[read lisa scott Posts: 128 Status: Offline middle grade, chapter books, picture books]

I'm writing a picture book which will have text at the bottom, but will also have dialogue text next to some of the characters. I can't seem to find any information on how to format that for submission.  Thanks for any input!

[Cynthia Kremsner Posts: 689 Status: Offline Author / Illustrator WWW]

Hi Lisa,

If you are talking about speech bubbles, there is a thread just a bit down from your post: https://www.scbwi.org/boards/index.php?topic=73983.0
If you are speaking of typography that  would be part of the imagery, maybe putting something in brackets may be a good way to go. For instance, in one of my book dummies I use the word "crash" and the letters are crashing into themselves. If I didn't have the ability to do this in photoshop or draw it out, I would put a notation in brackets next to the text which encompasses the idea, while using quotation marks to notate dialogue.

[RebeccaL-G Posts: 1,174 Status: Offline RA SCBWI Cen-Cal WWW]

The PB manuscript my agent is subbing for me right now is filled with speech bubbles.  I formatted them in parentheses and italics  (Topsy's speech bubble: "blah, blah") 

[read lisa scott Posts: 128 Status: Offline middle grade, chapter books, picture books]

Thanks!  I must be blind, not sure how I missed the thread below. But then again, whenever I stop a clerk in a store to ask where something is,  I'm standing right in front of it.

[Cynthia Kremsner Posts: 689 Status: Offline Author / Illustrator WWW]

Lisa, happens to me all the time.