Picturebook (E)Critique Too! Who We Are, And What We Do!

By Lesley Moss

Picturebook Critique Too! (PB Too!) was the second peer-led picture book e-critique group for SCBWI_BI. Over three years from its inception it is still running, with many of the original members plus some lovely later additions. Candy Gourlay set it up, and passed the moderating baton to me, now ably assisted by Liz Miller. 

We have authors and author-illustrators of all backgrounds and all stages in the group, which makes for an interesting mix. We are quite a relaxed group, and take time out when we need to. And this seems to work for us. It must – as we’re still here, and still critiquing!

I asked the members about their work, their experience of PB Too! and how it has helped them develop their work.

First up: Joint Moderator Liz Miller! 

I write picture books but have been known to pen the occasional early reader, and I was excited to be Highly Commended for ‘The Pirate Who Liked Pink’ at this year’s Winchester Conference. I joined PB Too! in January 2011 and my time on the e-critique waiting list has been well rewarded. 

I've been lucky to have met quite a few PB Too! members in person at SCBWI events, including the recent Picture Book Retreat. You don’t need to have met to work together well as a group but it's been great to have had these opportunities and who knows, it may help to strengthen the group dynamic. I love the 'Oh yes...', 'Why didn't I spot that?', 'That's a good idea!' moments that come from my ever honest but always constructive and supportive fellow PB Too’ers. 

But it's not just about the critique - I really enjoy the sharing of event information, the cheering of success and the hands that reach out from the emails when someone's had a setback. It's what being a member of SCBWI is all about for me. 

Let's hear from our Author-Illustrators: 

Illustration ©Jamie Stevenson

Jamie Stevenson

I'm a fine artist, a scribbling, doodling crafty person who loves children's books, especially picture books! My illustrations are mainly in pastel or acrylic, and like my writing, tend to be humourous and quirky. 

Wanting to improve my writing/illustrating but with no other PB members around, I looked for an online critique group, becoming part of PB Too! when it was first formed. It is great to be in contact with such a brilliantly sunny collection of talented people, now friends, helping and cheering each other on, having feedback and advice. This lovely little group has made a big difference to me! 

Illustration ©Rikin Parekh

Rikin Parekh, author-illustrator

I worked as a storyboard artist/creature designer on feature films but being a children's picture book author-illustrator is what I was put on this earth to do! I've illustrated four picture books for MX Publishing and am looking for an agent/publisher for my own picture books. I’m now a Year One Teaching Assistant with the nuttiest of kids too! 

I joined PB Critique Too! in March 2012 and since then I have had the pleasure of being critiqued by the nicest, most honest and creative writers. As a group we all want success for each other and I've experienced many gold nuggets of advice, feedback, constructive criticism and a constant force of positivity. Due to this, my writing has improved by leaps and bounds. I feel more confident as an author-illustrator and am so glad to have joined this wonderful group! 

Illustration ©Holly Gatrell

Holly Gatrell, author-illustrator

I joined the critique group after meeting Lesley Moss at an Exeter Sketchcrawl in July 2012. This was the start of my SCWBI journey. I am about to complete my Masters Degree in Illustration. Joining the group was great for me as my MA was distance learning and I was the only person studying children’s books. It has enabled me to understand so much more of the art of writing for children. The group members are really supportive and it’s inspiring to be able to exchange thoughts with such talent, and with published authors and illustrators. It’s great to learn from people who know what they are talking about! 

Illustration © Kate Pankhurst

Kate Pankhurst

I illustrate picture books and young fiction. I recently had my first books as an author-illustrator published (Mariella Mystery Investigates). I love doodling, my favourite subject is anything funny or icky and I'm particularly fond of monsters, dogs and detectives. 

I work from home and being part of PB Too! makes my job seem less solitary. I'm always really inspired by how much work is created by the group – it definitely spurs me on to get that picture book idea I've been mulling over finished off! Having peers to help polish an idea up before sending it in the 'real world' is incredibly useful too.


And now, from our authors: 

Alfie’s Great Escape, by Kate Irwin 

and Clare Elsom, Egmont

Kate Irwin, author of 'Alfie's Great Escape', Blue Bananas, Egmont

The PB Too! group is invaluable to me. I write my stuff, bounce it off my nearest and dearest, then it goes to PB Too! before sending it in for a professional critique. Then, if all goes well, to submission. The PB Too! people are honest, positive, and a pleasure and honour to be involved with. I can't imagine writing life without them now. 

