The post 218 Writing High Quality Children’s Books as an Indie Author with Holger Nils Pohl appeared first on Sacha Black.

In this episode we cover: 

• The differences between writing a novel and a graphic novel
• How to actually write a graphic novel
• How to choreograph a fight scene with an illustrator
• How story arcs work across a single graphic novel and a series
• How to find and work with an illustrator
• Mistakes to avoid

This week’s question is: Do you read graphic novels? If so, what are your recommendations?

Recommendation of the week is:  How to Get Your Book Into Schools and Double Your Income With Volume Sales by David H Hendrickson

Apple

Kobo

Amazon UK

Amazon USA

**This podcast uses affiliate links

Links and events I mentioned:

The Rebel Author Diaries Anthology Submissions are now open.

Find out more here.

Sacha’s Proofer / Workbook Editor: Tim Seabrook — Fifth Ring Press

Connect with Marcus:

Twitter – @Marcus_Ako; @IonWritersBlock

Instagram – @IonWritersBlock

Book – Call 1-800-KillAGuy: Book 1

Rebel of the Week is: Yanni Jade

If you’d like to be a Rebel of the week please do send in your story, it can be any kind of rebellion. You can email your rebel story to rebelauthorpodcast@gmail.com or instagram me @sachablackauthor

2 new patrons this week, welcome and thank you to Shelly Sara and Stephanie Johnson. And of course, a big thank you to all my existing patrons. If you’d like to support the show, and get early access to all the episodes as well as bonus content you can from as little as $2 a month by visiting: www.patreon.com/sachablack

The post 084 How to Self-Publish a Graphic Novel with Marcus E Ako appeared first on Sacha Black.

Last year, I was honored to be a speaker at the Children’s Book Mastery conference. I spoke to Karen, CEO of the Get Your Book Illustrations company all about how to make a living with your writing. This is a summary of the session. Welcome to Karen and my deepest thanks for allowing me to share the session with you guys. This is how to make a living with your writing.

My creative agency specializes in providing high quality, affordable illustration services for authors.

As a keynote speaker on my annual conference, Children’s Book Mastery, I interviewed Sacha Black about going full time as an author and making a living from your writing. Sacha gave practical, step-by-step insight and I wanted to share her excellent advice with her own audience too. In this article I share the highlights of our interview.

In this interview we covered:

• The mindset needed to become a successful full-time author
• Exact things you can start doing today to set yourself up to make it financially
• Free ways to build your audience
• The top things to prioritize to be able to make a living from writing

Make sure you don’t miss the end, where I asked Sacha what her top tip would be to help authors succeed.

Q1: How long did it take you to go full-time as a writer?

Karen: I’m sure for a lot of our audience, making a living from their writing seems like an impossible dream, but I know for you, you went from publishing your first book to going full time in quite a short timeframe. How long did it take you?

Sacha: Okay. So that is a multifaceted question, because there’s how long it took me from actual publication to quitting. And then how long it really took me. I will start from the beginning. So, from very first word onto the proverbial page, it was probably about 7 years, I would say.

Sacha: I would say for 5 years I had a very intentional plan. I was writing intentionally with the intent to quit my job and do this full time. So in my mind, it took 5 years from the first word to publishing, then from publishing to quitting my job, it was 2 years.

Sacha: That does seem very quick, but obviously, I had a plan. I executed that plan. And that’s why it seems so fast, I think, but yes, technically, 2 years from publication. But there was a whole raft of education, and learning how to write, and development, and building up a business that went into that before I actually got to say ‘bye-bye’.

Q2: What mindset do you need to go full-time and how do you get that mindset?

Karen: Yeah, and then I’m also sure that going full time comes with a very specific mindset. So, any advice on how to just get to that mindset in the first place?

Sacha: I always say that I have two traits that are perhaps controversial, but I’m very proud of them nonetheless. So my first trait is—and they kind of wrapped in one—but, I am obsessive as a person and I am also stubbornly determined. So I would say those two traits are really important for your mindset. And lots of people see being obsessive as a bad thing. I actually think it’s one of the most wonderful traits in the world, because you can go down into the nitty-gritty of whatever thing it is that you are passionate about, and having that obsessive nature leads to lots of the other things that I’m going to mention. But things like continuing to develop your craft, continuing to educate yourself on the business, on marketing and all those other things, and, you know, really pursuing it with stubbornness that, ‘There is no other solution’.

Sacha: I actually went into this having made the decision I was going to leave my job no matter what it took, and that was it! It was black and white. I was doing this, full stop. This is a very hard industry. There are lots of creative people in the world, and if you want to do this, you have to be absolutely 100% dedicated to it.

Sacha: Which leads me to my first point, so number one: Sacrifice. Nobody wants to hear me say this, but I’m sorry, I have to say it. You know, all of our days are busy. So if you want to add this into your life and you want to create a business, then you are going to have to sacrifice something.

Sacha: Nobody is saying you have to sacrifice everything, but if you want to build a business and you want to quit your job, you are going to have to find time from somewhere. So sacrifice is the number one.

Sacha: Number two, constant learning. I think all indie authors who are successful make a point of being life students. We do not take for granted that we know everything about the industry. Our industry is extremely changeable. You only have to look at the last ten years to see how radically Kindle has changed the reader’s interaction with books. Let alone, you know, then Kindle Unlimited, and how AI is now changing our industry.

Sacha: So, constantly learning. And some of the ways that I do that, particularly for keeping up to date with the industry are podcasts. There are some exceptional podcasts out there that bring you news industry. So things like The Creative Pen, The Sell More Books Show, The Career Author Podcasts, The Rebel Author Podcast and also The Self-Publishing Formula. So I highly recommend all of those. And also The Six Figure Author.

Sacha: Blogs and keeping up to date with people who make a point to blog about industry, about rights licensing. So you can have a look at the Alliance of Independent Authors. They have a blog daily. Also, Christine Catherine Rush, she writes about more advanced things. So, on the business-side and licensing.

Sacha: And also conferences, in-person conferences and online conferences, like this wonderful conference. I make a point to go to things like the London Book Fair. There’s also the Frankfurt Book Fair. And actually there are book fairs in most countries, and in almost every country in the world, actually.

