Tonight I’m going to talk a bit about illustrating for children and that area of the illustration industry. Thanks for coming by.

I thought I’d talk about the following areas: What publisher to choose, how to send work into a publisher, pairing up writers and illustrators for picture books, cover illustrations, editorial/magazine illustrations, a few things to remember and a recommended reading list. Hope you enjoy...

Whether you’d like to illustrate picture books, do cover illustration for young readers or magazine illustration; you’ve got to get your work to the right editors and publishers.

What Publisher to Choose:

Publishers and Editors are of course very busy people so you want to make sure you get your work to the most appropriate place. For example, do not send your picture book to an editor that only publishes novels. This is a waste of both the editor’s and your time.

Instead, do some research in the library or bookstore and look for books that resemble your style. Collect the publishers’ names from the books that have the same feel as your work and contact these publishers. Here’s an excellent source for more info:

2004 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market (Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market)

How to Send Work to a Publisher:

There are a couple of schools of thought on what to send Editors at a Publishing house for their review. You don’t ever want to send in originals because you won’t get them back.

One school of thought is to send in a "disposable" portfolio, which is a sample of your best, printed work presented in some type of folder. Quite often illustrators will send in a selection of 8x10 prints as well as a couple of post cards neatly bound in a professional folder.

The other school of thought believes Editors don’t have time to review the disposable portfolios and it’s a waste of money that could be spent elsewhere, so just send in one post card with all of your contact information.

I personally prefer the disposable portfolio route and this should always be accompanied by a cover letter stating that you are submitting a sample of your portfolio for their review, what work you are interested in doing for them (if the publisher has more than one need for illustration) and of course your contact information. Keep your cover letter professional, short and to the point.

Send this package to all of the editors your work would be suitable for. If they don’t get back to you, don’t badger them!! Some illustrators will send follow-up post cards printed with new work to the editors to say Merry Christmas or have a great summer etc. but keep the message light and professional - never pushy.

Pairing up Writers and Illustrators for Picture Books:

Sadly writers and illustrators don’t really get to choose whom they’re paired up with. The Art Director and Editor will have a lot more control over the finished product than many of us would have realized. Because of this, if you have a story you’ve written, it’s not a good idea to submit a finished product you’ve spent hours on only to have the publishers say they want changes.

If the publisher contacts you with an illustration job, make sure you can commit to the deadline (a career sinker if you don’t make deadlines) and ask any questions up front. You will be given the story to which you will do mock illustrations to submit for the approval of the Art Director. Once those are approved, you can start on the final illustrations. Picture books are almost always 32 pages long. The average pay for illustrating a picture book is $3,000-$10,000 with 5% royalties.

If you have written a story that you’d like to illustrate yourself, type up the manuscript (don’t worry about separating the text into page numbers, write as a normal document) and create a storyboard or mock book (rough draft) of what your vision is for the book along with samples of your other completed illustration projects and send the package in that way (along with a cover letter stating you are submitting illustration proposals for the enclosed story). The average pay for writing and illustrating a picture book is $5,000-$15,000 with 10% royalties.

Cover Illustration:

Another avenue to look at in children’s illustration is cover art. Some publishers only produce non-fiction novels for young readers and they need cover illustrators. The same principles apply to sending your work into the Editors for their review. You will be working closely with the Art Director who has control over the cover concept. You will be given stricter guidelines, shorter deadlines than for a picture book and your work will incorporate text of course. Some jobs will only be the cover and some will be a "wrap around". The average pay varies depending on the cover (wrapped or not), hard/soft cover and the distribution size but it’s between $1,000-$6,000.

Editorial or Magazine Illustration:

Magazine illustration is another interesting avenue. Instead of sending your work to book publishers, you now have to do the same research into magazines to see which ones would suite your style best. Send in samples of your portfolio to the Editor of each magazine with a cover letter. The illustration jobs from magazines may be to accompany short stories, articles or activities depending on the magazine. Depending on the size of the image on the page, the pay varies from $300 for spot illustration (small), $500 for a quarter page to $900 for a full page.

Things to Remember:

There are a few keys to remember when illustrating, especially children’s books.

Consistency! You’ve got to make sure the characters are consistent and look the same on each page. One way to ensure this is to plan and execute all of your images at the same time rather than doing one at a time. Make sure colour tones and shades are all consistent as well.

Allure! Illustration is about telling a story. As the illustrator, it’s your job to make the reader WANT to turn the pages to read more. Add suspense or intrigue with facial expressions, action or a sliver of the next scene.

Embellishing! Writing children’s picture books is a bit tricky if you’re a "wordy" person. The key is to simplify your writing and let the illustrations detail and embellish of the story.

Sketch:

Line drawing:

Rough draft:

Recommended reading: "Writing with Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Books for Children"

It's a Bunny-Eat-Bunny World: A Writer's Guide to Surviving and Thriving in Today's Competitive Children's Book Market

2004 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market (Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market)

Illustrating Children's Books: Creating Pictures for Publication

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is an excellent resource for both authors and illustrators in the children’s book industry. They have over 19,000 members world wide and sponsor two annual conferences and distribute annual awards in many categories.

j e n n    r e i d
www.crazybliss.com