Children's book art

[sneezingleopard]

Hello all,
It's been a while since I've posted on the forums and probably even longer since posting in the art section as I've been busy making lots of art. I just had my first children's book published a few months back and thought it would be a neat idea to see if there are any other children's book illustrators or writers on here.
You can read about the book and see some art and even see a book reading video of the first half of the book on the website I made at www.thecaterpillarandtheexpresstrain.webs.com/ I would love any comments or questions. I would also be interested in seeing what otehrs are doing in this area or have done in the past. I've got two other books illustrated but are not yet published and a fourth book I'm currently illustrating which will be published by the end of the year. Thanks for looking!
-Matthew

 

[frogtgif]

Congratulations!

 

[Makachop]

Love the art, very cool! I'm writing a childrens story too, but mostly for my nieces and nephews doubt it'll go anywhere lol.
But anyway if you have any advice you could give me that would be great.

 

[sneezingleopard]

Thank you both!! As for the advice, that owuld really depend on what sort of advice you want. I would lovew to give you any advice I can but don't want to waste my time giving advice on things you aren't interested in. SO are you talking about advice on how to find an illustrator, advice on how and where to get your story reviewed, info on getting published, etc. etc.
I owuld say the number one piece of advice I could give you is to do research on any areas you don't know about. If you're trying to simply make a book for your family then there are POD services which can print off a few books for you and be doen with it. If you want to get serious about it then you will need to put a LOT of work into it to make it worth your time. Figure out if you want to just get a few books made up through a photobook print srvice, self publish the book, or try to find a big publishing house to publish the book for you. This will make a huge difference in how you go about moving forward. If you self publish you would need to get your story reviewed and edited and all fixed up maybe even share it on writting forums to get ideas and critique of how to make it better. Then you would find an illustrator who you want to work with, lik eht estyle of , and can afford, then you would find the self publisher you would want to work with and can afford. If you're thinking of self publishing I would suggest a book called "Aiming at Amazon" by Aaron Shepard. He explains how to go about going directly through a printer rather than using a self publishing company as the middle guy. Cheaper in the long runand you make more money form each book inthe long run. However it takes a TON of work to make the book and market it before you will ever see your money back. Please, please don't ask someone to spend a bunch of there time illustrating the book for free. Waay too many people do that already and it's just not a good thing. If you go with a publishing house they will do a lot mroe of the work for you and they will pay you for you story rather than you paying fo reverything. BUUUUt you only get a small percentage of sales, don't have creative control over the book and will have to do a lot of revisions to the sotry. Youw ill also need to submit the story to lots and lots fo publishers before gettign accepted (this is the norm anyway, who knows maybe you are a natural boirn writer and have an amazing story that owuld be eaten up right away). You still have to do a lot fo work marketing the book later down the road because the publisher will onyl do so much. To find different publishers and their info buy the book called "Children's Book Writters and Illustrator's Market" (I think that's the tittle anyway, be sure to get the newest edition). FInd publishers that are in your genre and have stories along the lines of what oyu hav enad submit to them, read the submission guidlines carefully.
Ok, I need to stop for now. Let me know if you need to knwo anythign in particular.

 

[Makachop]

Thank you for the reply!
I guess I want advice on just writing the story lol
I don't know how simple I should make it so they understand that's my biggest thing, or how long.

 

[sneezingleopard]

yeah, that's atough one,haha. AS an illustrator I don't tend to be all that keen in the side of the equation that includes actually writting the story. However I do hope that oen day I will have enough spare funds to start spending the time to write and illustrate my own stories because I think I've got the creative spirit to make some great stuff for kids. Because of that I have taken a great interest at how to go about the writting process for children. I will come back soon to give you mroe specific advice an where you can ge thelp with that. I don't have time at the moment. I think if you are interested in writting for children and getting published, it's important to take a look at what's on the market already adn what is actually selling. That will give you an indication fo what kids like. Figure out what age group you are writting for and start from there. Read lots of children's books and ask yourself what you like and don't like. Start there. I'll be back! LOL

