Publishers tend to keep the artist and the author of a children's picture book apart. Editors and book designers communicate directly with the artist, taking into account the author's suggestions, certainly, but then offering their own directives regarding which parts of a story should be illustrated and what the illustration might convey. They're somewhat fearful that, should artist and author talk directly, the author would dominate, demanding that his or her own imagined vision become the pictures in a children's book. That can diminish the book, the published presentation, by destroying an important dimension of the book whole. I agree.