Back in April 2019 I wrote a post on ten things I wished I’d done sooner on my journey towards submitting my first illustrated picture book. Eight months later, here are ten more things I’ve learned that have helped me on my submission journey (and which I hope might help you, if you’re aiming to submit as an author illustrator)…

Rather than constantly obsessing about my first picture book story, I’ve learnt that it’s better to have several ideas in development at once. There are three advantages to this:

• agents and publishers in receipt of your first submission or pitch may want to know what other ideas and projects you have up your sleeve, so it’s good to be prepared
• some agents ask you to send more than one picture book text in their submission guidelines
• if you take a break from one text to work on another, you can then come back to the first one with ‘fresh eyes’ and hopefully be able to spot any flaws more easily

If you’re like me, you may have lots of ideas for picture books clamouring for attention, countered by lots of distractions that stop you developing them into fully-fledged stories. I think the answer for me was to develop a more regular writing habit.

At a workshop I attended recently, Jo Collins of The Golden Egg Academy advocated regular free writing (find a writing prompt for yourself then write freely about it for, say, five minutes, without any form of self-censorship) as a way of unleashing your creativity and getting into the habit of writing. If you enjoy writing for the 8-12 age group, another tip, from author and Writing Magazine contributor Amy Sparkes, is to submit features or stories to the children’s magazine Aquila (see https://www.aquila.co.uk/images/docs/Author_guidelines_2016.pdf).

I’m thinking of signing up for the annual online Storystorm challenge in the New Year, run by US-based children’s book author Tara Lazar – the challenge being to create 30 story ideas in 30 days (‘idea’ doesn’t have to mean a fully-fledged idea for a picture book – it can just be a great title or a funny name for a character, for example; also, there is no obligation to post your ideas). There will be daily blog posts by authors, illustrators, editors and other publishing professionals, and writers who complete the challenge are eligible for prizes. Participation is free (but Tara asks that in return you support her books in some way) and registration is in late December/early January (see https://taralazar.com/storystorm/ )

Another great source of tips for generating story ideas is this article by Natascha Biebow of Blue Elephant Story Shaping and Ellie Farmer, Commissioning Editor at Little Tiger Press from the SCBWI BI online magazine Words & Pictures: Harnessing Your Creativity: Ten Techniques to Springboard New Story Ideas (https://www.wordsandpics.org/2016/01/ask-picture-book-editor.html )

I used to note down ideas in random notebooks or on silly little scraps of paper which were in danger of getting mislaid. I also did most of my illustration and character design sketches on loose bits of paper, and when I worked on illustrations in Photoshop I had a rather haphazard filing system for all the versions I ended up with. So, I decided to be more organised in four ways:

• I started using the Trello app (https://trello.com/en – the basic package is free) to plan out and keep track of my ideas, projects, deadlines and next steps towards my goal of getting published. I think this will also make it easier for me to recycle ideas that haven’t yet found a home

• I established a sketchbook to keep all my sketches together. One piece of advice that came out of illustration workshops and one-to-one portfolio reviews this year was that art directors are always keen to see your sketchbook(s)

• I organised my workspace in a corner of the house where I don’t have to keep clearing things away, and established a more organised filing system on my computer for all my photoshop files

• I also started updating my writing CV each time I attend an event, do some training or achieve something. I haven’t come across many agents who ask for a writing CV in their submissions guidelines (the only one so far is Fraser Ross Associates), but it’s useful to have for my own purposes as an exact record of what I’ve done and when. I’ll be able to refer back to it when writing submission letters to agents who ask for details about my writing or illustration background

I mentioned entering competitions in my earlier post, but I think it’s important to highlight them again, especially as I’ve entered some more over the last eight months. Competitions are great even if you don’t win, because they provide you with a motivational deadline and the impetus to produce a new piece of writing or artwork, as well as the opportunity to practice working to a precise brief. If you do win, you have the added bonus of being able to mention your moment of glory in your submission covering letters. Here’s a list of competitions I’ve entered recently – have a look to see if there are any you haven’t come across:

• In November 2019 I was a finalist in The Hook (like Dragons Den but for writers; see https://britishisles.scbwi.org/conference-2019/the-hook/) at the SCBWI British Isles Conference in Winchester. You can see my on-stage pitch on the ‘about’ page of this website. It was a fantastic opportunity and I’m very glad I plucked up the courage to enter!

• I’ve continued to enter the SCBWI Draw This! monthly prompt competition (https://www.scbwi.org/calling-all-illustrators-2/); no wins to date, but it has motivated me to produce a lot of new artwork for my portfolio

• I entered the SCBWI BI Conference 2019 Badge Design competition (see https://www.wordsandpics.org/2019/06/competitions-design-this-years.html); I was a runner-up and six of my designs were made into badges – it was fun seeing them on sale at the conference!

• I also entered the SCBWI BI Annual Advent Calendar Competition run by Paul Morton (Twitter: @paulhotfrog) – the deadline is usually at the end of November and the prompt word this year was ‘Solstice’. Twenty-five designs are selected from the entries and posted on the SCBWI BI Facebook page on each day of December, with the overall winner appearing on Christmas Day. My illustration appeared on 13th December.

• I submitted two pieces of art for the SCBWI Pictures at Play Biennial Exhibition (see https://britishisles.scbwi.org/events/pictures-at-play-biennial-juried-exhibition-2019/); I wasn’t successful but will try again in two years’ time!

