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The Carolina Kidlit ReviewWriting and illustrating for children in the Carolinas
A childrens picture book lies open on a worn reading rug beside a low shelf of spines and a scattering of coloured pencils.

Writing and illustrating for children in the Carolinas

Writing and drawing for children, explained a step at a time

What a dummy is. What a revision pass changes. What an agent does and does not do. Written for people in the Carolinas who are making a childrens book and want the vocabulary before the advice.

Independent since 2026 · Explain · Compare · Check · Practise

01-06The six sections of the Review

Six ways in, from the first draft to the shelf it ends up on.

  1. A marked up double spaced manuscript covered in pencil notes lies beside a mug and a pair of reading glasses on a wooden desk.

    01

    Craft & Revision

    Why does the rebuild take three to five times longer than the draft? A working agent's numbers, what actually changes between versions, and where cutting fits into the work.

  2. An illustrator thumbnails a picture book across a folded paper dummy with a pencil, brushes and gouache tubes to one side.

    02

    Illustration

    Picture books sell either as text alone or as a package where one creator supplies both words and pictures, and the author illustrator route calls for a vocabulary all its own, from dummy to portfolio.

  3. A printed query letter, a stamped envelope and a submission log notebook laid out on a kitchen table in morning light.

    03

    Getting Published

    A query letter is one page with one job: getting an agent or publisher to read your manuscript. This guide covers timing, length, and the real cost of going indie so you can pick the right door.

  4. Four chairs pulled around a low table in a library meeting room with printed chapters, sticky notes and half full coffee cups.

    04

    Critique Groups

    Writers swap pages and honest commentary on a schedule they keep, and this page covers what the exchange is for, whether a draft must be complete, how beta readers differ, and where Carolinas writers find each other.

  5. A independent bookshop window in a small southern town displays childrens picture books on a wooden stand behind old glass.

    05

    The Carolinas

    A volunteer-run chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators serves both states, and independent bookshops selling children's books round out the regional picture.

  6. A stack of childrens novels and picture books beside a fresh notebook and a sharpened pencil on a window seat in daylight.

    06

    Starting Out

    You have an idea you cannot stop thinking about. Here is why execution matters more, how long your book should be, and when to let other readers in.

LEDGERThe tickmark

Every guide we publish, dated, from all six sections of the Review.

  1. A row of worn pulp magazines with painted covers lies beside a typewriter and a neat stack of typed manuscript pages.

    · Craft

    Lean dialogue and hard stakes: what the pulps still teach

    The pulp magazines paid by the word and lost the reader in a line, so their writers learned compression the hard way: what their devices still teach, and where they went when the magazines died.

  2. A handwritten quatrain in pencil on a sheet of ruled paper beside a metronome and an open picture book.

    · Craft

    Four lines that carry: the stanza as a working unit

    The four-line stanza is the smallest unit that can carry a whole song, and it carries picture book texts the same way: short lines, a measured duration and room for the reader to breathe.

  3. A spiral notebook open to a dated list of odd household occurrences beside a small flashlight on a bedside table.

    · Craft

    Writing the unexplained: facts before atmosphere

    The scariest middle grade chapters are built like incident reports: what was seen, when, by whom, and what nobody could explain. Here is the discipline behind the shiver.

  4. A stack of naval history books and a hand-drawn deck plan beside an open notebook filled with dated research notes.

    · Craft

    Researching a period world a reader can check

    A child who loves your sea story will check your knots, your ranks and your rations. The research habits behind nautical series keep every one of those checks passing.

  5. An illustrator sketches the pleats of a kilt from a reference photograph pinned above a drawing board with fabric swatches.

    · Illustration

    Drawing the kilt right: researching Highland dress

    The Carolinas host one of the largest Highland gatherings in America, so a picture book kilt drawn from guesswork will be caught by the first family that owns one. Here is the documentation that prevents it.

  6. Close view of a pair of worn denim overalls laid flat beside a sketchbook with studies of seams, rivets and fading.

    · Illustration

    Drawing denim: the workwear a farm kid wears

    Denim is the default costume of the American picture book, and most illustrators draw it from memory. A fabric spec sheet corrects the memory: twill direction, weight, fade and stitch.

  7. A cardboard box of used picture books with worn dust jackets on a wooden floor beside a desk lamp and a price list.

    · Illustration

    Building a reference shelf: buying used picture books

    Studying picture books means owning them, and the used market is where a working shelf gets affordable. Here is how to read a booksellers description before you pay for the copy.

