[jeannette-lee1 Posts: 1 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

I've written my first picture book biography and am confused as to how to cite sources.  I have a few quotes that I use, and have used several books and magazine articles as general sources for the information.  Since it's a picture book manuscript, it seems clunky to include footnotes within the text of the manuscript.  Do I just include a bibliography at the end, and call it a day?  But how do I cite where each specific quote came from?  Or is it accepted to include footnotes within the text of the manuscript?

If there is a book you know of that you could point me to, in order to better understand these formatting questions, that would be great too!  I'm not sure where to look to get this information.

Thanks!!

[andracill Posts: 5,701 Status: Offline Worlds within...screaming to get out! WWW]

Purdue Owl has information about both MLA and APA citation rules (how to cite within text, as well as how to create a bibliography or works cited page): https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html

(The link above is to the MLA resources, as that's the style I generally teach and use.)

[Vijaya Posts: 7,164 Status: Offline Encourage WWW]

Jeannette, I always have a list of my sources at the end of my text. And that's what I typically submit. But I also keep a footnoted copy for myself so that I don't lose track of where I found my quotes or facts. This comes in very handy because lots of times by the time a piece is accepted you have forgotten where that little tidbit came from and you will need to know it as you revise with your editor. Also, some editors will ask for a footnoted copy.

[JodyJS Posts: 1,316 Status: Offline Who you gonna call? EMERGENCY KITTENS! WWW]

And don't forget about the handy-dandy EasyBib to make your bibliography for you! Wish it had been around when I was in grad school .

[Debbie Vilardi Posts: 7,001 Status: Offline Language is so cool! WWW]

Publishers will have different ways of handling this in the final book. The key for you is to have the sources in a biblio submitted as part of the manuscript and footnotes available as V says. Primary sources are best.

[kwlarson Posts: 170 Status: Offline Books for curious kids WWW]

Welcome to the wonderful world of nonfiction!

As Vijaya suggested, use endnotes, not footnotes and include your bibliography.

CMS is the commonly used format for citation in our industry, though I sometimes use MLA and include the web address.

EasyBib is a helpful resource (though the ads have become very annoying). Some people use Zotero as well.

Best of luck!

Kirsten

[RebeccaL-G Posts: 1,496 Status: Offline RA SCBWI Cen-Cal WWW]

Everything Kirsten said. She's a smart cookie.  The end notes probably won't show in the published book, but you want the editor to see that you've done your work, and they can rely on your facts.