACTLY what I needed for my manuscripts. And it is so nice to have someone address this question based on the assumption that the reader is a competent writer who can do a professional job, and not under the assumption that the reader is a wingnut who will not only over-do, but enclose glitter and photos of her dog as well.
Very helpful! So many opinions on this one, but what you say makes perfect sense.
Thanks to everyone for these comments. Unbelievably helpful. My “young non-fiction” book was originally a play performed by children. So in the manuscript, the play’s narration becomes the text, and I see the stage action becoming illustrations with talk bubbles. It seems as though indicating these indented in caps would make that clear. Is this too micro-managing, and if so, is there a better way? Thanks!
Thank you SO much for this – my current hopeful submission is a picture book set up in graphic novel format; I didn’t want to do a full comic book script for it, since panel-by-panel notes would certainly be off-putting, but spare notes will definitely help. Would you suggest that I address the format in the cover letter? Would the “grid format” manuscript I’ve seen be too much?
So helpful!
Thank you. I’ve used brackets for illustrator notes. I’ll try your suggestion. Thank you.