  8. Three Japanese books of the same title in hardcover, pocket and cheap editions arranged by size on a light table.

    · Illustration

    What a Japanese bookshop teaches about format

    A Japanese bookshop sells the same novel as a hardcover, a pocket bunko and a cheap shinsho, each with fixed dimensions a century of paper standards settled. The lesson for a picture book maker is trim size as a decision.

  9. A laptop on a kitchen table open to a simple author website beside a notebook headed with a handwritten newsletter plan.

    · Getting Published

    How readers actually find an authors website

    A reader who heard your name at a school visit will type it into a search box tonight. What the channels that carry that visit look like, and which one deserves your weekly hour.

  10. An external hard drive, a printed list of account names and a laptop showing a backup progress bar on a tidy desk.

    · Getting Published

    Backups, updates and the plumbing under an author site

    Nobody lost a book deal to a broken plugin, but authors lose years of posts, photos and mailing list exports to lapsed hosting and untested backups. The checklist is short.

  11. A paper ledger with monthly columns, a calculator and a row of labelled envelopes on a kitchen counter in evening light.

    · Getting Published

    The irregular income of a working author

    A childrens author is paid like a small weather system: an advance in instalments, royalties twice a year, school visits when the calendar allows. The finance basics that fit that income are simpler than the anxiety.

  12. A printed nonfiction book proposal beside a medical reference volume and a highlighter on a library table.

    · Getting Published

    Checking a claim before a nonfiction pitch

    Editors reject nonfiction proposals whose claims collapse under one search. The habit of grading evidence, the way a patient-facing evidence index does, is a skill a childrens writer can borrow whole.

  13. A worn leather reading chair beside a workbench with fabric swatches, a curved needle and a printed manuscript page.

    · Critique Groups

    Repair or reupholster: what a critique is deciding

    A critique group that only says a scene is broken hands you half the answer. The useful half is the diagnosis: does this scene need a patch, a recolour, or a complete rebuild.

  14. A box of floppy disks and old CDs beside a modern laptop with a printed chapter half out of a paper sleeve.

    · Critique Groups

    The draft on the old disk: reading your own archive

    Sooner or later a critique group meets the drawer novel: a manuscript written twenty years ago, saved in a format nothing opens cleanly. Whether it is worth reviving, and how to keep your own archive readable, is a real question.

  15. A school hallway bulletin board layered with club flyers, concert dates and a science fair poster beside a wall calendar.

    · The Carolinas

    A childrens authors map of the school activity calendar

    A school visit succeeds or fails on the calendar before it succeeds in the gym. Here is the rhythm of the American school year, and how a visiting author picks a date the building can actually hold.

  16. Rows of folding chairs facing a small projection screen in a bookshop after closing, with a stack of graphic memoirs on a table.

    · The Carolinas

    From page to screen: a film night for young readers

    A screening night around a book adaptation teaches young readers what film keeps, what it leaves out and why. Here is how a Carolinas bookshop or library can run one well.

  17. A low table at a book fair with baskets of yarn, children sized knitting needles and a jar of finished samples.

    · The Carolinas

    A handwork table at a childrens book event

    The signing queue is where a childrens book event goes loud and impatient. A small handwork table beside it gives children something real to do, and gives the author a crowd that leaves calm.

  18. A folding table set for a four player card game with a score sheet, pencils and a bowl of pretzels in a community hall.

    · Starting Out

    Learning the rules of the room you just entered

    Every craft has a room where everyone seems to know rules you have never seen written down. Card tournaments make that visible, and the way a new player enters them is exactly how a new writer should enter this field.

  19. A paper walking map, a small notebook and a pair of worn trail shoes drying beside a cottage door in flat countryside.

    · Starting Out

    A walking week: cheap research for a first book

    The cheapest research trip for a childrens book is a week of walking in the landscape the book needs. Here is how to plan one, and what a Dutch walking culture gets right about it.

  20. A double spaced manuscript page in a plain serif face sits in a printer tray with a ruler laid along its left margin.

    · Craft

    Formatting a childrens book manuscript, line by line

    You do not need a test, just a convention: here is how to format a picture book manuscript, handle illustration notes, write titles and send a query letter so readers focus on your story.

  21. An editor reads the first page of a printed manuscript at a desk stacked with submission folders and a red pencil.

    · Craft

    What editors and agents look for in a childrens manuscript

    Many writers can polish a strong opening, but the rest of the manuscript falls apart. Here is what agents see when they read past your first ten pages, and how to check your draft for that drop.

