In July 2016 I released my first ever picture book. I learned a lot through this process and as a way to remember it, I thought I’d document it here, as much for myself as for aspiring or professional illustrators who are keen to learn from one another.

Step 1: starting with the text

It makes sense of course but the text is the cornerstone of any picture book. Without the text there’s unlikely to be any images. I find that my first reading of a text is probably the most important. It has to be done on paper and I have to have a pencil in hand. As soon as I begin to read, images may flow and I haven’t got long before they flow in one side of my head and out the other so the most important job at this stage is to capture whatever comes.

Step 2: Walk away and let it marinate

After an initial reading, it’s easy to get excited by the first idea that comes in to your head. You start to feel as if you can piece together a movie and, well, because it’s the only idea you’ve had, it feels so right! But often, my best ideas happen when I’m least expecting them and because I know this I let it play to my advantage. I take a few days or even up to a week to let the ideas of the book sit in the back of my mind. You can find inspiration in the weirdest of places so I just wait. I do repetitive, mindless activities like walking, showering, sleeping or yoga and sure enough, at some point, a few sparks ignite and more ideas begin to flow.

Again, the trick here is to capture them. I carry around a trusty little notebook where I simply make sure I write down all the things the book could be. It might be the whole book or just a scene, a spread, a page, a tiny image. Once it’s captured, I’ve done the hard bit. Then I move on to trying to put a jigsaw puzzle of ideas together.

Step 3: Fleshing out the idea

By this stage I have a lot of little bits. I have my sketches and ideas from my first reading as well as bits and bobs I’ve noted down over the week or few days after the first reading. It’s time to put these all together.

Some illustrators call this a storyboarding stage but that feels a little too linear and formal for me. I find that there are certain ideas I like more than others. Maybe they’re a bit funnier, or perhaps they relate to the text a little better than others. I usually start with these and try to link them all together in some logical way. Often, a story begins to emerge. Certain characters take on a personality of their own and I know it sounds silly, but they often tell me what they should be doing, rather than the other way around.

Step 4: Pulling it all together

After much time and iteration in the jigsaw phase, it’s time to get my hands dirty and prepare the drawings to show someone else. Often by this stage I can see the images I want to create very clearly but that doesn’t mean they’re any good for an editor to see. How do I tidy things up? I redraw the sketches with them in mind. I ask myself questions like, “What do I need to communicate with this image? What do I want the editor to feel? Do I want them to laugh or cry?” With this in mind, I then go about setting it out in a much more logical fashion than what my brain is used to.

Often, images alone don’t do a good enough job so where appropriate, I add notes to each image. I talk about things like colour and try to describe the mood of the image. Does it have a background? Is it full-bleed? What sort of clothes are the characters wearing? Like with any picture, words and images go together at this stage but it’s not about the book itself, it’s about trying to make sure I can reproduce what I see in my head in an editor’s head.

Step 5: The real work (and fun) begins

Once my initial ideas are shared with an editor, the project gets real. An editor will supercharge things by adding their years of expert experience in to the mix. When you’ve got a great publisher behind you, like I did with this book, it really does feel like you can’t fail. The team get together and discuss your ideas. Good ideas breed great ones and so often what happens (in the best case) is that a publisher comes back to you brimming with different things you can add, subtract or alter in the original idea. These ideas often make the narrative stronger, the pictures more appealing and overall, they make a much more beautiful picture book than would be possible if a person worked on their own.
A few redos of some artwork is all part of making the best picture book possible for everyone.

This was the question I was forced to asked myself 12 months ago when I was first approached by one of Australia’s biggest publishers offering a 3-book deal. I had never illustrated commercially before and had honestly never imagined I would. When it came to negotiating contracts, I thought I had it nailed. I spent almost 15 years in big design agencies and much of that time was going over complicated corporate contracts. I was pretty confident that I could take this journey in to publishing alone, after all, how different would it be? Well, the answer is that it’s actually incredibly different. I definitely under-estimated it. It was a very hard and stressful time for me and so I wanted to document what I discovered in my journey in the hope that it might be help to others.

Even if you read no further, my short answer is ‘yes’, having a literary agent is one of the best things I’ve ever done for my career. My agent is like my best friend and ally in the world of publishing. She helps guide me through every negotiation and interaction I have with the people that make picture books happen.

A quick note about agent fees

If you’re concerned about their fees? Don’t be. Every illustrator I’ve spoken to has said their agent is worth their weight in gold. I know mine certainly is. Here are my reasons why getting a literary agent is the best thing I’ve done for my career.

Publishing books is complicated if you’ve never done it before

When I was trying to decide whether I should get an agent or go it alone, I called many agents and emailed some. Every agent I called was happy to chat. The ones I emailed didn’t even respond. Lesson 1, make phone calls, don’t send emails. Many of them were more than happy to speak to an author/illustrator with a 3-book deal already on the table so I avoided the hurdle of trying to convince one to represent me, an unpublished illustrator. I know how lucky I am to have been in this situation and I will never ever take that for granted.

Each conversation I had with an agent (I called 5 in the end), showed me that I was out of my depth in trying to do this without one. The language that the industry uses is very specific and for someone new to it, very intimidating. Negotiating things like rights and deadlines on your own is a tough gig, even if you’ve done it before in another context. I think I could’ve bumbled my way through it competently enough but there’s nothing like the confidence you get when you have someone whose been doing it for 30 years in your corner. No matter how much corporate contract negotiation experience you’ve got (I had 15 years) – publishing seems very very different and the stress that an agent alleviates is well worth it.

Focus on illustration, let someone else handle the paperwork

After each call with an agent my feeling that I needed one grew exponentially. Most agents will tell you right of the bat that you’re crazy to try and go it alone. My cynical self though, “Of course they would, right?” Speaking with a few agents meant I was able to hear different takes on my situation from each one. Many agents also made similar points too. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly wasn’t fishing for free advice. I was armed with an amazing list of questions that was available to me through my SCBWI membership and because of this I had very natural conversations with many very lovely people who answered the questions that were most important to me.

Let’s face it, in publishing there’s a lot of paperwork. My agent handles all of this for me so I can focus on what I enjoy most, making picture books.

Learn how the industry works as quickly as possible

I didn’t know what I didn’t know when it came to publishing. Interviewing agents for about 15-30 mins each made me feel like I’d gone and done a crash course in publishing, and it was only the tip of the iceberg. Had I chose to go it alone, it would’ve taken me years to understand the publishing industry. Now, a year on, I’m already very acutely aware of who knows who the value that comes with the ‘relationship development’ that an agent assists with because, after all, an experienced one has some very good connections.

So finally

In my short experience, having a literary agent is probably one the best things you can do for your career. My agent takes a huge amount of stress out of the contract negotiation process. She deals with my paperwork, deadlines and communicating to publishers so that I can focus on the work that I enjoy. She’s a wonderfully supportive person and whilst I know not all agents are created equal, I can’t imagine a career without one.

If you’re looking to understand what a literary agent is and how to get one? Then I’d recommend starting here first.