How to Format and Submit Your Children's Book Manuscript

So, you’ve finished writing your children’s book. Congratulations! You’ve taken a significant step on the road to publication. However, the journey doesn’t end here — you’ll need to polish up your manuscript before you start pitching your story to agents and publishers.

In this post, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about getting your manuscript ready for submission, from industry-standard formatting to personalizing your query letter. Let’s get started!

Formatting your children's book manuscript

It can be tempting to get flowery with the formatting of your manuscript. Children’s books are meant to be charming after all, so their presentation should reflect that! 

However, the mundane truth is you’re better off saving the whimsy for your words and illustrations. Agents and publishers read through manuscripts on a daily basis — you’ll give a better first impression if you make their lives easier by conforming to typical industry standards.

✅ Standard formatting guidelines

Before you start formatting your manuscript, the first thing to check is if the agent or publisher you want to submit to has any specific guidelines. Most will adhere to the same industry standards, but it’s a good idea to double check, just in case.

If you can’t find any specific guidelines, to get your manuscript ship-shape for submission, you can follow these essential formatting rules:

• Font & spacing: use a standard font like Times New Roman in a 12-point size. Make sure your manuscript is double-spaced.
• Margins & page numbers: set your margins to 1 inch (2.5cm) on all sides. Place your page numbers in the top right corner, starting from the first page of your manuscript.
• Title page: your title page should include the following:
  
  • The book title
  • Your name (or pen name)
  • Your email address and phone number
  • The total word and page count. 
• File format: most professionals will prefer manuscripts submitted as .docx or .pdf files, but check their submission guidelines to make sure you're using their preferred format. 

Once you’ve got those basics covered, you can turn your attention to more specific, picture-book formatting.

🖼️ Picture book manuscript formatting

Nailing the formatting for a picture book can be a little trickier because they include, well, pictures!

You might feel inclined to include rough sketches of how you picture the illustrations will look, but this is generally ill-advised. If you pair your beautifully written manuscript with some not-so-beautiful mockups, the publisher might assume your illustrations are part of the pitch and pass on your submission entirely.

To avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater, stick with plain old text for the most part, and add an “illustration note” where appropriate. You can also indicate page numbers to make the picture book’s layout easier to imagine. Like this:

As shown here, an illustration note is a quick description explaining a visual detail that the text doesn’t convey on its own. However, take care not to clutter up your manuscript with too many illustration notes. You want to leave your illustrator room to be creative! So if an action is clear from the text, don’t include an illustration note.

Page breaks are another key consideration you’ll need to make if you’re formatting a picture book. Picture books are designed to follow a rhythmic pattern that young children find easy to engage with. As such, the “page turn” is an essential component to making the story flow.

Consider how you want to represent the page turn in your manuscript. You can include page numbers in your manuscript, as above; you may include a line saying “page break here”; or you can simply leave an extra space in the text to indicate a page break.

Remember, readability is key — if you have very few words on each page (like our example), you may be better off leaving extra white space instead of written page breaks to keep the focus on your writing.

Submitting your children's book manuscript

Now that your manuscript is polished up and formatted correctly, the next step to publication is to send it out into the world! To get your manuscript into the hands of agents and publishers, you’ll need to write a query letter to accompany it.

Think of a query letter as an elevator pitch for your book: it’s a one-page letter that introduces your manuscript and tells the agent or publisher why they should consider it. We’ll briefly go over the writing process here, but before you put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), you’ll first need to consider whom you're going to be querying.

🧑‍💼 Finding the right agent

Taking a mass-email approach might seem like your best option to find an agent — the more people you query, the higher your chances of hearing back, right?

Not quite. As is often the case, quality beats out quantity here.

Instead of blasting your manuscript to every agent on the internet, take the time to research professionals who specifically represent children's books in your particular age category. The more specific you can be, the better. As query letter consultant Rachel Stout puts it:

Show an agent that you care. That you put care into this letter, into researching agents, into landing upon them for this specific reason. Show that not only are you committed but that you'll probably put care into your work with them too.

Use a site like Reedsy to find an initial list of agents and publishers that are open to submissions for children’s books. Look at each of their portfolios, and narrow your list down to the few that you think would fit your story the best. 

🐿️ Sample agent list for Sammy Finds a Key

Needless to say, your own shortlist should be tailored to the book you’re querying. But to show more concretely what that might look like, here’s a sample shortlist of 5 suitable agents for our hypothetical picture book, Sammy finds a Key. (The book is made up, but the agents are real — feel free to check out their profiles!)

• Lori Kilkelly of LK Literary Agency: the publisher of Sydney and Taylor and the Great Friend Expedition and Bunny's Staycation, Lori’s agency is well versed in children’s literature featuring endearing protagonists embarking on remarkable adventures. Just like Sammy.
• Julia Churchill: an experienced children’s book literary agent that’s “always on the lookout for new storytelling talent” — perfect for our picture book debut.
• Alice Williams: Alice represents a number of prolific children’s authors known for their charming animal protagonists, including Rachel Delahaye, Lara Hawthorne, and Fabi Santiago.
• Tracy Marchini: A published children’s author in her own right, Tracy can offer a unique perspective on Sammy’s adventure that will help our debut stand out from the crowd.
• Paul Rodeen: Paul’s impressive client list boasts several award-winning picture book authors, including Julia Sarcone-Roach, who was awarded Ezra Jack Keats Honors for THE BEAR ATE YOUR SANDWICH.

📝 Basic query letter structure

Once you’ve landed on a few agents you’d like to submit to, the next step is to craft the perfect query letter. Fortunately, the process for writing a children’s book query letter is much simpler than it is for other genres — after all, you don’t need to stress about condensing a long, complex plot into a one-page letter.

Start by describing your manuscript with a snappy, one-sentence pitch, then follow with a more detailed description on how your book is a good fit for them and the intended market. Finish with a short bio that highlights any relevant experience or accolades you have. “Experience” isn’t limited to your writing background here; if you’re a parent, teacher, or have some other personal connection to the subject, you can incorporate that too.

Lastly, do a little extra sleuthing to appeal to the specific agents on your list. Browse their bios across various sites, read any articles they’ve published, and check their social media. Try to find something that links them to your manuscript — perhaps they have a similar background to the protagonist, or maybe they once tweeted about how they’d just love to represent a book just like yours. Find that connection, and use it to personalize your query letter.

What happens after you submit?

Allow yourself a sigh of relief — you’ve successfully formatted and submitted your children’s book! All that’s left now is the waiting game. Get comfy, because you’ll be playing this one for a while… depending on the agent or publisher, it can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to hear back.

While your submission sits in the so-called slush pile, go back and scan the submission guidelines for a stated response time. If you haven’t had a reply in this timeframe, follow up with a polite email asking if they’ve had a chance to review your manuscript.

Keep it short and respectful, expressing your continued interest in working with them. If the same amount of time passes again and you’ve yet to hear back, feel free to send another follow-up.

Don’t be discouraged if you receive a rejection — every great author has had their work rejected at one stage or another. Agents often don’t have time to leave detailed notes on your work, but if you’re fortunate enough to receive any feedback, use it to improve your manuscript and try querying elsewhere. Each submission will bring you one step closer to success.

Good luck!