Sacha: Last few points about mindset, having a long term mindset. This is not an overnight get rich quick scheme, let me tell you that. This industry, if you have a passion that writing touches your soul and you want to do this for the rest of your life, then you have to think about this from the long term, which means making good strategic business decision. Which sometimes mean short term pain and perhaps earning less on the short term, but in the long term, taking a more strategic and long-term business mindset.

Sacha: Classic example of that is the decision of should you be exclusive to Amazon? So there’s a Kindle unlimited program. For people who don’t know, that’s where you are only allowed to have your books in Amazon, nowhere else. It’s a short term injection, and it also means you are not building up your platform on other stores and in other countries, because Amazon is actually only the largest bookstore in America and the UK. So, the more painful, strategic decision would be to be wide, so that you build up a platform and a readership everywhere. So it’s those kinds of decisions.

Sacha: The very last one, which I’ll talk more about later, is multiple streams of income. It is essential for any indie author to have multiple streams of income. Now, this one in particular, and particularly on mindset, I get a lot of resistance when I say this, because people turn around to me and say, ‘Well, I only want to write full time’. That’s fine. You can still write full time, my darlings, but you do need to have multiple financial income streams.

Sacha: So, lots of people think, when I say that, ‘Oh, you have to do editing,’ or ‘You have to provide author services’. No, that’s rubbish. You don’t. You could have rent from a second property. You could have an investment portfolio. The point is, you must have multiple streams of income, so that you are not reliant, wholly, on one source of income.

Karen: True for writers and for a lot of people, I think in life in general, that’s really good advice. And yeah, pretty much everything you said there was solid gold. I love it. I agree with you so much on being obsessive and stubborn. I mean, if you really want to get somewhere in life, I think there isn’t any other way to do that except pig-headed determination in the right direction.

Sacha: Absolutely.

Q3: How have you built your audience(s)?

Karen: So one quick question. You mentioned about one platform, like Amazon—if you’re on Amazon and people are buying your books, there are clever ways to build your email list, to build your community, but in general, someone will buy your book and you don’t have any further control. So, you did mention about building your community. Can you just add a little bit to that, on how you’ve done that?

Sacha: Yeah, so I have two distinct genres. So I have my nonfiction and my fiction, and so building those audiences is different for both of those. The best question I always ask myself in terms of how to build up my audience is, ‘Where are my readers finding their books?’ So, for example, I write young adult fantasy. Lots of young adults are actually not getting their book recommendations on Amazon anymore. They’re actually getting their book recommendations on Instagram. So being present on Instagram is a really good way of connecting with your readers.

Sacha: Some fundamental principles, have a website, have a reader magnet. So a ‘reader magnet’ is a small something or other that you give away to potential readers in exchange for their email address, which you then collect and have a mailing list so that you can email them when you have something interesting to say. Perhaps a cover reveal, perhaps an exclusive sneak peak of your writing, and, of course then, sales, when you have a new book for sale.

Sacha: Also, mailing list swaps. So once you have a mailing list, you can then recommend somebody else’s book, and they can then recommend your book. And if the book that you’re recommending is your reader magnet, then you can do like a sign-up mechanism through places like BookFunnel. So you can check out BookFunnel. So that is that. Does that answer?

Q4: What are the top things you need to prioritize to be able to make a living from your writing?

Karen: Yeah, that is awesome. That’s nice and practical. So definitely gives people a few steps to do. Okay, so then, like with most creative pursuits, unfortunately writing a brilliant book isn’t any guarantee that you’re going to make money. So, what are the top things you need to prioritize to be able to make a living from your writing?

Sacha: Number one, and I will harp on about this this entire session, but multiple streams of income.

Sacha: Lots of writers don’t want to have to do freelance work, and that’s fine, but perhaps you retain two days a week in your old employment. Or perhaps you consult back into your old industry. I make sure that I have a balance of what I call active and passive income. Active income is short, sharp cash injections, you are exchanging your time for delivering a job or a product. I’m a developmental editor, so I will do developmental editing.

Sacha: Active income is a gift and a curse. It is a short, sharp injection of cash, usually quite a lot of cash. However, you are exchanging your time, which is a terrible thing to do, for money; because you are not creating assets or products that you can then resell and sell over again for the rest of your lifetime to earn money, which is essentially what a book is. You do the work once, but you get paid forever.

Sacha: And then obviously create passive income. So for me, it is my books.

Sacha: Number two, a huge catalog of books. I know nobody probably wants to hear me say that, because creating anything…like having 30 or 40 or 50 books takes a lifetime to do. But if you look at career authors, they are the authors who have produced more than 20 books.

Sacha: Those who are earning enough income to just write all the time have a lot of books. This is for a couple of reasons. The first one is because you have multiple books that you can promote. If you write a series, it is very hard to promote anything other than the first book in that series, because obviously it is a chronological story. Now, you want series, because you often discount the first book and then you earn royalties from the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, sixth, you know, seventh books in the series. And that’s how you earn your money, because you are drawing your readers along those series.

Sacha: However, if you only have one series, you only have one book to promote, which makes it very hard to earn a lot of money. Which is why a large backlog is very important, and also brings me onto my next point, which is: Build a back catalog and a readership in one genre before you move on. Now, I caveat that—only if you are a fast writer, fill your boots right across whatever genres you want.

Sacha: It’s important that you build a readership in one genre first so that you have sustainable sales, and you have an audience to launch new books to. If you’re constantly flitting across different genres, you are starting from scratch every single time, and building a readership takes time.

Karen: Okay, perfect. Yeah, exactly, it’s like I know the analogy, ‘If you want to cross the river, finish the one bridge, you know.’ Five half-built bridges still don’t get you across the river.

Sacha: Exactly.

Q5: Can you give us a step by step breakdown of how you got to quitting your day job?

Karen: Okay, and then can you give us a step by step breakdown of how you went from not having a book to quitting your day job?

Sacha: Number one, know exactly how much you need to live off. So my biggest tip to you, and I know writers don’t like numbers, we certainly don’t like spreadsheets, but you need to do a spreadsheet, guys. Get down, pull off, say, three months of transactions from your bank.

Sacha: Note down every single outgoing, every single incoming, and look at what you’re spending and what is outgoing. Get rid of anything that you don’t vitally need, and this isn’t necessarily about saying, ‘Don’t buy the Starbucks’. This is about changing habits and behavior. Are you spending frivolously? That is the question.

Sacha: Number two, get rid of debt.

