Blog for Bristol Services Intl.

A client recently said, “I envisioned this 1,900 word story to be a picture book, but I hope you can help to establish the guideline to meet this criteria. If too lengthy, I am open to alternatives and suggestions.”

This is a frequent problem. Writers have a story idea and write it prior to finding the niche it will fill. In particular, writers seem to get confused between picture books and easy reader books, which do have some similarities.

So let’s look first at the niches and ask a few questions about your story:  

Picture Book Criteria (determine the appropriate age first) 
     Two-year-olds: simple but lively stories 
     Three-year-olds: involve more exploring of ideas and places 
     Four-year-olds: involve more questions and answers 
     Five and six-year-olds: start to explore the greater world than the one just around them

  
As for length, picture books come in 32, 40 or 48 pages, due to printing requirements. And, in theory, they can have as many as 100 words per page. However few books in the picture book category are more than 1,000 words in total. The reason is that space is needed for the pictures (hence, “picture books”) which must be vital to the story too. The story can be written in a full (but comprehensible to the reader’s age) vocabulary in an interesting tone and with playful language because picture books are traditionally read aloud by an adult to the child. 

Early Reader Books are different from picture books in many ways even though some pictures may still be involved. Most easy reader books are still only 1,000 to 1,500 words long. These books must be written in language and vocabulary that can be read and understood by the young reader. For this reason, the sentences are shorter and less complex than many picture books.  

You need to hone your story to a suitable niche before I (or anyone) can suitably edit it. Then you can feel comfortable marketing it to just the right publisher for just the right young audience!