FAQ Friday #6: What are the best bits and the hardest bits about creating children's books?
in which I suggest an easy solution to the problem of publishers ghosting authors
Oh dear. I’ve done it again: I’ve posted an FAQ Friday on a Saturday.
Apologies for the delay. I’d planned to write and post this yesterday afternoon – actually, I’d planned to write and schedule posting this long before yesterday – but life admin/parenting duties keep hurdling my Substack on the priority list (understandably).
Yesterday’s spanner in the works was a 5-hour trip to A & E for little one – all fine, I won’t go in to details, though it feels as though she’s not been well for the last six weeks – and much of the rest of my time at the moment is spent chasing inefficient, ineffective, and largely non-communicative (yet, at times, surprisingly sassy) conveyancers in an attempt to try to at least exchange on a house before Christmas. That’s looking increasingly unlikely, and I’ve given up all hope of completing before mid-January. Fun times!
Anyway, vent over, and on to today’s (well, yesterday’s) question…
What are the best bits and the hardest bits about creating children’s books?
After that slightly gloomy opening, let’s start with…
THE BEST BITS
Receiving the artwork
Undoubtedly one of my favourite things about creating picture books is a part of the process that I basically have nothing to do with, as it tends to come after my work on the story is done – and that’s seeing the book’s artwork for the first time. I’m sure that many picture book authors feel the same way I do.
It’s so exciting to see how my words and stories are brought to life in visual form, and so interesting to see an illustrator’s interpretation of them. I’ve been incredibly spoilt to work with the illustrators I have (13 and counting, I think), who are all immensely talented and always make my stories seem so much better and cleverer than they actually are!
I’m in awe of what the illustrators of my stories do. In my experience, publishers are excellent at sharing the artwork as it progresses; it’s a privilege to see it at each different stage, and how it develops – from character samples, to black-and-white roughs, to colour and final spreads – and intriguing to compare the finished book to its earlier versions.
I wish I had the talent, vision and skill that illustrators possess: receiving the artwork often makes me yearn to be able to create it myself – never because it’s awful, and I think I could do better, but because, well, WHAT A THING TO BE ABLE TO DO!
I’m also glad I don’t, though. Illustrating picture books is such a long process: I don’t have the patience for it, and the deadlines are TOUGH. I often find having to make revisions to a text painful (and annoying); I can only imagine what re-drawing entire spreads must feel like…
So it's a no from me.
The moment inspiration strikes
I’ve written about how difficult I find the challenge of coming up with new ideas, but when inspiration does suddenly strike, the feeling’s exhilarating – especially when it’s accompanied by the certainty that the idea is a great one. It’s almost addictive, and something I’m constantly chasing. I wish I had it more often!
The satisfaction of writing a brilliant sentence
If one is to have any chance of making a career as an author work, one has to enjoy the actual writing part of it. It’s really the only aspect that’s truly within an author’s control.
That’s not to say that authors always enjoy it: once writing becomes a job, and is no longer a hobby, it absolutely feels like a job, and every author has moments when they don’t want to write, and wonder why they bother.
But, generally, writers want to write. Not for the fame (haha!), nor the money (hahahaha!), but for the satisfaction that comes from the writing itself, and creating – from nowhere – something that previously didn’t exist.
(Sometimes, when I take a moment to step back and reflect on what I’m doing and have achieved, I find it bonkers to think that I’m able to earn a sort-of-living (-ish, most years) simply from writing down what’s in my head (especially as it’s often completely absurd!) And I feel most myself when I’m writing something that excites me and which I think other people will enjoy. Honestly, I’m not sure what I’d be if I wasn’t a writer: I can’t imagine another job at which I’d be better, or for which I’m better-suited.)
I love the problem-solving aspect of writing in rhyme (which I do a lot), and the challenge of trying to find the perfect order of perfect words. It’s a bit like trying to complete a jigsaw: the pieces have to fit perfectly for the thing to work.I can spend hour upon hour – days, sometimes – trying to find a combination of words that work, which is often very frustrating.
But the satisfaction that comes from finally nailing a line or verse after trying and failing to for ages is deep and rewarding. The text of the best rhyming picture books will flow beautifully, and be effortless to read – but only because the author put a great deal of work into ensuring that outcome. Rarely will the writing of them have been effortless.