 

[Makachop]

Thank you!
I will start to read childrens book then lol, and I should be working on my water colors. lol

 

[sneezingleopard]

sorry for taking so long to reply. I've bene pretty busy ove rthe past couple of weeks markleting and illustrating. I've now had my first book reading at an elementary school/library and my first spring bizaar event. The book reading went very well but unfortunately the other event was a lot less exciting. Met some good people and had amaing wheather so i'm not complaining, haha.
Ok, so you asked about writting suggestions. I think the best thing is to stick to the obvious. Learn to write children's book by reading books written by thoise who know how to write children's book , LOL. Unfortunately I can't suggest any good ones because I haven't ventured that road yet. I would liek to make some website suggestions though in the hopes that you can find more info from these sites. I think if you knew how many people approach me on a regular basis saying they wrote a children's book then you would see why I think it's so imporatant to learn the craft to stand far above all the others.
Most people who write children's books do so because they think you just get a good story idea and write in a day and then send it to publishers. Simple right? Well it doesn't exactly work like that. Many people may never get published working like that because publishers don't want to publish something that they can't stand to read one time through. I think it's impratant to take it seriously and really take some time to work out the kinks and learn to structure the story ina way that will make it a great read for the child and adult. One simple biblical example comes ot mind. Most people who sen dme manuscripts don't seem to have a main backbone to their story. They send these really long fifteen pages of writting and it doesn't have much holding it all together. The bible is 73 books (I'm catholic, haha) written over a vast period of time by various authors from varied backgrounds and languages and literary styles and yet it all comes together into one united story centered around Jesus from beginning to end, It's a love story. There is a setup, upset, and reset; the creation, the fall, and redemption. I find that most people who contact me just completely ingnore this approach adn for that reason it's easy to get lost along the way. Children's books is a tricky genre and I am no expert. I do think you can do young readers succesfully without going all out into creating a delemma na dfixingit by the end of the story but it would be a book teaching colors or numbers or ABC's which is another thingall together. Many people will leave out one of the three acts mentioned above. They will set up the story, creat e problem and then by the end just never resolve the problem. Or they might set up the story and never really have any sor tof challenge arrive in the story and the characters jsut kindfo meander along through the text with no realy purpose. give those characters a purpose driven Life! LOL . Ok, so this is me just rambeling. but I think you get the point. This to me is the most important issue I think every children's book author should confront.
Nwo for soem links so you can get advice from profesional writers..Critique Circle Online Writing Workshop
Writing Children's Books @ Write4Kids.com - How To Write a Children's Book

Sally Stuart's Christian Writers' Market Guide

I hope I didn't wait too long for respond.

 

[sneezingleopard]

I just thought of another simple commetn I can make (which may not be as simple to follow). I think it's iportant to figure out if you intend to write a picture book or a story book. A picture book would depend primarily on the illustrations and merely use words to support the pictures. A story book is obviously focused on the writting with the illustrations serving a sewcondary role and adding ot the story. A lot of times authors who work with me think tha the illustrations should just illustrate the exact same thing th ewords already say in the story and not go any further.

 

[Makachop]

Thank you very much for all the advice!! your a big help.
I don't really know that my story would get anywhere lol but I'm mostly writing it for family and friends and just for fun. I will be looking at other childrens books though for ideas. I have been also researching things that are in the story. The story I'm writing is placed in Vancouver B.C. (it makes sense if you knew the story and the background and stuff lol) So I have been studying that area. I'm mostly focusing on the story vs the illustrations right now, I don't want to have like awesome illustrations with story that lacks plot ans stuff lol.

 

[ScottsWife]

I'm planning on checking out the link to your book tomorrow (I have a lousy internet connection right now). I'm also a children's book writer, who has yet to be published. I have enjoyed writing quite a few, but I am insecure in dealing with the headache of publishing. I illustrated one. I am an artist, but I'd rather draw other things than my children's books. Here lately, I've been working on a very humorous book that rhymes. It will be an interesting process to find an illustrator. They will have to have a good imagination (to say the least).