It is also a huge joy to see other people's work developing and taking shape, and improving massively over time. And the debate over what we think works or not is fascinating and informative. Quite possibly the best thing about my SCWBI membership. 

www.karenowen.co.uk

Karen Owen

I’ve had one picture book published, I Could Be, You Could Be. I love being a member of PB Too! because it’s the first place I turn to when I’ve written a new text. Supportive and constructive comments from writers and illustrators make a big difference, especially as I’ve had to learn to think more about the pictures as well as words. 





Lois Johnson

I’m a picture book writer and I also write children's novels, mainly middle grade books for 9-12. I have an MA in Creative Writing: Writing for Children. I think it's great being a member of PB Too! as it's a bonus getting an insight and comments from illustrators as well as other pb writers. I feel the group is very supportive and the generosity of people who spend time giving detailed, helpful comments is wonderful. Very often we are too close to our own writing to be objective but by being a member of such a great group, we can post our work confidently knowing any comments offered are with the sole intention of helping us improve. 

Sheryl Webster:

I've been a member of the group for three years. I find the group invaluable in helping me to shape and enhance my story ideas into more polished texts. Often the obvious errors are staring you in the face, but it takes a fresh pair of eyes to see it. The group offers honest and constructive advice and the support we all give each other is just fabulous. I feel we are at a stage now where we 'know' each others styles and how each person works. I feel really privileged to be working with a group I trust, whose opinions and advice help so much. 

I have had 18 titles published to date, some of which are picture books such as What Small Rabbit Heard (OUP)  Wee William (OUP) Noodle's Knitting (LTP) Tinysaurus (Anderson Press) and some reading scheme titles, including The Bug Club series for Pearson. I also enjoy writing early fiction for older age groups. 

Lesley: 

I wasn’t sure about the wisdom of online critique, but PB Too! converted me. I saw the way critiques could turn a script around, and how analysing someone else’s work could help in learning about editing. We’re also lucky to have a lovely guest contributor, Anne Rooney, who drops by occasionally with informed advice and information! 

I think this dedicated group epitomises SCBWI values, and I thought its members deserved a shout – out!

 

If you are a member of the SCBWI and are looking to join a critique group either online or in your local area, take a look at the critique information page on the SCBWI British Isles website. 

 

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Lesley Moss joined SCBWI in 2003 and over several years has volunteered for SCBWI as SW Joint Network Organiser, e-critique group moderator for Picturebook Too! and the Poetry e-critique group, which became www.thefuneverse.com (run by Maureen Lynas). She writes 8-12 fiction, picture books and funny verse. She originally studied art and design and spent some years in community arts, including a spell as a mime animateur, working creatively with children of all ages, and much more. But her first love is writing.

Picture Book Basics - Understanding Format

In the first of a series of articles on picture book basics, Words & Pictures Illustration editor John Shelley offers some beginner guidelines to format.



One of the first problems picture book illustrators and writers face is - how long should my book be? How much text, how many images, how many pages, what proportions and size? 

Text versus Illustration

What we generally refer to as a "picture book" covers everything from pop-ups to e-books, graphic novels to non-fiction, baby books to sophisticated. But whatever the format, they fit into one of two types - story books, where the text tells the whole story and can be logically read without images, and true picture books, where the pictures and words combine together to tell the story. Folk tales (old and new) are a good example of story books as, being designed to be read aloud, they don't require illustration in order to be understood. The illustrations are there to reinforce and enhance the reading experience. But in true picture books the text is pared down to just the narrative, illustrations fill in the description, and may include wordless sub-plots. Thus to understand the story fully the reader has to read both the illustrations together with the text, words alone would be insufficient without the images. 

Here are double page spreads from two very different books:

STORY BOOK: Michael Morpurgo The Pied Piper of Hamelin (illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark) © Walker Books 

PICTURE BOOK: Oliver Jeffers The Incredible Book Eating Boy  
© Harper Collins

Publishers have their own unique requirements for picture books based on the age group, type of book and the markets they target, in the UK 900 words is about the accepted maximum, but this is getting shorter as many houses pursue US co-editions where current trends are for no more than 500 words, and frequently less. There are exceptions and cross-overs, this year's Greenaway Award winner Levi Pinfold's Black Dog is a 32 page picture book with relatively full text. David Fickling once told me not to worry about word count, "just write what the story needs!" Story books have been tough to sell for a long time, but I like to think there is a growing revival of longer texts, nevertheless be aware the project is a harder sell if it's outside commonly accepted formats. 

