Welcome to the third installment of my journey to self-publishing my first children’s book, Opossum Opposites. I started this project a few months ago and I’ve learned so much already. But, as with many industries, the more I learn, the more I find out I need to learn.
On the menu today: illustrations!
Since my original presumed illustrator bailed on me, I came up with a plan to test out three different illustrators on fiverr. I put in the orders for one page spread from each about a week ago and the results have been coming in little by little.
I’ve been showing my Facebook and Instagram followers bits and pieces of the sketches and final illustrations I have received to get people interested, to build my audience, to attract email subscribers, to get the word out in general that I’m writing a must read children’s book about opossums.
It seems to be working!
I gave each illustrator a few pages of my book for context and indicated which page I wanted to see illustrated — the same for all three. I gave a few suggestions of possible scenes to create and some sample photos I really like and then let them do their thing.
Here’s what I learned from each of my prospective illustrators:
Illustrator 1: I loved the expressive quality of her work. She does a lot of computer illustrations that have a watercolor appearance. She was the first to finish, so she taught me a few lessons the hard way. Her price was very affordable and in between my other two candidates.
- She did not show me a sketch before she colored.
- Revisions I asked for were harder to make, or at least, she was not willing to make big changes. Instead, she sort of shoved in a third possum, which pushed the text into a less ideal position.
- Communication was minimal — Even though I love her artwork, I don’t think I’d be happy working with this artist on the full project. I like to see the steps and avoid extra work down the road.
- I realized after I accepted the final image that she didn’t really illustrate the full scope of the text I gave her. It’s supposed to show opposites — on this page, up and down — and she only showed up. That’s not a good sign for her interpretation of the text, but it taught me that I need to have at least a few basic requirements and expectations for each page so this doesn’t happen again.
- I had not thought about font until I got the first draft back. It was a nice enough font, but it was in all caps and I didn’t think that would be ideal for children, so I asked for something else, but still didn’t think to just request one in particular. When she sent back one that was too curly and looked like cursive writing, I knew I would need to do some research. I found this article about easy to read fonts for children. And voilà — I requested my order of preference for the most legible fonts. There is a special font designed for people with dyslexia, but from what I found, not only do you have to pay to use it, it isn’t proven to improve reading outcomes.
Illustrator 2: She did a fantastic job. Her opossums have a cute, playful cartoon vibe. I would absolutely watch an opossum cartoon with these sweeties. This illustrator is the most expensive of the three and it was easy to understand why in the end.
- First, I got a rough sketch to approve or request changes before coloring. That was a big help because I knew basically what to expect and could prevent big problems.
- Since I was able to use the knowledge I gained from Illustrator 1, I asked #2 to use my preferred fonts before she placed any font in the draft.
- I asked for some pretty minor revisions once I got the color version, which I was perfectly within my rights to do because it was written in to our agreement. Still, I found myself feeling a little sheepish about it. One of the things I asked for was an accurate number of toes on the feet — would it be too hard or time consuming to change? I will have to get over these qualms as time goes on because I’ll have to go through at least 16 more rounds of this with the rest of my pages and book cover. It’s part of the creative and collaborative process. It turned out to be no problem at all and I was much happier with the images.
- #2 is a real professional. Her communication was excellent. She wasn’t chatty, but she replied in a timely fashion and she did what I asked.
- When I approved the design, I asked her if she was still interested in working on the rest of the project — she said yes!
- She could be the one, but I’m going to see what my audience says — they’re going to get a chance to vote.
Illustrator 3: This artist has kept me in suspense. It has been worth the wait, though, because it’s a totally different style from the first two. This one is both cute and somewhat realistic — a lovely mix of the first two. Surprisingly, she is the least expensive of the three artists I hired on a trial basis.
- This artist had the longest time to work, but I didn’t get a sketch until a day or two before the deadline. I had begun to worry just a little…
- I really liked the sketch and started to think maybe she was the one.
- Then she asked for an extension of the deadline for coloring. She’d been having trouble with one of the opossum faces I’d asked her to work on. Uh oh, not a good sign, but I was still hoping for the best.
- I got the colored version and overall, it is very good. I felt much more confident in my right and duty to give honest feedback while also firmly requesting the changes I wanted. She agreed with me that the one face still needed work.
- She is interested in doing the full project, but I’m not sure she has the experience I need for my first book. We can’t all be newbies here! I don’t think she is a total noob like me though.
- Her communication has been very good and I have enjoyed working with her. I really like her work and think we could get there in the end, I just wasn’t sure about the deadline question and I really need someone who has no trouble doing a perfect opossum face every time in a book about opossums.
- When I asked, she said she’s been swamped, but will have more time for me when her current project is done. We exchanged a few pleasantries and I get a good vibe from her.
Audience engagement through participation in the creative process
I have been really happy with how friends and followers have played along, giving feedback and voting on my Facebook poll. I have no clue what I’m doing, but they don’t seem to mind too much.
Marketing is not a thing I ever thought I could do — let alone wanted to do — but I guess it’s true what they say: when you really believe in something, you’ll do what has to be done to make it happen.
People are signing up for my email list to get updates on the books progress. People actually care! This blows my mind. And I’ve looked at the list — I don’t know them all personally! Several, but not all.
As you can see, I have come a long way since the beginning of this project. It has been a bit scary, intimidating at times, empowering, thrilling, engaging, educational, and most especially, a lot of work!
I am loving it. Even though the learning curve is practically a vertical line I ran into face first weeks ago, I can absolutely see myself doing this again.
Big projects like this always seem impossible to finish when we’re at the starting line, but it can be done.
Others have done it and so can I.
Now that I have checked a few small items off the to-do list, I can look back and say that it wasn’t so hard — but that’s not how it seemed before I started plugging away at it.
I hope my learning experiences and minor mishaps will help you in some small way and I hope you’ll share your adventures with me.
Thanks for reading.
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