Emma Walton Hamilton

And whether it would support that.

I just want to let the audience know that if you go back to episode 32, that's with Emma Walton Hamilton, who has done.

inspired by a true story has done many books in the inspired by a true story vein.

And what made me think of it is if you're watching this on YouTube, you can see shy, the book shy right behind Kelly written by Emma and her mom, Julie Andrews.

And then Barbara goes, and what would you say if after a few years? But there are some silver linings.

So around the time of her vocal injury, her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, she started writing some children's books.

And she said to her mother, what if you found a new voice? And the voice kind of started appearing in these really great children's books, which everyone should look into.

She became a number one New York Times bestselling children's author.

Hi, I'm Emma Walton Hamilton

And I'm Julie Hedlund

We are close friends, published picture book authors, and

Exactly.

I would absolutely agree.

And if that wasn't already daunting enough, the pitch is, as Emma said, the most important part of your query because it is what captures the story and the spirit.

It's without giving the ending away, right? And in a very short query letter about a presumably very short book, because these are picture books, the pitch is where you get to demonstrate that you write well, and that you write with an economy of words.

It showcases your voice because the pitch is the one place where you're going to drop into the voice and lexicon of your manuscript.

And whether it would support that.

I just want to let the audience know that if you go back to episode 32, that's with Emma Walton Hamilton, who has done.

inspired by a true story, has done many books in the inspired by a true story vein.

And what made me think of it is if you're watching this on YouTube, you can see Shy, the book Shy, right behind Kelly, written by Emma and her mom, Julie Andrews.

All right.

So then Emma, if somebody sees MS or MSS, what does that stand for in picture book lingo?

MS stands for manuscript, which is kind of strange because manuscript is all one word, but MS or MSS refers to the manuscript.

And of course, manuscript differs from published book in that when we speak about manuscripts, we're speaking about works in progress.

Nonfiction is true.

And there are some other genres within picture books where we talk about informational fiction.

Does somebody want to take on that? Maybe Emma or Julie, go

ahead.

Hi, I'm Emma Walton Hamilton, and I'm Julie Hedlund.

We are close friends, published picture book authors, and

the co-creators of the Complete Picture Book Submission System.

Today, we really, again, in the age of AI, we really encourage you to personalize specifically to use the agent's full name.

So dear Julie Hedlund.

Dear Emma Walton Hamilton.

And the reason being, you don't want to assume that you know somebody's pronouns in this day and age.

So you don't want to use Ms., Mr., Mrs., any of those, unless you're absolutely certain about what their pronouns are.

Hi, I'm Emma Walton Hamilton.

And I'm Julie Hedlund.

We are close friends, published picture book authors, and

Hello and welcome to the very first episode of the Picture Book Submissions podcast.

As per the intro, I'm Julie Hedlund.

And I'm Emma Walton Hamilton.

Emma and I are longtime friends and colleagues who have both published multiple picture books and spent many, many years, both together and apart, helping other authors do the same.

If you're looking to get your picture books published, that process begins by submitting your manuscript to agents and editors for consideration.

Hi, everybody.

Hello, Emma Walton Hamilton.

Hi, Kelly.

Hi, everybody.