Katie's illustration?
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Thursday, 4 December 2014
Featured Illustrator: James Brown
To some people, Twitter is a dangerous place full of trolls blurting out horrid things, following you around and popping up when you least expect them to. But in the children's writing and illustration community this is not so. People are friendly, supportive, enthusiastic and reassuring, particularly to someone like me who two years ago knew nothing about Twitter and had just set off in search of The World of Publishing, hoping one day to find himself on bookshelves across the land.
It’s through Twitter I learnt about the SCBWI and its Undiscovered Voices competition. Having joined, I was spoiled for choice in picking which story starter extract to illustrate, but for me the one that leapt off the page was Maureen Lynas’ Sophie in Gargantua. Immediately I could picture the arch of the scene and Sophie’s trailing curls. An hour later I’d drawn the main characters, along with other bits and bobs, and went on to glue them together digitally.
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| My winning image for SCBWI Undiscovered Voices 2014 based on Maureen Lynas’ story Sophie in Gargantua. |
December arrived and so did an email that told me I’d won a place in the 2014 Undiscovered Voices anthology. The winning illustrators were all invited for a ‘portfolio intensive’ with Anne-Marie Perks, John Shelley, Bridget Strevens-Marzo and Loretta Schauer who were all incredibly supportive and generous with their advice. It was a rigorous and thought-provoking day and helped us prepare for the February launch to meet agents and publishers. Being in the anthology was wonderful; as a result I was offered representation by several agencies and I’m thrilled to be represented by Jodie Hodges at United Agents who fell in love with my Santa Claus:
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| The image that got me ‘spotted’ on Twitter. |
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| A rough and final image of the main character in Sarah Forbes’ Elspeth Hart and the School for Show-offs, published May 2015. |
At the launch party I also met Fliss Johnston from Orion who liked my colour illustrations for younger readers. From meeting Fliss, I’m now writing and illustrating two books for the Early Readers series, published in 2016. For the artwork, I sketch in pencil then use crayon and a lightbox before colouring with watercolour and gouache (ramped up with Photoshop). This project is very dear to me and I can’t wait for the books to hit the shelves. I’m a great fan of Francesca Simon’s Horrid Henry and Kaye Umansky’s Algy’s Amazing Adventures. I can’t believe I’ll be part of the same series, especially with illustrators like Tony Ross and Richard Watson.
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| The style of illustration for my books published by Orion in 2016. |
I’ve always found books compelling. It’s their smell and texture, the pause between the pages, the way the illustrations add even more to each narrative. I get lost in details. I’d pore over Errol Le Cain’s The Twelve Dancing Princesses and Arthur Rackham’s Peter Pan. I remember reading Dahl’s The Magic Finger over and over and listening to James and the Giant Peach and George’s Marvellous Medicine on my tape player so much that I’d have to wind the tangled tape back into the cassettes with a pencil. And then I’d spend hours drawing and painting at the dining room table, something my daughter Eliza loves doing now too. I’ve no idea where she gets it from… Rather than spreading out on the dining room table, I’ve now got a work station (which is strictly out of bounds to the cat and sticky-fingered children):
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| Here is my bubble. |
Tips
Having a Twitter account and joining the SCBWI have made me realize how important it is to share your ideas and passion with other like-minded people. If you have a question about something, always ask. If there’s a conference or talk with your favourite authors and illustrators, go to it. Research. Contact people. Meet people. Act on advice. Read as much as you can – not only your favourite texts but also literature about publishing. Sketch then trace over using a lightbox. Overall, be flexible: people in the field know what they’re talking about.
Venturing into the world of children’s books has brought me one step closer to sitting on bookshelves for others to reach out and, hopefully, pore over. The help I’m enjoying along the way is due in no small part to the leg-up the SCBWI has given me.
Elspeth Hart and the School for Show-offs, written by Sarah Forbes and illustrated by James Brown, is released in May 2015. It is available for pre-order now.
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See more of James' work in the Featured Illustrator Gallery.
Follow James on Twitter at: @jb_illustrates
He is represented by Jodie Hodges at United Agents
jhodges@unitedagents.co.uk
London Professional Series: An Evening with Book Packagers
David Richardson
It was a 'two for the price of one' evening for the last Professional Series meeting of the year on November 25th when we were pleased to welcome Michael Ford, editor (and writer) from Working Partners and author Benjamin Scott to speak on all things Book Packagers.
Book Packagers are the creative team behind many of the well-known children's series such as Animal Ark, Dinosaur Cove and Beast Quest. They are responsible for the creative process, brainstorming regularly on new concepts and ideas. It is these ideas that they will eventually look to sell to publishers.
What they want is a series that can produce entertaining books which young readers will fall in love with. These ideas are then developed by them to become a full story synopsis.
During the discussion, we had an excellent overview of the writing process from both sides of the editing desk.
It's when a full, chapter-by-chapter synopsis has been written that the authors are invited to audition (by writing the first three chapters) for the opportunity to write a book in the series. All submissions will get detailed feedback, enabling even those who are not selected to receive something for their time.
But for the chosen author, the real work is just about to begin.
Benjamin as the writer explained how he approached a new synopsis, beginning with a thorough read through before next working on the overall story, getting in done quickly in an 'open' first draft, He would then spend time rewriting and rewriting the story making it ready to send to the editor.
