A Note to Well-Meaning Authors Who Drive Me Crazy

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Isynia-Artessa's avatar
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Well, I have finally had it. I have officially vowed to have a callous and unfeeling heart when it comes to people who call me up saying, "Hi, um, Jennifer [gross mispronunciation of my last name]. I got your number from [name of friend/acquaintance from church/neighbor] who said that you can draw. I've written a children's book…." Illustrators, Friends, Countrymen - you know where this is going, and because you don't want this stranger to tell your friend/acquaintance from church/neighbor or whoever that you are a terrible, unfriendly person, you agree to "meet with them", even though you made it very clear in a friendly but firm way that you are obligated by contract to have all new projects go through your agent (or any other excuse that you can come up with to get out of what will surely be a waste of your time). However, after this most recent "meeting" during which I (again) ended up having to play therapist/mentor/dream-crusher to a person who obviously knew nothing about the publishing industry, illustration or grammar, I have promised myself that I will henceforth 1) be the cold person who just says "no, I'm sorry; I can't meet with you. Please talk to my agent if you are interested in commissioning a project for me", and hangs up the phone 2) try not care if the friend/acquaintance from church/neighbor hates me ever after for snubbing their starry-eyed author-friend 3) write a blog post which will serve as both venting for me and helpful direction for the well-meaning aspiring authors out there.

So, dear aspiring authors, here are a few "Dos and Don'ts" before you start looking into partnering with an illustrator.

YOUR MANUSCRIPT

DO finish and edit your manuscript. Your number one job in this business is to write a fabulous manuscript, and re-write the fabulous manuscript, and re-write the fabulous manuscript until it could not possibly be more fabulous if it tried. Get your manuscript looked at and edited by qualified readers and editors. This does not mean your spouse, your grandmother, or the five year old across the street. I mean, get your manuscript torn to shreds by other authors who will tell you point blank if you have plot holes, if your characters are flat, and if your book not engaging. Find people who know how to use first/second/third person, verb tenses and commas, and have them (plural, as in more than one person) proofread your manuscript for grammar errors.

DON'T shove a first draft of a manuscript under the illustrator's nose, explaining that it is "still rough," but expecting the illustrator to light up with glee over your piece of inspiration, which is having an obvious point-of-view crisis and is sprinkled liberally with commas. This only tells the illustrator "This person is nowhere near ready to have their book illustrated….why am I wasting my time in a meeting for a project that isn't even ready to go forward?"

YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

DO spend copious amounts of time in your library's "New Books" shelves seeing what is being published for your book's age group. Be familiar with the subject matter, length of the books, themes, etc. Ask the librarians what are the most popular books for the age group that you are interested in. They would be more than happy to show you what is being checked out (so presumably that is also what is selling). If you want your book to sell, it will have to compete well in the market. Know your market.

DON'T tell the illustrator that your manuscript is "a 1500 word picture book written for 12-year-olds about a family of mice that learns about the importance of friendship." I could go on and on about how many red flags are in that one sentence. However, to sum up, unless your name is Kate DiCamillo, a phrase like this pretty much tells the illustrator "Ah…a book that will never sell."

THE INDUSTRY

DO research industry practices. Know whether you intend to publish with a traditional publisher (which means that you should not even be looking for an illustrator in the first place) or self publish. If you intend to self publish, learn about the different print houses. Learn how much publishing and marketing will cost you. Find out what the going rate is to hire an illustrator. Find out what book stores would be willing to sell your book if you decide to self-publish. If you intend to find a traditional publisher, find out what different houses are publishing, and identify ones that might be interested in your work. Find their submission guidelines and follow them. There are numerous books and resources out there to help you find this information.

DON'T expect the illustrator to explain the difference between publishing venues for you, recommend publishing houses for you, or otherwise do your legwork. Do not be mad at the illustrator for pointing out that if you go through a traditional publisher, you will probably not have any say in the illustrator selection or illustration process. Unless you are insanely famous/powerful, this is industry standard practice, which you would know if you researched the industry, and is not the illustrator's fault. Also, do not be mad at the illustrator for pointing out that in the world of self-publishing, printing, marketing, design and illustration cost money. It is not the illustrator's fault that you didn't research the costs involved with the project you are trying to undertake.

