Artists and Writers Working Together Oh My!

So which is harder to work with an artist or a writer?

First I want to say that the two artists who have illustrated my books have worked out very well. I'd work with them again. In fact, one is illustrating a book of mine right now. Whew, that was close.

Actually I should clarify anyway. It's merely DIFFICULT to work with artists and writers. As a long-time editor I occupied the ground between the two and it was always tense. But what's really AWFUL is working with BEGINNING artists and writers. I wouldn't do it. Neither will artists with paying clients. This is business, people.

So let's get back to where we were in the last blog. All you're getting from publishers are rejection form letters. You don't want to spend the $10,000 plus it takes to produce your own professional picture book. And/or you don't know how. What can you do?

If you want to keep moving forward the next step should be a rough dummy of the book. That's what it sounds like - a full-sized paper version of the book using sketches for illustrations. Don't even try and get a professional artist to do this. So many writers go to artist websites asking if they'll do spec work. A professional looks at that email and says 50 percent of 0 royalties is 0. They get mad when you do that.

I'd contact college art programs. Neighborhood artists could do this. The goal is to have something that looks like a book so you can continue to test it. Read it to children. Have parents read it to children. When you have a book to work with it's easier to see what can be improved. The illustrations don't have to be great. It's what you can do to continue moving forward.

Next time I'll talk about how I found artists to do my books.

Michael LaLumiere