  22. Three printed drafts of the same chapter fanned across a table, each marked in a different colour of ink.

    · Craft

    Revision in passes: one problem at a time

    How to run a revision pass: pick one problem, such as dialogue, read the whole manuscript for it alone, and leave the rest untouched until the bigger structural work is done.

  23. Childrens books of four different formats stacked from thin picture book to thick novel beside a small notepad.

    · Craft

    Word counts by age band, and why they exist

    Word counts range from about 100 words for a board book to 95,000 for a fantasy YA, and reader attention spans plus the cost of paper, printing and shipping explain why those ceilings exist.

  24. A hand folded paper dummy open at a spread with rough pencil thumbnails and page numbers written in the corners.

    · Illustration

    What a picture book dummy is, and who makes one

    If you both write and illustrate, a dummy can carry your whole book to an agent: here is what goes into one, who should make it, and what it says when your package lands on a desk.

  25. An illustration portfolio lies open on a table showing a character drawn in four different poses on facing pages.

    · Illustration

    Building an illustration portfolio for childrens books

    Six to eight finished pieces, a live link instead of attachments, and clear range in subject, tone and palette: what an online children's illustration portfolio needs before you query.

  26. Two people lean over a spread of illustration prints on a long table, one pointing at a detail with a pencil.

    · Illustration

    How to take a portfolio review without wasting it

    Twenty minutes with a reviewer can tell you where your portfolio shows range, finish, and emotional storytelling, and where the gaps still are, if you prepare before you sit down.

  27. A single page query letter printed and lying on a desk next to a laptop showing an empty email compose window.

    · Getting Published

    Writing a query letter for a childrens book

    One page, 250 to 450 words: the query letter that introduces your children's book to an agent is short, has no single correct format, and matters less than the manuscript behind it.

  28. A printed list of publishers and agents with several lines highlighted lies beside a phone and a cup on a desk.

    · Getting Published

    Do you need a literary agent for childrens books?

    Whether you need one depends on the road your book takes: here is what an agent actually does, how that work changes with small presses or self-publishing, and how to judge a fit when an agent wants you.

  29. A handwritten agenda on a flip chart in a community room with five empty chairs arranged in a loose circle.

    · Critique Groups

    Starting a critique group that lasts past meeting three

    A lasting critique group gives writers other eyes on their work, regular swaps of pages and comments, and partners who know your strengths, weaknesses and goals across many projects.

  30. A printed chapter covered in margin notes in two different hands sits between two coffee cups on a shared table.

    · Critique Groups

    Giving and taking critique without breaking a group

    Critique groups rarely break over a blunt note; they break over lopsided exchanges, fading meetings, and feedback aimed at the writer, and the repair is habit.

  31. A meeting room with folding chairs and a projector screen set up for a talk, name badges laid out on a side table.

    · The Carolinas

    How a regional childrens writing chapter works

    SCBWI Carolinas serves writers, illustrators, and translators of children's books in both North and South Carolina, run by volunteers who coordinate communications, activities, and events for the regional creative community.

  32. A bookseller reshelves picture books on a low childrens display in a small independent shop with a reading rug.

    · The Carolinas

    Independent bookshops and the childrens shelf

    A national association stands behind the independent bookshop with the train table in the corner, and its work touches the children's book you are still trying to finish.

  33. An early morning kitchen table with a notebook open at a half filled page, a pen across it and a cooling cup of tea.

    · Starting Out

    Finding a writing routine that survives a normal week

    You can build a writing routine that survives sick days, holidays and work crunches by planning around the publishing calendar's quiet stretches, and resume it on the days you miss.

  34. A wall calendar with a few days circled hangs above a desk holding a library stack and a printed manuscript.

    · Starting Out

    Your first year: what to do, and what to skip

    Where to put your hours when everything feels urgent: which habits earn their keep in year one, what can safely wait, and how to tell a revision pass from a manuscript you should set aside.

  1. Start here: what a picture book dummy is, and who makes one

    If you both write and illustrate, a dummy can carry your whole book to an agent: here is what goes into one, who should make it, and what it says when your package lands on a desk.

    Section 02 · Illustration

The Carolina Kidlit Review explains the working vocabulary of childrens publishing before it hands out advice, and it says where each answer comes from. How the desk sources and dates a claim is set out in the editorial policy. Corrections reach us through the contact page, and the questions that come up first are gathered on the questions page. Where to look beyond this site is listed on the resources page.

SHELFThe outside shelf

Eight desks from neighbouring trades that a writer or illustrator of childrens books can borrow a working habit from.