TRANSCRIPT

Hi, the advice in this video goes back to my advertising days. You can write a perfectly nice manuscript, but you have to ask yourself – and you have to be honest with yourself – does this story make you feel anything?

My best ads were always the ones that made me nervous to present to the creative director or to the client. I was nervous because the concepts were different. They pushed the boundaries of expectation. But the work that goes where other work doesn’t, that's the work that stands out.

So, read your manuscript. Does it make you feel excited, happy, sad, surprised? Are you laughing, crying, stunned? Is your heart beating a little faster because you’re nervous about what other people will think about your story? If you are, you’re actually onto something. You’re writing a story that people will want to read. For picture books, this is especially important, since great picture books get read over and over again.

At an SCBWI conference that I went to in 2023, Allyn Johnston, Publisher of Beach Lane Books, she summed up her take on what makes a great manuscript this way, “Is anybody going to give a damn?”

That’s my best advice for writing picture books… what’s yours? Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear what you have to say.

And thank you so much for watching. If you got any value out of this video, please like it, subscribe to my channel and share the video with other aspiring picture book writers.