2021 Picture Book Writing Challenge

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My picture book critique group has been meeting monthly for 3 years now, and I feel so blessed to have these ladies in my life. After a rough 2020, we decided we wanted to kick it up a notch in 2021 with a new challenge. 

For VCFA grad school last year, I was able to participate in a semester-long picture book intensive. Each month we were required to write a picture book in a new genre. I found it super challenging and rewarding at the same time. I tried nonfiction, a grief story, a frame story, and more. I wrote stories with structures I didn’t even know existed. Were they all great? Of course not. But I learned so much and had so much fun at the same time. 

I shared this with my critique group, and we decided that each month in 2021, one of us will teach the others about a different genre of picture book. Following that meeting, we will use the next month to write a picture book in that genre.

Then I thought, maybe other people would like this challenge as well, and the 2021 Picture Book Writing Challenge was born. If you’ve always been curious about picture books but have never tried writing one, come join us! Or, if you’re a seasoned picture book writer, maybe this will spark some new ideas for you!

How it Works:

Register by commenting on this blog post. On the first day of the month, I’ll share a blog post with information about that month’s genre of picture book and will provide examples. I will also do my best each month to share a guest post from an author who writes that type of picture book. Challenge yourself by writing a complete picture book manuscript in that genre! It doesn’t have to be perfect! No one else has to see it! Have fun with it! (This is a personal challenge for yourself, and no critiquing or sharing manuscripts is involved.)

Outcome:

By the end of the year, you’ll have 10 new picture book manuscripts! And hopefully you will have been pushed out of your comfort zone, tried something new, and had fun doing it. And if we’re really lucky, there will be prizes!

The list:

January: Fractured Fairy Tales

February: Biographies

March: Poetry Collections

April: Novelty Books

May: Lyrical Stories

June: Circle Stories

July: Break! (We all need time off, right?)

August: Metafiction

September: Narrative Nonfiction

October: Grief

November: Humor

December: Break! (Who has time to write in December?)

 

I hope you join us! Happy writing!

KDP vs Ingram Spark

Amazon’s KDP and Ingram’s Ingram Spark are currently the two biggest companies for self-publishing books. I use both. Here’s my take on the advantages/disadvantages of each:

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KDP – Advantages

  • bar graph daily record of how many books are shipped 

  •  easy set up 

  • free (!) set up 

  • gives the option to pay to advertise your book on amazon

  • You make more money per book

KDP - Disadvantages

  •  can’t sell your books to bookstores, because bookstores hate Amazon

 

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Ingram Spark – Advantages

  • can sell to bookstores

Ingram Spark – Disadvantages

  • costs $50

  •  set up is more demanding

  • Ingram and the bookstores take a cut, so you make less money

If you don’t care about selling to bookstores, I’d suggest selling on Amazon because you make more money and it’s easier to reach an audience on Amazon than it is to connect with bookstores. If you do want to sell in bookstores, I recommend publishing through both companies.



Should I Self-Publish?

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I get a lot of questions about how self-publishing works, so I thought I’d try to answer some of those questions here. First of all, traditional publishing means you sell your manuscript to a publisher and they handle all the copyediting, cover design, placement in bookstores, etc. Self-publishing means you do all those things yourself. Once an author is well-known, traditional publishers will also help with marketing, but when it comes to newbies, marketing pretty much falls on the author, no matter how you publish.

Self-publishing, or independent publishing, is all print-on-demand now. That means you upload your files, and the printing company you are using prints the book only after receiving orders for it. This makes self-publishing much easier than it used to be. You no longer have to buy massive quantities of books, store them in your attic, and ship them out one-by-one.

Self-publishing requires a lot of work and an investment if you want to do it well. I pay a graphic designer to help me design and format my books. I pay an editor to copyedit my manuscripts. I pay two other people to help me with creating content and social media. While it can be exhausting at times, I have learned so much about the publishing business by doing this and have learned how to market my own books, so I am grateful for the hard-earned knowledge.

The two most popular self-publishing companies are Kindle Direct Publishing through Amazon and Ingram Spark through Ingram, and each company has its positives and negatives. 

It is easier to publish on KDP, and you will make more money per book. Ingram Spark is a middle man – they get a cut, the bookstore gets a cut, you get a cut, and then there is the printing cost. So if your book sells for $10, and the printing costs are $3, then the bookstore gets $4.50, Ingram Spark gets $1.50, and you get $1. On Amazon, for the same $10 book, the printing costs are $3, Amazon gets $4, and you get $3. (These numbers are made up. Printing costs will vary depending on the size of your book, whether it’s in color or black and white, and how many pages it is.)

KDP is also nice because you can see daily reports of how many books are shipped. This allows you to track your marketing efforts to see if what you are doing is paying off. If your marketing is working, you will see a spike in sales.

