Childrens Picture Book Self Publishing

Getting a childrens picture book published through the traditional route of a publisher has about as much chance of success as a three-legged donkey at the Grand National. 

After looking at several childrens picture book in verse, I thought to myself…I could do that and maybe better.  I set to and wrote a simple story in verse – here’s the synopsis:

The hero wakes town up every morning with his trumpet. Annoys the hell out of the townsfolk with the awful racket and gets himself sacked.  Fire breathing dragon pays town a visit intending to burn it down.  Hero defeats the dragon and gets his job back.

Simple enough and took a couple of days to complete the Verses.  That was the easy bit.  The next part was a little bit trickier. I had to make a decision.  Should I farm out the artwork for the illustrations or (as I am a cartoonist) do them myself?

Farming out pros:

• I don’t have to do it
• I use the time to write I would have spent drawing

Farming out Cons’:

• I have to pay for the illustrations
• It’s somebody else’s work (not mine)
• I would probably always think I could have done it better (I am so modest!)
• I would hate myself forever

It was a bit of a no brainer so I decided to do the illustrations myself…mainly because my wallet told me to.

The first thing to do was to work out the number of pages.  I am a lazy sod so I looked at the very best – The Gruffalo and used the same number of pages.  Then I roughed it out and got the pen and paints out.

Next was to decide on a consistent style and medium. I settled for black ink outlining and watercolour pencil used part with water and part dry to enhance colour and shading.

Here is a time-lapse of a draft illustration for the following verse

There was only one way to keep it away

and Belvedere rushed up the tower

The weapon he chose was a long fire hose

To give that darned beast a good shower

I also had to do some smaller groups of illustrations.  Here is one for the following verse

On his very first note, he stunned a wild goat

As the town awoke from its dreams

Dogs set a howling, grannies a scowling

And purple-faced babes full of screams

 

So far I am really please with the results and will constantly update this post as I progress – so keep coming back to see how I get on.