When I was very young, we had exercise books that were partly ruled and partly blank. They were my favourite books of all to write in, because they held so much possibility. Pictures and words! That’s a storybook. That’s a non-fiction book. That’s a book.
It can be tempting for a writer to paint the fullest picture possible with words, but in an illustrated work the pictures carry some of the story too. In fact, for children who don’t yet read, it is the pictures that help them remember and retell a story to themselves. In this way, picture books foster independent reading.
I notice my own children poring over details in picture books, finding little jokes and Easter eggs in the images. They even give their full attention to the endpapers, if those are illustrated. How wonderful! The illustrations invite them in to play.
In a picture book, a story is usually told in fewer than 1,000 words, and more often in just 500-600 words. In keeping to this length of manuscript, we allow our remaining words to shine at their fullest, we allow readers to bring their own imaginations to the story, and we allow the artwork to do more than simply echo the text.
People have asked me about trusting editors and illustrators to accurately bring an author’s vision into print. Editors and illustrators begin by reading our very own words, so to me it is more a matter of trusting our own writing to communicate that vision to them. It all begins with the text.
In submitting a manuscript for publication, writers give away a great deal of control over its length and look. It is worth remembering that we give this control to specialists, who know how to take our beautiful words and create something bigger from them: a storybook, a non-fiction book, a book.
Tania Sickling 
Beautifully put… 😊