It’s a children’s picture book.. But I can’t draw for beans

[Guest]

I’m just getting started submitting my first book to publishers. It’s a children’s picture book and I can’t draw for beans, so I put the imagery descriptions in italics mixed in with the book’s text. Is there a better way to do that?

[AJ~]

I've no experience with picture books, so this is just me thinking out loud, but because publishers like to have an overall feel for a work in order to decide on contracting, wouldn't they also want an impression of the kinds of picture you envisage for the book, so perhaps a schematic so no artistic skill was required, or examples of style, colouring etc? Perhaps a direct example from an existing work, clearly indicated as such, so the style of presentation could be expressed?

Your pitch might be better accepted when a complete package - I would imagine publishers have arrangements with regularly used illustrators, but might prefer to have an idea of your direction first.

[Batman]

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