When New Frontier commissioned me as one of only three authors to write for their Music Box Picture Book Series I was at once, both daunted and chuffed – daunted because the other two authors  (Hazel Edwards and Sue Whiting) had written more than 250 books between them. I had written one! And chuffed because it’s always good to benchmark yourself against the best in the business.

Writing picture books are deceptively technical and this is where, for me, Virginia’s strength lies. The combination of picture book, music and magic meant at least eight drafts with Virginia were required before I presented it to my publisher. Of course, there were many more after that! Because of the sheer volume of submissions publishers receive they are looking for reasons to quickly dismiss your manuscript – and ones with technical hitches do stand out.  Virginia will soon sort the fact from the fantasy and let the magic of your words and ideas shine so that your story is (hopefully) music to a publisher’s ears!

Tom Skinner - PictureBookTom.Com