Writing picture books is not easy. Picture books are a unique form of writing with a large audience of 2- to 8-year-olds, and they must appeal to both the adult purchaser and the child listener/reader. They are generally 32 pages long and must be tightly focused and told partly through illustrations. And novice picture book writers make a lot of mistakes--and get a lot of rejections from publishers flooded with inappropriate manuscripts. From this book these writers will learn the writing and revision process that will lead them to creating more salable picture book manuscripts

• Becoming a picture book scholar
• Building a frame for your story house
• Telling your story : part one
• Telling your story : part two
• Telling your story : part three
• Creating compelling characters
• Diving into your story
• Creating a fabulous first line
• Three-act structure : basic plotting
• Holding your story together
• Does your story make it to the end?
• Two Ss of strong writing
• Rhyme time
• Making music with your prose
• The importance of word count
• Grabbing the reader with a great title
• Cut and paste : making a dummy book
• Sharing your story
• Becoming a detective : researching the market
• Priming your idea pump
• Selling your manuscript