Number of Pages

Picture books are constructed from signatures. Pages are laid out and printed together on large sheets, which are cut in half (giving 4 sides), then half again (8 sides), then folded, making a bundle of 16 pages called a “signature”. Many picture books consist of two signatures sewn together, resulting in a 32 page book. It's the most common format, and as common is generally easier to produce, it's best to submit dummies with a 32 page plan. However for slightly extra cost an extra half sheet (8 pages) can be added, making 40 page (2.5 signature) and 24 page (1.5 signature) books. Three signatures would create a 48 page book, four a 64 pager and so on. Even more confusingly, on rare occasions sheets are removed too - my last book in Japan, a version of Jack and the Beanstalk, is an irregular 44 page separate ended book - that's three signatures with one sheet (4 pages) replaced by separate endpapers. 

Construction of a hardcover 32-page separate-ended book. Jacket flaps are quite unusual for picture books in the UK now, but still very common in the US and many other countries.

How many pages are actually usable for the story depends on whether the book is “Separate-Ended” or “Self-Ended”. 

Separate-ended books have two separate sheets (usually in a coloured cheaper paper) as blank endpapers. That means all sides of the printed signatures are available to use, page 1 and page 32 of a 32-page book are the first and last pages. Commonly page 1 just carries a simple Half Title (i.e. A plain page with just the title), pages 2-3 are a more elaborate Title Page or frontispiece and p.32 can be used as the last page of the story (though often it just has a vignette motif or is left blank). If the text starts at p.4-5 that makes up a maximum 14 and a half spreads (29 pages) available for the story. 

32 page separate ended layout. The brown pages are the plain endpapers in a coloured paper; yellow indicate those available for use for the story.

Self-ended books however are pasted directly onto the cover boards with no separate endpapers. So, in the case of a 32-page self-ended book, page 1 and page 32 are glued down and never seen, pages 2-3 and 30-31 are used as the endpapers, and pages 4-5 are the title pages. That leaves 12 spreads (24 pages) available for the actual story, or just 11 if a half-title page is included. Self-ended books often have illustrated endpapers because the pasted side is the same paper as the rest of the book. 

32-page self-ended picture book with no half-title. Brown pages are pasted down on the boards, the ochre pages can be (though not always) used as printed endpapers. Yellow pages are those available for the story and illustrations

By the same token, if the publisher uses all 32 pages but still wants illustrated endpapers then the coloured paper is replaced by printing paper, which then classifies the work as a 40-page self-ended book. 

Confused? Have a look through your bookshelf and check the endpapers of your picture-books – blank ones in a different paper are separate ended. 

But hold on! You say - what about e-books? surely they can be any format and page count we want? Yes that's true, but consider that most publishers produce traditional paper editions alongside ebook versions, so the old rules still apply!

Page proportions

Another common conundrum is what size and proportion should the paper trim be? For dummy submissions it's not usually necessary to determine exact page proportions - if the book is taken on by a publisher eventual sizes will be amended. Some publishers will have specific requirements for page size, especially in the case of series. Other times it's a matter of consultation between illustrator and art director. The most important thing in the first sketch stage is to decide whether the book will be portrait (i.e. taller than wider) or landscape (wider than taller). The pictures may dictate this - common sense suggests that stories including a lot of wide background vistas may work better in landscape format, those with lots of vertical elements like buildings, trees and full figure characters work best in portrait. Exactly square formatted books are uncommon, usually seen in titles for the very young, publishers are less keen however for older age groups. 

My book The Boat in the Tree was set by a river, which suggested a lot of horizontal panoramas, so I used landscape proportions. This book was conceived as a 32 page separate-ended book, but was increased to 40 page self ended when I was asked to illustrate the endpapers

Jack in the Beanstalk however is all about vertical beanstalks, tall ogres and soaring castles, so portrait format was an obvious choice. I actually planned the book to be even taller and narrower, but my Japanese editor felt it would be awkward on the shelf and requested more width. 44 page separate ended story book

For sketched dummies, one way to decide format is to focus on the key images you want to draw for the book, take some page measurements from published books you think fit the same proportions and base your planning on those. If they like the dummy, an editor will soon tell you of any amendments.

