A couple months ago, I attended WriteOnCon, an affordable online conference for writers. I think it was my second or third time attending this yearly conference. Anyway, at the end of a how-was-it-survey, I was asked if I wanted to put my name in for a few raffles. I said, okay. There were a lot of things offered (i.e chat with an agent, first 5-page critique from professional editor, etc.) I wasn't expecting to win anything, but I did! I won a phone call with children's author Kelly Starling Lyons.
Talking with Kelly I admit that I was bit nervous to talk to Kelly because, as many of you know, middle grade (MG) is my thing, not Picture Books (PB). She's done a bit of chapter books, and I have this one idea for a chapter book series (possibly), so I thought we could chat about that. But as I approached the week before our scheduled phone call and I started drafting questions to ask her, I found that I really am interested in writing picture books! I sent my questions to her beforehand, and while we talked, I took notes. Before I jump into what I learned, I just want to say how easy it was to talk to Kelly! She was interested in me, how I'm doing in my writing journey, and congratulated me for completing my first draft of my MG book. What's it like working with an illustrator? I've always been curious about this, so I asked Kelly. First of all, I learned that the publisher usually picks your illustrator. They decide who would be the best fit, based on the manuscript you've given them. I don't know--- I always imagined the illustrator and writer submitting a manuscript together or something, but they're separate. The illustrator, employed by the publishing house, will illustrate, according to the words that the writer has written. Sometimes, after you've published a few picture books, the publisher (or agent) may ask you if you have an illustrator in mind, but even in those cases, you rarely get to choose who you want to illustrate your book. To me, it almost sounds like a blind date! Except, you don't actually work directly with the artist. Kelly explained that artists and authors are kept separate because they don't want the author to take control over the vision of the art. Basically, the writer works with an editor, and the illustrator works with an art director, and then the final product slowly takes shape. When it comes to historical fiction, though, Kelly says she usually gets to see more of the art work as they draft. What's the process for writing picture books? Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? In case of picture books, the pictures or the words? Kelly says the words. You write out your MS, just as you do with any other book. The main difference is that you write with illustrations in mind. Oftentimes, you'll see picture book manuscripts submitted with storyboards: simple stick pictures to show what might be happening with the words you've written on the page. A lot of agents accept manuscripts digitally now, but Kelly said when she started out, she had to send in her submissions by mail and often got rejections back by mail, too. Now it's all done by email. Are picture books easy to write?
Kelly I spent a while talking about this because I've heard on social media (etc), that picture books are not easy! Kelly says that we sometimes go into writing picture books with the idea that it will be easy. Maybe it's because it's for a younger audience and, therefore, it must simpler. So, writers draft a picture book, don't put (maybe) too much thought into it, don't do their research into the market, don't have mentor texts from the current market (etc). They submit and are suddenly so surprised that they got rejected! Wow, it's harder than they thought. In reality, those who understand the craft of writing picture books stand a better chance of getting picked up. That's true anywhere in the publishing world (I've learned). Of course, there will still be rejections. That happens to us all! But Kelly says, "Good stories find homes." What a great mantra, right?! As far as the craft of writing picture books goes, Kelly says it's pretty similar to writing poetry! We work with imagery, simile, and word choice. I mean, poetry applies to all types of art form, but I can see how it's especially applicable to picture books. This was good news to me because that's where I "restarted" my creative writing journey. I took poetry classes at the community college I loved it! It's really challenging, of course, but fun, too. So picture this: me writing picture books. Why not?
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