Making a Book

Above: An early manuscript after a round of editing.

Writing the Manuscript

"Although my most favorite part of making books is painting the illustrations, I do enjoy the writing too. Writing the manuscript takes longer than you might imagine, though. Although I have not counted exactly, I would estimate that it takes me about one to two months to finish the manuscript. After I have built my database of facts and invented the characters, I decide what animals and plants to include in the book. I usually don't have room to put in all the species I researched, so I have to pick the most interesting or important ones. You can't write about the Sonoran Desert without mentioning the Saguaro Cactus for example.

"Writing my stories is pretty complicated. First, I write the main story. Then I get to pretend to be a newspaper reporter or a magazine writer as I create all the articles that describe the habits of the animals and plants in the story."

Editing the Manuscript

"This is my least favorite part, but it is the most important. First, I read the manuscript and check for spelling errors. Then I make sure my sentences make sense and are interesting to read. When I feel the story is as good as I can make it, I email it to my editor, Glenn. He makes more suggestions and then emails it back. Then I fix it up and send it back, and so on, and so on. This process continues until the manuscript gets sculpted into a finished product. I reworked the manuscript forSalamander Rainnine times. It sounds like a lot of work, but the result is definitely worth it. Once you send the book to the printer, you can't change it. So I want to put in the effort to make the best book I can at the time. Obviously I can draw better than I could when I was 15, but at the time it was the best I could do."

~Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini, author/illustrator