Inspiring a love of books, reading and writing (hopefully!)
I also find satisfaction from the fact that I and my books might be leaving a tangible, positive mark on the world, albeit an infinitesimal one. That I might perhaps even be inspiring children to fall in love with books and reading (and possibly writing, too). That one of my books might set a child on a pathway of reading that has the power to change their life for the better, through all of the benefits that books, reading and writing have afforded me: pleasure, comfort, confidence, knowledge, an identity and sense of self, vital literacy skills, and opportunities for success and to access many other things.
I’m also looking forward to sharing my books with my daughter when she’s old enough to properly enjoy them. I’m considering not telling her I wrote them though, in order to get some truly honest and non-biased feedback…
THE HARDEST BITS
The constant rejection
Though a natural part of author life, contending with constant rejection is tough. It never really gets easier. I’ve already written about just how frequent rejection is, and how I handle it, so I won’t elaborate further.
Submission silences
Just yesterday, I featured on Naomi and James Jones’s brilliant Substack Words and Pictures (which you MUST check out if you haven’t) in their author interview series of the same name.
My answer to the question ‘Is there anything about the children’s industry that surprised you when you had your first book published?’ touched upon the issue of the lack of responses from publishers to the submissions they receive, which is without doubt one of the hardest – and most disappointing, depressing and maddening – bits about being an author. I wrote:
“I’m still surprised after 10+ years in the industry by the lack of responses to submissions – silences, I call them – from publishers. I’m aware that staff at publishers work extremely hard and are stretched very thinly, and are inundated with submissions.
They are also invariably lovely people.
Nevertheless, I think a sort of template rejection (in the style of literary agencies’) from publishers, that can be sent to agents/authors at the click of a button, would do an awful lot for authors’ mental health – I know it would for mine.
Authors know that constant rejection is simply part of the job. The ‘no’ responses are disappointing, but expected, and easy to move on from. But the ‘no response’s – well, personally, I find those much more difficult to deal with.
Not knowing whether a publisher has even read a submission can be maddening. Obviously, after a certain point, one has to assume that a ‘no response’ to a submission is a ‘no’ – but there’s always that lingering hope and possibility that, actually, it simply hasn’t been read yet. And, in my experience, that does happen.”
I truly believe that this problem could be eradicated relatively easily, and it would cost publishers very little in terms of time and effort.
Once the template – which could be as simple as, e.g. Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately, these texts aren’t for us – is written, it would take literally a minute to send, if that. It would do much for creators and their mental health, and, really, it’s nothing more complicated than the courtesy of communicating.
Publishers would benefit too – it would remove one of authors’ chief complaints about them, and the need for agents to constantly chase (which further clogs up publishers’ inboxes).
I highly doubt I’m the only author that feels the way I do!
All the uncertainty
Will publishers respond to my submissions?
Will this text get through acquisitions?
Will my book sell?
Where’s my next idea going to come from?
Where’s my next pay cheque going to come from?
How much are my royalties going to be? Am I even due any royalties?
Every author will have asked these questions daily at some point in their career – probably throughout their career.
And most of the time, there’s no way of knowing what the answers to them are.
Generally, for most, the money is not great (yes, that’s an understatement)
When I find the time to, I’m going to write a series on money matters, tackling advances (and what mine have been), royalties (and the total of mine thus far), and my year-on-year earnings, among other things – so I won’t delve into all that now.
But when you consider that the price of books hasn’t risen at the same rate as inflation, authors often earn more from a library loan than a sale of a book (given that the majority of books are sold at a discount, often a super-high one), and that advances – at least in my case – have barely risen in a decade (the advance for what will be my 29th book is only £500 more than the advance I got paid for my first, in 2014), it’s easy to see why making any sort of living from writing books is truly an uphill struggle…
Oh dear. It seems I’ve ended on a rather gloomy note too.
And oh dear, oh dear: I’ve opened and closed with oh dear.
It’s definitely time to call it a day. Thanks for reading. See you next time, I hope.
It’s oddly comforting to hear someone else having the same hardship as I do 😂 But it’s so lovely to read illustrators can bring so much joy to authors ☺️
This is a really interesting overview of the highs, and lows, of making children's books.