How Picture Book Pagination Keeps Readers Turning the Pages
Looking for Carol Hinz’s post on picture book pagination? You can find an updated version of it at the Picture Book Builders blog!
Looking for Carol Hinz’s post on picture book pagination? You can find an updated version of it at the Picture Book Builders blog!
Comments
This was such an interesting blog. When I write my picture book manuscripts, I paginate them. And more times than not, I submit them to my editors (at various publishing companies) with the pagination intact. But mainly because I know these editors and have worked with them for years. I believe they too like to see my thinking about pacing. However I also do critiques for clients, and I always recommend that they use pagination on their drafts to help them conceptualize the story and arrive at a well-paced flow but that they REMOVE the pagination when they submit to agents or editors. It’s always been commonly thought that most agents and editors do not prefer to receive paginated manuscripts!
Interesting! Thanks for sharing your experience Susan. I certainly acquire picture book manuscripts all the time that don’t have the pagination marked, but I find it pretty unobtrusive to have it marked. I will say that I don’t love when authors include a page breaks in their document–it’s a lot of scrolling!
Thanks for this great article! Really helpful.
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment!
Thank you, Carol! Your comments came as a surprise to me at the SCBWI-WI conference, but your explanation is enlightening. You make a good case for all writers to do this, at least as an exercise. I can also understand why some agents/editors might prefer to read the story without pagination, to make their own decisions on pacing and emphasis. I also can understand why an illustrator might chose different page turns as part of their vision for the book. Just one more thing to worry about when submitting a story.
You’re welcome, Laura! As short as picture books are, there’s definitely a lot to think about while putting them together!
Thank you for this detailed blog post about the positives of pagination. Your points were well thought out and valid.
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Thanks for reading, Charles! Your hashtags never fail to make my day!
[…] to meet with my editor at Millbrook, Editorial Director Carol Hinz. She had just finished writing this super blog post about pagination (give it a read and make sure you’re thinking about pagination on your own picture book […]
Your posts are always so enlightening. I have had several critiques in which editors have asked me to include pagination, so you’re not alone. Thank you!
Thank you so much, Lindsay–I’m glad to hear it!
Just realized I’ve been sharing this with lots of writers but hadn’t commented myself! Love your thoughts on pagination, Carol. I think you are the first editor I’ve ever talked with who prefers to see a manuscript come in with page numbers indicated. I think it makes total sense. After hearing several editors say they don’t want that done, though, I feel pushy if I include them (unless, of course, said editor has proclaimed publicly to want them–that does make it easier!).
Ha! Thank you, Laura. I love that in your books, you are so aware of the format of the picture book itself and use that to help shape your text.
As an indie author/publisher, it was wonderful to finally hear from someone about this topic of pagination. With four award winning children’s books and my fifth just around the corner, one of my anticipations is to plan out my page breaks for the storyboard to follow. For some reason I do get the cadence, the flow, and sequencing of how the story is going to play out, like you said in a mere 32 pages. As a SCBWI member for over 10 years, one does hear many differences of opinions on books and the development of them. Thank you for sharing your insights. I wish I had heard about you, we would have done spectacular work together! Onwards, Alva
Alva, thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment. Wishing you continued success with your books!
Great thoughts, thank you! Looking forward to trying them out in a rough dummy (for pace, not art – I’m strictly a writer). Also looking forward to reading STRANGE FRUIT. It’s cataloged at my library as TEEN 782.42165G – the first picture book I’m aware of to be filed thus. I’ll be on the lookout for more. I’m also curious to see where it will be in my local book store.
I’ve seen some picture books start the story before the title page (e.g. Philip Stead’s Special Delivery and Only Fish in the Sea). Is that something a debut author could incorporate when thinking of pagination, do you think?
How interesting that STRANGE FRUIT is in the teen section at your library! We list it in our catalog as being for ages 8-12, but of course libraries can decide to shelve books however they think best serves their community.
The book GIANT SQUID comes to mind as another one that has the title page in an unexpected place. I guess as a general rule, I’d a debut author should stick with conventional title page placement when submitting a manuscript. That said, if you have manuscript where there’s a really strong narrative reason to put the title page in an unconventional spot, go for it! You just want to make sure it’s clear there’s a significant reason for what you’re doing so that it doesn’t look to an editor like you’re simply unfamiliar with standard picture book formatting.
Best wishes with your writing!
[…] How Picture Book Pagination Keeps Readers Turning the Pages […]
This is a great post, Carol. I’m passing it around to all my picture book writer buddies.
Thank you so much, Cynthia! I love the idea that this might help someone with their manuscript!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on pagination. I recently asked this question at a nonfiction conference in Florida and the editor didn’t care for pagination. So, I took it out of my manuscript. I definitely found it helpful in visualizing how much text would be on each page. It also gave me a better idea of scene changes. It was so useful to me, I will continue to plot out my stories this way, but depending on where the manuscript is headed, I may take it out. On the negative side, it’s a bit of a pain if you put in the page breaks too early and you have to revise.