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.

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

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

Art For Japan: Fundraising By Artists

Organized by Meg and Alice hunt, ART FOR JAPAN is calling on any “cartoonist, illustrator, designer, animator, crafter, fine artist, etc.” for donations of work to be auctioned on eBay in early April. Deadline: March 31st, 2011. Details here.

(Thanks to Shevi Arnold for the heads-up!)

Marietta Zacker giving away illustration critiques (WriteOnCon prize draw)

Quickie heads-up, Marietta Zacker of Nancy Gallt Literary is giving away a personal illustration critique as part of WriteOnCon's promotional prize draw. To enter, post a comment over on WriteOnCon's blog post about the giveaway.

Marietta's bio:

Marietta has professionally experienced every aspect of children’s books for over 15 years, working with authors, illustrators, publishers, educators and readers.  As an agent at Nancy Gallt Literary Agency, she is passionate about bringing those worlds together.  She represents authors whose work make her pause, shiver or laugh out loud and illustrators who add a completely different dimension to the story being told.  Marietta approaches her work with the knowledge that there are remarkable books of all genres, targeted to all ages, just waiting to be discovered. Aside from her work as an agent she is also the Book Curator at Sparkhouse, an independent toy store & bookstore in South Orange, NJ.

WriteOnCon is a virtual convention for writers, coming August 16-18, 2011.