Well I’ve definitely fallen off the social network bandwagon! Down the track I expect I’ll be able to start illustrating and blogging again, but for now, if you don’t see me posting… just assume I’m too busy enjoying my kids to do so ;) Here are some happy snaps of what I’ve been keeping busy with the last 12 months… and to officially introduce Ruby Rain Castles, born July 25, 2012.
Before July 25, 2012…
…and after!
Well, I’ve been off maternity leave, freelancing part-time for the last three months, only to go back on it again… am delighted to be expecting my third baby in August. So, I will be continuing my casual approach to blogging for a while longer!
If you were thinking of contacting me for illustrations while I’m on maternity leave, I am referring my clients to Jason MacKay… he’s a talented digital illustrator with published children’s books under his belt, has a great style and work ethic… and he’s my brother, so I know him personally and recommend to anyone looking for illustrations!
I’ve just started working on illustrating and designing a new children’s book, eeeeeee! Now that the contract was signed, the deposit received, and I’m ready to put pencil to paper, and thought I’d share my process as it’s happening.
1) Setup : 30 minutes
• Printing out copy of contract
• Print out and fill out time sheet
• Print out manuscript
• Set up a folder on my laptop to organize files created and received along the way
2) Analyzing the story : 2 hours
• Reading through the story to determine how much text will go on each page
• Underline key visual imagery to be included in illustration mentioned in story
• Make notes for ideas for imagery I have while reading the story
• Sketch thumbnails of the layout with notes on rough concepts for each spread
3) Gathering Imagery : 30 minutes
• Using Google Images to find imagery to use as reference and inspiration
4) Preparing proof for author : 1 hour
• Scanned any thumbnails
• Created book layout in InDesign
• Inserted the text and scanned images into the layout according to my thumbnails
• Described each page on digital “sticky notes” on each page
• Emailed author a PDF proof of the concepts for review
Time spent so far : 3.5 hours
Materials : pen, 8 pieces of recycled printer paper, ipad, and InDesign on laptop.
Next up over the next couple weeks are more detailed sketches…
I had the pleasure of receiving the news that another one of my children’s books won a Mom’s Choice Award (will keep you in suspense as I get more details!) Shortly afterwards I started to receive emails from Terry Doherty, Director of New Media & Alumni Marketing, with tips on how to promote our books. This one focused on how accessible and up-to-dateyour online presence is.
The first thing Terry asked was “Have you visited your website today?” I hadn’t …being on maternity leave it isn’t high on my priority list between changing diapers and answering the non-stop questions my 3-year-old rattles off to me during the day!
But Terry, whose job was to connect my online presence with theirs, went on and wrote :
“Sometimes I get lucky and I find the buttons that will take me to other platforms, but I would have to say 70% of the time I end up having to log into each of those programs separately to discover that yes, you are on Facebook, use Twitter, have a YouTube channel, or have a blog.”
Several “observations” were also offered in this email… but I think they are more accurately described as big, black holes! The tips are so good I’ll quote them here :
Terry finished with a statement that made me set aside the last hour updating this blog…
“It is my job to do that legwork and dig down into the pages of your website and search your name, product name, producer, and collaborator on every platform individually. It takes me about an hour per honoree to do that. Do you want your potential customers to work that hard? “
This is a great article for authors / childrens book illustrators who want to get their books out there digitally. To sum up, authors are making their e-books available through app stores at affordable prices… and making it big.
E-books are the next generation of self-publishing… or e-publishing. It’s inexpensive to create an e-book, and as easy as creating a PDF… do a quick google search and there are many articles on how to build your own e-book. I also love the fact that the impact on the environment is low… you aren’t wasting paper by printing thousands of books, are saving the cost of fuel in distributing the books, etc. Because authors are saving on the up front costs of printing their books, as well as publishing themselves and cutting out the middle-men (printers, publishers & shipping), they are able to price their books lower and reach a wider audience.
“While traditional novelists only see a very small amount of royalties on their book if it’s not a best seller, Hocking gets 70% of all money from her book sales. Since she sells around 100,000 copies of her books per month, that’s a lot of money.”
I bought my first e-book this week (Ready, Set, Green : Treehugger.com), and I must say I was miffed that it was priced the same as the printed paper version… if I have the choice between a paper book and a digital book at the same price, I would pick the paper book hands down. It just doesn’t make sense why publishers would price these e-books at the same price as printed books if they are saving so much money on printing & distribution. (Who wants to spend a lot of money on something that can be duplicated with as little effort as typing Apple-C-Apple-V?)
There are ebooks also available as iPad apps for kids… iBook comes with a free copy of Milne’s classic Winnie the Pooh, and in the app store there are many free picture books for kids (The Grouchies by Debbie Wagenbach.) Children’s book authors/illustrators have a great opportunity to add e-books alongside their printed book offerings.
P.S. If anyone comes across a great how-to for building a picture e-book, please let me know! I’m going to give it a go myself at some point on my own picture books, but being on maternity leave it’s not exactly a high priority over changing diapers at the moment ;)
“Kindle indie author is making millions by selling the App Store way” via Geek.com
“The picture books that do the best are a real marriage of writing and illustration.”
– Kenny Brechner, book shop owner (via Publisher Weekly Article)
This is a really interesting article over at Publisher’s Weekly (by Karen Springen) debunking a sensationalized article posted at the New York Times claiming picture books are in decline. It is a great read for children’s book illustrators as it goes into a lot of depth on what can affect children’s book sales, who is buying and reading books, and a lot of valuable insight into the industry.
I love that this article touches on the misconception that picture books are for children only up to about 3 years old… that they are in fact often appropriate for much older kids (and in my case, even adults!)
I also really liked how the article addresses the introduction of electronic media :
“Kids are omnivorous,” she (Kristen McLean) said. “We’ve lived with this idea of television is bad, books are good. What we’re finding is that it’s all reinforcing literacy. The kids who are reading a lot are also the kids who are participating online, are blogging, are involved in lots of different media.”
I know this to be true of my three-year-old… she knows how to use my ipad and turn on the playstation, but those things haven’t stopped her from looking at her picture books for hours. Ultimately I think that it comes down to supply & demand… as parents if we feel picture books are important for our kids, they will be available to meet our demands.
A friend passed this top 50 article along to me, it’s chock a block full of links to interesting websites featuring everything illustration from new and inspiring styles to marketing tips. Enjoy!
A fine-art student at London’s Croydon College recently approach me and ask some questions about working as an illustrator, I wanted to share them below in case they help anyone else out… (Read on …)
Came across this article on Successfully Marketing with Greeting Cards, it’s a good read and has some good tips for using greeting cards as a more personal way of reaching out to clients. As an illustrator, greeting cards are a fantastic format to display your work, get it out there and on the desk of art directors… and are far more personal than sending an e-card.
For tricks of the trade on designing and illustrating greeting cards, check out my Greeting Card Tips page.
