Report from Surtex & The National Stationery Show - by Debbie

Just posted about my first time at Surtex and The National Stationery Show, and explaining how I'm hoping art licensing will enable me to have more time to work on illustrating and writing children's books.

20 Steps To Writing A Children's Book - by Debbie

Posted by Ree Drummond, 20 Steps To Writing A Children's Book includes a ton of sketches and drawings by illustrator Diane deGroat that give a wonderful peek into how a children's picture book was created. Though the title's focus is on writing, I also found the sketches and layout images fascinating and enlightening.

- Debbie

DebbieOhi.com

Art licensing opportunities for children's book illustrators - by Debbie

One of the many useful talks I attended at the SCBWI New York conference was on art licensing.

While I would love to make a full-time living at illustrating and writing children's books, the economic reality is that this may not happen for a while. To help pay the bills, I've been looking for other ways to supplement my income, so I was intrigued by what I learned at the workshop.

Penny Sikalis (from Surtex) and  Suzanne Cruise were speakers, with Priscilla Burris moderating. Suzanne is an art licensing agent, and she recommended that anyone interested in finding out more about art licensing should check out Surtex, an art licensing convention at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in NYC from May 15-17th. I've registered and am looking forward to checking out the event!

I'm not going to be pitching or selling -- this is purely a fact-finding trip for me, looking at everything, meeting people (being careful to follow show etiquette, of course), learning as much as I can. If it seems like the right fit for me, I may exhibit at Surtex someday.

For other illustrators interested in art licensing, here are some resources I've found especially useful:

Art Licensing Blog - founded by Tara Reed

Joan Beiriger's Blog On Art Licensing - by Joan Beiriger

Art Licensing 101 - by Mary Engelbreit

Some related posts:

A refresher for artists walking an art licensing trade show to decide if it is for them - by Tara Reed

SCBWI Conference Blog report on the talk

Detailed post about the art licensing panel, on Leezaworks

If you're planning on attending Surtex, please let me know!

-- Debbie

http://DebbieOhi.com

Promotional Mailers Tips - by Eliza

When doing research on how I should go about putting together a first promotional mailer, I got mixed messages from different sources. In the past, illustrators wanting to introduce themselves to publishers would send out a sample packet consisting of letter-size sheets of images (basically a paper portfolio), which the art director would put in a file. After that first mailing, illustrators would keep in touch via single image postcards, reminding the art director of his/her existence. Nowadays, it seems mandatory that illustrators have their portfolios online. So I questioned the necessity of sending that first mailing of a paper portfolio to art directors.

I went with this question to our group's mentor, Cecilia Yung, Art Director at Penguin Books for Young Readers, and the advice she gave was based on her personal preferences:

"I would prefer to get one large well designed postcard with one central image and two smaller supporting images (perhaps on the back). These samples should show characters and setting with a strong narrative quality. If I am interested, I will go to the website. A down-loadable PDF [on your site] will be a good feature. If there isn’t enough information on the website, I will usually contact the artist for further samples. I don’t usually need extensive illustration samples on file unless I’m interested, so I think a large promotional mailing may not be a good use of time and resources."

One important thing to note is that some publishers post their preferences on their sites, so it's very important to check there before sending mail to them.

Do you have a preferred format for promoting to art directors? Please do share with us what has worked for you in the past!

Many thanks to Cecilia for sharing her advice.
Good luck promoting everyone,

~Eliza

It's not too late to participate in National Picture Book Writing Week (NaPiBoWriWee)

it's Day 3 of NaPiBoWriWee, but you can still jump in and participate. The goal of this challenge: to write seven rough picture book drafts in one week.

Here's my interview with Paula Yoo, founder of NaPiBoWriWee.

-- Debbie