[nicole-studebaker Posts: 5 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

I write but am not up to par with my illustrations. When creating a dummy should a vaguely sketch what I think should be illustrated with my book, do my best version of illustrations I'd like with it, or should I leave illustrations completely off? Or are dummy solely for illustrators? Do I even submit a full dummy if it's just the written portion of the book? I'm sorry; I'm new to this.

[Stephanie Ruble Posts: 1,904 Status: Offline author/illustrator WWW]

You can leave the illustrations and dummy completely off, as publishers like to pick the illustrator, and the illustrator will decide what the characters and scenes will look like. You can include an illustration note if there is something that is not clear in the text, otherwise leave it for the illustrator to imagine how your story looks.

Some writers make a dummy for themselves while writing to see how the words and page turns work, but don't send it in with the text.

Good luck!

[nicole-studebaker Posts: 5 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Thank you for the advice. What would be the preferred formatting for submission? Do I still need to note somewhere where the text breaks into pages or will the publisher do that?

[Artemesia Posts: 3,817 Status: Offline WWW]

Hi Nicole! If you are new to writing, you might find this helpful. https://www.scbwi.org/boards/index.php?action=faq;sa=show;faqid=8

Experienced picture book writers make use of page turns to add tension and reveal surprises, similar to way a novelist might use a cliffhanger chapter ending. It's also a good idea to know where your page breaks are for pacing. If your ms is sold, an editor may help you to revise and some may change, but using page turns to add interest is something to keep in mind.

Here's an article on our member Harold Underdown's site on formatting a ms.  http://underdown.org/manuscript-format.htm

[nicole-studebaker Posts: 5 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

I'll look into those. Thank you. This organization has been very helpful.