In Bushel & Peck submission emails, I get cover notes all the time that are longer than the picture book manuscript they’re introducing. So I skim the cover notes. Or more often, I skip them entirely and just go straight to the pages.
I’ve written blog posts before about how cover letters should answer three basic questions. This is a zoomed-in look at just the first two—and how to do them without explaining your book to death.
Here’s one approach that works for me: two sentences at the top of your email that tell me what this book promises to a child and how it delivers on that promise as a picture book.
This picture book is for [age band] about [kid-facing idea]. It helps readers [benefit] through [a visual approach the art can carry], including [one specific spread moment].
The key is naming something concrete that illustrations can carry—not just themes or topics, but actual visual moments that make your manuscript work as a picture book. This also signals to the art team that you’re thinking visually from the start (always a plus!).
(Made-up) Fiction example:
This picture book is for ages 4 to 8 about a city kid learning to sleep during a blackout. It helps readers handle nighttime worries through a neighbor-to-neighbor walk by flashlight, including a rooftop stargazing spread that resets the mood.
(Made-up) Nonfiction example:
This picture book is for ages 5 to 8 about how honeybees work together to survive the seasons. It helps readers understand colony life through cutaway hive views that change across the year, including a waggle dance spread with labeled movements kids can try.
If you try this format, I’d put those two sentences at the very top of your email, before your manuscript or any links. Once I start reading, I want the book—not the cover note—to do the convincing.
For me, less is more when it comes to cover letters. Especially for picture book submissions.
If you’ve got another way to create an editor-pleasing cover letter for a picture book submission, let me know in the comments!
I am appreciative of these samples. Their succinct approach makes sense.
I’ve been at this a long time and this is the first time I’ve seen this formula. Thanks!!
There seems to be a lot of chatter about authors letting the illustrator do his/her job and not prescribing what they should be doing. In the first example about the city, there’s still plenty of room but not so much in the cutaway beehive example. Can you share your thoughts on this for me, please.
I’ll do a deeper dive on this type of thing in a future post, I think. Stay tuned!