You love writing picture books, those oversized books with the beautiful pictures. You can even visualize yours at the bookstore displayed next to the latest Caldecott winner. But, it's not there!

Your picture book manuscripts are still waiting to find an editor who will love your words just as much as you do. But that editor must have been on sabbatical because she's definitely not the one who opened your last submission.

Stop! Don't mail it to another editor yet. First, find out how Tammi Sauer, an Oklahoma City writer sold her first picture book, Cowboy Camp. Why did an editor at Sterling Publishing notice her manuscript and pull it out of the slush pile?

It started with an idea. Sometimes they are hard to find. Then there are moments when they coming knocking at your door.

"One evening, my doorbell rang. At the door was a young boy," said Sauer. "He explained that he was going door-to-door selling newspaper subscriptions to raise the money he needed to attend a Dude Ranch. To me, he looked like the un-cowboy. I knew I had a story."

If an idea knocks on your door, write it down immediately. Ideas tend to walk away if you don't make a note of them. Keep an idea file or notebook. Carry it with you everywhere. When you are starting a new picture book or revising one, pull out your idea file. Can you incorporate some of those ideas into your work? Think about how you can make an idea even more distinctive. Give it a fresh slant.

Next, Sauer fleshed out Avery, her un-cowboy main character. Although Avery is a likeable character, Sauer made sure he had faults, several of them. "Avery is not much of a success at Cowboy Camp-he doesn't like beans, is allergic to horses, and can't lasso."

Collect character traits, too. Notice what traits make people unique. Watch what they eat or don't eat and the way they eat. How do they move their hands in an argument? Or look for unusual speech patterns. Jot down these impressions of people. Or they'll walk away from your memory, too.

Sauer's Avery is tenacious. In spite of his shortfalls, she gave him a stubborn personality. He doesn't turn tail and run when he doesn't fit in. She also made him a fast-thinker.

A picture book is a story and there's no story without conflict. Avery's faults provided conflict with Black Bart, his adversary. "At night, Black Bart arrived to put an end to Cowboy Camp," said Sauer. "Avery convinces Black Bart he has come to the wrong camp and offers his own cowboy shortcomings as proof."

According to Lee Wyndham, author of Writing for Children & Teenagers, there are three types of story problems or conflicts. Purpose problems involve a character striving toward a goal. A character has a decision problem if he is deciding which way to go. Avery has a situation problem. He wants to change the "camp closing" situation.

Pick a problem and show your main character struggling to solve it. If they solve it on the first attempt, your story ends on the second page. Sauer uses Avery's fast thinking personality to help him solve the camp problem.

After Avery's struggles, Sauer brought the story to a satisfying end with "Avery saving Cowboy Camp and is hailed as a true hero." Also satisfying was the fact that Avery solved the problem without adult help.

Picture books usually have less than a thousand words. You have to introduce a well-rounded character, his problem and a believable story in a limited number of words. Every word counts. You have to write tight and choose your words carefully.

Those words need to conjure up pictures. After all, that's the definition of a picture book, text plus picture. In her book, Picture Writing, Anastasia Suen explains "You don't have to know how to draw or paint to write pictures. . . . you need to be able to see pictures."

To make sure her words are visual, Sauer said "I picture the scenes in my head as I write."

A picture book scene is a double-page spread. Most picture books have approximately 32 pages with about 14 double-page spreads.

Some writers use storyboards or picture book dummies to cut and paste their text onto the diagram. This insures they have enough scenes for a picture book and that the story flows from beginning to end.

If you think your manuscript is finished, it isn't. Ideally, you should put it away for several weeks and try not to think about it. Then take it out and read it with fresh eyes as if you are an editor looking at it for the first time. Sauer has two trusted online critique partners who reads her manuscripts. One lives in Brazil, the other in Chicago. She said, "They don't hesitate to tell me when something isn't working."

Cowboy Camp was rejected 15 times before an editor wrote, "I think it's a really charming story" and it found a home at Sterling Publishing.

Pull out a manuscript you believe in. Rewrite it with a fresh slant, unique idea, and irresistible characters and like Sauer, you may see your picture book on the bookstore shelves.