Clare and Nina began the afternoon by conducting a limited number of manuscript/portfolio critiques and this was followed by lunch and a fascinating afternoon of insights and anecdotes into the art of creating beautiful picture books. You can read feedback below about these sessions.
Clare began by saying what she is looking for when she reads a PB text: she wants to know how it sounds and listens for the rhythm of the piece. She pointed out that the difference for her between a short story and a picture book text is the musicality of the words and making sure that every single word has meaning, importance and has a job to do.
She cautioned that it is hard to be published, to stay published and to keep your books in print….BUT….not to give up, because the journey is the reward. She also mentioned authors were competing with books by celebrities, which can make it hard, because the celebrity has the social standing to help promote that book over regular bods.
Here are a few other major points Clare spoke about when creating a picture book:
· Your story has to be from the heart
· Make it child centric
· Kids enjoy humour and don’t want a lecture
· Readers want something that moves them
· It has to communicate to kids' passions and what has meaning for them
· Less is more: pare the story back to its utter heart. Write it all first, then cut it back.
· The text that is pitched, often changes in the editing, storyboard and design phase, so that it can be markedly different from the initial idea.
· Once the book is signed, the author is rarely involved in the process, but are sent illos more as a courtesy.
· Trends: Humour and animals. In fact, often characters are changed from humans to animals because it is more inclusive, whereas a human is very prescriptive to issues of race and gender, for example.
· Make sure your story is finely honed before it is submitted
She spoke about the difficulty of getting a PB approved. She is a very visual person but not everyone else in her team are. When she loves a text she then has to take it an acquisition meeting, which includes many departments including Sales, all of whom have to love that text if they are going to successfully back it. Even though she will champion a book, she said the success rate of getting the books through an acquisition meeting is 2/10.
Yes! Only 2/10 books Clare presents to the acquisition meeting is signed up.
Nina Rycroft
Nina has had 13 PBs published worldwide, but she had 50 rejections before she was invited to have her first chat about a book.
Her first PB was Little Platypus. It came about when she was in Rome and feeling very homesick. She was collecting PBs, drawing and was regularly sending work to publishers, mostly to make them aware of her presence. She sent lots of finished work but also some smaller less finished pieces, and it was one of these of a platypus the publisher really liked.