Need an artist for a kids novel! Excellent chance of being published!

Parallax

Hey everyone! I appreciate you taking the time to check this out. Don’t let my post count fool you, I’ve been around the CGS forums since the first one, like 5 crashes ago. I even guested on their Blackest Night #4 special episode.

Here’s the deal: My friend and I have written a kids book, or more appropriately, a Young Novel. We have been unsuccessful in procuring an agent thus far, however we have found ourselves in the very fortunate position recently. A person within one of the largest children’s book publishers in the world is very interested to read our book!

HOWEVER, they want to see illustrations for the book along WITH it in order to read it. Now we were planning to eventually get art for the top of each of our chapters but we thought that would come later--once we’d gotten an agent and all that. But since we do not have one yet, it’s on us to find an artist—and fast!

And so we have come here, to a forum that I have been loyal to for many, many years now. I know there are talented folks that cruise these forums that just might be looking for stuff to draw.

Some basic information about the project: it is a kids book with a cast made almost entirely of children. There will be about 40 chapter-leading illustrations required for the book, PLUS a front and back cover. If we like how each other does their thing, then we will of course provide you the book in order to complete the vision of the world and to assist with your illustration composition ideas.

So if you ARE interested, please let me know here and I’ll either post the necessary details for two sample drawings or I’ll private message them to you directly. If you have any samples of your own art you’d like to post here or message to me that you think might be good for a kids book (even without knowing the details), please feel free to do so!

Thanks very much for reading this and I hope to hear from as many of you as possible that are interested!

[Deleted User]

Hmmm... no mention of money...

And a friendly warning: I have NEVER heard of a publisher or agent who would not read a manuscript if it was not accompanied by illustrations. As a matter of fact, most publisher DO NOT WANT illustrated material, as they prefer to match up writers with artists themselves, even for children's books and picture books.

They are also reticent to look at a manuscript with illustrations because it opens the publisher up to accusations of copyright infringement if they eventually do hire a different artist. And for the author to be able to pick the cover artist is almost unheard of, unless you are already a recognizable talent.

Beware that these people may be looking for a ready to print book they can run off with.

Parallax

Yes, that's correct. I have not gotten paid for writing it yet, either. That's why I'm looking for someone HERE instead of going through usual "seeking professional artist" channels. This would be my first book published so if there's an artist that would like that as well, then that's great! And I'm assuming if we get published, we get paid SOMETHING, even if not much...which the artist would clearly be a part of.

If there is perhaps a less money-centric artist (no offense--everyone's gotta make rent) out there that is just getting going or maybe just looking for a non-school assignment to keep their chops sharp, then perhaps two sample pieces of art that could possibly lead to published work might not be such a waste of time, you know? And even if nothing comes of it, it was still a fun (hopefully) exercise that could still yield possible portfolio pieces, no?

Anyway, as for worrying about them stealing it, it's a friends of family friends situation so that will not happen. Plus it's copywritten.

John_Steed

What about crowdsourcing your book to "secure" future readership ?

Chuck_Melville

Parallax said:

If there is perhaps a less money-centric artist (no offense--everyone's gotta make rent)

So does the artist. And book illustrating, even just a very few pictures, is still as intensive and time-consuming as writing the book is. Doing illustrations for 'portfolio' only is essentially a way of getting work done for free -- it's more advantageous, really, for the person offering the deal than it is for the artist. It's not totally invalid, but at the same time the fact that you're asking for this arrangement tells us that you're less interested in getting good art for the money than you are in spending no money at all, and that doesn't say well for your project.

I would advise anyone interested to at least look into getting a contract before making any deal.

Chuck_Melville

Forty chapter illustrations plus front and back covers!?

I write and illustrate my own books, and I can tell you what a chore that can be!!

amazon.com/The-Vixen-Sorceress-Chas-Melville/dp/1440472831/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364048533&sr=8-1&keywords=vixen+sorceress

There is no way I or any sensible artist would (or should) take on that size of a job without a respectable commission! Or a contract!

Parallax

Chuck_Melville said:

There is no way I or any sensible artist would (or should) take on that size of a job without a respectable commission! Or a contract!

It's my first attempt at a book. I appreciate your points but perhaps you could be less of an ass about it. I'm learning as I go and I thought it might be cool to turn to the forum I've been a part of for years to see if any artists would want to try. Clearly I was wrong and clearly my assumption that people might be polite about it was wrong as well.