Michael, back in the office, would be one of the two editors who would then read it, making lots of comments on the text, highlighting both good points and constructive criticism.
The next step is for Benjamin, with him reviewing the edited text before spending further time rewriting and honing it based on the editors' comments. He only has a certain amount of time before he needs to return it to the editorial team.
It was good to hear both Benjamin and Michael explain the collaborative process, the time scales involved, the feedback that the author receives and the discussions between them both.
Money was mentioned, and there is the opportunity to make a reasonable income from this type of writing. Money is paid by an advance (into the four figure territory) followed by bi-annual royalty payments. There is the possibility of overseas markets too.
Working Partners are always on the lookout for new writers. There is a lot of work available and if you're able to fit their need, they are interested. Check out their website for details on how to audition. As well as children's books, Working Partners also produce books for adult readers.
Benjamin also gave us a presentation on his school visits. It was full of useful tips to help those of us that do this, including how to keep things entertaining at how to get the children involved.
A great evening to finish off this year's London Professional Series.
David Richardson is co-organiser of the London Professional Series with Non Pratt. He's working on two new projects as well as continuing with his YA novel and Picture Book texts.
Book Packagers are the creative team behind many of the well-known children's series such as Animal Ark, Dinosaur Cove and Beast Quest. They are responsible for the creative process, brainstorming regularly on new concepts and ideas. It is these ideas that they will eventually look to sell to publishers.
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| Benjamin Scott and Michael Ford |
What they want is a series that can produce entertaining books which young readers will fall in love with. These ideas are then developed by them to become a full story synopsis.
During the discussion, we had an excellent overview of the writing process from both sides of the editing desk.
It's when a full, chapter-by-chapter synopsis has been written that the authors are invited to audition (by writing the first three chapters) for the opportunity to write a book in the series. All submissions will get detailed feedback, enabling even those who are not selected to receive something for their time.
But for the chosen author, the real work is just about to begin.
Benjamin as the writer explained how he approached a new synopsis, beginning with a thorough read through before next working on the overall story, getting in done quickly in an 'open' first draft, He would then spend time rewriting and rewriting the story making it ready to send to the editor.
Michael, back in the office, would be one of the two editors who would then read it, making lots of comments on the text, highlighting both good points and constructive criticism.
The next step is for Benjamin, with him reviewing the edited text before spending further time rewriting and honing it based on the editors' comments. He only has a certain amount of time before he needs to return it to the editorial team.
It was good to hear both Benjamin and Michael explain the collaborative process, the time scales involved, the feedback that the author receives and the discussions between them both.
Money was mentioned, and there is the opportunity to make a reasonable income from this type of writing. Money is paid by an advance (into the four figure territory) followed by bi-annual royalty payments. There is the possibility of overseas markets too.
Working Partners are always on the lookout for new writers. There is a lot of work available and if you're able to fit their need, they are interested. Check out their website for details on how to audition. As well as children's books, Working Partners also produce books for adult readers.
Benjamin also gave us a presentation on his school visits. It was full of useful tips to help those of us that do this, including how to keep things entertaining at how to get the children involved.
A great evening to finish off this year's London Professional Series.
The London Professional Series has been going a number of years now and we're reviewing it for 2015. So if you have any suggestions on things that could be changed to help it fit with what the SCBWI membership want, please email us on profseries@britishscbwi.org or leave a comment below and let us know.
Wednesday, 3 December 2014
December 4th - Anna Violet
Anna's illustration?
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Tuesday, 2 December 2014
December 3rd - Mike Brownlow
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| See the whole image and the growing Advent calendar here. |
Mike's illustration?
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Monday, 1 December 2014
Ten-Minute Blog Break - 2nd December
One of the many challenges of parenting is persuading a reluctant child to read, something that can easily turn into one of those battlegrounds like room tidying or eating broccoli. Sally Poyton is blogging at Space on the Bookshelf about a new book by Alison David, Help your Child Love Reading - a Parent’s Guide. The book is full of non-judgemental advice about how to foster a reading culture, and Sally even finds some useful tips for her own book-mad family.
Katie Dale is putting her thinking cap on, and taking part in the annual Kids' Lit Quiz. Pitting school teams against children's authors, the quiz is a fun and fiendish event that you can read all about in Katie's blog post.
For this week's adventures in self-publishing, Larisa Villar Hauser is delving into the mysteries of Amazon rankings and doing lots of promotion. Meanwhile, Olivia Bright has been experimenting with Amazon's new Kids' Book Creator to self-publish a picture book, and shares a useful how-to video guide on her blog.
Still in picture book territory, Claire O'Brien delivers the second half of her blog guide on creating a picture book illustration portfolio. Bravely analysing her own portfolio, Claire finds a surprising amount of room for improvement.
Who doesn't love receiving feedback from child readers? Sam Zuppardi has some fun letters from a primary school class who've been using his book The Nowhere Box for Literacy lessons, and making some stupendous cardboard collages in the style of the illustrations.
Nick.
December 2nd - Bridget Strevens Marzo
#W8PAdvent
Bridget's illustration?
Post it in the comments and we'll tweet it with #W8PAdvent and your Twitter handle
Don't forget to allow for the # and the @
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