Sacha: I’ve already talked about multiple streams of income. Monitor your income. It’s really important. I know nobody likes numbers, but if you want to run a business and you want to leave your job and know that your bills are going to be paid, make sure you have some kind of spreadsheet that tracks your income and outgoings every single month.

Sacha: Next one, have a reliable amount of freelance income coming into you at a level of which you are confident it will continue, or even if it drops, it will not drop below your baseline for, say, 6 or 8 months, before you quit your job.

Sacha: You have seasonal sales. Particularly for writers, seasonal sales boom for traditional publishers in the summer. And it gets really, really expensive for indies to advertise in the summer, which often means we actually see a dip in income. So knowing and following those patterns for an amount of time will really help you.

Karen: Wow, okay, that is actually super helpful and practical. I think it’s very easy to get caught up in the dream and the passion and actually forget in the end, a lot of it comes down to the nitty-gritty, you know.

Sacha: Yeah, absolutely.

Q6: How do you balance the business and the creative side so that the pressure doesn’t affect your creativity?

Karen: So, having to sell books, obviously adds a lot of pressure to your writing. So how do you balance the business side with the creative side so you don’t end up just kind of freaking out and not being able to be creative?

Sacha: Yeah, it’s really hard, I don’t know if I’m just lucky or if I’ve just not suffered yet—but if anything, it’s made me more motivated. So, first of all, I would say to save, at the very minimum, three months of salary. If you can save six, or a year—six months, or 12 months—of your salary, so that you have something to fall back on for those months that are bad. I’ve said it once, I’ve said it twice, I’ll say it multiple times, have multiple streams of income.

Sacha: And then also, as I mentioned before, that active income, having the option at least to be able to do something that will give you a short sharp injection of cash.

Sacha: And the last piece advice, a great mentor of mine, Joanna Penn, said to me, ‘Hold tight, this is a rollercoaster, your first year’. So I would strongly advise you all to hold tight, because it really is a roller coaster. Yeah.

Q7: What would you do differently?

Karen: Okay, I’m sure, true. All right, so if you had to start over now, what would you do differently?

Sacha: This is a really hard question, because I kind of believe that everything I’ve done has got me to where I am, and I’m really happy where I am.

Sacha: Assessing how you spend your time and counting how many words you write, perhaps in the morning, or in the afternoon, in the evening; and working out what really works for you. Forget all the advice and all the tips and tricks everybody else is saying. Work out what works best for you to get your words on the page.

Sacha: And second, to that, I would say spend more time writing than marketing until you have a huge backlog of books. And that was probably my mistake. I grew my platform, and once you do that, you can’t really backtrack. So, definitely making sure you always, always prioritize the writing and not the business.

Sacha: And secondly, more experimentation. Experimenting is scary, because quite often you are throwing money at marketing tips or marketing advertising, and you don’t know if it’s going to work. And my favorite phrase, I always say this on my podcast, ‘Suck it up, princess’. I just need to suck it up sometimes. Experiment, test, iterate and have faith that it will produce results in the end.

Q8: What would be your top tip to help authors succeed?

Karen: That makes sense. I’ve heard you saying that on your podcast, but it’s actually good advice. Otherwise one can get stuck in stuff that’s really unimportant. Okay, so then what would be your top tip for children’s book writers to help them succeed?

Sacha: So I have a few, sorry.

Karen:  It’s all good.

Sacha: Number one, have a plan. Okay, you do need a business plan. Have a plan that covers books, genres, craft, marketing, business, accounting. Have a structured business plan.

Sacha: Number 2, swallow the hard pill and accept that this is going to take you years. This is not fast. Be okay with that and enjoy the process. I think a lot of writers race after that final goal of either quitting their jobs or getting their book published and actually forget to enjoy the process along the way. For most of us creatives, the joy is actually in the creating, not in the end product. And once you have your book, it’s all over.

Sacha: Next, keep honing your craft. You cannot keep selling books unless you are a good writer, unfortunately. So, continue to learn. Continue to read craft books, like mine. Dissect books that you read. Listen to conferences or, you know, whatever. Just make sure you are actively honing your craft. And, then likewise, keep learning about the business. Try to stay up to date with the changes in the industry.

Sacha: Network. I haven’t really mentioned this, but my network is possibly my greatest asset, other than my books. Go and meet people, be kind to people, be helpful to people, and you will find that people will help you in spades and return that, because ‘karma’. Let’s be real.

Sacha: And just to focus on writing, writing, writing and get that backlog of books. If you have to drop something, let it be the marketing and so that you…because you cannot sell a book if it’s not published, at the end of the day.

Karen: Sasha, thank you so much. You actually said so many amazing things. I’m so happy to have had you on.

Sacha: Oh, thank you very much. It’s been an honor.

Karen: You’re very welcome.

The post How to Make a Living with Your Writing appeared first on Sacha Black.

This week’s question is:

What was your favorite children’s book?

Pre-Order The Anatomy of Prose

Currently only live on Amazon, but the other stores are coming soon…

Amazon UK

Amazon USA 

Book recommendation this week is Joanna Penn’s new book Audio for Authors.

Kobo

Amazon UK

Amazon USA

Rebel of the Week is Jasmine Arch

If you’d like to be a Rebel of the week please do send in your story, it can be any kind of rebellion. You can email your rebel story to rebelauthorpodcast@gmail.com or tweet me @rebelauthorpod

A big thank you to all my current patrons, who help to ensure that this podcast continues. If you’d like to support the show from as little at $2 a month, you can and get access to all the bonus essays, posts, sneak peeks, bloopers and more by visiting: www.patreon.com/sachablack

ATTEND THE SELF-PUBLISHING ADVICE CONFERENCE

Click the image below or use this link to attend the FREE conference for authors.

Please note I’ve used a number of affiliate links in this post.

Podcast recommendations from last week include:

• Writing Excuses
• Six Figure Authors
• The Self-Publishing Show
• The Creative Penn
• Great Writers Share
• The Strategy Hour
• Armchair Expert
• Breaking the Glass Slipper
• Ask ALLi
• StoryGrid Editors Roundtable
• Author Like a Boss
• The Creative Writer’s Toolbelt
• SPA Girls
• Writer on the Road
• Write Now
• Novel Tea Show
• The History of Witchcraft
• Wicked Game
• American History Podcast
• History That Doesn’t Suck

How to Write and Publish Illustrated Children’s Books

Find out more about Karen on her:

Website www.getyourbookillustrations.com

Instagram

The download for the things to consider before going with an illustrator can be found here.

