November 15, 2022
In
Podcast
Podcast – Pacing and Shorter Texts with Katie Davis
How is pacing in picture books different today from the books you read growing up?
Author Katie Davis spells out why pacing is important in picture book manuscripts and why it’s different in today’s market from some of your childhood favorites. In this episode, Katie analyzes pacing examples in some of her favorite picture books and reveals various methods for achieving excellent pacing in shorter texts.
Listen here:
Today’s episode comes from our previous Mini Summit: Don’t Write Your Grandma’s Picture Books. Emma Walton Hamilton unearths a brief history of picture books including how Randolph Caldecott started the genre by creating illustrations that helped to tell the story instead of the pictures simply reflecting what’s in the text. Emma shares how picture books evolved from morality tales to books for “naughty children” and books that break the rules and meet children where they are today.
This episode is an excerpt from the Picture Book Summit presentation Performance on the Page by author and uber-librarian Betsy Bird.
Today’s episode comes from Picture Book Summit Co-Founders Emma Walton Hamilton and Julie Hedlund. Emma and Julie are also co-creators of the Complete Picture Book Submission System. In this episode, you’ll hear them share their submission expertise as they provide you with the key components of a killer query letter and break down three real query letters critiqued by Emma or Julie that resulted in agent representation or a book contract. You’ll leave this episode with actionable items you can apply immediately to your own queries. Get ready to polish those queries until they shine brighter than you thought possible.
Our yearly free Mini Summit is one of our favorite events. Our previous Mini Summit: Where the Idea Are was so full of juicy goodness, we decided to share it here on the podcast. Listen to Part 1 – Generating Ideas with Katie Davis 