It's a shame since I usually enjoy the forum so much but man I was hoping if there were negative responses they wouldn't imply that I'm somehow an idiot. Wrong there, too.

Thanks for checking the thread, people. I'm all set now. I've now got 3 separate books being looked at for publishing so it's a shame nobody from the CGS boards will be a part of them, but again, I understand.

Thanks anyway.

John_Steed

@Parallax : sorry that you judge us all by the comments of two. I'm a bit hurt by that.
Good luck with your projects.

Bye bye :(

Chuck_Melville

And I apologize if my comments came off as sharp and hurtful -- that wasn't my intent. But I honestly felt that you were asking too much for too little, especially by dangling the offer of 'hey, at least you'll be seeing your work in print' to any young body aching to 'break into the business'. I've seen this kind of thing before, and it's really not a good return for the artist's investment of time and energy. Forty illustrations -- and both covers -- take a considerable amount of time for any artist to put together, considering he has to thumbnail them, rough them, do any number of comprehensive idea sketches, and lay them out before doing the actual production. And that's time that he can't be working on any other projects, including those that might actually pay money. A promise that he might get paid later if the book makes money is not a very encouraging note; taking the artist in as a full partner on the project might have at least made the effort more worth his time, though I would still encourage him to get it all in writing first, whatever he chose to do.

[Deleted User]

Parallax said:

Chuck_Melville said:

There is no way I or any sensible artist would (or should) take on that size of a job without a respectable commission! Or a contract!

It's my first attempt at a book. I appreciate your points but perhaps you could be less of an ass about it. I'm learning as I go and I thought it might be cool to turn to the forum I've been a part of for years to see if any artists would want to try. Clearly I was wrong and clearly my assumption that people might be polite about it was wrong as well.

It's a shame since I usually enjoy the forum so much but man I was hoping if there were negative responses they wouldn't imply that I'm somehow an idiot. Wrong there, too.

Thanks for checking the thread, people. I'm all set now. I've now got 3 separate books being looked at for publishing so it's a shame nobody from the CGS boards will be a part of them, but again, I understand.

Thanks anyway.

Sorry you took Chuck and others' comments badly, but you must understand that few people of professional calibre are going to embark on such a job for nothing, and no guarantees.

Work performed by talented people is worth something.

Hey, I've got an idea. I have a cover and 40 illustrations, and all I need is a book written around them and my publisher will be willing to look at it. Unfortunately I can't pay anything, but you might get published.

See how that sounds?

Parallax

If it's chapter-heading illustrations, not full-page deals (a la Harry Potter) it would NOT be as labor-intensive as you might be thinking.

Tonebone: If I was someone who hadn't had anything published yet, I would DEFINITELY consider taking on such a project if I had the available time. Not too many people get paid for their first attempt at something (see my 6 short films, one of which won in the Phoenix Film Festival Short Competition that year), and if they do, it's not much. I would consider it (FOR MYSELF) an internship equivalent. And I did indicate that if we DID get paid, it would be split.

John_Steed: That's fair. But I did only have the two responses to go off of. And I'm not leaving the forums, just kinda giving up on this since the reaction is NOT what I expected/hoped for.

And in addition, I never said I needed an ACCOMPLISHED, PUBLISHED, ETC. artist. I just said ARTIST! It could be someone JUST STARTING OUT sketching that wants to try. And I wasn't asking for 40 illustrations up front with no guarantee. If someone had INQUIRED about it rather than pooping on it, then they might have found out I'd ask for 1, maybe 2 examples of art to see if the style fits and if it does, we can go from there. There IS A CHANCE the writing is good and an artist might WANT to work on it because they believe in the material. But they wouldn't KNOW that without inquiring, would they?

[Deleted User]

You say you're "learning as you go". That's fine. But respect the opinions of those who have already learned as they went.

If you want to post an opportunity and simply receive replies of those interested, try one of the thousands of sites where you can post for artists specifically. This is a forum. You are absolutely welcome, but we discuss things. My dad used to say if you don't want to know every ailment of an old person, don't ask how they're doing.

And as for a few of us spoiling this for you, I'm sorry you feel that way. As an artist, my knee-jerk reaction is to protect fellow artists from heartache and headaches. Not trying to dissuade, just inform. Again, that's based on what I have learned in my professional and personal experiences as an artist, over 25 years worth, which I feel may be useful to others.

Chuck_Melville

Amen.