To watch the Children’s Book Mastery Conference you can find out more using my affiliate link here.

Sacha Black
Hello and welcome back to The Rebel Author Podcast. Today I am with Karen Ferreira. Karen is an illustrator, award winning animation creative director, and owner of get your book illustrations. She helps self publishing authors get amazing, affordable illustrations. She spent many hours learning about self publishing and enjoys helping others succeed in this field. Hello. Hi. Hello, welcome to my podcast. It is a pleasure to have you here today. Would you first of all like to tell everyone a little bit about you your journey, your business and how you got to where you are today?

Karen Ferreira
Sure.

So from when I was really young, I always wanted to do art. And I grew up in a very practical family which has its good and its bedside. But so in the end, I went and studied textile and surface design because that’s a more practical way of doing art, you know. And then the moment I was done with that I didn’t actually get a job. I went to America and trained to help people on on life improvement courses, and I became a counselor. So I did that for many, many years. And then eventually, I came full circle back to art in about 2010. I decided I missed it too much. And I actually just did it as a sideline, I started entering contests. And pretty quickly, I started winning a couple and I was like, Oh, I can actually do something with this. So then I became a full time freelance illustrator. And from there I learned animation and now I have two companies doing animation and doing book illustrations.

Sacha Black
Amazing. I’m what kind tell me a bit more about the animation and that side. What kind of animation are they? Yeah, just Just tell me more.

Karen Ferreira
Okay, cool. Yeah, so I don’t know if you know what explainer videos are, but they like basically more corporate or company videos that explain a product or a brand or can even be a training thing. So yeah, it’s not like Disney movies or anything like that. It’s it’s a Yeah, so we do we generally we work with some big brands but we Yeah, we work really with anyone who needs a video for their website or social media.

Sacha Black
So um, you for your illustrations, you focus predominantly on children’s illustrations do you ever illustrate and other genres as well? or? Yeah, because I’m guessing There are a wide range of illustrations that authors would want.

Karen Ferreira
Yeah, absolutely. Actually, we’ve done a few non fiction books. So we totally open to that we really open to pretty much anything but obviously, mostly children’s book authors need illustrations more than anyone else. But yeah, I mean, the first job we actually ever got was a nonfiction book. Interesting.

Sacha Black
How wonderful. Okay, so we are here to talk about primarily children’s illustration and children’s books. But obviously lots of listeners won’t be writing in the children’s genre. So could you just tell me a little bit about the differences between picture book, middle grade and young adult, which kind of capture the whole children’s sphere?

Karen Ferreira
Right? Okay. Yeah, so picture books are books with text or even with no text, but they predominantly pictures bring them to life and they’re very focused on pictures. You know, they the normal children’s books that people normally think about where you have double page spreads or you have full page spreads, or at least quite quite a lot of illustration throughout the book. And normally not a lot of takes like maybe two 300 words or can be more like maybe up to 500 depending on the age. And picture books also includes like board books. Which are the hardboard books that, you know one year olds can page through by themselves

Sacha Black
And chew!

Karen Ferreira
Yeah that does damage it a bit. Yeah. That’s those as you know, sometimes they have no text or sometimes it will be like one word a page. So obviously the book is usually kind of more predominant on the pictures, the younger the kid is. And then if they, as they get older, you know that it gets more balanced between pictures and text. When you get to middle grade books. A lot of them have illustrations, and some of them don’t have any, like, Diary of a Wimpy Kid is actually a good example. They quite a lot of illustrations in there.

Sacha Black
My son has just started reading those.

Karen Ferreira
Yeah. So they, I mean, but you can see that obviously simple pictures, but you get middle grade books with more elaborate illustrations, but then also send me like Harry Potter. is actually also middle grade, interestingly, and that, you know, it’s just ticks, ticks, ticks, ticks, so it really does. Middle Grade varies completely. You can definitely do if you’re doing a middle grade book, you can definitely do illustrations and no one’s gonna think it’s weird at all. And then young adults normally doesn’t have illustrations you do you do get some but not I would. I haven’t checked it up properly as in percentage, but I’d say 95% doesn’t really have illustrations. Or if it does, you might have the spot illustrations, which are just small illustration some way on the page, you know. But you do get one like these and author Brian Selznick. I hope I’m saying his name exactly right. But he actually does a lot with illustrations and imagery in his books and they young adult, so it does vary quite a lot. And obviously the covers of the young adult books or especially fantasy teams to be illustrated and sci fi.

Sacha Black
I think there’s a huge divide in young adult books so I tend to see a lot of indie author covers with a person on the front and I’m seeing a lot of although this trend is now waning but we had a huge trend in young adult of symbols on covers my young adult books have symbols on covers. And but that was slightly more when we had the dystopian kind of boom about three or four or losing track of time but anyway a few years ago yeah, so where what where does in terms of ages where does a picture book and and middle grade start because young adult is quite clear cut in that it’s more or less from when they’re a teenager, but I think the lines between middle grade and picture but I don’t even know where that line is drawn?

Karen Ferreira
Well, technically middle grade starts at eight, eight to about 12. Yeah, so. But as I said, I mean, really, obviously there aren’t concrete dividing lines. But yeah, for sure. I mean, by the time you get to eight, it’s not normally your picture picture book. Yeah. And

Sacha Black
on a really selfish note, I am finding it really difficult because my son has just turned six. But he’s an exceptional reader. And it’s so bloody hard to find anything appropriate for him to read because the content and themes of middle grade books which are where he is reading at eight, sort of an eight year old level, it is a bit too grown up for him, you know, but actually, the stuff that is written for six year olds he’s so bored of and he’s like, you know, these are interesting stories. And I’m desperate for him not to lose his love of reading just because the books are boring, because that’s sort of four year olds rather than then. Then a six year old, but anyway, Anyway, I digress.

Karen Ferreira
I was reading adult books when I was about 11. And yeah, it worked out fine. So yeah.

