Recap - September 2023
Deadline, a new project and a garden party
I don’t know about you but I felt September passed by like a tsunami. The Indian summer at the beginning of the month feels like a distant memory…
Probably you already know but the UK children’s book publishers’ calendar is marked by three major book fairs in Europe - the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and the London Book Fair in March/April and the Frankfurt Book Fair in October. So I always work towards two deadlines each year - by Christmas (for Bologna) and by August (for Frankfurt). But no matter how hard I try, life always happens and I rarely meet these deadlines 😅 Early this year I had a cancer scare. It wasn’t a cancer after all so all good, but it slowed me down and I finished my new authored book, Pearl and Her Bunch (out in next May from Hachette Children’s), in the nick of time for the BCBF in March.
After Pearl, I worked on another two books that are going to this year’s Frankfurt. While I was working on the first book in spring, my hard drive died and I lost some of the artwork 😱 Everything dominoed from there. I was meant to finish the second book last month but I finally finished it two weeks ago. Picture book making is a marathon but the last part of making the book was certainly a sprint. I’m sure I need to do some tweaking after the fair, but the most important thing is that the publisher got something to make a blad* with. I don’t envy my art director. She must be working around the clock right now to get everything ready for the fair 😅
*A booklet containing a set of sample pages or chapters or all pages from a book that is not yet published. Used for promotion, blads are often put together for those in sales and rights teams to show to potential customers.
I tend to illustrate stories set in domestic, relatively confined spaces (e.g. supermarket, kitchen etc). It’s mostly because I don’t like backgrounds, especially sceneries. If publishers let me, I would happily use only white or block colour background (like Max the Brave by Ed Vere). The book I just finished was set in the autumnal countryside and I had to draw fields, woods, trees and leaves A LOT. It was daunting at first but it was quite satisfying when I finished the double-page spreads with panoramic view of the woods. I’m happy how it turned out at the end and I feel like I have grown a bit as an illustrator. But I don’t think I want to draw trees and leaves for a while. It’s no coincident my next book is set in a completely different world.
The next book I’m working on now is my fourth authored book (wheeee!). I started writing the story in June and, after four months of back-and-forth with my editors, I eventually got to the final draft last week! I can’t tell you much about it at this point (I’m not trying to be mysterious, I swear!), but unlike my first two books (Avocado Asks and When the Sun Goes Home), the idea didn’t come easily to me. It was a winding road and writing this book was tougher than the last one (Pearl) but I’m happy with what we came up with the final draft. I can tell you the story is very “sweet”. If everything goes as scheduled, I think this book will go to the BCBF 24 and will be published sometime in 2025. Hopefully I can share more about this book in near future.
Yeah, you heard it right. The BCBF 24, which means the deadline for the final artwork is this Christmas… Ahem…it’s unlikely that I can make it but I’ll do my best. Actually, I’ve already done the first thumbnail storyboard.
Q: Do you decide the story page by page first and then draw the [storyboard]?
I was asked this question recently. I’m sure every author-illustrator has a different approach but I don’t usually think of page breaks when I write the first draft even though I know it’s going to be 32 pages (= standard picture books). It’s said that story-based or fiction picture books have between 500 to 1000 words. I usually aim for under 600 words, if not 500. Over 600 words feels too long but it’s just my personal preference. Once the draft is in more or less final shape, I divide the text into either 12 or 14 spreads and start working on the storyboard. For example the autumnal book I just finished is self-ended (12 story spreads) and the book I just wrote will be with coloured ends (14 story spreads).
Self-Ended vs Coloured Ends Picture Book Layouts
In 2020, I worked on a non-fiction book by Molly Oldfield called Everything Under the Sun (Ladybird Books), as one of 12 illustrators. This was my first non-fiction job and it was fun. And the paperback edition came out in a smaller format this month! The book is made up of 366 questions (a question for every day of the year) asked by children around the world and answers from experts in the science, art, food etc. Fascinating facts are accompanied by gorgeous illustrations (including mine 😉). This would make the perfect gift for Christmas for curious minds (hint, hint).
The highlight of the month was the Annual Authors & Illustrators Roof Garden Party at Hachette HQ. I published my first book with the publisher in 2020, but, because of the pandemic, I didn’t get invited to their party until last year. I was so nervous because I didn’t know many people at the party back then. I only knew my editors and art director. Fast-forward a year, I found myself in the same canteen space next to the famous roof garden surrounded by some familiar faces of friends and acquittances I had made past 12 months. What a difference a year makes! That’s how friendly the children’s book industry is. By the way, the most fascinating conversation I had at the party was the one with people from the rights team. Did you know that Scandinavian countries are the toughest place to sell co-ed rights?
Finally, I’d like to wrap up this post with a book I bought this month. It’s an epic poetry collection curated by Lou Peacock - A Whale of a Time (Nosy Crow). The book is quite hefty but understandably so. It contains 366 poems (similar concept to Everything…) to make you smile, giggle and LOL and every page is illustrated by brilliant Matt Hunt (I’m a big fan and his The Cat and the Rat and the Hat is my favourite). His graphic and playful illustrations work perfectly with the funny poems. Here is my favourite poem from the book.
CAT’S NOTE
by John AgardHow often can you take a poem
And stroke it in your lap?
That’s all for this month. Something exciting is coming up for me next month. Looking forward to share it with you!
Momo x
Any comments and question will be welcome!
And much appreciated if you could spread the word!
Can’t wait to meet Pearl! What an interesting post - I never knew Scandinavian coeditions are the hardest!