Having worked with picture book illustrators for many years now, I’ve come to respect the daylights out of their creative process. Each one reaches the end product—a beautiful picture book—differently, but they all start from the same first moment: an emotional and visual reaction while reading the text for the very first time. That’s where they connect with the story, and that’s where the visual storyline and the overall look of the book begins. This week, a DearEditor.com reader asked me if she should include illustration notes on her manuscript when she submits it to publishers…
Dear Editor…
If you have a spare text for a picture book, should you send along another copy of the story with illustration notes? If so, what’s the proper format for the notes? Brackets? Italics?
Sincerely,
Natasha
I took the question directly to one of my favorite illustrators, Stacy Innerst, to see what he had to say about receiving a manuscript with illustration notes in the margins. Today I posted Stacy’s fascinating answer on DearEditor.com.
Stacy Innerst is the award-winning illustrator of picture books including The Worm Family, M Is For Music, Levi Strauss Gets a Bright Idea, Lincoln Tells a Joke: How Laughter Saved the President (and the Country), and the upcoming The Beatles: They Were Fab and They Were Funny.
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