Sacha Black
Yeah, Yeah, me too. I definitely did as well. Okay. Let’s talk about illustration. Let’s say an indie author wants to write a picture book. What are their options for illustration? And I suppose this is a two part question. So so I’ll ask the first one first. No, no, let me stop. Let’s just stick with what are their options? Okay,

Karen Ferreira
Cool. So, actually, they have quite a few options and some more risky, some less risky. You can you can ask friends or family or acquaintances. The thing is, you have to take a professional approach. You can’t just because you think your cousin draws okay, you know, that’s not it. It’s not a good idea they like but you might have someone in your family or a friend that’s actually a really good illustrator and ensure you can you can chat to them. There are also advantages depending on your relationship. And for someone who really doesn’t have such a big budget, but they want good illustrations, actually, art schools or colleges can be a cool option. Because most of the, let’s say kids, they would love to obviously illustrate a book, I mean, it’s a great opportunity. The only thing you have to watch for is the inexperienced, so they might not know exactly what’s needed, they might not be able to guide you. So you probably gonna have to do more research to make sure that the format is right that you know that you don’t get to the printer, and then there’s a big problem.

And then, obviously, freelancers online is a massive industry. So you get sites like Upwork and Fiverr, and those can be you can find someone awesome on there or not. It just depends like so I definitely wouldn’t say don’t go that route. It all but you have to understand you might have a bad experience. Like, if you’ve never especially worked with a freelancer, you know, at least if you’re going to do that have a really, like, have a conversation with him like a pretty full on conversation with him before starting to really feel them out. Because someone might also seem really cool if you check for five sentences, but then when you get into the job, it might turn into a nightmare.

Sacha Black
Yeah, and let’s just let me pause there because I think that is a really valid piece of advice for anybody looking for any kind of freelancer, regardless of whether it’s illustration, it goes for book cover designers, it goes for editors. And I can talk from personal experience that I got really badly burned with my first designer who was insanely talented and you know, I absolutely love the cover that I got. But unfortunately, due to personal circumstances on their, and it It took a year to get one cover, it cost, you know, two or three times the amount that I pay for covers now and and got quite tense towards the end. And you know that is because I perhaps didn’t know enough hadn’t done enough research… hadn’t you know, I had to pull off our contract essentially and you know, really state that these were the terms and conditions and therefore I needed x, y and z. But it is really a lesson for everybody listening to make sure you do read terms and conditions. You do have contract details laid laid out in black and white. And but and and you know, you really do ask those questions to any freelance or I think that you work with. Yeah,

Karen Ferreira
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I mean, don’t just think because they’re a freelancer, they’re just going to do a great job. I know also, from personal experience, you can have very bad experience.

Sacha Black
Yeah, even when the work is wonderful. You know, you can still have a bad experience and that that was what happened to me. The work was exceptional. I just, there was a clashing, shall we say?

Karen Ferreira
Something like that? Yeah, exactly. And obviously, what’s nice about a lot of those sites, those, you can look for ratings. But so do look if you know if the ratings bad, I would say steer clear. But ratings, even so I found don’t act aren’t always clean cut, like someone might have a few good reviews and even then they might not be a good match. So yeah, just really chat to them.

And then the last thing, the last option basically would be like an illustration agency or a company like mine, and there are a few online where, you know, it’s a little team of illustrators, and like in our case, and I think in most with most of them, I’m not 100% Sure. You normally have a project manager who makes sure the project is running and sorry. So normally that could also it’s not always a safety, but normally that would be a bit more of a safe bet because it’s a bit more established. And, obviously, you know, you have to look at exactly what you after. So some people love to work directly directly with the illustrator and with some agencies, you can end with some you can’t. Okay,

Sacha Black
so let’s say an author would like to work with an illustrator, what is your ideal client like? What should they come to you knowing how much information do they need to have? What are you know, what things do they have to be able to tell you in order for you to be able to give them the their ideal product?

Karen Ferreira
Well, basically, the, the what exactly you want in the illustration isn’t always important. The illustrator can actually when you work with a publisher, you actually don’t get to say what you want in the illustration at all, the publisher will find you an illustrator and then they will just read your text and illustrate it.

Sacha Black
Reason 185 million why you should probably be indie published.

Karen Ferreira
I agree. I can’t imagine writing a book and having no say that.

Sacha Black
I know neither can I! Yeah, anyway, I’m not trad bashing here. I’m just massively biased.

Karen Ferreira
Yeah, so I mean with us, for instance, you can say exactly what you want, or very vaguely what you want or just say read the text and do it. It’s completely open. And we as freelancers I think you’re going to have a complete range from the one into the other, some won’t be able to do it. If you don’t tell them. Some will do a fantastic job if you don’t tell them so it depends. And yeah, so but in terms of what you need to know it is a really good idea to go look at a lot of children’s books and picture books, which you should do anyway, if you’re writing one, but to see what kind of style do you like, firstly, I mean, you can obviously just start looking around for style, but you should, you should have an idea. And then it’s also a good idea to have a good idea of the kind of layouts that you can do you know, do you want just double page spreads for every page, you want, like some single page, little illustrations between the text, because, you know, we can help you with that if you come to us, and I’m sure a lot of illustrators will help you with that. But, you know, it’s good if you have an idea what kind of layout you want to have in the first place.

Sacha Black
Yeah. And so should they have things like mood boards? I mean, do those kinds of things help illustrators or do you have a… so I know when I go to create a cover with my now much loved cover designers. I fill out a whole specification. So they asked me questions like, do I have themes in my work? Do I have colors that I like or really dislike? Are there you know any red herrings do I mean? For example, do I really I one of the things that I didn’t want on my covers were people I wanted symbols know people. So that was a big red and not red herring red line for me. So do you do you tease those things out with your authors or should they come knowing that is it you know, how much do they have to have decided before they come to you?

Karen Ferreira
Generally will discuss that. Yeah, so it’s, you know, also you start with because they choose the style they want. You, you know, generally that’s not you’re not going to end up with something completely different, but also the processes you do Very rough sketch are often just a thumbnail sketch. So you can sort out a lot before you actually get to the full on illustration. So you’re not going to have this full blown colour illustration, that’s completely the thing you know.

Sacha Black
Okay. So in that in that is a perfect segue. So tell me about the process, somebody comes to you and says, Hello, I want an illustration. What happens? How do you go from initial query to published book?

