Picture Book Structure
Picture books are almost always 32 pages. The reasons for this are physical: when you fold paper, eight pages folds smoothly into what’s called a signature, while any more results in a group of pages too thick to bind nicely. In addition, the 32 pages can all be printed on a single sheet of paper, making it cost-effective. In extremely rare cases, picture books may be 16, 24, 40 or 48 pages, all multiples of eight (a signature); but 32 pages is industry standard.
Francoise Bui of Doubleday Books, says, . . .
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Related posts:
- Picture Books: Those Confusing 32 Pages
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- How to Write a Poetry Collection Picture Book
- Shakespeare Helps You Write a Better Picture Book
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Hi
Thank you for your posts. They have been very helpful.
It isnt clear to me from your posting of a 32 page book being standard, how many pages of text that translates into for the author. Or does it just mean that an author should aim for a book that she tells the publisher is going to be 32 pages, and they break it up. Or does she break it up herself.
Thank you
looking forward to your response
Tamar
Thanks for the question!
The picture book has 32 pages.
For the author, though, that means there will be short segments of text on each page (or double-page spread). So, the text will be short, perhaps 500-1000 words long.
If you translate that to standard manuscript pages, that’s 5 pages or less. When you send in the mss to a publisher, you send it in stand manuscript format (5 pages or so). When the text is laid out for the picture book, the editor, art director and illustrator will divide it into the segments that go on each page.
You will see me suggest that you divide your text into 14-28 segments, anticipating how it will be laid out in a picture book. That is strictly to help the author revise and polish the text. When you send in the mss, it should be in standard mss format.
Darcy
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