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Choosing an illustrator
There are lots of posts about how to choose an illustrator. The only thing I’ll do here is to tell you how I did it. Tell you about my failures and my success in the hope it’ll help you make the best-informed decision for you. So I’ve written three picture books. They’ve been professionally edited. So I know my text is the best it can be. Now I don’t know how to draw to save my life. I’ve stopped my capacities at about the age of nine. I’m the queen of stick characters but not much better. When I thought about hiring an illustrator, an option opened itself to me.…
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A good concept
So I’ve sent my manuscript!!! Hay!! And within 24 hours the response came pouring down. No, no and no thank you. Not “Hay” anymore. But I’ve decided not to go the self-crushing route because that would be just to soul destroying and I’m not ready to be beaten down yet. Instead I’ve decided to analyse those rejections. I received an answer within 24 hours, which means that agents are on the lookout for middle grade books. And that is a definite good thing. They are however, not on the lookout for a dance book. Of course you might say, they would be if your book were any good, but that…
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When doubt hits
I’ve not written for a long time. Not that I didn’t want to, just I couldn’t. Why? You ask. Simple. I’ve been crushed. And let me tell you how, so it won’t happen to you. In September, I went, all hopeful and with stars in my eyes, to the writers conference in York. I met lovely people, with whom I’m still in touch, the workshops were great. What I was not prepared was the brutality of the one to one sessions. Not that the agents I met were purposely mean. They had ten minutes to say what they thought about your first three chapters. And they went straight to the…