[Disclaimer: This is a post for picture book writers who are seeking traditional publication. If you are intending to self publish, you WILL need to find an illustrator.]
I thought I would tackle another of the topics I listed on the blog at the end of last year. WHAT YOU NEED TO CONSIDER ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATIONS FOR A PICTURE BOOK WHEN YOU ARE NOT AN ILLUSTRATOR.
A common mistake I have come across over all the years I have been writing picture books, is picture book authors without any illustrative skills, desperate to find an illustrator. They believe that they need to take this step before submitting their manuscript to a publisher.
I have insufficient artistic skills to illustrate my books. I am a writer. My skill is with words. So far I have had eleven picture book stories picked up for publication. And I have some advice for you if you are worried that you cannot illustrate the picture book text you have just written and you have no idea where to start to find someone to draw the pictures for you.
You do not need to do anything about it.
Your job as a writer is to create a compelling picture book story. That is ALL you need to do. You do not need to find an illustrator before you submit your story anywhere. In fact, apart from a couple of circumstances, publishers would prefer you left the job of finding an illustrator to them. No, really! Especially when you are starting out, it is unlikely you will know, or know of, the illustrators working in the picture book business anyway. The people who DO know them are publishers. Or they know how to find them, much better than you do. Publishers are also way more skilled and experienced when it comes to matching the right illustrative style with your story. And this is really important when it comes to making your story shine.
So don't worry about finding an illustrator. You do NOT need to do this (unless you are self publishing - see above).
However ... HOWEVER ... you do need to think about the pictures when you are writing your story. Because the bottom line is, a picture book has both pictures and words. And they are both crucial to making a successful picture book (except for wordless picture books which are a separate diabolically crafty thing which make me redundant and I am not going to mention those again in this post). So, what should you be thinking about as you write your brilliant text?
1) The illustrations need to vary from page to page in order to engage the reader. Your text needs to require a change in the pictures. So, is there action moving the story along or some other form of variation going on (changing emotions, seasons, new characters, interactions with different characters). And has your pagination of the text supported this? (Don't forget to have an even spread of text across your pages - if you have heaps more words on one page versus the next to enable the pictures to be different from page to page, you might want to rethink your text a little).
2) Will the pictures inspired by your story be appealing to the target audience? Will they be relatable, cute, informative, exciting, surprising?
3) Is there room for an illustrator to add in extra content? (The answer you want here is YES). Don't forget, you don't need to spell everything out with words e.g., hair colour, if it can be shown in the illustrations. Educational texts might include more of these words so emergent readers can connect the word with what it represents, but this can be relaxed somewhat in a trade picture book. Illustrations can tease out layers of meaning and add texture to the story in their own right. So don't feel the need to explain everything :-)
4) Is your twist/theme/concept/action illustratable? Can it be depicted? Is it physically possible? Will it look like what its meant to look like? My next picture book, My Elephant is Blue, created some real challenges for the illustrator, with several pages requiring the elephant to be in a particular pose/position. Luckily she resolved the issue beautifully but it's important to remember our grand plans can't always be properly depicted. Don't just plan for pictures to be different from page to page, make sure there is actually a picture that can go with those words.
5) Be open to things looking different to how you thought they would. Be open to the idea that you might not be the best person to advise on or control how the artwork looks. We are not always the best judge of how things should appear illustratively. My skill is with words. The only times we get involved in directing the illustrations, are when meaning is at stake, or we need something in the illustration to make the text work (something that must be seen but not mentioned). To this end, I will add in illustration notes if I want something to be in the pictures that I haven't written. But I don't say anything else, and will only give information about style and illustrative detail, if asked. I never want to influence the illustrator unless they want me to. And I am always open to ideas, advice and suggestions. It's a leap of faith, but I have to say, this has worked out pretty well for me so far. I know I become part of a team when a picture book text is accepted. And every member of that team wants the book to succeed.
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