We recommend using industry standard formatting to present your picture book text in the most readable and professional way.

How to format a picture book text submission

Order of submission: Begin with your picture book text(s), followed by a page containing your summary or summaries.

Font: Use an easy-to-read font such as Times New Roman, size of 12 points, black.

Margins: Standard one-inch margins on all sides of the page.

Page: White background, A4 size.

Spacing: Double-space your picture book text. Single-space your summary.

Alignment: Align your text to the left (with a ragged right hand side).

Title: This is typically centred a little way down from the top of the first page and either bold, italicized, or in a larger font size to distinguish from the body of your text. Leave a couple of lines between your title and the first line of your book.

Dialogue: Usually indicated by using quotation marks (“ ”). Each speaker’s dialogue is typically placed on a new line.

Illustration notes: Should your book contain an image that is essential to the reader’s understanding of the plot, please add a brief explanatory note within the text.

Spread Numbers: Indicate your spread numbers before the text to show the reader which pages will be read as a pair. For example P1/2: Text text text P3/4 Text text text

Manuscript Page Numbers: Footer, aligned right or centred.

File type and name: We accept Word documents and pdf files. Use your picture book title(s) as your file name.

What to exclude for anonymity: As our prizes are judged ‘blind’, submissions should be anonymised. Please omit all personal information, acknowledgements page, headers, cover page, copyright declarations and images of any kind.

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