I attended an online webinar from called picture book summit. They provided four reasons picture books get rejected. I will list the notes below. Any inaccuracies are the fault of the note taker.

3. Not being submission-ready By Julie Hedlund
– The first thing is living in a vacuum. You don’t go to different conferences, no being part of a critique group, Need to read hundreds if not thousands of book. You want to see what is coming out now. You need to read your manuscripts out loud over and over again.
– You need to have people of the business critique your manuscripts. Objective eyes.
– Two: making dumb mistakes.
– You have not printed it out on paper read it out loud. Turn from page to page and see about transition and what happens before the page turn.
– Did you proofread it? A lot of subs have punctuation is missing.
– Want to catch overused words.
– Silly thing such as misspelling, wrong punctuation, word use, etc.
– Bad if you did not leave room for the illustrator. Keep the words spare.
– Need to leave room for the illustrator.
– Not ready if there is no action to illustrate. I.e. two talking heads.
– It’s not ready if is full of adverbs or adjectives.
– It’s not ready if over 1000 or 500 words. Most markets are looking for 500 words now
– You need to question why every word is in the manuscript.
– Not ready if not have an unexpected or inedible ending.
– The main character has to solve their own problem.
– Not ready if you provide unnecessary artist notes.
– You need to create a dummy that shows enough for a 32-page book.
– Maximize your page turn. The setup punch line which can be a humorous line, a heart punch. And the page turns to reveal. See how page turn helps the book.
– Need to know your genera and who publishes what?
– There is not a book 5-12 yrs. You need a more restricted age range.
– Put your book away and let it sit.
– Look before you leap.
– Have others read the manuscripts out loud to you. You can also use voice dictation software to her your book in a monotone voice. Software read to you. Hearing your words in monotone can help.
– See where is the action? may think something is read.
– Remove adjectives and adverts. Don’t use easy adverbs.
– Study the business. Learn the proper format.
– Immerse yourself in your genera.
– Read newsletters, trade journals or knowledge blogs. Publishers Weekly, sewi newsletter, CBI newsletter, and great blogs.
– Horn your craft by studying the genera.
– Learn your comp titles. (Which book titles are similar to yours?)
– Attend conferences.

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