• I’ve entered the Wraptious competition for the second time (see https://www.wraptious.com/collections/competition-page and my blog posts on this subject)

Another useful list of illustration competitions can be found on the Picture Hooks website, here: https://www.picturehooks.org.uk/links/

Finally, I’d like to mention hashtag initiatives such as #inktober, #colour_collective, #AnimalAlphabets, #folktaleweek and #childhoodweek. These aren’t competitions, but are a great opportunity to showcase your work (apparently art directors often check them out), and, again, they provide an impetus and deadline to produce new work which could end up in your portfolio. Some of them are ongoing all year round, others (e.g. #inktober or #folktaleweek) occur once a year. They require a certain daily or weekly time commitment, but I’m hoping to give one or more of them a go at some point in the future.

There’s always something new to learn about story-writing and illustrating. I’ve been fortunate enough to attend some really inspiring workshops this year and each one has helped me to hone my craft as an author illustrator in a different way. I’m listing them here so that you can check out the ones you’re not aware of to see if they would be useful for you:

• make sure your story concept is strong enough and unique enough before you start writing

• analyse your story arc to make sure character(s) and problem are established by spread 3 at the latest, and the crisis happens on or around spread 9

• show don’t tell

• make every page turn count

• make sure you know who your main character is

• make sure the stakes are high enough for your character(s) so that the reader cares what happens to them

• find a ‘mentor text’ that you can analyse to help you write your own picture book, i.e. an existing, successful picture book that is similar to yours in some way

• the best images feature unique (rather than generic), relatable characters with child-appeal who interact or make eye contact with each other or the viewer and who seem to have a story behind them; the image should provide context for the characters and should elicit emotion in the viewer

• eye shape is really important and determines whether your characters have a trade / commercial / educational feel

• it’s best to take your time to explore your own art style, and only showcase style(s) in your portfolio that you really love using and want to end up being commissioned for

• sketchbooks are really important and art directors like to see them; they often see things they like in a sketchbook that don’t appear in the artist’s portfolio

• limited palette is usually more effective than using every colour in your paintbox!

I’ve come across some really excellent blogs and author and/or illustrator websites packed full of tips, information and inspiration (great if attending events is difficult for any reason):

Over the last eight months I’ve benefitted from many opportunities to get invaluable feedback on my writing and illustrations, all of them provided by the SCBWI (proving yet again how important it is to be a member!):

So, I decided to invest in an A4 portfolio, and after much research I chose the Pampa Spiral Book Portfolio 21cm x 30cm Black with 20 Matt Sleeves as the best compromise between price and good looks. I took it to the SCBWI BI conference and was very happy with both its looks and portability!

As an illustrator, the other practicality I realised I needed to organise in plenty of time before attending events was the ordering of promotional postcards to give out to agents, publishers and art directors.

If you leave it too late you either have to do without promo cards or pay a fortune for express delivery options!

I’ve used Overnight Prints (www.overnightprints.co.uk) and Moo (https://www.moo.com/uk/) and was pleased with the results from both; Moo was a little more expensive, but very good quality, and if you can catch them when they are running a promotion I think the extra expense is probably worth it.

I found that signing up for speed pitching events was a great way of forcing me to focus on writing the pitches for my picture books and really discover what the heart of each story is. It’s useful to have a succinct and compelling hook and ‘elevator pitch’ (i.e. a pitch short enough to fit into the time it takes to go up in an elevator) up your sleeve, both for occasions when you might be able to talk directly to an agent or publisher and also for inclusion in your submission letter.

Pitching live to an agent or editor was nerve-racking the first time I did it, but I found that if I just treated it like a normal conversation about my book it seemed a lot less daunting. It definitely became easier the more I did it.

If you’ve managed to get this far through my post, you’ve probably gathered that I attended the SCBWI BI Conference this year for the first time (https://britishisles.scbwi.org/events/scbwi-bi-conference-2019/). It was a significant financial outlay, but I thought it was worth every single penny. So, if you can possibly afford to go (or apply for funding through one of the various scholarships available https://britishisles.scbwi.org/conference-2019/scholarship/ ), I would absolutely recommend it, not only for the excellence of the keynote presentations and workshops, in which industry experts share their knowledge and experience, but also for the opportunity to meet so many other authors and illustrators and for the sheer positivity and energy of the whole experience.

Everyone was so friendly, and newbies were well catered for with dedicated events to help you find your way around. The other great thing I found was that there seemed to be no feeling of division between published and pre-published/aspiring authors and illustrators. I learned so much and met so many great people over the two-and-a-half days, and came away feeling energised and ready to tackle my writing and illustration projects with renewed vigour!

One phrase I’ve often heard this year is ‘find your tribe’! The conference was an amazing opportunity to make connections with fellow writers and illustrators from my local area, the UK as a whole, and even internationally. It allowed me to grow my network of fellow authors and/or illustrators on Twitter and Instagram, as a source of information, expertise, support and friendship. I’ve also joined several writing and illustrating groups on Facebook, a social media platform I had never really used much before. As mentioned above, I joined a local SCBWI picture book critique group, and have made contact with some other local writers by attending a Write Hub event at my local literary festival.

Contact with other writers and illustrators, both pre-published and published, has helped me to stick to the final piece of advice I’ve heard again and again from everyone involved in this business:

DON’T GIVE UP! See ‘rejection’ as a chance for ‘reflection’ and KEEP GOING!

Here’s to the next eight months of the submission journey!