Karen Ferreira
Right. So as you mentioned earlier, it’s super important to have a contract or agreement. So I mean, the first thing would just be to find out what the person wants like we said now, which you normally will have quite a few questions in relation to style. You know, which kind of things I do want, obviously, if it’s not clear, like is the character a girl or boy or six or 12? Or those kind of things? For sure. And then yes, about color, etc. As you see it’s all the stylistic stuff.f Firstly, before we do anything we put the contract or agreement in place. And if you getting an illustrator do not do it without something in writing because then well, anything can happen and you have no control whatsoever.

Sacha Black
And also read read a contract. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if you’re not the one giving the contract you are receiving on the contract. Make sure you read your terms and conditions.

Karen Ferreira
Yeah. And I mean, because there are quite a lot of variations and things to look for. But we won’t go into all of that now. But yeah, then basically, the first thing would be the kind of layout, like what sizes Do you want or the kind of pagination like, you can make a little mock up of the book, eat page by page or a storyboards normally a bit easier with thumbnail sketches, if it’s needed, you know, depends on the book if it’s just single page illustration, writing on the other side, single page writing something like storyboard isn’t very crucial. But it you know, if you want something a bit more creative is really good to think through the entire layout because obviously, the illustrations can add a lot to the creativity and the flow of the book. So once that’s approved, obviously, that comes with revisions or should come with revisions until it’s perfect, then you get into the character design and development normally, at least to get the main character perfect. So the author thinks Okay, this is this is what I had in mind, you know, and then then you can do full sketches. So that means just the full size sketch of every illustration, but just a roughish sketch. And again, with revisions should be and then of course, you can get into the full color so and full color again, can have some revisions, but if you’ve gone through the process really well, you know, there shouldn’t be any situation of oh, this is completely wrong, which is great for everybody.

Sacha Black
So do you format the entire book so that a file gets handed to the indie author for uploading or so how, where does that? So do they have you know, so I’m just trying to think about the page what they receive. And then what happens after that to take it to publication, do they, I’m guessing they have to hand you, they can’t come to you until they have a complete, edited finished story is that?

Karen Ferreira
Not necessarily, although it is, in a sense, a very good idea to get it edited? Because sometimes, obviously, in editing, they’ll be very dramatic changes. And then you know, if we’ve illustrated one thing, it might be wrong. And so yeah, it seems to be a better idea. Then we don’t do the we don’t do the formatting. We’re looking at getting into that but at this moment, we just provide you the illustrations, so you literally just have all the different ones, then you need to get a formatter someone who lay it all out for you with the text. Obviously adding the front in the copyright and the covers and so on. Okay, um, yeah. So because that is a bit of a that, that comes with other technical requirements and stuff. Yeah isn’t Yeah, illustration. So

Sacha Black
that is for anybody who does and I know we do have children’s book listeners. So for anybody who wants to create their own picture books, it is something to think about either learning how to do that formatting with pictures with text yourself, or finding a specialist for matter who can work with the illustrations, and I’m guessing Photoshop files or however they are they come and in the in the end, so that is something to think about. So let’s let’s move on and talk about legalities and copyright. Who owns what?

Karen Ferreira
Yeah, it depends is the answer. So mostly, illustrators actually retain the full rights to the illustrations which I think a lot of people don’t realize

Sacha Black
I didn’t.

Karen Ferreira
Which means it’s kinda like when an illustrator works for a company, they do the illustrations for you, you buy them, they’re yours. That’s it. I must say with the illustrators retaining the full rights, it can be a problem and it can be alarming. It’s not normally. But it does mean for instance you might not be able to use your illustrations in certain regions of the world without paying them again or buying extra rights. Or if you want to print a t-shirt a mug, stuff like that. You do want to check that because you might have all these ideas for promotional stuff and you can’t do it without buying more rights. And while it’s rare, if they have the full rights they can reuse your illustrations or other books. While it’s rare mostly they want to share on social media. I think most illustrators have enough pride they’re not going to put your main character in someone else’s book. You do want to make sure you know who owns what and what each of you can do with it. You do have to check that

Sacha Black
What about royalties?

Karen Ferreira
I’ve never charged royalties. I don’t actually even know that much about it, but it is definitely worth checking. My personal viewpoint on it is, obviously I think illustrators should be credited and get they due I mean, coming from an illustrator background myself, because especially in picture books, the illustrator makes so much of the book, but I’ve always viewed it the author is the one who goes and does all the promotion. And has to do all the work to get it sold. I’ve never seen an illustrator actually doing that part. So then I don’t feel this is my personal viewpoint, right. But I don’t feel the illustrator should really ride off that I feel they’re complete the work and the job is done.

Sacha Black
So but this is something you absolutely must have written into your contracts because copyright laws for the lifetime of the author, and depending on which country you’re in either 50 or 70 years after your death. So if you are in a contract with an illustrator that states they must have a certain percentage of royalties. You need to organize somebody to be paying them royalties for 70 years after you die. So lady really old? Yeah, no, no, but then that is the point with with ownership and right licensing, the illustrator and their children or family or whoever would then inherit that copyright. So you would still be liable to pay and this is why I’m saying it. So important to have it written in the copyright. And this is why there’s a great podcast episode on the creative pen with M L. I think it’s Buchman that talks about estate planning. And this is essentially this whole, you know what you do with your intelligent property rights after you die who inherits what happens to the money and the royalties? So yeah, if you’re interested in that, go and have a look at it. But to the point, Yeah, it is. It was a fascinating podcast. But the point is, this is really important. Do not assume you are going to own the full rights to everything unless it is written in black and white in your terms and conditions. And obviously, if you want to own it, and the illustrated it or company that you’re working with is not giving you that option. Perhaps they’re not the company for you.

Karen Ferreira
I always says, Well, I think some authors are actually fine to pay royalties, and that’s great. But yeah, do make sure exactly as you said, you don’t want your book done and then find out that’s a very nasty surprise. Exactly.

Sacha Black
So and the talking of naughty surprises. What should authors be aware of when approaching companies and artists for illustrations? Obviously, we’ve just talked about royalties and that royalty split, but what else should they be aware of?

