If you’re a cartoonist, you have probably thought about illustrating a children’s book. I took 2 kids book classes in art school that I loved. A decent writer/cartoonist can create a kids book, it’s just getting a publisher to pick you up that’s the pain. That, or knowing you will have a long, rocky & expensive road of self-promoting, while trying to draw/write NEW books for your series. It’s tricky.
Well, about 3 years ago, my mom approached me with a script from a coworker of hers who wrote some stories, but needed an artist. I figured, what the heck. The story was cute, it had a moral, and was relevant to little girls today, plus she had a good 3 or 4 other ideas for future books. The writer & I tooled away with character designs and over a couple months, I hammered out the first book, “Abby’s Adventures: Picture Dayâ€. Abby loses her tooth the morning of her school picture day, and innocent cute hilarity ensues as she tries to find ways to hid her gaping hole in her smile (including sticking a mini marshmallow in there, lol). We were both very happy with the final piece and packaged it up for publishers, optimistic and probably naively so.
Then reality sunk in. Big publishers do not want a “package dealâ€. Publishers want writers to send in their work, and illustrators send their samples, & then they get to play puppeteer and match ‘em all up. This of course leads to some writers not being very happy with how an illustrator depicted their characters, but at that point, the writer has no say. The old “You want it published or not?†deal. (My writer has friends in the business with this very issue- the majority of the books she’s not happy with). It’s very similar to some of the headaches that comes with being picked up by a syndicate. “You want to play in the big leagues, you gotta play by our rules– we know best, not youâ€.
Fast forward 2.5 years, and out of the blue, my writer stumbles on a small publisher who loves the book, the series. She has 2 girls, who adore Abby and want MORE! Just from 1 book! A flurry of reformatting the book, size adjustments, logo changes, and other revisions.. And POOF. It’s on amazon.com and listed with Barnes & Noble. And I have a pile of stories to illustrate, haunting my every spare moment. The thing with a series is, you cannot leave people wanting more for too long, or they lose interest. So, these next books in the series need to be cranked out ASAP. All I have to say is thank goodness for coffee, red bulls, and my flex-time work schedule. Oh, yeah, and my love for cartooning!
“Abby’s Adventures†is still in it’s baby phase. It could take off with the right promotions and advertising… And if I can friggin’ get these new books done quickly enough. We’re finding some promotional ideas will only work once we have a fanbase, and others are simply too expensive and time-consuming. It’s all about baby steps, and word-of-mouth at this point. But it’s a start, and there’s nothing more flattering than a rave review from a 5 year old who wishes Abby were her best friend!
And now for some sneak peeks at what I have been toiling over for months now…. (and why Z&F is only updating 2x a week):
Abby’s Adventures: Dance Recital (book 2)
Congrats! That pretty cool.
I learned a while back that publishers don’t like writers and illustrators to team up before hand. I think it’s dumb too.
Thanks Frank! It sucked when we found out about that whole “package deal” catch.. but then again, if we knew that from the start we never would have made the 1st book that eventually got picked up.
Wow! That looks awesome, Dawn. Your illustrations just make the concept come to life. Good luck with the children’s book series!
Oh, how I wish my daughter were younger. My nieces are even too old. But the books are BEAUTIFUL and I am thrilled for you and your writer friend. I will definitely nudge any friends with small girls to check out the fun new “Abby’s Adventures” series!
I’m still trying to get the first book for my 5 year old (I HAVE to before school starts – Picture Day)! I have to have a splurge week where I buy Greg Bulmash’s Pimp T-Shirt, TL’s Bullfinch comic, your book (the store items may have to wait), and that Rick Astley poster I’ve had my eye on for 18 years… ouch – that last one was more of a mental note… er, I mean, a joke.
Congratulations again!
This is seriously good stuff! Love your illustrations. I would love to see this take hold for you guys.
Color and illustrations not only look great but what you did with the fontwork is very cool.
dear dawn,
when we get the sugar ninjas website going, we should definitely have a link to order your abby’s adventures books. soooo cool. i’m definitely going to order a copy or two myself very soon.
hugs,
ana may
that would be awesome! You think the website will have profiles for each “ninja”, like a community site? I could place a button there, like I have in my sidebar.
a much belated thanks to everyone who read this tedious blog…. hope it was informative and/or interesting. Please let me know what your daughter/niece/cousin/etc thinks of the book, if you buy it!