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However, as a self-published author, it is extremely difficult to get into bookstores. If your ultimate goal is to sell in stores, then Ingram is your company. Ingram is the biggest book distributor in the US and what most bookstores use to purchase books. If you want bookstores to be able to buy your book, it needs to be available on Ingram. 

But how do you get it noticed by booksellers? While you can pay to have your book included in the Ingram catalogue, it is huge and filled with thousands of books. The best way to garner the attention of booksellers is to host events at bookstores so they buy your book. But obviously it’s impossible to visit every bookstore in the country. This is the biggest disadvantage to self-publishing. When you publish traditionally, you have a much higher chance of bookstores and libraries buying your book.

So what’s the takeaway? My advice is only to self-publish if you are positive you can sell your book. Self-publishing takes a lot of time and money. If you’re hoping to publish a book for fun or for your family to read, then by all means, go for it! But if you want to publish for the general population and actually sell your book, take these thoughts into consideration. And whatever you choose, I wish you the best of luck and success!

Interview with Hervé Tullet

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Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Well, my most recent book is called I Have an Idea. I’d say this pretty much sums up what I’ve been thinking about for a long time now—the power of an idea and how an idea can change your life. 

I know you've had a long career as an artist. What made you switch gears to writing and illustrating children's books?

It happened by chance, actually. I worked in advertising for more than ten years, but it didn’t feel like the right place to grow old. So I began working in various aspects of illustration. Of all my projects, children’s books were the most interesting—I love melding ideas and entertaining various possibilities to express those ideas. Not only that, but I realized that as an author I could have an impact in children’s lives, especially those weighed down with difficulties. That element of writing/illustration is what ultimately changed my life.

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How did you first come up with the concept for Press Here? Was it immediately well-received or did it take time to find the right publisher?

An important part of the process of creation is finding the right publishing partner. I’ve worked with several publishers, and I’ve always tried to be faithful to those publishers. In so doing, I seek to create an environment of comfort and trust in which we can both freely share ideas, think out loud, push an idea, or merely simplify text in order to propel the reader from beginning to end. 

In short, I take my time to search for a publisher that will trust me and stick with me and my vision for communicating with children in new ways. With such things in place, Press Here came naturally. 

That being said, the huge success of the book was totally unexpected! 

Can you explain your process for creating books? Do you come up with the text first and then the illustrations? Or the illustrations first? Or a combination?

First, I wait for an idea to trigger something in me that propels me to move forward on it.  Keep in mind, sometimes these ideas work, and sometimes they don’t, and that’s okay. When they don’t, I wait again (in my studio, in a plane, on a train, in the street, in a museum-- really, just about anywhere!) for another spark of inspiration that I can jot down in my notebook. 

Once the inspiration is there, I focus that energy into building the books. At first, I don’t think about page numbers or the illustration details-—I just try to ride the wave of the initial emotion. While I craft my workshops with the precision of a conductor. when I create, I’m more like a jazz musician, improvising and riding the emotion the best I can. 

What has been the most satisfying thing about your career?

Looking back and watching the progression of where I started to where I am now: participating in installations, partnerships with museums, and the Ideal Exhibition. 

Interestingly enough, despite their diversity, all of these experiences seem to stem from my first book. In fact, sometimes I think that I could explain all my work with my very first book. 

What is the most important habit you have developed for continuing to create books?

Perhaps my only habit is that after a project is complete, I attempt to get rid of everything quickly (the paperwork, drawings, email , and so on). This allows me to get bored, to free up that space inside me that will allow me to act on the unexpected.

You are working on a project called the “Ideal Exhibition.” Can you tell us about it? 

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I’ve included links to videos which visually explain the Ideal Exhibition better than I can verbally describe it. The Exhibition is based on the idea that you can create it yourself, with or without me, thanks to the help of short videos. In order to access the videos, all you need to do is apply (it’s free!), and you’ll receive a code to view them. The entire project is free, with donations used to enrich the project in various ways. For example, donations help pay for dubbing the videos into various languages (English is on its way!) or helping schools without the means to purchase the materials needed.

The experience itself can take place in both large and small venues (from museums to schools to a bedroom). We’ve got participants all over the world—teachers, librarians, art schools, museums, and even retirement homes are getting involved! The best part of the Ideal Exhibition is that there are very few parameters or restraints—get started on it when you feel ready and finish when you decide you’re done. It’s organic and exciting. We even have an Ideal Exhibition planned at a museum where the visitors will create the exhibitions, rather than me! (I may try to drop in at the opening, though!) 

We’d love to have you get involved!

www.lexpoideale.com

www.facebook.com/lexpoideale/

www.instagram.com/expo_ideale_herve_tullet/

www.pinterest.ca/expo_ideale_herve_tullet/

https://vimeo.com/expoideale

Where can we find you online? 

http://www.herve-tullet.com

Thanks for visiting us, Hervé!