Illustrating Children's Books

Part I: Where Can I Get My Art Published, and How Do I Start?

            In contrast to the sometimes-daunting prospects for unpublished authors, the publishing industry is remarkably open to new artists.

But writing and illustrating share this in common: it helps to have a track record. Building up your experience is a good place to start.

Your curriculum vitae need not have a list of books in which your art has appeared. There are many other outlets waiting in related fields.

The richest of these is magazines. Magazines represent a wide spectrum of possibilities.

The Writer's Market (see Part II in our Writing section) gives contact information

for children's publications like Odyssey, Cricket, Clubhouse and Highlights.

Your samples should be sent to a specific person if possible. (For more on finding specific people, see our upcoming echapter.)

            Always send samples that the art director can keep for his or her files, and always enclose a full vitae and self-addressed, stamped envelope.

            When possible, send both hard copy and a CD with jpegs.

The CD can contain many more images than your hard copy.

For strictly electronic submissions, I usually send a collage of images in one jpeg for easy viewing (see my example below).

            There are other opportunities for getting your art into print. Communities and non-profits often have their own newspapers or magazines.

Think outside of the box. Who is publishing in your area? For more on getting published, watch for our upcoming echapter!

            In our next installments, we'll be looking at trends in the Children's publishing industry, and the nuts and bolts of format and layout. See you soon!

feedback? cosmicart@stock-space-images.com
           
 

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