Some books use unusual size or proportions as a key element in the design/storytelling process, however consider that the book has to fit comfortably on the shop shelf. As ever, the more challenging the format, the more difficult it is to get it published!

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John Shelley is the Illustration Feature Editor of Words & Pictures and current Central East Network coordinator. 
He's illustrated over 40 books for children, many of them published in Japan where he lived for many years. His next title The Stone Giant is scheduled for release by Komine Shoten in Tokyo this autumn, and Charlesbridge in the US in Spring 2014.   www.jshelley.com

Plaister Press

Author-Illustrator Gillian McClure has enjoyed a long career working with publishers creating children's books - and then she began publishing herself. Here she offers the story behind Plaister Press.


Early in 2010 I formed Plaister Press in order to self publish new picture books – physical books - alongside my traditionally published books.

Perhaps the greatest advantage of running a small publishing company is acquiring a greater knowledge of the publishing industry; for all the paths I’ve been following are the same as those followed by big publishers. 

    Publishing is like doing the Lottery. It takes only one winning book to turn things around but that winning book is unpredictable; the most unexpected of books win. And all the other books - well they need a lot of dedicated marketing and selling to shift them out of the warehouse. It’s the winner, the best seller that subsidises the rest of the list. Until that happens, if it does ever happen, the advantages of running your own publishing company are not all financial. So what are the other advantages?

• You have the opportunity of creating a brand – your own list.

www.plaisterpress.com website

• You have books coming out and getting reviewed when perhaps there may not be much movement on the picture book front. 
• You have new books and new workshops based on them for school visits. 
• If you’re an illustrator, you have new artwork to sell one day.

All this keeps your name alive out there when it might otherwise be fading away as you wait for traditional publishers who take their time in deciding whether to take your next book. My agent Stephanie Thwaites at Curtis Brown agrees; she is happy with what I’m doing; sees it all helping raise my profile. 

My initial reason for starting Plaister Press back in 2010 was a creative one rather than a business one. I’d found myself becoming, over my thirty-year writing and illustrating career, a smaller and smaller cog in a bigger and bigger business and I was becoming frustrated. So when a friend gave me a sum of money to ‘proceed with a book’, I joined up with a typographical designer and started my own publishing company.

Working with typographic designer, Lisa Kirkham.

The creative rewards were great. I love the autonomy and control.
I love experimenting with new formats and working closely from the rough stage with a typographic designer – something I was never allowed to do before. However, ‘proceeding with a book’ means going far beyond an author/illustrator’s usual comfort zone if that book is going to end up on a child’s bookcase.

A business sense is needed. I saw ahead of me a huge learning curve - dealing with -
 

• Printers - Chinese printers – getting files to them, working within their schedules – avoiding the Chinese New Year

• Wholesalers & distributers – Gardners and Bertrams

• ISBNs and barcodes

• Invoicing and returns

• Marketing and promotions

• Trade fairs – the Bologna Book Fair and the Frankfurt Book Fair

• Selling

• Stock keeping – I needed an efficient excel sheet showing how much stock I owned rather than counting boxes under beds or in the attic

• Bookkeeping – double of everything because I’m still running my self employed business. Double accountancy bills

• And, on top of all this, leaving enough time and space to create new books  without losing the quality expected of me when published the traditional way

• I also needed an exit strategy: it helps on sleepless nights to know that, with one click of a button on the Companies House website, I can make my company go dormant. After that, all I have to do is clear my remaining stock in school and bookshop signings before a holiday on the profits! A simple exit strategy has been one of the reasons I’ve not wanted to complicate my business by publishing other people’s books alongside my own

Seeing how big the learning curve ahead of me was going to be, I decided, when I started out in 2010, to cut my teeth on reissuing a back list title with a good sales record where the rights had reverted.  After that, I’ve been publishing new picture books; one a year.

I discovered, early on, to my surprise, that I liked marketing and selling; enjoyed mailing out to all the UK Independent booksellers and spending time in bookshops, learning who my customers were.

