I am so impressed that you keep a record of every picture book you've read!
And I totally agree about the need to trust yourself and listen to your instincts. Feedback is important, but so is your gut. There have been times when I've followed advice to the letter and have been left with a story that has no soul.
It’s partly because I have a terrible memory for what I have and haven’t read. But I still find it helpful to this day. It gets my brain going, I think, and often a new idea will come to me.
And yes - SO important. I’ve got much better at that as my career’s gone on - there’s the odd book of mine that’s effectively ended up being written by committee, and they’re the worse for it. But at the start of your career you really don’t want to be seen as difficult to work with, do you? 😂
Love that you type out every picture book you read … that’s an interesting way to study and explore them and one I’ve never tried ! But might have to !
Thanks for this post it’s great information and nice to know even very successful authors also send awfully embarrassing work to agents (I feel like I am in this stage right now 😂🥲)
I am so impressed that you keep a record of every picture book you've read!
And I totally agree about the need to trust yourself and listen to your instincts. Feedback is important, but so is your gut. There have been times when I've followed advice to the letter and have been left with a story that has no soul.
It’s partly because I have a terrible memory for what I have and haven’t read. But I still find it helpful to this day. It gets my brain going, I think, and often a new idea will come to me.
And yes - SO important. I’ve got much better at that as my career’s gone on - there’s the odd book of mine that’s effectively ended up being written by committee, and they’re the worse for it. But at the start of your career you really don’t want to be seen as difficult to work with, do you? 😂
Yeah it's a tricky balance to strike I think, especially at the start.
Love that you type out every picture book you read … that’s an interesting way to study and explore them and one I’ve never tried ! But might have to !
Thanks for this post it’s great information and nice to know even very successful authors also send awfully embarrassing work to agents (I feel like I am in this stage right now 😂🥲)
It’s time-consuming, but helpful, I find.
Thanks, Victoria. You’ll be able to see just how embarrassing in the next post 😂 It’s all part of the learning process though, I guess!
Best of luck with your queries! 🤞