The illustrations are done. Text is on the illustrations. Everything is ready for formatting your picture book, you hope.
Front Pages
Just like in a regular book, picture books have title pages. There is a copyright page as well.
(Although I am focusing on a printed book, if you are doing an eBook version, you can ignore the page count. An eBook requires a Table of Contents page added right after the copyright page which should be right after the title page in this format. Don’t forget to resize your images to 8” by 11”. Put them on that size pages using the 0.01” margins using In Line with Text.)
Title pages usually have some cute image taken from the book. If your book is about rabbits, the title page should have a rabbit image along with the title and author.
Copyright pages aren’t always in the front of picture books. Sometimes this information is put on the last page. If it is in the front, often the image on the page makes a two page spread with the first page. Other times it is an introductory image for the book.
Back Pages
In some picture books about animals or history, there is a last page or pages giving more information. I did this in “Waiting For Fairies” with a Nature’s Cast about the night creatures appearing in the book. In “Redcoats and Petticoats” the last page is about the spy network in New England during the Revolutionary War.
Counting Pages
Traditionally printed picture books have a number of pages evenly divisible by four, usually 32. The reason goes back to how the books are printed. Each print page sheet has four book pages on it. You can see how this works if you take a calendar apart.
Count your pages. Is the number a multiple of four? If not, perhaps you can add or delete a page. Or you can add a blank page. Another way is to use a page for cute images related to your book as is done “For Love of Goats” or “Diary of a Spider”.
Remember your title and first page have an odd number to put them on the right side.
Creating the Pages
I work in Word so my pages must have a margin. If you also work in Word, formatting your picture book needs the margins set at 0.01”.
Resize your images to fit the page size you are using using your paint shop. Do not resize or crop them after putting them on the book pages.
Each image is placed on a page using In Line With Text to lock it into position. Even if your title page has lots of blank space on it, create an image of it the same size as your other images. All of these images should be JPEGs so all layers are merged.
Once all the images are on your pages, you have finished formatting your picture book interior. Now you need a cover.