Karen Ferreira
Right? So apart from the contract and the royalties, I would normally say the top thing almost as good communication. Because, you know, especially in today’s world with freelancers, someone who’s a foreign language could do a fantastic job, and I will never knock them and say they can’t. But I also know from experience, you know, you can hire some amazing artists, as you said earlier, from numerous different countries, and they cannot understand what you want and it can become extremely frustrating. So that’s why I also say that the beginning chat to the person and actually see that they can understand you and that they can communicate properly. I’m not saying they must be English first language fluent, perfect. But if you ask them a few questions, make sure their answers actually makes sense. Otherwise already at a red light, you know,

And then watch out as well for hidden costs. Sometimes there are hidden costs you get illustrator to, will not do revisions they like if you want anything changed, you have to pay extra, which obviously isn’t practical, because if something isn’t correct, or what you wanted, it becomes a big problem. So yeah, just make sure what the cost include, like, does it include a round of revisions, three rounds, what kind of things are included? And also another thing actually to watch for is that some people can do fantastic illustrations, but they don’t know any of the technical stuff. So when you get to again, when it whether it’s an E book or a print book, it might be the wrong format or the wrong size or You know, if someone draws something into smaller size, and now it needs to be printed, you can’t use it, it all has to be redone. So it might sound silly, but stuff like that happens and you know, then it’s a it’s a redo from the beginning.

Sacha Black
So it’s important to look for, like, their portfolio, I suppose to make sure they actually have, you know, a history of delivering, yeah

Karen Ferreira
Check they’ve done books. Exactly. And baby I mean, if it’s someone who’s never done a book, and you love the work and you want to give them a chance, and probably also get a better price because they knew, check with them that they understand what’s needed, you know, and and make sure you understand well enough, it’s not very complicated. But if it’s done wrong, as I said, it’s not too easy to go back. You can’t go back and done, you know.

And then also check about the timeline. If you have loads of time, like you said, your cover took a year so luckily, you had loads of time, but if you only had two man’s, you would have had to scramble. So check that, you know, do in their review. Sometimes it might say, oh, if it doesn’t make sure that you don’t see anything that someone says, Oh, they took forever, and I couldn’t get my stuff. Because if you want to publish your book in March, you need your stuff done in Feb, or whatever, you know. Yeah, like we have a little PDF, actually, that says a whole list of important things to consider. I don’t know if you’d like me to share that or not.

Sacha Black
Yeah, that’d be fabulous. Yeah, I will make sure I put that in the show notes. Okay, awesome.

Karen Ferreira
Yeah, because that’s there are there aren’t that many, but there are things that can make your experience pretty wonderful or pretty horrible if you know or don’t know about them.

Sacha Black
And so I’m loathe to ask this question because I know you’re going to say it’s a huge range of variable on on a multitude of factors. However, I have to ask, price… I know there are going to be a massive range but even ballpark of, you know, what should an author go in expecting so that they’re not and I’m sure depending on the complexity, it could be vastly more but is there a range of figures that authors should think is reasonable to pay? Because you know, I have absolutely no idea what you know. So if I went I would have no idea if somebody was giving me a good price a bad price. And obviously this is all relevant to 2019 we are recording this, but yeah, any even rough idea

Karen Ferreira
To say reasonable price is a dangerous. And honestly, does very, extremely, as you said, and I think a lot of it is your personal viewpoint and your budget. Some illustrators will charge 2-3-4 hundred dollars per one page illustration which You know, a lot of most children’s books are 32 pages, or maybe 24. But the 32 page book often is then in excess of $10,000 sorry, I don’t know in pounds but which for most people’s, obviously way out of their budget, especially for indie authors, I mean, that’s Yeah, it’s a lot of money. So I think you know, it really does firstly, come to your budget, but of course, also you might have a big budget, but just go I don’t actually want to pay in excess of 10 k. So, you know, I mean, with freelancers, I think you can probably start getting illustrations from $30-$40 but that’s for entry range newbie, kind of people I would say. So I would just check who you working with, as I’ve said many times, but yeah, then it can definitely be up to 3-4-5 hundred four even single page.

Sacha Black
Yeah, I mean, that is helpful even because I literally had no idea what kind of prices. And I think that’s really important to share that kind of information. Because, you know, it’s very easy for an indie author to be ripped off if they’re going in and don’t have any idea of even a price range of what’s realistic. So that is super helpful.

Karen Ferreira
Okay, you can you can probably get away with $2000 you know, depending who you work with. Yeah.

Sacha Black
Which is much more reasonable

Karen Ferreira
If someone charges you eight, you don’t have to pay it. Yeah, yeah.

Sacha Black
Okay, you are running a conference. Now, by the time this airs, the conference will be over. But I think if I’m right in, in, in my thinking, listeners will still be able to get access for a very small fee. So would you like to tell everybody a little bit about the conference, the content and the wonderful speakers might be,

Karen Ferreira
Well, school children’s book mastery, and it will have a lot of content that on that does. It isn’t just for children’s book authors, but we made a children’s book mastery so we can really just focus in on an area. Some of the wonderful speakers include Sacha Black. And then yeah, we have quite a range like Ray brim. Lori Right, Lisa Cartwright. Sure, I’m forgetting this is quite a few. But specifically, I invited speakers with a wide range of skills so that we can cover different things. So that you know, whoever speaking about that topic has actually nailed that topic in practice. That’s the main thing. The reason for the summit being a conference being that I work with authors obviously pretty much every day and I really want to help them succeed, because to me, it’s kind of sad when you illustrate this beautiful book. And it’s a beautiful story. And obviously, the illustrations, I think are beautiful because we made them. But honestly, if you knew we’ve done some gorgeous books, and you see the person putting it on their little site, and I don’t know how many they sell, but I’m pretty sure five or 10, or you know, or sometimes you see them putting the book on Amazon. And in each one review in the next six months, you know that it actually breaks my heart a bit.

I’m like, it shouldn’t be that way. Like they put their heart into this book. And so I wanted to put the summit together almost like a course that takes people from A to Z with self publishing, you know, how do you start writing? How do you actually finish your book because some people are like, I’ve always wanted to write but I can’t sit my butt in the chair and write you know, and, and then all the nitty gritty, you know, how do you get it formatted and edited and how do you pick illustrator, and how the hell this Amazon you know, KDP work and stuff like that. Yeah. And then specifically also for what I just mentioned, the marketing and the promotion like how do you get people to see your book and buy your book and how do you use maybe free promos and things like that so that people actually notice you.

