Illustrating Children’s Books: One Person’s Experience

Welcome to the premiere edition of the new Rural Girl Graphics blog! This is a new feature in association with my new and improved website, ruralgirlgraphics.com.

For this first series of the blog, I thought I’d write about my experience as a children’s book illustrator. First I’d like to say that illustrating kids’ books had been a dream of mine since forever. This dream actually came true for me in February of 2016 when my submission to a publishing company was accepted and I entered into a contract to illustrate five children’s books.

Here are four of my five books. The fifth is still awaiting publication

Getting “Discovered”

Before I launch into the story of how I did this illustration work, let me talk a bit about the process of finding said illustration work. This process can be arduous and, at times disheartening, but it is necessary. You can’t make wonderful illustrations for fabulous children’s stories if no one knows about/sees your art.

So, where to begin?

Very handy tools for the process of discovery are available. First is the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI.org). This group is great for information, networking, advice, and support for all people connected with the business of children’s books. Yearly membership is available for about $80, with a discounted rate for students. Secondly, Writer’s Digest publishes a yearly compendium of information and advice for writers and illustrators of children’s books called the Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market. This book provides tons of information and contacts for publishers, agents and representation, clubs and organizations, conferences and workshops, you name it, it’s in there! The “Market” book also gives advice about how to approach publishers in a professional and (hopefully) successful fashion.

A very helpful resource for children’s book illustrators

Part two will debut soon where we will discuss how to prepare to illustrate a story.

Do you have questions regarding illustrating children’s books? Let me know in the comments – if one of my upcoming posts does not answer your question(s), I’ll put together a Q and A post at the end of this series.