So now to the drawbacks: small is beautiful but it’s also a problem. A small publisher, as I said earlier, is following the same route to market as a big publisher. Big publishers are my competitors and one of the real drawbacks of being so small, is that everything in the publishing industry is geared for BIG:

• Discounts are big
• Costs are big
• Print runs need to be big if you are going to make any profit at all   

• Turnover and numbers of titles need to be big to interest any sales agent 
• Even the lorry delivering the books from Felixstowe docks to my house was big – too big to get down my street. The driver phoned to say he would have to meet me in a lay by on the outskirts of Cambridge. I had a vision of 1,500 books left unguarded on a palette on a damp autumn day as I made several journeys by car getting them back to my house. I had to come up with some solution quickly or all those cartons of books would go back to the docks. With physical books you have physical problems. 

So three years after creating my publishing company, I found I was a bit stuck. My books were selling but the profit was only just covering the production costs of the next book. I could go no faster than one book a year if I was going to maintain quality.  Alone, I was never going to notch my business up to the next level.

So I signed up to Martin West’s organisation Authorization!   - a very newly formed umbrella organisation for small publishing companies or authors bringing back into print back-list titles. Authorization! has solutions to many of the ‘big’ problems and can help when you’re too small to proceed beyond a certain point on your own.

Gone now are the problems with large lorries delivering cartons to my house. Gone are all the books under the beds and all the trips to the post office. I now have warehousing, a sales agent, rights agent and four reps.

Martin West talking about Authorization! plus Susan Price and myself on a self-publishing panel at the 2012 CWIG conference. He will be speaking again on self publishing at the Society of Authors on Tuesday 16 July 2013 at 6pm: CWIG – Children’s Self-Publishing: Authors in Control?

I wonder whether, in the future, authors and illustrators who are already doing a lot of their own marketing through social media will be expected by their publishers to also foot the production costs of any risky or niche-market book – publishing it themselves. Then, only if a book is seen to be a winner, will the big publishers step in and take it over for the mass market. Perhaps, in this way, self publishing might be the way forward for publishers and authors and illustrators alike.
_______________________________________________

 Gillian McClure is the creator of dozens of picture books for children, and former member of the Society of Authors CWIG committee. See her website here, and blog here. 

Pictures, Books and Ancient Inspiration

By Philippa R. Francis [K. M. Lockwood]

Our ancestors held no prejudice against illustrated books for adults. Art and words were beautifully combined in sacred texts like the Lindisfarne Gospels. For a wonderful programme about these by David Almond, follow this link to the Radio 3 site.






I have divided this piece into Picture and Book sections – but I’d like you to think of it as a whole for both artists and writers.

Pictures 
I love how the artist Eadrith used birds and animals in his work. He plays with their features and integrates them into the whole design. Could you transform a creature into a magical being, keeping something recognisable about it? Or if you favour realism, could a creature reoccur in your work – could an owl, say, have her own little story throughout the book?

We get little glimpses of the scribe in the Gospels – it was created by one artist throughout. It is Eadfrith’s individual style that unites the whole work. Do you choose to reveal or conceal yourself as creator in your work?

Books
The Lindisfarne Gospels arose from their immediate surroundings. The vellum came from local calves, the words were written with the feathers of local birds and the colours from the stones and plants.  
Are there ways your work can be imbued with a specific place, rural or urban? Is the landscape in the ink?

St Cuthbert's Isle by Peter Herring CC NON COMMERCIAL

Yet the Lindisfarne Gospels did not stay on their tidal island off North East England. The monks fled with them away from Viking raiders. Over 13 centuries they ended up in The British Library in London.
Will there be a distinct change of location in your work? Might there be a homecoming too? [See below]

Endnote
To the delight of many in the North East, the Lindisfarne Gospels and the St Cuthbert Gospel [the oldest European book] are coming home- almost. They will be in Durham Cathedral 1st July – 30th September 2013,  temporarily reunited with one of their inspirations, St. Cuthbert, after 12 centuries.

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@lockwoodwriter

K. M. Lockwood is a writing name of Philippa R. Francis. Once a primary school teacher, she became a graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at West Dean College in 2011. Her story The Selkies of Scoresby Nab was short-listed for the Mslexia Children’s Novel Competition and long-listed for the Times Chicken House in 2012/13. She was born in Yorkshire but now lives by the coast in Sussex. Her writing shows her deep fascination with British folklore and the sea. Her interests include reading, scuba diving and belly dancing, though not at the same time. She also blogs at the-wedding-ghost.blogspot.co.uk