Sacha Black
Amazing. Yeah, and I am honored and delighted to be speaking. So, I will. So people listening when this airs, I will have already done the promotion, but I will be talking about this to all listeners. So hopefully you’ve already heard of it. If you haven’t, then I will be including all of the information on how to access it in the show notes. Anyway. Okay, this is my favorite question. This is The Rebel Author Podcast. So tell us about a time that you unleashed your inner.

Karen Ferreira
Yeah. So, I mean, I’ve never seen myself as a rebel, but I’ve always been kind of weird and different. And I’m very non traditional, you know, like with health and well being and I’ve never had a real, quote unquote job. I don’t own a TV. But having to find a specific time I thought, okay, when I was 20 I shaved my head.

Sacha Black
I love it. Yeah,

Karen Ferreira
it was lovely. I’ve always been like, I wish I could just do it again. But now I’m too nervous. Yeah, I was one day, I was actually ironically working on a piece of a design and painting a design by hand and it was this very geometric thing. That was just a pain in the butt basically. And I’d all I’d wanted to shave my head for a few months, you know, I was toying with this idea. And I was like, I hate this thing that I’m painting. It’s and I just got up and I just shaved head as a way to escape i think but I was so happy I did it. It was awesome. And then yeah, I actually did it again like a year later so.

Sacha Black
No I love that I love it I caught I caught two feet off my head or no not no just just under two feet I think of my head when I was 18 because my mom loved I think I’ve told the story already but my mom left my hair so much she was like you cannot have your hair cut. So I was like 18 before I’d been to hairdressers and when I went to university and I have this really I know my hair looks straight but it is super super curly. And so I just I cut it I the hairdresser plaited it and then just cut this entire plait off my hair

Karen Ferreira
Two Feet?

Sacha Black
Yeah it was down to my butt so I mean it and it came right up to basically a pixie crop so no yeah,

It probably felt awesome and like

I cannot believe how heavy hair is I just yeah, it was it was amazing. Okay, so we are out of time our listeners where they can find out more about you, your company and and the conference.

Karen Ferreira
Okay, so our website is getyourbookillustrations.com and you can find us on Instagram and Facebook as well with get your book illustrations.com. The conference, as I mentioned is called childrensbookmastery.com So the URL is children’s book mastery. com Also one word obviously no apostrophe for the children’s book. Yeah, and then on the site, I’m sure we’ll be putting up the conference when it’s ready. But I mean, you can just go straight to that think. Okay, super. And I will of course include all of those links in the show notes.

Sacha Black
Okay, thank you very much to all of my wonderful patrons, who get early access to all of the episodes as well as a monthly bonus exclusive patron only material if you would like to join us on Patreon and support the show you can do so by going to www.patreon.com/sachablack and that is Sacha with a C. Thank you very much to everybody listening. And thank you very much to Karen. I’m back. You’re listening to Karen Ferreira and this was The Rebel Author podcast.

If you enjoyed this episode, you might like these from the back list

016 How to Improve Your Writing with Gabriela Pereira

003 – How to Market Nonfiction Books With Boni Wagner-Stafford

The post 019 How to Write and Publish Illustrated Children’s Books with Karen Ferreira appeared first on Sacha Black.

You don’t NEED a fantasy map. There’s a lot of things you don’t need in life: drugs, alcohol, rock n’ roll, wild raves that end in the hospital. But life would be that bit more boring without them. Besides, if you create an entirely new world from your dark and strange parts, then sometimes it’s a handy little addition to help dear Mr. Reader visualize your world.

Besides, if you create an entirely new world from your dark and strange parts, then sometimes a map is a handy little addition to help dear Mr. Reader visualize your world.

This isn’t a definitive guide, and I’m not the fantasy map police. But I did learn some killer lessons while having my fantasy map created. You know me, I’m all for sharing the love and fluff and lessons.

Here are 9 quick tips to master your fantasy map.

ONE – UPSIDE, RIGHT SIDE, DOWN

Before you start commissioning an artist, make sure you’ve decided which way round you want the map in your book. Don’t, like me, assume the artist will ‘know’ you want it to be landscape and across two pages.

If you do want it landscape and across two pages, make sure you know how you’re going to format that puppy… because it’s guna be a bitch to change portrait to landscape. A one-page map is FAR easier.

TWO – RATIO IS EVERYTHING

Alongside knowing which way round you want the map in your book, you also need to take into account the ratio of the pages. An A4 page, for example, is not the same ratio as a book page. Thanks to Axil Hammer Book & Logo Design for that top tip.

Oh, and the ratio you want is… 9:6

THREE – WORDS SCHMERDS

If you’re having your map illustrated, like I did, make sure you tell the artist not to put any labels on the map. Digital font is uniform, it’s always better to have uniform font for ease and readability.

FOUR – SIMPLE IS BEST

Which brings me on to point four. While old Latin style fonts might be ‘in’ keeping with maps, don’t be a dufus and make them illegible. You want your reader to be able to easily discern the locations and labels. Sometimes the simpler the font, the better.

FIVE – KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

There are definitely styles of map out there – make sure you’ve researched your genre and have some examples to show your illustrator.

SIX – TITANIC TITLES

Don’t forget the title of the map – kinda key – you need the reader to know the name of the world you created… I definitely didn’t forget that… honest.

SEVEN & EIGHT- THE KEY TO EVERYTHING IS SIMPLICITY

If you have beautiful illustrations then you might not want to ruin the map with lots of labels. You need a balance between depicting the complicated world you’ve built and labelling absolutely every street, house, and public toilet.

In most cases, you’ll have a country-sized map. I’ve seen some street-level maps, but those are rarer.

You can get around this balancing act by including a key with miniature versions of the buildings you don’t have space to label.

NINE – SIMPLE FOR THE THIRD TIME!

If I haven’t said it enough, here’s a third time. Keep it simple. If you use state lines or area boundaries, consider whether you really then need main roads or streets. Likewise, don’t get your knickers all knotted over making it perfectly scaled if one building is too big and another too small, no one will notice.

The point is, don’t overfill your map. Only put important locations on that are referenced in your story.

***

So here is my map of Trutinor, designed and illustrated by my disgustingly talented and wonderful mama. You should be able to click the image to see a larger version.

Read Keepers now. Or to hear more about the release of the sequels as well as get regular CogMail updates you can do so here.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads

SaveSave

The post 9 Quick Tips To Master Your Fantasy Map #MondayBlogs #Amwriting appeared first on Sacha Black.