PROFESSIONALISM

DO come to your meeting with a potential illustrator prepared to discuss the project and the illustrator's potential role in it. We live in the Google age. It is very easy to research an illustrator. Find out before hand if the artist's style is what you envision for your book. See what other books the illustrator has worked on. Are they in your target market group? Be prepared to ask the illustrator project related questions, such as "explain to me how you typically move through a project, and at which points I would be able to review the artwork and make revisions". "What types of projects do you typically like to work on?" "Let's get on the same page for our expectations for how involved I (the author/client) will be in determining what each page will look like". Be prepared to answer questions that the artist may have for you as well.

DON'T insult the illustrator by making it blatantly clear that you didn't even bother to find out anything about him/her before selecting him/her for your project. If you were interviewing for a job, you would expect the interviewer to ask you "Why do you want to work here?" You would look pretty stupid if you said "Well, actually, I have no idea what your company even does." I have actually been to "meetings" where the author actually told me that "no, he had not had a chance to visit my website which I had directed him to over a week ago to see samples of my work" and "had no idea that I was a published, full time freelance illustrator." So, it is understandable that I would be thinking to myself "then what makes you think you want to work with me?" When you hire an illustrator, you are presumably doing to because you like their work, not because you "heard they can draw" and want someone to make you a Beatrix Potter look-alike book. Also, do not tell the illustrator your life story. You would not go to an interview an tell the human resources director all about your dreams in high school, your failed marriages, the jobs that you got fired from because the bosses were jerks, the multiple states you have lived in due to your inability to feel settled for more than a few years, or your financial woes. The human-resource director would not need to hear about these things, and unless your book is an autobiography, neither does the illustrator.

In short, if you are looking for an illustrator, you are looking for someone with whom you can have a smooth professional relationship. The illustrator wants the same.

Now, before the world gets the impression that I intend to hide away in my studio forever and glare menacingly at anyone who asks me a publishing question, let me just say one last thing. When I was just out of college, there were some really nice illustrators who sat down with me at my request to point me in the right direction, and I am happy to "pay it forward" and do the same. If someone calls me up and says "I would like to get into publishing, and don't know where to start. I know you've been published before. Would you be willing to take an hour and meet me for coffee to answer my questions?", I would happily do so! That is a person who recognizes that they have a goal, and is doing the research to figure out how to get where they want to go. Good for them! Let me know how I can help! What I have vowed to avoid from now on are those awkward, hours long, painful meetings that start out as "I have a project for you" and quickly deteriorate into "actually, I have no idea who you are or what I am doing, and really just want someone to get excited about what I wrote and make me feel good about my hopes and dreams." To those people, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to just say "no" from now on.

OK, so if you are one of those people that I have vowed not to meet with, here are some helpful places where you can start learning about the world of publishing.

The Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators
This is fabulous. There are resources for members, special publications that can educate you on the industry, and forums that you can browse in order to find answers to questions that you didn't even know to ask! There are even places to post your manuscript (or illustration) to get a critique from other professionals. I have used this critique forum often for my own pieces, and have found it very helpful, and the resources section helped me to find my agent.

The Rejectionist
A snarky, fabulously sarcastic literary agent's assistant blogs about common frustrations, mistakes, and pet peeves regarding manuscripts, queries and publishing in general.

Editorial Anonymous
An editor at a publishing house discusses everything from manuscripts to query letters to industry practices, with her own bit of personal humor and to-the-point honesty.

You may also be interested in checking out/buying this year's "Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market" by Alice Pope. This book has contacts and submission guidelines for publishers, with descriptions of what each house publishes.

Best of luck to us all as we carve out places for ourselves!
© 2010 - 2024 Isynia-Artessa
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FrancescaDaSacco's avatar
:lol: I'm a freelancer illustrator, I admire your rant and agree on everything!
I think it's always the same, I met a lot of aspiring writers who wanted a illustrator to do... everything (from reading and edit their manuscript to send the pdf file to CreateSpace) and thinking to hire (me) for a bunch of dollars ^^'

I think some of them simply don't know anything, they're dreamers trying to get their dream out from the drawer, but some of them don't ... :)
Thanks and good luck ;)